artbcpa

It's great to have so many CC readers to answer all of your questions. ;) It makes my job so much easier and they have so much more experience on RCCL's ships.

I have sailed on nearly 30 cruises, but they are spread between many different cruise lines, and between ocean and river cruises; so I hope my perspective is a little different from those you might get from others who sail primarily (or only) on Royal Caribbean. But for those questions particularly related to RCCL, thank you for answering their questions.

Tonight we went to Izumi for dinner. Any resemblance to the wonderful meal we had on the Oasis is strictly coincidental. The menu is greatly changed and I don't believe for the better. The restaurant was nearly empty and I believe if they want to keep this as a specialty restaurant, there will need to be some positive changes.

After dinner we went to see the production show and once again were very pleased with RCCL's entertainment. We have visited the casino several times with mixed results. Our biggest objection is the amount of smoke.

I took some photos today, but may not be able to post them until we get back to Tampa. The computer connection, while reliable, is just too slow to post the photos unless I greatly reduce the pixels.

Tomorrow is a sea day and I should be able to get a much better handle on life on the Brilliance.

We just returned from our Key West excursion - the City Trolley and Butterfly Conservatory. They were both wonderful and I believe fairly priced. So many of the on board excursions are way overpriced and often the quality is not as good as you can get on your own. This was grade A. Our driver/guide(s) on the hop on - hop off trolleys were amusing and knowledgeable and although I have been to several butterfly farms, the one in Key West compares favorably with any of them.

Thank you Royal Caribbean.

On the way back to the ship we stopped to get some Key Lime pie and also bought some Key Lime fudge to give as gifts. Scrumptious!! I would have bought some of the other products, but they were in glass containers and I am wary of doing that.

Since this is only a 6-day, 5-night cruise, the thread will be abbreviated. Please remember that what you read here is only our opinion. I do most of the writing, but I also include some of my partner's opinions since she and I often go to different venues and have different opinions. I believe you will find that I try to be very objective so that someone trying to evaluate whether or not RCCL and the Brilliance of the Seas would be right for them. I am not a shill for the cruise line, nor will I only be telling you the bad things we found.

Our cruise began yesterday, December 5, 2015. It began in Tampa and we will be going to Key West and Cozumel before returning to Tampa. We also have 2 full sea days.

The Very Good - Embarkation went very smoothly. We were on board in approximately 20 minutes. Our room was ready even earlier than they promised and our luggage arrived in a reasonable amount of time. We had several reservations to make and were lucky to run into Otto as we were outside the Concierge lounge. He helped us make all our reservations, which we couldn't do beforehand or our OBCs would not be applied.

We are in a Grand Suite and are very, very pleased with the the size, layout, drawer and closet space and balcony. We had a similar suite on the Oasis, but I think this one is even nicer. Our cabin steward has been fabulous as has nearly all of the staff on board. That is a far cry from our very negative experience with the staff on the Oasis. Of course we thus far have not run into any problems. That is where the true test would come. Hopefully we won't.

The Good - Our first night we reserved at Chops. This had been our favorite restaurant on the Oasis. While we enjoyed the food and the service, the quality did not equal our previous experience. We then went to the opening show and were very pleased with the cruise director's presentation and the headline comedy act. RCCL is well know for their entertainment and our first night's experience did not disappoint.

The Not so Good - Breakfast in the room. We have this fabulous balcony and love having breakfast on the balcony. Unfortunately we did not find out until too late that there is a premium breakfast for suite guests. We ordered the one where you put out your choices the night before. Oh my. The choices were few, the quality horrendous and the service non existent. We also heard about the special breakfast for suite guests and will probably be trying that tomorrow.

The blatant sales promotions are really over the top. We went to the Key West sales pitch, which was supposed to be a shopping guide. I was most surprised to see that RCCL is still associated with Diamonds International, a company that has been closely associated with "questionable" practices (I am trying to be nice). Anyone who does their homework would not want to business with such a company. You can do a google search and find numerous examples, including many here on cruise critic.

I think that is enough to start with...more to follow. If you have any specific questions, please add your requests. I will try to respond.

artbcpa,

 

Thank you for your informative review. I must say that I am amazed that you picked a Viking ship for your river cruise. I would have expected a suite ship.

