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Brilliance of the Seas

Freedom of the Seas

Voyager of the Seas

Liberty of the Seas

Harmony of the Seas

Vision of the Seas

Allure of the Seas

Symphony of the Seas

Serenade of the Seas

Rhapsody of the Seas

Navigator of the Seas

Oasis of the Seas

Wonder of the Seas

Explorer of the Seas

Adventure of the Seas

Ovation of the Seas

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Spectrum of the Seas

Quantum of the Seas

Jewel of the Seas

Mariner of the Seas

Independence of the Seas

Ketchikan

sorry to say the service and food at the main dining room was very very poor

the daily activities seemed for nursery  tots.The music and singers around the ship were made for nursing home entertainment.They sang and played the same things all through the crossing.

Now to say that the royal caribbean dancers and orchestra were very good as always.Their shows were very good.

The movie theater is very poorly kept most of the seats are broken.The food at the windjammer was much better and for the first time in our 25th cruise we never went back to the dining room,The 

maître d  was  very rude to us  made us feel  very uncomfortable so with that and being the food and service was so poor we decided not to return during our crossing.This is what we saw and felt I am sure not everyone felt this way though the majority if people I spoke to on board were complaining about the food ,service and extreme bordom,

Was extremely boring

Embarking and disembarking on this ship were very well organized and went quickly.  The ports of call on this trip were excellent.  We got to stay overnight in Lisbon, Portugal which gave extra time to see the area.  It was our first time in all of the ports except Barcelona where we departed from.  Cartagena felt very safe to walk around to all of the main historic sites which were not far from the dock  Malaga and Seville were excellent stops.  One of the most beautiful scenic stops was Ponta Delgada in the Azores.  This is a must see, and we were fortunate to have good weather.  This is a very nice size ship, one of our favorite with a lot of windows including glass elevators facing the ocean.  All of the crew that we interacted with were very friendly.  The food was very good and we got to experience Chops and Giovanni's which were both top shelf.  The entertainment on this trip were the best ever; we are still talking about it and listening to the CD's that we bought on board.  Jimmy Hopper a singer/entertainer from Vegas, The Barricade Boys who had the most incredible harmony and Mary-Jess, an incredibly talented young singer.  I would make this exact trip again in order to see more things in the ports.

First Transatlantic --- ready to go again!

This cruise had good reviews but now I realize the reviews are from Royal Caribbean lifers. FYI if you have kids the ship attracts a majority of older people. There was only 1 main dining room aside from the buffet. I felt pressured to pay extra to eat at the specialty dining rooms because the salespeople were always standing at the entrance to the buffet. Cleaning was poor, I found false eyelashes on my bed when we checked in. They hide the vegetarian and Indian menus in the main dining room. You have to ask if there are any other menu options. Our server asked us to give them good reviews which made us uncomfortable. The chef and the cooks somehow made everything taste similar. On the bright side we didn't gain any weight.

Our rooms smelled musty. The first night I could not sleep, there was a terrible noise possibly from the engine. The second night about 6 of us stood in the hallway talking about the noise. The ship sent someone to investigate and it got better. We were on level 3.

Entertainment was good except for the jugglers which were silly and boring. Overall do not recommend. One of our excursions was cancelled and the staff at the excursions desk was very helpful. I also found the staff to be more into talking to each other than into helping us. The guys pushing the coffee cart kept power walking by us without a word. It took me 2 days to realise they had coffee and tea and I could ask them to stop by my table.

Old ship and uninterested crew

As I much prefer the smaller ships, this was a perfect fit. The Brilliance is in good shape overall. We were in a Grand Suite. Our room was clean and in wonderful condition. Our cabin steward, Luis, was attentive to all and any of our needs. The concierge, Amit, was very helpful in all facets especially with getting off the ship quickly at the ports of call and disembarkation. 

As for the food. Having been on many RCCI cruises, I feel the quality of the food has slipped considerably. While the service in the main dining rooms is superb, the food is below standard.  The Windjammer is same old same old. 

The rest of the crew was awesome. Good entertainment, happy staff overall.

The ports of call were great, however too much in a short period of time. A bit exhausting if you have never been to Europe and want to see as much as possible.

Wonderful

If you want to pay a lot for a low-cost rip-off cruise in a dated ship and very few activities - this is the ship for you. Six 1 liter bottles of water for 39 USD?? come on.

