Brilliance Greek B2B Trip Report ~ Menus~Cruise Compass~Photos

[luckybecky]

 

Tuesday June 14

 

A sea day! We love our port days and are very active travelers, but sometimes a sea day is nice just to rest and catch our breath.

 

We slept in and then went to deck five for a run. You can circumnavigate the entire ship which we like. Many ships don’t have a promenade that you can walk all the way around. We did 10 laps which is approximately 3 miles (1 lap = 0.5 km). Back to our room for a shower and then to Windjammer for lunch.

 

It was a very typical buffet similar to what we have had on other cruise lines. The hot dogs and burgers look very popular. There was a salad bar which I had. There is always a carving station, I think today it was roast turkey breast, another day it was roast pork. My only complaint is that often, the fresh vegetable selection was limited.

 

I’m not sure what we did all afternoon. Pretty sure we took a nap. Checked out the shops, which aren’t much to speak of on this ship. Few, and small. It’s a small ship so it isn’t going to have lots of shopping.

 

We met up at Vintages with a couple we had met here on Cruise Critic and with whom we had arranged to do a tour together to make plans for our tour tomorrow. Our timing was going to be tight: we were supposed to arrive at 9:30am, and we were supposed to meet our tour guide at 10. And we had to tender, plus ride the cable car up to the meeting point.

 

I went to Guest Services and asked when/where to get tender tickets for tomorrow morning. The agent said tickets could be picked up in the dining room starting at 9:30am. I said I had understood that the tender was to start running at 9:30, and we should get tickets early. No, he said, get them at 9:30. At some point I heard another crew member saying they could be picked up at 7:30, which made more sense. I’m not sure why the first guy had bad info.

 

Later, we had dinner at Giovanni’s. This one one of the best meals we had the entire trip, hands down!

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 7, 2022 by luckybecky

[luckybecky]

Paul started with the grilled octopus. I am not an adventurous eater so I just stuck with the insalata di rucola.

 

 

 

 

 

The meal comes with good fresh bread and olive oil with balsamic vinegar and cheese for dipping.

 

For entrees, I had the filet mignon which was outstanding. Paul had the ossobuco which was also exceptional. It was a ton of food. His octopus starter was a very large portion, as was the ossobuco.

 

Ossobuco

 

Filet mignon

[luckybecky]

For dessert, Paul had pistachio gelato and I had the chocolate torte which was a masterpiece.

 

 

 

 

 

Guess who was sitting just a few feet away? Yep, the family of 8 with the four kids. 😄

Edited July 7, 2022 by luckybecky

[luckybecky]

We finished dinner in time to go to the back of deck 5 to watch a gorgeous sunset.

 

 

 

 

Later we went to the Pacifica theater for the show: The Magic of Neal Austin. He was very funny and we enjoyed the show.

 

 

 

Who do you think was sitting in the front row? The family with the kids. 🙂

 

Tonight we had a laundry special left in our room: one bag for $34.99. We stuffed it as full as possible and sent it out a day or two later.

 

We played a little in the casino. Paul was tired so went back to the cabin, but I didn’t want to miss the Ideal Couple game show at 11pm. It was hilarious! I was laughing so hard I was crying. But this is most definitely an adults only show. Lots of off color humor. Don’t go if you might be offended.

[luckybecky]

Here is the schedule of activities for day 3

 

[luckybecky]

Wednesday June 15

 

Today we arrived in beautiful Santorini!

 

I woke early, worried about our close timing, and was down at the dining room at 7:15 am to get in line for tender tickets (I did not take the advice from Guest Services to wait until 9:30am). There were about 15 people in line ahead of me. There was an announcement at some point about tickets being given out starting at 8am (so that’s three different times we have been told). They began handing out tickets about 7:45. We got tender number 2. By the time I got my tickets and left, there were dozens of people lined up. I couldn’t see where the line ended.

 

We had packed a tote bag the night before so were pretty much ready to go. It’s a good thing too, because we still thought we had a lot of time. Then the captain announced that we had been cleared early, and tendering would commence almost immediately. Now, all our documents prior to cruising and the website had said 0930, but the Cruise Compass said 8:00am for the arrival. I didn’t notice this change until I was looking at the Compass to write up this review. I’m not sure when it changed. I wish I had known sooner; we would have been better prepared to leave on time.

