Belated review of Brilliance Italian Med Aug 2-14

[nellydean]

Meant to do this as a live commentary onboard the ship, but the internet was so slow (and, rather, expensive) that I decided to wait until I got home, and then got caught up in washing and ironing/work/housework/decorating etc

Anyway, this is just a short review, as a comparison with two bigger ships we have sailed on previously, Liberty and Navigator. Liberty was just a couple of months old when we sailed her, so brand new, albeit with the balcony rails stripped bare due to the bleaching that had occurred following a Noro outbreak.
Navigator was a bit smaller, but was still a very big ship with the Royal Promenade, and there didn't seem to be a lot of difference.
Brilliance, however, being Radiance class, was a further step down in size and, although we had heard such good things about her on this forum, we were a bit trepidatious at not having the Royal Promenade to walk through, and being on an older ship.

Embarkation Barcelona was quick and easy and we were in the Windjammer by 12 noon.

I am happy to say that we fell in love with the BOS and she is probably our favourite so far. This is not to say she was perfect but, overall, in terms of ease of getting around, quality of food and friendliness, she came out on top.

The first thing is that, despite being 7 years old, the ship is in very good nick, very bright and airy, due to the amount of glass incorporated into her design, including the hump section outside lifts which face the water. Going up and down these lifts was a joy in itself and gives you a real sense of being on the open waves.

Our cabin was on the hump and seemed slightly wider than the ones on the Liberty and Navigator, plus, being on the hump, the balcony was a bit bigger. We were portside, so didn't get any sun until late afternoon, but it was so hot anyway, and on port days we were out quite late. However, on the occasion my daughter wanted to sunbathe on deck (admittedly, on a sea day) she had a bit of a hunt to find an empty deck chair.

Being on the hump meant we were virtually next to the Centrum, a 10?-deck high open space, that was the centrepiece of the ship, in place of the Royal Promenade. This is a circular space that rises upwards from Deck 4, where it featured a band very evening. It also gives access to various sections of the ship, including several (not very well stocked, but expensive) shops, the photo gallery and casino, as well as bars, library, internet etc. There were little bays you could look over and down from on each deck of the Centrum, which has a central spiral feature that lit up in different colours. My husband didn't think it too exciting, but I grew to love this area and did not miss the Royal Promenade at all.

We had a table for 4 in the upper section of the dining room. At first I was not impressed, as the rear seating for ours and several other tables was a continuous seating bar formed by the back of the waiters stand, so we had only two freestanding chairs. However, we got used to it and the privacy of being on our own table for once, plus, our wonderful wait staff, more than made up for it. We only had two people serving us, the waiter and assistant waiter, who also took care of our drinks needs. Don't know if this is across the fleet as a cost-cutter, but we found this less confusing than the excessive number of people we had serving us on the Liberty and Navigator.

The head waiter didn't make an appearance until the third evening, but he more than made up for it with his wit and professionalism. The three combined to give us a fantastic dining experience during our 12-night cruise. Plus, the food was great, here, and in the Windjammer.

A word about the captain now. Captain Hernan Zini, I had heard of him on this forum, and he lived up to his reputation, funny, charming, very approachable and hands-on, liked to walk around the ship talking to passengers. His wife (who is English) was accompanying him, which was nice for him, he is currently standing in for the ship's master, whose name escapes me. He probably says it at every welcome party, but Capt Zini told us very firmly that the BOS was a ship, not a boat - 'a boat is what you look for when the ship is sinking!' he added

Kieron Buffery was cruise director, only saw him a few times, but he seemed very popular, and I understand he has now left for a month-long leave before joining another ship.

The entertainment was a bit hit and miss, as usual, the highlight was Jonathan Kane the Elton John tribute act, who was excellent. Instead, I spent a lot of time in the casino, generally in the early evening after dinner (first seating), and I have to say that they (mostly) very welcoming and prepared to teach AND talk in between bets. This was very different to the bigger ships and made for a genial and relaxed atmosphere for all punters. of course, I lost overall, but at least I had fun doing so

There was no Johnny Rockets or Ben & Jerry's, which my son missed, but there was the Seaview Cafe, which I was looking forward to. This is on deck 12 aft, and makes paninis, pizza etc. I only went once, 1. because of the opening hours and 2. because everything is made to order and so you have to wait longer. However, the open area down below at the back of the Windjammer was great.

There is mini golf and plenty of table tennis, and my son 915) was always on the sports court and in the teens room. One beautiful area that we didn't utilise enough was the indoor Solarium pool (complete with bird song), and it was never full as most people preferred to stay on deck in the sunshine.

