Live Aboard the Brilliance (Panama Canal) 2/25 - 3/7/05

[coolshop]

Hello

 

We're live aboard the Brilliance and I thought I would just post to say we are having a GREAT time. Have been on the Explorer before (2x) and am enjoying the Brilliance as well or more.

 

Any questions, holler!

[Driftwoodgal]

Coolshop,

 

We sailed the Brilliance in January 05 for the 11 night cruise. We found the food, steward service, wait staff and ship all to be wonderful. We liked this ship so much that we booked her for 2006 while on board. The only complaint that I had was that the shows for the 2nd seating started way to late. Our show on some nights started at 10:45, are the shows on the Panama route the same? On the Splendour through, the Panama Canal, late seating shows were at 7:15.

 

Have you tried chops? It is well worth the extra money IMHO.

[paddy Anne]

Hey Coolshop,

Glad to hear it's so good as I will be getting on as you get off Monday. Anything I really need to know? Can't wait.

Paddy Anne

[Driftwoodgal]

Paddy Anne,

 

If Coolshop doesn't post the dinner times, I would love for you to let me know when you get back from your cruise. At the present time we have late seating, but if all the show are going to be at 10.:45 we might want to rethink the dinner time.

 

Thanks,

[paddy Anne]

I always thought if you had late dinner then you could go to the show before dinner around 7. I think the late seating is 8:30.

 

Paddy Anne

[GranysT]

HI, We're taking this cruise in April of 2006,so please post everything you see and do.All information regarding the ship,the service,and especially the ports.Can't wait to hear all about it.:D

[AlbertaGirl]

Hey GranysT! We just got off of Brilliance last Friday - what a great ship! We had such a great time - and it truly is a beautiful ship!

 

If you go to the Schooner Bar tell Patrick (short dark haired bartender from England) that Diggler and the crew say Hi!! And ask him to make you an Empire Strikes Back:D

 

 

Dawn

[medsec1121]

What excursions have you done? Where was the best view for going through the canal/locks?

Any info will be welcome....we're sailing on April 8!!

[coolshop]

Hello

 

We are with a group and Patrick from the Schooner bar was a big help with our 'bar crawl' earlier in the week!

 

Main dinner seating is at 5:30 and Second seating is at 8:00 PM. We are main seating, and were surprised that it was 5:30, but it has not been a problem for us.

 

I'd have to look back through the Cruise Compasses as I didn't pay much attention to the second seating show times, but in looking at the Compasses, most of the shows for second seating are at 7:00. One was at 10:45, (Day 7), and one was at 10:30, which was the day when the show for both seatings was at the same time.

 

We have our 2 children with us so we have not had the chance to try Chops, and probably will not. My husband did attend a dinner with friends at Portofino and said it was very good.

 

Our preference is not to 'overdo' it with excursions. So far, our activities were:

 

1) Aruba -- jeep tour of island -- great fun!! We really enjoyed this excursion.

 

2) Panama Canal - we did not book an excursion. We are in an aft balcony cabin and we did go to the top deck around 6:30 AM as the captain had said we would enter the locks at 7:00 AM. It was a very busy day at the canal so there was a slight delay, and it was somewhat crowded on the decks (especially up at the heliport and up front), so we just decided to sit on our own aft balcony to view things. This worked out just fine for us, we had a bird's eye view of everything. We really didn't think it was that big of a deal not to see it 'frontwards' because you end up seeing everything anyway. I think it took about an hour to get through the locks themselves. The boat then anchors in the lake all day and excursions were tendered, and then picked up again at Cristobal pier once we exited out through the locks late afternoon.

 

3) Costa Rica - we did not book an excursion. Just walked over to the straw market at the pier, which was a great place to buy inexpensive trinkets for the kids.

 

4) Grand Cayman - traveling there tonight. We were there last year and did the Personalized Stingray City tour, so this year we are just going to 7 Mile Beach and shopping

 

 

We've enjoyed the service on this boat -- we have found the staff to be extremely responsive and feel that they really go the extra mile.

 

It also feels a little more 'personal'. Even when the pool is crowded, we've found uncrowded, quiet areas for sunbathing in the upper front decks (in front of the fitness center) and at the kid's pool. Of course, this was even more so on the days when we did not do an excursion. There are *very* few kids on this cruise. This is definitely an older crowd.