 

Also the person who gave me the tickets told me not to proceed to the debarkation area on deck 2 when our ticket was called. She explicitly said to go to Deck 3 Centrum (which I know now does not exist) and all ticket #2 holders would proceed together to the tender. This was completely erroneous. But I passed the info to our friends who we were supposed to meet and debark together.

 

Before 8:00 they called for Tender One ticket holders. We hurried to get ready. They almost immediately made another announcement, this time calling for all Ticket 2, 3 and 4 all at once! And

they said to go to deck 2, not 3 as I had been explicitly instructed. OK, so now it was a mad, chaotic dash. Many people rushing down the stairs at once. Thank goodness we ran into our friends in the stairwell coincidentally since our plans to meet had gone out the window.

 

This ticketing and tendering process was very confusing and filled with contradictory info from start to finish. Thank goodness it all worked out in the end. We got to port with more than enough time to walk around a bit and meet our guide on time.

 

 

We did a private tour for just our group of four, with a highly rated guide from a popular trip advising website. He drove us to Oia where we had a nice walk around, took many photos of the beautiful buildings and views. It was very crowded. Our captain said we had nine ships in port!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[luckybecky]

Then we drove around the island and had lots of scenic views. Our guide took us to an authentic Greek restaurant. We had salad, gyros, and some delicious pastries filled with some kind of cheese and doused with honey and sesame seeds.

 

 

 

 

 

We drove up to the highest point on Santorini where there is a monastery.

 

 

 

 

[luckybecky]

Next stop was black beach – the sand was so hot you could hardly walk on it, even with shoes! And then a scenic overlook above the red beach.

 

 

[luckybecky]

We got cleaned up and went to Chops for supper.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Every night they bring a plate of onion bread and pretzel bread, with butter.

 

 

Paul had the shrimp cocktail

 

 

I had the grilled black pepper bacon

 

[luckybecky]

Then Paul had the Crispy Goat Cheese Salad. I’m not a big fan of goat cheese, so I asked if I could have the salad with bleu cheese instead. They made the substitution for me and the salad was excellent.  Here are both versions of the salad:

 

 

 

I forgot to take photos of our entrees. I had the NY strip and Paul had a filet. He said his filet was cooked to order this time and very good. My NY strip was a bit overdone but it was fairly thin and it can be hard to cook a thin steak. It had great flavor.

 

Service was a little slow. I wonder if this is because they are short staffed, recalling how I heard someone say the ship is down 90 crew members. It took a long time to get a glass of wine. We were stuffed so we skipped dessert.

 

Who do you think was sitting at the next table? You guessed it. The family of 8. I’m sure they are very lovely people, and the kids have settled down a bit since earlier in the cruise. But they are kids and they are having a good time. If you know what I mean. 🤪

 

There was no production show tonight. One of my favorite things to do on cruises is to attend all the big production shows in the main theater but tonight they were doing bingo, so this was disappointing. We spent some time in the casino. Later, though, we went to the Love and Marriage game show. We have seen this on several cruises and is always so much fun.

 

Here is our towel animal from tonight.

 

 

 

Here is the schedule of activities for day 4 in Santorini

 

Edited July 7, 2022 by luckybecky

[luckybecky]

Thursday June 16

 

Mykonos!

 

It was an unusually windy day. I’m not sure how it happened, but for some reason Paul had opened our stateroom door, and then didn’t close it tightly. Then he decided to open the balcony door to check out the weather. A tornado ensued and blew some papers around, including our laundry order – and two casino vouchers!! We had a $0.20 voucher and another for $50. The 20 cent voucher blew onto the bed. The $50 voucher flew out the balcony door and landed on our neighbor’s balcony!!

 

We tried and tried to reach it. It was early, not yet 8am, and I didn’t want to wake our neighbors. I ran out to the hall to see if Chris was there, if he could open the partition. He has been out there every single time we pass by, but not today of course! Finally the voucher blew a little closer and we were barely able to reach under the partition and grab it. What a boon that would have been for our neighbor though! It’s raining money!

 

We were supposed to tender here, but another ship canceled its stop and we were able to dock in their place. We had a tour scheduled for 9am so we got off the ship at 8:00 and took the ferry from the dock to the old town, just a few minutes’ ride. Cost 2 euro per person.