Actually that was the exact point we were making. You don't have to be in a suite to have a great time. In this case it was the cruise director - Bayan - that made this a very special cruise.

By the way, we often don't travel in a suite. It depends on the ship and itinerary. The nicest suite we have sailed in was on the Wind Star - a sailing ship where they put two regular rooms together with two full baths, two walk-in closets, two of everything. We have never booked a 2,000 sq. ft. owner's suite like the one I posted pictures of.

With regard to suites on river cruises, lots of companies - including Viking - have suites on their ship. As mentioned, a couple even are all suites. But we choose river cruises primarily for the itinerary and timing. I have been on river cruise with three different companies and find much less differences between them them. I had a great time on all of them.

What tour company did you use for your Baltic Cruise ?

Six of us are planning on Oceania's cruise next year.

We used Insider Tour and they were wonderful. As other posters have mentioned, there are a variety of excellent tour companies in St. Petersburg.

As a further follow-up regarding the cruise director, we are currently on a Viking river cruise which we did back-to-back with our Oceania cruise. We have the most fabulous positive cruise director on board. Even though the ship is not nearly as elaborate as Oceania, the cabins are smaller, the menu selection is not near as extensive, having an outstanding cruise director can make all the difference in the world. We are actually enjoying our river cruise even more than our Baltic Ocean cruise.

We just completed a 7-day Baltic Cruise on the Oceania Marina. (You can read my "live review" in a separate thread).

I would have to say that to a great degree we agree with the main complaint of the OP - the food does not match its ship's ratings. We found the food to be totally inconsistent, one meal good, one dish great, but the only consistent meals we had were at Red Ginger.

Ships of this ranking - 5 1/2 stars - should have more consistency in their food. That is the real difference between good and great. Our experience was definitely not great and sometimes not even good. That is a shame because there was much that we did like about Oceania - the service, their helpful attitude, the casino, the Internet, the entertainment, the itinerary and more.

Stockholm is an amazing city. We took a private tour today with Stockholm Guiding. Our guide, Thomas Andersson, definitely knew his stuff. He picked us up on time from our hotel took us to all the places we wanted to see, was flexible with adding things we wanted, bypassed the lines at the Vasa Museum, and even helped us buy tickets for the canal cruise after his tour was over. Private tours are not cheap, but you absolutely get what you pay for, when you know the right people to hire.

Ellie particularly liked the architecture of the City Hall where the Nobel prize winners celebrate after they are given out earlier in the day.

Art, thank you for sharing your pictures. Beautiful scenery, and it appears that you had amazing weather.

We have had nothing, but beautiful California weather - warm and dry. Today was 77 in Stockholm and tomorrow will be 79 in Amsterdam - simply amazing.

Personally, I found the cruise director to be a bit too regimental for my taste,

Ellie and I would both agree with you. I might add that we felt her assistant had exactly the right combination of efficiency, friendliness and empathy to be a head cruise director and hope that she is given that opportunity. We believe she will shine in the position.

Richard asked,

We will be taking a cruise next year which ends in Stockholm. We will be staying in Stockholm 2-3 days post-cruise. I was wondering if you are staying in Stockholm and, if so, what you did . Thanks,

We are staying at the Hilton Stockholm Slussen for two nights. The hotel is beautiful and the location is wonderful. We took the Free Stockholm Walking Tour today and it was very helpful, though the walking was fairly rigorous and mostly over cobblestones. Tomorrow we will be doing a private tour with a guide and driver and will give you some feed back at that time.

The Hilton's wi-fi is super fast so I have been adding photos to all of my cruise related albums on Flickr without having to reduce their pixels. For anyone interested this is the link to my album page: https://www.flickr.com/photos/30213465@N05/albums

We are now in our last full day of the cruise. Tomorrow we disembark in Stockholm. I had a long discussion with Ellie last night about our impressions of Oceania and it was so interesting that even with us there was a difference in our perception; so hopefully it will be helpful if I relate both of our opinions and you can see how even one couple can have different views.

First of all both of us were very impressed with the attitude and effort made by the staff of Oceania. When things go wrong (and they do) the staff was attentive and did their best to make it right with a very caring attitude. This is not always true. We have been on cruises where the company personnel stuck by the company line and were very defensive and we have also encountered situations where nobody with any authority could be found to speak with. So kudos to Oceania in this day and age where customer service has really taken a tumble.

