My Brief Review - Brilliance of The Seas Transatlantic September 1, 2018

Trying to get the high points of my recent cruise experiencedown before they fade into the next cruise….

Travel to Ship

I flew out of LA the day before the cruise and arrived inAmsterdam the morning of the cruise. Many on this site arrived days (if notweeks) earlier and they had the right idea. It is tough when you arrive dropyour bags off and go exploring after being up for about 24 hours!

Check In

Check in was a little weird. The cameras that took photoswere not working properly. Also, they could not find my card for the cruise. Iwas hoping that meant that I was going to get an upgrade to a Royal Suite butno such luck. It took them about 15 to 20 minutes to track down my card (ormaybe made a new one.)

Amsterdam

I won’t spend a great deal of time in the review on theports although the Anne Frank House was an interesting experience. Amsterdam isa fascinating city…also stayed out of the coffee shops…walked about 4 to 5miles….

Back to Ship

Made my way back to the ship…it was bout 3PM. Already had mycard, but when I arrived to get on board there was probably the worstbottleneck at the gangway I have ever experienced. From what I gathered it wasbecause of the malfunctioning cameras at check in. Security had to retakephotos of guests as they arrived on the ship so that process slowed everythingdown.

Brilliance of the Seas

Ok my overview of the ship…I think she looks great! Therewere working to make her even better during the cruise. I believe they hadcontractors onboard working on improving the wireless system and replacingvarious doors.

Cabin

I was in an OV on deck 3 (3500). It was at the very front ofthe ship on the starboard side. The cabin was neat and as I was sailing solothe space was fine. The cabin steward (Reuben) was very good. He figured out myrhythm pretty quick and there were no issues during the 17 day sailing. Iappreciated his care. (side note: I try to make my footprint really small…Imean..these men and women work their you know what’s off)

Entertainment

There were many acts all were great…Diva of the Seas (what aname!) I thought she was great….David Naster…fantastic…(laugh…always laugh,right!) I enjoyed some of the talks…I thought the singers and dancers providedsome good entertainment…with the exception of “Tango” the shows were new to me.I enjoyed them all. Orchestra…fantastic…rhythm section…wowed me (really)…hornsgreat guys…just great.

Mike the CD, really competent, fun and I believe he was sickwith a cold, but he did what troupers do…and did it well…

Dining

I want to spend a few lines reflecting on the food in themain dining room. There is always this “discussion” about the food qualitygoing down on RCI. Before I left for this cruise I decided to take a look atthat… Here is my take…Yes, there have been changes. I mean it took them days tocook the bacon more and the sausage less. (lol) Yes, there was no lobsternight; gone are the days of faming cherries or baked Alaska…but the product isstill pretty good. I also asked myself the question…. “if this was my firsttime cruising, would I enjoy?” The answer is yes. But do I miss the chilled soups…doI miss the extravagance (and waste) of the midnight buffet? Sure… But it wasstill pretty good

The servers Milos and Anak (sp) were great…really great…(really)nothing but praise for their care and service…

Specialty Dining

Chops great…but they are getting skimpy on the sides (I likeasparagus)

Giovanni’s great…Ossobuco…too good…service in bothoutstanding

Izummi - Here is mything with this place…I never quite got it. I mean, the food is good, trieddifferent things…I also admit not much of a sushi fan, but still felt I ammissing something… Well, this trip I asked the server to just “take care of me”.His name is Januarius… He brought out some sushi roll…and then what seems to beanother type of roll…and then a udon noodle dish. WOW! I GET IT! I mean is wasa fantastic meal…I had to thank him over and over again..it was a pretty darngreat experience.

Sailing

We had to thread aa needle on this cruise. I mean hurricaneFlorence was to the SW and there was a disturbance behind us and abut threestorms waiting for us near Bermuda…The captain did an excellent job of keepingeveryone informed and the although there were a couple of day of minor rocking(which I like) there were no scenes from “Life of Pi” Captain (The Master) dida great job.

Ports

Only thing I will say about the ports (Including Azores) isthe weather was awesome!

The brilliance staff and crew were great…this was my second time on her and it was better than the first…and that was awesome too.

Thanks for sharing! A transatlantic is in my bucket list so I always enjoy reading other people’s experiences. How did you keep busy on the sea days?