 

There were many other ships in port, including NCL Gem, Odyssey of the Seas, Celestyal Crystal, and several others. The port wasn’t too crowded when we arrived a little after 8:00, but things picked up quickly.

 

Our guide found us at our designated meeting spot and we had a walking tour of the old town including several churches and the iconic windmills. This was a small group tour; we were joined by about 5-6 others.

 

 

 

 

Then we loaded into a van and drove around the island to a monastery. We had a brief stop there, saw the incredible chapel, and they have a small museum with religious artifacts.

 

 

 

[luckybecky]

Next we went to a beautiful beach – I don’t recall the name but our guide told us we could remember it because it is where Lindsey Lohan has a beach club. It was not crowded at all and very scenic. The sand was soft and the water was crystal clear – and cold! It felt great!! We have had fantastic weather on this trip with high temps only in the 70s or 80s.

 

 

 

 

Our guide served us some snacks including homemade sausage, tzatiki and wine that he made himself, olives, cheese and other delicious treats.

 

 

We got back to the ship around 1pm. Our guide offered to drop us either at the ship or in town if we wanted to do some shopping. We opted for the ship. We were tired so we came back to shower and then took a long afternoon nap.

 

[luckybecky]

Later we went to Izumi for supper. Guess who arrived shortly after us? Our favorite family!! 🙄

 

I'm going to try to repost the Izumi menu because I'm not sure it was legible the first time. Hopefully this one will be better. 

 

 

 

 

So instead of having a dollar amount of food that you can order (used to be $35 as I understood it) you no longer have to worry about the price. Instead you can order one small plate, two large plates, and one dessert per person. Edamame and miso soup are also included.

 

Service was OK, not perfect. They forgot to bring us the complimentary edamame that we had the first time, and that we saw on everyone else’s table. Honestly, I didn’t realize it until after we had our appetizers, and it wasn’t a big deal so I didn’t ask them to bring it. The meal was huge, we had more food than we could eat. I wanted lots of veggies so I asked for the chicken teriyaki and hibachi vegetables. The server said that these two dishes were very similar and there was really no point to order both, so I just told him I wanted plenty of veggies.

 

Miso soup, seaweed salad

 

 

tofu ginger salad

 

 

 

dumplings

 

 

 

Izumi ryu futomaki roll

 

 

 

Chicken teriyaki

 

 

Poke bowl

 

 

 

There was WAY too much food. No way anyone could eat all of this.

[luckybecky]

 

Sesame balls and green tea ice cream for dessert

 

 

 

After dinner, we went to the production show which was outstanding. We love high energy shows like this.

 

 

 

Then we went to the casino and came out winners. Paul played three card poker and I played video poker. We both ended the evening ahead a little bit.

 

 

Here is the schedule of activities for today:

 

[luckybecky]

Friday June 17

 

Sea day. We were both tired so we slept late. Finally got up around 9 and went to the gym. We wanted to run outside because the weather was beautiful, but they were working on cleaning part of deck five. Some of it was very wet, and at least one part was closed. So we headed up to the gym. It was fairly busy, but we were still able to get two treadmills next to each other and put in a three mile run.

 

Went back to the room to shower. Then went to lunch in Windjammer.

 

We had a really lazy day. We wandered the ship a little, watched the egg drop competition, then spent some time just relaxing in our room on the balcony.

 

We went to the casino for a little while before dinner.

 

We ate at Giovanni’s again. I had minestrone soup, and then had the filet mignon again because it was so good the first time. Paul also had the ossobuco again because he was just blown away by it the first time. We had canneloni and strawberry gelato for dessert. I do wish they had a chicken dish on the menu: chicken piccata, or marsala, or parmigiana, or something.

 

Mozzarella di bufala

 

 

Minestrone

 

 

Ossobuco

 

 

I asked for a small side portion of the gnocchi to go with my filet. It was delicious.

 

 

I think I mistakenly posted the dessert menu in German last time. Here it is in English.

 

 

Strawberry gelato

 

 

Cannoli

 

[luckybecky]

By the way, here is the room service menu. We never used it.

 

 

 

 

After dinner at Giovanni's we went to the show: Tenors Unlimited. They were amazing. And Paul and I got a personal serenade!!

 

 

 

We spent some time in the casino, not as successful as last night, so we called it a night early. Set out our things for tomorrow’s excursion. We had info in our cabin about our B2B. We are instructed to be in the Colony Club by 9am on turnaround day if we planned to stay onboard, and also had instructions in case we wanted to debark.