Having said that, Ellie was disappointed at the number of things that did go wrong or were not up to the standards of a cruise line with a reputation like Oceania's. As I said in the beginning of my thread, I try to come into a new situation without preconceived perceptions. So I was not as disappointed in things like the stains on the carpet, the broken room safe, appointments messed up by the spa, meat that was undercooked or items served not as ordered.

We were both extremely pleased by the quality of the production shows. Ellie felt that the balance of the of the entertainers were not of the caliber we have become used to seeing on our previous cruises. We were surprised at how many passengers we spoke with who had not attended any of the shows. Some were dismissive in that entertainment is not their thing (totally understandable), but others just didn't get around to it and were sorry they had not made the effort to attend when they heard the reviews from us and many others. Similarly, we happened to walk by the quartet one day and were so sorry we had not made more effort to hear them. They were wonderful. On such a short cruise with so much to do, it is so difficult to know about everything that is going on.

While we loved the attitude and friendliness of the staff, the number of service people who did not have command of the English language was also surprising. That is something we expect when we are ashore, but not on our ship. We have not run into this before on any other cruise line.

Embarkation went extremely smoothly. In fact it went smoothly in nearly every port; so if anyone has experienced the problems of hour long waits to embark and disembark, Oceania has conquered this issue. The only backup was in St. Petersburg and that was beyond their control.

We have previously discussed our opinions about the food. On this both Ellie and I agree. The quality and consistency of the food does not match the high rating of a 5 1/2 star ship.

With regard to the excursions, Ellie and I each took only one of the ships excursions; so I don't think we are qualified to give any kind of overall judgement on them. We did speak to many of the passengers about their experiences. Their reaction seemed to be consistent with what we have found on other cruise lines. The quality and consistency just does not match the high prices.

I have to reiterate my surprise and happiness over the payouts at the casino. Just about everyone we spoke with had had some success. Whether you win or lose, you would like to at least get something back to keep up the excitement and fun. We actually ended up making money on both the slots and roulette. Many ships have outside concession that run their casinos. On Oceania, the casinos are run in-house.

We both loved the itinerary and every single port we went to. So my overall opinion is very positive, while I would rate Ellie's as more guarded.

Hopefully this thread will be of some assistance to someone who is considering going on a Baltic cruise and our assessment of our experience on Oceania will provide some guidance of what to expect. As you can see, though, even within our single family we had a difference of opinion.

What tour company ae you using in St. Petersurg?

We are using Insider Tour.

My impression of going to Russia is if you take the ship tours you do not need a visa, if you go on your own you must get one. Is this now the fact and if so how did you get it, thanks a lot.

Thank you so much for your question. It is an important one as Oceania as well as most other cruise lines try to imply that you must book through them in order to get a VISA. This is simply NOT TRUE. Nearly every tour company can obtain the necessary documentation for you.

For many people they just feel safer booking their excursions through the ship and are willing to pay extra to do so. This is true not only in St. Petersburg where there is some special considerations because of the visa, but it is also true for their other excursions where not getting back to the ship on time is a concern.

I have no problem if you make that choice given all the facts and if the quality of the excursions provided by your cruise line are commensurate with their charges - that is superior prices should demand superior performance. Unfortunately, what we have found far too often does not meet those criteria. The quality of the ship's tours are just as inconsistent as those you can book on your own. In fact, it has been our experience that we can often get a superior product for FAR less money. In some cases, we have booked overnight excursions on our own and stayed at the some location as the ship passengers for as much as 50% less than the ship's identical excursion.

That does not mean that we never use the ships' excursions. They sometimes offer exclusive excursions that are either very reasonable in price or unduplicateable (is that a word?) on your own. In Helsinki, I will be taking the ship's tour going shopping with the ship's chef and then come back to the ship to cook a meal.

If you have more questions about specific tours or cities, CC has a separate section just for this purpose.

What a fabulous first day in St. Petersburg - exhausting but fabulous! There is just so much to see, to learn, to experience. Our tour guide and driver were just unbelievable - how the driver got into the tiniest spaces and was always there for us and how our guide bypassed all the lines so that we never had a wait. Apparently there are three stages to the hierarchy - those who are not in a group; those who are in a group; and those who have private tour guides. We just zipped by all the group tours and there were even special entrances and elevators with no one else there.

