Just completed Brilliance, felt very safe with RCI.

[Rickster]

Very impressed with RCI’s safety protocols in regards to Covid.  Ship was less than 50% capacity.  On one hand it was nice; no lines, no crowds anywhere. Check in was a breeze, and so was getting off the ship on the last day.  On the other hand it was kinda sad for the staff, especially those relying on tips.  Windjammer was very good, main dining room was mostly empty and menu was sub par.  Chops was excellent and so was the bar service.  Overall, a very good five day cruise.

[OnTheJourney]

Thanks for the encouraging thoughts. Others that have recently cruised have reported similar - that the protocols being taken seem very well thought out. 

[smokeybandit]

I would have felt safe on a cruise ship if protocols were the same as pre-covid

[OnTheJourney]

2 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

I would have felt safe on a cruise ship if protocols were the same as pre-covid

So...with no masking or vaccination requirements?  I can't say the same. 

[Sunshine3601]

Glad to hear you enjoyed and felt safe.

We got off an Anthem 11 night sailing last Thursday and we, too, felt very safe.  Our sailing had just under 40% capacity and felt great.

[Missusdubbya]

I really like this thread 🙂

 

Glad to hear some good news

[lazydayz]

Thanks for the report.  We are scheduled to sail on the Brilliance this Thursday, assuming all four of us test negative.  Fingers crossed! 

Edited January 24, 2022 by lazydayz

[cruiselvr04]

Great to hear.  I’m hoping they keep reduced capacity for a few more months until this variant blows through or until testing stops.  I still don’t want to be on board with a full elevators, crowds and lines but feel comfortable with reduced passengers numbers as they are now.  

[JsMom2]

Since August I’ve sailed on Adventure, Allure, Odyssey, and Celebrity Edge.  I felt much safer on the Royal ships.  

[mafig]

15 hours ago, Rickster said:

, main dining room was mostly empty and menu was sub par.  

 

??? Can you elaborate?  Mostly about the "sub par."

[mafig]

27 minutes ago, JsMom2 said:

Since August I’ve sailed on Adventure, Allure, Odyssey, and Celebrity Edge.  I felt much safer on the Royal ships.  

 

Why did you feel safer on Royal vs. Celebrity?

[OnTheJourney]

19 minutes ago, mafig said:

Why did you feel safer on Royal vs. Celebrity?

Good question (especially being that I'm scheduled for RCL in March and X in May). Same company, so I'd think their protocols, etc. are comparable?  

[asalligo]

I was lucky enough to be on a cruise literally the week before they shut down for Covid and it was our best cruise ever. Half empty ship and a rock bottom price. I felt very safe then with no protocols and would cruise now with no protocols if they did. 

 

[wandb]

I'm so glad to be reading good news about the Brilliance sailings. We leave March 5 and I'm hoping they will still have reduced capacity then. 
 

I too wish the OP would explain more fully about the 'sub-par' food in the MDR as that is where we usually eat. Wondering about the timing. Hope having less cruisers would allow us to get served faster than normal---normal being very slow usually!

[Rickster]

12 hours ago, mafig said:

 

??? Can you elaborate?  Mostly about the "sub par."

I just felt the food, and to a certain extent, the service was lacking.  I thought the menu was boring, maybe this was due to supply issues.  Our waiter took our order, delivered our meals and disappeared, never to be seen again.  It wasn’t horrible,  just wasn’t up to our other RCI experiences.  

[brillohead]

4 hours ago, Rickster said:

I just felt the food, and to a certain extent, the service was lacking.  I thought the menu was boring, maybe this was due to supply issues.  Our waiter took our order, delivered our meals and disappeared, never to be seen again.  It wasn’t horrible,  just wasn’t up to our other RCI experiences.  

One thing I've noticed is that the bigger/newer ships seem to get the cream of the crop employees, and the smaller/older ships get the second stringers (or even third stringers).  

Since the reboot, I've been on Freedom, Symphony, Allure (x2), Jewel, and Navigator (currently in 2nd leg of B3B).  Staff on Jewel, with the exception of my stateroom attendant, was hands-down the worst experience I've ever had on any Royal ship (out of 20+ cruises on Royal). It wasn't just one or two employees, it was across the board -- literally the only happy and helpful worker I ran into on the entire Jewel cruise was my stateroom attendant.  

My waiter on Allure was FANTABULOUS, and he has already been earmarked for Wonder when she sails out of Florida.  My other waiters have been animated, conversational, and competent (other than Jewel).  

I've seen the headwaiter in the MDR almost every single night on every single ship since the reboot (other than Jewel, where I never met him at all). 

