Brilliance Dec. 19 to 24 Review

[Jmillsarch]

Overall

 

Overall I'd give this cruise a 6 out of 10. That may seem harsh, but the cruise was still enjoyable.

 

For us, a Radiance Class ship is not a good family ship if you have smaller kids that have been spoiled by Freedom and Oasis Class ships. We knew this going in, but we got such a good deal on this cruise we decided to try it anyway. We are spoiled by the bigger ships, and that's okay. If it were just my wife and I, we'd gladly go back on a ship this size.

 

Below are how I'd rate some areas of the ship.

 

Stateroom - 8 out of 10

 

I'd give it a 9, but the location of the connecting door between rooms obstructs the use of the balcony doors. The mattresses were noticeably worn and felt like two beds pushed together not one large bed. They were still comfortable, and we slept fine. Our kids room smelled of sewage for most of the trip. Our room was fine, and the odor wasn't bad enough to call about, more of an observation. The closet doors are large and interfere with the bathroom door. The sliding doors on Oasis Class ships are an improvement. Also the showers have curtains verse doors. Also, one of our safes didn't work. We could have gotten it fixed, but we didn't want to wait for the maintenance guy so we just left it that way. Again these are just observations. Our room was in good overall shape and we liked the location.

 

Stateroom Attendant - 5 out of 10

 

She just wasn't that great. Multiple days we'd go eat, go to the pool, and then come back to our room and it still was not made up. We never saw her that much, but she was friendly when we did see her. She was just sort of average. No wow.

 

Pool area - 3 out of 10

 

This is based on having a 6 and 7 year old. The pool just doesn't work for smaller kids. The waterslide is okay, but its only open at certain time. The main pool it too deep in my opinion. It was over my head. I guess this keeps people from standing around and having a drink in the pool, but that's kind of what I like to do. For kids, the pool is really too deep. Again we're spoiler by the H20 zone on larger ships. The smoking situation is dumb. We stayed on the nonsmoking side, but the upper Sky Bar is all smoking. So if you sit near the bar on the nonsmoking side, all the smoke from the Sky Bar above gets blown down onto you. It should be half and half up there. The solarium was okay. The days we used it there were large groups of loud teenagers that I doubt were old enough to be in there.

 

MDR - 7 out of 10

 

I'd give the MDR a 10 out of 10 if our first night wasn't so bad. The space is beautiful and the food was above average for RCCL.

 

Shopping - 1 out of 10

 

The selection of on board shops was lacking. We had $500 of OBC and we found it difficult to spend it. They had a very, very small section of kids stuff. Again we're spoiled by larger ships.

 

Bar Areas - 8 out of 10

 

The pub is a great addition to the Radiance Class ships. The Schooner Bar is a great place to relax and enjoy the piano music.

 

Windjammer - 8 out of 10

 

The Windjammer is pretty much what you'd expect on a RCCL ship. It seemed small at first, but the ship is smaller and we never had a problem finding a place to sit. Having an omelet station was a nice treat that only smaller ships call pull off. Overall food was good. Not quite Oasis class, but better than some of the other ships we've been on.

 

If anyone has any questions about the rest of the ship, or our experiences let me know.

 

James

[monctonguy]

I was interested to hear the sky bar was all smoking?

 

I am pretty sure my last cruise on her, I was told NO smoking up there at all..only on the pool deck smoking side....this was Jan/2015.

 

Also was the port change in Cozumel a one time thing I wonder? I am expecting to dock the same place as last time and pay for a cab to downtown, but would be happy to dock downtown and avoid the cab there and back!

[Clarea]

I was interested to hear the sky bar was all smoking?...

We saw the smoking at the Sky Bar too, same cruise.

[Jmillsarch]

I was interested to hear the sky bar was all smoking?

 

I am pretty sure my last cruise on her, I was told NO smoking up there at all..only on the pool deck smoking side....this was Jan/2015.

 

Also was the port change in Cozumel a one time thing I wonder? I am expecting to dock the same place as last time and pay for a cab to downtown, but would be happy to dock downtown and avoid the cab there and back!

 

Every table at the sky bar had ash trays on them so I assumed the entire area was smoking. This made me more upset with RCCL than the smokers. They were just smoking where the were told to.

 

As for the port location, I believe this was due to the amount of ships in Cozumel that day. I've heard some people prefer to dock there. It really wasn't that big of deal. We just needed to take this into account for our cab ride back to the ship.

 

James

[cincicruisers]

Thanks for taking the time to post your review. Lots of good information.

[VikingCrown555]

Great review. We're looking into a few cruises that sail on the Jewel. Your info is appreciated.

[rayness]

Thank you for posting. I'm cruising solo next February my first cruise with RCCL and decided on this particular ship because I live in St. Pete. I love sushi so I will definitely eat there one night and I will most certainly avoid Rita's.

[Nonie_9]

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Edited February 10, 2016 by Nonie_9