Pictorial Review: Brilliance OTS 12/16/13 ~B2B~ with Carnival Ecstasy

More cabin photos

The bathroom, with awful (and nearly pointless) shower curtain

Some swag

Our Christmas tree

That takes care of the cabin and a few areas of the ship. Lots more to come, but that's all I have time for tonight. I'll be back on tomorrow with more.

Funny you mention that cruise, there were a few folks on board during this cruise that were on the ship with you during Hurricane Sandy.

There were 3 couples at our table and all were severely impacted by Sandy.

We had a 120 foot oak tree land squarely on our house, partially demolishing it. After 6 months the house was rebuilt and we sold it and moved to Florida.

The second couple lived on the Jersey Shore....enuff said.

The 3rd couple lives in Manhattan on 14th street in Stuyvesant Town. Their parking garage is below street level. Before we all got off the ship in NJ, the wife told us that their car is now a submarine.

We had been booked to do a b2b on the BOTS down to San Juan but that was cancelled and insurance did pay us back for the skipped second leg.

There were 3 couples at our table and all were severely impacted by Sandy.

 

We had a 120 foot oak tree land squarely on our house, partially demolishing it. After 6 months the house was rebuilt and we sold it and moved to Florida.

 

The second couple lived on the Jersey Shore....enuff said.

 

The 3rd couple lives in Manhattan on 14th street in Stuyvesant Town. Their parking garage is below street level. Before we all got off the ship in NJ, the wife told us that their car is now a submarine.

 

We had been booked to do a b2b on the BOTS down to San Juan but that was cancelled and insurance did pay us back for the skipped second leg.

Not good about the damage and subsequent cruise cancellation. At least they made it right. Welcome to FL, at least you don't have to worry about hurricanes anymore......;):D

Great Pictorial Review, thanks...always enjoy seeing photos of the cabin. :):):):):

Great Pictorial Review, thanks...always enjoy seeing photos of the cabin. :):):):):

Thanks, glad you liked it!

Subscribing. We board the Brilliance in 26 days!

As always, it is so GREAT seeing another excellent review. I have come to rely on your opinion of ships, as your views mirror mine very closely. We loved our cruise on the MSC Poesia we took last year after reading your review. One of my favorite ships now. As you can see by my signature, we are now bound for the Allure in May. Thanks again for helping me spend money. We live in Sarasota, and it would be great to travel with you and your wife on a future trip. Once again, thanks for taking the time to write about and photograph your travels.

Like what I'm seeing! Keep it up ! Thank you and glad you had fun!

As always, it is so GREAT seeing another excellent review. I have come to rely on your opinion of ships, as your views mirror mine very closely. We loved our cruise on the MSC Poesia we took last year after reading your review. One of my favorite ships now. As you can see by my signature, we are now bound for the Allure in May. Thanks again for helping me spend money. We live in Sarasota, and it would be great to travel with you and your wife on a future trip. Once again, thanks for taking the time to write about and photograph your travels.

Thanks, glad to hear the Poesia worked out well. We've been talking about doing a cruise on her, they offer some attractive rates.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Thank you for posting your review and including pictures, very much appreciated. So was the little tree something you brought along? :)

Thank you for posting your review and including pictures, very much appreciated. So was the little tree something you brought along? :)

Yes, a little USB powered tree. Just the right size for a cruise ship cabin.

Shortly after boarding I stopped by the Sky Bar for the unofficial Cruise Critic meet and mingle and met lots of nice folks that I had been counting down with on the roll call. After the muster drill we went upstairs to the Viking Crown Lounge for the cocktail party. Part of the VCL had been converted into the new Diamond Lounge, and the old Hollywood Odyssey Lounge had been repurposed into a Concierge Lounge. The cocktail party was very busy and entire VCL was being used as a combination DL/CL.

The Sky Bar, the first I've seen with tables. Not a bad idea IMO.

The Starquest in the Viking Crown Lounge

The dance floor, behind that blue dividing wall is the new Diamond Lounge

The carousel bar, my nightly watering hole

The old Hollywood Odyssey, now the Concierge Lounge. There is also a nice porch area outside those big windows, but I couldn't get a shot as I had to sneak in to get this shot.

The new Diamond Lounge, carved out of a section of the Starquest (Viking Crown Lounge). The coffee machine was putting out sub-par brew the entire cruise. This was a shame since the unlimited free espresso was a high point of my recent Enchantment cruise.

