Review Brilliance OS - Dec 5, 2010 - better late than never

[nydiana]

A side note, we highly recommend seeing St. John's Co-Cathedral. It was one of the most beautiful we have ever seen. The floor is gorgeous. It was all inlayed color marble tombstones. Each of the side chapels was decorated by hostel of the Knights. They each tried to outdo the others. It also has magnificent Flemish tapestries upstairs on the walls of a museum. The room contain illuminated manuscripts. I know when you travel around Europe you see more than your fill of Cathedrals, but this one is worth seeing. It is much nicer than the Vatican.

 

Diana

[nydiana]

I've enjoyed reading about your experience. Thank you for sharing.

 

H.

 

really enjoyed reading these reports. What a holiday you had!! many thanks for sharing

 

Thanks for the kind words. Our sailing on Brilliance of the Seas we will never forget. We remain loyal to Royal. We have our next European cruise booked. This time to the Baltic Sea. Hopefully we will have better weather.

 

Diana

[dirtgirl]

Hi Diana and Jon - I'm reliving the experience again reading your review. This cruise is the most memorable one I have been on!

 

I would like to reiterate your comments about the staff. They were doing their utmost to get the ship back to normal, but the ingratitude shown by some people was disgusting. I recall a server in the Windjammer, looking absolutely exhausted. I stopped and said something along the lines of "Thank you so much; I appreciate all that you are doing." He stopped and smiled, and I could tell he was touched. Such a simple thing, a thank you.

 

I do disagree with you about Malta, however.;) We went all over on the Hop On Hop Off Bus to Mdina and Mosta, and wish we had time to get off the bus more. We also went to the Co-Cathedral, the Hypogeum (a MUST-SEE), the Temples of Tarxien - and I wanted to see more. There is so much incredible history there. If I go again, I'll try to get to Gozo or the Blue Grotto. I'm so glad we went there, and so happy we had 2 days. The 6 hours that we were originally to go would not have been near enough.:)

[Princess123]

What an amazing experience and a great review, written without hysteria but with humour. Definitely a holiday you will be remembering and talking about for years to come I imagine. I'm pleased to hear that you have not been put off cruising, and was really pleased to read that you and 'dirtgirl' both took the trouble to thank the staff for their efforts. Having worked on cruise ships myself, and been in a very bad storm, it is just as frightening and tiring for the crew, many of whom will have been working daily for several months (with no chance of leave, never mind a lie-in, for weeks to come). I hope your cruise to the Baltic is memorable for all the right reasons and wish you and your wife bon voyage.

[nydiana]

The following day was spent at sea. During the afternoon, the tango dance performance, which had earlier been cancelled due to the weather, took place. The dance troop was supposed to perform an encore in the Centrum before dinner. However, the bad weather picked up again during the afternoon. Both the final stage production and the tango encore were cancelled due to this new storm. A lot of passengers missed the announcement about this schedule change. So, a number of people gathered in the Centrum waiting for the encore. While we waited and listened to a band play tango music one couple did dance a series of tangos. While they were certainly not the paid professionals, they did put the professionals to shame by “performing” in the “rough and dangerous” seas.

 

The final night contained one last incident of note. The ship’s schedule said that there would be Christmas carols sung around the giant tree in the Centrum (I believe at 10 PM). Around that time a number of passengers gathered for the show. It never took place. Apparently, the ship had decided that the seas were too dangerous to allow for caroling. This was probably announced at the same time as the announcement that the tango show was cancelled. But, as I noted before, many people missed that announcement. Those passengers who assembled did manage to sing a few carols themselves. This led me to the conclusion that the Ship had promised that there would be carols in the Centrum – not that Ship’s personnel would be in any way involved with them. The singing itself turned out to be somewhat problematic. Given that there was a wide range of cultures and languages gathered, no one knew the same song or the same words to those songs. In retrospect, this might have proven to be a fitting end to this trip.

 

My DH Jon

[nydiana]

We made it home without incident. We were somewhat lucky in this regard. The trip to Madrid and the trip to New York all went well. After staying the night in New York, we caught the train home. Again, it all went as planned. However, we had at least one friend who was not so lucky. She chose to travel through England. Winter returned to that Country with a vengeance. She got snowed in. She was there for more than a week. I suppose that this proves that there are people more unlucky when travelling then we are. I would like to say that this was my worst travelling experience. Unfortunately, that distinction still falls to the 2001 Missouri trip.

