Just back from Brilliance -- Questions?

[Robin G]

Anyone with questions re: Greek Isles itinerary? Ask away...

[uktraveller]

Hi Robin,

Hope you had a great time! We will be sailing this itin in August and have been waiting for reports from the "first" of the summer!

Can you tell us which nights were the formal nights?

What time was late dining? Did you see how "anytime dining" was working?

What was the nationality mix of the passengers?

All tips/ recommendations gratefully received!:)

Thanks

[uptheboro]

I would be interested to learn those answers too.

What did you think of the ship?

What kind of things are hapening in the atrium?

Was there a bbq on deck during sea days?

Thank you

[uktraveller]

Just thought of another one or two! LOL

Did you need Turkish Lira for the Kusadasi stop or were they happy to accept Euros?

And did they add VAT to the onboard charges?

TIA:)

[Robin G]

Hi--yes, we had a great time. This was our second visit on the Brilliance, the first being two years ago with the Venice itinerary. Beautiful ship.

 

There were 3 formal nights; the first and second At Sea Day and the day we ported in Kusadasi, Turkey. We didn't bother going "formal" on the port day -- just too much. Besides, my husband rented a tux from RC and they only included two clean shirts. It wasn't a biggie to us.

 

We didn't opt for the Anytime Dining - we stayed with Traditional. We were able to show up as late as 45 minutes to an hour land still be served. The servers were very accomodating for this port-intensive cruise. Main Seating was 6 PM, My Time Dining was from 6 - 9 PM and Second Seating was 8:30 PM. A friend of mine did the My Time -- it worked very well for them as they were travelling with their 5 yr. old son. They loved it.

 

There were many US folks on board as well as many "Easterners" -- a good mix.

 

We did not need Lira in Turkey - they accepted Euros. FYI - while walking around the Grand Bazaar a short distance from the pier, just be aware that the shop/store employees can be aggressive. It was disturbing and we even knew about it in advance.

 

There was a Pool-side BBQ on the third and last sea day. As far as the Atrium goes, there was always something going on there. Music/dancing in the evenings, auctions, talks, cooking demos - you name it.

 

Hope this helped.

 

Robin

[tomko2]

Did you go to Corfu?

Kathy:)

[uktraveller]

Hi--yes, we had a great time. This was our second visit on the Brilliance, the first being two years ago with the Venice itinerary. Beautiful ship.

 

There were 3 formal nights; the first and second At Sea Day and the day we ported in Kusadasi, Turkey. We didn't bother going "formal" on the port day -- just too much. Besides, my husband rented a tux from RC and they only included two clean shirts. It wasn't a biggie to us.

 

We didn't opt for the Anytime Dining - we stayed with Traditional. We were able to show up as late as 45 minutes to an hour land still be served. The servers were very accomodating for this port-intensive cruise. Main Seating was 6 PM, My Time Dining was from 6 - 9 PM and Second Seating was 8:30 PM. A friend of mine did the My Time -- it worked very well for them as they were travelling with their 5 yr. old son. They loved it.

 

There were many US folks on board as well as many "Easterners" -- a good mix.

 

We did not need Lira in Turkey - they accepted Euros. FYI - while walking around the Grand Bazaar a short distance from the pier, just be aware that the shop/store employees can be aggressive. It was disturbing and we even knew about it in advance.

 

There was a Pool-side BBQ on the third and last sea day. As far as the Atrium goes, there was always something going on there. Music/dancing in the evenings, auctions, talks, cooking demos - you name it.

 

Hope this helped.

 

Robin

Thanks Robin,

I'm so pleased that the late dining is 8.30pm. Had heard that it was much later on the med sailings.

The formal nights seem quite close together! We have a Chops reservation for the Kusadasi night, so looks like we will also only be doing 2!

Did you do any RCCL shore excursions?

And thanks for the heads up on the Turkish Bazaar!:eek:

[Sky Sweet]

Hi Robin,

Hope you had a great time! We will be sailing this itin in August and have been waiting for reports from the "first" of the summer!

Can you tell us which nights were the formal nights?

What time was late dining? Did you see how "anytime dining" was working?

What was the nationality mix of the passengers?

All tips/ recommendations gratefully received!:)

Thanks

 

Hi unktraveller :)

 

My husband and I were also on this cruise and tried "my time dining"..

 

We could have dined at the same time, with the same wait staff, every night if we wanted to, but due to the nature of this cruise we dined at different times, depending upon the port. On most nights, we ate at 7 PM, but we ate a little later when we wouldn't be back to the ship in time to eat that early.

