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Attempted nearly live report from Brilliance OTS westbound TA, November 2017


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This is an attempt at reporting live from our TA cruise on Brilliance, subject to the availability of at least some internet connectivity. During the early part of our voyage I will avail myself of land based mobile data roaming while in port, except of course during the sea day between Malaga and Funchal, when I will be silent. After Funchal I will be using ship's wifi for the remainder of the journey, FWIW.

If anyone has questions related to the ship and its services, please do not hesitate to ask. I will do my best to answer as accurately as possible, and by all means, other cruisers are more than welcome to chime in if they find inaccuracies in my reporting.

At present I'm suffering from a case of gout in my feet and legs, so my mobility is limited when it comes to shore excursions. DW however, will in some locations be doing some sightseeing and perhaps also shopping, so I'll try to report on that.

 

Even at the best of times I'm a very light drinker, but given my present gout I'm completely dry. But I'm sure that others will offer their comments and advice on bar service and similar issues.

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DAY -1: 8 NOV 2017: TRAVEL TO BARCELONA

We flew to Barcelona with Norwegian, a low cost European airline that has gradually surfaced on the market over the past 15 years. They now provide services to many European cities as well as to Thailand and the United States; in few months' time they will also begin service from their new hub in Buenos Aires.

Having read in some posts on CC, as well as seen in a few newspaper reports, we knew that there would be a general strike called in Barcelona on this date. Not exactly an auspicious day to commence our travel on, so we were a bit nervous that we might not make it to Barcelona in time for the cruise. I knew that our aircraft would begin the day from Barcelona, so I checked my iPhone Flightradar app to see whether it had departed in the morning and yes, it had left on time, which brought us some relief and soothed our nerves. Apparently aviation was not being affected by the strike, with air traffic control and other airport services, like baggage handling, working normally. Our flight arrived five minutes early into Barcelona, and everything appeared like on a normal day, with lots of taxis ready to bring us to our hotel. No traffic jams. Later we found out that the strike had mainly impacted rail traffic and a few of the vehicular arteries, but none of the routes that our driver had used between the airport and our hotel.

This was our fifth time in Barcelona; all previous visits had been for similar purposes: starting cruises. In fact, Barcelona is by far the most commonly used cruise port as far as we are concerned. As we had checked out most of the tourist attractions at least twice before, including the Sagrada Familia cathedral and the hop-on hop-off sightseeing tours, we decided to just take a brief walk in the neighborhood of our hotel. Which was an Ibis hotel, not very touristy, but with decent rates; most of the other guests were young business professionals in the early stages of their careers. This was our third stay at this hotel; since our previous time six months ago the neighborhood hade undergone some urban redevelopment, with a number of streets being pedestrianized; not popular among the taxi drivers, but instead with parents and kids happy because of several newly built playgrounds in the area.

We decided to call it a day, and to retire early, to ensure that we would be well rested on our first cruise day.

 

As far as internet connectivity was concerned, we used Vodaphone Spain on the basis of free roaming, which is now available on an EU-wide basis for European-based subscribers. Download 7.90 Mbps, Upload 1.97 Mbps, Ping 157 ms.

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DAY 1: 9 NOV 2016: SAILAWAY FROM BARCELONA

I woke up at 2 am, and checked the MarineTraffic app on my iPad, and sure enough, I found Brilliance some 60 nautical miles away, heading to Barcelona. Fell asleep again, and woke up at around 6 am, and the ship had been moored at the dock!

DW and I went down for breakfast, after which we did some last minute packing and attached the baggage tags to our luggage. Normally we would have left the hotel around ten, but since we had noted a CC post informing that there would be a two and a half hour deep cleaning exercise during which no passengers would be allowed on board, we decided to hold off our departure from the hotel until around twelve. In retrospect that was a mistake, which we realized after boarding, when we found the Windjammer full of people, even the overflow area in Ritas cantina!

Anyhow, after having checked us out of the hotel, the desk staff called for a taxi, which showed up exactly one minute later! No difficulty in finding transport to the pier. The drive took around twenty minutes, somewhat longer than if we had left the hotel at ten, because of the heavier midday traffic.

We arrived at the pier, and were provided with health forms, as is usual at this point. A quick and efficient security check, and we soon found ourselves in the checkin line, which was a bit longer than usual due to our later than normal arrival at the pier. A few minutes before one o'clock we embarked onto the ship. And shortly thereafter we found ourselves at the Windjammer, desperately searching for a vacant table. Eventually we noticed a family about to leave, and we made our way towards their location. During our meal we noted that cabin occupancy would be delayed beyond the usual one o'clock hour, most likely due to the deep cleaning exercise. After finishing lunch, we checked that our MTD reservations had been received, which was the case. At this point the staterooms were made available, and we went to our OV cabin on Deck 3, starboard.

This was our 23rd cruise, all except one being with RCI. Our loyalty had paid off in terms of C&A D+ membership. For me it was my TA #10, but only the second one as a cruise. The other eight had been on regular passenger liners during my childhood and adolescence, in the period from 1946 through 1963.

Muster drill took place at 4.15 pm, and DW and I were lucky enough to be assigned to the Chops Grille restaurant; keeping in mind my gout, that was excellent, considering that we could remain seated during the entire exercise. Departure was a few minutes beyond the 5 pm target, apparently because some last minute spare parts had to be loaded. After muster our bags had been delivered to our stateroom, somewhat later than usual, in light of our later than normal checkin.

We had our dinner at 5:30 pm, shortly after the ship had pulled out of Barcelona harbor. We were introduced to our meal staff, from India and Indonesia.

