deej696

Alright, sounds like I might win this bet after all. Thanks everyone!

Say it isn't so! I rarely eat them, I just don't wanna lose this bet. I thought they were on the menu last year and hoped that was still the case..

Hoping someone can help settle (read: help me win) a bet. Anyone know if escargots is available in the Brilliance MDR each night, or even any single night?

DJ - I don't have an answer about the Chef's Table (but I will be on the Brilliance in December and am SO excited!) but just had to say that your quote about Sprite really cracked me up. I listened to a Steven Wright bit on the Sirius comedy channel yesterday and he did the Sprite joke. Thanks for including it - it gave me a lift!

Glad I could help supply a laugh! I first heard it told by Mitch Hedberg - I've never laughed so hard in my life.

I'm sailing on Brilliance in 2 weeks. It has to be booked on board.

Thank you! Seems odd for them to do it that way, but I'll keep an eye out once we get onboard.

The BR had the Chef's Table this past spring(we went)...

 

I think their cruise planners have a lot to be desired...:rolleyes:

 

PS..Im from Ocala too...

Small world! Curious...do you recall if they did the CT every night? Just trying to figure out what night to leave open with other reservations.

We have a couple upcoming sailings on the Brilliance and had planned on doing the Chef's Table as we've always enjoyed our previous experiences with it. In the ship description on the RC website it lists Chef's Table as an option but it is no where to be found in my cruise planner.

Is it not currently available on Brilliance? Thanks in advance for any insight.

After pondering it more, two things I remembered entertainment wise...

First, the music in the Centrum each night was great. Granted, they played the same set every other day, but we still enjoyed it.

The other is the cake making challenge. Captain Rob is a pretty funny dude, and the cake decorating contest was a fun show. It was better on the Oasis (they need to mic the Captain) but it was worth setting aside a few minutes to do.

Thank you Thank you!! I'm on Rhapsody in a few short weeks. So excited! I have a few questions.

We are doing the same thing in Juneau. Was the $20 pp round trip or one way?

Where is Tracy's Crab Shack? Port?

Thanks for the cards/book suggestion. I was just telling my kids we are heading to a used book store to get some reading material. I didn't have cards on my list though!

My youngest was bummed we aren't doing a whale tour. Your sightings from the cruise has made him excited again. I hope we are as lucky as you :)

 

thanks again!

The shuttle was $20 round trip. Naturally all of their signs say $10 but supposedly that is each way. There are like 8 booths offering tours all next to one another (probably the same company, truth be told) and they were all quoting the same price.

Tracy's Crab Shack is in Juneau. A little pricey, but a one of a kind experience. We made it our dinner that day;)

Hi D.J. and thank you for sharing an amazing summary of your cruise! We're going on July 11th and one thing I just can't get is an itinerary of the onboard entertainment. I called RCCL and they couldn't (wouldn't?) give any specifics. Any chance you brought a Compass home? :)

 

The most I've been able to get is:

Entertainment:

Don Barnhart, Comedian - Derek Lewis, Guitarist - Ronn Lucas, Ventriloquist - Patrick McMahon, Impressionist - Sideshow Bert, Juggler.

Theater Shows:

Piano Man II - Pure Country - Ballroom Fever III

 

I don't know if they're any good :D or what time they're on, so it makes it hard to plan meals and spa, etc. Either way (Compass or not) thank you again for a great summary of your cruise!

Sadly, I didn't bring home any of the Compass and have no clue on the entertainment. Thanks to the 4-5am sunrise, we found ourselves worn out by 9pm each night. A good thing because the mornings were so nice when we were sailing, but the downside was we didn't experience any of the nightlife. I take that back, the one night we stayed up past dark (oh my!) we went to the adult sing-a-long which was fun for about 10 minutes, and then hit the Michael Jackson tribute up in Viking which was a blast.

Someone else mentioned binoculars...they are a must for whale watching. I'll never forget both my wife and I exclaiming "They're Orcas!" when we spotted the one pod after Tracy Arm.

Just returned from the June 6th sailing. After two cruises on the Oasis, it was really nice being back on a smaller ship. We didn't feel compelled to see and do much of anything, whereas on the Oasis it seems everything is go, go, go. Of course, being in Alaska helps with that too...

A few suggestions...

Take rain gear like a poncho, etc. It absolutely poured all day in Juneau. Thankfully, my wife had prepared and we had two ponchos with us. The upside was we took a shuttle over to Mendenhall ($20pp) and had the two mile trail down to the beach near the waterfall all to ourselves...

In Skagway we did the Laughton Glacier Hike. This took us on the White Pass RR about 14 miles, and then the train stopped to let us off. It was a 7 mile round trip hike, most of it over fairly difficult, rocky terrain. I am by no means in great shape, but I handled it just fine, and it was worth every ounce of energy. If you like hiking and the great outdoors (neither of which I usually go for) this will blow you away.

As others have mentioned, when it comes to Tracy Arm (or any day for that matter), you absolutely must get up early. On that day in particular, if you weren't out of bed and on deck by 7, you basically missed it. Captain came on at 8am with a "wake up or you'll miss it" message, but by then so much of it was already over. Thankfully, we were up at 5 every morning because that's when the sun comes up. Treat this trip as an early to bed early to rise sort of thing.

We did the Chops Champagne Breakfast twice and it was amazing. Worth every penny. We went to the first one on Juneau day and decided to come back to the other one on Tracy Arm. It worked out perfect - watched the scenery and glacier from our balcony/deck early in the morning, nice breakfast with a stunning view at 7am..

Finally, Victoria. We just sort of winged it here. No excursion or plan when we got off the ship. We walked downtown along the waterfront and past Fisherman's Wharf - a nice stroll, weather was great. We saw the usual sites downtown, had some lunch, and decided to walk back through Beacon Hill Park and along another stretch of waterfront. As beautiful as I'm sure the famous Butchart Gardens are, this was a truly delightful walk and it was completely free.

A few other thoughts...

~If you're up in the air on whether a whale watch tour is worthwhile, then skip it. I'm guessing we saw 100+ humpbacks from the ship and one pod of Orcas.

~Tracy's Crab Shack is awesome.

~Take a deck of cards and a good book. There's tons of downtime on this cruise, and as hard as it is to believe, you might get bored of the scenery after a while.

Long story short, we absolutely loved our first Alaskan cruise, and can't wait to do it again.

Any questions, feel free to ask.

We had our second sailing on Oasis in March. The first time I didn't feel a thing all week. Second time we went through a cold front with 10-15ft swells. Didn't get sick, but many weren't so luck. In 12 cruises I had never experienced seas that bad..

I would avoid this place like the plague. Terrible experience with them on a prepaid reservation. Refused to allow me to park at 10am and for 2 nights, even though thats when I reserved and prepaid for. Had to go to Amex to get my money back. Park at the pier, its not worth the hassle for the savings.

I'm not the only one, plenty of other terrible reviews for them also...

However I can confirm that this is the correct address for their garage...

I've been doing this for years. Thanks for giving it away....

I'm curious as we have an early excursion here as well. Do all the ships tender in Grand Cayman? We will be on the Destiny. I have not been to Grand Cayman in quite some time, so pardon the rookie question.

We booked a balcony guarantee on the Triumph for our cruise last week. We were on deck 8 (8409) which is starboard side, almost to the back of the ship. I liked the location because it was very convenient to the staircase up to the lido for food and drinks...