As far as the places we visited (Peter and Paul Fortress and Cathedral, Church of Spilled Blood, Hermitage Museum, Nevsky Prospect, Jewish Synagogue, plus the harbor and other places I don't remember their names) my head was spinning with the opulence and the number of famous paintings, the history of the Czars, their intrigue, creativeness and deaths. We have SO many pictures! Even though I transferred all of them to my iPad, posting them online will be a whole different project.

We were exhausted by the end of the day, but I am sure tomorrow we will be refreshed for more.

For the second night in a row, we were so pleased with our tablemates for dinner. While I know some people prefer to eat alone or only with friends, we learn so much from the people we sit with. Tonight we sat with a couple from Ottawa, Canada and another who live in Houston but emigrated from the Netherlands. We all shared our day in town, plus stories from our past.

By the way we ate tonight at Red Ginger and the quality of the food matched the outstanding presentation and service.

Overall we are half way through our cruise and are very pleased with our itinerary, ship and and fellow passengers. I would highly recommend taking a Baltic cruise for those who have not yet done so.

Sorry. It was late at night and my reference to the Oasis was incorrect. It was Oceania I was referring to, not Oasis. At least I was consistently wrong.:eek:

By the way I didn't know that the Marina had had a case of the nurovirus. In any case, I think we have beaten that topic to death.

Today is Tuesday and we have a beautiful two days in Saint Petersburg. Sunny with highs in the mid 60's. We have 2 days of private tours planned and are so looking forward to exploring this city. It is our first time in Russia.

I haven't seen any comments about the photos which is usually a big topic in my live threads. Is there anything specific that someone would like me to photograph?

Thank you all for very much for your input about the buffet and having servers. Obviously the majority of posters like the system Oasis uses (which is what I wanted to know).

FYI, NCL is not the only cruise line that has people stand at the entrance to remind passengers to use the disinfectant. For example, RCCL actually has someone standing there with a spray bottle and won't let them enter without him/her spraying the passengers' hands. In fact we were a little surprised that Oasis is so lax about its pumpers on and off the ship as well as in and out of the restaurants. I do agree that waste and food portion control is a big part of the issue.

In any case that policy would not stop us from taking a specific cruise line or eating at the Terrace Cafe as one poster suggested. We would just prefer more access to making our own selection such as having crisp bacon instead of being handed pieces that have hardly been cooked.

We had a very nice day in Tallinn, with wonderful weather once again.

Since we are talking about food, which to many is such an important part of cruising, isn't it great that we are having several posts related to the subject?

As I said in my previous posts, overall we have been disappointed in the quality of the food, but not with the presentation, choices or service. They have all been outstanding. I must say that our two favorite meals thus far have been off the ship - in Tivoli Gardens and today in Tallinn's old city.

I am also interested in how others feel about Oceania's policy in the Terrace Cafe about not letting the passengers take their own food. I fully understand the concern everyone has with cleanliness and passenger safety, but a buffet is just not the same when it has to be served to you. Ellie and I both find it very disconcerting. We have not found this to be the policy on most other cruise ships, both above and below Oceania's class. Instead many of the ships have placed increased emphasis on passengers using the disinfectant before entering the restaurants and increased scrutiny within the kitchen and with the kitchen and serving staff. We find the issue is heightened because of the language problem.

What do you all think?

Thank you for your suggestions about Tallinn.

I was able to upload a few pictures unedited with reduced pixels, but at least you will get a chance to see some of what we saw.

I added some photos to our existing pre-cruise album: https://www.flickr.com/photos/organize/?start_tab=one_set72157657162760965

and set up a new album with photos from the ship itself including photos from the public areas and the Owner's Suite: https://www.flickr.com/photos/30213465@N05/sets/72157657366909205

as well as a separate album from our visit to Berlin: https://www.flickr.com/photos/30213465@N05/sets/72157656952158708

Today was our one and only sea day and we got to participate in several activities. Ellie played Mah Jongg and I played bridge. We had three full tables of unhosted social bridge. I went three full rounds +1 (13 games) before I had an opening hand. I am sure my partner was ready to find a new one. We played trivia and went to the evening show (a comedian). We went to the main dining room for the first time and it was consistent with our other meal experiences. Wonderful service and presentation, with good food (not great). We try to sit at tables with other guests and had a very nice experience (with 4 other Californians). My luck continued with the casino as I doubled my money playing roulette after winning a $60 jackpot on the penny slots (this time at a different machine). I guess I will overlook the broken machinery as long as I keep winning.