Husband did the charity walk a mile thing and go the T-shirt, of which he is very proud. Our main complaint is the amount of money we had to fork out for shuttle buses/boat due to the inaccessibility of the ports to towns. We seem to recall these used to be free, now you pay for everything and for a family of 4 that's a big expense.

Ports:

Cannes - tender - we had heard some negative reports but found the old town charming and full of character, walked uphill to the church and castle for wonderful views over the beach, new town and film festival building. Would definitely go back for another look.

Livorno - terribly long-winded to get from ship to Pisa. Shuttle bus to town, then bus to station, then train to Pisa, and by the time we did all that we didn't have time to go to Lucca as well.

Civitavecchia - husband and I and son had been to Rome before, so me and son stayed onboard and husband took daughter to Rome on train (free shuttle to port gate, whooppe! then train to Rome, said was fairly straightforward).

Naples - another terrible time getting anywhere under our own steam. had also been to Naples before but wanted to see some of town (went to Pompeii mainly last time). Walked from ship to port entrance, where there is a stop for a tourist bus, waited almost half an hour (in mean time husband bought tickets at nearby kiosk), got onto bus, waited another 15 minutes, only to be told by the guide that it was not the tourist bus (even though it was decked out in the tourist bus colours), but merely a shuttle to take us to the place where the bus departs. The alarm bells rang in my head straight away, so I got off with son and left husband and daughter to stay. We walked across the main road and up into the old town, where we instantly sat down at a cafe for a drink - 10 minutes later, who should show up but husband and daughter! They had got off the bus too after antother long wait, and were amazed to see that the drop-off point for this 'shuttle' bus was just over the road from where we had alighted. At best this was a totally disorganised company, at worst, a scam.
Anyway, we carried on walking through the old town and came to a square with a couple of big churches and a nice restaurant, where we had pizza (what else in naples? ) and then walked back to port a different route. Sad to say that this part of Naples is very rundown and dirty and full of graffitti and I was very disappointed, although I could see it must have been glorious in its heyday. What disappointed the most was the apparent couldn't-care -less attitude of the people to let their city get like this. Husband said we went the wrong way and should have gone left of the old fort at the port entrance, so if we go again we'd probably take a ship's excursion (one of the few times I;d probably recommend doing that, for the convenience if nothing else.

Sea day - went so quickly, very lazy day.

Venice and overnight. Lovely entrance, sailing past St Mark's Square. We decided to walk to Piazala Roma, and it took us 25 minutes, this is the transport hub from where you catch a vaporetto down the Grand Canal. However, we bought tickets on the RCI shuttle from just past St Marks for the return trip as I have arthritis in my knee and was in need of a sit down by then! Been to Venice twice before, will just say that it is a place everyone must visit at least once in their lifetime.

Onto Dubrovnik - wow! Thought Venice would take some beating, but this has done just that. The old medieaval town is perfectly preserved and a Unesco world heritage site, you get great views of the terracotta-roofed town and the harbour and nearby Lokrum island from the walls surrounding it. How my knees stood up the strain of going up and down so many stone steps I will never know, but it was worth it. Croatia is outstandingly beautiful and we hope to go back for a land holiday.

Corfu. Been looking forward to returning to Greece after a 33-year-gap. Unfortunately, the shuttle bus dropped us the opposite end of town to where it should have, so we found ourselves in some crappy carpark at the crappy end of town. However, my daughter took one look at all the cheap and cheerful souvenir shops (leather, clothes etc) and was in Heaven! Must admit, we did have fun ploughing a furrow through to the main area of old town, where it was more authentic and more restaurants, but it was very hot, so we only stayed a few hours before heading back. Wasn't too impressed, unfortunately, but I know Corfu is supposed to be a lovely island so next time we would get a car and travel around it on our own.

Sea day

Sea day

Barcelona - disembarked around 7.30am and checked in at airport for our afternoon connecting flight to Zurich (we had spent the afternoon in the Swiss lakeside town on our way over, which was fun but VERY EXPENSIVE!!!), then took the airport shuttle to Placa Catalunya and caught a tourist bus before having lunch and then going back to the airport.

There were a few issues with accessiblity from the ports to destinations, and especially the amount of money we had to pay for the shuttles - mainly due to the lack of taxi drivers at the ports - but overall we had a fantastic cruise. The Brilliance is a lovely ship and we would happily sail on her again, but not this itinerary, although we had the bonus of passing an active volcano one night (Stromboli) and passed a chain of them on the way back to Barcelona. We probably wouldnt do Dubai, so that leaves the Eastern Med to try out.


sorry, it wasn't so short after all!

[Cruiserccl]

Thank you for posting! Its interesting to read about a cruise that i havent been on.

