Brilliance Dec. 19 to 24 Review

[Jmillsarch]

This is my first attempt of a quick cruise review. A couple things first, I'm a horrible speller and not much of a wordsmith. Plus no pictures, because I'm lazy.

 

We booked this cruise back in December of 2014 when the BOGO sails were still pretty good, and they were giving out $100 OBC per person. We had two adjoining room for the 4 of us; myself, my wife, our 7 year old son, and 6 year old daughter. One room was booked from an old next cruise credit that got us another $100 OBC for a total of $500 OBC. Not bad for a 5 night cruise.

 

Day 1:

 

We stayed the night just down interstate 4 so we easily woke up and drove down to the port.

 

The port of Tampa was a little confusing. The only other time I've sailed out of Tampa was the one time I tried a Carnival cruise so I wasn't sure what to expect. The port itself is not big, and not industrial like Port Everglades. There were two RCCL ships in port, one on the left and one on the right. Brilliance was one the left, but there were no signs. First I ended up in the Brilliance taxi pick-up line, and I illegally made a 5 point turn and drove out the one-way street. Then I went to the next entrance and it was for Vision of the Seas. Finally on my third attempt I got into the line next to the taxis for Brilliance luggage drop off. We dropped off our luggage and headed across the street for parking.

 

I'm not a fan of this parking garage. For one, its across the street which is no fun with kids, or at the end of the cruise when your porter gets to walk 10 minutes with you across the street. Second, when you drive in you push the button and get a ticket, then you drive 5 feet and give the ticket to the person at the window to pay, then she give you a yellow plastic coin and your receipt. You have to keep this plastic coin and use it to get out of the garage were someone is there instructing you to put your coin into the machine so the gate will open. I'm sorry. This is retarded. Now on to the cruise.

 

Check-in was uneventful. We're diamond Crown and Anchor members and the line was minimal. It does always surprise me how many people do not have their paper work in order. I mean I'm always dying to get on the cruise and have my paperwork done the instant RCCL's website lets me. We got there around 11:00, and after check-in we were right onto the ship.

 

First impressions were as expected. We sailed Serenade a few years ago so we knew the size and layout of the ship.

 

We headed up to the Windjammer and I did not remember how small it was. We are really getting spoiled by the larger ships. The fact that it seemed small was not an issue. We never had problems finding a seat.

 

After lunch we registered our kids in the kids club. While we were there they announce that the rooms were ready so down to the rooms we went.

 

We stayed in adjoining E2 balcony rooms 1512 and 1510. We stayed in 1514 on Serenade and we liked the location near the pool. Plus you're under the spa so there's no issue with chair noise from above. Our luggage was there waiting for us, and we were happy to drop off our carry-on stuff. We changed and headed for the pool.

 

The pool area has two hot tubs and a large, deep pool. We found this less than ideal for kids our age. The hot tubs fill up fast and we did not let our kids in the main pool without one of us being in there with them. The main pool is deep. I'm 5'-11" and the water was over my head. Lots of treading water for mommy and daddy while the kids played in their floats. The pool is also salt water, I'm assuming pumped up from the ocean. To me the water seemed saltier than the actual ocean, and on the last day it burned my eyes so bad I had to wash them in the outdoor shower and take a 15 minute break to recover.

 

After some swimming we went back to our rooms to change. While our kids changed I laid on the bed and fell asleep. We almost missed the muster drill. They knocked on our door to get us and we were one of the last ones to the drill. I was mortified.

 

After the drill we walked around some and got ready for our early seating dinner.

 

We had a wonderful table for 4 right in the middle open area next to the tile wall. It was very nice having the open ceiling above us, and a view back to the stairs and Christmas tree. The service on the other hand was poor. Very poor. No one introduced themselves or seemed friendly. After sitting for almost 10 minutes we were finally brought bread by someone we assumed was our assistant waiter. After other 10 minutes of no one talking with us I ask for bar service... and I asked for bar service... and I asked for bar service... and I ask for bar service. All this time no one ever gave us menus or attempted to take our order, and still no bar service. Finally, after over 30 minutes, I went to the front to find someone to talk to, but everyone was handling the lines to show new guests to their tables. I came back to our table, visibly angry and our waiter appeared and ask me what was wrong. I explained the situation, I stated it was not going to happen again, and I again asked for bar service. He returned with the a head waiter, I explain the situation to her, and in less than a minute I had my drink and the rest of the entire dinner went smoothly. She was very apologetic, very professional, and exemplified a model RCCL crew member.

