Just back from Brilliance -- Questions?

[Robin G]

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.

 

My husband's feet are very wide as well. He brought his own shoes. They weren't really made to wear with a tux, but he opted for comfort. With all of the walking during port days, he was so glad he did.

 

As far as the shirt situation, pack a bottle of Frebreeze in a zip-loc baggie. It's a great way to freshen things up.

 

Robin

[Robin G]

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

 

Yes, we had main seating which was 6 PM. On the very first night, we asked our head server what was the latest time we could show up and still be served. It was never a problem. I don't recall the food being port-related.

 

I missed Rome because of being sick - my husband and daughter went in together. We all really wanted to see the Sistine Chapel - however you must go through the entire Vatican Museum in order to do so. They said the Chapel was wonderful, but the Museum they could have done without. Apparently, it is a very long walk and takes several hours. But, of course, there are folks who visit the Museum on each visit -- it's a matter of personal preference.

 

As far as tux vs. suit - as long as he's comfortable. Either is fine. My husband rents a tux mainly because a suit is one less thing he has to pack.

 

Robin

[Robin G]

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

 

Sorry, can't get any input on this whatsoever. Perhaps you can contact RC directly. They should be able to tell you.

 

Robin

[terri23]

Yes, we had main seating which was 6 PM. On the very first night, we asked our head server what was the latest time we could show up and still be served. It was never a problem. I don't recall the food being port-related.

 

I missed Rome because of being sick - my husband and daughter went in together. We all really wanted to see the Sistine Chapel - however you must go through the entire Vatican Museum in order to do so. They said the Chapel was wonderful, but the Museum they could have done without. Apparently, it is a very long walk and takes several hours. But, of course, there are folks who visit the Museum on each visit -- it's a matter of personal preference.

 

As far as tux vs. suit - as long as he's comfortable. Either is fine. My husband rents a tux mainly because a suit is one less thing he has to pack.

 

Robin

 

Robin - there is a "short cut" to the Sistine Chapel that takes about a half hour. There are signs posted but they are not very obvious. We were running a bit behind and had been there before and so opted out of the rest of the museum this time. Sorry you were sick and missed the Chapel! I hope you get back there someday soon. :)

[Robin G]

Robin - there is a "short cut" to the Sistine Chapel that takes about a half hour. There are signs posted but they are not very obvious. We were running a bit behind and had been there before and so opted out of the rest of the museum this time. Sorry you were sick and missed the Chapel! I hope you get back there someday soon. :)

 

Bummer! Can you pre-purchase admission tickets for it? We are already talking about returning. Thanks for the info!

 

Robin

[terri23]

Hi Robin, I am envious that you are planning a return trip already!

 

I'm not sure whether you can buy tickets in advance as we never have. The longest I have had to wait is about 45 minutes. This last time, we went about 2 pm and walked right in - very lucky!

 

Once you're in, just look for the capella sistina signs and follow the arrows. the signage is not very good!

 

have a great next trip :)

[prophotogirl]

How was y'all's expirence with Pickpocketers in the ports? Barcelona mainly but would like to know if the other ports are becoming bad.

[Robin G]

Terri - thanks for the info - I'll definetly have to give that a try.

 

Heather - Had no problems personally, but I know some folks did. Just be aware of your surroundings and keep your wits about you. Some people think that because they're on vacation everything is care-free. That's when you can get "hit".

 

Robin

[terri23]

How was y'all's expirence with Pickpocketers in the ports? Barcelona mainly but would like to know if the other ports are becoming bad.

 

I was pickpocketed in Eze (on our tour from Villefranche). A woman "slipped" on the cobblestones and grabbed my arm. She then turned and walked away. Shortly after, I realized the sunglasses sticking out of an outside pocket of my small pack (a cross-body purse), were gone. I knew her demeanor meant trouble - instead of apologizing or anything, she abruptly turned and walked away. Lesson learned! Luckily they were the cheap sunglasses (or I wouldn't have been so casual with them). We (our group of six) had no other trouble, and we spent three nights in Barcelona, rode the subway, were out late on las ramblas, etc. Have a great trip!

