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My review: Brilliance of the Seas 12.17-12.21


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Hi everyone ... I'm sitting in FLL and figured that I might as well make use of the free wireless internet and start working on my review of this special, 4-day cruise of Brilliance of the Seas.

 

A little about me ....

 

I'm a 27 year old graduate student on winter break. I was traveling with my mother. We booked this cruise at the end of October because of the attractive pricing. It was my fifth cruise on Royal Carribean and my mother's sixth, so we shared Platinum C&A ammenities.

 

12.15.07

 

Our cruise didn't leave until Monday, we were flying out Sunday, and yet ... I was still in the grip of panic as a winter storm hit Indiana on Saturday afternoon. In order to preempt any delays, we headed down to Indianapolis to spend the night on Saturday. I had a bid of $37 accepted on Priceline for the Hyatt Place at the Indy airport, and it turned out to be a very nice establishment except for the fact that there was very little surrounding the hotel. Snow blew in through the night ....

 

12.16.07

 

Even though our flight wasn't until 12:30 (Southwest, through TPA to FLL), I woke up at 4:00 AM to blowing snow and slushy roads. I called Southwest, who assured me their flights were still on time for Sunday. I changed my reservation to the first flight out (scared about the blowing snow) and we ended up on a 7:00 AM flight out of IND through MCO. Our flight was delayed because of a broken part and two de-icings, but an hour late, we took off with a massive complement of 36 passengers on board (evidently the rest couldn't make it to the airport). We landed at MCO about the time our connection was to take off, but w scooted to the gate (of course, about as far away as possible in the same terminal), and by 11:00 AM, we were in FLL.

 

I had won a $53 bid on Priceline for the Sheraton FLL airport. Once our bags were collected, I went to the courtesy phones and called for pickup. We were picked up about 15 minutes later. The lobby was a mess, full of passengers waiting to be picked up for their cruises, but we were immediately allowed to check in and were given a room with two queens on the ninth floor next to the ice machine. The room was adequate, clean, and we didn't even hear the ice machine. Once again, there wasn't a lot around the hotel to walk to, so I paid for internet to kill time and to order Domino's (which was delivered to the room).

 

More to come (including talk about the actual cruise ;)) ....

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12.17.07

 

The big day finally arrived and I was still jubilant about having made it to FLL in one piece. We grabbed the airport shuttle back to FLL in order to catch our GO shuttle to the Port of Miami. The airport shuttle left on every hour and half hour, so we left at 10:00 and were waiting for the GO shuttle by 10:15. One thing I'd like to note here ... I had made a reservation online with my credit card for the GO shared ride shuttle, but when I checked in at the airport, I was told that they didn't take reservations, especially for shared ride. This also meant that we still had to pay cash for our ride (I will have to check for a charge later). We had to wait about 30 minutes for the shuttle and we picked up a few more people, but in th end, we arrived at the Port of Miami at around 11:15. The Brilliance definitely aged the rest of the ships docked around her: the Majesty OTS, Imagination, and Fascination.

 

When we stepped off the shuttle, the a porter appeared to take our bags, then we headed into the terminal. We proceeded up an escalator to find a large group of people standing in front of security. It turns out that there were delays because the Coast Guard was performing a full inspection, which makes sense because this was the day the Brilliance returned from Europe. We waited in a large, huddled line for about 20 minutes until security was opened and people were ushered away from the escalators. Security moved fairly quickly, and once past that, we headed into the room with all of the counters for check-in. We proceeded to Platinum and Diamond check-in, and after about a 5 minute wait, we were being helepd by and agent.

 

After being checked in, we moved into the holding area as the ship was not ready to board. We were handed an orange Priority ticket and told that the ship would not be be boarding until 12:15 or so. At around 12:20, we were told that we could proceed up the escalator to the ship and about half of the room stood up as most of the early arrivals were Priority boards. We made it up the escalator and were then stopped as small group of 10 were being allowed onto the boarding platform for their security photos and to board the ship. In the hallway while we were waiting, ship photographers were trying to take boarding pictures while everyone was standing in line in the middle of their backdrops. The line just kept moving as most people seemed uninterested in having their pictures taken.

