Live Aboard the Brilliance (Panama Canal) 2/25 - 3/7/05

[hcat]

Thanks for the nice shots of Panama canal & the updates--we'll be on board 3/18. How is the pool/party band? Have you tried the spa? What was your favorite port? Can't wait to cruise!

[coolshop]

Hello

 

My daughter says the pool band is called 'Flare'. To be honest, I have not been at the pool when they were there, I don't think??!

 

We are doing some spa activities tomorrow.

 

I would say we enjoyed Aruba because of the jeep tour that we took, and the Panama Canal because it was fascinating.

[Mike&Nancy]

Cool,

 

Glad to hear you're having a great time and better yet, great weather. We sailed Brilliance thru the Canal 2-4-05, in 9256. While the view was awesome, the weather was not. Cloudy and rainy most of the days.

 

If you happen to see Moses & The Highbrows, please tell Moses we said hi. Same goes for a bartender by the name of Federico, who was working the Colony Club on our sailing. Best bartender in the world. He's leaving the ship the 18th of this month, and going home.

 

Enjoy your day at sea tomorrow.

 

Mike & Nancy

[GranysT]

Hi again cool, Awesome pics of the canal.Thanks for posting them. The aft balcony looked great also. Sounds like your having a terrific cruise,keep the posts coming please. :D

[Driftwoodgal]

The Hollywood Odyssey is on Deck 13 near the Viking Crown Lounge.

[bearette1017]

Coolshop - Loved the pictures and your comments, my husband and I will be on BOS to the Panama Canal next April 7, 2006 and I can't wait. I love what I'm hearing about the Radiance class ships.

 

GranysT - I'm guessing you and I will both be on the 4/7/06 cruise next year-- let's keep in touch!

 

Sherry

[hcat]

Thanks for the lovely pictures. Who are Moses and the ???? What venue do they play in? How have the shows been & have you tried the pool tables? When do you head into Ft. Lauderdale--gues I should know that from our itin..guess it is tommorrow-Sounds like you had a great trip. Hope you'll post again when you are home!

[coolshop]

Hello

 

We are back home now (BOOOO!!).

 

Moses & the Highbrows are a band.

 

We saw the pool tables but did not play on them.

 

All in all we had a fantastic cruise on the Brilliance.

 

If anyone has any other questions, let me know.

 

I am off to start my laundry!!!!!!!

[dpacker1]

Hi Coolshop. Thanks for the great pictures and your feedback. We will be on the Brilliance Panama Canal Cruise Friday 3/18. Do you happend to remember what night steak night was and weather RC is still serving ranch steak. We thought we might book a reservation at Chops that night.

 

What did you think about the Seaview Cafe? I see where they are charging for milkshakes. Shades of Johnny Rockets! LOL! The menu looked good though. Fish & Chips and Reubens are some of my favorites.

 

I'm so glad you enjoyed your cruise. We are looking forward to our first cruise on a Radiance class ship. I hear that they are wonderful. Our last two cruises have been on Voyager class ships (Navigator & Explorer) which were great also.

 

Dallas

[coolshop]

Hi Coolshop. Thanks for the great pictures and your feedback. We will be on the Brilliance Panama Canal Cruise Friday 3/18. Do you happend to remember what night steak night was and weather RC is still serving ranch steak. We thought we might book a reservation at Chops that night.

 

What did you think about the Seaview Cafe? I see where they are charging for milkshakes. Shades of Johnny Rockets! LOL! The menu looked good though. Fish & Chips and Reubens are some of my favorites.

 

I'm so glad you enjoyed your cruise. We are looking forward to our first cruise on a Radiance class ship. I hear that they are wonderful. Our last two cruises have been on Voyager class ships (Navigator & Explorer) which were great also.

 

Dallas

 

Hello,

 

I do not recall what night the Steak Night was. I think it was towards the end of the cruise, after the 2nd formal night sometime....maybe it was even the last night........I am not a steak conneusiur (sp?). Steak is always on the 'alternative menu' each night and I did get it one night when I didn't care for the other selections. Whatever kind of steak it was, it was OK, not super, just OK. So, I'm not sure if it was ranch steak or what kind of steak it was.

 

I didn't notice the full menu at Seaview Cafe because my kids just wanted fries with cheese one afternoon, and then we got the milkshakes another afternoon. The milkshakes were YUMMY!

 

My husband and I both loved this size ship. He did say that he missed the promenade, but I can't really get a good explanation out of him as to why that is.