 

We ate dinner at the main dinning room 2 more times. Both times the service was 10+ with no issues period. The head waiter checked on us both times and we had zero issues.

 

After dinner we sent our kids to the kids club, checked out the Diamond Club, and wandered around a bit. We changed and went to the pub. This is a great improvement over the old sports bar I believe was there on Serenade. The pub is just like the pubs on the promenades of the Voyager, Freedom, and Oasis class ships. Same good beer selection too. After a couple beers we picked up the kids and went to bed.

 

Day 2 later.

 

James

[watson61]

Thanks for posting. I'm going on this cruise next month so I can't wait to read the rest of your review.

[Clarea]

We were on the same cruise, so I'm looking forward to getting another take on the cruise.

[torpeedo]

Thank you for your review. I'm very interested in hearing your experiences in general and also in the Diamond Lounge as we are sailing on Monday for New Years Eve. I expect the cruise to be pretty crowded and maybe a lot of first time cruisers. We've never sailed on the Brilliance but have sailed the Radiance, Jewel, and Serenade. Loved the Serenade!

[cb at sea]

Wow...we had a similar experience on Brilliance...as far as service went. There were about 3 people who seemed to actually care about the cruise experience. We had the worst waiter we've EVER had...however, the ass't waiter was awesome...he got the extra tip we'd planned for the waiter. Sorry..the waiter got the "suggested" amount. She was horrible. If it wasn't for the ass't..we would have complained mightily.

[BND]

We parked at the Channelside garage for our Vision cruise a few weeks ago. It was very easy and the coin was no big deal. We kept the coin in the car and dropped it in the machine when we left, very simple. There was no one there giving directions and it was pretty obvious what to do with the coin. We actually parked and walked our luggage across the street as the drop off line wasn't open until 11 and it was about 10:30. It was a very quick walk across the street.

Edited December 26, 2015 by BND

[Keith1010]

Enjoying your review.

Keith

[happyscmom]

Following. We are 90 days out from our Brilliance cruise, so I'm looking forward to all of your thoughts and tips.

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

Thanks for the review! I'll be on Brilliance this summer in the Med! :)

 

I'm a little concerned that you could almost miss muster though when in your cabin. Can you not hear the alarm in the cabin areas??

[Wayniac]

 

Here is a picture of the Brilliance departing Tampa on your cruise. This was taken from the Vision.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Jmillsarch]

Thanks for the review! I'll be on Brilliance this summer in the Med! :)

 

I'm a little concerned that you could almost miss muster though when in your cabin. Can you not hear the alarm in the cabin areas??

 

No, you can here the announcements. We didn't get to our hotel until about 4 am that morning so I was very tired. Add in two beers and I was asleep hard.

 

In all of our cruises that was the first time this had happened to us. Hopefully it was the last.

[2CatsInFlorida]

Thanks for the review. We are going on Brilliance January 7 to Cozumel. Our first time on that ship. Service for us on RCI and Celebrity has been good so far.

[Jmillsarch]

Thank you for your review. I'm very interested in hearing your experiences in general and also in the Diamond Lounge as we are sailing on Monday for New Years Eve. I expect the cruise to be pretty crowded and maybe a lot of first time cruisers. We've never sailed on the Brilliance but have sailed the Radiance, Jewel, and Serenade. Loved the Serenade!

 

We only ended up going to the Diamond Lounge the one night. The service was okay. When we walked in there was only one other group of people in there. The attendant was laughing and cutting up with them and never acknowledged we were there. When another bartender walk through the lounge I ask him if the drinks were self service. At that point the other attendant got us some drinks. I wasn't trying to be rude, but we waited for almost 10 minutes and were completely ignored.

 

We never returned, but it wasn't because of the service. We had our two children with us, and we just never really thought about going back.