 

At around 12:35, we stepped aboard the Brilliance, and let me say, she is a very pretty ship. The centrum reminded me a lot of vision-class ships with a lot of wood, glass, and brass. The solarium struck me as the most beautiful place I've ever seen on a ship. The Colony Club (aft lounge) was equally impressive, though the dining room and theater were nice but seemed fairly "cruise standard."

 

The odd part about boarding was that there didn't seem to be any food available. People were being turned away from the Windjammer and other establishments, such as the SeaView Cafe were also closed. This was a might perplexing, especially given my rumbling stomach. Luckily, 1:00 rolled around quickly and we proceeded to our stateroom: 7540, a balcony on the front section of the ship.

 

This was my first balcony on Royal Caribbean, and I must say, I enjoyed it immensely. The room seemed cruise-spacious, of course meaning that it was nice, had plenty of storage space, but would be tiny for any other sort of accommodations. The balcony seemed bigger than normal, as it extended perhaps two feet past the divider, allowing room for a full size lounger, two chairs, and a table. The down-side of this, of course, is that the balconies were not too private (at least on this level and part of ship) as you could not only see into other balconies, but you also stuck out below the balconies on the higher decks.

 

After dropping bags and making a few phone calls, we headed out once more on a quest for food. It was about 1:45 at this point and the Windjammer was finally open. The place was chaotic, however. I have seen this type of layout, with individual stations, before and worked with much more success. In this instance, however, it was a mess. There are multiple stations with salad stuff, entrees, etc., but there is no indication of where the "line" for each station starts, so when it was busy (as it was on this occasion), there were people everywhere, coming at food and stations from every direction. Once food was collected, however, seating became a problem. By this time, a lot of hungry people had accumlated, and just about every table in the place was either accounted for or had been saved. We luckily were able to grab a sandwich outside aft, but there was a lot of milling about by people on hunt for our entire lunch. The bussers were also a little behind, with most people choosing to clear out the trash on tables themselves so that they could have a place to sit.

 

The rest of the day passed without much incident. The muster drill was at 4:15 and had its usual complement of people blowing on their whistles and thinking it the height of hilarity. We were on the way about 5:30. The

Welcome Aboard show was held in between the two dinner seatings and was, as you can suspect, packed with everyone on the ship trying to get a space. The cruise director was Abe, and he seemed likable enough though I didn't really see him around the ship. Dinner was pleasant, and our waitresses were fantastic.

 

At 11, it was time to call it a night and prepare for the sea day tomorrow ....

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Bob,

A crew member mentioned on our last night that they suspected the inspection would take a long time with the ship having just returned from Europe.

I was up on the WJ deck (about 9 a.m.) waiting to leave the ship. Crew were still mopping the floors after breakfast, which was stopped at 8, tho I'm sure some were still finishing up. A guess would be that it was the last place inspected so no food preparation could be started for your lunch.

Enjoying your review.

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Printing out your review to read. We had looked into that cruise -- wanted to sail on Brilliance to make it 4 out 4 for Radiance Class. Prices were good and we had a good Diamond C&A coupon. We were a little worried about driving back from Miami during the holiday period and ended up do a short cruise on Enchantment on Nov. 1.

 

Saw the ship in port today on a Crystal ship website.

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Just want to ask, Silent Bob, was Brilliance in Key West Thursday, Dec 20? Actually I need to rephrase that. I KNOW Brilliance was in Key West this week. Just want to say I waved to you guys as you sailed past Fort Zacahary Taylor State Park at sunset. We got a great photo of Brilliance with the fiery sun juts in front of your ship and you were in silhouette.

 

I hope you enjoyed your visit to Key West and you were so lucky to have wonderful, cool weather.

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I goofed. We actually saw Brilliance in Key West on Wednesday the 19th. It was Majesty of the Seas we saw on Thursday there. Brilliance was in port with C.Columbus (Hapag Lloyd.)

