Defense Acquisition Research Journal (ARJ) - is a scholarly peer-reviewed journal published by the Defense Acquisition University (DAU). All submissions receive a blind review to ensure impartial evaluation.
Cream cheese should be unrefrigerated for no more than 2 hours.
For semi-hard and semi-soft cheeses -- the middle ground -- your time frame is a little less than harder cheeses. There's more moisture present in the cheeses, so they aren't going to keep as long. I'd say two to four weeks after the expiration date is the basic time frame.