Brilliance v. Serenade

[FoxyBride14]

This is exactly what we experienced.

The crew just didn't seem to feel "ownership" for delivering the service vision. It seemed they didn't have the authority to do any of little things that have been done for passengers in the past. Because of this, they just didn't deliver the kind of experience we have come to expect on Royal Caribbean. It's hard to explain this w/o sounding like you're whining, but I will give the following small example from our first sailing on Brilliance OTS:

 

Teenage son walks by another passenger in the DR eating his favorite food in the world -- shrimp cocktail. We ask waiter if son could possibly get some one night of the cruise. Waiter can't possibly authorize such a big request. We have to talk to Head Waiter. HW does not have "Can do" or even "will try" attitude. We tell him to forget about it. He comes back later and says maybe he can get just 1 order for son only -- but repeatedly asks us to confirm that nobody else will ask for any. Sheesh! He made son feel really bad for even asking. Contrast this to the cruise on Serenade the prior year when the Asst. waiter used to find son in Windjammer and bring him shrimp, never mind bringing it to him in the DR.

 

We also had issues with our cabin attendent not making up our room until late afternoon the first couple of days. We tried politely speaking to cabin attendant and ended up having to escalate to his supervisor after the 3rd day. Made for a very uncomfortable feeling whenever he came into the room.

 

I am NOT saying our cruise was ruined or that this is why we choose to avoid Brilliance OTS. These are just 2 small examples of many which led us to feel let-down by our 2 experiences on this ship. At the time, I remember stating that it felt like Brilliance OTS was run by a different company. Interestingly, I later found out that this ship *is* run by a different arm of the company.

 

I think that experience depends on the waiter. Our head waiter was able to get 2 people on our table an extra lobster tail when they asked her. Our head waiter was great, it was some of the other staff that was eh. Especially the entertainment people. And we weren't being rude. They just seemed uninspired.

[FoxyBride14]

Nemo: I feel like we had the same assistant waiter. This guy was a nice guy but he was horrible. I felt bad for our head waiter because she had to cover his slack all the time. He never remembered to bring us coffee on time. We almost always got it after we had our dessert. Nearly Every night he would forget the milk and we'd have to ask for it. It got so bad one night one guy at our table had to ask one of the red jacket guys for coffee. Boy was our head waiter pissed at the assistant. On the second to last night she actually told us to judge the dinner service on her not just the assistant waiter because she didn't want her rating to go down because of him.

 

I think that the people on the ship over work the staff though. Our head waiter was saying on other ships they made them stop working once they had a 10 hr day but on the brilliance they can work up to 14 hours with no issues.

[mickeymouse12]

I think some people call them alligator clips. I took 5 of the large clips but only used 4. Just clipped them on the bottom of the curtain - one on each end and two spaced in the middle. We also seemed to be able to avoid the wet floor by keeping the shower head aimed towards the back wall of the shower. The only time we had a lot of water on the floor was when I forgot to aim the shower head back before I got in. The only issue was that the clips rusted over the two weeks and stained the curtain at the bottom. I would suggest covering the inside of the clip with duct tape or packaging tape.

 

Have a great time. It was an awesome two weeks for us. The ports are great and we had fantastic excursions - We even enjoyed Guadaloupe - we did St Anne on Your Own through the ship. I hope you enjoy your trip, too.

 

Thanks so much for your response. I'm definitely taking clips for the shower. I've also read a lot about St Anne on our own I think maybe we will do that the first week so we can let people know on the second week how it was.

[gelo7]

Serenade gets my vote.

[Debinnova]

Do you think there will be any change for the better on Brilliance after the dry dock? Or will it be all the same management and staff? I will be on her in September this year and was excited that we would be going after the refurb, but I really want it to be special and I hope we get great service.

 

I'm sure we will have a good time regardless - but it is so much nicer when things go smoothly or better than expected.

 

I changed to this sailing from the Grandeur because she has been called the "Smelly of the Seas" it seems lately.

 

Debinnova

[NemoCrownie]

Do you think there will be any change for the better on Brilliance after the dry dock? Or will it be all the same management and staff? I will be on her in September this year and was excited that we would be going after the refurb, but I really want it to be special and I hope we get great service.

 

I'm sure we will have a good time regardless - but it is so much nicer when things go smoothly or better than expected.

 

I changed to this sailing from the Grandeur because she has been called the "Smelly of the Seas" it seems lately.

 

Debinnova

 

The crew is staying with the ship through dry dock, overseeing and assisting with the work in their areas. We love the Radiance class and think the Brilliance will be gorgeous after dry dock. I would have no worries.

 

Like I said in a previous post, we had an awesome two weeks. We had some glitches but they were really quite minor in the whole scheme of things. We had one of the best room attendants we've ever had and the best Head Waiter that we have ever had. Waiters were so-so, not bad, just not the best. We had one really good assistant waiter and the other was in way over his head. I seriously doubt the second assistant waiter will have the same position by the time you board or else he will be trained by then. Service was just different, not bad. I felt like the employees were stretched thin and were probably tired. 5 port days a week with turn around day is a gruelling schedule. All the employees were pleasant, had a smile on their face, and tried their best to please you. We aren't needy and don't expect to be waited on 24/7. Give us the basics and we're pretty happy. We have only been on a few cruises and I think this was our second best. I think you will have a fantastic cruise.