 

I liked the Brilliance much better. The folks on C.Columbus had to climb very steep stairs to board or leave the ship. I don't know how handicapped folks could do it. Someone told us most of the passengers were German, Dutch and and Northern Eurpoean.

 

We will be sailing on Brilliance in January on a cruise to the Panama Canal.

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I goofed. We actually saw Brilliance in Key West on Wednesday the 19th. It was Majesty of the Seas we saw on Thursday there. Brilliance was in port with C.Columbus (Hapag Lloyd.)

 

I liked the Brilliance much better. The folks on C.Columbus had to climb very steep stairs to board or leave the ship. I don't know how handicapped folks could do it. Someone told us most of the passengers were German, Dutch and and Northern Eurpoean.

 

We will be sailing on Brilliance in January on a cruise to the Panama Canal.

 

 

Hey were you watching us as we left? Someone was playing the Titantic theme from the dock really loud and I was the guy doing the "king of the world" on the front of the ship as we left.

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Thanks for the comments everyone. I'm now stuck to a dial-up connection, so it is taking me a little more time to access the internet. :rolleyes:

 

 

SomeBeach ... that was my assumption too about the Windjammer being closed. I had figured that there would be a few issues with being on this first cruise (perhaps why it was a short one) back in the US.

 

PSCruiser ... our room steward was Rowena. She was excellent, though.

 

HeavySurf ... Yes, it was Wednesday. I always enjoy stopping in Key West and the weather was quite nice. My balcony faced the port and I was laughing when the cafe played My Heart Will Go On, as Fury1995 mentioned.l

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12.18 - At Sea

 

Tuesday was meant to be a day of leisurely relaxation. It was the only sea day, and as we had a day and a half to travel from Miami to Key West, the ship was moving quite leisurely, as well.

 

We had meant to start the day with breakfast on the balcony and walk-a-mile at 9 AM, but the night before we had received an invitation to the Diamond/Platinum brunch that started at 9. We decided that this would be worth going to, so at 9, we headed to the Colony Club at the back of the ship. What we found was a small line leading up to a small, two sided breakfast buffet that ran perpendicular up to the stage. The food consisted of typical lunch fare, such as bread items, pancakes, breakfast meats, ready-made omelettes, and a few chicken and beef offerings. Once seated, there were waiters to bring around drinks including coffee, tea, champagne, mimosas, and bloody marys. The food was nothing special, and the small tables in the Colony Club pretty much meant that people sat in their own groups without too much extra chit-chat. I heard that the drinks were fairly strong, but it was a tad too early in the day for me to start drinking. I had thought that here might be a welcome from a staff member or the loyalty ambassador, but no one showed ... it just seemed to be a chow and drink session.

 

We left the brunch and I signed up for an appointment with the loyalty ambassador, who's desk is in the Crown and Anchor Lounge on deck 12, above the centrum. I was worried about limited spaces for such a short cruise, though I was able to grab the last spot of the day at 4:30.

 

We spent the rest of the day wandering about the ship and reading on our balcony. The deck was fairly full, as would be expected, but the chair-savers didn't seem to be out in full force early and there were plenty of chairs to be had on the upper decks or in the front of the ship. Lunch was offered in both the Windjammer and dining room, and the dining room had the same standard menu with posted specials that I have seen for the last year or so on RCCL. The dining room did also offer made-to-order pasta, as well, though I guess there was enough of a backlog that, while it could be ordered either by the passenger or waiter, it would be made and delivered to the table later.

 

On deck, the typical games were held, including the sexy-legs competition and the belly-flop competition. The stores also had their 50% off logo-wear sale on deck 11, and there quite a few offerings I had never seen in this sale before. The Solarium was quite full, mostly of older Florida residents it seemed ... my guess is that this was caused by the cooler weather (low 70s) outside. I was a bit surprised that they had two, two-hour "family swim" times in the Solarium ... so from 12-2 and 4-6, kids were allowed to swim in the Solarium pool, regardless of the weather (I've only seen this before as an option during inclement weather). Also, just a note, the internet connection on the ship went down for a few hours in the afternoon.

