Med Cruise on the Brilliance~ June 7, 2016 ~ My Diary

[jamon]

great review..thanks

[vegas7df]

Hi Jane,

 

Glad to have you back, love your reviews. We were on the same cruise May 14 this year it was great, lots to see.

 

We love Ricardo, met him in Texas on the Navigator a few years ago.

 

Donna

[PCWalton1]

Jane,

Thanks for doing the review and for posting all these wonderful pictures. Sometimes it's such a small world, I am fairly sure that Giovanni was our driver in Pisa/Florence in 2010 for our first ever cruise.:D We did the opposite with Pisa first then Florence and had a fabulous time.

[cincicruisers]

Such a great review, thanks for sharing with us.

[CRUISEMAMI]

Loving reading your review, thanks.

We cruised on Rhapsody from Venice in May and as far as I'm aware Diamond + were not offered breakfast in Chops. We would have really enjoyed that! We were however made very welcome in the CL by the Concierge Aline.

Would love Chops breakfast on Navigator in September!

 

 

No breakfast at Chops, in Navigator, when we were there in Nov!

The Brilliance, that I know, is the only ship that has breakfast in Chops!

[aussievc]

Loving the pics and review! I have 3 RIL tours booked next year in June in Florence, Rome and Naples, can't wait!!

 

On the Brilliance, can the balcony dividers open like they do on other ships? We have 3 ocean view balconies next to each other and we like having the partial divider open between cabins.

 

Virginia

[maxs mom]

great review and pictures as usual, thank you so much for taking the time to do this. We were on jewel for b2b over Xmas/new year and Ricardo was covering the concierge lounge for Diego. What a very special welcoming man he is. He has lost a lot of weight, good for him, he is looking good.

 

Hey There! Good to hear from you. Tell Lisa that we easily found the restaurant that they took us to......but it was a Monday and they were closed. So disappointed.....but we found another place nearby. I was surprised how easily we found it, though!

[maxs mom]

Loving reading your review, thanks.

We cruised on Rhapsody from Venice in May and as far as I'm aware Diamond + were not offered breakfast in Chops. We would have really enjoyed that! We were however made very welcome in the CL by the Concierge Aline.

Would love Chops breakfast on Navigator in September!

 

Brilliance is the only ship that I am aware of that does the Chops thing for D+. And that's because on most of her itineraries, they don't have large numbers of D+ sailing. Like I said....the place was empty most mornings. Such a great perk that doesn't really cost them anything, but is a huge deal, for me, at least!

[maxs mom]

Jane,

Thanks for doing the review and for posting all these wonderful pictures. Sometimes it's such a small world, I am fairly sure that Giovanni was our driver in Pisa/Florence in 2010 for our first ever cruise.:D We did the opposite with Pisa first then Florence and had a fabulous time.

 

BILL!!! Yes it is a small world. Giovanni was such a nice guy. I think he said he has been working for RIL for a good number of years now. He made our day very special with no stress at all!

[maxs mom]

Loving the pics and review! I have 3 RIL tours booked next year in June in Florence, Rome and Naples, can't wait!!

 

On the Brilliance, can the balcony dividers open like they do on other ships? We have 3 ocean view balconies next to each other and we like having the partial divider open between cabins.

 

Virginia

 

I am pretty sure that the dividers don't open on Radiance class ships, but I could be wrong. I've just never seen it and just looking at the balconies we've had, I didn't see a way it could be done. Now I have seen all the balconies opened up on Vision class ships and Freedom Class ships. On B2B's they open all of them in a row to clean. Pretty neat to see.

[maxs mom]

Friday ~ June 10, 2016 ~ Cittitivechia/Rome

 

Up very early again. Early bird coffee in the DL....then breakfast at Park Café.

 

 

And look who is also here!! My very special home away from home......The Jewel. I was waving furiously at all my friends over there! Love!!!

 

 

This is Park Café:

 

 

I like to get oatmeal there or either the breakfast sandwiches. This is a good place to get a quick bite in the mornings when you have to get out and about early.

 

 

 

It was a nice, early sail in.

 

 

 

[maxs mom]

Today we were joined by Chelsea and her wonderful family. We all met on Deck six and went down to meet our driver, who was right there waiting for us. His name was......what else......Giovanni!!!

 

On the way to the van I saw our driver, Vinnie, from the last time we used RIL here. I spoke to him and he was very funny and said our driver today was better than him!! And when we got home, I got an e-mail from Jany and she mentioned that Vinnie enjoyed seeing us again. So Vinnie reported back that he saw us!!!

 

 

We got into the nice big comfy van and off we go to Rome.