[CTBob]

Thanks for a very insightful review. We are planning on doing a med cruise in May with a few different ports and I guess I'll have to do a lot of planning. I've never been to Europe before so I want to see everything. It sounds like I'd better set aside a lot of money for excursions. I've wanted to cruise on the Brilliance of the Seas since it was new, glad to hear it's holding up well.

Bob

[sailor moon]

We did this cruise in June and had a wonderful time. I love the Brilliance. We did private tours for the most part. Corfu ended up being our favorite thanks to an incredible tour guide

[nellydean]

Thanks for the replies.

As further comment on the shuttles - I know that the cruise line can't expect to sail right into the centre of every port, and so they have to hire coaches to transport passengers nearer to town, and some of that expense has to fall on passengers, but this should be a nominal fee, not a major cost, as it turned out for us.
We were particularly annoyed about Dubrovnik, because when we booked the cruise it said we would be tendered into port and we expected to anchor right in front of the walled city and sail gracefully into the harbour on an RCI tender boat. As it turned out, we ended up anchoring in the new Gruz Harbour on the other side of the promontary. This meant we had to take RCI's shuttle at $10 each, so $40 extra we hadn't budgeted for (this was a standard price, but another of the shuttles we took was more expensive at $14) As with the other ports, there were no taxis waiting when we got off, so we had no choice, especially as we had no idea where we were.

As mentioned, we were also shuttled to the wrong place in Corfu, plus, for Venice, we were told we had to buy return shuttle tickets onboard, as we could not buy them from the departure point near St Mark's Square. This was blatantly untrue, and we did buy tickets to come back from St Mark's. As the ship overnighted in Venice, we had to pay the shuttle cost a second day, as it was just too far to walk to the bus station again.

This was just one example of misleading information, or lack of information, we received from guest relations, about the ports. None of the staff were consistent in their answers (we asked several people the same question and got several different answers) and the information they provided on the ports, and how you could get around independently, was very poor.

Livorno was even worse. We paid for the shuttle into town, but it didn't take us to the train station (to catch a train to Pisa) just to a central square in Livorno. To make matters worse, the ship didnt tell us which bus to get to the station, or where to buy tickets. Thankfully, one of the bar tenders had said to go over to the tobacconist's to buy tickets. They were helpful but, even so, it was a while before we discovered which bus to take and that we could buy a through bus/train ticket to Pisa - other families were still walking around scratching their heads as we dashed over to catch the bus.

It's not like I had not researched these ports before we went, I did, extensively, and took a load of info from this forum and others, but it's not always as straight-forward as you expect when you get there, and things do change.

The port maps RCI gave us were also generally rubbish. Just a bit of thought could have made all the difference, but the impression we got was that staff had been told to be deliberately non-informative so that passengers would buy their shuttle tickets, or, even better, their excursions (which we resisted)

In all, we must have spent well over $200 on shuttle tickets, which added considerably to the bill.

The one free shuttle was from the ship to the port entrance in Civitavecchia.

This is very disappointing, considering that the cruise line is supposed to be taking you to these destinations. As I said, I know we can't expect to sail right up to every town centre, but where we have to dock a way away there should either be free transport into town, or a shuttle for a small fee.

We hate to think we are being ripped off, but would happily pay a nominal fee to help with the cost. If it all has to be recouped by RCI then I would rather pay it upfront in the overall cost of the cruise before we sail, than have it as an unbudgeted expense when you are there, because it takes a bit of the shine off the visit.

This was the main area of complaint I have about our cruise, although I suspect it is fleet-wide and not just on the BOS, however, due to the inaccessibility of several destinations from the ports on this itinerary it was a bigger problem.

Also, if passengers want to go it alone, RCI should be more helpful, and provide more information on ports and transport options - after all, they chose the ports for us to visit, so should help us to get there as easily as possible. Inspite of everything, we did enjoy the ports we visited, though not without difficulty and extra cost.

We did not eat in Chops or Portofinos, so cannot comment, but the food in the dining room and Windjammer was so good we didnt feel the need to.

They had spa offers on facials and massages etc, but we didn't use any of their services, nor the gym. The photographers were like leeches and even the cruise director joked abut them. They were everywhere you went, on the ship and off it, constantly asking to capture that 'special moment' dockside, at your dining table, anywhere on the ship in fact. We said no after the first few days, but they were consistent in their approaches for a while afterwards until we just brushed past them with a wave of the hand. A shame, because they are only doing their job, but it got annoying. Plus, $20 for a photo was a bit steep, and there were loads of them taken, so some people would have spent a fortune (think we bought at least 4).