 

Stay tuned. We are taking the money refunded to us from the last trip and headed back overseas this spring. I don’t know what will go wrong. But, it is bound to be an adventure.

 

My DH Jon

 

P.S. Our friend who was stuck in England was cruise credit's own Dirtgirl! You have herd how difficult it was for her to get home.

[nydiana]

These were very trying times especially the staff.

 

We found the staff to be very helpful and almost always with a smile. Even the customer relation’s desk, which was often buried with long lines, was patient and understanding. They extended free Internet service for a few days during all the turmoil and even provided a free ship to shore call home so passengers could let their families know they were all right.

 

The dinning room staff was called to the MDR in the middle of the night to clean up the enormous mess. As is the custom the staff cleans up the dinner dishes and sets the tables for the breakfast meal. When the ship listed, many of the tables and chairs slipped violently to one side of the dinning room. Of course this resulted in much broken glass and china and even furniture. Not to mention what did not break had to be washed again.

 

The chiefs had to improvise meals to be able to feed the whole ship in MDR since the Windjammer was closed. We herd rumors that much of the food was damaged. They were also limited on what they could used to cook. (I.e. it was too dangerous to use the fryers with the rough seas)

 

The cabin stewards had to get up in the middle of the night to check on each and every cabin to ensure all were o.k. Many of our cabins were a mess with everything that was not bolted down sliding all over the cabin. The next day they worked hard to get everything back into “ship shape” as they say. On very little sleep I might add.

 

Although the staff works on a ship and may be used to some tossing around this storm was bad enough even many of the seasoned veterans were very seasick. I am sure too the events of the early hours of Dec 12 scared at least some of them.

 

As my husband mentioned the signers put on a terrific impromptu show when the planed production could not be put on due to the rough seas.

 

The staff also had to deal with some very angry and somewhat unruly passengers and their complaints.

 

Ship appearance and layout- I love the radiance class ships and Brilliance is no exception. It is a beautiful elegant ship with lots of windows for ocean views. The solarium was so relaxing for the first half of the cruise. Unfortunately, it was closed after the ship listed and the large elephants got turned upside down and other damage.

 

RCI acted swiftly to gather a repair crew as we herd numbering 150 to board the ship in Malta and fix all the damage. They had to quickly acquire supplies. Also remove all the damaged materials and wasted food. They very quickly cleared away all the debris and fix what was damaged.

 

Deserts--Unlike some recent treads we found the deserts to be better than some of our recent cruises. We daily looked forward to stopping in the Windjammer Café for and afternoon tea and desert. We enjoyed one or two each night after dinner.

 

I am looking forward to our next cruise in less than two months to the Baltic Sea. I trust we will find much calmer waters.

 

Diana

[nydiana]

This was our first cruise that we joined the Roll Call for our sailing. This turned out to be a great. We got a chance to meet even more terrific cruise lovers. We had fun doing things with the group both on and off the ship. I hope to meet these friends we made on another cruise. One of the things I love about cruising with RCI is the friendly passengers we have meet on each cruise.

 

The Cruise Critic Boards are a wealth of information and have interesting discussions. Also thanks to advice from these boards I have been watching the cabin prices for the cruise I have upcoming. We noticed the price of the Junior Suite had dropped to less than we paid for our balcony. I asked my TA to contact RCI. Sure enough they switched our cabin to the Junior Suite of our choice. Whoa! This will be our first suite! :cool:

 

Thanks,

 

Diana

[DrFUN]

The Cruise Critic Boards are a wealth of information and have interesting discussions. Also thanks to advice from these boards I have been watching the cabin prices for the cruise I have upcoming. We noticed the price of the Junior Suite had dropped to less than we paid for our balcony. I asked my TA to contact RCI. Sure enough they switched our cabin to the Junior Suite of our choice. Whoa! This will be our first suite! :cool:

 

Thanks,

 

Diana

 

So glad you got a great upgrade, Diana & Jon! :D You deserve it! Was this change AFTER final payment or before? Did you get a refund of the difference in price?

 

Warmest wishes,

Mary-Lou

[nydiana]

So glad you got a great upgrade, Diana & Jon! :D You deserve it! Was this change AFTER final payment or before? Did you get a refund of the difference in price?