Tomorrow is Tallinn, Estonia and we will be doing the town on our own. I have tried to upload some of my photos on board, but the Internet now in its present location is just too slow, even after reducing the size of the pixels; so I will try to find a good Internet cafe in town tomorrow.

It is bed time; so good night until tomorrow.

This is the part of the thread that I dislike the most - discussing our disappointments. Please remember that these are our personal experiences and may not be yours.

The Spa - We had made an advance reservation for Ellie's favorite kind of massage (Hot Rock) and she actually planned her day around it. When she arrived they had not prepared the rocks and tried to talk her into another kind of massage, which she did not want. She actually had to speak to the Spa Manager to get any kind of satisfaction. I might have passed this off to an isolated incident, except our friends had also made an advanced reservation and they messed up the dates. Bottom Line: I would rate the spa as unorganized and inefficient.

Our room safe - We had trouble with our room safe from the very beginning, but it got worse over the next two days. It wouldn't take the code and certain numbers could't be punched. When we called for security (maintenance), the person they sent could not fix it and offered to bring a replacement. So we emptied the safe's contents; so they could replace the safe. When we returned to the room, the old safe was still there. Our cabin steward told us they had come but wouldn't replace the safe if we were not in the room. (So what was the point of us emptying the safe). We again called maintenance/security. They sent up a new person who had had no communication with what had taken place. He asked what was wrong and we had to go through he entire story with him only to find that he spoke very little English. Finally we made him understand and got the safe replaced.

Casino - I love the fact that the slot machines pay off well. On many ships, they do not. However their selection of machines is very limited and more than just a couple were broken. When we asked for service on one, we were told that that machine has been broken for weeks.

All of these are examples of things that go wrong, but what you do about it is truly the key. In this area, Oceania has fallen down.

The last item for this post relates to the food. I had previously given it a 4 star very good, but not wow. After breakfast and lunch today, I would have to downgrade that to 3 1/2 stars. It is much too inconsistent for a ship of this high rating. Some items are good, but others just plan mediocre.

Hopefully this will be the last post I have to do that contains negative comments. Of course we will never let this interfere with our ability to have a good time.

Good morning. We had a nice sleep after a very full day yesterday plus we lost an hour last night because of a time change. I much prefer when you gain an extra hour as we did so often on our world cruise since we were headed west.

Today is Sunday and it is a sea day. We love sea days. It is then that you find out so much about the ship and the activities. For many cruisers, sea days are the ultimate part of cruising; for others they prefer the cruises with the heavy itineraries. We like both, but usually reserve the heavy itineraries for river cruises. I mention this because it can give you a clearer picture of what influences me in how I view things on our cruise. While I try to be objective, everyone has their prejudices and looks at things through filters. So if your preferences are different, you can judge what is important to you in reading through my "live reports".

Right now I need to head out to breakfast, but will return shortly to continue today's post.

Well it has been two full days and I have lots to report and will be adding to my photos on Flickr:

The outstanding (and very good): *****

The cities and our tours - so far we have visited two cites and had three tours. Each one has been excellent. If I would were to try to pick the best of the guides, it would only be a matter of degree, as each of them had their strong points. Starting with the "Free Walking tour in Copenhagen" and our private "Tours By Local" on Friday morning, we learned so much about Copenhagen, voted the most livable city in the world and where the happiest people in the world live according to our guides. Today we took a private tour into Berlin with Heidi Leyton Tours. Our guide, Jad, was unbelievably knowledgeable and friendly. We were concerned about the long drive, but it was definitely worth the 2 1/4 hour ride.

The production show - For us this is an important part of our travels and we were a little concerned by some of the comments we had heard in prior threads and from former passengers. However the cast, the costuming and the choreography all were outstanding and we are looking forward to the other two night's productions.

The other entertainment - This may be premature as we have not yet seen that much, but the music in Horizons and Martinis has been top notch.

The service - Thus far we have been very pleased with the timeliness and the friendliness of all of Oceania's staff.

