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My (belated) Trip Report: Brilliance of the Seas Eastbound Transatlantic 2014


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Hi everyone. I realize I’m a bit late, but I thought I would offer up a trip report for 2014 Eastbound transatlantic for the Brilliance of the Seas (BotS) that started April 30th in Tampa and 14 nights later ended up in Harwich, England. I will try not to drag this out too long, though I am known to ramble a bit and there are several different issues about this cruise that I want to opine about.

 

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Cruise Boston by cmong, on Flickr

 

About me

Two people can go on the same cruise and have completely differing experiences, so I always include this section so that you can get an idea of what type of cruiser I am and how that may or may not coincide with your tastes. I am in my mid-thirties and this was my first transatlantic cruise, though I have taken several cruises as long or longer. I chose this cruise because I’ve wanted to do a transatlantic for a while, but have never been able to fit one into a university-student’s schedule (ie, they always tended to be during my finals or right before). While I currently work for a university, I’ve accepted a new faculty position at a different institution starting in August, so this seemed like a good way to use my accrued vacation days. I have cruised out of Tampa several times and visited Boston once on a cruise, but I had not previously visited any of the Brilliance’s European ports of call. When looking at the entire slate of transatlantics, BotS seemed to have the best foreign stops from taking the North Atlantic route as opposed to a southern route stopping in the Caribbean and then one or two stops around the Canaries or Spain. I went on this trip with my parents (we shared a room … perhaps the last time for that) and a second couple who live in my parents’ community. This couple was Gold status with Crown and Anchor, while my parents and I are Diamond Plus. This was my first RCI cruise in a couple of years, having gone on other lines (Celebrity, Carnival) last year and getting, you know, a real job. We booked this cruise fairly late (after final payment) which meant we were forced into My Time Dining (MTD) and pre-paying gratuities. One of the factors that allowed us to book was to use Choice Air as they had fairly well discounted flights (~$900 roundtrip from Indianapolis to Tampa and London to Indianapolis).

 

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Unique Bridge by cmong, on Flickr

 

Pre-Planning

I spent a bit of time trying to figure out what we wanted to do at our ports of call. The Roll Call thread for this sailing was extremely helpful in this regard. I booked the Old Town Trolley in Boston and Butler’s e-coach in Ireland based specifically off of recommendations in our roll call. I arranged a private tour of Normandy for our Cherbourg stop and was easily able to fill it with members of our roll call. I did not plan much for our Bruges stop as I did not have a specific trip in mind and figured we could roll with the punches … which sometimes works out and sometimes doesn’t.

 

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Boston Skyskraper by cmong, on Flickr

 

We did spend a bit of time critically looking at our flights and I would recommend for anyone to do this, especially if you have never flown into the US from another country. With Choice Air, we had perhaps 300 flight combinations with American/British Airways that were all at the same price. We narrowed down our choices based on times and connecting cities. In the end, we chose something like the 28th choice provided to us … it left Indianapolis in the afternoon (no waking up at 3 AM to start vacation) and connected in Miami to Tampa. On the way back, we chose a flight that left London around noon but, more importantly, had at least 3 hours before our connecting flight upon returning to the US. Some of the flights offered had 90 minute connection times and that is just insane considering you have to get off the plan, go through immigration, collect your bags, clear customs, re-check your bags, exit security, be taken to your new terminal, re-clear security, and then make it to your gate.

 

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Church and Sky by cmong, on Flickr

 

I did not get any foreign currency before leaving as I have in the past. I knew that our first tour was pre-paid in Ireland, and I also knew that we would be stopping someplace with an ATM on that tour. I was easily able to get both Euros and Pounds from ATMs on our trip and those transactions gave the best rate by far, even if there was a charge to use the ATM.