There are quite a few bars onboard but, as usual, we headed for the Schooner Bar, and this one had a resident Australian pianist. It was patronised mainly by Brits and, come to think of it, we never heard any Americans in there, they must either have all been tee-total or in the casino

I would hazard a guess that the majority of passengers were Spanish, they were their usual noisy, impolite, selves (not all but many), barging into the lifts and especially onto the shuttles without any thought for their fellow cruisers.

Second largest group was probably Americans, followed by Brits and then various other nations. We like cruising with other nationalities, so the pros outweigh the cons for us.

Our cabin was directly under the Concierge lounge and we were woken twice in the middle of the night by them cleaning it, pulling chairs and tables and vaccuuming, the noise was dreadful. We did think to complain, but as it was only a couple of times during a 12-night sail we let it pass. No noise from the nearby Centrum, though, where there was music until around midnight.

We did not pay our gratuities upfront this time, a/ because we wanted to reduce the balance before sailing and b/ because after a couple of indifferent cabin stewards we wanted to see if it made a difference to their attitude.
In the end, we couldn't have asked for a nicer steward and tipped him over and above the rate. The same with our wait staff, who were superb.

The pool was popular and crowded on sea days, not so much so on port days obviously, but as there was only one port day me and my son did not get off the ship we did not really take advantage of all the facilities in a quieter state (except the Solarium, which was never crowded anyway). He really enjoyed the teen facilities, mainly the teen room where they just sat and talked. As a result, his spending in the arcade and on the internet was remarkably down on the Navigator bill last year, when he racked up about three hundred dollars!

The ship has a helipad at the front, as well as nice decks to walk around. Generally, the ship is in very good condition still and our cabin was well kept.


Muster - we had this (some talk on the forum that it's being scrapped), but it was very low key and friendlier than on previous RCI cruises, maybe because it was held in the Schooner Bar and was a smaller group than we are used to. Everyone was very relaxed, but professional.

Overall: A few problems, which I mention in detail, but nothing that completely spoiled what was a terrific cruise on the beautiful and brilliant Brilliance of the Seas.

[filangood]

Thanks for the detailed review it was good reading.We sailed on the opposite itinerary on 21 July and had a great time.It was our first cruise and loved the ship...just a nice size and lots of glass windows.We did mostly private tours with company we met through cruise critic boards....it was amazing! Rome and Amalfi Coast were my favourites.We did a RC tour to the Acropolis...nightmare tour guide! I think we were "spoilt" doing the private tours too.We have booked to go on Brilliance again next summer on the itinerary you have been on...Venice here we come and i know i`m going to love Dubrovnik.
Thanks again
Sharron

[nellydean]

double post sorry

[nellydean]

Originally Posted by filangood

Thanks for the detailed review it was good reading.We sailed on the opposite itinerary on 21 July and had a great time.It was our first cruise and loved the ship...just a nice size and lots of glass windows.We did mostly private tours with company we met through cruise critic boards....it was amazing! Rome and Amalfi Coast were my favourites.We did a RC tour to the Acropolis...nightmare tour guide! I think we were "spoilt" doing the private tours too.We have booked to go on Brilliance again next summer on the itinerary you have been on...Venice here we come and i know i`m going to love Dubrovnik.
Thanks again
Sharron

tempted to book your itinerary for next summer but want to go to Egypt on a land holiday next Whitsun, so will have to wait and see how the finances pan out

[MAZANDSTEVE]

great review, thanks for posting, we were on her this year too and agree, a beautiful ship, I loved it.

[sidari]

Nellydean .... wish you has asked us about Corfu before you cruised ? you would have enjoyed it more ... take a look at our site about Corfu.


I noticed that you say you researched the places you went to, maybe you missed this site with great info? http://www.ftroute.com/FCO_ROM_CIV.cfm

We (2 of us) used it and it gives info of where to buy the bus tickets to the train station at Livorno, and have to agree that the bus from the ship should go to the Train station to save the changing of buses in the town.... (the ship forgot to charge us for our bus tickets ) however we didnt find it a hassle but can understand that people with kids could do without it. We also printed out maps from Google Earth of the route to Pisa and the other places we visited and took them with us.
We also used the info from this site for Rome and Naples (Pompeii)

Sadly for us the weather deteriorated after we arrived in Dubrovnik and were glad we had bought the bus tickets but again with a family can understand the increase in costs not budgeted for! ... we were also told we would be Tendered at Dubrovnik but docked.

We also liked the Brilliance and its crew, our review is around somewhere and you may have read it.

[ladyruby]

thanks good review

[yogimax]

Thanks for the review! We have also seen the Elton John Tribute and enjoyed it very much.

[Cat54]

Thank you for the great review. Looks like I have a lot of research to do before I go on this cruise in June 2010. We have always booked our excursions with Royal but from what I have read on Cruise Critic it might be a good idea to book them independently. We are looking forward to cruising on the BOS