Brilliance of the Seas Cruise Reviews - Reviews

Best part of the cruise was the dining and beauty of the ship. Found the service in the main dining room to be outstanding. Also pleased with the service in the Windjammer Cafe. The main pool area on the Brilliance of the Seas is too small to host the many events scheduled for the final day ... made for very crowded conditions. Liked the idea of music on the main floor of the ship that all floors can look down upon. Thought that Vintages wine bar was elegant with the special touch of a cheese plate for each customer. Also liked the layout of the Schooner Bar.

The staff in my time dining (Amine and Lakshmi) were attentive and amazing. Elmer our cabin steward was fantastic!! There was plenty of food but a lack of pool deck chairs during days at sea.  And the coffee in the Windjammer buffet was awful.  Could use a larger specialty coffee staff and counter. But overall everything was simply amazing!

Most of the entertainment was very good.  Unfortunately, sometimes scheduled so it conflicted with assigned dinner time.  Diningroom meals were excellent.  Ship is a little older but don't let that turn you away. Pools were a little inadequate to handle the full ship.  Excursions were great.

Be sure you ask about your room having an obstructed view...nothing was mentioned to us when we booked through   Unfortunate surprise.

My wife and I have traveled on Celebrity two times in the past, and we loved both of the cruises. This time, on Brilliance of the Seas, we cruised with our children and two young (two years old and nine months old) grandchildren, which radically changed our cruise experience. The grandchildren were very well behaved, but they were young and had to be entertained/supervised at all times.  In the past, my wife and I had enjoyed afternoons by the pool or shore excursions, relatively quiet dinners, then watched the shows in the evening. This time, we had much more tumult during dinner, and no time at all for the shows. However, we did get to spend quite a bit of time with the family, so that made it all worthwhile.  My wife and I had a cabin near but not next to the children and grandchildren. This made it easy to go back and forth for emergency babysitting activities. The cabin steward Myra was very friendly and at the same time professional. She did a great job cleaning up every time we left, and she was quick to take care of any special requests.  We ate the first night in the Chophouse Grill, which was excellent and well worth the extra cost. However, our experience the next evening at Giovanni's was just average, and not worth any additional cost. We also had lunch one day at Rita's Cantina - the food was relatively cheap and better than the buffet next door. The other meals were in the Windjammer Cafe - typical buffet food - and in the Minstrel dining room. The main dining room staff was excellent, especially Stephen our head waiter.  I was surprised that the pools (both the main one and the one in the Solarium) did not have a shallow end. In both cases, the entire pool, except for an outer skirt that was about one foot of water, was quite deep - making it impossible to walk through the pool. Usually, a pool in a public place like this is not at a uniform depth. There was an additional kiddie pool on deck 13, and we ended up taking the kids there.  Getting on and off the ship was quite smooth - much better than we were expecting.  Overall, it was a hectic five days but full of family fun.

The initial boarding of the ship in Tampa, as well as the embarkation five days later, was very smooth – good job by Royal Caribbean and the crew in the Port of Tampa.

This was a quaint cruise which I enjoyed very much.  The staff was ultra helpful and friendly.  Key West was a great trip but Mexico was better, lots more to do.  Key West was not that long of a layover.  If I could improve anything it would be the quality of the food in the specialty restaurants.  It could have been much better, steaks were very tough and the scallops served almost raw.  If I pay for specialties, I expect better. 

Loved everything except the daily news on the tv---only 1 news station CNN.

FOXX is the most watched news station...please change it to FOXX.  Got home and the news was totally different (Fake news!!)

Ship is nice and clean, lots of activities. Definately an older crowd when we went January 28th 2017. I wpuld say 1/2 the ship was 70 plus...Entertainment is great, good shows and activities. Casino is of ample size but smokey, I wish it was a non smoking casino. My biggest complaint is the dining options and the assigned times.If you get stuck in a late seating there is no ability to change..8:30pm dinner is too late for us. There are too many upcharge specialty restaurants and not enough included restaurants to take care of those that want to eat earlier. They staff knows this because I tried to switch to an earlier time and was told, sorry everyone wants to eat early. We ended up eting at the buffet everynight which was good, but we never god to enjoy a sit down dinner in the main dining room. I think RCL should rethink their dining plans and make necessary changes. I love Norwegian Cruise Line for the Free Stuyle dining and will most proably cruise with them in the future for this reason. 

