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

artbcpa

By artbcpa,
in Royal Caribbean International

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Clarea

Clarea

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:)Will be on the Brilliance of the Seas during the April 9, 2016 sailing - Interested in the tours and excursions in Cozumel - anything real educational? Would love to upgrade to a grand suite at the last minute if anything turns up. Enjoy!:)

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These are the folks on your specific cruise.

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BermudaStarz

BermudaStarz

Posted
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Just a word of warning. The soft ice cream machines were broken down more than they were working on our Repo cruise in November. Several times, all that came out was brown or white water.

 

Thanks all for ice cream info, great help, may have to rethink the plan, invites are to include toppings, but that could be a frustrating waste of time and money, lol. A back up plan may be a good idea :)

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shelbylook

shelbylook

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Sorry- they do not have a regular piano player this cruise. They substituted the guitar player - Stephen Burke last night. He is very good and plays in the sports bar (king and court) tonight.

 

Well that's disappointing. Hope it's not the norm. I'll write to RCCL and get the entertainment list before we cruise in February.

 

Thanks for the info!

 

Cathy

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artbcpa "Live from...." Rare

artbcpa

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Weather...weather...weather. That is the main topic for today. Most of the excursions were cancelled as we had lots and lots of wind and rain. We were looking forward to snorkeling in the beautiful warm clear waters of Cozumel, but I guess that will have to wait for another time. We did get into town some in the afternoon and left a few USDs. LOL

 

As far as the Schooner Bar, there has been one Irish lady who was there most of the time. She has a nice voice and is a very good pianist. However her song selection was not my taste as she played way too many Irish songs for a small group of her fans. The music in general around the ship has been excellent. They have had a number of special events in the Centrum. There is a guitarist who has played quite a few Carlos Santana numbers and is quite outstanding.

 

We are getting ready for dinner now. Catch up with you a little later.

Edited by artbcpa
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WrittenOnYourHeart Great Review Rare

WrittenOnYourHeart

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Posted
Weather...weather...weather. That is the main topic for today. Most of the excursions were cancelled as we had lots and lots of wind and rain. We were looking forward to snorkeling in the beautiful warm clear waters of Cozumel, but I guess that will have to wait for another time. We did get into town some in the afternoon and left a few USDs. LOL

 

As far as the Schooner Bar, there has been one Irish lady who was there most of the time. She has a nice voice and is a very good pianist. However her song selection was not my taste as she played way too many Irish songs for a small group of her fans. The music in general around the ship has been excellent. They have had a number of special events in the Centrum. There is a guitarist who has played quite a few Carlos Santana numbers and is quite outstanding.

 

We are getting ready for dinner now. Catch up with you a little later.

 

Just goes to show how they have such diverse tastes to appeal to. I would LOVE to listen to Irish songs - those would likely make me stay much longer than I'd planned. Whereas the second Carlos Santana number would send me running the other way.

 

I'm glad to read the stuff about the ship though. I'll be on her this summer in the Med. :)

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ksuds

ksuds

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Weather...weather...weather. That is the main topic for today. Most of the excursions were cancelled as we had lots and lots of wind and rain. We were looking forward to snorkeling in the beautiful warm clear waters of Cozumel, but I guess that will have to wait for another time. We did get into town some in the afternoon and left a few USDs. LOL

 

As far as the Schooner Bar, there has been one Irish lady who was there most of the time. She has a nice voice and is a very good pianist. However her song selection was not my taste as she played way too many Irish songs for a small group of her fans. The music in general around the ship has been excellent. They have had a number of special events in the Centrum. There is a guitarist who has played quite a few Carlos Santana numbers and is quite outstanding.

 

We are getting ready for dinner now. Catch up with you a little later.

 

 

I believe her (piano player) name is Menden. Her husband is in the orchestra so they let her play in the Schooner. She is OK in small doses from what I remember.

 

How is the pub entertainment?

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racerxspeedy

racerxspeedy

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Piano Player tonight is Miranda Vincent in the schooner bar. The guitar player is back in the sport bar. 70s night until 945 in centrum. Dance band "Kronos" has been very popular and plays in centrum later. The colony club has not been used at all for music - so far. Quest will be held there tomorrow

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artbcpa "Live from...." Rare

artbcpa

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Today's full review:

 

Once again we ate breakfast in Chops and the service and food were outstanding.