We were on a family vacation (4 families with young kids) and booked a cruise via an agent (who was supposed to help find the right ship) on a home for the elderly cruise with cheap food, very little activities and dated design.

If it was not a multi family trip I would have just disembarked with my family on the third day and fly back home. I would have never believed i am boarding a low cost rip-off cruise where if you want to have something eatable for dinner you must pay extra.

We had several main complaints -

Food - huge amount of low quality food, no proper salads, no health food, very very disappointing!! you have healthier food at McDonald's.

Agent in Israel - not nice and not informative. would not help or give basic detail on the ship (like the type of electric sockets in the room, activities... we will definitely take the time to give them the worst review online once i am done with this survey to warn others).

Up Sales - 6 bottles of water for 39 USD?? come on. we don't consume much sugar and do not drink fuzzy drinks, so only water which came at an insane cost. video arcade that charges 2 USD per game - no wonder it was empty the entire trip.

The rooms were not clean - mainly under the beds, the railing of the balcony door, minibar in both rooms was not cooling. at that point we got tired of complaining.

Pools - very small pools with one small pathetic water slide. no indoor kids pool for colder days. our neighborhood pool has more facilities and a private pool at home is bigger.

Activities - no real activities for kids, no space for the kids to play next to the parents while the adults are having a break. in general, handling the kids on the cruise was a nightmare, we were lucky we brought our own games from home.

Some good things - Service was very good especially from the dinner restaurant staff. the crew is well organised and managed.

The experience with them was so bad, i prefer to spend my money somewhere else.

SO SO VERY DISAPPOINTED!!

Royal Caribbean may have got us tricked and got our money this time, but we will learn for the future and not trust this company again.

SO SO DISAPPOINTED - Brilliance of the Seas - low-cost rip-off cruise. 

We choose this cruise because the dates coincided with when we needed to be in florence for a wedding. The cruise ended on a sunday and the wedding was the following Wednesday so it was an easy way to kill 2 birds with one stone. We felt it would be a Cliff note version of Italy with the cruise and then go to Florence for the wedding and more time to explore the Tuscan region.

The service on the ship was good...both housekeeping and our waiters in the dining room were very good. However...i did not like that at the majority of the cruise, staff was always trying to upsell us to their other restaurants...a murder mystery tour etc. And I believe the food was much better with our last Royal Caribbean cruise...probably 10-12 years ago. The dining room food was just ok..)

We booked one ship excursion to Monte carlo and the tour lady was very informative. However...one 4 some of the bus was late getting back to the bus (even after the tour guide preached and preached to be on time.). The tour lady kept waiting for them until finally one of our group asked her to quit penalizing the rest of us and to move on. which she reluctantly did. that was the only ship excursion we booked...the rest we booked through a private tour excursion company...way better for the price.

Good basic cruise 

We cruise with RCCL a lot.  This cruise was not quite up to the usual standard.  The ship had quite a few minor cosmetic issues as well as some mechanical ones ... some of the touch screens didn't function as designed;  hot water was not "quite" hot in the room, and varied in temperature during the shower;  the tv was mounted in such a way that it had to be moved every time we wanted to open one of the cabinets;  and the hallway to our cabin smelled of urine for most of the trip.  

The dining experiences in the specialty restaurants were good.  SERVICE in the main dining room was excellent, but the atmosphere was "off".  The lights were bright, there was much hustle and bustle and noise and rushing around ... NOT the "elegant dining experience" promised throughout the marketing materials.  It felt very much like being in any casual dining restaurant in the states ... even on "formal" nights.  That was sad.  

This being transatlantic, we were looking forward to what lectures and learning opportunities would be on board.  We were hugely disappointed.  The "destination lectures" were all about Spain ... after the fact ... and the speaker was less than professional.  There was a doctor who did a couple of presentations on aging (a very popular topic!), but he was in a conference room that was over-filled, so we were not able to actually listen to him.  There was an excellent speaker on thieving ... although his presentation needed a bit more organization.  

With a few really outstanding exceptions, the staff on this cruise just didn't seem to have their hearts in it.  The shops were never re-ordered in two weeks, so once you had been through them, there was nothing new to see ... and things stayed in the same spots throughout the cruise so it didn't even generate any interest in wandering through to see new displays.  The merchandise, for the most part, is just "ordinary dollar store" stuff ... and even then they didn't have some useful items ...  

