Once you've been on the bigger ships like Oasis of the seas, you really miss the brilliance of the seas. You can stand in front of the theater and look left and look right and watch the ocean drift by. I think brilliance has more glass than any other ship, it really gives you beautiful views of the ocean. For being built in 2002, the ship is immaculate and well-maintained.

The biggest gripes (like other reviews you see), are with the quality of food. I would describe the Windjammer (buffet) food as "army rations". But in fact, the army probably has better food. To be fair, when we were on Oasis of the seas it was the same awful icky choices (luke-warm hot dogs, mystery dishes, etc), so it's really more of a problem with RCL than the ship. The main dining room is a little better, but still hit or miss. If you want the best food on the ship, you'll have to pay an extra $35/night for the specialty restaurants, Chops, the italian option and I think a sushi one as well. We ate in Chops (steaks) the final night and it was awesome food. TIP: if you go to windjammer for breakfast, head to the back, they have 2 omelet stations that also make eggs any way you like. You'll think I'm kidding, but I think they serve powdered scrambled eggs in the regular stations, they are absolutely revolting.

We played in the casino, big mistake. Except for the high rollers ($1 machines up), nobody won anything, so keep clear of it. If you have to anyway, just stick with video poker or the BJ tables, don't play the slots. Drinks (cocktails) are expensive of course, you can bring 2 bottles of wine on board with you, we did and it did help the expenses a bit, especially since their casino sucks. Read more