Brilliance 3/21 - Random Thoughts

[mark290]

Too lazy to post a real review but here are some random thoughts.

 

Tampa was awesome. Drop my family and bags about 9:45am, brought

the car to the port parking garage ($75 for five nights), quick walk back and onboard at 10:15am.

 

The ship was beautiful. I've read some other reviews where people thought the ship was less than well kept or up to date. I can be a little picky but the ship really looked new to me. Everything was in great shape.

 

Just an inside cabin this cruise but it also looked almost new to me.

Deck four location was perfect. Room steward was great. No sewage smell.

 

Piano player at Schooner bar was great. He just boarded with this cruise.

Kronos was awesome but mainly played in the Centrum. Would've preferred to see them in one of the many great bars. Solo acoustic guitar guy was great and I love the King's something or other pub. Lots of different beers, fun crowd, tv for sports and a dart board. I didn't particularly enjoy the band that played by the pool.

 

The pool area is nice but too small for this size ship. I managed to get some chairs but I was always up early. The attendants did remove some hogs towels sometimes and other times not. Also some people did this themselves. I never saw any confrontations over this.

 

Solarium pool was very nice. I didn't really spend any time here but walked through it a lot. It was very cool looking to me.

 

I got the select drink package. Getting a drink has become less ideal with fewer staff and longer lines. Not terrible but definitely a little more work than I like.

I have heard a lot of different prices for buying drinks on cruise critic. I bought a single beer for someone once, didn't want to steal it, $6.49 for a Corona including gratuity at the Sky Bar. I bought someone a vodka grapefruit juice once at the Schooner and it was $10.03 with gratuity.

 

Pool tables were open but did not work. I mean the self leveling part.

 

I ate in the main dining room every night. Food is too subjective but for what it's worth I thought it was very good. I had the early seating, I like the traditional dining. My waiter, Ben Amor, was fantastic. Reminded me of the great old school service I like. Good recommendations, anticipated our preferences quickly and gave us the surprises you used to get. An extra entry that he thought we might like to share, offered to bring more lobster and brought the kids extras like french fries or cookies, all without us asking.

 

Grand Cayman is always beautiful but I hate tendering. Did Stingray City via a catamaran. Always fun and no surprises this time.

 

Cozumel is a port I never tire of. Did Paradise Beach.Service was great, property was beautiful, very clean, decent food and plenty to do. Went shopping downtown. I also always enjoy the shopping for crap that starts at one price, you offer a quarter of that and settle on about a third of the original asking price, sometimes less. If it doesn't work out you have 20 more chances at the other stores that have similar items.

 

Getting off the ship was easy. Driving away by 8:30am.

 

I am forgetting lots of stuff but if you have a question I will do my best to answer it.

[Clarea]

Thanks for the feedback.

 

We were on BR this past December, and also thought the pool deck was small for the amount of guests.

[KirkNC]

Thanks for your report.

[Keith1010]

Thank you for your review.

 

Keith

[sjudis]

Sailed on her in 2014. She is beautiful but I agree, pool is too small

[cb at sea]

If they would EVER open the "retractable" roof in the Solarium, there wouldn't be so many bodies at the main pool area. For me, that was the big downside to this ship.

[nursemom2]

Going on her April 26th to Barcelona.... Wondering about the pastries at cafe latitudes.... Were they still free?

 

 

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[Clarea]

Going on her April 26th to Barcelona.... Wondering about the pastries at cafe latitudes.... Were they still free?

Free this past December.:)

[Ocean Boy]

If they would EVER open the "retractable" roof in the Solarium, there wouldn't be so many bodies at the main pool area. For me, that was the big downside to this ship.

 

If they opened the roof maybe the folks who like the air conditioning would just go park the themselves on the pool deck and make the problem worse.

[nursemom2]

Free this past December.:)

 

 

I had read that in the Brilliance,they held a breakfast for suites, pinnacle, and diamond + in chops... Is this true?

 

 

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[Clarea]

I had read that in the Brilliance,they held a breakfast for suites, pinnacle, and diamond + in chops... Is this true?

Yes, made-to-order breakfast in Chops for suites and Pinnacle, but I don't recall if it also included Diamond Plus.

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

Thanks for the report! Looking forward to boarding her in 96 days in Barcelona!!

[Janet524]

Too lazy to post a real review but here are some random thoughts.

 

Pool tables were open but did not work. I mean the self leveling part.

 

Sure...Blame it on the self leveling part!;) Thanks for the review. Glad you had a good cruise!

[CruiseNAngie]

I had read that in the Brilliance,they held a breakfast for suites, pinnacle, and diamond + in chops... Is this true?

 

 

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We went to Chops for breakfast as D+ members on the March 17 sailing.

[nursemom2]

We went to Chops for breakfast as D+ members on the March 17 sailing.

 

 

Thanks for the info... Hope this wifi be the same for the TA...

 

 

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[Summerknight]

Thank you for the review.