Brilliance 7/2-7/14 Venice Review

[smr63]

Hi Andrew. Enjoying your review. We sail on the Brilliance on August 19th..... 20 days to go!! looking forward to Venice and Rome. Cant wait to read the next bit of your review.:)

[apk1389]

ok all I am running downstairs to go get more compasses I have been back and fourth trying to get paper work in for semesters start this was definetly too last minute

[apk1389]

Day 3

Florence the second time to the lovely port of Livorno, Italy. Not Livorno is a very industrial port. Last time on the cruise we went to Pisa and the Beach was a very nice tour. This time around we choose to do panaromic Florence. Ship arrives at 7:00am and everyone needed to be onboard by 6:30pm with another beautiful sunny day at about 89 degrees. The tour we took was very slow paced. We had only done this one to test my mobility on the scooter. There was limited time in Florence and we so wish we had more time. We really walked as fast as we could in the hour and a half we had to see as many of the sights we could. Really not the way to see it. Florence was enjoyable although it was very hot. Will post some pictures not sure of all of the names of the places did not right them down and was on pain killers. Highlights on board pre-dinner show at 7:30 for late seating and 9:15 seating for early seating. The show was big time swing. We have seen it already and chose to skip it so no real opinions on it sorry. Highlights of the evening- Name that classic rock tune. Our group took second. We had a wonderful setup at our table my parents. My self 19 and my brother 16, and was matched up with another family from Australia with two parents daughter 18, brother 16, and a younger daughter 13. Our family bonded well and did lots of the trivia together, my dad was a genius at the name that tune, he said towards the end of the cruise he would have his services for hire for any team, just one beer per song lol. Majority Rules Game show at 10:30pm not attended very well. Then they had sing along in the schooner bar. Matt the cruise director did most of the singing and song many songs no one knew. Very upsetting. While talking about the schooner bar the piano player was Vic Cooper. He was ok wish he engaged the crowd a little more.

To add the this review I will talk about my displeasure of food available late night. All the other radiance class ships had the solarium café opened for late night between the hours of 1am and 5am. The Brilliance did not. Only thing opened after dinner was the Seaview café. It was open from 5pm to 1am. So after 1am there was nothing truly upsetting for a late night snack as I was out with the friends I met in the club . Always used as a nice social event. A point to add Seaview Café is different menu because the Brilliance is Uk owned(something like that). They only had create your own pasta and pizza, and selected Panini’s . I enjoyed the Seaview on the other ships. But besides that the food was all good so far and continued that way on the ship. RCCL fact of the day was in 1997 they changed from Royal Caribbean Cruise Line to Royal Caribbean International. Pictures to follow

[apk1389]

[apk1389]

[apk1389]

[apk1389]

and dinner was casual forgot

[CanuckCruizer]

apk - Enjoying your review - great pics!! Wondering what hotel you stayed at in Barcelona - you never said? I am researching all the hotels for our stay next year and I need all the info I can get!:)

 

Thanks,

 

Canuck

[apk1389]

apk - Enjoying your review - great pics!! Wondering what hotel you stayed at in Barcelona - you never said? I am researching all the hotels for our stay next year and I need all the info I can get!:)

 

Thanks,

 

Canuck

 

no hotel.. we always fly in day of the cruise and leave right away after the cruise.. i have all the pictures ready to use here.. just need to finish the review hoping after physical therapy today to post more

[CanuckCruizer]

Thanks, Andrew - so...you must be British if you fly in the day of (I thought you were British but it doesn't say where you are from.)

 

Canuck

[apk1389]

nope american im from new jersey.. we got a a red eye and woke up in barcelona

[critterchick]

Great information! A question for you: your balcony had a full table and tablecloth in your breakfast shot - were you in a full suite? I've never seen that even in a full suite, very nice touch. Maybe it's the "other" ship owner...

[CanuckCruizer]

nope american im from new jersey.. we got a a red eye and woke up in barcelona

 

Oh - so you like to live life on the edge...lol. We will get a red eye from Vancouver but have never been to Barcelona so we will go three days ahead of the cruise.

 

Critterchick - I think I read Andrew was in GS1060 (or else I am losing my mind....)

 

Canuck

[apk1389]

Great information! A question for you: your balcony had a full table and tablecloth in your breakfast shot - were you in a full suite? I've never seen that even in a full suite, very nice touch. Maybe it's the "other" ship owner...

 

we had GS 1060.. we just ordered room service and the guy came up and set up the whole thing for us it was really nice

[apk1389]

Oh - so you like to live life on the edge...lol. We will get a red eye from Vancouver but have never been to Barcelona so we will go three days ahead of the cruise.

 

Critterchick - I think I read Andrew was in GS1060 (or else I am losing my mind....)