 

As we left the dining room, after dinner, we made our reservations for the following day, and we never had to wait for a table. We also had the option of dining by ourselves or with other people who wanted to eat at the same time.

 

This worked out very well because we got to meet a lot of interesting people this way. In fact, as the cruise progressed we made reservations to dine with some of our new friends that we met as a result of the my dining process.

 

Even though we prepaid our tips, which is a requirement of my time dining, we got excellent service.

 

In my opinion, my time dining offers the best of both worlds and its availability will be major factor in our selection of future cruises.

 

There were three formal nights, even though there were only suppose to be two. My husband wore his tux on all three formal nights and so did quite a few others, but there were a number men wearing suits, and even sport jackets. They were on the first sea day, one of the ports in Greece, and on the second sea day.

 

The passengers included a significant number of people from the United States and the UK, as well as other parts of Europe. There were quite a few children on this cruise but they were all very well behaved.

 

One of our considerations in selecting this cruise was that it had a good mix of Western and Eastern Med ports, as well as three sea days. However, in retrospect, I would have preferred to have one more sea day and one less port in Italy. This cruise is great for Eastern Med ports, but its distance from the ports in Italy make them more suitable for a land based vacation in my opinion.

[Robin G]

Did you go to Corfu?

Kathy:)

 

We went to Corfu two years ago - that is included in the Venice itinerary.

[alohanails]

Hi Robin...we too are doing this trip in Sept...glad you had a good time...when you say you were able to show for dinner a bit late can I assume you had main seating? Did the food reflect the area being visited-Greek in Greece for example? Anything you did you that you wouldn't bother with again? Or anything you missed you wished you would have gotten to?

Also....hubby wants to wear black suit instead of a tux....did you see lots of dark suits on Formal night or was it really mainly tuxes?

Thanks in advance!

Bonnie

[Robin G]

Thanks Robin,

I'm so pleased that the late dining is 8.30pm. Had heard that it was much later on the med sailings.

The formal nights seem quite close together! We have a Chops reservation for the Kusadasi night, so looks like we will also only be doing 2!

Did you do any RCCL shore excursions?

And thanks for the heads up on the Turkish Bazaar!:eek:

 

No, we didn't do any RC excursions. We either did the port on our own or had drivers.

 

Robin

[uktraveller]

Hi unktraveller :)

 

My husband and I were also on this cruise and tried "my time dining"..

 

We could have dined at the same time, with the same wait staff, every night if we wanted to, but due to the nature of this cruise we dined at different times, depending upon the port. On most nights, we ate at 7 PM, but we ate a little later when we wouldn't be back to the ship in time to eat that early.

 

As we left the dining room, after dinner, we made our reservations for the following day, and we never had to wait for a table. We also had the option of dining by ourselves or with other people who wanted to eat at the same time.

 

This worked out very well because we got to meet a lot of interesting people this way. In fact, as the cruise progressed we made reservations to dine with some of our new friends that we met as a result of the my dining process.

 

Even though we prepaid our tips, which is a requirement of my time dining, we got excellent service.

 

In my opinion, my time dining offers the best of both worlds and its availability will be major factor in our selection of future cruises.

 

There were three formal nights, even though there were only suppose to be two. My husband wore his tux on all three formal nights and so did quite a few others, but there were a number men wearing suits, and even sport jackets. They were on the first sea day, one of the ports in Greece, and on the second sea day.

 

The passengers included a significant number of people from the United States and the UK, as well as other parts of Europe. There were quite a few children on this cruise but they were all very well behaved.

 

One of our considerations in selecting this cruise was that it had a good mix of Western and Eastern Med ports, as well as three sea days. However, in retrospect, I would have preferred to have one more sea day and one less port in Italy. This cruise is great for Eastern Med ports, but its distance from the ports in Italy make them more suitable for a land based vacation in my opinion.

Thanks for this!

We currently have second seating, but are debating switching to Mytime. We have enjoyed traditional in the past , so it's proving to be a difficult decision!

DH and DS will be wearing suits on formal nights, so will be pleased to hear they'll fit right in!

[micruiser2002]

Not to be picky but was the other formal night when in Greece or Turkey? I have seen both above.

 

Also, I believe they do charge VAT on this cruise but can you confirm?

 

Did any of you try their laundry service? I heard on the prior cruise it was very poor. Any experience?

 

Thanks.

[gagirl7143]

Who was the cd on your cruise?

