Just off Brilliance, some impressions

Some thoughts on our just-completed Baltic 12 nt Brilliance Cruise , July 3rd departure.

Americans accounted for about half on board.

There were lots of children.

There are no more printed newspapers and unless you’re in a suite, there’s no body lotion or hair conditioner- just shampoo in a dispenser.

She was last in dry dock in April for cleaning and carpeting but she is showing wear I never noticed on a ship before- frayed , even holey towels, and yellow stains, rust outside on the white metal of the balcony, chipped/banged up metal surrounding the bathroom door, taped drain pipe under the sink...

We also noticed windows with broken seals on them so there was moisture in between the panes, spoiling the views.

The service was excellent.

We did My Time dining. The two-tops were extremely close together, but not on Deck 4 used for Set time dining and lunch.

They actually did a great job of seating us alone most of the time even when we didn’t ask for it . We enjoyed conversing with our near table mates but I thought I’d mention it to prepare others.

We thought lunch in the main dining room was worth it but not the breakfast we had there.

Real cream (Half and Half) was in the Windjammer but not the MDR.

It seemed to me people were pretty dressed up even on casual nights.

There was no lobster dinner unless you pay for it.

The Beatlemaniacs show was the best!

I hardly knew any of the Broadway songs and I’m 65.

The Tango was nice but I could’ve skipped the first half.

Tracey Shields is a great singer.

Some of our favorite finds-

Skagen -when you walk into town , the first building you see on the Main Street is coffee and bakery. Before you turn right on the Main Street. Across from the stairs.we had a chocolate and custard pastry.

Tallin- the juniperwood trivets and cutting boards.

In Helsinki , you’ll see Market Square but Market Hall is to the right and worth a visit as is Fazer - a place for candy, coffee, pastries and lunch. As you are walking down the Main Street toward market square, it’s on a side street off the the left. We got a “Copenhagen pastry “ that was out of this world. ( Can you tell we like our sweets?)

Robert’s Coffee is on the Main Street and also in Market Hall and though we didn’t stop, we noticed cappuccinos were less expensive than where we stopped across from Senate Square.

In Copenhagen , if you keep walking down the main street ( Storget) away from Nyhavn , you’ll come to a bakery ( Lagehuset?) and 12?” pizzas were only about $6.

Unlike the Caribbean, shops don't open early for tourists when you arrive at 7 am.

We did a two day tour in SPB with TJ and Svetlana was an excellent guide.

Our tour did not include lunch but the first day we stopped at a place that had meat pies and dessert pies and the second day at Telemok( Tenemok?), which is fast food (with a McDonalds next door.) My husband had meat dumplings with sour cream & I had blinis ? -crepe- like pancakes with cabbage and scrambled egg filling.

Everything was very tasty. We got two desserts at the attached coffee shop and a cappuccino and I think it was less than $5!

We also went to a Starbucks there and you have to ask for cream when you order because they put it in and charge you for it. It tasted nothing like Starbucks in the US but was delicious.

Thank you very much for your report. My DW and I are booked for this same cruise in August of next year. Will keep an eye open for those pastry shops :D

dp

Corrections-

Lagkagehuset

Teremok

Thanks for the review. My wife and I were eyeing this cruise for 2020, and were curious about children as we would bringing ours!

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Thank you. We did this same cruise on Brilliance in 2015 and very much enjoyed everything!

Thanks for your insight! What did you think of the food options and quality in the MDR? I’ve heard some complaints regarding the new menus.

Also what about Park Cafe food options?

Lobster is only available on sailings from the U.S. Glad you had a great cruise.

I do not recall seeing printed newspapers in a ears and we book full suites

Thanks for sharing. I’m on this next year and love hearing any experiences.

Thanks much. Going on Brilliance this month.

We were happy with the food choices in the MDR and Park Cafe. The Pstk cafe had a great egg and cheese focaccia but 50 seconds in the press wasn’t enough - it was not warm inside. When Intold her she said if she cooks it longervit would burn on the outside. So microwave it 10 seconds maybe, in addition?

Just an FYI if any of you plan to take the train in Amsterdam-we did from the airport to the hotel and the hotel to a day trip in Haarlem. the ticket machines wouldn't take any one of our 3 credit cards and I had notified each before we left. We had no problem anywhere else. They did take a debit card.

We noticed Amsterdam was dirty-lots of trash on the sidewalks/streets . We'd been there before and hadn't noticed that.

How is the Pizza on the Brilliance and where can you get it? I just got off the Mariner and they had great Pizza at the Cafe Promenade... Are they the same?

The Windjammer had good pizza.

How is the Pizza on the Brilliance and where can you get it? I just got off the Mariner and they had great Pizza at the Cafe Promenade... Are they the same?

Park Cafe in the Solarium has pizza in the afternoon and late night.

We were on the same cruise and really enjoyed it as well.

We were in an oceanview cabin on deck 4, which is a great location when getting on and off the ship.

Our only complaint was with the diamond lounge and its concierge. The room is small, an area that they created by blocking off an area of the Viking Crown Lounge, and didn't have nearly enough seating for all of the people who chose to use it. We arrived one night and there were no seats. When I mentioned it to the concierge (Francisco) he didn't even know as he'd been at his desk on the computer with his back to the room. I asked if he could open the door to the VKL, but he said he couldn't, it was company policy. He then walked us out of the room and blocked the entrance. Later in the week we saw him open the door to the VKL for another group. He was very disappointing and nothing like any of the other diamond concierges we have had before.

We had a 5 night specialty restaurant package and ate twice each in Chops and Izumi and once in Giovanni's. All three restaurants were excellent, and we enjoyed them as a break from the MDR. We had a table for 2 for late seating and were seated at the very back of the room, where there were several 2 tops. Our servers were excellent and we found the food to be very good.

There were a lot of kids on board but we found most of them to be well behaved and supervised. As this is a very port-intensive cruise, I think they were always pretty busy.

We thought the orchestra was exceptionally good, the singers and dancers not nearly as good as we've seen (and that's being polite!), the headliners fabulous (particularly Pete Matthews and Beatle Maniacs), and Cruise Director Mike outstanding!

We used Best Guides in St. Petersburg and were fortunate enough to share our tour with a wonderful family of 5. Our guide, Olga, was great at providing us with information and getting us through any crowds easily. Our tour, St. Petersburg Grand, included lunch at sit down restaurants both days and they were great opportunities to try Russian food.

In Helsinki and Copenhagen we took local food tours, which provided us with a walking tour of each city along with nice food tastes. We walked around on our own in Tallinn and Skagen, and took the HOHO boat in Stockholm to the VASA and ABBA museums, then walked around the old town and ate in a restaurant on the square.

This was our first visit to Amsterdam and we absolutely loved it. We had the same experience as Sue with the train tickets- we thought it was because our credit cards didn't have pins to go with the chips. We took a train out to Zaanse Schans to see the windmills, and did a food tour and red light district tour, as well as the Anne Frank house.

We were on deck 7, two cabins in , so we could hear the Centrum music without leaving our room! We liked it , though sometimes it could get really loud until 11.

We'd hear stomping and running overhead in our cabin and in one part of the Windjammer (under the kid's activity room) and in the halls. It was summer and we usually don't cruise in summer.

I enjoyed Mike and Enzo's talk on life aboard a ship.

We were surprised at all the trash on the ground in Amsterdam-it wasn't like that other times.

We usually do more excursions but only in SPB this time. What food did you eat in SPB and the Scandinavian cities?

Another thing-we thought the drink card --$75 for 10 drinks up to $12 in value-was a good deal.