Brilliance 12/17 four night short review

[Got Out There]

Here are a few points/comments from our recent Brilliance four night cruise to Key West and Coco Cay.

 

Booked this last minute cruise for my 4 year old and me. Have been on over 35 cruises on RCI. Boarding was easy as ever, maybe a total of ten minutes from entering the terminal to walking on the ship. RCI has got the boarding process perfected!

 

Had to change dinning time from late to early, and oddly enough they had us originally assigned to two different tables! Went to the dinning room and they were able to change this within in a few minutes! Dinner was good to OK. Service was outstanding, food was just OK. We did not eat at chops or portofinos since I was traveling with my four year old. Windjammer was very disappointing. Breakfast was OK, however lunch was very poor. Seemed as though either they could not keep up with demand or my timing was very off. We ate lunch there three times, all three times they were out of fries, and other easy to please items for my child. This was not a big deal, just a little anoying.

 

Did not attend any shows. Ship was in great shape and crew was wonderful. I really enjoy this class of ship over all others on RCI.

 

Biggest disapointment was getting off the ship. I have been on over 50 cruises and have never experienced anything like this. Our color tag was in the first group to be called, I think it was before 7 am. They had called express departure about ten minutes prior. When we made our way to the departure deck, it was a total disaster. As we arrived to the area they called the next set of colors. It was at this point I heard that no one as of yet had gotten off the ship. The express departure guest were all still standing in line. Within a few minutes they called the next goup of colors. At this point I am guessing that they had called close to half the colors before anyone was let off the ship. Now I know RCI does not have control over customs and when they are ready for passengers, however, they should never have called the first set of colors without first receiving the OK from customs. To make matters worse as more and more people came down there were no regards for what once was a line. As the crowds swelled tempers rose and I felt unsafe for my child so we removed ourselves from the area. What stuck me was the there was not one person from the crew to help control the crowd. The CDs staff was completely absent with the exception of the lone individual that was station outside the ship. This poor guy was taking a beating from unhappy customers. It took us well over an hour and a half to get off once we were on the departure deck. I can not belive that this is what RCI wants to leave as one of the last impressions of their customers. I was embarrassed for RCI.

 

Other than the comments above, we had a great time. I am sure that RCI will fix the few negative comments above. If your headed to this ship I'm sure you will have a great time.

[Fury1995]

Completely agree with the situation getting off the ship. I was there, ours was the second color called. There was absolutely no organization to the disembarkation process. At one point we kept getting pushed back further and further in line as other lines started forming in every direction????

 

We finally gave up and went to have breakfast instead. At 8AM they closed the main dining room (sign and compass said open until 8:30) and sent everyone up to the Windjammer. Then suddenly, at 8:20 they re-opened the main dining room again and started serving and then closed it again ten minutes later??

 

When we got back.... still appeared to be no movement in the line and no staff present. We got back in line and at this point the line snaked all the way through the centrum, through the shops on board and all the way to the Pacific Theater (yes, really we were AT the doors to he Pacific Theater) and they were still calling more colors to get in line?????!!!!

 

At this point (almost 10AM now) there were people in wheel chairs, people leaning on their walkers, sitting on the floor everywhere, people who were using self disembarkation with their luggage still on board!

 

After and hour to make our way from the Pacific Theater to the Centrum again (not an exagerration) with the line finally beginning to move again, it abruptly stopped completely. We were at this point single file, which would have been a good thing if it had stayed that way but....................................

 

then two more colors were called, and chaos broke out again. Suddenly two more lines formed from two more directions!

 

So trapped again, just inside the ship, we could see the exit just 20 feet from us. The crowd was just jammed up in front of the elevators and at the door to disembark. No longer one line, not even two or three or four or five...... Tempers were starting to flare as we sat there another 25 to 30 minutes with absolutely NO MOVEMENT.

 

One young lady was so sick she almost collapsed on the floor, a wheel chair had to brought for her. When the staff member brought the wheelchair for her, he was pratically taken hostage. When they tried to get her off the ship to get medical attention, her husband was loudly verbally attacked for moving through the line with her, then he was physically threatened by the same guy for being allowed to leave with his wife before they were. Still no staff present other than the one who brought up the wheelchair.

 

Everyone in *the lines* were making loud comments about this process. We didn't get off the ship until almost 11 and we still hadn't processed through customs......

 

Honestly, I don't think anyone was paying attention to what was happening..... too many colors were being called too quickly. I understand customs can cause some serious delays but there was no excuse for what was happening on board.

