Brilliance of the Seas Cruise Reviews - Reviews

Main dining room 6 PM dinner was excellent as well as the wait staff. Room steward was very good also. The activities as well as the buffet food were mediocre. Seems that Royal Caribbean is like the Carnival cruises out of Tampa as they are not real exiting and the on board activities are fair. Cost more than Carnival and there is not any significant difference. The wow factor I was expecting for the price difference was not there.

Lots to do.  Very clean.  Food could have been better.  Shows were great.  Entertainment was good.  Ports were good..  Rooms were quiet.  I would definitely do another cruise.  Probably not this cruise ship but another Royal Caribbean ship.

We booked thru .  Made last min upgrade changes to reservation of which were not received by RC employees thus we got held up 40 mins in port.  - what a mess.

then we booked a island excursion of which NOT 1 RC employee was familiar with & gave our entire group the run-around.  Come to find out, the RC employees were from a different ship - no one from our ship was available &/or knew where we were to go!  We ended up loosing 1 hour and 20 mins OFF our excursion.  RC gave us a $40. refund is all.  The jet boat ride & the private island was magnificent!  This was our 2nd cruise w/RC...the 1st one "Majesty of the Seas" was way better - better organization better communication from RC staff.   Having 2 different confirmation numbers was VERY confusing & frustrating when checking into port.

"Hello Clo" was probably the best cruise director I've encountered! Hilarious and extremely quick witted. The evening headliners were fabulous...Karen Grainger was amazing and Vox Audio fantastic. Both shows were very original. The excursion Salsa, Salsa, Margarita was one of the best organized and most fun excursions I've experienced. Food and service were good, overall.

On the down side, the ship was having problems throughout with the plumbing!. Our toilet worked sporadically throughout the cruise. Not good!!! My other complaint is that "guests" reserved rows of pool chairs, which remained empty for hours! Staff did not enforce their "no reserving" rule. In fairness, though, this seems to be a problem on all cruise ships.

Brilliance of the Seas RCI 2015-04-25 52nd Anniversary Cruise Feedback

Friendliness of the staff, from room stewards, maintenance personnel, assorted uniformed staff in hallways, Windjammer and dining room personnel, and Guest Services, phones answering people, and room service exhibited exceptional eye contact, where possible, cheerfulness, patience, interested attention to your situation, question, and or needs. They all made you feel very very welcomed and sensed a genuine attitude to "Be of Service" to you. Made you feel important, and special, like a long term friend.

Dining room personnel, Head Waiter, Ricardo Cruz,  was a "Prince" with regard to satisfying ANY of our requests regardless of their nature or magnitude. Made our 52nd wedding anniversary and our 14th RCI cruise a very joyful experience. Wait staff, waiter, Charmaine of Romania and his wonderful assistant Harina of India made our dining a memorable experience.

Our room steward, Sudheer Nawosah, was fantastic in responding to all of our requests and needs. Made our stay very enjoyable.He is a great ambassador of Good Will and Willingness to Accommodate for you and and cruising customers. Hope to get him again on a future cruise.

Only downside issues were as follows:

1, Cabin 3572 was extremely cramped. Wife and I both use canes because of arthritis and leg issues, and we had to play "chess" moves to navigate the room. You go stand there while I pass thru then you can proceed to your destination. 179 sq ft is a tad tight, especially since we required to store our electric scooter with us overnight for charging.

2. Door ways to cabin extremely small - narrow. 1'4 inch to spare on either side of the EV. Took some time to carefully navigate in and out.

3. Overstuffed convertible sofa did not help matters regarding space and access.

4.  Wife and I both suffer from Sleep Apnea. Fortunately we brought (3) twenty foot extension cords for our 2 CPAC nocturnal breathing units and EV. Why are there NO 110 v AC plug outlets by the end tables.?????

5. Many of the Handicapped designated bathrooms had problems with their Lock/Unlock systems. Also the occupied indicating lights did not always light????? Requiring either of us to "stand guard" to assure privacy to the other.