 

As I mentioned earlier the rain messed up our morning plans so we did some reading after returning to the ship pretty well drenched. We had asked the shore excursion desk if they really were going to continue with the excursion considering how strong the wind and rain were and the forecast was for continued rain and wind all morning. They told us that the vendor had given them no indication that the excursion would be cancelled. So we put on our rain gear over the swim wear and slogged our way through a very heavy downpour with our snorkel equipment in hand only to hear 20 minutes later that the trip had been cancelled.

 

Back we went to the ship and decided to read for awhile and then went to a trivia game before going to lunch. Only the Windjammer was opened today as I imagined they thought that most of the passengers would be off ship. SURPRISE! Although on most cruises we avoid the MDR for lunch as the wait is usually much longer, I have to say that for this cruise, the MDR would be our favorite lunch venue.

 

We continued our quiet and peaceful time until the rains finally subsided and then we headed into town. We passed by the usual suspects - Senior Frogs, Diamonds International and many, many silver jewelry stores. Ellie has been looking for a pendant to match a ring we bought in Istanbul. The best variety we found was at a store named Matis. We noticed that beside jewelry, they also sell Persian style rugs and mentioned that we bought the ring in Turkey. When we found out that one of the principles was from Turkey, we immediately asked if they had apple tea and it was like old home week.

 

After returning to the ship we got ready for dinner and went once again to the MDR. We have not been disappointed yet with the food and especially love our wait team. My prime rib was cooked the way I asked for it and Ellie's lobster tails came out perfectly even if she had to send them back for a second try.

 

Tonight's entertainment again lived up to RCCL standards as the singer/entertainer - Earl Turner - was truly wonderful followed again by a late night comedian - Steve Smith - who had some very funny material. One more thing, we visited the stores after dinner and did not particularly think they had much in the way of quality clothing. Most of the other cruise lines we have traveled on have a much better selection. For jewelry they have a much wider selection of both fine and fashion jewelry.

 

Hope this gives you a good run down of our day today.

 

Btw, I believe someone asked for the name of the captain. It is Ole-Johan Gronhaug from Norway.

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chris_kelowna

chris_kelowna

Posted
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I'm enjoying your review and am following with interest as we will be sailing on the Brilliance on aTA next fall. The comedian you mentioned, Steve Smith, was he the guy who used to play Red Green on TV? He would be an older fellow now, in his 60s?

 

Sent from my Venue 7 3730 using Tapatalk

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KJsNana

KJsNana

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Ellie has been looking for a pendant to match a ring we bought in Istanbul. The best variety we found was at a store named Matis.

 

That is my go to jewelry store in port! Never disappointed, exceptional service, and always find great deals. Trying to remember the manager's name...Alex I think. Need to find his business card because he wrote me a discount on the back to bring with me on our next visit.

 

Anyway, great store and will be seeing them again next week to add another piece of jewelry to our daughter's growing collection.

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artbcpa "Live from...." Rare

artbcpa

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This morning I woke up early so I could get some photos of the sunrise. After breakfast, I got to go on a "Behind the Scenes" tour of the ship. It was very well done and I have some fabulous photos to share. Can't wait until I get to a place where I can load them. We visited all the places associated with running and steering the ship, plus the laundry, the galley, backstage of the showroom, the crew's food and entertainment areas and a whole lot more.

 

Today is our last full day and then disembarkation tomorrow.

 

Hope my reviews were helpful. When I am able to post the photos I will add a link to help visualize my story.

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DaBoilerz

DaBoilerz

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This morning I woke up early so I could get some photos of the sunrise. After breakfast, I got to go on a "Behind the Scenes" tour of the ship. It was very well done and I have some fabulous photos to share. Can't wait until I get to a place where I can load them. We visited all the places associated with running and steering the ship, plus the laundry, the galley, backstage of the showroom, the crew's food and entertainment areas and a whole lot more.

 

Today is our last full day and then disembarkation tomorrow.

 

Hope my reviews were helpful. When I am able to post the photos I will add a link to help visualize my story.

 

Curious, did you get invited because you were in a suite, or was it something that was a paid excursion? We are in a suite next week on the Brilliance and hope we get invited on something like this!

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artbcpa "Live from...." Rare

artbcpa

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Do you happen to remember what night formal night was? We go in two weeks!

 

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.

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ksuds

ksuds

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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.

 

 

I hope you took pics of the crew area. I've always wanted to see the areas they ate and partied in.

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John&LaLa "Live from...." Rare

John&LaLa

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Curious, did you get invited because you were in a suite, or was it something that was a paid excursion? We are in a suite next week on the Brilliance and hope we get invited on something like this!

 

Free tours are generally bridge and galley. We did not get invited on a 4 day trip

Edited by John&LaLa
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