Brilliance of the Seas Easter Sailing Mini Review--Panama Canal

[Elcruzer]

Marianne, Thanks for info on Costo Rico Tour, I will try to e-mail them. I was hoping they had a web site. I don't know if we could get a large group together since there's only 15 people signed up for our M&M so far, but hopefully more will sign up when its closer to sailing.

Any other recommendations for tours or things onboard would be appreciated.

Eleanor

Brilliance 1/14/05

[mtlcever]

Thanks for all of the great info. We are also scheduled for the 1/14/05 trip. Never too early to plan!

[cruisincha]

Jim,

 

In your review, you said that if you liked the Cat B's on the Vision Class, you would love the B's on Radiance Class. Can you please describe the difference? Pictures on RCI's website look very similar. We have been on all the Vision Class, in Cat B, but this is our first Cat B on Radiance Class. Thanks.

 

Trish

[mellow]

Cruising Fool, thanks. Knew someone who was not able to sign up because they were already booked full when they went to make reservation. So wanted to make sure I took care of before time if that was an option.

 

_____________________________

 

 

 

Cruise #7 - Brilliance of the Seas - 02/25/05

 

 

[Cruising Fool]

Elcruzer: Believe this or not, we're going back on the Brilliance December 24th this year. My husband has told me that he will do the Peacock Bass fishing trip again, but this time he's bringing his own equipment. Whether he means it or not - I don't know.

 

Marianne

Royal Caribbean - 23; Carnival - 11; NCL - 9

Princess - 4; Costa - 2; Disney - 1; Celebrity - 1

Other now defunct lines - 18

 

Until Our Jewel of the Seas Canada/NE Cruise

 

Until Our Radiance Thanksgiving Cruise

 

Until Our Brilliance Christmas Cruise

 

 

[Elcruzer]

Marianne - How wonderful to take a cruise that will span Christmas & New Years. We like to be home for Christmas but did take a New Years cruise once that was great.

I sent an e-mail to Mario at Mambo but haven't received a reply yet. Looked at your M&M thread. You really had a great group and am sure you had a great cruise. But got bleary eyed trying to find Mambo link in all those 75 pages! And of course search engine didn't show anything. Do you remember how far in advance the tour was booked and did you have to pay anything in advance. If Jenny reads this, appreciate her contacting me, my screenname @aol.com.

Can you recommend any other tour besides fishing one for the canal?

Eleanor

Brilliance 1/14/05

[nanarena]

Cruisincha,

 

I have pictures of the B suite (1032) on the Brilliance. They are in the album called Brilliance- the ship. The link is as follows:

 

http://community.webshots.com/user/isujim

 

I think the B suite on the Brilliance is 356 sq. ft. They may be a little smaller on the Vision class. The decor is better in my opinion on the Radiance class.

 

Rena (mrs. isujim)

 

Nordic Prince 8/88

Viking Serenade 3/93

Enchantment 3/01

Rhapsody 9/02

Splendour 4/03

Rhapsody, 9/03

Brilliance, 4/04

 

Until our Caribbean Princess cruise

 

Until Hawaii on Inifinity

 

[Cruising Fool]

Eleanor: Sent Jenny an email regarding your request for more info about Mambo tours. It's in her hands now.

 

Marianne

Royal Caribbean - 23; Carnival - 11; NCL - 9

Princess - 4; Costa - 2; Disney - 1; Celebrity - 1

Other now defunct lines - 18

 

Until Our Jewel of the Seas Canada/NE Cruise

 

Until Our Radiance Thanksgiving Cruise

 

Until Our Brilliance Christmas Cruise

 

 

[Driftwoodgal]

I am so glad to read about your time on the Brilliance. Great pictures.....I can only dream about a B cabin for awhile. We booked the Brilliance while we were on the Splendour cruise through the Panama Canal. We were late going through the locks as a tour was late coming back in Belize. We had the Brilliance right across from us in the locks. It was awesome to be able to wave from our balcony to everyone on the Brilliance.

 

We used Oscar Brown in Costa Rica. He was such a awesome tour guide. Because we were late into the locks it put us late into Puerto Limon. Oscar waited on us for and hour and a half. You can read more about him on the Costa Rica board. You can reach him on his cell 011 506 350 6415. The cheapest way to call is with a prepaid phone card from Target, Walmart etc. He can tailor any type of tour you want. Lots cheaper than the ship. We had him all day and saw a bananna plantation.. that he tooks us through and explained the entire process. I got to pet a sloth up close and personal and held a monkey named Rosita. We went ziplining as well. He took us through parts of the city so we could see his town and even stopped off and met his sister and went into their house. He will take you to local grocery stores. He has what he calls his surprise... it was a wonderful stop that I want tell you about ... awesome.