[coopster1974]

I believe it was a big round shiny fella with a hole in his middle! :D :rolleyes:

[windjamming]

Thank you so much Robin G and Sky Sweet! Can you tell us more about the ports and in particular the tendering situations at Villefranche, Mykonos and Santorini? Were there long lines from and to the ship?

 

Thanks in advance!

Kat.

[Pumbaamd]

Is Danny (aka "Fish") still the head bartender at the Lobby Bar?

Rick and Deirdra

[Sky Sweet]

Thank you so much Robin G and Sky Sweet! Can you tell us more about the ports and in particular the tendering situations at Villefranche, Mykonos and Santorini? Were there long lines from and to the ship?

 

Thanks in advance!

Kat.

 

Hi Kat :)

 

There were long lines for tendering in Villefranche, but the situation was much better in Mykonos and Santorini. However, Santorini had long lines for the cable cars that go from the center of town to the dock for the tender.

 

Our favorite port was Kusadasi, the gateway for Ephesus which is amazing!

 

Santorini was beautiful, but much more crowded than we expected it to be.

 

Various strikes in Europe impacted our cruise in three different ways. The ship did not get all its food in Barcelona because of a trucker's strike, so it was not possible to get a caesar salad until the appropriate lettuce was subsequently delivered at another port.

 

In Villefranche we tried to take a train to Nice, but the one that went in that direction was strike. If a local didn't tell me about it, I would probably still be waiting for it :) Ironically, the train that went in the other direction was not on strike.

 

Our tour in Pompei was delayed by a strike in the morning, but I heard its morning tour was cancelled because of it.

[Robin G]

Who was the cd on your cruise?

 

His name is Bill Brunkhorst.

[Robin G]

 

Various strikes in Europe impacted our cruise in three different ways. The ship did not get all its food in Barcelona because of a trucker's strike, so it was not possible to get a caesar salad until the appropriate lettuce was subsequently delivered at another port.

 

In Villefranche we tried to take a train to Nice, but the one that went in that direction was strike. If a local didn't tell me about it, I would probably still be waiting for it :) Ironically, the train that went in the other direction was not on strike.

 

Our tour in Pompei was delayed by a strike in the morning, but I heard its morning tour was cancelled because of it.

 

FYI - In Civitavecchia, my husband and daughter took the shuttle from the ship to the terminal. From there, their plan was to walk to the train station and go directly into Rome. When they got off of the shuttle bus, my husband said there were 4 people in red shirts approaching the ship passengers and telling them that there is a train strike and that they would drive them into Rome for a fee. My husband, luckily, didn't fall for it. Wonder how many people did...

 

Robin

[terri23]

Thank you so much Robin G and Sky Sweet! Can you tell us more about the ports and in particular the tendering situations at Villefranche, Mykonos and Santorini? Were there long lines from and to the ship?

 

Thanks in advance!

Kat.

 

Here is our tendering experience:

 

Tendering in Villefranche was slow but reasonably well managed, except they didn't check tender tickets and some with later tickets "cut" in line. We were a little late as a result and so our private guide was very glad to see us! He was afraid we would be "no shows".

 

We found the tendering into mykonos to be a real nightmare. Tags 1, 2 and 3 were called at essentially the same time and people were pushing and shoving. We had VIP tags (same as tender 1) but it didn't matter. it was the worst we have experienced in 8 cruises. some staffers attributed it to the arrival time - 1 pm - everyone was ready to get off the ship right then and there.

 

in Santorini, we got down to the tender deck right at the port arrival time hoping to avoid the rush since our prior experiences were stressful. there was no rush!! completely different than Villefranche and Mykonos. LOL I think everyone else was still asleep.

 

have a great time! this was an awesome cruise :D

[micruiser2002]

Sorry but can someone clarify the 3rd formal night? One of you said it was Turkey the other said Greece? Anyone remember for sure which stop it was? Thanks.

[Sky Sweet]

Sorry but can someone clarify the 3rd formal night? One of you said it was Turkey the other said Greece? Anyone remember for sure which stop it was? Thanks.

 

I think I accidentally said Greece, but Turkey is correct.

[Cruise Cat]

Thank you so much for your information, especially about the shirt information on the tux. I am renting one too. I always knew there were going to be three formal nights but did not think about the shirts.

 

Did he rent his shoes for th tux as well or bring his own? How did they fit? (my feet are really wide!).

 

Thanks in advance.

[uktraveller]

I've heard conflicting reports about the number of public spaces(bars etc) in which smoking is allowed because of the amount of Europeans onboard who smoke. Can anyone confirm which bars were smoke free?

Thanks