Brilliance of the Seas Review

4.0 / 5.0
1,563 reviews

First and Last Royal Caribbean Cruise

Review for Transatlantic Cruise on Brilliance of the Seas
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newmexone
6-10 Cruises • Age 70s

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Sail Date: Aug 2014
Cabin: Superior Ocean View Stateroom with Balcony

This was our first Royal Caribbean cruise and in all likelihood will be our last. We have sailed Celebrity many, many times and was hoping for a similar experience on Royal. Unfortunately, that was not the case. The good things first - the itinerary was absolutely wonderful and we loved the ports. We only wished we had more time in Ireland as that was one of the highlights of the trip. I am glad we were able to join other Cruise Critic members on a trip to Blarney Castle and a stop at a traditional Irish pub for a great lunch and a pint of Guinness. We liked the fact that our balcony cabin had great storage space with many hidden nooks to store all the things we take along on cruises. We also liked how Royal treated Cruise Critic members as well as Crown and Anchor members.

The one thing that definitely turned us off of Royal was the smoking in the casino. While we could avoid walking through the casino, it was hard to avoid other public areas of the ship where smoke was very noticeable. If you are bothered by smoke, the public areas on 4, 5, and 6 frequently smelled like smoke. This was especially true on sea days (and on a TA there were many sea days) when the casino was open all the time. There was also a sewage smell in many of the cabin hallways as well as the bathroom in the cabin. I know that Brilliance is an older ship, but with recent refurbishment, we were hoping for better.

The food in the dining room was fair with some highs and lows. Some of the descriptions of the dishes were not very accurate - after being presented with something that tasted like "fake crab" or if it was real crab even more a pity, that was called Royal Seafood Salad, we had to laugh. A tiny piece of crab leg on top was the only recognizable seafood in the salad. Every night's menu had 2 Indian dishes available, which I never saw anyone ordering. I think that was intended to be the vegetarian offering every night, but it seemed to me that the menu could have used a bit more creativity. Also, if you like your meat not overcooked, we learned never order anything other than medium rare. It was as if there were only 2 meats temps - medium rare and over-cooked.

Cabin Review

Superior Ocean View Stateroom with Balcony

Cabin D2

Cabin was a good size with plenty of storage. Bed was comfortable. Bathroom had a sewage smell as did some of the hallways on the ship. The shower curtain did not do a great job of keeping water from getting all over the bathroom floor.

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