 

Costa Rica is a wonderful stop. Beautiful country. It was one of favorite ports.

 

I would love to hear about any tips about when you should book your reservations for the paid dining and other things. This will be our first Radiance cruise in aft cabin 8672... I have to wait unitl Jan 24, 2005... anyone else that will be on this sailing there is a Meet and Mingle Thread ... come join us.

 

God bless you and yours.

[isujim]

Driftwoodgal:

 

You probably should book reservations to Portofino's or Chops on the first day......now, having said that......when we ate at both Chops and Portofino's they were only half full......I was surprised at the number of empty tables......we ate at Chops at 8pm and there were 8 empty tables.....we ate at Portofino's at 7pm and again, it was only about half full........now maybe they do this on purpose to insure the quality of service.

 

Jim

 

Nordic Prince 8/88

Viking Serenade 3/93

Enchantment 3/01

Rhapsody 9/02

Splendour 4/03

Rhapsody, 9/03

Brilliance, 4/04

 

Until our Caribbean Princess cruise

 

Until Hawaii on Inifinity

[curly4dana]

hi folks! i was with isujim on the brilliance and although i loved the experience, i doubt i'll be back aboard that ship.

i wasn't so lucky when it came to cabin stewards. mine was non-existent and when he did show up, he spoke almost NO english and his personal hygiene made you wish he'd not have shown up at all. the cabin was clean and we had the handicapped cabin, so it was quite spacious. i recommend it if you can get it. we had approximately twice the cabin size than a regular cabin.

we were on deck 7 in cabin 7614 and although, as i said, it was a great cabin, the balcony overlooked the lifeboats, so for the panama canal we had to go either up a few decks, or down in order to see the actual canal. also, our t/a send a bottle of champagne to us for sailaway, and our "wonderful" cabin steward didn't get it to us until after dinner. when i told my t/a, she was very upset. it's just the luck of the draw as far as stewards go, i guess.

the food was exactly the same as the menu i had on the explorer in september of 2003. it was identical. no better, no worse. some nights were great, some nights...not so good. our waiter was okay. quite frankly, i don't appreciate having a waiter give me guilt because i didn't like something i ordered. he made me feel like a HAD to eat it. i already have a mother and didn't need one on this cruise...lol

 

my husband also went on that bass fishing tour! what a bust that was! he came back and told me all about the ineptitude of the guide. the guide's tackle box was a coke bottle! for almost $100 it was pathetic at best. i also called rci and got the same refund that crusingfool got. i do not recommend it to anyone! the guide spoke almost NO english and he kept getting the boat stuck in the marshes. the passengers had to help him get it out. that was totally silly for an "experienced" tour.

 

in g.c. we booked with sotos tours for the stingray city tour and it was awesome! we had jonathan as our guide and you can not help but fall in love with that boy! he's about 15 or so and has been doing the tour since he was about 8 yrs. old. he was the sweetest and sooo knowledgeable. he even dove off the boat and brought us darth vader. she's the only black stingray in the world and has been featured on national geographic. as soon as he swam over with her, all the other rays followed along. ate in a cute place by the pier called breezes. GREAT food and a nice view of the port.

 

as for costa rica...if you don't book a tour, be wary. we didn't and i'm so sorry i didn't. the town right outside the pier is not very "friendly" and if we'd taken the tour we'd have seen the beauty of c.r. we missed.

 

ok, back to the ship...she is just a beautiful ship. really. the appointments are tastefully done and she is really just gorgeous. after being on the voyager class ship, we were spoiled by the grand promenade. the brilliance doesn't have that, but it does have a centrum. it's a main area that you can find eveything from the shops to the casino to a champagne bar, you just have to keep going up and down to different decks. on the explorer, it was all there on one level.

 

the pool area is smaller, too. finding a chair by the pool is VERY hard unless you get up with the birds! they are also edge to edge, so if you do finally get a chair, you have to crawl onto it. many of us walked around and around looking for a chair. it was frustrating at best.

 

i don't want you to think i'm giving a negative review...i'm just looking at it as a former travel agent with a critical eye.

 

if you've not been on a voyager class ship, you will flip out over the brilliance. if you have been on a voyager class, then you might just be a tiny bit discouraged.

 

oh yeah! if you want to meet the best bartender in the universe...go to the champagne bar and meet RUSTY! this man is a gem! he will remember your drink AND your name after just one meeting. he was just the sweetest guy i've ever had the pleasure to meet. i'm sure you'll feel the same. he also make a chocolate martini that will knock your socks off!!!