Many lacked safety grabs bars near the toilet. Several had no provision to hang a coat or pocketbook

6. Room service got the order CORRECT one of 4 mornings. Always "forgetting" an item or two???????

7 The room service coffee is like "MUD" extremely strong and usually cold or cool. Windjammer coffee was tolerable if you used enough whole milk and sweeteners. The dining room coffee was fair. Last morning Deck 4 departure coffee in dinning room was perfect.??????

8. Cinema - is a "DEATH TRAP" and an "accident waiting to happen". Far to STEEP, especially if you use a cane. or have arthritis and trouble walking. Why is the only access from the precarious top row even requiring a challenging maneuver with a cane to descend 3 steep steps, in the dark,  to the first available sitting level. The exit door on deck 5 could be used for a more safe entry to seating.

9. Need more seats around the glass / brass railing on deck 6 & 7 to view entertainment in the Atrium on deck 4

10. The ship was maintained for all apparent purposes very cleanly. We were impressed. However that impression was quickly tempered by our experiencing during the 1st and  2nd day the disgusting icky sticky feeling on most elevator call and floor selection buttons. After we delivered a sealed note expressing our concerns about the "Ship's War on Germs" and the negative effect the elevator buttons have on same to Captain Stig Nilsen via Guest Services Desk. 

We were impressed that within the next 2 hours upon exiting the dining room and Theater area we witnessed several personnel spraying and wiping inside and outside elevator buttons. Captain Nilsen is to be complimented for his quick response to the "elevator button cleaning request":  11. We know the ship was into initial service in 2002 and refurbished in 2013. But my God, navigating those narrow aisle with about 1/4 of an inch to spare on either side when passing crew service carts is breath taking. 

12. Inactive cabin TV - Has no provision for reviewing dining room or specialty restaurant menus in the cabin daily???

13. Music available via cabin TV for first 3 days was irritating noisy JAZZ on ALL channels. Finally got some variety on last 2 days. perhaps as a result of multiple requests.

14. Cruise director was annoying - over acting enthusiasm, did not come across as sincere. Too noisy, boisterous, and often found her comments and treatment of stage participants very insulting.

15. Production shows were great, singing was tremendous, but the all Vocal non instrumental quintet was extremely boring. Live music around the ship very good, especially the Spanish Trio in the Atrium.

Over all we had a great cruise. And will return soon, within the next year, God willing!!!!!. I am 76 and my wife of 52 years is 74. Each day is a gift. That's why it is called "THE PRESENT" ,

 Hope the above constructive criticisms will in some small way provide you with material to raise your present standard from great to exceptional.

*** EDITED 5/4/15 BY COMMUNITY MANAGER TO REMOVE PERSONAL INFORMATION ***

Have cruised numerous times from many Royal Caribbean Cruise Ships, and we thoroughly enjoy the larger mega ships, and have sailed on all classes of RCCL, we can truly say that the Brilliance is full of energy. The Guest Services Department wonderful. As we always dine at Chops Grille, Arao Roccini excellent.

Only down side Guest Services right across from their live entertainment where extremely difficult to conduct business.

When I am tired of cooking, cleaning and making my bed, I go on a cruise.  Since we live less than an hour ride to Tampa, we go on any Royal Caribbean Ship in Tampa.  We love the Brilliance, a smaller ship where we run into the same people all the time.  It is a wonderful getaway on a beautiful ship.

I wanted to see Grand Cayman & I got to do that, but it wasn't enough time.  I think next time I would rather spend more time there than in Cozumel.  Outside of this, this was a great cruise, the staff are all amazing, everyone really goes beyond what we expected.  The food was really good, though next time we will do more My Time dinning, rather than the Windjammer.  I think the dining could have been more flexible, have a buffet with more selections for more hours.  Another cruise line had a combination of the My Time & the Windjammer & this seemed to work better, very flexible.

AND we will do the formal night, sad we missed that.

We really enjoyed Isumi & Chops as well, would recommend anyone to try them.  I think the drinks were a bit overpriced but I guess that's par for the course.

