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RCCL Brilliance or NCL Jade

RnD

By RnD,
in Royal Caribbean International

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RnD

RnD

Posted
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We are planning a trip in January to the Mediterranean. Both RCL, and NCL have similar itineraries, and similar prices. As Diamond members we do save about $300.00 on the RCL.

 

The BOS is a very old-2002 (by ship standards) ship and has not been refurbished according to RCL themselves.

 

The Jade is much newer (2006).

 

We are not free style dining fans, but perhaps in the Mediterranean that would be a good option.

 

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

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GMoney

GMoney

Posted
Posted
We are planning a trip in January to the Mediterranean. Both RCL, and NCL have similar itineraries, and similar prices. As Diamond members we do save about $300.00 on the RCL.

 

The BOS is a very old-2002 (by ship standards) ship and has not been refurbished according to RCL themselves.

 

The Jade is much newer (2006).

 

We are not free style dining fans, but perhaps in the Mediterranean that would be a good option.

 

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

I respectfully disagree that a ship built in 2002 is "old" by any standards.

 

I spent 24 days on Brilliance in the Med last June and had a great time. IMO, I would really base my decision on itinerary and pick the ship that goes to the places most important to you and provides the longest hours in port, especially at such stops as Livorno and Civitavecchia (if they are on your itinerary), where you have to travel a distance to get to Florence & Rome respectively.

 

Usually Med cruises are so port intensive that the ship and its features are secondary.

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Sue L

Sue L

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It was my understanding the Brilliance was supposed to undergo Drydock last year from 4/28/07 – 5/17/07 at the Hamburg Drydock and this even included a change over from Gas Turbine to Diesel Engines

 

Actually all the Radiance class ships had an engine ADDED to make it more efficient in port.

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Sue L

Sue L

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Sue - Now I remember some of that. For the thrusters or something or was it for power while in port? I am seeing some things on the internet to indicate that it will actually happen this year in late April.

 

The Captain on the Serenade said it was for power in port.

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Dale

Dale

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The BOS is a very old-2002 (by ship standards) ship and has not been refurbished according to RCL themselves.

Being 6 years old doesn’t make the Brilliance a “senior citizen“. I would be more concerned with the age of the plane that’s taking me to the ship, rather than the age of the ship.

 

You can’t go wrong with the Brilliance. Truly a beautiful ship.

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vikielynne

vikielynne

Posted
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We've done the Med cruise with NCL, and it was nice, but I would choose RCCL.

(P.S. The extra $300 savings is a nice bonus too.) ;)

 

 

Have to agree. I did NCL Jewel about 2 years ago & enjoyed the ports...Med as well...but thought the ship was rather ugly, sorry to anyone who likes her. We were home a whopping 5 days before I booked my next RCL cruise, I just needed to be back to my favorite line.

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RnD

RnD

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It is interesting that on the NCL board there were only two replies and they basically said choose the itinerary you like because both lines were terrific.

 

It is a tough choice because of the overnight in Alexandria. If we were assured the shore excursion my wife wants there would be no issue She is concerned she won't get to see the Cairo museum etc.

 

I noticed that you can not book shore excursions until 10 days prior to sailing.

 

We have the air all worked out since both ships leave within a day of each other, and we managed to find "free" mileage Business Class flights both ways.

 

We are leaning towards RCCL at this point but will finalize by the beginning of the week. In the mean time we are on the AOS in June which is approaching fast-Other than the Caribbean once again it should be fun. Has anyone noticed that every island looks the same except perhaps Bermuda and Grand Cayman?

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Cruise Cat

Cruise Cat

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Glad you got opinions from both sides. Have you looked into private excursions? Are you sure about the 10 day thing? I thought that is when they stopped booking on-line shore excursions. We have booked ours for an August trip to the Med already.

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Sue L

Sue L

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I noticed that you can not book shore excursions until 10 days prior to sailing.

 

 

You definitely misread something, you can book online UP to 10 days before, then you have to wait until you are on the ship. I have already booked my excursions for my Sept cruse online so go and do so if they are available. We are still showing not available for one port on our cruise.

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RnD

RnD

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I teach English at a local college and always stress to my students to be sure they read the information and questions carefully. I need to follow my own advice.

 

RCCL told me as soon as they show up on their site we can book the excursions.

 

With that being said, we booked the RCCL trip.

 

Thanks

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Kellie Poodle

Kellie Poodle

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We are planning a trip in January to the Mediterranean. Both RCL, and NCL have similar itineraries, and similar prices. As Diamond members we do save about $300.00 on the RCL.

 

The BOS is a very old-2002 (by ship standards) ship and has not been refurbished according to RCL themselves.

 

The Jade is much newer (2006).

 

We are not free style dining fans, but perhaps in the Mediterranean that would be a good option.

 

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

We sailed on Brilliance in February 2007 on an 11 day Panama Canal cruise. She is a beautiful ship with a wonderful crew. The waitress we had on the Brilliance was the best we've ever had on any cruise. The ship was spotless. The crew was wonderful, including assisting my DH in finding an optician in Aruba who could fix his broken eyeglasses.

 

The last cruise I took on NCL was in 2005 and I'll never board another of their ships. Dirty ship, surly crew constant barrage of sales from the PA system and dining room experience that I can only liken to Applebees on a Saturday night.

 

There is nothing "free" about freestyle dining. In my opinion it is so awful that passengers are encouraged to pay the cover charge on the specialty dining rooms in order to get a dining experience that comes close to the gracious service one gets on RCI without extra tariffs. Why do you think they have so many of them on NCL ships?

 

If you are used to the level of service and cleanliness of RCI, you will hate NCL. I cannot imagine any of the "SS Graffiti" fleet coming close to the elegance of Brilliance

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