Live Report Brilliance of the Seas through the eyes of Art & Ellie

Formal night on our cruise was Day 3 (as they count them) Day 1 is the day you board in Tampa. Day 2 was Key West. Day 3 is a Sea Day and also the formal night. Day 4 is Cozumel. Day 5 is another Sea Day and Day 6 is when you disembark back in Tampa.

 

"Behind the scenes" is a paid on board excursion. It's not cheap, but we had an OBC to use, so for me it was worth it. There were only 8 people on the tour and they have a 5 person minimum or they will cancel the tour. They did a very good job. Whether you can justify the price is another matter.

Royal markets your trip as a 5 day voyage. They don't count the last day

The last night's dinner and show were both wonderful. I had the lamb shank at the recommendation of our waiter Casandra and the farewell show demonstrated how much talent they have in their entertainment department. I also want to give a special shout out to Otto Luck, who helped us that very first day in the Concierge Lounge and never failed to say hello whenever he saw us throughout the cruise. In fact nearly all the service we received was top notch.

Final grades:

Embarkation - A+

Grand Suite - A+

Service - A

Entertainment - A

Excursions - A for Key West & Behind the Scenes, Cozumel (rain out)

Food - B+

Spa - B

Shops, Casino, Internet, Elevators - C

Would we take another RCCL cruise? Absolutely for the Radiance Class ships.

Thanks so much for passing on information. Did they serve lobster on formal night?

Menu order was:

mojo, pimento, saffron(formal), jasmine (-lobster), pomodoro

So - formal night was beef tenderloin

Menu order was:

mojo, pimento, saffron(formal), jasmine (-lobster), pomodoro

 

So - formal night was beef tenderloin

Interesting. Very unusual for formal night to be on night 3 instead of night 2.

Interesting. Very unusual for formal night to be on night 3 instead of night 2.

Day 3 was the first sea day. Used to be a lot of spa business on sea days

Menu order was:

mojo, pimento, saffron(formal), jasmine (-lobster), pomodoro

 

So - formal night was beef tenderloin

Thanks so much for menu order. Knowing this much helps tremendously. I know the menu order may be different for ours next week but this helps plan dinner for the grandkids :D

Thanks for all of this. Helping to get me even more psyched for my cruise on the Brilliance in just two weeks.

I took the Behind the Scenes tour on the Voyager last winter. They charged $150 for it, and I enjoyed it as they take you places you don't normally go--on my tour this included the bridge, kitchen, backstage, laundry, trash and recycling, the control room and the crew bar. It was worth it once, but I doubt I will go again, even on a different ship. I can't imagine that the ships are all that different, or at least $150 different! An interesting morning for the curious.

Just a couple hours of the last night on the Cruise ship left so we went to the Casino to do our FREE Spins. The Casino worker said the Free Spin machine hasn't paid out more than a free t-shirt since she had been there in four years. She said that right after I hit it for $ 500.00.

Thanks for your review.

I just posted the first of my photos from the ship and from behind the scenes:https://www.flickr.com/photos/30213465@N05/sets/72157661559142969

More to follow...

Thanks for the photos, looking forward to more.

Here is my second posting of photos (from the shows):https://www.flickr.com/photos/30213465@N05/sets/72157662132050171

Photo posting #3 - Sunrise over the Brilliance:https://www.flickr.com/photos/30213465@N05/sets/72157662210856076

I just posted the first of my photos from the ship and from behind the scenes:https://www.flickr.com/photos/30213465@N05/sets/72157661559142969

 

More to follow...

Love the floor plan! They're complete. No mysterious white areas around the cabins. (Though only a few passenger cabins are shown on deck 3. The others are all crew quarters.)

I have moved the photos to a separate thread: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=48489214#post48489214

Do you have copies of the Cruise Compasses? Could you

scan them?

Carol

Cruise Compasses as requested!! Day 1

IMG_20151216_0001.pdf

IMG_20151216_0002.pdf

IMG_20151216_0003.pdf

IMG_20151216_0004.pdf

Day 2

IMG_20151216_0005.pdf

IMG_20151216_0006.pdf

IMG_20151216_0007.pdf

IMG_20151216_0008.pdf

Day 3

IMG_20151216_0009.pdf

IMG_20151216_0010.pdf

IMG_20151216_0011.pdf

IMG_20151216_0012.pdf

Day 4

IMG_20151216_0013.pdf

IMG_20151216_0015.pdf

IMG_20151216_0016.pdf

IMG_20151216_0014.pdf

day 5

IMG_20151216_0017.pdf

IMG_20151216_0018.pdf

IMG_20151216_0019.pdf

IMG_20151216_0020.pdf

Thanks for posting the dailies!

Thanks for all of this. Helping to get me even more psyched for my cruise on the Brilliance in just two weeks.

 

I took the Behind the Scenes tour on the Voyager last winter. They charged $150 for it, and I enjoyed it as they take you places you don't normally go--on my tour this included the bridge, kitchen, backstage, laundry, trash and recycling, the control room and the crew bar. It was worth it once, but I doubt I will go again, even on a different ship. I can't imagine that the ships are all that different, or at least $150 different! An interesting morning for the curious.

We did the Behind the Scenes tour on Navigator recently and it was a great 'excursion' -- and it could be seen as pricey. We had done just a Galley Tour on Her Majesty of the Seas in the past. So seeing a small ship and one aspect of her working areas gave me something of comparison. Both were interesting. I am sure I would not do them again -- but we do smile every time we refer to I95 in our weekly travels, since that is the main highway through the 'crew quarters' -- it just reminds us of being onboard.

THANK YOU……….REALLY APPRECIATE.

Carol