We were especially disappointed that my husband's "Crown & Anchor Society" status was incorrect on his SeaPass ... which meant that none of the "perks" were available to him ... and no one could fix that.  

It also seemed that no one really knew what was going on.  For example, I went to redeem one of my free drinks ... and was told by the bartender that what I wanted was not available on the program.  I argued, he looked it up ... and gave me a drink.  ;-)  Another example;  we pre-purchased a dining package, and found that there was a wine discount after we had been there two days.  Sometimes they applied it, sometime they didn't ... and no one could explain why ... 

There was also not enough information about the ports ... admittedly, the port stops happened very early in the cruise, so there was not too much time, but the map/handout about the port did not offer any USEFUL information, if you were not shopping for jewelry.  Which we were not.

We will cruise RCCL again, and hope that this cruise was just an anomaly ...

Not as good as we are used to on RCCL

I choose this cruise because of the price, the itinerary, and I'd never cruised on RC before. And I won't be back.

RC- if you do NOTHING else, you must institute a seminar for First Time RC Cruisers ONLY. Have one per each 5 days at sea. (Let's face it - the longer the cruise, the older the passenger, the more we need review!) This seminar should be all about the loyalty program. During this seminar, you should treat us like were were Platinum, and then tell us how we get to be like that on every RC cruise! Explain all the levels and what they mean, etc. Raffles do seem to be good, too! 

Jim and I kept running into places we couldn't go (breakfast in Chops Grille?!?!) or perqs we couldn't get and we had NO IDEA what Diamond Plus meant or how to get it!!

There were MANY other little things (two levels of approval to get Housekeeping to bring me some lotion; uncharging for everything; no chocolates on the pillow). The Brilliance is in great need of updating. My sink was broken and there were large divots in the wall. And why did I have to hear my neighbors flush their toilet, sing, or turn on their TV? Oh wait, here's another: The enrichment activities that I attended were great! BUT they were led by fellow passengers and apparently RC didn't do anything to compensate them. That's rude. RC could offer them dinner in Chops or one of the other eat-for-fee places. I thought that was so cheesy.

I gave them 3 stars because their were things that were out of their control and, more importantly, there were some amazing, fun, outrageous, beautiful, hysterical (I participated in The Quest.), great times on this vacation. we did have some really fantastic times!!!!! And the cabins were considerably bigger than those on the Princess ships we know.

On a brighter note, we'll be doing the Panama Canal on March with Princess. I called them. They still do pillow chocolates and every cabin gets lotion, bath gel, shampoo. and conditioner in their own private little containers.

Not a fan of Royal Caribbean after just one cruise!

Love transatlantic cruising for the opportunity to "unplug" and truly relax. We started in Barcelona which was interesting this year due to the demonstrations over the secession movement. We had a challenge getting to our hotel because of blocked roads. We had to walk the last half mile to the hotel with all of our luggage. Also witnessed a huge demonstration/rally in Cathedral Plaza....many thousands of people!

No problems getting to the ship the following day.

We stopped in Cartagena, Malaga and Funchal Madeira before crossing to St Kitts and then into Tampa.

The Brilliance of the Seas is a nice size ship. The cabins are clean and decent size. Food was plentiful and good. The main dining room staff are always great. Manuel was a great waiter...been working on ships for many years....great stories to tell.

Adrian is a great bartender in the Schooner Bar. 

Did not love the majority of the entertainment this year. The tenors show (Fourever, I think) was GREAT.

Relaxing Transatlantic Cruising!

-- Chef's table was awesome, best food experience ever.

- all staff was friendly and very helpful. 

- loved it so much rebooked in April for Galveston to Barcelona.  Only wish it were on the Brilliance. 

- Most of the ports were great to walk around in even  great if you did not book any excursions. 

- Staff planned activities kept you as involved as you wanted to be.  

- Cabin was nice, a little dated but very clean. Our housekeeper was amazing.

- Food was good, sometimes the listed dinner was not exactly what was served but it was still good.

- Windjammer was always crowded but they always had plenty of food and it was kept clean 

- it was amazing to see how they kept refreshing all the food section, would close down for one meal and be ready for the next within 30 minutes.  

                                              Great job Brilliance!

Great cruise, Brilliance was a great way to cross the Atlantic.

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