I’ve lived in Essex county NJ my entire life so very familiar with those areas. With traffic it could take 1+ hour to get to the cruise terminal. I think Secaucus is 6 miles away, if one wants a mall with food options American dream is 2 miles away, 2nd largest mall in the country, they can shop, eat, ski, ice skate, golf, see an aquarium, go to a water park or amusement park, go on a giant Ferris wheel… I’ve stayed at the Hilton, they used to have a great Sunday brunch but I think that’s gone. Montclair also has a couple higher end hotels with great shopping and restaurants closer to NYC.