 

James

[Jmillsarch]

Day 2:

 

We woke up early and headed to the Windjammer. No troubles at all getting a table. We weren't quite to Key West yet, but we could see the islands in the distance. Breakfast was normal windjammer fair. My kids, as wife, were very upset with the supply of Fruit Loops. They seem to have plenty of other cereal, but would only have one or two boxes of Fruit Loops. This was a constant problem. What ever will they do?! (Eye Roll) Anyway, one nice touch was the omelet station. While many people ordered omelets, it never took too long and I enjoyed a omelet almost every morning.

 

We went back to our room and watch us dock at Key West. We've been to Key West many times on land vacations, but we haven't been sense or son was born. Not much has changed. It was an overcast and windy day, but no rain. We walked down to the southern most point and considered going to the Butterfly and Nature Conservatory. We'd been there before and decided against going again. The walk to the southern most point is about a mile, and our kids really wanted ice cream so we did that instead. We walked back down Duval St. to Mallory Square and back onto the ship.

 

I really, really enjoy Key West. It's laid back atmosphere, and flip flop dress code fits my idea of a vacation. One thing to remember is Key West has many adult related images and themes in plain site. Our kids are too young to pick up on most of this stuff, but be prepared for the conversation if your kids are older.

 

We skipped lunch, well ice cream ending up being lunch, so we relaxed on board until dinner. The kids went to the kids club, and we posted pictures on Instagram to make our friends jealous.

 

Dinner was very good, and we had no issues. My drink of choice was waiting for me when we sat down.

 

After dinner the kids went back the kids club and we watched football at the pub. We picked them up at 10:00 and we all went to bed.

 

Day 3 later

[Jmillsarch]

Day 3:

 

We have a cruising tradition on sea days, I get up early and go to the pool deck to secure our chairs and wait there for the family to join me. This sea day was no different.

 

I woke up before the sun was up and waited in bed until dawn. The sun came up, I gathered our pool stuff, and told my wife to bring the kids and meet me at the pool when everyone wakes up.

 

It was about 7:30 at this point and I went out to the pool to see many chairs with towels and other items already on them. I grabbed 4 towels and went over to the non-smoking side. This side was not as popular with the chair hogs, and the sun would be at our backs to begin the day. I laid our towels out on the 4 front row chairs next to the pool bar and sat down. I played games on my iPad for about an hour and watched the pool chairs fill up with stuff.

 

Around 8:30 the pool attendants came around and started removing towels and books from chairs and taking the stuff to the towel station. As I sat there and watched, a pool attendant approached me and ask about the three chairs around me. I said they were for my family and they would be here shortly. He rather rudely told me they had 30 minutes to get to the pool or he'd take my towels. Now I hate the chair hogs as much as the next guy, but I thought at least being an actual person sitting there was a little different than just laying a towel down on a few chairs. There were still plenty of chairs available at this point too. Luckily my family showed up about 10 minutes later.

 

Now I definitely appreciate the pool attendants clearing off towels from people saving chairs, but multiple times during the day a pool attendant would come ask me who was using the chairs next to me. I had kids flip flops, sun screen bags, goggles, and tee shirts laying everywhere. I would have to point out that my two children were in the hot tub and my wife was in the pool. I guess those guys can't win either way, but I thought they could use a little more common sense.

 

Okay, off my soap box. My wife and I took turns going to the Windjammer to get everyone breakfast and lunch. We spent most of the day relaxing by the pool and left around 3:00.

 

One thing to note, the entire upper pool bar is a smoking area. We were on the non-smoking side of the ship but sitting next to the lower pool bar, many times you could smell the smoke from above. Something to think about if you want to stay away from the smokers.

 

When we went back to our rooms they both had a plate of covered strawberries and petit fours. I'm not sure if this was because of our dining mishap the first night or because we're diamond Crown and Anchor members. Either way it was a nice touch.

 

For dinner we skipped the main dinning room and tried Izumi. I am not a sushi person, but my son has been begging us to try sushi. I thought this would be a safe bet rather than trying it on land. I went around 5:45 to check availability, and they said anything before 7:00 would be fine. I also explained that we knew nothing about sushi and would need some help. I went to get the family and we all went back to Izumi about 6:15 for our adventure.