 

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Boston Marathon by cmong, on Flickr

 

Tampa

 

My dad had arranged for a limo to pick us all up and take us to the airport in Indianapolis (same price as parking at airport for such a long trip) and when the limo arrived, it was literally a stretched limo, which was a nice way to spend the 45-minute drive to the airport. Once at the airport we had a nice lunch as we waited for our 2:30 flight to Miami. It was a bit of a hectic scene as we had an unscheduled flight landing (and taking our gate) because it had been diverted due to O’Hare shutting down. This led to long lines and mass-confusion, but they eventually remembered they needed to board our tiny plane. We had a very empty and uneventful flight to Miami, arriving a few minutes late. We then only had about 30 minutes to make our connection, which was, of course, on the opposite end of the terminal. We took the train Miami provides and made it, though the gate was cleared as the plane had already boarded everyone in the waiting area. They must have started boarding early, however, as we sat on the plan for a long time waiting for stragglers … I’m not complaining because we were stragglers, too, but the plane was quite hot as we sat there with little air. Of course, we finally pushed away and the blowers came on with full force for our short skip to Tampa. Upon arrival, we collected our baggage and headed out to where the hotel shuttles pick up.

 

We had chosen to stay at the Hyatt Place Tampa because my parents had a free night coming. I thankfully called once we made it to the curb because they evidently do not have drivers on a continuous loop. A driver was dispatched and 10 minutes later, or so, we were loaded into the van and headed to the hotel. The hotel was fairly typical Hyatt Place … bedroom area and work area with a large pull-out couch. My biggest knock is that the bathrooms are needlessly tiny, though I suppose I could have looked at is as training for the ship. The hotel offered use of its van for rides to the surrounding area so we headed off-site to a restaurant and called them back for pick-up. There was a free breakfast the next morning with hot sandwiches, waffles, etc. that was quite nice.

 

The hotel also offered transportation to the port the following day which we decided to sign up for (though we were the only patrons evidently doing this). The hotel charges $25/room for transportation to the port. Normally I would probably have taken a cab, but since we had 5 people, a lot of baggage, and wanted to arrive together, this just seemed easier.

 

Up Next: The cruise begins

 

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Christian Science by cmong, on Flickr

Edited by silentbob007
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Embarkation Day

 

We got up, had our nice hotel breakfast, and grabbed our transportation at 10 AM. The hotel had suggested that it may take 30-50 minutes to get to the port, but at that time on a Wednesday morning, it was about a 15 minute drive … not too bad at all. By 10:20, it seemed that all of the previous passengers had cleared out and the dock area seemed pretty dead. A porter appeared and whisked our bags away. We headed up the escalators to check in.

 

14091173628_b948c13177_z.jpgIMGP1564

by cmong, on Flickr

 

There was some back and forth between my father and I about money for this cruise and, in the end, I took control of our payment account. What I forgot to do, however, was print a copy of the Set-Sail pass and by the time I realized it, it was too late to print. Without a Set Sail pass, we were briefly held up at the initial ID check outside the terminal while our passports were checked with the manifest. Once inside, we went through metal detectors and came to the waiting area only to find that it was too early to check-in. We were asked to take a seat until the agents were ready … there was one large group waiting for the handicapped check-in area, while another large group was in front of the priority lines. About 15 minutes later when the lines were opened up, we made our way forward and got into the standard check-in lines. At that time we were shown directly to an agent where in the “priority” line we would have been 60-80 people back in line. This was a lesson learned from previous cruises … so many people get “priority” check-in (especially on a transatlantic) that sometimes it is much faster to go into the standard lines. I had to fill out the contract paperwork again which I did while the agent figured out which paperwork she needed to fill out when collecting our passports. It turns out RCI was surprised about needing to collect our passports and, the weekend previous to the cruise, inundated most passengers with messages to bring color copies of their passports. I did notice our agent writing the wrong cabin number on our passport package (and inquired about so she would catch her mistake) … always good to look at what is going on (like when they say to look at your luggage tags in airports to make sure they are for the right person and destination). Once we were finally checked in, we were sent back to wait for a few minutes until the ship allowed boarding to start. Again, the high tier passengers filled the very small waiting area, but it seemed more comfortable outside the velvet ropes and, once boarding started, we simply got in line behind them, made our way to the ship, had our SeaPass pictures taken, and were officially onboard by about 11 AM.