 

I'll wait to comment on the food until the end of the cruise. Up until now, I've thought the dinner menus were a bit boring, but tonight was the second formal night with lobster, so I was happier.

 

Only had the chance to eat in Seaview Cafe 1 time so far, and I was a bit rushed at the time so really can't comment on it.

 

Cruise Director is Dan Dan the Party Man (don't remember his last name) and he is a lot of fun. I think he said this is his first week on this ship.

 

Went to the Chocolate Buffet which was nice, but we had to wait in line about 1/2 hour before we actually made it up to the buffet.

 

On the Panama Canal day, they have a special souvenier shop setup on pool deck. It's very crowded in the morning, and I believe it's open until about 12:30 PM. We went close to that time. There were some good prices Panama Canal on t-shirts, got some for $6.50 each.

 

Room service has been reliable and on time. Our room attendant has been fantastic. Our dinner wait staff has been very good.

 

Have a Cyber Cabin connection which has been relatively reliable.

 

Entertainment has been very good -- 2 great comedians (Blair Shannon was one, don't remember the other), a good magician/illusionist, and a RCL dancing/singing show, a 'Burt Bacharach' themed show, and John Davidson (Hollywood Squares) tonight.

 

More later!

 

That's it for now!

[GranysT]

Thanks Dawn,this will be my first time on a Radiance class ship,but I've heard such good things about them. Glad to hear another good review also. Please keep us informed coolshop.

[Pumbaamd]

Keep up the postings. Glad you are having a fun time. We were on the Brilliance in January for the Ultimate Southern Caribbean and had a great time. Can't say enough good things about the staff. We booked the Panama trip for next January and appreciate any tips you can give. Thanks!

[Epp]

Coolshop, thanks for the review and information. We will be taking our first cruise in just two weeks and it will be on the Brilliance to Panama. We can't wait. Any other bits of information and advice for first timers would be great.

[Driftwoodgal]

Coolshop,

 

Thanks for your information on the dinner seating. When we did the partial transit on the Splendour the shows for the later dinner seating had the shows before dinner. It was a surprise when we were on the Brilliance in January, 11 night Ultimate Cruise, that the shows were after dinner at 10:45. This was even on days that we had back to back, to back port days. I don't consider my self a party pooper.... but up early and up late, and then up early again told me that I had to miss something. The something wasn't going to be the ports. I felt so sorry for some of the shows because people got tired and left half way through. We had an aft cabin on our cruise and rebooked the same cabin 8672. I agree with you that you don't have to be upfront on the hilopad to see the locks. We have already done a partial transit and stayed on the ship.... I am still up in the air about getting off in Gatun lake and doing a land tour. I really haven't read anything posted on the CC Boards that makes me want to jump off the ship. What aft cabin do you have? If you like the Brilliance the 11 night through the islands is a wonderful cruise. It is busy busy.... but so beautiful. Our cruise was wonderful, of course I had a few complaints...... but not enough for me to post about them.

 

Thanks for your information.

 

Remember you are coming back to the real world...... your bed won't be turned down for you and there isn't 24 hour room service.

[JSR]

HI Coolshop--Thanks for posting.

 

Are they doing the horse race?

What night is quest?

[coolshop]

Hello

 

Yes, there was a horse race.

 

Today is our Day 9 and I think the Quest was like 2 or 3 nights ago.

 

We are in 9656 (corner aft suite - I think called Family Suite). It is very spacious and we are really enjoying the room.

 

One thing I can mention is that when the captain really cranked up the engines (24 knots+) we had a lot of engine noise and vibration in our room.

[gailc]

When we were on the Brilliance on 11/14/03, we also had John Davidson. We really enjoyed his show. We did the 10 day cruise. The 1st time we did a 10 day partial Panama Canal cruise (Sun Princess in 2001) we went on deck for part of the transit. It was so hot we watched the rest of it on our balcony. We did not do any tours. On the Brilliance, we stayed on our balcony both ways thru the Canal. We also did not do a tour.

 

We are going on the Brilliance again on 3/27/06, but this time we're doing the 11 day one. The extra day includes Curacao which we like to go to. The partial Canal cruise is one of our favorites.

 

We're going on the Radiance 2 weeks from Sun., & I can't wait to get back on that class of ship. We also like the Voyager class ships.

 

coolshop - Thanks for posting from the ship!

