We flew into Tampa the night before our sailing, wanting to see a little bit of Tampa for the first time since we moved away from there years ago. With that in mind, I'd booked a room at the Starwood-owned Le Meridien in downtown. It's built into the old federal courthouse building, and keeps a lot of the features from the original building and is decorated in a mid-century modern style. The overall effect is really slick, and the price was comparable to the other hotels in the immediate area. We'll be back there again in a heartbeat, though perhaps in a different room - the one we were in (231) was right across from the staff's entrance to the kitchen, and while the sound insulation between the rooms was excellent, I can't say the same for that between the room and the hallway. There was a fair amount of clinking dishes, and conversations in the hall could have been in the room with us. Additionally, a company had rented the outdoor pool area for their holiday party, and that being right outside our window ensured we wouldn't be going to bed early. Neither of those kept us from enjoying our stay, and since this is a Starwood hotel, the bed was one of the beloved Westin mattresses. If you've slept on one, you know, and if you haven't, you need to.

The next morning, we caught an Uber to the cruise terminal. Which terminal, though? Nothing on our SeaPass, reservation documents, or anything else told us which cruise terminal to go to. I had to get on the port's website and find on their schedule which one we were supposed to go to. RC uses two terminals, and if you pick the wrong one, they're not close to one another. It's normally a five-minute ride, but we had to dodge a Christmas parade, so it took a little longer and cost a little more. Even though we arrived about thirty minutes after check-in began, we only had to wait maybe ten minutes from arrival to walking onto the ship. Terminal 3, where we were, is a touch confusing on arrival and looks dingy until you get through security and into the main check-in area. Once there, it's modern and clean, but that first impression is not great.

Finally, we're onto the ship. This was our first time on a Radiance-class ship. Our last two were on the Freedom, so this was a nice chance of pace. First order of business was to make our way to the Solarium, and we took the scenic route to check out the ship on the way up. First impressions are very good. Compared to the Freedom, the Brilliance is just more luxurious-feeling. Richer. Warmer. That sort of thing. The public areas are more spread out so you don't have everyone on the ship crowding the same two or three parts of the ship. Sort of like the ship was laid out with guest comfort in mind more so than corralling us into constant upsells. Read more