My wife and I just completed our first cruise and it was great. It was a 7 day cruise to Bermuda. A little info before I start so you know where my comments are coming from. We don't normally eat at fancy restaurants, chills and Applebee's are where we take the kids and sometime a steak or seafood place. We are average blue collar folk in our 40s.
We did a stay, park and cruise package with the Newark best western which worked out well aside from the party that was going a few rooms down until 2 am. Didn't hear it at all until they would go out in the hallway and yell to each other from each end. The transport to and from the hotel was easy and the hotel parking was tight but secured and monitored.
We were concierge class and from the time we arrived pier side at 11am to the time we were on ship took 15 minutes. We preboarded online a few weeks before and had all our documents ready to go.
Always clean, great steward and awesome views