 

we had very rough seas on the last saturday and the captain was trying hard to get us out of the rolling, but when the ship is at full speed they can't put out the stabilizers, so a lot of people were sick. no ones fault, but it was wild rocking and rolling. the self leveling pool tables were going crazy trying to keep the balls in place. lots of people didn't make it to dinner that nite. we also had 57 miles an hour winds, so they closed a few decks and drained the solarium pool because it was sloshing all over the place. the kids loved the regular pool...it was like a wave machine for them.

 

as for the kids...they were fine. they kept to themselves and did the adventure ocean thing, so we really never saw them. when they did they were very well behaved.

 

the elevators were a pain. lots of waiting, but hey, it was a full ship. not a problem.

 

so, to wrap this up let me say that i had an awesome cruise vacation! really. i think what made it so fantastic was that i was able to cruise with the cruise critics that i met on the cc board. i don't know if i would have had as good a time without them. i recommend the brilliance to anyone. you will be very pleased.

 

now...we're off to hawaii! hey...gotta cruise!

 

rick and dana (=^.^=) meow

cabin 7614/early seating changing to late seating!!!

Until the Brilliance of the Seas!!!!

 

SINCE THE EXPLORER OF THE SEAS!!!!

 

EXPLORER OF THE SEAS! 9/20/03

carnival destiny 6/6/02

[curly4dana]

driftwoodgal...go to webshots.com and look up curly4dana to see my pics. i still have about 90 more pics to post, but i'll get to it.

enjoy! and you will love the brilliance!

 

rick and dana (=^.^=) meow

cabin 7614/early seating changing to late seating!!!

Until the Brilliance of the Seas!!!!

 

SINCE THE EXPLORER OF THE SEAS!!!!

 

EXPLORER OF THE SEAS! 9/20/03

carnival destiny 6/6/02

[Elcruzer]

Marianne - Thanks for all your help. Some of our M&M are also interested so maybe I can get a group together for the Mambo Tour.

Eleanor

BRILLIANCE January 14, 2005

[curly4dana]

 

rick and dana (=^.^=) meow

cabin 7614/early seating changing to late seating!!!

Until the Brilliance of the Seas!!!!

 

SINCE THE EXPLORER OF THE SEAS!!!!

 

EXPLORER OF THE SEAS! 9/20/03

carnival destiny 6/6/02

[vossjemi]

Cruisingfool,

 

If your DH goes on the peacock bass tour again next year, my DH would definitely be interested in hearing if it has improved. As it stands, he's a little disappointed that it was such a bust for you. He LOVES to FISH! He's already done 4 or 5 tournaments this spring (no he didn't win, but the fun is the sport i guess) and he just about died when i told him a coke bottle was the tackle box!

 

Carnival Festivale 8/95

RCI Navigator of the Seas 1/24/04--SEE MY REVIEW AT http://messages.cruisecritic.com/2/OpenTopic?a=tpc&s=927093444&f=408097554&m=7683004077

RCI Brilliance of the Seas 1/14/05

WE CAN'T WAIT TIL WE SAIL AGAIN!

[bobcan]

We were also on this sailing of the Brilliance Of The Seas, and I must agree with curly4dana. I found that although the ship itself is quite remarkable, the service was certainly not up to the standard that I have come to expect from previous cruises with Royal Caribbean. Also, the quality and selection of food was at best Ok (maybe it was just luck of the draw in my selection, but I had broccoli eight nights out of ten).

Also, was it just me or they a little lapse in the little annoying things, like not informing people when to change the time back to eastern time, announcing a sale for the wrong day and finding out in the compass that dinner times had been changed for this cruise only.

bob

[Cruising Fool]

vosssjemi: If you want to send me your email address, I'll try and remind myself to send you a message after we get back from our XMAS cruise on the Brilliance. I'll let you know if my DH took the fishing tour again. [email]melucas@adelphia.net[/email]

Marianne
Royal Caribbean - 23; Carnival - 11; NCL - 9
Princess - 4; Costa - 2; Disney - 1; Celebrity - 1
Other now defunct lines - 18

[img]http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=0000ff&cdt=2004;10;8;17;00;00&timezone=GMT-0500[/img]
Until Our Jewel of the Seas Canada/NE Cruise

[img]http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=0000ff&cdt=2004;11;21;17;00;00&timezone=GMT-0500[/img]
Until Our Radiance Thanksgiving Cruise

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Until Our Brilliance Christmas Cruise