My wife and I chose this trip for my first ever cruise - a four-night cruise to Grand Bahama and back - with family and friends. It's one of the smaller ships, so I had lower expectations (after reading so much about the giant ships). We left for Tampa on January 11th, when national airports shut down in the morning - an inauspicious start. Worse yet, the weather turned - down into the 50's - making our docking in Bahama impossible. So most of this trip was spent at sea. Bad omen, right?

Well, what more than made up for the bad luck and awful weather was the extraordinary service we encountered on this ship - perhaps the best I've ever encountered in my life. My wife met the ship's food service director, a man named Fathi, to help arrange for a surprise for my birthday. This small encounter turned into three unbelievable days of celebration, as Fathi personally made each and every meal something special - better each time! You saw this reflected in the food service staff, in both the Windjammer (cafeteria) and dining hall (run by a very outgoing and fun gentleman named Mota). Staff smiled, waited on us hand and foot, and made this experience exceptional.

For all the fanfare of the giant ships, we will be returning to Brilliance of the Seas, if anything, to see Fathi and his team in action again. Read more