 

 

We told Giovanni some of the main attractions that we wanted to see, but also told him to surprise us with others. Five of us had been to Rome before, but the other 3 had not.

 

We all had Coliseum tickets that we got on line, so we went there first. Before getting out of the van, Giovanni told us a lot about the history and showed us a neat book he had that had overlays on the pictures to show us what it looked like then and now. Pretty cool. This is a magnificent structure. He let us out and we wandered around here for about 45 minutes or so.

 

 

 

 

[maxs mom]

More pictures from the Coliseum.

 

 

 

 

 

[britty1]

Hey There! Good to hear from you. Tell Lisa that we easily found the restaurant that they took us to......but it was a Monday and they were closed. So disappointed.....but we found another place nearby. I was surprised how easily we found it' date=' though![/size']

 

i will let her know, they are not back from Venice yet. I believe they come home this Tuesday. Lovely review hope to go there someday.

[maxs mom]

From here we drove over to the Circus Maximus. I had never see this before. This is where they had the Chariot races. Amazing how many people they got in that arena!

 

 

 

Next up was a surprise, and I think my favorite stop of the day. He drove us through one of the hills that had some high end real estate and then we made a stop at a little park called the Orange Park. Very lovely, quiet place. For some reason, we were enjoying the park so much that we didn't take near enough pictures here to show its beauty. What I liked most about this stop was that there were hardly any people here! And of course the spectacular view from here. And of course the park got it's name because of the many, many orange trees that are planted there.

 

 

 

 

[maxs mom]

i will let her know, they are not back from Venice yet. I believe they come home this Tuesday. Lovely review hope to go there someday.

 

Well.....be sure you go with Guy and Lisa! They know Venice inside and out!!!

 

[maxs mom]

Ooops! Here are a few more pictures of our wanderings at the Coliseum that I forgot about!

 

 

 

 

 

Our wonderful, comfy van for the day. But somehow the air stopped working at about this time!!

 

 

Giovanni......giving us a little history of the area.

 

[maxs mom]

OK.....back to the Orange Park.

 

 

There was an old church connected to the park that was quite lovely. We went inside for a few minutes.

 

 

 

 

 

[cinnamon]

Brilliance is the only ship that I am aware of that does the Chops thing for D+. And that's because on most of her itineraries' date=' they don't have large numbers of D+ sailing. Like I said....the place was empty most mornings. Such a great perk that doesn't really cost them anything, but is a huge deal, for me, at least![/size']

 

 

Many thanks, expectations duly lowered for Navigator. :(

Mind you, we're booked on Brilliance next year. :)

[SteveinPhilly]

Did you by any chance get to hang out with Jim and Devra from Oakland, CA? They were on the RC but only a few posts and I lost their contact info. Thought you might have.

 

Also, really frustrated :( that I lost contact info for Eamonn and Tina from Dublin. She is on CC but not on our RC. Wonder if you met them?

 

BTW, I'm almost finished creating and posting my You tube videos of the cruise. I put up Ravenna in under 5 minutes today. Next - and I think last - is Venice. Sure brought back memories.

 

Keep up the fun report - You did see many things that we didn't get to this time.

Steve

[maxs mom]

Did you by any chance get to hang out with Jim and Devra from Oakland, CA? They were on the RC but only a few posts and I lost their contact info. Thought you might have.

 

Also, really frustrated :( that I lost contact info for Eamonn and Tina from Dublin. She is on CC but not on our RC. Wonder if you met them?

 

BTW, I'm almost finished creating and posting my You tube videos of the cruise. I put up Ravenna in under 5 minutes today. Next - and I think last - is Venice. Sure brought back memories.

 

Keep up the fun report - You did see many things that we didn't get to this time.

Steve

 

Steve......I'm sorry......I don't believe I met those people that you are talking about.

 

Yes.....Rominlimo does an exceptional job of getting us around and seeing so many things easily. They are the best!!!

 

[maxs mom]

Next up was the Forum. Gorgeous views from this vantage point.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we took a walk through a square of government buildings. We saw several couples who had just gotten married.

 

[maxs mom]

We walked around this square for a little bit then down the steep stairs to the street where Giovanni was waiting on us with the van. Incredible and so convenient!

 

 

 

 

 

[maxs mom]

We then motored through the narrow streets......Giovanni was amazing......and found our way to the Trevi Fountain. We stopped there to throw our coins in......with several thousand of our closest friends!!!! Every time we go, it gets worse and worse. I remember the first time I ever went there.....years and years and years and years ago.......there was hardly anyone there! Years ago!!! Anyway.....we pushed our way down there and got it done! So maybe we will get back to Rome one day!

 

 

 

 

 

[maxs mom]

Next stop was the Pantheon.