 

Warmest wishes,

Mary-Lou

 

Greetings Mary-Lou,

 

We made our final payment about two weeks ago. So no refunds. Since the price we paid for the balcony is now a little more than what RCI has dropped the price of the Junior Suites, they upgraded us. They asked my TA which suite we wanted. She picked and they transferred our payments and the OBC to the new cabin. When she called us back it was already posted to the reservation. I am a very happy camper :). I had herd from others on this website that this could happen so I figured it didn't hurt to ask. It does seam to be the fair thing for RCI to do.

 

By the way have you been made whole for the Dec 5 cruise. Did you get the certificates replaced?

 

Diana

[dirtgirl]

Thanks for your review, Diana and Jon.:) I'm off again next week on my first cruise since this one. Looking forward to it, though I can't do the active excursions that I normally would! Hope to meet up with you two again some day. Enjoy your JS!!!:D

[milndan]

Wow Diana,

You didn't skip a thing! What a great summary of our cruise and your experiences getting there and getting home. I agree that the crew on our ship was amazing through all of that and we so appreciated how hard they worked to get our ship back in shape. It was scary and inconvient but at least we did have food and beverages available to us. I do agree with dirtgirl that Malta was amazing and was glad to spend 2 days there. Although we didn't make it to Egypt and to our highly anticipated 2 day Cairo tour, we did meet so many wonderful people, including you and Jon, who signed up for this land tour. The disasterous night of December 12 became a bonding experience for us with so many of the other passengers. We had missed or canceled flights, lost luggage (us too), and almost capsizing like the Posiden, but we made it. We can officially say we truely are "experienced travelers" and have the stories to prove it. :D Fortunately, we did still have so many good memories to share from our other ports. Like you, we will still cruise and hopefully we will see you guys on one of them. Have fun on your next one and congrats on getting the Jr. Suite!

 

Love the review or our cruise. Thanks Jon and Diana.

 

Millie and Dan

[dirtgirl]

Wow Diana,

You didn't skip a thing! What a great summary of our cruise and your experiences getting there and getting home. I agree that the crew on our ship was amazing through all of that and we so appreciated how hard they worked to get our ship back in shape. It was scary and inconvient but at least we did have food and beverages available to us. I do agree with dirtgirl that Malta was amazing and was glad to spend 2 days there. Although we didn't make it to Egypt and to our highly anticipated 2 day Cairo tour, we did meet so many wonderful people, including you and Jon, who signed up for this land tour. The disasterous night of December 12 became a bonding experience for us with so many of the other passengers. We had missed or canceled flights, lost luggage (us too), and almost capsizing like the Posiden, but we made it. We can officially say we truely are "experienced travelers" and have the stories to prove it. :D Fortunately, we did still have so many good memories to share from our other ports. Like you, we will still cruise and hopefully we will see you guys on one of them. Have fun on your next one and congrats on getting the Jr. Suite!

 

Love the review or our cruise. Thanks Jon and Diana.

 

Millie and Dan

 

I echo your sentiments, Millie. And Diana, if you are on Facebook, look up Millie and I. Corey is there, too, and Laura (my roomie).;)

[skipp_r1]

Great review of the cruise.

 

We took my wife's 83 year old mother on the cruise because she had never been to Eygpt. She couldn't wait to see the pyrimids and Cairo. But I'll tell you this, she still talks about the big wave and the tipping of the ship calling it an "E" ticket ride. She fell and broke her hip yesterday and last night at the hospital she was telling the nurses the story of her cruise th Eygpt and her "E" ticket ride. She says anyone can see all those sites in Eygpt anytime,, but how many can tell the story of a huge ship like that one acting like the S.S. Posidan.

 

She was on deck 4 and we were on deck 7 so my wife was really worried about her until we saw her in the morning. Especially seeing as my wife has gotten out of bed when she heard the stuff in the bathroom hit the floor with the little wave. I was telling her to get back in bed when the big wave hit. She was holding on to the door while our bed with me in it headed toward the balcony along with our t.v. and little coffee table, ice bucket, and everything else not nailed down.

 

I will say this the Captain did announce that we would hit some high seas and winds when we left Malta, but said the forcast for Alexandria was for 40 knot winds when we arrived. When we arrived, I saw that the wind across our bow was 104 knots, and when I went on the balcony to have a smoke(not suppose to) at about 1:30a.m. The waves were pretty high across the bow.

 

We also agree that the ship's crew did a wonderful job after the incident putting the ship back in order. We were a lot better off the the people on Carnival's Splendor when they had the fire, I don't think we would have liked eating spam and not being able to flush our toilets.