The menus and choice of foods - So far we have eaten at Waves Grill as we boarded and two specialty restaurants (Polo Grill and Toscana) and had breakfast in the room. All had a wonderful selection of foods.

The less than great (but still good):****

The quality of the food - Although the service, presentation and selections have all been outstanding, the quality of the food itself has been a step below our expectations and the quality we have received on our last few cruises. No that it was bad, far from it, but it didn't have that wow factor. The one exception was the olive oil and balsamic vinegar selection at Toscana. That was a definite wow.

The accommodations: In short the accommodations along with the ship as a whole needs an update. We like the size of the room and the extra shower in the bathroom on top of the bath tub and shower combo. We didn't like that nearly all of our pieces of luggage would not fit under the bed, even my carry-on was a struggle. The cabin steward did take the luggage and store them, but we have never run into this on any other ship. We have seen stains on the carpets both in our room and in the hall ways. We recognize that ships get a lot of traffic which is why they must go into dry dock as often as they do. By the way we did get a chance to view one of the owner's suites and I must say it was quite impressive.

Internet - I wavered between putting this in the 5 or 4 star category. Compared to most other ship, the speed of the Internet on board the Oceania Marina is far superior. My only difficulty is the log in. Each time I have to re log in with my name cabin umber and password. There should be a more streamline way to do this (say user name and password.) However overall I am very pleased.

Less than the above: ***

Unfortunately we lost an hour today with the time change and it is getting very late, so I will postpone the rest of this post and the photos until tomorrow. Since it is a sea day,I should have plenty of time.

It is Saturday morning and we just arrived in Germany. Yesterday was a very busy day and unfortunately I did not get the opportunity to post my comments. We are leaving on a private tour in 30 minutes so I will try to catch up tonight after we return from our tour.

I will say that embarkation was easy and that I won $40 on a penny slot machine. So right now it's all good.

We had a wonderful day today in Copenhagen. Our hotel has a Metro stop right down the street and it is just 5 quick stops to downtown and the Nytorv station. We then walked down the main shopping street to the City Hall where we met up with the No. 1 rated thing to do on Trip Advisor - the Copenhagen Free Walking Tour.

Copenhagen is celebrating Gay Pride week - should be fun and quite busy.

Coincidentally, the Gay Pride area was right where we met up with the Walking Tour. It was plenty busy.

After taking the 3-hour tour of the city, we would agree that this is a wonderful way to learn about the country and the city as well as gain an understanding of where key things are located. The walking tour ends at the Queen's Palace and just down the street from the Little Mermaid. We then walked back down the shopping street to Tivoli Gardens where we met up with our youngest child's first au pair who lives and works in Copenhagen.

We spent the next few hours in the gardens, which has special meaning to me as it has been 45 years since I was last there - when I was studying in Europe. We also had dinner in Tivoli. BBQ ribs is one of my favorite foods and I have eaten BBQ in places all over the USA from the Carolinas to Missouri to Texas and Florida. I have to say that the BBQ restaurant in Tivoli can hold its own with any of them.

All in all it was a wonderful day.

I am also updating my Flickr album for the photos we took today.

As long as a I have a good Internet connection at the hotel, I wanted to post a couple of quick notes (and photos) about our trip over from the USA to Copenhagen. The British Airways flight was very smooth from LAX to London. If there was any doubt about what airport we were in, take a look.http://www.flickr.com/photos/30213465@N05/20331491759

Note: See below for link to the entire album.

Heathrow now looks like an upscale shopping mall - and

We did face one of the typical challenges you so often have to deal with on vacation as the gate scanning mechanism would not work and they had to transport all of us by bus and we had to climb the ramp just like in the old days:

I don't usually post photos of food, but this cake they served with the snack was truly outstanding. If you get a chance to try this brand, I highly recommend it.

The hotel we are staying at has a free shuttle and looks just as avant garde in person as it does in their advertisements.

I am having some difficulty in getting the individual photos to post on CC, so here is the link to the album:

Officially our trip begins in less than an hour as we leave for the airport and our very long ride to Copenhagen (via London). I expect that I will be watching 3 or 4 movies. I did bring some reading material for in between the movies. In addition to this thread and my photos on Flickr, I will also be making 1 (or more) movies using iMovie. I am not sure where I will be able to post them because of the size of the files. If not during the cruise we will see what we can do afterwards.

Bon Voyage

Art