My wife, three children (13, 13, and 12) and I sailed June 24 on a nine-day Bermuda and Caribbean cruise on Royal Caribbean's Explorer of the Seas from Port Liberty, New Jersey. Overall this was one of the nicest cruises we've taken together, with an excellent ship and great ports of call.

DEPARTURE: The departure from Port Liberty was relatively smooth, but not nearly as nice as from the busier ports in Florida. The benefit to us was what should have been a 40 minute drive from our home in central New Jersey. Unfortunately, the drive was closer to a full hour, the last twenty-minutes of which were spent waiting in traffic within view of the ship. Traffic was in a standstill coming off of route 78 onto 440, waiting for a left-hand-turn arrow at the light into the port. The light is badly timed, and only lets a few cars through at a time. (Arriving back in New Jersey we observed that the problem was even worse for the folks trying to get to the ship for a Saturday departure.) A hint, at least until the traffic pattern is fixed, is to drive past the port, then make a U-TURN later down the street so that you can come in from the other direction.

Once at the terminal I dropped the family and our luggage at the loading area, then drove a short distance to the parking lot, where a shuttle returned me to my waiting kin. Read more