 

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Solariumby cmong, on Flickr

 

All I can say is … the day went downhill from there. We did the usual early boarding routine of visiting the Windjammer, walking the decks, and otherwise exploring the ship. We settled in the Colony Club on the back of Deck 6 until cabins were cleared. After that we went to our balcony cabin (7662) and waited … and waited … and waited for our bags. With early boarding, I’m used to them arriving before the boat drill, but this time they did not arrive until right before our dinner reservations at 6 PM. This meant that our steward had to try to make up our cabin around our luggage and we had to unpack in the evening with our sofa bed made and taking up most of the floor.

 

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Empty Rita's Cantina by cmong, on Flickr

 

Starting with the muster drill, I became first became acquainted with passengers I later labeled The Whining Afflicted (TWA). An elderly lady set upon the crew at our muster station about how she could not possibly muster at this station because she could smell that someone had smoked there earlier and she demanded this crew member move her to an inside station with a chair. At dinner, a different lady was seated at a table next to us and loudly proclaimed that she had emphysema and our waitress was wearing too much perfume which was literally taking her breath away. Her husband followed with his loud comment that he did not have emphysema and he couldn’t breathe around our waitress either. As the waitress headed to the MTD desk to find a different table, the couple then loudly professed to the area that while “these people” probably needed perfume “where they came from”, they should be taught differently by Royal. Honestly … I was shaking with rage at this point. There are ways to get what you wish (or even need) without being rude, but it seemed like a larger segment of than usual of the passengers on this cruise preferred to be ugly about anything they disliked rather than talk to the appropriate people and/or be polite about differences. Instead, TWA preferred to use ailments to get what they wanted, whether it be a new table or to cut in front of a line of other guests. Perhaps this first day experiences tainted my perceptions, but I’ve honestly never seen as much nastiness from passengers than I did on this cruise and it would honestly make me at least evaluate pros/cons before getting on a transatlantic again simply because of that … which is not to say that there were not wonderful people onboard. There of course were, but darn it, I felt like a TWA magnet.

 

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Need some Zen by cmong, on Flickr

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Embarkation Day

 

We got up, had our nice hotel breakfast, and grabbed our transportation at 10 AM. The hotel had suggested that it may take 30-50 minutes to get to the port, but at that time on a Wednesday morning, it was about a 15 minute drive … not too bad at all. By 10:20, it seemed that all of the previous passengers had cleared out and the dock area seemed pretty dead. A porter appeared and whisked our bags away. We headed up the escalators to check in.

 

14091173628_b948c13177_z.jpgIMGP1564

by cmong, on Flickr

 

There was some back and forth between my father and I about money for this cruise and, in the end, I took control of our payment account. What I forgot to do, however, was print a copy of the Set-Sail pass and by the time I realized it, it was too late to print. Without a Set Sail pass, we were briefly held up at the initial ID check outside the terminal while our passports were checked with the manifest. Once inside, we went through metal detectors and came to the waiting area only to find that it was too early to check-in. We were asked to take a seat until the agents were ready … there was one large group waiting for the handicapped check-in area, while another large group was in front of the priority lines. About 15 minutes later when the lines were opened up, we made our way forward and got into the standard check-in lines. At that time we were shown directly to an agent where in the “priority” line we would have been 60-80 people back in line. This was a lesson learned from previous cruises … so many people get “priority” check-in (especially on a transatlantic) that sometimes it is much faster to go into the standard lines. I had to fill out the contract paperwork again which I did while the agent figured out which paperwork she needed to fill out when collecting our passports. It turns out RCI was surprised about needing to collect our passports and, the weekend previous to the cruise, inundated most passengers with messages to bring color copies of their passports. I did notice our agent writing the wrong cabin number on our passport package (and inquired about so she would catch her mistake) … always good to look at what is going on (like when they say to look at your luggage tags in airports to make sure they are for the right person and destination). Once we were finally checked in, we were sent back to wait for a few minutes until the ship allowed boarding to start. Again, the high tier passengers filled the very small waiting area, but it seemed more comfortable outside the velvet ropes and, once boarding started, we simply got in line behind them, made our way to the ship, had our SeaPass pictures taken, and were officially onboard by about 11 AM.

