Adventure or Brilliance?

Both the Adventure and the Brilliance of the Seas are doing similar russia and scandinavia cruises from the UK next year. Which ship is in the best state, best facilities etc? Also, we have only cruised with celebrity before. What are the major plusses and minuses for RC in comparison? Would love to hear your views. We are a couple, early 30s, no kids.

We have sailed on each ship an equal number of times and enjoy both.

Brilliance had a dryock this year and looks stunning with all the upgrades , new carpets, flat screen TVs, new dining venues. The Centrum ariel entertainment wasn't up and running when we were onboard but if it is anything like Serenade's, sister ship to Brilliance, it will be amazing.

Adventure goes in for her drydock in March/April next year, it has been cut back in length and as yet I have not seen listed exactly what she is having done in her 10 days in dock but I am sure someone will post.:)

Between the two I would go with Brilliance only because she has a covered Solarium for the cooler days and there is more glass for viewing the ocean from public areas.

That's very helpful, thanks so much :)

Sent from my GT-N7000 using Forums mobile app

We chose to sail Adventure of the seas over brilliance because we like the larger ship with the promenade. More variety of public spaces. We are all adults traveling as well, no kids. Were going next june. Hope you join us!:)

One vote each! We love to try different foods, so having a variety of restaurants would be a plus for us. Thanks for your input :)

Sent from my GT-N7000 using Forums mobile app

We are booked on the Brilliance next August. We sailed on her earlier this year and are looking forward to seeing the upgrades. She is a beautiful ship, and all of that glass and the covered solarium made it our pick.

Another vote for Brilliance. We were on Brilliance in March and Adventure last Nov. Previously Voyager class had always been my favourite RCL class but Brilliance changed my mind. Lots of light and outdoor space and the covered solarium would be good for the Baltics.

Also if you like Celebrity, I thought Brilliance felt a bit like a Celebrity ship, a bit more stylish and classy than the bigger RCL ships.

To answer the other part of your question, we like RCL and Celebrity equally, to us the mains differences are slightly better food and service on Celebrity, better entertainment and a lively atmosphere on RCL.

Enjoy whichever you choose,

Julie

I do think we've been a bit spoilt by the food on Celebrity, which has been excellent on both of our cruises. We're ready to try something new though, and RC is a bit more affordable for a trip where I imagine we will spend quite a bit of money in port. I like the sound of the solarium, as we are considering the late May trip when the weather could be chilly

Sent from my GT-N7000 using Forums mobile app

We chose to sail Adventure of the seas over brilliance because we like the larger ship with the promenade. More variety of public spaces. We are all adults traveling as well, no kids. Were going next june. Hope you join us!:)

Agree.

Enjoyed Adventure twice now.

Both the Adventure and the Brilliance of the Seas are doing similar russia and scandinavia cruises from the UK next year. Which ship is in the best state, best facilities etc? Also, we have only cruised with celebrity before. What are the major plusses and minuses for RC in comparison? Would love to hear your views. We are a couple, early 30s, no kids.

The Brilliance is comparable in size to Celebrity's M-class ships.

I have never been on the Adventure so can't compare them.

But as for comparison to Celebrity, a most significant difference is in their smoking policies, if that matters to you.

If you are accustomed to Celebrity's one announcement per day, Royal's multiple disruptive jarring announcements over the PA system throughout the day (Bingo, bingo!) can be quite annoying.

The food and service on the Brilliance in general were fine. We could always find something we liked to eat, except that the ice-cream in the buffet was dreadful compared to Celebrity's.

For the price difference, we were very willing to do without the nice little touches that are provided by Celebrity, such as welcome aboard mimosas, cold drinks and washcloths at the ports, chocolates on our pillows at night.

Royal's room service menu is very limited compared to Celebrity's.

Also, if you like to order dinner from the main dining room menu to enjoy on your balcony, just be aware that only passengers in suites qualify for that service on Royal Caribbean.

That really is a great itinerary, regardless of which ship takes you on it.

If there is more smoking and more announcements, that's certainly a minus for me. But they are minor annoyances, and I don't let much bother me once i'm in holiday mode!

Sent from my GT-N7000 using Forums mobile app

You learn to tune the announcements out. :)

I'm sailing on Adventure in March so I can't really help you with which one to pick. I agree though the slightly smaller boat with the covered solarium would probably be best for the Baltics. I am sailing on Vision in 2 weeks doing the Baltics. I'm super excited and yes it is shaping up to be rather pricey. BTW my husband and I are the same demographics as you and we love Royal.

Nice to hear from someone in my age group :) Lovely people on celebrity but the majority are older. Have a fantastic time in the Baltic!

Sent from my GT-N7000 using Forums mobile app

Brilliance hands down, there is really no comparison.

Though non-suite pax cannot order anything and everything from room service off the MDR menu, many of the dinner choices will be available from room service at dinner. There will be a menu of those dishes on your cabin TV each day. I also would go with Brilliance.

Brilliance every time! If nothing else then for the open aired section to the windjammer.

It would seem that the OP's decision would have to come down to 3 main factors:

1) Size/amenities of each ship. Adventure is a larger ship and has more things to do, but Brilliance is a Radiance class ship (smaller, but also nice). We prefer the Adventure size ship or larger overall, but other folks might also enjoy a smaller ship.

2) Destinations - depending on where the OP wants to go (ports of call), that could also come into play.

3) Cabin choices/costs.

We are in our early 50's, with two young adult daughters (early 20s). We usually sail Voyager-class ships, such as Adventure. We recently sailed on the Jewel (which is a sister-ship to Brilliance). There is no doubt that Jewel/Brilliance are gorgeous ships; very elegant with lots of glass, with a more upscale feeling. We loved the enclosed solarium and the open air seating in the rear of the Windjammer. However, we found ourselves to be a little underwhelmed and bored. We totally missed the Royal Promenade as a night-time entertainment/"street party" venue, and felt that the entertainment and activities were not as engaging or exciting on the Jewel. With the port intensive itinerary, it didn't matter as much because we returned to the ship quite exhausted each evening and tended to go to sleep early rather than participant in nightly events as we usually to. We still had a lovely cruise, but had there been more than one sea day, we certainly would have been looking for something more to do.

We were in a similar predicament when we chose our trip for next June. Having sailed on Brilliance before and about to go on Adventure next month we took a little while to make our mind up. We sailed on Independance for the first time and liked the promenade so that would be something to look forward to on Adventure, both ships would have been up-graded so it would be good to see how different they are. In the end it came down to the itinerary and we preferred the Brilliance.

Those are my 2 favorite ships! We're going on Adventure next March but cruised the Mediterranean on Brilliance a few years back and hands down, it's our favorite.

Weve sailed on Brilliance twice and not long back from Adventure. I really couldn't say one was better than the other, there both lovely ships and both have the usual friendly helpful crew.

Its a very hard decision but either way you'll have a great time.

I think the difference in classes on Royal boils down to one thing: Voyager class and above are about what's going on in the ship, and Radiance class and below are about what's going by off the ship. If both are available for a particular itinerary, decide which is more important.