 

At 4:30, I went to talk with the loyalty ambassador (Pablo) about a possible Hawaii cruise and a NextCruise. There were two people working in the C&A lounge, one working with a customer and the other (Pablo) seeming to work on some paperwork. I told him I was his appointment and he motioned me to sit away from him and wait until he finished. As we waited, he was interrupted twice by diamond-plus members, and he helped them verbally as we waited. About 15 minutes later, he remembered we were still waiting and motioned us over after first trying to pass us on to the other worker in the lounge (now free). I realize that Pablo was overworked and a little stressed, but I never go the sense that he wanted to be helping me and this didn't seem to be the right attitude for a frequent cruiser looking to give RCCL more money (or anyone else, for that matter).

 

Since this was a 4-day cruise, I didn't want to pack formal wear or participate in formal night. Because of this, I made reservations for Chops as I hadn't yet eaten there. I found the experience a little underwhelming. First of all, the service was very good except for seating, which took about 5 minutes of standing at the entrance to the place before we were greeted and seated. I started out with a crab cake, onion soup, and caesar salad. The salad was pretty good, though it was served in stalks that I had to cut up (seemed odd, but that's probably just me). The crab cake and soup, though, were just OK. The crab cake was fried and tasted more like breading than any type of seafood. The onion soup tasted like beef broth and onions with almost no character at all. Both of these items were offered later in the week in the dining room, and the dining room versions were much better. I ordered the t-bone steak, and it was very good though short of fabulous. My mother ordered a fillet and it was extremely smooth and tender. The mud pie at the end of the dinner was also very good. In the end, however, I do not think I will be returning to Chops on a future cruise. On the line, I'd rate Portofino of higher quality, and it is cheaper (Chops is $25/pp while Portfofino is $20/pp). Just FYI and in my opinion, of all of the alternative restaurants I've eaten at, I'd still rate any of Carnival's supper clubs as being superior to anything RCCL offers (though the price $30/pp is also superior).

 

After dinner, we headed back to the room full of too much food and not in the mood to do too much else. We missed the production show, a swing dance show. A few other things to note ... others also did not seem to take the formal night seriously for such a short cruise. Also, after 5:30, the casino was supposed to be smoke-free on formal night, though I did see a few people who were lighting up (didn't notice if they were asked to stop).

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Hi we were on the TA just before you- your report is terrific, thanks! Yes you are right about the inspections, and I am sure they were awful for the staff. Sorry you "starved" at embarcation, this is unusual.

 

Pablo the Loyalty Ambassador was SO sick on our cruise. It was a miracle he could even speak through his headcold, much less operate cheerfully. The ship was jammed with Plat., Dia., D+ members and they ran his feet off, it was a little much I tell you. I am so sorry he was not terrific with you, he was so classy with us...

 

We LOVED the no- smoking nights in the Casino, and I personally set the staff on some folks who insisted that it was OK to smoke on these nights. There was a hysterical 2c and 5c slot- Mr. Lucky's Takeout or something like that- we were rolling when we got to the Take Out Bonus Menu, it was so funny.

 

Keep writing you are bringing back such great memories for us!

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Chris...... I was suprised by the late opening of the Windjammer too. The staff kept sending people up to Deck 11 and the whole area was starting to get really jammed with people now sitting on the floor like they were waiting to disembark. It was becoming difficult to step off the elevator.

 

I went down to Guest Services to ask why the Windjammer wasn't open yet and they said it was. Then they said it won't be open until 3PM??? Then they said try in an hour. It was almost 1PM by then. I told them they shoud start re-directing people to Deck 12 or the pool area to alleviate the crowding.

 

The other Windjammer issue I noticed was the consistent lack of napkins and silverware for the first two days. I had two meals there where I had to scavenge for silverware. All we had was a soup spoon, a dessert fork and no napkin for two entire meals even after looking multiple times in all of the baskets.

 

Room service was another issue. Ordered three times, never came twice. One in the afternoon and one at night.