 

We are hoping that the Captain survives the investigation. If anyone has heard what that outcome was I hope they post it here,

[Germancruiser]

I followed the " listing" threads with great interesst- since I was about to board Brilliance weeks after the " Listing Cruise" ! When I boarded I was stunned- there was not a single trace on baord Brilliance that there was anyting damaged. They really acted promt and efficient! Brilliance is a great, elegant ship!

Thanks for shareing your experiences.

Michael

[nydiana]

I followed the " listing" threads with great interesst- since I was about to board Brilliance weeks after the " Listing Cruise" ! When I boarded I was stunned- there was not a single trace on baord Brilliance that there was anyting damaged. They really acted promt and efficient! Brilliance is a great, elegant ship!

Thanks for shareing your experiences.

Michael

 

My husband's step brother took the holiday sailing (second sailing after we got off). He said he saw no signs of damage and the crew made the cruise a joy. It was remarkable how quickly they got things back to normal. They did get to Egypt. It looks like it will be a long time before we will be able to try sailing to Egypt again. I guess it will just have to move to the bottom of my list for a while.

 

I am glad to hear you had a good cruise.

 

Diana

[milndan]

Great review of the cruise.

 

We took my wife's 83 year old mother on the cruise because she had never been to Eygpt. She couldn't wait to see the pyrimids and Cairo. But I'll tell you this, she still talks about the big wave and the tipping of the ship calling it an "E" ticket ride. She fell and broke her hip yesterday and last night at the hospital she was telling the nurses the story of her cruise th Eygpt and her "E" ticket ride. She says anyone can see all those sites in Eygpt anytime,, but how many can tell the story of a huge ship like that one acting like the S.S. Posidan.

 

Hi skip! I just wanted to thank you guys for being so sweet and caring to me when we were on the ship after the big "event." I really appreciated it when you came and got us so I didn't have to stand so long in that line for dinner. It was one of the best act of kindness that I remember from our cruise. I'm so glad we got to meet you all on the Brilliance. Please tell mom I hope she gets better soon and yes, I agree, it certainly was an "E" ticket ride that we can tell stories about for a long time. ;)

 

The other best act of kindness to us was by Corey and Tom (luvrecruise) who got us a wheelchair for the duration of the cruise after the front desk refused me when I asked for one. The were also told no but refused to leave until they got one for me. Thanks to Corey and Tom too.

 

I have to say, if you have to be caught in a listing ship during a horrific storm, it's calming to know our fellow cruisers are the most amazing people we could have traveled with for this experience.

[prairie_fox]

Diana,

Great review of the trip. You told it in a very good way without leaving a thing out. I will always say this was a "Trip of a life time" and we had a great time even if things didnt go great all the time. I have to agree with the "E" ticket ride. And yes we will cruise again and maybe not in Dec. we happen to be one of those few who had an extended stay due to weather on the way home, but over all it turned out fine.

 

Hope to see you all once more on a trip.

Lesia and Brad

[nydiana]

Diana,

Great review of the trip. You told it in a very good way without leaving a thing out. I will always say this was a "Trip of a life time" and we had a great time even if things didnt go great all the time. I have to agree with the "E" ticket ride. And yes we will cruise again and maybe not in Dec. we happen to be one of those few who had an extended stay due to weather on the way home, but over all it turned out fine.

 

Hope to see you all once more on a trip.

Lesia and Brad

 

Thanks. Mostly when people hear we were on that sailing we get "you were on that cruise!?! Weren't you scared?". Some of my coworkers can't believe we went out and booked another cruise. It was an experience we will never forget. But all in all, we had 10 very nice days and only 2.5 days of rough seas. We met so many nice people like yourselves. We have many fond memories. We really liked Rhodes & Athens. It adds to our travel tails Jon likes to tell. We are cruising in the Baltic Sea in six weeks. Can't wait.

 

Diana

[nydiana]

This is quoted from the Current Captain's tread ...

 

I regret to inform all those of you who have cruised with Erik Tengelsen over the past ten tears, as I have, beginning with Sovereign, then Majesty, Voyager, Freedom, Radiance, and finally, Brilliance, that he has terminated his relationship with RCL. He intends to remain with the cruise industry, so expect to see him on another ship and line in the future! Stay tuned....

 

This was the Captain on this fated cruise.

 

Diana