It was always smooth sailing! Food was wonderful all over the ship and the staff were very friendly. WE had cold showers one night, but after we reported it, it was fixed right away! Our phone didn't work for two days, but after reporting it, it was fixed right away. Everything was very clean!

Love the ship; the service personell were beyond expectations; Main Dining quizine met expectations; Did not like that all sodas were at extra cost; cost of a beer was quite high; On-Board shops were great - nice products; Shows were very good; Off-main dining - specialty dining was at extra cost - did not use due to extra cost; General buffet dining was very good with lots of variety. 

Got 'swindled' on off-ship excursion - price was probably good but access was difficult (trip to Kulum).  Embarking etc. was very well organized.

Crew on board was fabulous, our excursions were kind of a bust ! 

It was cold and rainy in Key West and our snorkeling tour was cancelled in Cozumel due choppy water conditions! We enjoyed the shows and activities on the ship though!

For the most part very relaxing, which is all I would like to say but I am forced to write at least a 150 character review which drops my review yet another star.

The ship was beautiful, the food was great, the staff was very appreciative and happy that we were there.

Key West and Cozumel are fun ports.

A five night cruise was just right.

The Port of Tampa is perfect.

The ship was small enough to get around easily.  The food was excellent and our dinner head waiter was excellent.  The ship was clean and decorated beautifully.  However,  activities seem to be disorganized, the beds were very uncomfortable, and we were not able to choose our dinner time.  They scheduled us for late dining without giving us a choice.  We were able to, with some arguing, able to change it to early seating.  The worse part was docking in a military base which made it difficult to get back to the ship if a shuttle was missed.

This cruise had some deficits that could be corrected.  The toilet made a hissing sound when the water level in the bowl was low..This was reported twice and several attempts were made to repair which were not successful.  The mattresses were not comfortable and My Time Dining was not as advertised.  I have been on many cruises but never had I been required to make a reservation in advance to dine around 6 pm.  We were told the first night that reservations for that time were unavailable for the rest of the cruise. Only in the specialty venues   were we able to obtain a reservation before 7:30. Room service was fine and staff friendly and efficient.

We had a great time with our friends on this cruise.  We hit some rough seas as we left Tampa, but had been informed prior which was helpful.  We also did not get to go to the Grand Caymans which was disappointing but couldn't be helped.  The ship was very clean and the staff was very nice.  Enjoyed the nightly entertainment, however eating at 8:30 was a bit late even for us, so next time would use the my time dining. 

Favorite, Very Clean Ship.  the Food choices were not what we thought but good.  Wait service in Main Dining room very slow.  The waiter was great, it looked as though they down sized the staff.  Our My Time Reservation was for 5:30pm daily, which was good, however, due to being understaffed, we had to wait between courses to order and was not finished with our meal until 7:00pm or after.  The special "party" for Emerald and above members was nothing like last year on the Adventure of the Seas.  Brilliance did not serve any appetizers the Adventure did last year. 

over all the cruise was excellent. Service was great. Our waiter Ciprian and Hafifi Inu. "HAPPY". We're outstanding and couldn't enough for us, what an asset  to RC the only thing I wasn't crazy about was there Bingo. A lot of money to play only ONE game  other than that we had a great time😀

It is time for a refurbish of this boat. They did change out my lumpy mattress towards the end of the cruise which helped but in general the boat is showing signs of it's age.

The food was just ok. What happened to the steak and lobster on formal night and the parade of the wait staff?

The service in general was good and the staff was friendly. I would never sail on this boat again.

Boarding and departing out of Tampa was the quick and orderly.  The room was very nice and the room attendant was great.  The bathroom could have used a better shower curtain. The ship was clean and easy to get around on. The fitness center was clean and well maintained but there was no ability to hear the TV.  Most ships I've been on lately have individual TV's on most of the cardio machines - this one didn't and over half the machines faced away from the windows - boring scenery.  The entertainment was average although we did really enjoy the trio of your ladies  who played the piano and violins.  The waiter Marko and his assistant Daria were exceptional in the dinning room unfortunately the food didn't come close to matching their service.  Limited selections and disappointing quality.  The Windjammer seemed to have better food however the ability to find a place to sit and eat was sometime challenging to say the least.  The staff at the Guest Service counter were very friendly and helpful especially Silvia.

The staff was subpreb , food 🥘 excellent and everything on the ship was wonderful!! I book my next trip before I left the ship. The surprise with celebration cake for my anniversary!! Totally surprised and gave special rewards on the trip because of it!! I was so happy!!