Brilliance of the seas in the Baltic

[strawberryduck2000]

A great cruise started on the 14th May with a trade event to show off the revitalised Brilliance of the seas.

First impressions Brilliance is a beautiful ship as are all the radiance class ships. The new centrum looks a lot bigger with more viewing areas as this has now become a major event area ( good or bad you will decide).

Wifi was available throughout the ship but was extremely un-reliable and slow during the day. Stateroom TV's have been update but the sad selection of channels has not and i my opinion this is a big area royal could improve.

A good addition to the ship was the interactive info screens, you can check out menus, routes to venues/staterooms and also check out the days events on the cruise compass.

Back to the cruise embarkation was smooth through the basic cruise terminal at Harwich, start to finish less than 30 minutes.

Captain Henrik was great with his information and his humour, kept us all well up to date with what was coming up.

Ports:-

Copenhagen - city is walkable probably 20 minutes ish but it is a nice walk, hop on hop off buses available at the port. Rci shuttle $15

Stockholm - get up early to view the transit of the archipelago it is not to be missed. Walkable into the city, hop on hop offs and hoho boats available. Rci shuttle$15

Helsinki - in our opinion the least interesting of the ports but still a nice city, location/ transfers as above.

St Petersburg - awesome!! Book a two day tour either with the ship or private. We used Alla tours and they were excellent. The city was a major highlight of the vacation, my description would not do its justice so i'll leave it, all i'll say is rest up as its a very long two days. Getting your own visa can be done.($100 ish)

Tallin - Beautiful city my advise either walk(10-15mins) or use hop on hop off buses rather than the shuttle much better value for money. Relax with a beer ($1-2) or coffee in the main Sq and watch the world go bye. It is our must go back city

Gothenburg - the only place you have to use RCI shuttle and is good value at $15, the city is good for shopping but not cheap. Their are hop on hop offs available in the city.

Formal nights are 2,4 and 10

Theme nights 70's and Britannia

Many staterooms around the Centrum now have quite a bit of noise from the events, this issue was raised with RCI, some people were moved, so beware if you are a light sleeper. We were in 9578, the music was loud but didn't bother us to much.

Food in general was good, although the creme brûlée in chops needs to be taken off the menu or made properly, i had it twice once i sent it back as scrambled egg the other was not much better.

Izumi is a good addition to your dining options.

This is rated as one of our best vacations thanks to RCI and a big thanks to all our new friends who made it so great, you all know who you are.

 

 

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[mondas42]

Thanks for the review, we are sailing with brilliance in July on a very similar itinerary with just the addition of Oslo, so your comments/suggestions are very gratefully recievec.

[CUTTERSAM]

for your comments..Did you visit the casino? How was the entertainment aboard?

[Kevin's girl]

Thank you so much for the review. We will be doing the same cruise next year and are so excited.

[ALSEAU]

Thanks for the review.

 

What formal night was the lobster served? What were the choices the other two formal nights? Were you able to order escargot?

[agdgrl]

Can you tell me what time you were able to disembark?

[strawberryduck2000]

No Lobster! But still good choice of food. Entertainment was good 9 out of 12 nights. Times of disembarkation varied from port to port ill try and list later

[strawberryduck2000]

Escargots every night but never had it

[strawberryduck2000]

Yep went to the casino a few nights on the formal nights as it was none smoking night, no winning tho

[star cruiser 1]

Thanks for your review, i have been waiting for some one to write about this cruise. can i ask what currency you used? did you take a small amount of each or did you just use euros? What was the weather like? I am on this cruise on the 19th August and really looking forward to it. Thanks:)

[CAT GIRL]

Can you tell me what time you were able to disembark?

 

If you are talking about the final day, the ship was cleared at about

6:15 am and we walked off easily at about 6:25 (with luggage). To my

surprise there weren't the hoards of people trying to get off and

clogging up the exit. Since there is no customs or immigration

to go through you just walk off and go to your transportation.

(which for us was a prearranged bus).

[CAT GIRL]

In Denmark we used our credit card to purchase a hop on hop

of boat tour.

Stockholm, same thing.

Helsinki was euro.

St Peterburg- to my surprise they often had prices marked in

both euro and dollars. We did not need any rubles here.

Estonia - euro

Gothenburg -we did the cruise shuttle to town and then walked

around. You need krona here or use your credit card.

 

Note - we had trouble several times with getting our debit

card to work. I think it was because it was a debit and not a

credit card. Most things ended us on my chipped credit card.

 

The ship's ATM dispenses euros.

[strawberryduck2000]

Yep Europe is big into chip and pin. The whole thing seems such along way away now Anita. Lol :-)

 

 

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[jaimevoyager]

Thanks to all of you for the wonderful information. I'm sailing on June 8th and I can't wait. I had the opportunity to do the Baltic six years ago and I'm looking forward to seeing the cities again.

I was hoping you might respond to a few questions with the Brilliance:

1. Are the safes in the rooms the keypad or the magnetic strip?

2. Was the weather warm enough to open the retracting roof in the Solarium? Sometimes that can create a wind tunnel effect depending on where you sit.

3. Do you happen to remember the two times of the shows in the theater?

4. Were you able to prepuchase a card the first day for Lattetudes where you could have so many specialty coffees for a set price?

 

Thank you for any imput,

Donna

[drarill]

Thanks for your review. The Brilliance is a beautiful ship. We are going back to the Baltic this summer, our first time was on the Jewel, this time we are cruising with Celebrity. Glad you enjoyed your cruise.

[ArchMom]

Since so many of you have by now probably sailed - any chance there are any cruise compasses available? We're sailing brilliance in August and I thought I'd check just in case!

Many thanks

[LeeS2009]

Yeah seconded we are on August 19th and would love to see some Baltic compasses :)

[Sixtynifty]

Thank you for the review. I am leaving on August 7th. Have been concerned about currency but will use a credit card! Can't wait to visit the beautiful cities

[PLEIKU68]

We just returned from our cruise and the most frustrating thing in the ports was that our credit cards were often refused since they did not contain a "chip" . Had a conversation with Amex upon return and had a new "chip" card the next day. If you have time and plan on using Amex card call them and have them reissue your card. Otherwise you can "leave home without it !":)

[seaofwonder]

Just a word about cards....if they refuse, just ask them to swipe. The majority of machines in Europe have the ability to swipe. I just got back from 6 weeks in Europe and my card was never refused (exception being train stations and automated kiosks).

 

I think many merchants just don't want to deal with having to wait for you to sign.

 

 

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