Pre Cruise: Came in on Friday and cruised Sunday. Stayed at the Courtyard Marriott in Jersey City right next to The Path train into NYC. Wonderful place to stay. Used a Limo service to get from the airport to the hotel and from the hotel to the pier. Great way to go and not expensive. Spent Saturday in NYC and loved it. A good start to the cruise!

Boarding: The car dropped us off at the pier and we left our luggage with a porter. This was very confusing, there were two lines and a porter at only one line. We left our luggage at a bin and started to walk away when the porter yelled we had to wait for him. So we waited 15 minutes and he walked over to us and asked us what ship we were on. We said, "Explorer of the Seas" and he held out his hand and said, "Okay throw them in here." He wanted a tip and we were the ones that had to throw them in the bin. Did not make sense to us. Oh well, we waited in line to go inside the terminal and saw a sign for Platinum, Diamond and Diamond Plus members. Waited in line for about twenty minutes to be checked in. While waiting we met some cruise critic posters and talked to them. Got through check in and had our picture taken for the badges then took two steps and had our Welcome Aboard picture taken. After that, we went outside and a bus was getting ready to leave so they rushed us on and we were on our way to the ship! Got off the bus and walked right up to the ship and pinged our card for the first time and we were officially onboard! Fairly easy.

Room: Okay I have to admit it. I think we got the best room on the ship. An aft JS is everything that is roomy. The bathroom is still small but the shower is larger since it has a tub. There is a couch and two chairs plus the two desk chairs. There are two drawbacks to the room. First is the long walk to the stairs. Believe me when I say it is long. The other drawback is the motion. For the first time on any cruise I did get sea sick due to the constant motion. Small price to pay for such a great room. Read more