Brilliance of the Seas Review

Pros and Cons of Royal Carribean Brilliance of the Seas

Review for Canada & New England Cruise on Brilliance of the Seas
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canalcruiser3737
First Time Cruiser • Age 60s

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

This was our first cruise on a large ship and overall, I'd recommend Royal Carribean. It was a very well appointed ship and met our expectations for a midprice cruise line. The cruise ran very smoothly from check-in to check out. Staff was very competent if not as highly refined as one might expect on a high end, luxury class ship. Food was plentiful and about what we expected -- not the kind of cruise where we'd go back just for the food, but perfectly adequate. Service by the key staff was outstanding, including stateroom attendant and waitress in the main dining room. All ports were well worth visiting and ship excursions were fairly priced, smoothly run, and well received by all passengers we spoke to.

The stateroom was larger and nicer than we expected (Deck 9 balcony). We had plenty of room for ourselves and for all of our belongings and were very content to relax right in our stateroom when we wanted to get away from the crowds because it was so comfortable. Showers are small as with most cruise lines so if you're a particularly large person, do keep that in mind. On board entertainment was fine, though not spectacular. A comedian one night, a pretty amazing juggler one night, a cross-over violinist (think Yanni) another night -- all quite good but certainly not recognizeable names. The on-board cruise line singers and dancers that were featured on 2 nights were not quite as good as we might have expected but what they lacked in raw talent they certainly made up for with energy and stage personality. Casino looked very nice (though we don't gamble). Specialty restaurants reportedly good though we didn't eat in them. On board activities ranging from dance classes to state-of-the-art gym, to wall climbing, miniature golf, etc. etc. etc. were well done. There's a very nice pool with a large screen TV where movies and sporting events are shown nightly. Also a beautiful indoor cinema theater, separate from the main theater. A very nice indoor pool. Great spa. Photographers on board -- might seem intrusive but if you just say no thank you they back off. There's an on-board art auctioneer that I don't think has anything to do with the cruise line itself but contracts with cruise lines to do their thing on board and I would say stay clear of them. Whether they are or not, they come off as smarmy bait-and-switch artists who pay more attention to sales pressure antics than true understanding of art and representation of artists. They are easy to avoid! One more note: Their website is very challenging to use -- not at all intuitive when you try to find dining options or shore excursions. For shore excursions -- look up the name of the port, not the name of the ship or the particular cruise itinerary -- you won't find it there. And call them if you're confused about dining options. The best one: "Dine when you want" has to be reserved in advance but that is not at all clear from the website. I was surprised and disappointed that no packet of documents came from them in advance of the cruise. I thought they might include a list of "to do's," a packing list, etc. but no such thing came. The e-mail that does come has a link to "What To do Next" in tiny print that looks like a disclaimer in the middle of a long, detailed document. Other passengers who'd cruised on other cruise lines agreed R.C. has one of the worst web sites . I'm sure there are more luxurious and less luxurious cruise lines but for us -- Royal Carribean seemed a very good compromise and a very good value and I'm happy to recommend them.

The itinerary was very nice. Second or third week of October is your best chance of seeing great leaf colors. In Portland - "The Best of Portland" tour was quite enjoyable even though we don't usually do big bus tours. Good guide and you'll see everything you want to see and still have some time to walk around the Old Port before you have to reboard the ship. In St. John, the most beautiful site seeing is along the coast to the Bay of Fundy and particularly the Fundy Trail (which closes the second full week of October so plan accordingly). Tour buses can't take you there. You can do it by rental car but we did a private taxi tour (you'll find several reviews for them online) and, while more expensive, wouldn't do it any other way if we had it to do over again. You can fit 4 or 5 in a taxi so if you find people you want to tour with and share the cost, its actually cheaper than the cruise excrusion. In Bar Harbor -- you can the entire town by walking and if you want some history -- take the 30 minute trolley tour for $10 but I highly recommend going to the Acadia National Park. We did it by bike -- strenuous but unbelievably beautiful. If you can't do it by bike, try a carriage ride or private taxi. Big tour buses really canj't get into the nicest areas. Finally, in Halifax, there are "best of" tours that people seemed to be happy with but no one had the experience we did with another private taxi tour. I highly recommend the drive out to Lunenberg, through Chester, Mahone Bay, a lobster lunch and on to Peggy's Cove. Bus tours only go to Peggy's Cove which is tiny and, on its own, probably not worth drive. As the last stop on the "full loop" of the south shore coastline, definitely worth a visit though. Beware of whale watch tours in Bar Harbor. It's a 40 mile boat trip each way through often rough seas and can be cold -- and you may or may not see whales. We had some pretty disappointed folks on our cruise who spent their day on that particular excursion. People liked 3-lighthouse tour (there's a bus version and a cruise version). The Schooner ride is pretty touristy -- lots of people packed on board and the boat is not the most beautiful or best maintained in the world.

Cabin Review

Superior Ocean View Stateroom with Balcony

Cabin D2

We were very surprised at the large size of our superior oceanview balcony (category D2) Cabin #9234 stateroom and with how well it was furnished and laid out. It looks just like the pictures on line. We feared that was a "brochure shot" and it would look much smaller when we saw it in person but, if anything, it was bigger than we expected. The room can be divided by a curtain if you wish-- with a sofa and coffee table in front and the bed in the back near the balcony. Or just leave it open to enjoy the full space. There is plenty of storage for clothes in full length closets with his and her poles, lots of drawers, corner cabinets, a hutch-like cabinet, and under the bed. We could have brought 2 or 3 times as much and had room for everything. There's an in room safe and mini-bar and individually controlled heat and A/C. The bathroom is typical -- small but well laid out. The shower is small but adequate unless you are a very large person. The hot water was always hot and there was plenty of water pressure and that was a wonderful surprise as well. Toilets flush strongly and completely -- much better than other marine heads we've seen. The stateroom attendant kept it sparkling clean with fresh towels twice daily, turn down service each night, ice upon request -- a complete disinfectant wipedown every day. We ended up spending much more time in our cabin than we thought we would because it was so nice and for that reason we're really glad we got a balcony room. Stateroom 9234 is aft on the port side -- about 2/3 of the way to the stern of the boat from the "Centrum" multi-level atrium which is the center of activity. We felt essentially no rocking/rolling at any time on the cruise even in 4 foot seas and were surprised at how stable it was. My wife gets sea sick fairly easily and was fine the whole trip. We had a balcony stateroom which I highly recommend to get fresh air, capture the views, watch the ship dock, etc. On one occasion the air conditioning seemed a little underpowered (just for a couple hours) and we were able to cool the room down quickly by opening the door. I recommend being at least 6 or more cabins away from the main atrium, whether foreward or aft, because the closer ones can stay pretty noisy with all the music and entertainment in the atrium until midnight each night. Way aft, we noticed a little engine vibration but where we were there was none. It was perfectly quiet and we would absolutely choose this location again. The folks in the foreward cabins said there was a little bit of odor toward the end of the cruise but there was none at all where we were. Also, staying aft puts you in the same area of the ship as the main dining room and the Windjammer buffet dining room -- so getting to food is easy by stairs if the elevators are slow or full (as frequently is the case). It's also an easy walk up stairs to the pool deck, gym deck, disco, etc. And if you have to go farther away (Guest services and Excursions, for example, are on deck 4), you're going down the stairs instead of up -- so you are not as likely to need elevators then either. The theater, shops, photography studio, cinema, and pool areas are forward -- so you do have a bit of a walk to them, but you use the restaurants more than once every day and each of those venues only occasionally. Be careful of review sites that describe bigger balconies for some of the staterooms and suggest that because it's bigger, its better. If the

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