 

My meals have come out hot -- sometimes to the point where I have to let items cool a bit before I can eat them (tonight's battered shrimp, for example). 

 

My beverages have been refilled before they were empty (other than Jewel, where I had to request a water refill nightly).     

 

My plates have been removed quickly when I've finished a course, and the next course promptly delivered with a smile (other than Jewel, where my waiter and assistant waiter would walk past my table several times with empty hands while my plate was empty with fork and knife placed across the plate to indicate I've finished with it).  

 

The menu itself is pretty much identical to the menu before the shutdown, with just a few changes.  The poblano soup is different, and the tiger shrimp is no longer butterflied, but the menu itself has all the same items that I remember.  

But the small-ship experience, service-wise, was COMPLETELY different than the medium-to-large ship experience, from my perspective.  So much so, that I'll make a point to avoid ships smaller than Voyager class, going forward.  

[Lady Hudson]

Just my opinion but I have always had great service on Vision class ships.  My last larger ship (Anthem - November) I thought the service was a bit lacking.  I do think, however, Royal does take good staff from other ships in the fleet when a new build is beginning to sail.  
 

For all the ships now we are not seeing crew that have had a long time to get acclimated.  This could be part of the problem.  Still interesting times in Covid land.  Katherine 

[JsMom2]

On 1/24/2022 at 8:58 AM, mafig said:

 

Why did you feel safer on Royal vs. Celebrity?

Other than the crew wearing masks, and serving in the buffet, there really wasn’t any difference sailing pre and post COVID.  Masks were optional at all times. Royal had reminders posted everywhere about social distancing and elevator limits, hand washing, mask wear indoors etc.  Not so on Celebrity. 

Edited January 25, 2022 by JsMom2

[Rickster]

15 hours ago, brillohead said:

One thing I've noticed is that the bigger/newer ships seem to get the cream of the crop employees, and the smaller/older ships get the second stringers (or even third stringers).  

Since the reboot, I've been on Freedom, Symphony, Allure (x2), Jewel, and Navigator (currently in 2nd leg of B3B).  Staff on Jewel, with the exception of my stateroom attendant, was hands-down the worst experience I've ever had on any Royal ship (out of 20+ cruises on Royal). It wasn't just one or two employees, it was across the board -- literally the only happy and helpful worker I ran into on the entire Jewel cruise was my stateroom attendant.  

My waiter on Allure was FANTABULOUS, and he has already been earmarked for Wonder when she sails out of Florida.  My other waiters have been animated, conversational, and competent (other than Jewel).  

I've seen the headwaiter in the MDR almost every single night on every single ship since the reboot (other than Jewel, where I never met him at all). 

 

My meals have come out hot -- sometimes to the point where I have to let items cool a bit before I can eat them (tonight's battered shrimp, for example). 

 

My beverages have been refilled before they were empty (other than Jewel, where I had to request a water refill nightly).     

 

My plates have been removed quickly when I've finished a course, and the next course promptly delivered with a smile (other than Jewel, where my waiter and assistant waiter would walk past my table several times with empty hands while my plate was empty with fork and knife placed across the plate to indicate I've finished with it).  

 

The menu itself is pretty much identical to the menu before the shutdown, with just a few changes.  The poblano soup is different, and the tiger shrimp is no longer butterflied, but the menu itself has all the same items that I remember.  

But the small-ship experience, service-wise, was COMPLETELY different than the medium-to-large ship experience, from my perspective.  So much so, that I'll make a point to avoid ships smaller than Voyager class, going forward.  

I think on our sailing, the dining room experience was off due to the extended shutdown.  Like you, we have sailed with RCI 24 times and we’ve never had this happen before.  

[brillohead]

7 hours ago, Rickster said:

I think on our sailing, the dining room experience was off due to the extended shutdown.  Like you, we have sailed with RCI 24 times and we’ve never had this happen before.  

On this leg of my Navigator cruise, I have my same waiter, but a new assistant waiter.  It's her very first assignment on any cruise ship, and I was her very first customer ever.  She is attentive and polite and on top of things -- she acts like she wants to provide good service. 

 

My experience on Jewel was the exact opposite, it was like the staff was all depressed and didn't care if they were doing a decent job or not.  It was so contrary to every single experience I've ever had on a Royal ship, I was just shocked.  I could have requested a different table/servers, but it was only a 6-day cruise, and I was traveling solo, and I had my Kindle with me for entertainment, so it wasn't that big of a deal (plus the staff that I experienced in other areas of the ship made me think that my chances weren't any better with a different serving team). 