 

Gail

[snoe]

GailC~

 

We have also booked the 3/27/06 Panama Canal Cruise. We consist of 3 couples, two from Texas & one from California. I know it's kind of early, but do you know if a roll call has been started for this cruise.

 

It's our first on the BOS and our first Panama Canal adventure. We would like to take advantage of all the secrets and advice you have to share

 

Stevie

[snoe]

Excuse my manners. I forgot to tell Coolshop thanks for the great updates.

 

Stevie

[mringenoldus]

Coolshop

My relatives are going through the canal in April on the Serenade. They have the last cabin on the ship (but not aft facing) Will they have a good view?

 

My uncle plans to play golf in Aruba but other than that they haven't planned any excursions. They are an older couple and think they will feel safer booking excursions through the ship. Any suggestions wou may have for me will be much appreciated!!

[Rickster]

Coolshop, how has the weather been?

 

My neighbor is on your cruise right now. If you're up early, she'll be walking ninety miles per hour around the upper deck. She has dark short hair and her name is Chris. She also talks ninety miles per hour. If you see her tell her Rick shoveled the foot of snow off her driveway and sidewalk that we received last Monday.

 

Enjoy the rest of your cruise.

 

Rick.

[JSR]

Thanks coolshop--One more question where is the Hollywood Odyssey where the M&M is.

Thanks again Jean

[coolshop]

Hello

 

The weather has been PERFECT. Sunny skies and very warm every day -- HOT in Panama and Costa Rica.

 

I did not attend the Meet & Mingle, so I do not know where it was.

 

Re: the last non-aft cabin for the canal, I would say they would have a good view, but the advantage of the aft cabin was that you could view the panaroma of what was happening on both sides of the ship. On the last non-aft cabin, I assume their view will be limited to what is happening on one side of the boat. There are locomotives pulling the ship from both sides, which is neat to watch. Also, it is nice to be able to see other ships that may be progressing through the other lane.

 

Note: that there are two 'lanes' in the canal. I don't think it always works this way (the narrarator explained this but I didn't catch it all), but our ship entered and exited the locks on the same lane (side).

 

Also, there is an onboard narrarator that plays over the loudspeakers while going through the locks. He was extremely informative. We could hear him from our deck on the way in, but for some reason did not hear him well on the way out. However, he talked much less on the way out, only making an occaisional comment.

 

Others in our group have commented on their excursions -- some sort of sloth/monkey tour was enjoyed, however some folks did not enjoy their tours in Panama. I am not sure of what ones they went on, but they said that they toured through some parts of Panama that were very poor and run down.

 

Others did a rum boat/snorkeling in Aruba -- liked that, and today some went on the Hell/Turtle Farm/7 Mile Beach, and I heard no complaints.

 

Today we took the boat tour '7 Mile Beach Break'. You provide your own taxi to the Beach Colony Club. This was OK. The beach is quite beautiful. We were only 1 of 2 cruise ships in Grand Cayman today so it was not crowded at all. They had lounge chairs lined up like sardines in front of the hotel, so I imagine it could feel 'crowded' on busy days. We purchased lunch at the hotel (hot dogs, hamburgers, etc) and it was $29 USD for 3 sandwiches + 3 bottled water.

 

We did some shopping and stopped in 'Del Sol' (saw it on RCTV) and bought some color changing nail polish and other color changing items. They gave our kids 2 free color changing rings upon entering the store.

 

We did not make it to see John Davidson.

 

Had fabulous milkshakes this afternoon from the Seaview Cafe (additional cost $3.25 each + 15% gratuity).

 

I will attempt to attach some pics to this message -- some views of going through the canal from our balcony, and a shot of our balcony. I would think that your view also may be impacted by the floor that you are on. The higher the better. We are on 9.

 

Also, we left the TV channel on an RCTV channel where they were broadcasting the view from the heliport, so this way we could also see what was happening at the front of the ship (i.e. when we reached the front of a lock chamber, etc., we could see this on the TV).

[britchicknyc]

What does living aboard a ship entail? You just book onto all the cruises?

[coolshop]

What does living aboard a ship entail? You just book onto all the cruises?

 

 

 

 

?? We don't live aboard a ship. We cruise about once a year.

[britchicknyc]

Oh... that is how I read your post. Live and Live are spelt the same!