London Heathrow T5 was packed! As was our BA 777. A good flight over to EWR on the Saturday before our cruise. After a 45m wait in line for the cheerful chappies at immigration we picked up our luggage and went down one level and out to bus stop #5 to wait for the Marriott Shuttle bus. We could see the hotel - just the other side of the parking lot - DH wanted to walk but I figured out there would be some sort of obstruction. The bus that runs every 15 minutes arrived after 20. The hotel is like every Marriott we have ever stayed in, and we were quickly checked into a room on floor 10 - looking straight across the parking lot back at the #5 bus stop. It would have been possible to walk, so long as you crossed the road by the toll booths. I wouldn't like to do it with luggage. Hotel was clean and our floor looked recently refurbished - new carpet and new bathroom tiles. The concierge lounge didn't open on Saturdays according to the sign on the door. After dumping the luggage we set off for the Mall. Using EWRs extensive efficient system of the free hotel shuttle busses, we caught the Marriott bus to P4 which seems to be the hotel shuttle bus meeting point and then we caught the Elizabeth Courtyard by Marriott shuttle which takes you to a hotel right opposite the Jersey Gardens Mall. The mall is large, with a wide range of shops. We got some very good deals on children's clothes, but did notice that with the collapse of the £$ that prices were in general much higher than last year, and this was not going to be a cheap holiday as we usually have in the USA. Then with jet-lag catching us up we collapsed into Chilis's for a meal. This is a special treat for us as we don't have Chilis in England. Sad but true.

Sunday The following morning, instead of paying $17 for the Marriott breakfast we just got coffee and blueberry muffins from their small Starbucks concession in the lobby. At 10 we checked out. We had prebooked a car with Black Car Transportation LLC www.blackexecutivecars.com - they were there waiting with a huge SUV! $45 set rate to the port of Bayonne, which considering the traffic was very good. I would recommend them. The port of Bayonne looks like something out of WW2 - a single road in, with rubble on either side, a slow moving line of traffic but we eventually dropped off the cases at 11.20. The port was already crowded, and there was little room in the Platinum/Suite check in. At 12.30 they finally started boarding. Although the check in is probably only 100yards from the ship you have to board a shuttle bus. Onboard Explorer looked in good shape. The staff always seemed to be polishing, painting or replacing during our whole trip. She was pretty full with 3209 passengers on board. Fewer than 100 children I would say. The rooms ready at 1.30. Our 3 suitcases were outside our door already. Impressed. We had an Aft JS #1394. A large room - I would say about 27' x 12' - there was a large sofa, two arm chairs, and a glass coffee table. The curtain divider between bed and sofabed was about 2ft so not good for sharers unless you were really close. The main feature of this room though was a huge balcony of 12ft square. The balcony had two loungers, two chairs and a proper height table on it. It was totally covered so we got very little sun. We were parallel with the highest row of the 'superstructure' at the back of these ships, so we could clearly see over it - and it didn't impair our view. The ceiling was very high - about 14' which made it very echo-y - so be careful of what you say (or do) as your neighbors will hear. The wall to the left was solid metal, so we only had the dividers to our right side. Our neighbors on either side were also from England. There were a lot of Brits on this ship (855 according to the CD)

Being a JS there was a bath tub, with a flappy curtain, but this one behaved itself and didn't try and get to close and personal with you. The newly announced perks for suite guests meant a few changes - this included a tray of bathroom products 'Inspired by Nature' displayed on a nice dish. We had bathrobes and our seapass cards were silver, clearly printed to show we were in a JS and that we were Platinum members. The TV had an interactive menu where you could order room service, see your account so far (dangerous) or watch pay movies. These cost $12.95 and included quite recent releases like Quantum of Solice, Changeling and Slumdog Millionaire. There was also a kettle, two china mugs and a selection of teas (no coffee) which we never used. The hairdryer was in the top right drawer of the first dressing table (we had 2!). It was the sort where you keep your finger on the button to make it go. We got CNN news for a few days otherwise it was just FOX news channel, plus the usual shopping, shore excursion channels and a few movies such as Shrek. There was ample storage with the walk in wardrobe with 24 coat hangers, and 6 shelves. There was a tall cupboard with 5 shelves, 10 other various drawers and of course the hidden small shelves behind the glass mirrors. Read more