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Excellent

Thanks for sharing! How did you keep busy on the sea days?

Well, there were many activities including talks (most were very interesting...at least to me). I also read a lot. But mainly I would look out and look up. There is something so peaceful about being out in the open water....

My wife and I were also on this cruise. It was our first TA, but 22nd Royal Cruise. It was fantastic!!!!

Mike S. The cruise director was exceptional. I can’t remember the name of any of our previous CD’s, but we won’t forget Mike. As the OP said, the entertainment was very good—Dave Naster, Chad Chesmark excellent.

On sea days, there was a game show in the main theater almost every day— Family Feud, Jeopardy, Weakest Link. The lecturers were also very good, we especially enjoyed David Wiemers, a Hollywood writer and producer. He did at least 5 presentations.

I could go on and on, but don’t want to pirate the thread. It was a very memorable trip and one we hope to repeat in the future.

mac_tlc

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This was our 2nd crossing which was much better than the 1st. The weather was amazing and I can not believe how calm the ocean was. (about 80% of the time) Loved the entire cruise, except we got a suite under the windjammer. Big mistake which I will never do again. Loss a lot of sleep due to the rolling food carts.

Thanks for taking us along on your cruise.

Thanks for your review. Sailing Brilliance for the first time in December and it's hard to find recent info on her (compared to some of the newer ships)!

What GS cabin were you in?

Or

Were you in a JS?

I have a GS in November, so I’m curious.

Thanks

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What GS cabin were you in?

Or Were you in a JS?

Me GS? :'):') Well I have sailed in a JS a few times, but as a solo cruiser I usually do balcony. This time I was rowing with others on Deck 3 Ocean View

I'd agree with everything you said....it was a fantastic cruise. We also missed the cold soups. The onion soup made up for it on most nights.

Loved seeing the whales as we left Ireland and the dolphins as we were leaving the Azores. Mike put on soo many new activities that there was always something to participate in. The Amazing Brilliance Race was excellent and we believe cruises that have a few sea days strung together should have one.

Didn't dig the Activities Director (TT). It always seemed he didn't want to be there. He was never around the ship. His staff were some of the best we've ever encountered though. Shout out to Daisy, Lauren, and Victor!

It was a much better cruise than the Eastbound Brilliance TA earlier this year. Weather and staff.

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We were on this cruise as well. Good review. We like this ship, so we are a little biased.

Francis, bar manager back bar in the colony, was by far the best bar person we have ever had, and we have been on a lot of ships. Diamond and up were using the colony every night 5-8:30. We had no problem at check in but we waited till after 1pm. We will be doing B2B in the fall of 19, on this ship, Italy then coming across. All in all this was a great cruise, met a lot of nice people, did not pay attention to the few complainers, very few. Look forward to meetin everyone on the one in the fall from Barcelona.

On sea days, there was a game show in the main theater almost every day— Family Feud, Jeopardy, Weakest Link. The lecturers were also very good, we especially enjoyed David Wiemers, a Hollywood writer and producer. He did at least 5 presentations.

I googled the dude and had no idea that he was behind a lot of my favourite late 80s/early 90s Disney shows as well as some other primetime adult programming. Jealous that you guys got to sit on those lectures!

And now I can't quite seem to get the theme songs for both TaleSpin and Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers out of my head :')

I googled the dude and had no idea that he was behind a lot of my favourite late 80s/early 90s Disney shows as well as some other primetime adult programming. Jealous that you guys got to sit on those lectures!

 

 

 

And now I can't quite seem to get the theme songs for both TaleSpin and Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers out of my head :')

HaHa! We didn’t know him until the lectures but he has a tremendous resume. Wuzzles, Duck Tales, Rescue Rangers, and a lot of other shows. Her was very informative, and of course he knows everyone so he had some great “insider” stories. His talks were very well attended.

We are considering the Fall 2019 crossing, but al suites are gone so we may wait until the Fall 2020 ones are announced. If anyone is interested, I will have all of the cruise compasses posted in a few days. I’ll come back here and post the link.

mac_tlc

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Here is a link to the Cruise Compass's for the Brilliance of the Seas Transatlantic cruise of September 1, 2018.

https://issuu.com/hochmania/docs/brilliance_9-1-18_transatlantic_cru/2

mac_tlc