[prophotogirl]

Thanks for the reassurance. I arrive first in my group to Barcelona (2 hours before anyone else) and I'm the last to leave Barcelona (a full day after everyone). Being by myself was kinda freakin' me out. But I think I'll be fine now. I've got a PacSafe bag/purse/tote thing so that should help with security.

[Cruise Cat]

Were the Room Safes on the Brilliance Keypad or did you have to swipe a card with a magnetic strip?

[trucruising]

Welcome Back Robin,

 

I have a question about your Venice itinerary two years ago. I will be going in October.

 

Did you do the ports of call on your own?

 

If so, can you please share some of your experience?

 

Thanks

Nancy

[Sky Sweet]

Were the Room Safes on the Brilliance Keypad or did you have to swipe a card with a magnetic strip?

 

Hi Cruise Cat :)

 

They are kepad safes.

[Cruise Cat]

Hi Cruise Cat :)

 

They are kepad safes.

 

 

Thanks!!!:)

[Robin G]

Welcome Back Robin,

 

I have a question about your Venice itinerary two years ago. I will be going in October.

 

Did you do the ports of call on your own?

 

If so, can you please share some of your experience?

 

Thanks

Nancy

 

Hi Nancy

 

Villefranche - we did this on our own. We took the train and then hoped on a bus that took us to Eze. We visited a wonderful perfume factory, Fragnard, also. Awesome day!

 

Livorno - we had a driver and he drove us to Lucca. We strolled around all morning; my husband found a deli and he was in heaven! We stayed for a wonderfully simple italian lunch and then we drove to Pisa. I had pre-ordered tickets online but there was no line anyway.

 

Naples - we hired a driver. We drove to Sorrento, Positano and walked and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. We then drove to Herculaneum. We had heard that it is smaller but virually the same as Pompeii and a lot less crowded. That was an understatement - we were the only ones there! It was great.

 

Venice - you will absolutely love the sail into Venice. Enjoy! We did this on our own and the following day we took a water taxi to Murano.

 

Dubrovnik - On our own - just walked around the old town

 

Corfu - we rented a car. It was very easy to get around.

 

Rome - We did on our own - we took the train and got off at St. Peter's. We walked through the Basilica, got to the Spanish Steps (where I fell - they are very slippery!), went to the Pantheon and a wonderful lunch, the Coloseum (I had pre-ordered tix on line for this too) and of course the Trevi Fountain. This was the only day we got back to the ship too late for a swim at the pool before dinner.

 

Our daughter was 9 at the time and we knew if we wanted an enjoyable trip all she really needed to make her day was a swim. We had early dining seating.

 

Hope this helps! You'll have an awesome trip!

 

Robin

[SDPadreFan]

Interesting article in my newspaper today re; Santorini.

 

Man gets mad at girlfriend. Be-heads her dog, then kills (first) and be-heads her as well. Don't know where he planned to hide on an island.

[SDPadreFan]

Hi Nancy

 

Villefranche - we did this on our own. We took the train and then hoped on a bus that took us to Eze. We visited a wonderful perfume factory, Fragnard, also. Awesome day!

 

Robin

 

Interesting read. Didn't know that Fragonard had expanded by putting a satellite shop in Eze. I visited the original Fragonard Factory in Grasse, France back in the 80's. Had a great 2 hour tour there back then. Do they still sell their "copies" in the little aluminum bottles?

[Robin G]

Interesting article in my newspaper today re; Santorini.

 

Man gets mad at girlfriend. Be-heads her dog, then kills (first) and be-heads her as well. Don't know where he planned to hide on an island.

 

:eek: Yeah, where DID he think he'd go! Ha!