 

Canuck

 

like to live it based on when dad says where going.. if you have never been to barcelona I would thin two days would be nice to get to see it all .. trying to finish room before i leave for pt

[apk1389]

Again to continue to emphasize the wonderful weather we had on this cruise with a 87 degree day and sun everywhere. We had already been to Rome on our last time on the Brilliance so we decided to do something a little easier on me and we did a wine tasting and lake Bracciano. The winery was very nice as my parents enjoyed the wine. I on the other hand enjoyed the food- fresh breads, cheeses, and meats yumm. We then after a hour and a half made our way to lake bracciano. On the way there we stopped from a distance to take photos of the castle Katie Holmes and Tom cruise got married at. Winding our way along the lake we could see a large medieval town. This was our stop and it really was quite lovely. Unfortunately for the amount of time we had there and the fact it was uphill I did not get to see all of it. Instead we had some lovely gelato probably the best I had all the cruise. Sat down by the water for a little bit. The lake was kept in pristine condition. They do not allow any motor boats out onto the water. Then headed back to the ship. I know I don’t have a lot to say about the excursions, we choose a simple more relaxed method to Europe this time and it was nice.

On board this evening was again just a plain casual night. You had to be back on board at 700pm. Though ill be honest there where buses which were cominging at like 7:30 ish. There were 8 cruises ships and ferries in this day and caused the roads to be heavily backed up. The crew knew this was a long day and only scheduled one show which I did not attend but the name was Mario D’Andrea a international entertainer. We saw him before nothing more than a singer and a guitar there were some nice shows coming up though we enjoyed later on in the cruise. They did again have name that tune Rolling Stones, I think my dad got them all right this was at 8:30. Considered moderately busy was who wants to be a Royal Caribbean ire, the crowd had a lot of fun. Followed by Karaoke right after which was like a ghost town. Overall a light night on the entertainment.

To add to the review I will talk about those who are Diamon Plus and or in a suite. Ivan Martinez was the concierge on board. Ivan is one of the newer and younger concierge I have seen onboard. Ivan was very personable and always I mean always willing ling to do try to accomplish what you asked of him. I really had no complaints of him personally fantastic job. Although not his fault he was not respected by the other departments. He would have to constantly call to get appointments from specialty dinning and spa just as some of the examples. They did not make it easy on him but he did his best. The bar man in the concierge lounge was Norman. What a wonderful guy and he will talk sports with you for all of you who are missing your ESPN back at home. Lets see where I could rattle off some of the extra suite things. Pool lounge chairs- Well not by the pool at all but located on deck 11. IF you go up to deck 12 all the way to the front of the ship past the gym there are chairs down there and the whole section was reserved for suite guests. Although not enforced which we complained about it was a nice quiet area. They did have special gold colored towels for suite guests. In the windjammer they had a special suite only section which was located starboard side. It was exactly parallel to the actual entrance. In the theater in the middle section of seats row 4 was served for suite guests. They also gave out priority tender tickets, but no one seemed to check on that so no real advantage. I cant at this moment think of anymore suite amenities like this there may be more. Pictures to follow

[apk1389]

[apk1389]

[apk1389]

[tuffy0317]

 

Great pictures! We loved Florence too. For your records (and others), the top church is the Basilica di Santa Croce and the bottom one is the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore duomo (cathedral).

[apk1389]

ok all I have had a real tough week with trying to get things squared away before the semester stars. I think I have everything settle and instead of video games I am going to sit here and write lets see how much we can get done

[apk1389]

Day 5

We are in Naples Italy one of the ports that again is very industrial on this cruise and the drivers are extremely aggressive walk at your own Risk. Today our family separated and went off and did our own things. Last time we were in Naples( we only do RCCL tours for safety) we took the hydrofoil over to Capri, then took it to Sorrento, and then went over by Pompeii I highly recommend this you get to see a lot. This time though we used this as a day of rest for my knee. My brother and dad did Sorrento and Beach they enjoyed it had a wonderful lunch one of the best they had on the cruise at the resort they were taken to. Me and my mom did the wonderful Sorrento and PIZZA making. Really only for the food aspect I love to eat. It is about a hour and a half bus ride TD (traffic dependent) to get there. We had a hour and a half to shop around Sorrento. My favorite stop to shop it was wonderful both times we have been there. A short ten minute walk and we got to the pizzeria. A wonderful restaurant that I would highly recommend. Now only thing I didn’t like, but not like I could it was really toss the pizza or work it. The nice Italian man put the extremely fresh pizza dough onto metal sheets. We spread it out, put some sauce, then fresh mozzarella, and basil, the four major ingredients in a margherita pizza. Pizza tasted lovely. The funny thing is that we had to mark our pizza somehow so we all made shapes with the basil. Had a wonderful day. I am going to try to keep this short so you guys can get everything before I get busy again. The weather again cooperated and was 84 degrees with sun sun sun. Tonights dinner was again a casual dinner. There was two shows with second seatings at 7:30 and first seatings at 9:15. The show was Izzy, I think she was a opera singer, I passed never thought twice not my thing. Highlights of the night were 50 and 60’s name that tune, I think my dad one that one too. Then at 11:15 they had a 50 and 60’s dance party in the colony club. Again much of a sleeping event. This cruise especially through this point night life was dead. A lot of touring and no one staying out late it did pick up but generally pretty slow.

[apk1389]

[apk1389]

[apk1389]