 

Meals and service in the dining room and Chops made up for the Windjammer and room service "failings". Still one of my favorite cruises. Can't wait to be back on Brilliance again soon.

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Hi we were on the TA just before you- your report is terrific, thanks! Yes you are right about the inspections, and I am sure they were awful for the staff. Sorry you "starved" at embarcation, this is unusual.

 

Not really close to starving ... definitely not close to wasting away. ;) However, it is something I heard people complaining about for the rest of the cruise. It seems perhaps some explanation of why things were behind would have helped (or maybe they could have held on boarding for a little bit).

 

Pablo the Loyalty Ambassador was SO sick on our cruise. It was a miracle he could even speak through his headcold, much less operate cheerfully. The ship was jammed with Plat., Dia., D+ members and they ran his feet off, it was a little much I tell you. I am so sorry he was not terrific with you, he was so classy with us...

 

I figured that something had to be off, as I can't see how someone would hold a job such as loyalty ambassador without being at least a little personable.

 

We LOVED the no- smoking nights in the Casino, and I personally set the staff on some folks who insisted that it was OK to smoke on these nights. There was a hysterical 2c and 5c slot- Mr. Lucky's Takeout or something like that- we were rolling when we got to the Take Out Bonus Menu, it was so funny.

 

Hey ... I actually won about $20 from two cent Mr. Lucky. :) Actually, there are two machines I always have to play a when I see ... Texas Tea and Mr. Lucky. I usually play long enough to hit a bonus game, then run away, especially if I'm ahead. I'm obviously a master gambler .... :)

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12.19 - Key West

 

This was my first time coming to Key West on Royal Caribbean, and I can say that the experience was much better than my times on Carnival, simply because of docking position. In the times I've visited with Carnival, we've always docked at the Navy pier and had to take shuttles from the pier to the downtown area and back. Needless to say, this was always a pain, especially in the summer when there were high temperatures, long lines, and very little shade. The Brilliance, however, docked at the Westin pier with immediate access to downtown and only a small walk to Duval Street ... much more convenient.

 

The ship docked early in the morning (around 7 AM, I think) and I woke up to watch the ship pull into port. We had decided that we would eat breakfast on the balcony this morning, but I had told my mom not to put the menu on the door (I didn't trust that the order would be received) in favor of ording over the television. At around 7:30, I placed an order on the TV for our breakfast for delivery between 8:30 and 9:00. By 9:30 we had not heard anything, figured the order for lost, and just went up to the Windjammer which was not too busy by this time in the morning.

 

After breakfast, I went down to the customer service desk to turn in our C&A coupons for internet access so I could check my grades. In the past, I've turned in two Gold coupons for $5 a piece and had them both applied to my account. This time I turned in a Gold and a Platinum ($7.50), but when I logged in, I was told I only had $10 credit. I'm not sure if this was a mistake, or if this was just the maximum that could be given per person, but either way, I would have liked for the desk person to have told me I would be losing out on $2.50 (not that it ended up mattering).

 

We had a very simple mission for Key West ... my mom wanted to go to the Fresh Produce store to buy some clothes. I wanted to buy a few fresh-rolled cigars. Both of those goals were accomplished fairly easily by walking down the street leading straight from the ship. A bit further down the road, I stopped at a Walgreens to buy some aspirin and bottled water at something well below ship price. On the way back, I stopped at a Blonde Giraffe store for a piece of chocolate covered key lime pie on a stick. I thought that the pie was fairly good, though not the best key lime pie I've ever had ... of course, I wouldn't expect anything on a stick to be "the best" of anything .... ;)

 

I had thought about stopping at one of the bars (Sloppy Joe's, Captain Tony's, Irish Kevin's, etc), but to be honest, it was 11:30 and I just didn't feel like drinking. Instead, we headed back to the ship for a nice lunch uncrowded ship time. Quite a few people were late getting back to the ship, and to my surprise, they were unhurried even as gangplanks were being stowed. As we pulled out, one of the sidewalk cafes started playing "My Heart Will Go On," which I thought was pretty funny.