[Robin G]

Interesting read. Didn't know that Fragonard had expanded by putting a satellite shop in Eze. I visited the original Fragonard Factory in Grasse, France back in the 80's. Had a great 2 hour tour there back then. Do they still sell their "copies" in the little aluminum bottles?

 

Yes they do, and they're wonderful. My husband was just great letting myself and our daughter smell to our hearts content and then we each picked out our favorites to bring home with us. The place isn't huge by any standards, but what the heck - it's France for goodness sake and we were in a perfume factory! It was simply delightful!

 

Robin

[SDPadreFan]

Yes they do, and they're wonderful. My husband was just great letting myself and our daughter smell to our hearts content and then we each picked out our favorites to bring home with us. The place isn't huge by any standards, but what the heck - it's France for goodness sake and we were in a perfume factory! It was simply delightful!

 

Robin

 

Just as an aside, the original factory in Grasse is pretty big. Even the showroom was fairly large. They showed us the varying processes for extracting the essence from the flower. If I remember correctly (about 20 years ago) Jasmine was the most expensive and labor intensive to extract.

They also had a wall size map showing all the places in the world that they import the flowers from. It was pretty impressive. Because of what I learned at the factory, I always have my wife keep her perfumes (the ones in glass bottles) in a dark place.

 

There were several perfume factories in Grasse, but only a couple were able to open their doors to the public due to safety/health concerns. Guess it was an issue with ventilation.

[vapersecutor]

Robin,

 

Thanks for all the info and continuing to answer questions. I can't wait until Nov!

 

Meanwhile here are my questions: Did your dd go to Adventure Ocean? Do you know what time they opened in the evening? Did they offer kids' dining w/ the staff? Was there anything your dd particularly liked or didn't like in the ports? My dd is 9.

 

Mary

[Robin G]

Hi Mary--

 

Yes, my daughter LIVED at Adventure Ocean. Every evening after dinner, about 7 PM she went there, sometimes even skipping dessert. I believe they did have a few nights of dining with the staff. I want to say that it's formal nights, but I'm just not sure.

 

Her favorite ports: Barcelona, Croatia and Eze. She's a shopper and really enjoyed Barcelona this past cruise as well. She'll find funky shoes or shirts - stuff you just don't see at home. She also said if we would have tried to pack in a bunch of "educational stuff" she would have been bored. She said the driving part was boring, too, when we had drivers. But there's not awhole you can do about that.

 

She's turning 12 next Friday and is already dreaming of a travel profession - if the teaching job doesn't work out!! :rolleyes:

 

Robin

[NCBill]

My wife and I also cruised on the Brilliance for the 6/10 sailing. We were on our 8th cruise but our first RCI. The Brilliance is a beautiful ship, and was just recently renovated - it looked brand new to me.

 

We did have a few service issues, mainly related to our cabin (7110) which had a strong sewage smell for most of the trip. A visit by the plumber and many doses of deoderizer by the cabin steward made it passible but not pleasant. From what I have seen posted, this is a fairly common issue on cruise ships, although I have never experienced it firsthand on previous cruises.

 

I agree with the poster that shore-side strikes did enter into the picture. We too were hit by the train strike in Villefranche and ended up taking a bus and a long hike to get to the Nice beach, yet were able to get the train directly back to Villefranche in the afternoon. We took a ferry out of Naples so we were not impacted by the strikes there. We intended to go to Capri, but then heard that there were 7 cruise ships tendering passengers into that small island... we went to Sorrento... I wouldn't say that Sorrento is a "must see", but in all honesty, by that point in the cruise, I could have stayed on board and just relaxed! This is a port- and walk-intensive itinerary!

 

We also did the unscheduled dining plan, but found it less organized and less responsive than a similar program under NCL. Plus, I was a bit put-off by the required prepaid tips, because service, in my opinion did suffer... at least until we latched onto a good team and hunted them down every night.

 

Dinner in Chops was fabulous. If I were to cruise RCL again, I would book every night in Chops and Portofino, and skip the dining room altogether. For the extra $600 per couple on a 12 night cruise, it would be worth it.