[dpacker1]

Hi coolshop, this is Dallas' better half, Donna. Did you go on the half day jeep safari in Aruba? We hope to book that one when we first arrive on the ship on the 18th. I tried to book the early one ( 8:30) online but it said to book it on the ship. Don't know why this is. Another ?, does it cost money to play billiards? We are on deck 9 on the hump, will we be able to see alot as the ship first enters the locks? Were mosquitos a problem in Panama and Costa Rica. We're going on the gamboa aerial tram in Panama and the tortuguero canals in Costa Rica. it sounds like you are having a great cruise. Do they still serve mango tangos on the ship? That was our favorite drink on our last cruise, the Navigator in 3/04. Thanks for any info you can give. Bye for now!

[GranysT]

Coolshop - Loved the pictures and your comments, my husband and I will be on BOS to the Panama Canal next April 7, 2006 and I can't wait. I love what I'm hearing about the Radiance class ships.

 

GranysT - I'm guessing you and I will both be on the 4/7/06 cruise next year-- let's keep in touch!

 

Sherry

 

Hi Sherry, Sorry but I'm on the 04/17/06 cruise. I almost booked for April 7,but then noticed the one for the 17th was for 11 nights instead of 10,and was the same price. We can still chat back and forth if you want. I'm always up for talking about cruising. Email me at Granyst1@aol.com,and put Brilliance Cruise in the title,so I don't delete it. :D

[hcat]

Donna & Dallas " we are on the same itin & the same excursions-- Ga,boa Tram & Tortopguero Canals maybe we can plan to get together when we meet at the M & M party sea day... Many thanks to coolshop for starting this thread--you really gave us great info & ideas for next weeks trip!

[coolshop]

Hi coolshop, this is Dallas' better half, Donna. Did you go on the half day jeep safari in Aruba? We hope to book that one when we first arrive on the ship on the 18th. I tried to book the early one ( 8:30) online but it said to book it on the ship. Don't know why this is. Another ?, does it cost money to play billiards? We are on deck 9 on the hump, will we be able to see alot as the ship first enters the locks? Were mosquitos a problem in Panama and Costa Rica. We're going on the gamboa aerial tram in Panama and the tortuguero canals in Costa Rica. it sounds like you are having a great cruise. Do they still serve mango tangos on the ship? That was our favorite drink on our last cruise, the Navigator in 3/04. Thanks for any info you can give. Bye for now!

 

Hello Donna

 

I think there were 2 jeep tours to choose from, a 4 hour and a 6 hour. We chose the 4 hour. Our excurision didn't leave until 2 PM. We booked it well in advance of the cruise, via the RCCL Site. Note, we actually chose this one because the 6 hour one indicated you needed to be able to drive a stick. Even though my husband can drive a stick, he preferred not to. But, in the mad dash for jeeps when the tour started, we ended up with the last available jeep which was a stick. Just an FYI the driving on this tour gets VERY rugged! Also, 4 hours was enough for us. We were starting to get worn out towards the end.

 

I do not know if you have to pay to play billiards. My guess would be no, as when we were near the tables the whole area was deserted except for the people playing billiards.

 

re: being on deck 9 on the hump, when we were up on 11 standing on the deck on the hump area, you really can't see 'ahead' or in front of the ship as well as you can from the front of the ship, but obviously you will be able to see all side activity (for your side!). From the open ocean, you traverse for a little while through a narrower area, kind of like a wide river, where you can see the banks on both sides. Then you get to the actual narrow lock entrance.

 

We did not go on excursions in Panama or Costa Rica but I would imagine that you should use a good bug repellant. It was very hot in those locations and a little humid. I got 1 mosquito bite and I know my son got one.

 

I don't know about the Mango Tango but I can't imagine why they wouldn't have it!

 

By the way, for whoever mentioned Patrick the bartender from the Schooner bar, we heard late in the cruise that he became ill and had to be confined to the infirmary for a week. Something about some problems with his legs??

[jwitt2]

The Meet and Mingle was held on the first sea day in the Hollywood Odessey which is part of the Viking Crown Lounge, Deck 13. There were over 70 signed up. Quite afew of us posted on here and got acquainted beforehand and met several other times on board. They were a very friendly group.

[hcat]

How were the excursion departures handled? Did you have to go to a central place like the theatre & get called out for the trips or did you meet your tours on the docks? On our last Royal trip I recall they left from the threater--always a bit of chaos!

[meadcher]

?? We don't live aboard a ship. We cruise about once a year.

How often and how bad was the vibration noise, this was a concern of my brother in laws as we have an aft cabin 7676, our agent said it is no worse then any place else on the ship. Would you do an aft cabin again? Thanks

[jwitt2]

How were the excursion departures handled? Did you have to go to a central place like the theatre & get called out for the trips or did you meet your tours on the docks? On our last Royal trip I recall they left from the threater--always a bit of chaos!