 

Dinner this night was very good, though I thought the selection for main courses was a little lacking with the chef's recommendation being a pork chop. The show was pre-dinner and featured El Goucho, the cruise ship staple. He put on a bit of a different show than I've seen from him before, however, as he did more musical numbers in a attempt to reach more of the non-English audience. This was also the night of the Quest ... which one of these days I will probably have to attend.

 

This night, we decided to put out the room service menu on our door for our breakfast-on-the-balcony quest. I went out on the balcony to smoke one of my cigars (it was very windy and none of my neighbors were on their balconies). Afterwards, I decided to hit the SeaView Cafe for a pizza and noticed that our menu had been taken, though there were others down the hallway still on the door. I found the menu that had been taken from our door in the nearby elevator lobby ... my mom had said she heard kids giggling outside our door, but didn't think anything of it. :rolleyes:

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Hi silentbob007,

We were on this sailing with you. Overall, we had a great time, but I wanted to point out that there was no family swim time in the solarium.

 

I can confirm this as I brought my 4 year old to the solarium on the sea day, as it was a little too windy in adventure beach for my taste, and as soon as we were starting to wade in the pool, the deck patrol came over and told me there were no children allowed. He had the compass in his hand and knew it said family swim time, but he told me that was a misprint. so we left.

 

They continue to print the same misprint the rest of the cruise, but we never returned to the solarium with our DD again- i did get a nice soak in the hot tub one afternoon.

 

We did catch the swing production show, and I thought it was very well done.

 

I also loved that they had the ship's photographer roaming around on Cococay, as he took a great shot of our DD playing in the sand with our friend's DD.

 

Can't wait to read the rest of your review,

Wendy

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Wendy, thanks for pointing out the reality of family swim time. I saw it in the compass and heard a few families mention it, but I did not ever go myself. I think this sums up one of the problems with this particular sailing ... what the compass said and what actually occurred were to completely different things at times. I don't know if it was crew switch over, itinerary switch over, or the fact that this cruise was a one-time deal ....

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I had thought that here might be a welcome from a staff member or the loyalty ambassador, but no one showed ... it just seemed to be a chow and drink session.

 

Either you left early or arrived late because both Abe & Pablo gave a short speech. Even the Captain showed up and talked to a few tables but did not make a speech.

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12.20 - Coco Cay

 

Well, with the "excitement" the night before, I had absolutely no confidence accomplishing our goal of breakfast on the balcony. It was therefore somewhat of a shock when, at 8:15, we got a call from roomservice telling us that our food was on the way. Sure enough, 15 minutes later, we were on our balcony eating rolls, eggs, fruit, and drinking coffee. I could say that the eggs were cold and the coffee was luke warm, but the experience was very positive.

 

After eating, we headed down to catch a tender over to Coco Cay at 9:30, the exact time we were advised to avoid because of "rush hour." When we went down to deck 2, there was a bit of a line down the hallway, but it was not too bad, and within 5 minutes we were sitting on the tender. It was filled very quickly ... and I do mean filled ... each seat was taken and people were scooted about to make sure that the ship was filled (even while another, empty tender, was docked and ready to take passengers).

 

A short, slightly bumpy, trip later, we arrived at Coco Cay and found a lot of empty beaches, empty hammocks, and plenty of ways to spend money for a private island, including bars and a mini- "straw market." To be honest, I'm not a huge beach person, so my goal was to walk around the island and then head back to the ship for lunch. I talked my mom into going on the "nature trail," which is a trail cut through the island that, as it turns out, takes you to the far point of the island where there are lots of sharp rocks but no beaches. The path took quite some time, though there were a few paths that led to the beach along the way. It was mostly rock, so there was a bit of scampering around on loose stones, but other than that, it wasn't really hazardous. Once we reached the end, we took a dirt road back to the nearest sand beach, and then we walked in the ocean back to the more popular, closer beaches. Once back to the main part of island, I bought a CocoLoco upon recommendation of this board and it was very good ... $5.95 for the drink and a souvenir plastic "water bottle" type of cup. We caught a tender back to the ship around noon.