 

We sat off to the side as to not offend anyone with our lack of sushi knowledge and etiquette. Our waiter was very helpful and we all tried the edamame soy beans. We decided on the DX sushi combo and a chicken hot rock. We were all going to split everything. The combo came with a few different types of nigiri sushi and one spicy tuna roll. Everyone really like the spicy tuna, but were deathly afraid of the nigiri. My son commented on how much he liked the seaweed in the rolled sushi, and about 5 minutes later a fresh roll of seaweed sushi arrived complements of the chef. While the spicy tuna roll only had a small amount of seaweed inside the rice, this new roll had seaweed and rice wrapped in another layer of seaweed. My son and daughter were thrilled and quickly dug in only to be immediately overwhelmed by the seaweed flavor and discarded their sushi into a napkin. I was the only one to eat the nigiri sushi and it was all quite good. The hot rock was not that exciting, just cooked chicken on a rock. Admittedly, we may have been doing it wrong.

 

After Izumi we went to the Windjammer for dessert and the kids went off to the kids club.

 

We relaxed again at the pub and watched football. We retrieved the kids from the kids club and got our stuff together for the next day in Cozumel.

 

Day 4 later

[torpeedo]

Thanks and enjoying your review. We haven't been to Izumi yet but I think we'll try it this. I hope we have better luck with the DL and a better reception than you experienced! Sorry to hear that. We usually find the DL and the CL crowded for the most part but we always seem to manage and somehow have a couple or few glasses of Champagne!

[paulh84]

Brilliance is still one of my favorite looking RCL ships. Thanks for the review! After being on Liberty I want to try a smaller ship to see how it compares.

 

The pool area has two hot tubs and a large, deep pool. We found this less than ideal for kids our age. The hot tubs fill up fast and we did not let our kids in the main pool without one of us being in there with them. The main pool is deep. I'm 5'-11" and the water was over my head. Lots of treading water for mommy and daddy while the kids played in their floats.

 

I always thought the pool depth was a crowd control measure of sorts. My pool at home for instance is 42x20. Large for a residential pool. Where do all of the adults congregate every time? In the shallow 1/4 of the pool so they can stand, walk around and get drinks. If the pool on deck was shallow enough to wade in I imagine people would be packed in there like sardines all day long.

[Jmillsarch]

Day 4:

 

I woke up around 6:30 am and looked out the balcony window to see another RCCL ship along side us. I figured that would be who we dock next to. I was wrong. We dock down town and this was new to me. I've been to Cozumel 5 or 6 times and every time we docked at the international pier. I guess this isn't a big deal, but in my mind I'd already planned the walk through the shops to the taxi stand and now I'd be taking the family through a completely foreign port.

 

We had breakfast at the windjammer and then headed down to get off the ship. It was pouring. Earlier there was blue skies and everything looked fine. So we went back to our room and again blue skies. We walked back down to get off the ship and it was fine, just everything was wet.

 

We found the taxi stand and agreed on the posted price of $18 to take us to Mr. Sancho's. The taxi ride was uneventful other than the traffic at the international pier.

 

We have been to Nachi Cocom, Playa Mia, Chankanaab, and Passion Island in Cozumel. We were led to believe that Mr. Sancho's had this big party atmosphere and had tons for the kids to do. In our opinion, not so much. The beaches in this area have nothing on Passion Island, but this excursion is no longer offered by RCCL. I would go there every time, but it requires a boat ride and it's just too far for my to feel comfortable going there on my own.

 

We arrived at Mr. Sancho's and our name was on the list, we paid our money, and our 'waiter' took us immediately to our table to eat. No tour, no nothing, time to eat. We told him that we just ate breakfast and would like to wait so he took us to our beach chairs. He gave us chairs under the trees and in the back. We have smallish kids and I'd really prefer to be up front so we can see them. There were plenty of other front row chairs open so we ask if we could sit where every we wanted and he said yes. This was the end of our waiter for most of the rest of the day.

 

We moved to some open chairs and started playing with the kids. I went to the bar to get a drink, found someone to help me get a locker, and returned to play with the kids. The bar was the only place I'd be getting drinks at today. No waiter. After a short time at the beach we all moved to the pool where we stayed there the majority of the time. The pool bartenders were very good and happy to get our drinks and get the kids soda. Soda is a treat for our kids, they normally drink water. After awhile we decided we'd like to have lunch and I went looking for a/our waiter.