 

14091176598_cb615bdbfa_z.jpg

Solariumby cmong, on Flickr

 

All I can say is … the day went downhill from there. We did the usual early boarding routine of visiting the Windjammer, walking the decks, and otherwise exploring the ship. We settled in the Colony Club on the back of Deck 6 until cabins were cleared. After that we went to our balcony cabin (7662) and waited … and waited … and waited for our bags. With early boarding, I’m used to them arriving before the boat drill, but this time they did not arrive until right before our dinner reservations at 6 PM. This meant that our steward had to try to make up our cabin around our luggage and we had to unpack in the evening with our sofa bed made and taking up most of the floor.

 

14254705766_3047c9d662_z.jpg

Empty Rita's Cantina by cmong, on Flickr

 

Starting with the muster drill, I became first became acquainted with passengers I later labeled The Whining Afflicted (TWA). An elderly lady set upon the crew at our muster station about how she could not possibly muster at this station because she could smell that someone had smoked there earlier and she demanded this crew member move her to an inside station with a chair. At dinner, a different lady was seated at a table next to us and loudly proclaimed that she had emphysema and our waitress was wearing too much perfume which was literally taking her breath away. Her husband followed with his loud comment that he did not have emphysema and he couldn’t breathe around our waitress either. As the waitress headed to the MTD desk to find a different table, the couple then loudly professed to the area that while “these people” probably needed perfume “where they came from”, they should be taught differently by Royal. Honestly … I was shaking with rage at this point. There are ways to get what you wish (or even need) without being rude, but it seemed like a larger segment of than usual of the passengers on this cruise preferred to be ugly about anything they disliked rather than talk to the appropriate people and/or be polite about differences. Instead, TWA preferred to use ailments to get what they wanted, whether it be a new table or to cut in front of a line of other guests. Perhaps this first day experiences tainted my perceptions, but I’ve honestly never seen as much nastiness from passengers than I did on this cruise and it would honestly make me at least evaluate pros/cons before getting on a transatlantic again simply because of that … which is not to say that there were not wonderful people onboard. There of course were, but darn it, I felt like a TWA magnet.

 

14091222640_ed1327a370_z.jpg

Need some Zen by cmong, on Flickr

Sounds like someone I had the experience with on mt TA . This person was also very rude, chewed gum throughout the dinner and would not eat any of the entrees.

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Eagerly awaiting further reviews on your cruise.

 

Wondering if Sacha, the Diamond Concierge, is still there. He was a great help to us when we were on BOS recently.

 

How am I going to survive our Carnival Legend B2B without my Diamond Lounge coffee machine? The withdrawals are already beginning. ;-)

Edited by Oak Hill Cruisers
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Hi everyone … thank you for your encouraging words. Sorry for the slow-down, but having to go back to work today got in the way of a faster review. :o

 

First 3 Sea Days

 

I’m not going to do a blow-by-blow when it comes to the sea days just because I think it would be quite boring. I’m not a very exciting person on sea days. I go to breakfast, meander into trivia, read, gamble, read, eat, read, drink, and then head to dinner. A hard life, I realize. :cool:

 

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English Pub on BotS by cmong, on Flickr

 

Our Cruise Director was Clo, and I thought she did a really good job. She ran walk-a-mile twice a day as well as progressive trivia. She did a very good job at handling the trivia crowds (filling the Colony Club) and keeping the trivia troublemakers at bay … I’m occasionally a troublemaker for fun, though as usual, some took it way too seriously. I made a comment during the one of the first trivia sessions that sent Clo looking for me for each movie question … she never got my name, but she recognized me while out and about and would remember a few shared words here and there … she seemed to always be interacting with guests and I appreciated that.

 

The other members of the cruise director’s staff were good to mediocre and seemed somewhat surprised about the number of people who would show up on time to things and expect them to be ready to go. You could tell that some of the entertainment staff were too used to short Mexico cruises with a completely different passenger base and attendance records. There seemed to be constant issues with events not being properly supplied, delaying their start time. I think this got better as the cruise went on, but it was rocky at the start.