 

Once back on board, we checked the compass for food options. It listed both the Windjammer and the dining room as being open, be we opted for the SeaView Cafe, which was to open at 1:30. When we arrived there at 1:30, we found a line and quite a few full tables wher epeople had already finished their meal. From the grumbling in the line, it turned out that the Compass was wrong. Lunch was served on the island, as advertised, but nowhere else on the ship except the SeaView Cafe. So, people who had intended on going to the Windjammer for a quick meal instead had to wait in about a 10 minute line to order at the Cafe, then wait about another 10-25 minutes (depending on order) for their food to be prepared. This line and wait didn't bother me because I had counted on it, but it definitely made others very gripey (they also mentioned that first day as proof that it was being made hard to get food on this sailing).

 

During the time we were gone, our gratuities slips had been delivered to our stateroom, as we had opted to have them added to our SeaPass. If this wasn't so easy, I would have changed our tips as, in three nights, we never even saw the headwaiter, let alone have him stop by to talk to us. We stuffed the envelopes with the slips, along with some extra for the great service we had had, and we went to the pre-dinner Tango Buenes Aires show. This show was quite good, though for my interests, dancing got a little tiresome towards the end, especially when they started playing Don't Cry for me Argentina (Evita -- I love musicals, but gag me).

 

Dinner was nice, thought I always think it is sad to say goodbye to the waitstaff and tablemates whose company I've enjoyed. The dinner included shrimp cocktail, onion soup, NY strip, and tempura mahi mahi, so there were some interesting options. It concluded with key lime pie and brownie madness, both of which were very good.

 

After dinner, it was time for one last trip to the casino and to pack. We were in absolutely no rush the next day (2:50 flight out of FLL), so we decided to put our bags out for collection. We were given gray tags for being platinum, and according to the list given out, we would still be the fifth group called (after tours and early flights). The bags had to be out by midnight, so I put them out at about 11:30, keeping in mind what had happened the night before with our room service order. They were picked up at around 12:15 as I spent my last few moments relishing the balcony, waves, and starlight ....

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Either you left early or arrived late because both Abe & Pablo gave a short speech. Even the Captain showed up and talked to a few tables but did not make a speech.

 

Good to know. I thought we got there just after 9 and stayed past when they had people watching the door and collecting invitations. Perhaps we were late?

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Good to know. I thought we got there just after 9 and stayed past when they had people watching the door and collecting invitations. Perhaps we were late?

 

We must have missed it as well, we arrived before the doors were open and stayed until people began leaving... what time did they speak?

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12.21 - Debarkation

 

We arrived in Miami very early in the morning (6 or earlier). Seeing as we didn't have much to do, as there obviously wasn't much to pack left, we vacated our room and headed up to the Hollywood Odyssey Lounge (deck 13) where they had a private lounge for Diamond/Platinum members. Basically, it was just a place to go that had some coffee, tea, juice, and pastries and was a bit away from the hustle and bustle of debarkation.

 

In fact, one of the problems was that it was too far away ....

 

I won't use the word nightmare because that is overused and, in my opinion, only really occurs when the ship is 3 hours late into port and you have an early flight (has only happened to me once, and it worked out). However ... this debarkation was bad ... one of the worst I have seen. The problems started with the person calling various groups to go. She left almost no time in between the two groups. She called self-assist early (perhaps around 7? ... didn't really note the time), and by 7:30, the next group was called. Then, five minutes later, three more groups were called. Gray tags, which are what we had, we called five minutes after that.

 

Several of the people in the lounge looked around for a ship escort when the gray tags were called, but there was obviously no one up there to do it. We made our way over to the elevators and managed to grab one down to deck 5, which was packed. In fact, the elevators opened up into the middle of a mob, all waiting to get off the ship, with a main line going through the shops. As we stepped off, people grumbled that we needed to go to the back of the line (after all, the elevators opened near the head of the line). There were plenty of people in line still trying to get off with their bags, let alone the other five tags that had already been called. Not in any hurry, my mom and I went to the back of the line in the shops and had only moved forward about two feet when yet another color was called. Just a mess ....