 

Royal Caribbean needs to do something about this. Calling people off in groups certainly is the most efficient process but just like all great plans, execution is everything.

[Missus Makkem]

Being on the same cruise as the 2 previous posters I agree with all they had tosay.

We were on the previous cruise coming from Europe and things at disembarkation were not so chaotic but although Royal Caribbean did not help matters with the calling of colours I think most of the delay was caused by Immigration.

We stayed in downtown Miami for a few days before coming home andour room overlooked the port.The day we docked there were 7 ships in ,all trying to unload passengers at the same time,6 of them were big ships so not enough immigration officers to process the passengers.

Who is at fault? Do the port authorities care?

Not sure of the answer to this.

[Got Out There]

I agree that RCI can not control immigration. My issue was with the fact that they continued to call colors when no one was being allowed off. This created a real mess. What made it worse was there was no one from RCI on the departure deck. This resultes in people coming down/up the stairs and exiting before those that were in line. I have never seen anything like it; no one directing people, it was every person for themselves. The CD's staff was no where to be seen.

 

I do not think anyone takes issue with what is out of their (RCI) control (imigration). What they could have done was slow the calling of add'l colors AND had personel stationed on the departure deck.

 

As I said before, I was embarrassed for RCI. They can and have done far better when it comes to this process.

[gotogofishing]

My wife, four year old daughter and I were on the same cruise. A very nice ship and we loved our stateroom; a grand suite # 1536. Food was poor to mediocre. My daughter had a cold so we had room service three out of the four nights. Every room service order took over an hour and a half and was in some part wrong. When we ordered room service for breakfast it never even showed up! RC please don’t advertise something you can’t deliver. Major disappointment!

Service was also pretty lousy on the ship. When we first boarded my wife waited at the poolside bar for almost 20 minutes without even an "Ill be right with you". I finally had to stop a bartender to place an order. On too many occasions I had questions/issues for the staff that were never resolved. When I asked a pool attendant where I could find some towels he shrugged his shoulders and muttered "I don’t know" and walked off. When I asked another crew member about a family swim time in the solarium (yes it does exist) he looked at me confused and said he had never heard of any family swim times (it was printed in that days cruise compass). Too many “I don’t knows” and unresolved issues for a service based industry IMHO. The concierge even screwed up my excursion and had it not been for me checking on my ticket I would have been on the wrong trip. By the way RC, three hours on a crappy little boat catching yellow snapper that the captain then sells is not “light tackle, catch and release fishing” and is hardly worth $145!

One last grip before some positives, I know I am getting old but the roving groups of drunken frat boys and girls are annoying. I am all for having a good time but the swearing, smoking and drinking got out of hand. I don’t like having to pick cigarette butts and beer caps out of the hot tub before my daughter and I can have a soak in the morning. I especially don’t like hearing Phi Beta whatever chants at 4:00 in the morning from a bunch of alcohol soaked morons on the deck above the suite I paid a lot of money to enjoy. RC needs to enforce its own policies on drinking and relegate the booze cruisers to the bulbous bow of the ship!

On the positive, the thermal suite at the spa was awesome as was the service. We also really appreciated the good service from the bartender at the champagne bar and the staff members at the kids camp were some of the most energetic and kind people you would want to entertain your children. The ports were nice and getting on and off the ship went smoothly. However, disembarkation was every bit as chaotic as described above.

The bottom line: this was our first experience with RC, we might be back. I do understand the mass market cruise ship experience but having cruised before on other cruise lines I was not terribly impressed with RC.

[Got Out There]

I also had a problem with room service. Placed an order the night before and it never showed. Called and there was no answer. I let it ring on speaker phone for over 30 minutes and no one answered. Also, called later the same day and again no answer.

 

I can only guess that they had a large tunrover in crew after the trans-atlantic cruise before ours and this contributed to the service issues.

[Saintsfan007]

Yes, the room service was a major disappointment, taking over an hour and a half to deliver something. The waitor said they had a lot of orders from kids ordering chocolate chip cookies, and some other excuses. I've sailed on other RCI ships, and their room service was up to par. This won't totally sour my opinion, but I do hope they get their act together.

[silentbob007]

I had a roomservice order placed on the TV not show up at all. One placed on the door did (30 minutes late), though I had to retreive it from the elevator lobby as the card was stolen by some kids at night.

[gotogofishing]

I can only guess that they had a large tunrover in crew after the trans-atlantic cruise before ours and this contributed to the service issues.