 

We were supposed to meet both of our excursions (Panama and Costa Rica) in the theatre. However, the time was changed for the Costa Rica tour and we received a note in our cabin about this. When we got out on the dock, there were already people waiting out there or already on the bus and they got on the bus and Banana train before we did. I heard later that people feign ignorance like this to get on earlier. We ended up getting the last two seats together on the train.

 

I'm not sure if other tours left from the dock or not.

 

We didn't have any vibration in our cabin, in fact it was a very smooth cruise. But we were near the forward staircase on deck 7.

[coolshop]

How were the excursion departures handled? Did you have to go to a central place like the theatre & get called out for the trips or did you meet your tours on the docks? On our last Royal trip I recall they left from the threater--always a bit of chaos!

 

For our Aruba Jeep Excursion we had to meet at the terminal building outside the ship at the pier.

[coolshop]

How often and how bad was the vibration noise, this was a concern of my brother in laws as we have an aft cabin 7676, our agent said it is no worse then any place else on the ship. Would you do an aft cabin again? Thanks

 

 

An aft cabin is wonderful. It was our second time in an aft cabin and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

 

In our cabin, 9656, I would say the noise was very noticable. Please note that it was only noisy at times when the captain was really driving the ship at top speeds (around 24 knots). In our case, he seemed to tend to do this after leaving a port, from the early evening hours until about midnight or so. I am not sure why this was.

 

Let's just say as I laid in bed trying to sleep, I found it annoying. We were on 9, and I can only guess it would be more annoying on the lower decks.

 

But not annoying enough to turn me off to how wonderful the cabin was.

[sad2bbk]

An aft cabin is wonderful. It was our second time in an aft cabin and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

 

Let's just say as I laid in bed trying to sleep, I found it annoying. We were on 9, and I can only guess it would be more annoying on the lower decks.

 

But not annoying enough to turn me off to how wonderful the cabin was.

 

Are you saying that the noise kept you awake? That would be bad. Why is an aft cabin worth that annoyance?

 

What other ship/cabin did you have aft? Was the noise as bad in it too?

 

Does this very by ship and location of the room? I just took my first cruise. Someone told me about this cruise critic on my cruise. Here I am! I have to learn more about these cabins. Was the noise better after midnight? I don't think I was ever in bed before midnight. Maybe it would be ok for me.

[39august]

coolshop- We will be on the beautiful Brillliance April 8, our second cruise on her. Is Rusty still the bartender in the Martini lounge? He was soooo personable. And how was the piano player in the Schooner bar? Last fall on Navigator the guy was hopelessly bad! No fun at all. Last year on Briliiance, I had a good time with the sing along in the Schooner bar!

[coolshop]

Are you saying that the noise kept you awake? That would be bad. Why is an aft cabin worth that annoyance?

 

What other ship/cabin did you have aft? Was the noise as bad in it too?

 

Does this very by ship and location of the room? I just took my first cruise. Someone told me about this cruise critic on my cruise. Here I am! I have to learn more about these cabins. Was the noise better after midnight? I don't think I was ever in bed before midnight. Maybe it would be ok for me.

 

 

Perhaps my earlier description was overly critical of the noise. I am saying *at times*, specifically on a few nights in the early evening to midnight timeframe, when the captain took the boat up to its highest speeds, yes, there was some noise and vibration in our cabin. I suppose it could keep you up if you were bothered by such a thing.

 

As I also said, the noise abated in most cases after midnight.

 

It is worth the annoyance because relative to the overall length of time spent in our cabin, the times that it happened was relatively small. Other than those times the cabin was *quiet* and the ride was smooth. The cabin we were in had 2 separate bedrooms, a living room with couch and a huge balcony. It was well worth the very 'slight' annoyance.

 

We were also on the Explorer in an aft cabin, center aft, not corner aft like we were on the Brilliance. That was 2 years ago, so honestly, I don't remember if there was noise or not.

[coolshop]

coolshop- We will be on the beautiful Brillliance April 8, our second cruise on her. Is Rusty still the bartender in the Martini lounge? He was soooo personable. And how was the piano player in the Schooner bar? Last fall on Navigator the guy was hopelessly bad! No fun at all. Last year on Briliiance, I had a good time with the sing along in the Schooner bar!

 

 

Sorry, I do not know about the Martini lounge Bartender, and I wasn't in the Schooner bar when there was a piano player.

[hcat]

Did you get to see the horse races?