 

Contributing to the mess was the line to get off of the ship. There was no order to it, and there were no crew members helping to keep it in order. What ended up happening was that about three different lines were created. There was the main one, where the people trying to be fair to everyone in front of them went. There was the shorter one that approached the head of the line from another direction and forced itself into the main line, and then there was the line of people who pushed themselves out of the elevator and stayed at that position. That was probably the most frustrating part ... that without any sense of order from the crew, people pushed their way through with dirty looks, swears, or shoving for anyone who tried to correct them or tell them to wait their turn. Also, the problem was that the line was routed through the elevator lobby. If it had been routed the opposite direction from the beginning, around the other side of the centrum (which is the way the "short" line went), then most of the problems would have been solved and people would have been able to use the elevators.

 

I watched the scene without too much emotion ... again, I had a very late flight ... and thought the whole time ... this is awful. I, of course, knew that even once we got off of the ship, we'd have a bit of a wait inside the terminal.

 

But ... oh well. I know what some of you are saying. You had a late flight ... why didn't you just wait and be one of the last people off? That's true ... and it had crossed my mind. My problem is, however, I didn't like the idea of our luggage going around outside for hours without being claimed. I've heard enough stories about "lost" luggage that I didn't want to chance leaving them on the luggage claim for 3-4 hours.

 

Once we had gotten off of the ship, cleared customs, and retrieved our luggage, I called up SuperShuttle for pickup. I had originally planned to use RCCL transfers (as GO shuttle would not pickup at the Port of Miami without the use of a private car), but by the time I called about them, the transfers were sold out. SuperShuttle had told me that they would do a shared-ride pickup from the Port of Miami, but that it would be $31/pp to FLL. This was almost twice the price of the GO shuttle to Miami, but by that point, it was the cheapest option (and was paid by credit card in advance). When we got our bags and went outside, I called the reservation number, told them the berth we were in, and was told that the shuttle would be there in 20-30 minutes. In 55 minutes, I had started to call them again when the shuttle appeared. When we were asked what time our flight was by the driver, and he heard that it was distant, he told the base that he could make more pickups. This led to three more pickups and an extra hour-and-a-half driving tour of Miami, which wouldn't have been so bad except that the first pick-up only got to FLL about 45 minutes before her flight (and she was obviously worried, having gotten on the van an hour earlier).

 

In the end, of course, it didn't matter to us because we were still at FLL four hours before our flight and couldn't check our bags and check-in until two hours before (Allegiant Air). The airport was full of people in a similar situation, and most of the seats were taken by families with large amounts of luggage strewn around them. We managed to find some seats and I killed time using the free wireless internet access on my laptop. We finally stood in line and were checked in by 1:30, breezed through empty security, and then waited for three more hours as our flight was delayed. I know Allegiant is a small-airport operator that just started flying out of FLL ... but if you plan to use them any time soon out of FLL ... they don't have their act together yet. The desk personnel were often confused and the catering guys didn't know what they were supposed to stock the plan with (making turn around very, very slow).

 

In the end, we arrived in Fort Wayne, IN in the middle of dense fog, but we were home and it had been a long day (6:00 AM - 7:30 PM) of traveling. I'll be making one more addition to my review with a breakdown of different aspects of the ship. Reading over my review so far, it seems to have a negative bent to it. Let me say that there were several items on the cruise that were disappointing, but it was a very positive experience overall. Hopefully this will be reflected in my wrap-up.

 

Happy Holidays everyone!

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Good to know. I thought we got there just after 9 and stayed past when they had people watching the door and collecting invitations. Perhaps we were late?
We must have missed it as well, we arrived before the doors were open and stayed until people began leaving... what time did they speak?

 

Don't know the time but Abe even announced that you could use your coupons for the wine tasting in the afternoon even though they said they were for cruises 7+ days.

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