Norway May 12 and May 19 Brilliance of the Seas

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As we have got so many useful information on this board we want to contribute our experience on the Brilliance on our consecutive cruise from Amsterdam to Norway. As Ojeepost has done an excellent job in his/her recent review of the cruise I won't talk much about the ports of call. Ojeepost has given excellent information about that. I want to tell you

just what we liked and what we did not like. Of course it is our personal opinion and other people might feel different.

 

In our first week we didn't have good weather, the second week was great.

Even Bergen - they say it rains there on 366 of 365 days a year - was hot and sunny.

 

Week 1 we had an outside cabin midship on deck 3 with a great room attendant. Tatiana did an excellent job. Sadly we didn't succeed in meeting her on our last cruise day to say thank you and goodbye again.

Week 2 we had a suite which was nice all in all but did not fulfil our cleanliness requirements. We were surprised about that because people say only the best room attendants get to work in suites. We really are not too very particular but there were some no go's.

 

We liked food in Windjammer Buffet Restaurant. It was very good most of the time (three or four day from 14 were just ok), the second week was a repetition of week 1 what surprised us because we expected a little more variety on this consecutive cruise. The staff was wonderful. We didn't experience that grade of service in Buffet Restaurant before. The waiters seemed to ask everyone if they wanted something to drink and brought even the free ones like ice water or coffee. They were very quick with cleaning up too. Food and service in Windjammer are the best we ever experienced, even better than Celebrity.

 

In MDR we had chosen for My time dining which was a very good choice. We had excellent waiters and most of the time our favorite table. What we liked is that you can choose for a Filet Mignon ($17) or even Surf and Turf ($40) if you like. I know other people discuss this but in my opinion it is an extra choice you have. If you don't want to go to Chops you can have a fantastic steak in MDR for a decent price.

 

Chops Grille we did not like at all. Waiters did not seem to be too interested and appeared a little blasé. Food was mediocre, the cesar salad was a cheek. Form follows function and not the other way round. You could not eat it because there were two stems of salad with barely any dressing. Nice for a cook book photograph but an insult to the guest. I can't blame the waiters for that, but the cook or whoever is responsible for that kind of stylish presentation should give it a second thought.

 

Despite that we liked the ship and the staff very much. Of course the ship needs a little refurbishment here and there but what counts more ist the soul and the heart of the ship. And you can feel it everywhere. Especially Julie from guest relation seems to be the heart of the ship. She cares for her guests and does everything she can to make you feel comfortable - Excellent. We've been on Celebrity many times, but RCL seems to set the highest standards here too.

 

Just a word about tours: We did the organized Flambanen tour in Flam and did not like it at all. Too expensive and bad organization. The ship's tour guide rushed us in a wagon behind that was supposed to have "lots of free space" but we ended up in an overcrowded wagon. Of course there were fellow travellers (you know them all) without regards to the other passengers and stood all the time at the window to take their photographs though we all had been asked to stay seated. Don't get me wrong: We take photographs too, but we know there are other's around and we are not alone (or own the train). Later on we realized our tour guide had chosen for an other wagon (isn't he supposed to be with the group?) and

enjoyed a nice window seat. Probably the train was to be filled up from behind ...

 

 

 

All in all our cruise experience was excellent. Beautiful ship, excellent staff and nice locations (especially Schooner Bar). We are looking forward to another cruise on the Brilliance in the future.

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Thank you for sharing.

 

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