 

Top Tier Breakfast

 

A few patterns emerged on these sea days though. My parents and I would eat breakfast in Chops, which was open during standard main dining room hours for D+, Pinnacle, and suite guests. A fixed menu was offered each day with one “specialty” selection … the menu was a tad more limited than in the main dining room, consisting of a continental bar, a variety of eggs (omelets, benedict, other), and pancakes. We could also order free specialty coffees (cappuccino, espresso, latte, etc) though I did not see fresh OJ as an option (something I love that Celebrity at least used to offer at their Elite breakfast). The prized tables seemed to be by the window, with some trying to circumvent the occasional line at the door to lay claim to a window two-top before it was given to those waiting in line … ugh. However, we three did not any issues with that … though on at least two different occasions I found the service to be horribly lacking. In one instance, we were seated and then summarily ignored for 15 minutes … no water, no juice, no orders, no acknowledgements … nothing ... and this again was in Chops which is not that big of a room to get lost in. As four waiters worked on putting fresh linens on a table, I finally motioned to the officer in charge and explained our situation … at which point servers were flying over with juice, water, etc. Overall, if you had a waiter you knew, you seemed to get good service. Otherwise, you could sit and wait while others ignored you in favor of “their” people … no teamwork at all … not something I would expect with what I would assume are top-flight people. We finally found a “usual” waiter Mark and he was excellent and strove to take care of use from that horrible service day forward which we appreciated (though when he was reassigned for a few days, our service then occasionally suffered at breakfast).

 

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Chocolate French Toast by cmong, on Flickr

 

Meet and Mingle

 

We had a huge roll call. I mean … huge. Over 250 registered people. We were given the Colony Club for our M&M on the last sea day before hitting Boston. Mingling wasn’t too easy as there were just so many people there, but some prizes were given away and Clo came to lead the proceedings. Later in the cruise, CC people were invited to a special lunch on one of the sea days … very nice gesture by Royal Caribbean with excellent food (IMO).

 

Boston and Change of Schedule

 

If I remember correctly (and I could be wrong), at the end of our M&M, the captain made his noon announcement and noted a change in our Boston stop … we would now be leaving port four hours earlier in order to avoid a lengthy entanglement with poor weather and high waves. I know this disappointed some people who had planned (and already bought tickets) to attend a Boston Red Sox game. However, I thought that the captain did a great job sitting down with Clo and making a video that showed us his real-time course and weather predictions and demonstrating what difference that extra four hours would make (ie, we’d spend 1 day in rough weather rather than 3 days). Honestly, I did not hear many complaints about this move.

 

Our last time in Boston, we took a ship’s tour to the historical sites and Harvard. This time we opted to pre-purchase our tickets for the Old Town Trolley as recommended on our roll call. This is available as a ship’s tour, but with the ship’s version, you cannot hop-on-hop-off at any site except the end (and it was about $5 more expensive per person). I prepaid our tour (with even cheaper senior tickets for most of our party) and we had to walk a tad farther to grab a trolley (ie, it didn’t pick us up right out side but was close and obvious). The ticketing system (ie, our printed vouchers) was not quite clear, but eventually we got on a trolley, were dropped at the “first” stop near where trolleys returning to the ship would be located, and then transferred to the trolley that would actually be taking us out. We ended up not doing HOHO because a) of the less time and b) I really enjoyed the personality of our driver, River. Many people got off at the early historical stops, so there was plenty of room in our trolley (another bonus as again, the ship trolleys were not billed as HOHO) and the back had its sides up so I could take pictures as we made our way through town (hence my large number of Boston pictures). After finishing the entire loop, we had lunch around Faneuil Hall and stopped at a CVS to make sure we were stocked up on Bonine for the expected rough patch ahead.

 

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Lobstah roll and Chowdah by cmong, on Flickr

 

Things went pretty well until the return to the ship … which became the headline on this cruise. At every port, getting back on the ship was just a very unpleasant experience. There were always huge lines (perhaps everyone was maximizing their time, perhaps due to slower individuals to clear through security, who knows) and invariably reboarding the ship meant a 10-15 minute wait with people very grumpy about the wait (and I cannot blame them as I know many were having a rough time).

 

We finally made it aboard and then … off into the open waters of the Atlantic.

 

To be continued ….

 

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See the SeaGull by cmong, on Flickr

Edited by silentbob007
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Please don't stop. I want to compare my thoughts with yours!

 

If you want any of the full-size pics I took during our tour, just let me know and I can get them to you. Most of them should be posted in my Flickr photo stream.