[I don't want this to devolve into a tipping thread, but I will say it is the ONLY time in my entire life that I haven't left additional cash in the MDR on the last night.  (I obviously kept the auto-grats in place.)  As someone who was a server in a past life, I'm pretty consistent about tipping well (plus my wait staff has always been spectacular and deserving of a few extra dollars on other cruises), but on Jewel I just couldn't bring myself to tip extra.  They did the bare minimum by plopping my meal in front of me, and I did the bare minimum by leaving the auto-grats in place.]   

[sananjan]

20 hours ago, JsMom2 said:

Other than the crew wearing masks, and serving in the buffet, there really wasn’t any difference sailing pre and post COVID.  Masks were optional at all times. Royal had reminders posted everywhere about social distancing and elevator limits, hand washing, mask wear indoors etc.  Not so on Celebrity. 

Just got off 10 nite on the Constellation.  There were sanitizing stations every where and staff offering them at the enterance to the dining rooms. Masks were worn by all passengers indoors and staff was stationed in the halls to remind you if you forgot your mask.  Passengers would step aside and wait for the next elevator if 4 people were already in the elevator.  The theatre had approximately 100 people for the 7 pm show every night.  Lots of room to social distance.   The ship had 700 passengers so no lines no waiting and no crowds even at the Lido for lunch.  Felt totally safe at all times and I am in my mid 70's.   

[RedIguana]

On 1/23/2022 at 6:35 PM, Rickster said:

Very impressed with RCI’s safety protocols in regards to Covid.  Ship was less than 50% capacity.  On one hand it was nice; no lines, no crowds anywhere. Check in was a breeze, and so was getting off the ship on the last day.  On the other hand it was kinda sad for the staff, especially those relying on tips.  Windjammer was very good, main dining room was mostly empty and menu was sub par.  Chops was excellent and so was the bar service.  Overall, a very good five day cruise.

 

On 1/24/2022 at 9:50 AM, mafig said:

 

??? Can you elaborate?  Mostly about the "sub par."

 

On 1/24/2022 at 1:21 PM, wandb said:

I'm so glad to be reading good news about the Brilliance sailings. We leave March 5 and I'm hoping they will still have reduced capacity then. 
 

I too wish the OP would explain more fully about the 'sub-par' food in the MDR as that is where we usually eat. Wondering about the timing. Hope having less cruisers would allow us to get served faster than normal---normal being very slow usually!

I was on the Serenade 10-16-21 and Brilliance 01/13/22 sailing out of Tampa. My opinion...not fact! The beef cuts (filet, prime rib, tenderloin) in both ships MDR's was not up to the usual RC standards pre-covid. I suspect select cuts vs choice, and choice vs prime for chops, but only a guess.  First time I was not able to finish a chops filet. The non-beef entrees seemed to be on par with pre-covid. Escargot (just as small as always...but Hey...its included!. Get 2 if you want) and French onion soup were excellent. My wife had the turkey, and it was not dry.

 

The Head waiter and waiter on the Serenade were annoying. Pretty much doing the ask for 10's on survey every night.  Assistant waiter was awesome.

Dining room staff on Brilliance were awesome. Food came out hot, plates were removed pretty much as soon as the "I am done" fork/knife hit the plate. From the second night on, they already had my wine memorized and were asking when (yeah when, not if) I wanted a refill. They would chat with you if you wanted, left you alone if you wanted that.  I wish I could have them every cruise.

 

[Ashland]

We're just off Navigator and also experienced a wonderful cruise. All venue's open and staff everywhere was just amazing. Only 1100 on our 7 nighter...how nice that was !!!

[JsMom2]

On 1/26/2022 at 11:23 AM, sananjan said:

Just got off 10 nite on the Constellation.  There were sanitizing stations every where and staff offering them at the enterance to the dining rooms. Masks were worn by all passengers indoors and staff was stationed in the halls to remind you if you forgot your mask.  Passengers would step aside and wait for the next elevator if 4 people were already in the elevator.  The theatre had approximately 100 people for the 7 pm show every night.  Lots of room to social distance.   The ship had 700 passengers so no lines no waiting and no crowds even at the Lido for lunch.  Felt totally safe at all times and I am in my mid 70's.   

Glad to hear Celebrity upped their protocols!  I was on the Edge in December, which was right before omicron exploded.  

[blonde375]

Hi Rickster,

 

We are considering Brilliance for a quick weekend at the end of March.  Can you give us your opinion on the condition of the ship, staterooms, etc.?  Sadly, we haven't been on a cruise since Dec 2015 on the Indy.

 

Thanks!!