 

On the issue of tendering, RCI issues "tender tickets" the night before a tendering port, which are numbered tickets that allow you on a particular tender run. I picked these up for each port, and got either tender #1 or tender #2 each time. This worked very well for all ports except either Mykonos or Santorini (can't remember which) when the crew decided to call tender 1,2,3,4 all within a few minutes of each other, leading to a hugh traffic jam on deck 2 and a bunch of PO'd passengers. Other than that, the system worked OK... just another queue to wait in (getting your tender ticket).

 

On shore excursions, we did these primarily on our own, except Pisa and Athens, which we booked through the ship. I much preferred our own excursions. In Kusadasi we used Ekol travel (they have a website) where we got a personalized all-day tour of Ephesus, a driver, a tour guide, and a private Mercedes minivan for about $150 for 2 people. This was the by far the best tour we took. Ephesus is amazing, particularly with a great tour guide (we had Ali) who can relate the history of the place.

 

One tip for cruisers that I might add.... If you have a problem, and go to Guest Services about an issue, get your issue recorded in the ship's "guest log" system...have them print it out for you! Otherwise, you will hear that there was no such problem reported if you try to discuss the issue with the home office, post-cruise.

 

The value of the $US in Europe sucks right now. No other way to put it. So be prepared. A 12 ounce Coke at any of the tourist sites will cost 4 Euros, or nearly $7. My advice is to adjust your habits (drink bottled water, like the locals do, for 1/2 a Euro.) or pay the price of being a tourist.

 

This was an expensive trip for us, compared ot other vacations we have taken. Having said that, we will probably do trips like this again, now that we are empty-nesters. I am not in the travel business (many posters on this board are travel professionals) and paid my own way for this experience. I think all-told, including cruise fare, extras on-board, trip insurance, tours, and shore-side meals and expenses, the total vacation (excluding airfare, which was obtained with frequent flyer miles) was around $9k for 2 people, in a balcony E1 category cabin. All in all it was a great cruise, beautiful ship, exciting ports, amazing sights. Personally, I have had better food and service on competitive lines, and will probably do more cruising in the future on other carriers.

[Robin G]

Hi NC Bill.

 

Sorry to hear about the sewer issue - we had that type of problem on a short Carnival cruise we were last year. It was just the icing on the cake for that trip, our least favorite cruise to date.

 

Even though I am a travel professional, I didn't get even a dollar discount - we paid out of our pockets, too, 100%. I've heard that years ago things were certainly different as far as comps, etc. -- Just my luck...

 

We thought the tenders were fine at Santorini and Mykonos, but Villefranche was ridiculous. We had a #1 ticket and when we were called we went to the proper deck. There were tons of people showing up and no one was even checking the tender tickets numbers - it seemed disorganized. Maybe because it was the first port, everyone was excited and ready to get going. I don't know...

 

I don't agree with your opinion of Sorrento. We love it there. I think it's a "must see". We actually didn't get there this time, we went to Ravello instead, which was beautiful. I DO agree with you, however, that it was a tiring trip. By the end, we were all dragging. It didn't seem to bother us as much two years ago, but as my husband reminded me, I AM two years older. So glad he mentioned it because I had no idea :rolleyes:

 

We used Ekol travel as well in Turkey - our guide was Oktay - don't recall what the driver's name was. Most certainly outstanding! Did they take you through the Terrace Houses? We were the only ones in there when we went through. Very facinating area.

 

Robin

[NCBill]

We actually saw a pickpocket attempt on Las Ramblas in Barcelona, but the perpetrator (an older woman in scarf and long coat) was caught by a quick thinking observer who saw her snatch a wallet from a woman's hands. We used neck wallets for a bit of cash and kept our irreplaceables in the room safe. Outside of the Vatican we also heard of another pickpocket attempt, but didn't see anything ourselves. I'd play it safe in all ports.