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nice to see you are posting your great reviews Bob, hope the trivia was good!

 

We were slaughtered in progressive, of course, but I won two movie trivias and one tri-bond ... given how serious and well-attended trivias were, I'll take 3 wins. :)

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Eagerly awaiting further reviews on your cruise.

 

Wondering if Sacha, the Diamond Concierge, is still there. He was a great help to us when we were on BOS recently.

 

How am I going to survive our Carnival Legend B2B without my Diamond Lounge coffee machine? The withdrawals are already beginning. ;-)

 

Honestly I did not meet any of the concierges ... I think they were way overloaded. It is rough without the coffee ... especially now that Carnival charges for specialty coffees at dinner (used to be free). I managed on the Legend last year, though, so I'm sure you too can find a way. ;)

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Hey Chris.....I always enjoy your reviews. The picture of the lobster roll brings back nice memories of a lovely lunch in Bar Harbor. Looking forward to the rest of your review.

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Forums mobile app

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Great to have you doing such a detailed review Chris!

 

We were on this cruise as well and I used the review template from CC to do my review. I hope that you don't mind a few comments along the way.

 

As a bit of background, I am a retired retail executive and this is also our first TA and even though we have done long cruises before we have not crossed the pond. We live in Tampa so we don't have any of the travel stories about getting to the ship. As Chris has said the roll call was great with over 4,000 posts and we were part of the chatting for a year. This provided us with shared tours and rides all along the way. It was particularly helpful when we got to Harwich. The port is in the middle of no where and is difficult at best. There is 1 train that only runs on cruise ship days. Otherwise you need to hire transport for the 2 1/2 hour ride to London or use the RCCL buses.

 

Like Chris, we were Progressive Trivia Players. We finished somewhere in the middle of the pack and that was fine because we were doing it for daily entertainment. There were some serious teams and players and that was fine too. We did an hour time change almost every sea day after Boston which made 11-12 disappear every morning. That was fine because we just had coffee and something light in the CL before 10 AM trivia. We would then go right to lunch.

 

Chris, I love your comments about the TWA! I feel fortunate that I didn't have any run ins with them. I think that the sheer number of slow moving and mobility issue passengers is what made getting back on board so challenging.We developed a catch phrase when we ran into a TWA passenger. We just commented, flog them and throw them overboard!

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cannot agree with previous poster about the train sevice to Harwich, we have used it regularly and it is excellent.There might be just 1 run for the ship but the Harwich to London Liverpool street is often and regular and stops right along the cruise terminal.

 

Never mind back to Chris and his excellent review. Keep going, enjoying it specially remembering Clo and her quizzes.

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Enjoying your review of the Brilliance TA. We were also onboard with you and were fortunately spared exposure to the TWA until we were at Heathrow waiting for our delayed flight back to Boston and had to endure the strongly negative and almost nasty comments about the "terrible training ship that was the Brilliance of the Seas" among other complaints.

We have sailed with Clo previously, including on the Brilliance's first TA (westbound) in 2002, and we share your high opinion of her as CD. Did the 2 pm walk with her most every sea day and by the second day she knew me by name, though I never mentioned it to her.

We experienced the same occasional lack of service in Chops at breakfast time, except for those days when one of our favorite waiters (Oswin,from Giovanni's) was working there.

I did think that making the time changes at 11 am rather than overnight worked pretty well, though I still prefer the 25 hour days we experience on westbound TA's.:)

Look forward to more of your comments and hope we can sail with you again.

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The Crossing (or six straight sea days)

 

Even though we left Boston a few hours early, we had been told that there would be some rough seas for the next day or so. Evidence of preparation could be seen around the ship … deck chairs were secured and even the plants outside the WJ were lashed down. We definitely did get some movement, though it did taper after a day or so. We also had rough weather on our approach to Ireland (where we had to turn into the weather to make port). At the end, sick bags were deployed in the stairwells. I did not find the movement too extreme, however. Sure, it was noticeable, don’t get me wrong, but I’ve encountered worse on both the Freedom and Jewel in the Caribbean and on the Rhapsody crossing the Tasman Sea. If you would like a short video sample of how much movement we had, here you go:

Sea Day Roll

 

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Outside Spa by cmong, on Flickr

 

Activities on sea days were fairly standard. There were many trivias as well as various dance classes, crafts, art auctions, etc. I continued to attend morning progressive trivias, but started to skip the afternoon general ones as they tended to be overcrowded for the chosen venue which made them (in my opinion) less fun as there were always people who couldn’t hear, people who wanted to argue, and in general, the trivias tended to go on for way too long.

