Brilliance of the Seas has Disappeared from the Mediterranean from May to September in 2023.

[LeesSummitCruiser1]

You can no longer book Brilliance of the Seas out of Greece, Ravenna, or Barcelona in 2023 from May to September.  We have about 20 couples booked on her on May 19 out of Piraeus and have not heard a word from Royal.  I know they pulled the Serenade of the Seas out of Northern Europe because of the war in Ukraine.  Any knowledge, rumors, or pure speculation on Brilliance?  I am wondering if Royal is concerned about fuel next year in Europe. 

[Biker19]

37 minutes ago, LeesSummitCruiser1 said:

You can no longer book Brilliance of the Seas out of Greece, Ravenna, or Barcelona in 2023 from May to September. 

Check some other way other than the RCI site - I see availability.

[Ourusualbeach]

6 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Check some other way other than the RCI site - I see availability.

Those other sites must not be updating.  Everything on the BR is closed for the summer of 2023 in Cruising Power.  Just like the Serenade a week ago.

Edited July 19, 2022 by Ourusualbeach

[Ourusualbeach]

44 minutes ago, LeesSummitCruiser1 said:

You can no longer book Brilliance of the Seas out of Greece, Ravenna, or Barcelona in 2023 from May to September.  We have about 20 couples booked on her on May 19 out of Piraeus and have not heard a word from Royal.  I know they pulled the Serenade of the Seas out of Northern Europe because of the war in Ukraine.  Any knowledge, rumors, or pure speculation on Brilliance?  I am wondering if Royal is concerned about fuel next year in Europe. 

Like Serenade everyone will know when Royal announces the change.  They are actually pretty good about keeping reasons a closely guarded secret until they make the announcement.

[vjmatty]

3 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Those other sites must not be updating.  Everything on the BR is closed for the summer of 2023 in Cruising Power.  Just like the Serenade a week ago.

 

Cruising Power is showing closed even past summer.... including our Oct 2023 cruise and all the way up until the Westbound TA.

 

ETA: Everything between the spring and fall transatlantics are showing either 0.00 or Not Available

 

 

Edited July 19, 2022 by vjmatty

[Ourusualbeach]

1 minute ago, vjmatty said:

 

Cruising Power is showing closed even past summer.... including our Oct 2023 cruise and all the way up until the Westbound TA.

I should have been more specific and said the  European sailings so yes technically beyond the summer

[vjmatty]

Just now, Ourusualbeach said:

I should have been more specific and said the  European sailings so yes technically beyond the summer

 

Yup... including the TA's.  If Russia was the reason for Serenade as I recall, not sure why this is happening.

[Ourusualbeach]

Just now, vjmatty said:

 

Yup... including the TA's.  If Russia was the reason for Serenade as I recall, not sure why this is happening.

I think its just demand in Europe is down in general

[Another_Critic]

Bring her to Baltimore.  🤞

[Billy Baltic]

4 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

I think its just demand in Europe is down in general

Is it down that much that they would pull 2 ships? 

[Ourusualbeach]

1 minute ago, Billy Baltic said:

Is it down that much that they would pull 2 ships? 

We don't know that they are pulling her from Europe completely, perhaps they are modifying itineraries and picking up some portions of what SR was doing.  

[vjmatty]

6 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

I think its just demand in Europe is down in general

 

Well that is worrisome because that means they won't replace it with another ship.... I don't know if you can go much smaller than Radiance Class. The good news (I guess?) is I am booked in a suite guarantee so at least I am not tied to a room I had my heart set on if they do move ships.

[little britain]

existing thread 

[alohayall]

The wait can seem long for information

On our Roll Call for the Serenade OTS WBTA (Sep 2023), we started questioning its status around July 7. It was no longer available for booking - giving an Oops! Page on the Royal website.  (The sailing had been changed from Voyager OTS and offered at a very nice price in early May- so we thought maybe it was sold out.)
 

One of our members, a TA, contacted Royal and received word on July 12 that our sailing was indeed going to sail.

 

On July 13, some pax had received emails from Royal that the cruise was, indeed, cancelled and gave them options to shift to various TAs.  The offer allowed them to keep the cruise fare rate they had on Serenade.

 

Scuttlebutt at that point was that Brillance OTS would also be affected.

 

Good luck, everyone.

[Ourusualbeach]

21 minutes ago, little britain said:

existing thread 

Glitches like this don't really affect cruising power. 

 

Realized after posting the glitches comment was part of the other thread and not yours.  Hard to tell on the phone. 

Edited July 19, 2022 by Ourusualbeach

[mtempelaar]

We are booked for Oct 2023 Med cruise and had just talked some family into joining us so I am getting concerned.   That being said, I did have a bad feeling in my gut about whether our sailing would actually happen.   I had been thinking that Brilliance is possibly due for a drydocking.   
 

How long was it between Seranade disappearing from searches and the cruises actually being cancelled?

[Ourusualbeach]

1 minute ago, mtempelaar said:

We are booked for Oct 2023 Med cruise and had just talked some family into joining us so I am getting concerned.   That being said, I did have a bad feeling in my gut about whether our sailing would actually happen.   I had been thinking that Brilliance is possibly due for a drydocking.   
 

How long was it between Seranade disappearing from searches and the cruises actually being cancelled?

About 3 weeks 

[vjmatty]

13 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

About 3 weeks 

 

So assuming they disappeared sometime last week, we are looking possibly at least into August.

[Ourusualbeach]

5 minutes ago, vjmatty said:

 

So assuming they disappeared sometime last week, we are looking possibly at least into August.

Serenade at 3 weeks was very quick compared to others 

[Biker19]

35 minutes ago, vjmatty said:

 

So assuming they disappeared sometime last week, we are looking possibly at least into August.

If they are going to make substantial changes, they will probably try to make them ASAP - they want to avoid having to pay airline fee changes (most folks can't book flights more than 330 days out).

[LeesSummitCruiser1]

51 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

If they are going to make substantial changes, they will probably try to make them ASAP - they want to avoid having to pay airline fee changes (most folks can't book flights more than 330 days out).

We are on May 22 sailing and booked our flights as soon as they were available.  Nice hotels to in Athens and Venice :(.  We have a group of about 30 friends booked already with another 10 or so trying to book that is how I discovered it was not available.  The following is pure speculation.  I wonder if Royal is concerned about fuel availability being an issue in Europe next summer.

[Saab4444]

9 hours ago, LeesSummitCruiser1 said:

We are on May 22 sailing and booked our flights as soon as they were available.  Nice hotels to in Athens and Venice :(.  We have a group of about 30 friends booked already with another 10 or so trying to book that is how I discovered it was not available.  The following is pure speculation.  I wonder if Royal is concerned about fuel availability being an issue in Europe next summer.

Yes, this would be the reason, not enough fuel for Brilliance and Serenade in Europe!😂

[Saab4444]

I really don‘t understand why they change the perfectly Europe sized ships from Radiance Class to the Caribbean now.

[RosieCanberra]

Brilliance for 2023 still for sale here in Oz. I received an email this morning advising of a port change on 12 June 2023 cruise. 

[Blueeyes23]

I am part f a group of 8 travelling on Brillance of the seas on back to back sailings from Rome 15 May 23 and Athens 22 May 23.....

 

We actually moved to this b2b sailing from a NCL cruise in northern Europe and with everyones before and after plans it has already caused issues.....

 

I do hope that it is not another cancellation as we were told the cruise was full ....so I do not believe it is a capacity issue 😞