Thoughts on Our Cruise
Brilliance of the Seas Cruise Review to Europe - Northern Europe
12 Night Scandinavia & Russia (Harwich Roundtrip)
Sail date: June 23, 2015
Ship: Brilliance of the Seas
Cabin type: Balcony
Cabin number: 8608
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 9 years ago
Review summary
Overall, this cruise was great - great ports, great tour guides, great ship and mostly good staff.
After speaking with a friend that had just come off a Celebrity Cruise with mostly the same itinerary we were a little skeptical about some of the same ports, but much to our delight they were all quite good.
The Brilliance of the Seas is a really nice ship, but is getting a little tired and is in need of some cosmetic upgrades. The service is mostly very good and we only ran into a very few staff that wished they were somewhere else.
As a Crown and Anchor Platinum member the only problem I had was that some of the shipboard credits I was due were not applied to our account and when I went to speak with the shipboard ambassador he pretty much blew me off saying there was nothing he could do about it. A couple of days later I spoke with him and he said he sent an email to the office and would let me know. After not hearing from him I went to see him again and he said he had heard from them and they had no record of any request for shipboard credit. When I asked him to see the email, he could not find it. It is my opinion that he never sent an email and never received a reply, but provided an easy way out for himself rather than assist a repeat cruiser.
Thee only other complaint (and it is a minor one) is that Royal Caribbean needs to work on mastering the details as it was only little things that would have made our cruise perfect.
Other than that it was a great cruise and the friends that traveled with us also enjoyed it.
Our travel agent Joan Cohen, was outstanding - very knowledgeable and experienced and we will definitely will use her services again for our next cruise!
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Onboard Activities
Entertainment
Service and Staff
Ship Quality
Cabin / Stateroom
Ship tip
Be sure to attend the sessions with the Master, Captain Stig, to hear about his seagoing exploits! Also don't miss the passage under the bridge late in the evening on the way to Tallinn.
Ports of call
St. Petersburg, Russian Federation