At 6:45 pm DW attended the Royal Shops handbag sale. She found some nice bargains.

Reading the Cruise Compass, I noted that timing of formal nights was announced for all three events: Days 4, 8 & 12. Haven’t seen that on any previous cruise.

Similar to what was the case on our 2015 Allure TA crossing, a daily Catholic will be held each morning.

Finally, CD Jerome, assisted by AM Flavio, at 7:45 pm presented Welcome Aboard Showtime, featuring Carlo Truzzi and Simona, showing their mastery of hand shadowgraphy. They did a really good show. In addition, the ship’s orchestra as well as the RC Singers and Dancers were introduced.

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aviator1945,

Sorry to hear about your gout acting up!

If your health allows it, you may wish to go to the infirmary and ask for Allopurinol-to reduce instances of episode flair-ups, and methylprednisolone-to treat your current flair-up. The latter can ease the pain and swelling within hours! Good Luck!!

Reading your trip report with interest as we're booked on the westbound TA September 1, 2018.

Happy Cruising,

tnt10

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I shall be following along on this cruise-that-I-had-to-cancel.

 

😊

 

Sorry to hear that you had to cancel. DW and I had a similar experience on a B2B with Jewel, when DW broke her ankle in a stairway during the first half of our journey. Fortunately, insurance took care of the costs.

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aviator1945,

Sorry to hear about your gout acting up!

If your health allows it, you may wish to go to the infirmary and ask for Allopurinol-to reduce instances of episode flair-ups, and methylprednisolone-to treat your current flair-up. The latter can ease the pain and swelling within hours! Good Luck!!

tnt10

 

Thanks for your advice. My doctor gave me just those two medicines before starting our trip, but the gout is still painful if I don't watch my diet. In particular alcohol, sweets and bread tend to worsen the situation.

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DAY 2: FRIDAY 10 NOVEMBER: CARTAGENA, SPAIN

We arrived in Cartagena during mid-morning. As we had recently been here on our Vision OTS repo cruise (from Barcelona to Amsterdam) earlier this year, we decided to take it easy and remain onboard.

It was a rather cold day, so quite a few guests decided to do as we did, to stay onboard the ship. The cruise staff put on a number of activities, like various forms of trivia, a ring toss tournament, a darts tournament and a line dance class, for example.

The ship left Cartagena at around 6 pm.

 

As far as evening activities were concerned, the dinner dress suggestion was "Casual". After dinner DW and I watched a show entitled "Hector is Magic", featuring a magician.

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DAY 3: SATURDAY 11 NOVEMBER: MALAGA, SPAIN

This was our last encounter with Spain for this cruise. It was our second time in Malaga, the first having been a couple of years ago on our Allure OTS TA.

One of the most famous legacies in the Malaga area is the Alhambra Palace in Granada. As we had been there previously, we decided to remain in the Costa del Sol area, with its beaches, many gardens and easy-going lifestyle.

We weren't the only cruise ship in Malaga. The Costa Magica had arrived before us, and just minutes after our docking Cunard's Queen Elizabeth showed up. The latter name has a special place in my heart, more precisely the ship built just before WWII. As a teenager I travelled on her in 1963 from New York to Southampton via Cherbourg. I especially recall when we were in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean on a Sunday morning during the religious service, when we met QE's sister ship Queen Mary, travelling in the other direction, at a distance of only a mile away. Our captain kept his eyes closely focused on her until we had passed. BTW, Queen Mary has been moored in Long Beach for quite a few years now; sadly, the original Queen Elizabeth was destroyed in a fire while docked in Hong Kong.

The cruise ship docks are located a couple of miles from the center of Malaga, but there are bus connections available for €5, round trip. Once back onboard, we checked our seapass account using the interactive TV system, which is available on Radiance Class (and larger) ships. The dinner dress suggestion was again "Casual".

 

Main entertainment for the evening was a show put on by the ship's singers, dancers and orchestra entitled "Now and Forever", based on shows like The Producers, Mama Mia and others.

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DAY 4: SUNDAY 12 NOVEMBER: SEADAY BETWEEN MALAGA AND MADEIRA

So far, the weather has cooperated well with our cruise. Virtually no motion in the ocean, and no precipitation that I have been able to notice. This post is being sent by 3G from Madeira, as I'm not in the mood to spend money on ship's wifi, when 3G is so readily within a few hours, cheapskate as I am.

Today was Meet & Mingle day, with AM Flavio hosting and a number of senior officers in attendance, among them the Hotel Director, the CD and the Guest Services manager. An almost endless series of prizes were awarded in the lottery. Apart from our Allure TA, haven't noted such good attendance at any M&M before.

This morning it was easy to spot the fact that today was a sea day; just have a look at the near-empty WJ at 7 am. Dinner dress suggestion was formal, which was clearly defined as suits and ties or tuxedos for men, and cocktail dresses for women. But in our part of the MTD area around 6 pm, we didn't note even one tux; on the other hand, neither did we see any men with jeans or t-shirts. Seems that suit and tie were the order of the evening. Captain's Toast, along with portraits being taken of Captain Stig and cruise guests, were offered, as is customary.

Evening entertainment in the theater was offered by Fourever, a Spanish vocal group that were really good.

 

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Following! We will be on the Brilliance TA next September 1. However, we shall be sailing from Amsterdam and doing a tour of Ireland for the first week of the cruise. I will be interested int he ship in general. We have sailed the Jewel several times, but never the Brilliance. Any pictures coming up?

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