 

We did finally find him and we ordered lunch. Lunch was okay, but nothing really special. There was a quick downpour while we ate, but the umbrella kept us dry. After lunch we went back to the beach, I swam out with my daughter to the buoys, and then we went back to the pool. We spent the rest of the time there. When it was time to leave I gave the pool bartender a pretty good tip and we went to get a cab. I did not tip our waiter. I didn't really know where he was anyway. I did discover during the day that we had moved, "out of our waiter's area." This probably was the reason he went missing.

 

I'll elaborate more when I'm done with the daily reviews, but service can be hit or miss with anything. I believe we had some bad luck with service on this cruise so others results may vary.

 

The cab ride back was uneventful. We got back on the ship and cleaned up for dinner. Dinner was good. The service really stepped up after the terrible first night. Afterwards the kids went to the kids club and we relaxed.

 

Day 5 later.

[emeraldcity]

Thank you for taking the time to write up your review. I'll be on the Brilliance for the Transatlantic in April, so I appreciate getting an early peek at what I might be able to expect.

[JamesEM]

Thanks for your review.

[cincicruisers]

Enjoying your review. Looking forward to the rest.

[Jmillsarch]

If anyone's reading this, sorry for the long delay. Work has been very busy.

 

Day 5:

 

Today was the last day and was a sea day. I woke up around dawn and took some pictures of the sun coming up. I got all our pool stuff together and headed to the pool.

 

The pool was not as crowded today and I was easily able to get our family chairs. Our day was mostly a repeat of day 3, but this time we were worn out and went back to the room around lunch time.

 

We all got cleaned up and went to lunch and then the kids went to the kids club. This allowed us to start packing and getting ready to leave.

 

We skipped the main dinning room and decided to try Rita's Cantina. The kids ate at the Windjammer and then to the kids club. We then went over to Rita's. It was terrible. Don't waste your time. If you've been to the old Rita's on Allure you know its not spectacular Mexican, but this was just plan bad. The menu posted at the touch screen kiosks has no prices and looks like they have some pretty good stuff. No, no, no, and no.

 

When we showed up we should have known something was amiss. First there was no one to great us. There was only one other group there, and half the tables had not been cleared from previous guests. We had to ask the bartender what to do, and he said sit where you want and he'd be right there. He was the waiter and the bartender. He brought us over a menu that included prices and that's when we realized that everything was a small appetizer. We ordered a few things and waited for our food, and waited, and waited, and waited. When our food finally arrived it was boarder line edible. The quesadillas were supposed to have, "jalapeño cheese, roasted poblano chiles, cilantro, and your choice of chili con came, fajita-style chicken, or Mexican spiced shrimp." I got the chili quesadillas and my wife got the chicken. We decided to split and order of nachos. The nachos weren't bad, but the quesadillas more than made up for it with their awfulness. The chicken quesadillas looked like left over chicken from the windjammer with melted cheese on a floor tortilla. No peppers, no spices, nothing. This could only be outdone by my quesadillas that was literally hotdog chili with cheese on a floor tortilla. Also, the bartender/waiter also never came back to refill our drinks once. When we went to leave there was no one to be found so we almost left without paying. Finally the guy showed up and we paid, no tip, and went to the windjammer to get some real food.

 

After 'dinner' we went to the room to finish packing. We picked up the kids and went to bed.

 

James

[Clarea]

We rarely saw anyone at Rita's. I suspect that venue will be changed to something else, or better yet, revert back to Windjammer seating.

[Jmillsarch]

We rarely saw anyone at Rita's. I suspect that venue will be changed to something else, or better yet, revert back to Windjammer seating.

 

We'd heard it was bad ahead of time, so we knew what we were getting ourselves into. It was almost funny how bad it was. Not one of RCCL bright spots.

 

James

[Jmillsarch]

Day 6

 

Disembarkation was really pretty easy. We were given luggage tags with an early departure time that we were okay with. We woke up, showered, and basically walked off the ship. The lines were minimal and customs was quick. We did get a porter to help us with our luggage and there was a separate line for people using porters. He walked with us across the street and to the parking garage. We gave him a nice tip for his trouble and we were on our way home.

 

James