Overall, we had a great time on our 12 night Western Mediterranean cruise. Brilliance of the Seas is a beautiful ship and the service was excellent.

We made our own arrangements for transportation and flew from Atlanta to Barcelona a day in advance. I had made prior arrangements for Taxi International to pick us up at the airport and take us to the hotel for about 40 Euros. We needed a large van to cart all of our luggage and misc items and I didn't think we could do this with a regular cab. Anyway, I contacted Angie Garcia at email angietaxi33@yahoo.com and she made these arrangements for us. The driver was waiting when our plane arrived holding a sign with my name on it. He loaded all of our luggage and zipped us to our hotel. The extra day in Barcelona was well worth the time! We stayed at the Avenida Palace Hotel for about $200. I made these hotel reservations through Orbitz. The Hotel allowed us to check in early, so we secured our luggage and made our way out onto the streets of Barcelona. About two blocks from our hotel we found a double decker tourist bus that drives around the city to all of the major sights. We paid 24 Euro per person for a 2 day pass. This turned out to be a great way to see the city. The bus stopped at each major sight and passenger could get off/on. We were able to stay as long as we wanted at each location to sightsee and shop. The buses came by every 15 minutes and you could just hop on and go to the next stop or just ride the entire city loop and never get off. On the second day, Taxi International sent another van to take us to the port. He loaded all of our luggage and took us directly to our ship for about 30 Euros.

Once on board we toured the ship and got comfortable in our state room. First order of business was the safety program - we were required to put on our life vest and sit in the theater listening to the safety briefing from the staff. We were scheduled for second seating dinner at 8:45pm so we hit the bar. We did the second seating dinner for a few nights until we realized that we could eat at the Windjammer buffet anytime of the day. So we stopping going to the dining room all together and just ate at the buffet for breakfast, lunch,and dinner. The food was great and it gave us more control over our schedule. Read more