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Royal Caribbean's
Brilliance of the Seas
March 7 - 17, 2003
Cruise Review
by
Libby Child
Date: Tue, 6 May 2003 21:45:19 -0400
From: libby_child@yahoo.com
(Libby Child)
Subject: Review
RCCL Brilliance of the Seas
March 7, 2003
10 Night Circle the Caribbean
Miami to Miami
In a word, this cruise was brilliant. The ship, which I usually
don’t spend much time commenting on (I’ve never truly met one I didn’t
like), was a cruiser’s dream. Why? There was glass everywhere
including the exterior elevators that looked out over the water.
We had that ‘at sea’ feeling almost everywhere we went on the ship.
RCCL has blended the best features of the Voyager class and Vision
class ships, making the Brilliance (and I assume the Radiance class) the
best of both worlds. The Brilliance of the Seas had many of the multi-activity/entertainment/dining
options of the mega-liners, and the openness of the smaller, glass-everywhere
Vision ships. The nine levels of the centrum atrium are breath-taking
…. I’ll leave the details to the delightful surprise of a new passenger.
As impressive as the beauty and the ambiance of the Brilliance was
the crew, staff and officers were even more impressive. We
felt like part of a family from the minute of embarkation to the very last
minute as we were disembarking and staff was saying good-bye to us by name.
Having been on the Legend of the Seas, and the Enchantment of the Seas
both known for their friendliness; we believe they will be hard pressed
to beat off the reputation the Brilliance is sure to establish.
This was our 31st cruise, the 15th on RCCL and I believe each
one gets better.
The two dreaded events that occur with any cruise are the embarkation
and disembarkation process. Both went very smoothly on this sailing.
Though there was a bit of a line to ‘check in’, it moved very quickly,
and we were in our cabin, WITH OUR LUGGAGE, in less than ½ hour.
We were off the ship at the end of the cruise, with our luggage and in
to a cab in less than 15 minutes after the ‘first call’ for disembarkation
came. We love the new process in Miami that instead of looking for
our luggage in a sea of thousands of bags, there was a conveyor belt system,
and we had our 4 bags in minutes.
Our itinerary was just what we were looking for relaxing, plenty
of sunshine (when you live in Michigan and have long, cold, snowy winters
this is a special commodity), time for beach activities, some touring
and some shopping. This cruise offered the best in all categories.
We spent one day at sea out of Miami, very relaxing, and gave us time to
get to know the ship. There were stops in Cozumel (we chose the beach
and some shopping), Grand Cayman (the beach and some shopping), and then
Ocho Rios in Jamaica. We took a short tour of part of the island
and ended up at a private resort that allowed cruise passengers to use
their beach facilities. This arrangement was perfect for us as we’ve been
to this port of call numerous times, and had seen most of the ship featured
attractions.
After the exhausting schedule of sunning, shopping and touring, we
had a relaxing day at sea before we arrived in Aruba and the next day,
Curacao. We chose some touring and beach time in Aruba, and shopping
and walking the city streets in Curacao both enjoyable activities.
For anyone who loves beaches I believe some of the finest are found
on Grand Cayman and Aruba.
We had two wonderful days at sea back to Miami … and entering the
real world (no chocolates on our pillows at night, having to make our own
beds and do our own cooking). But what a lovely way to end a cruise
being able to pick and chose between many onboard activities, and
do the awful chore of packing very leisurely.
The officers, staff and crew were friendly, customer-service oriented,
and went out of their way to make our cruise a pleasurable experience.
We have found that with each RCCL cruise that the food is showing much
improvement, so it’s obvious they taken past comments about ‘average’ food
to heart, and are doing something about it. Within a day or two of
being on board, we had a good feeling as we walked about the ship, called
by name by most everyone on the staff we had encountered. For a 10-night
cruise, the entertainment was great; two nice headliners: the Diamonds
and John Davidson (along with our favorite shows that feature the Royal
Caribbean singers and dancers. Where do the find all that talent
and energy??) Our waiter and headwaiter were top notch, and
we wanted to bring our cabin stewardess home with us. Having a good
waiter and headwaiter always made our dinner an event to look forward to.
In conclusion, I believe what made this cruise a great one, and one
that makes us want to ‘get out there!’ again, is that RCCL had the concept
of excellent customer service, attentiveness and courtesy prevalent throughout
our cruise experience. They certainly understand that their best
asset is the respect and loyalty of their passengers and treated
everyone accordingly. I believe their goal is to assure a vacation
on their ship(s) is ‘like no other on earth’ and for us, the goal
was exceeded. That is why we are now booked on the Brilliance of the Seas
for their September 21, 2003 sailing to the Greek Isles. We’ve been
to the W. Mediterranean twice on the RCCL’s Legend of the Seas, so we’re
especially looking forward to really seeing that part of the world again
through all that glass. What class! Please don’t
hesitate to contact me if you have any specific questions: libby_child@yahoo.com
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