 

 

 

[luckybecky]

Here is the schedule for day 6, sea day.

 

[luckybecky]

Saturday June 18

 

Today we are in Split, Croatia. We had a speedboat tour pre arranged: Blue Lagoon and Three Islands.

 

We had a quick breakfast in Windjammer.

 

It was about a 15 min walk to the meeting place for our tour, through a very busy chaotic area with lots of traffic. But we found the spot with a little time to spare.

 

We met our guide and were directed to a speed boat with 8 other passengers and 2 guides. This is what I love about booking our own excursions: the small group with personal service.

 

 

 

We had an exhilarating ride of about 20 minutes and arrived in Trogir. Here, we had some free time. Our guide suggested that we visit the cathedral which dates from the 13^th century.
We tried, but they would only accept Kuna, in cash. No euros or dollars, or credit cards. We didn’t have any kuna, so we just wandered around the old city.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[luckybecky]

Back on our speed boat for a 20 minute or so ride. We arrived at the Blue Lagoon for some swimming. The Dalmatian coast is generally very rocky and this spot was no exception. Make sure to take some good water shoes.

 

The water was crystal clear, cold and refreshing. We enjoyed a swim.

 

 

 

 

After an hour or so here we boarded our speed boat again for a third stop in a charming island. There were just a handful of shops. Several restaurants/bars. We asked at a couple of them if we could sit and have a drink, but they only accepted kuna, no euro or dollars or credit cards. Kuna only.

 

There were some ATM machines where you could get some cash (kuna) but we had forgotten to bring our debit card, we had only credit cards which the restaurants did not accept.

 

So since we can’t enjoy the local food we decided to hike up the hill to see the local church. It was cool. Didn’t look particularly old, but had amazing views of the surrounding waters and islands.

 

 

 

 

We walked back toward the port, stopping along the way to buy a bottle of local wine.

 

This was a great tour, but it does not offer pickup at the ship. You have to walk about 15 minutes or so to the meeting place and the traffic was chaotic when we got off the ship. It was a little confusing.

 

Heading back to the ship, we stopped briefly in the old town, looking for a bank where we could exchange some currency. At 3pm or so, they said they were already closed for currency exchange.

 

 

Edited July 8, 2022 by luckybecky

[luckybecky]

As we walked back to the ship, I tripped on a bit of uneven sidewalk and went down hard. Got badly banged up. Full face plant.

 

Arriving back at the gangplank, the person on duty noticed I was bleeding and asked if I needed to go to Medical. I thanked him and said I just wanted to go to my cabin to get cleaned up.

 

I had hit my head hard, with a large abrasion and bleeding cut on my forehead and cheek; also my hand, knee and shoulder.

 

So here is my first and only experience with any medical service on a ship.

 

We went to our room and I showered. I was really banged up. I didn’t want to go to medical, but we had reservations at Chops tonight, which requires long pants. I had a huge bleeding abrasion on my knee, and didn’t want to stain my pants.

 

So I told Paul, let’s go down to Medical and ask for some bandages. He said, “if they take one look at you with that wound on your head,  they are not going to just give you a bandage. They are going to want to check you out.” He was sincerely worried that I could have a concussion.

 

I didn’t want all that, I just wanted a bandage for my knee that was really raw and weeping.

 

Paul was incorrect to think that there would be any concern about my head wound.

 

We went to deck 2 to find the medical facility. There were several doors and it was not clearly marked where we should enter. There was nothing like a reception or triage area. I asked a crew member nearby who led us to a tiny waiting room where we knocked on a closed door.

 

No one responded so I cracked open the door and saw a lady at a desk inside. I said, I don’t know if I am in the right place, but I just need some bandages, and I pointed to the large bleeding area on my knee.

 

She told me to wait outside. After a few minutes, she came out and handed me some bandaids. She turned, went back inside, and shut the door. No concern about my bleeding head LOL And no bandages large enough for my knee (or shoulder, or elbow).

 

I also had a broken finger. My right hand was rapidly swelling and developing a deep bruise. Paul went to a bar and got a glass of ice. I put the ice in a washcloth and alternately iced my hand, forehead, and knee.

 

Well, onward!! Making the best of it.

