Background: This was our 5th cruise (4th with children) but first with Royal Caribbean. Prior cruises were aboard the Norwegian Majesty, Norwegian Gem, Norwegian Dream, and Carnival Legend. Our children are 7 and 3 years old. We traveled during school break week with 600+ children on board.
We live in central CT and drove to the port on embarkation day. The directions we received on the East Coast departures board (from 138East) were spot on and we had no problems finding our way. I knew ahead of time that Cape Liberty is somewhat of a 'tent city' and nothing pretty to look at. But they are certainly organized and the entire embarkation and disembarkation process was utterly painless compared to the NY port. We arrived at the port at 11:40ish (ignore the 2:00 boarding time recommended on your cruise docs) and drove right up to luggage drop off. No traffic, no waiting. A porter took our bags (tip them) and directed us to the parking area. We parked and walked the short distance to the terminal. There we found our longest line of the whole process which was ~15 minutes. From turning onto port terminal blvd to boarding the ship must have been 30-45 minutes tops.
Life on the ship: I cannot fathom the poor reviews the Explorer has been receiving. She is beautiful, excellent service, good food & variety. Go with a positive attitude and you won't be disappointed.