Thanks for sharing. Good for you for racking up so many cruises so fast, you must be doing something right! I must get on a Radiance class ship...I just simply must. Also thanks for linking to your Carnival trip. I was onboard Ecstasy almost exactly 21 years ago for a NYE cruise 1992-1993. Good memories. Not much of a CCL fan with all their cutbacks now but the Ecstasy still seems to get a lot of love from fans so that is cool. Keep cruisin'!

We went to the main dining room for the early seating dinner. The food was good, and they did have escargot in stock. The service was pretty slow, taking nearly two hours for three courses. Unfortunately by the time we got back upstairs they were nearly done serving drinks. We did get to meet up with lots of folks in the DL/CL that we'd cruised with before. It was great to see so many folks again that we'd met on previous cruises. We also met many new folks that I'm sure we'll see again.

The main dining room

After the lounge closed down we hung out with L.T. and Patrick at Rita's for some tacos and margaritas. We then ended the night at the Colony Club watching karaoke. It was a good first day, if a bit hectic at times.

The new Rita's

Day 6, The Brilliance, Key West:

Since our evenings are a bit busier on Royal Caribbean, we decided to get our exercise done early. The ship's gym was actually pretty busy for 7 a.m. We had breakfast in the main dining room, and I immediately missed Carnival's Eggs Benedict. As with previous RCI cruises, the eggs were overdone and the hollandaise sauce had way too much lemon in it.

The gym

Our arrival at Key West

There was some brief relaxation before our arrival into Key West. The Carnival Imagination was docked at the Navy pier, which put us at the downtown pier, and that was fine by me. The downtown pier is much more convenient since most of the attractions are within easy walking distance. We had lunch in the Windjammer before leaving the ship. I was immediately disappointed that Park Cafe was closed for lunch this day.

We eventually left the ship and headed into Key West. We made a few stops before getting some pizza at Mr Z's. After a few more shops we went back onboard. We watched sail away from the cocktail party in the Viking Crown Lounge then had the formal dinner in the dining room. Our serving team along with other servers sang Happy Birthday to my wife and brought her a piece of carrot cake per her request the night before. Service was faster than the first night and we were out of there by 7:15.

The Windjammer

A special area of the WJ for Pinnacle members and suite guests

At Key West

My wife's birthday celebration

We stopped back in to the Diamond Lounge for one more drink before the cocktail party ended. I then relaxed in the room while my wife went to the casino with her parents. Later in the evening she was treated to more birthday cake at LT's. It had been a pretty good birthday for her!

I'm enjoying your review. It is nice to see a good review of a Radiance Class ship, I really need to try this class of ship and your pictures are reinforcing that thought.

I also liked your description of the new area with ropes and chains! :eek::D

Day 7, The Brilliance, At Sea:

After two days of waking up early and nearly constant activity I was in need of restful slumber. We slept in and got some delicious breakfast sandwiches at the Park Cafe. After breakfast I spent some time in the Solarium pool and Jacuzzi, and caught up on this review in the VCL.

With awesome weather and calm seas, it would have been a prefect day to open the Solarium's glass roof. But like every other RCI cruise that I've taken, it remained tightly shut. I really don't understand the point of installing retractable roofs and then never retracting them, even in the most perfect of weather. Carnival will open and close their pool area roofs several times a day as the weather dictates. I wish Royal would do the same.

On the topic of pools and Jacuzzis, it's really the only area where the otherwise nearly-prefect Radiance Class ships come up wanting. They carry around 2500 people, yet have only three small hot tubs. The older and smaller Carnival Ecstasy that we just debarked had four (and one upon a time had six). Thankfully the pools are heated on the Brilliance, which reduced the number of folks wanting to be in the tubs. In fact, the Solarium pool was only about ten degrees cooler than its adjacent Jacuzzi.

This being a sea day on Royal Caribbean, the only place to eat lunch is the main dining room. They put out a great salad bar that can be a meal all by itself. They do of course offer a full lunch menu as well. The salad bar was excellent as usual. After lunch there was more relaxing followed by a trip to the gym.

The Solarium

We had lots of fun at the cocktail party, so much that I skipped dinner and just had a few hors d'oeuvres. They offer a delicious port wine that I apparently couldn't stop drinking. Vishnu (our awesome DL/CL bartender) held up an empty bottle which I alone was responsible for. The atmosphere in the VCL during the nightly party is very festive. Vishnu kept the carousel bar spinning every night. Many of the folks opted to hang out in there versus the actual DL or CL.

I had a fun sing along in the piano bar with Sandy, Sam, Joan and Mark which later moved upstairs to the disco. The night was closed out with some late night pizza at the Park Cafe with L.T. I'd like to tell you it was awesome, but as before, all food tastes good to someone who's had one too many drinks.