October 23, 2008 - November 1, 2008
We live in Bergen County in Northern New Jersey. From our home it is a 45 minute drive to Cape Liberty. We arrived at the port at noon. We dropped off our luggage and then parked our car. From where we parked it was a short walk to the terminal. Check in was very quick. We had filled out our preboarding information online and printed out our set sail passes. We were on the ship by 12:30 and headed to the Windjammer for lunch.
We found the food on the Explorer of the Seas to be very good. Our dining room waiter was one of the best that we have had on any cruise. The variety and quality of the food in the Windjammer was excellent. Our only complaint would be that the coffee was awful on the entire ship. So bad that on the second day I switched to tea for the rest of the cruise. My husband, who isn't much of a coffee drinker, also stopped drinking the coffee and switched to OJ, lemonade or water.