 

I was wondering about this too. The service/crew just seemed off, from the mad rush at the windjammer cafe after boarding to the really poorly executed disembarkation. Short cruise = poor service? Less money on the line then with more expensive 8-10 day cruises? Interesting :confused: .

[powelweb]

We were on this 4 nighter, too.

 

Overall, had a good time, as did our friends on this their first cruise.

 

We heard many complaints from others about the delays with room service- but we never used it so I can't comment personally.

 

Disembarkation was very long- we waited in the Colony Club until 9:30 even though our colors had been called about 45 minutes prior, and then we stood in the line for another hour or so.

 

As I mentioned in Silentbob's review thread, we went to the Solarium for family swim time and were swiftly advised that it was a misprint in the Compass, which I noticed they continue the same misprint the rest of the sailing.

 

We did enjoy our dinners in the dining room, although service was not on par with our past RCL cruises.

 

Still we were happy to escape 2+ feet of snow for sunny warm weather.

Wendy

[tuckercmp]

My 20 yr old daughter and I booked this cruise about 2 weeks before the sailing and chose to spend a the extra dollars for the Grand Suite. I have been on about 25-30 cruises on many different cruiselines but this was the first on RCI in more than 20 years - so basically first-timer.

 

We wanted to try RCI and thought this would be a good way to test. We also feel that 4 days on a cruise is better than 0 days on a cruise. However we had such a bad experience that we felt that this would be our last on RCI. We wondered especially why we paid several hundred more for suite privileges that were pretty non-existent, especially compared to other lines. The Concierge Lounge was smaller than our cabin. As a comparison the Neptune Lounge on Holland America was about 5 times the size, staffed from 7am - 9pm for a fourth of the guests. Katherine, the Concierge hostess, was wonderful and the highlight of our trip but she has an impossible job in such a small space for such a large number of eligible guests. It was so crowded that we mostly avoided the Lounge.

 

Our service issues were emblematic with our cabin steward making her first appearance at 5:45pm (we boarded at 2pm); asking our needs (very simple, just a couple of extra pillows, we really our very easy going); and checking on our dining time. So imagine our surprise when we came back at 9:15pm and the room had not been turned down. We never saw our steward again the entire trip. We found crumbs on the floor the second day and we had not eaten in the cabin so we guessed it was from lack of cleaning before we arrived or was carried in by the steward. Empty conditioner bottles were not removed or replaced and the shower was barely cleaned. Just cursory cleaning of the cabin and bathroom. We asked her the only time we saw her if we could have more grapes and she said that we needed to call Room Service. Very surprising especially in a suite. Why do we pay more gratuity other than the size of the cabin?

 

FYI - we prepaid our gratuities and left them as is but this was the first time I have not exceeded the minimum and given extra money and long distance phone cards or other small gifts.

 

Food was mediocre at best and the service was ok but not knock our socks off. We loved our tablemates which made up for it but on two nights we left saying we were hungry because either the food wasn't palatable or the portions were tiny. We also saw many shortages at the Windjammer as mentioned earlier. We had a wonderful lunch in the dining room one day which made us even more aware of the lack of service and quality elsewhere. The first night we stopped at the Seaview and they said, "no bread for the paninis," which was a surprise since they only have a few options to choose from. Lots of other shortages throughout the ship. I know that they had a busy turnaround that morning but Miami knew that they were coming. They didn't arrive in port and say, "Surprise, we're home."

 

In 25 cruises this is the first time I did not want to pack my cabin steward and waiters into my suitcase to take home with me. We had the same feeling about the rest of the crew except for the wonderful hostess in the Concierge Lounge. We just felt that the crew was tired or didn't want to take the extra step. Several times we got different answers to the same question and even though the Compass listed something they would say it was a mistake.

 

Please don't flame me for making constructive criticism. You only get one chance to make a good impression and the last thing you remember sticks with you. I plan meetings and events for a living and that's why I always plan menus from the dessert backwards. The disembarkation was so ghastly that we exited the terminal and felt that it was the icing on the service we had experienced for the past 4 days.

 

We love to cruise and love to try new things. We have been on luxury and mass-market crusies. We did not expect Seabourn but thought RCI would at least be comparable to Princess, Holland America, Celebrity or Carnival.

 

This was truly the first time I have been ready to go home at the end of a cruise. Usually my fingers need to be pried from the cabin. Many guests I overheard in the Concierge Lounge said that this was not the usual service level for RCI. It's a shame.

 

Again, any cruise is better than no cruise and being in warm weather is better than not. Our expectations were not that high; we purposely keep them low so that we can be excited on our vacation - but this particular sailing didn't even hit the bottom rung.

