Brilliance of the Seas- 12 night Western Mediterranean/Venice June 22- July 4, 2008

Before you read this review, you might want to grab a drink and settle in. I recently cruised with a group of friends and family onboard the Brilliance of the Seas, 12 night Med/Venice from June 22 - July 4, 2008. We had done this same cruise in 2006 and therefore rather than repeat the same shore excursions I arranged for us to go off the beaten path in the French and Italian ports. Two years ago when I had spent 18 months researching the excursions etc, so this time planning was really a breeze. Our last time sailing this ship and itinerary was as close to a perfect experience as we could imagine so this time both the ship and excursions had high expectations to meet and overall they did. This review will be broken down into 2 sectionsfirst the ship and then the ports and excursions.

I live in California, and my traveling companion was coming from Manchester, England with the rest of the gang flying from Tampa, FL. Originally I had booked us onboard the Jewel of the Seas' Baltic itinerary, but when RCCL ran a special for the Brilliance including an air special of $1000.00 per person we jumped ship to this cruise. The deal even got better when they put out a C&A coupon, reduced the price several times and gave extra OBC's to entice people to book this cruise. All said and done, everyone wound up saving over $1500.00 per person by moving from the Jewel to Brilliance which more than covered our private excursions and 2 night pre cruise stay in Barcelona. To add icing to the cake, every cabin received a $300.00 onboard credit!! Read more