[luckybecky]

We made it to our Chops reservation.

 

Service was good. The restaurant has never been full, or even close to full. After three visits to Chops, we finally figured out what the problem is with the overdone steaks. Our waiter asked us to cut into our steaks to check for doneness as soon as he set them down. They looked great. But they are served on screaming hot plates. I don’t mean warm, I mean HOT!

 

Every good chef knows that a well cooked steak should be removed from heat and allowed to “rest” for a few minutes. But the Chops steaks are placed on plates so hot that the steaks actually continue to cook. Before we could get even halfway through, the steaks were well past the medium rare that we ordered. Barely pink at all.

 

Crab cake

 

 

Mushroom soup

 

 

I think this is the ribeye. It is listed on the menu as bone-in, but on this sailing was being served boneless.

 

 

Sauteed mushrooms, mac and cheese, tater tots, asparagus.

 

 

 

Cheesecake

 

 

Apple pie

 

[luckybecky]

 

We went to the show. We saw this duo at the beginning of the cruise. They are a variety show/ acrobat sort of act. They are good, but we weren’t just totally blown away. I got called up on stage where the guy did a funny bit about putting me behind a curtain and pretending to remove my underwear.

 

 

 

 

At some point we today packed. Our steward told us he would move our luggage. It would have been nice to stay in the same room to avoid the hassle of packing and unpacking, but we get to stay on the ship so it’s all good!!

 

We have seen a lot of posts from our June 19 FB group from people who were having trouble with flights and connections. I know some of them missed the ship, we later heard it was more than 40. Some of them were able to catch up to the ship in the first port.

 

Here is the cruise compass for today.

 

 

I'll be back tomorrow to tell you about turnaround day and continue our adventure.

 

[perfect match]

Thanks for a great review of the first leg of your B2B, @luckybecky! I’m really enjoying following along with you.  You’ve already had a lot of adventures along with a few misadventures and you still have another leg to go. I hope your injuries from your fall were truly minor and that you were fully able to enjoy the second one. I am disappointed that medical wasn’t very helpful when you stopped by there. We’ve been fortunate enough to have had very little experience with medical on our cruises, but the little experience we’ve had has been totally opposite of yours. Anyway, I’ll keep following along to find out how the rest of your trip went. 

[JamesEM]

Following along, nice photos and review.

[Coralc]

2 hours ago, luckybecky said:

As we walked back to the ship, I tripped on a bit of uneven sidewalk and went down hard. Got badly banged up. Full face plant.

 

Arriving back at the gangplank, the person on duty noticed I was bleeding and asked if I needed to go to Medical. I thanked him and said I just wanted to go to my cabin to get cleaned up.

 

I had hit my head hard, with a large abrasion and bleeding cut on my forehead and cheek; also my hand, knee and shoulder.

 

So here is my first and only experience with any medical service on a ship.

 

We went to our room and I showered. I was really banged up. I didn’t want to go to medical, but we had reservations at Chops tonight, which requires long pants. I had a huge bleeding abrasion on my knee, and didn’t want to stain my pants.

 

So I told Paul, let’s go down to Medical and ask for some bandages. He said, “if they take one look at you with that wound on your head,  they are not going to just give you a bandage. They are going to want to check you out.” He was sincerely worried that I could have a concussion.

 

I didn’t want all that, I just wanted a bandage for my knee that was really raw and weeping.

 

Paul was incorrect to think that there would be any concern about my head wound.

 

We went to deck 2 to find the medical facility. There were several doors and it was not clearly marked where we should enter. There was nothing like a reception or triage area. I asked a crew member nearby who led us to a tiny waiting room where we knocked on a closed door.

 

No one responded so I cracked open the door and saw a lady at a desk inside. I said, I don’t know if I am in the right place, but I just need some bandages, and I pointed to the large bleeding area on my knee.

 

She told me to wait outside. After a few minutes, she came out and handed me some bandaids. She turned, went back inside, and shut the door. No concern about my bleeding head LOL And no bandages large enough for my knee (or shoulder, or elbow).

 

I also had a broken finger. My right hand was rapidly swelling and developing a deep bruise. Paul went to a bar and got a glass of ice. I put the ice in a washcloth and alternately iced my hand, forehead, and knee.

 

Well, onward!! Making the best of it.

Holy Crud! That is awful!