Brilliance Transatlantic - part 2

Embarkation in Barcelona was fairly easy. The staff directed us to the front of the line and we had completed RCCL's online check-in so the process took under 5 minutes. The new cruise terminal has a long, twisting gangway to the ship, but there were no accessibility issues other than in the show lounge where non-wheelchair passengers insisted on sitting in the areas reserved for wheelchairs.

Our balcony cabin (7110) was reasonably spacious with plenty of room for a wheelchair to access the bed. The bathroom was a little smaller than on some other newer ships, but it was well equipped with bars, a roll-under sink and a roll-in shower with a built-in seat. There was also a telephone in the bathroom and an emergency pull. The balcony was almost double the size of the normal ones and was ramped from the inside making it easier to access than some that are ramped on the outside. However, we had issues throughout most of the cruise with sewer type odors in the bathroom and brown water for a few seconds everytime we used the hot water. The order problem was alleviated by the end of the cruise, but they were still looking for the source of the dicolored water.

The ship was very accessible and the staff very accomodating. In fact the cruise director's and gym staff went out of their way to make my husband feel welcome at activities.

As with most longer cruises, our fellow passengers were generally in the 50+ range, but there some younger ones including honeymooners and a few families with children. There were a good number of passengers from the UK and germany along with some from Spain and the Netherlands which made things more interesting. Many of the other passengers do 2 or more transatlantics a year and some were dong back-to back cruises.

We visited 3 ports: Alicante and Malaga Spain and Lisbon Portugal. I was able to get accessibility information from the Alicante, Ronda and Costa Del Sol tourist boards, but not from Lisbon's.

Alicante provided a free "kneeling" bis into town. Most stores and museums were not open when we arrived so we walked around town a little and then took a taxi up to the Castle Santa Barbara which is on a hill in the middle of town. The castle was interesting, but the paths were steep so my husband elected to stay near the base of the Moorish castle. It started to rain so we used the elevator taht runs inside the hill to go back the town level and then walked back to the bus.

The taxi I had pre-reserved in Malaga did not show up so we hired one of the taxis at the pier for the day to go to Ronda and Mijas, two towns in the hills overlooking the Costa Del Sol. The ride to Ronda is breathtaking. Once ther we visited the bullfighting ring and museum. The musuem and ground floor of the ring are accessible. We also viewed the steep gorge which divides the town and walked around for a while. Mijas was a bit of a let down after Ronda. In fact I wished we had stayed longer in Ronda and gone to another museum instead. Mijas is built on the side of a mountain so it is diffiuclt to maneuver a wheelchair ther, but my husband did enjoy the view of the Mediterranean and the donkey "taxis."

Lisbon was the highlight of our trip. I had pre-reserved a car and driver fromTours for You. We were only had 8 hours and two of them were after dark. Our driver was extremely knowledgeable, not only about the sites we were seeing, but about Portugal and the world in general. He realy made the trip. We visited the tower at Belem and then went to Estoril and Sintra before returning to tour Lisbon itself. Since it was Monday and the museums were closed we primarily viwed the scenery from the minivan, but we did visit the westernmost point in Europe and walked around Sintra a little.

The transatlantic portion of the trip went well even though the weather was not great. We hit rough water at both ends of the trip, but we did not mind since we are good sailors and, of course, my husband is safe once he is in his chair.

There was a long wait for disembarkation because of the number of foreign nationals on the ship, but it was relatively painless once our color tag was called. We returned home on Jet Blue which I had flown before, but my husband had not. Other than a 3 hour delay due to high winds in the New York Metropolitan area, it went smoothly. Jet Blue's ground personnel at both ends worked hard to make my husband's transfers in and out of the plane as easy as possible.

Just a note to agree with DEL67's comments. Ronda is a very interesting city with an even more interesting history. Because it was so inaccessible it was one of the last towns to be hit with the Inquisition.

Among the "white villages" of Andalucia, Mijas is the most commercialized with the usual array of tourista shopping opportunities. Apart from some very nice restaurants we agree that Mijas is not really worth the time.