Brilliance of the Seas Review

4.0 / 5.0
1,563 reviews

Brilliance is a great cruise! Don’t let the reviews scare you!

Review for the Western Caribbean Cruise on Brilliance of the Seas
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babie22559
10+ Cruises • Age 40s

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Sail Date: Feb 2016

My husband and I just returned from a four night cruise on Brilliance OTS. We are experienced cruisers with Diamond status and only cruise on RCI, so I was very worried when I read the negative reviews. We had a great time and the Brilliance is a lovely, big ship. Embarking was easy in Tampa’s Port. We chose to park with The Parking Doctors and they made it quick and easy. The lot is just down the street from the Port. If you make a reservation online, you can save the service fee by dropping everyone and bags at the port and having one driver show up with the car. Upon Debarking, the Parking Doctors van was easy and quick. Embarkation was very quick. We arrived at the port around 11:15am and were having lunch by Noon. The Park Café opens at Noon and it was peaceful compared to the crazy Windjammer.

The Brilliance and her crew were suburb. I read a lot of reviews about odors or smells, but we did not encounter any of this. The ship appeared to be in great condition. Our ocean view stateroom was in great condition, with plenty of space for two adults. Our stateroom attendant was wonderful and we met him right away. I also read poor reviews about the service and crew. Again, I did not encounter any of this. In fact, we felt as if the staff went out of their way to help us. The only thing we noticed is that we were not hounded by the crew on the pool deck to order drinks. We hardly saw anyone walking around at all. But, we just order cocktails at night, so this did not bother us. Perhaps the drink packages have cut down on the crew walking around and asking. Be sure to attend the Whisky Tasting in the Duty Free shop. Andrew from Scotland was extremely knowledgeable and gave a great seminar.

On the first day, we hung out in the Solarium; beautiful area with lots of chairs. But, if your goal is to sunbathe ALL day, be sure to get to the Solarium early to claim a chair. The staff does not seem to enforce the 30 min sign about leaving your chairs unattended. But, we made the best of it by taking a chair that was clearly left with a book, just to hold the place. If the folks came back (which they never did), our plan was to just give up the chair. Chairs were easily found later in the afternoon.

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