 

Many people were disappointed on the movies shown onboard because they were not shown in-cabin. Instead, to see more attractive the cinema selections, you had to pack into the shipboard cinema (around 40 seats with 200 trying to attend) or watch out on deck in the evening. Evenings tended to be chilly (and sometimes rainy) which made them less-than-attractive choices. Toward the start of the cruise, I took in Saving Mr. Banks in the late evening in the rain while sitting on a bar stool to have some cover. It was an experience, true, but not a comfortable one.

 

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Schooner Statue by cmong, on Flickr

 

I only attended one evening show during the cruise, which was the first production show. The show that fit my schedule was the one for first-seating guests … the most popular of this cruise by far. We were able to secure seats by arriving about 30 minutes early, but by showtime, it was literally standing-room only, and I had the pleasure of having a group of gentlemen who decided to stand beside me for the entire show … and they took their lack of seats as an open invitation to wander back-and-forth, fondle each other, and speak loudly to one another during the show. Added to the audience distraction was the fact that the show was, to my personal tastes, pretty terrible with mediocre-to-bad singers in the standard cruise Broadway mash-up show. My favorite new trend in cruises is full-length shows, and this poor performance reminded me why. It was also evident that the seating issues continued as future announcements onboard would suggest which times would be best to “avoid the crowds” … which were, of course, generally during first-seating dinner.

 

In order to accommodate the time changes between Boston and Ireland, for the first five sea days, the clock was moved forward at 11 AM. Each day, you went from 10:59 to noon. I suppose this was done to keep you from losing an hour of sleep each night. I can’t imagine how difficult it was on the housekeeping staff, however, as they lost a morning hour of turnover time. Our particular housekeeper did not set a random pattern. He would alternate one end of his block or another and would methodically work through it whether or not other rooms indicated early service or not. I suppose this is a reasonable way to do this as I’m guessing with so many guests and sea days, many would want their rooms made up early. It was the first time for us, however, to have our requests for early room cleaning denied (generally we are always out of the cabin before the morning shift starts so we can have our cabin turned around). It was more important for this cruise because the sofa bed took up so much vital floor room, so in the end, we would “take apart” the sofa each morning so we could at least move around. However, being towards the middle of our steward’s area, our room would generally be made sometime right before noon to as late as 3 PM. It seemed our steward was over-worked with a) too many cabins and b) no assistant visible (though I guess there could have been one we did not see). He seemed very overwhelmed and it seemed very obvious that this would be his first and last contract with RCI.

 

The last portion I need to mention, of course, is the fact we did have a Noro outbreak onboard. I became aware of it on the second sea day from Florida when my dad told me about a conversation he heard during trivia about someone’s wife being ill. From the described symptoms, it was fairly obviously Noro and, especially from that day on, we tried to be extra careful about what we touched. It was days later when the outbreak was confirmed by the captain on the PA, but we thankfully never contracted it. For one, we basically stopped eating any meals at the WJ … from the start of the cruise, it was obvious that the WJ was a breeding and transmission ground for bacteria and viruses. Not only did I witness people faking using the hand sanitizer (ie, walking by it, then rubbing their hands together when the greeter looked at them), but there was the usual disgustingness of communal food service. People would use their fingers to taste things in trays, eat while still serving themselves food, and re-use dirty plates. Also, since at the start of the cruise there was not a lot of service crew in the WJ to help those with walkers and canes, people who should have had assistance had to handle their own plates while continuously touching their mobility aids. Finally, toward the end of the cruise, they cut off people serving their own food in the WJ, but by that time the damage had already been done. Of course, there was also quite a bit of complaining about how slow or inconvenient WJ food service became ….

 

 

Next up: European Ports of Call

 

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Welcome to Cobh, Ireland by cmong, on Flickr

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