Brilliance of the Seas Review
Brilliance of the Seas is the second in Royal Caribbean's lovely mid-sized Radiance class (following, of course, Radiance of the Seas; more recent siblings include Serenade of the Seas and Jewel of the Seas). The ship, similar to its radiant sister in layout and facilities, does an excellent job of incorporating some of the best features from the mega-ship sized Voyager class (easily another one-third larger than this ship) and the somewhat smaller Vision class ships.
Such as? You'll find classics like the Schooner Bar (note the nifty hickory smoked smell -- or is that gunpowder? -- that conveys an "ahoy matey" sensory experience), but there's also miniature and simulated golf, and the best-kept-secret Seaview Cafe. Some Royal Caribbean traditions have received intriguing new twists. We love the funky, newly revamped Viking Crown Lounge -- here it's called the Starquest Disco Bar -- and the bar itself actually revolves. Business and conference facilities have been expanded on this ship. Latte-tudes Coffee bar, which replicates a coffeehouse atmosphere -- complete with Internet terminals -- replaces Radiance's cafe/bookshop combo.
One of the immediate impressions we got on Brilliance of the Seas was an imitation of a cash register ringing in our ear: K'ching. Royal Caribbean seems to be moving ever further into "a'la carte territory," and by this we mean beyond the usual stuff for which you're prepared to spend money, like shore excursions, spa services and casino gaming. In this case, be prepared to pay $10 to take Pathway to Yoga at the fitness center, two-bucks-plus to buy a cappuccino from Latte-tudes, $9.95 to watch relatively recent-run movies on RCTV and a $20 service fee to eat in the ship's alternative restaurants.
On the plus side, Royal Caribbean -- fleetwide, not just on Brilliance -- has been innovative in introducing, in particular, beverage packages that can help keep costs down. These include soda cards (for adults the package averaged out at about $5 a day while kids paid about $3 a day). At this point, Royal Caribbean's the only line to offer an adult "Royal Cocktails" card; for $39 plus tip passengers can buy 12 drinks of the house variety, which works out to about $3.25 per drink, saving roughly $1.75 each time.
Brilliance of the Seas tries to be all things to all cruisers and most of the time it works. While the ship's most definitely smaller than its 138,000-ton, 3,114 passenger Voyager brethren, it does have enough room for all the extras we're coming to expect on contemporary cruise ships: an excellent range of restaurant options, a big-enough fitness facility with rock-climbing, miniature golf, virtual golf, water slide and a generous basketball court to complement the usual ping pong and shuffleboard. There are so many bars (and all of them, large or small, manage to be cozy, fun hangouts) that even after a 12-day cruise we're not sure we found them all. And service, particularly bar and dining room wait staff, after an extremely rocky start, was generally very warm and personable.
Another plus is that Brilliance of the Seas genuinely attempts to match the onboard experience with the regions it cruises. On a recent Mediterranean sailing in which American passengers were on a par with Europeans, a tapas menu was introduced and much of the entertainment focused on musical and dance programs, such as one featuring the tango.
But that "big ship" atmosphere has a down side, too. Our experience with Guest Relations was inconsistent at best -- and rarely, when calling, did we actually get through without waiting on hold for a minute to five and ten or longer. And while the ship's layout aims to spread passengers out evenly, it can get congested (and passengers often got a bit aggressive, particularly at the Centrum elevators) at "rush hours" -- pre-dinner, at the guest relations/shore excursion desk early and late in the voyage, and, most particularly, getting back onboard when shore excursion buses all pulled up at the same time late in the afternoon.
 Read Complete Brilliance of the Seas Review
|
|
)
)
)
)