[sarasotamom]

I was also on the Brilliance for this 4 day cruise. This was my first RC cruise and I was looking forward to having a wonderful time. Please don't flame me, but the only other cruise I had been on was 12 other Disney cruises. Friends and family had all raved about RC and we were excited to try out a new (less expensive) cruiseline.

 

My first impression of the ship was very good. The ship is beautiful and all the glass gives the ship a feeling of openess. My only complaint is the smell of smoke that lingers from the casino throughout the atrium.

 

I was quite taken back by the lack of crew to welcome the guests onboard. After finding the Windjammer, we were disappointed in the food, service, and friendliness of the crew. The room is beautiful but the lack of available food, (they were out of many items) and who doesn't have ranch dressing for salads? The food that I did eat was very bland. I know it is buffet food, but all the food tasted very much the same. Thank goodness, we found the Seaview Cafe on day 2 because the food was much better there.

 

We had a balcony room which was a little smaller than I was used to but the beds were very comfortable and the room was decorated quite tastefully. The bathroom was sooo small. Shaving my legs was an acrobatic trick. The room steward had our bags in our room by 3:00. He did a wonderful job for us the entire trip but I never saw him once. The only reason I know it was a he is because my husband saw him later that first evening. That was the last time any of us saw him.

 

The first night at dinner was total chaos. We did not have a table for some reason and we had to wait another 10 minutes to get assigned a table. The head waiter was very rude and remained that way throughout the cruise. I was also surprised that the head waiter did not walk people to their tables the first night. As I was waiting to be assigned to a table I heard them saying "table to the right, table in the back, table left forward." Really they did not leave the front of the dining room. It was so impersonal.

 

We were sat at a table for 10 and all of our tablemates were quite friendly. Our main server, Sophia from Turkey, was very friendly and she went out of her way to make everyone happy. She ranked right up there with the servers we have had on previous cruises. For dinner the first night I had prime rib and it was very good. My food for the remainder of the cruise was hit and miss. Some quite good but others only mediocre.

 

I must say that for the most part the crewmembers acted like they did not want to be there. The barstaff was quite friendly but not one person even smiled at us or made us feel welcome.

 

The ship is beautiful. The solarium is gorgeous but the service was lacking so much that I felt embarassed for the poor girl. There were many college kids that drank all day and hogged the hottubs. I finally used the hottub when we were at Cococay because we returned early so we could. The staff did nothing to get them out of the hottubs (although they did make them pour their beer into a plastic cup and took the glass bottles when an officer told them too.) Hello....that 15 minute time limit sign is there for a reason.....

 

At 3:00 AM the first night we were awakened by moaning. At first I thought somone was sick, and then we realized that the couple next door was doing the nasty and she was very... lets just say verbally expressive..This happened morning, noon, and night througout the cruise!!!!

 

Getting off the ship was a nightmare. We wanted off the ship fast so we carried our own luggage. We were there at 6:30 and the line wrapped around the atrium and up the stairs. Finally at 7:10 they started letting people off but at the same time they called 2 colors. Mass chaos broke out then. People were getting off the elevators and butting in front of everyone that had been standing in line for an hour or more...The man next to me tried to get an officer to help but no one was anywhere around to be found. I felt so sorry for the older people with canes and wheelchairs. Then they called another color and a poor elderly man was crying "Please stop calling colors." It was everybody for themselves...and this could have been a disaster....Do they not realize that this is the last memory that everyone takes with them????

 

Everyone I talked to on this cruise was very disappointed with the staff onboard. Some of them have sailed with RC 20 or more times and said it was the worst cruise they have ever taken....

 

Please don't flame me....I know that this is not most peoples experience, but you had to be on this cruise to know what I am talking about.

[Missus Makkem]

Having time to think about this 4 day cruise after arriving home I would just like to make one or two points.

 

We were on the previous cruise across to Miami and it was just fine,I am inclined to think that the Brilliance is not up to copeing or used to 4 day cruises, however they took our money so we should have had the same service.

I was surprised at what appeared to be underage drinking and gambling in the casino but the profits must have been sky high.

I think poor service will continue as more and more ships come into service as they seem to take a lot of good experinced staff from the old ships to the new.There were a lot of new staff on the transatlantic some of whom had never been on a ship before. Not good enough Royal Caribbean.

 

To the lady who did not enjoy the concierge lounge, the overflow concierge in the Hollywood odysey was great with the best bar staff ever,much more room and " proper bar drinks"