Overall, I would recommend this cruise

Nice ship, good food and entertainment.  Good value for the dollar.

Everyone very pleasant.

Tour on Cozmuel, Mexico was not as advertized. Tour was to be Mayan ruins, island tour and ocean swimming. The area for ocean swimming was not swimable, There are many beaches that would allow swimming but this is not one of them. instead we were taken to a resturant on the beach for over an hour. The feeling was that this stop was designed to give the resturant customers.  You might want to look into this. 

If you are looking for the perfect "size" ship, Brilliance of the Seas is where you want to be. Stay away from the larger vessels. Royal Caribbean has mastered cruising with this 5-day sail. And, where better than the destinations of Grand Cayman and Cozumel. Service and amenities second to none. Everything about this voyage will leave you very well satisfied. I even attended an Art Show on board and found a very nice piece for my home. Fairly priced and comfortable rooms. I have been on the larger ships, believe me when I say bigger is not better. If you like the night life, the evening entertainment is outstanding. Game shows, Broadway, Disco and more. Check it out and I believe you will be in agreement.

This is our fourth cruise on the Brilliance of the Seas out of Tampa.   We love it!  The ship has everything to offer that the larger ships do without getting a lost feeling or overwhelmed feeling.  We like the "family" feeling.  The cruise staff remembers your name and treats you like a celebrity.  We have sailed at other ports and the Tampa port is the best.  They get you on the ship quickly and disembarkation is quick.  We were surprised by the efficiency of the Royal Caribbean crew members and staff at the port.  We like the fact that every section of the ship is easy access to.  The ship is well maintained and the crew is and should be proud of their vessel.

We like the fact that no matter how busy a crew member can appear, they are never too busy to talk to you.  The crew members are well spoken and well educated.  They are hard workers.  Our stateroom attendants even remembered our names from our previous sailings (remember this is our fourth sailing with Brilliance)!

Shore excursions are many and great variety.  They go into detail in regards to recommended age groups, times, exercise level.  The prices are very reasonable!  You do feel safe with a Royal Caribbean excursion.  I would highly recommend any excursion.

Quite a variety of food choices on the ship.  Specialty restaurants are worth the minimal fee.  Do take a moment to enjoy the music playing outside the specialty restaurants.  

There is so much to do on this ship.  I would highly recommend this ship.  The 4 night cruise is enough for a small vacation but we enjoy that extra night with the 5 night cruise.  What makes us keep coming back to the ship is the crew members.  They treat you like family.  I would highly recommend Royal Caribbean and especially the Brilliance of the Seas without reservation.

Cruise was very relaxing as most of our time was spent in the solarium as there were to many people crowded around pool and bars outside. The only negative comments would be to much alcohol and a couple of verbal and bad language arguments with passengers at 2 different times because of to much to drink.  We have not seen that on other cruises.  Also the toilets were continuing getting blocked up and out of order. 1 bathroom was completely out of order and hardly seen anyone maintaining the bathroom like on other cruises. We didn't like the smokey casino which we would try to avoid walking through.  On the whole we did enjoy this cruise and I have already recommended to my friends.

Staff was excellent. Cleanliness was awesome Rooms were great. Food was delicious. Entertainment was fabulous. We had a fantastic cruise. This was our first cruise and we were very pleased. We will cruise again, but it probably won't be in the near future. The only negative (and it really is not a negative), we had been told that there would be ice cream and pizza 24 / 7 ( It is on Carnival ). We did have ice cream with our meals if we wanted.

Plenty of activities aboard on cruising days. The buffet and dining room food was fantastic, met the chef on a kitchen tour which ended with a champagne brunch, an extra expense, but well worth it! (Sorry sushi) Missed the sushi bar, now there's a sushi restaurant, more $ to spend, maybe next cruise. The orchestra, singers and performers were great. Really enjoyed the "Almost Elton John Show" so did the audience, great sing along. Missed the comedians but were able to view one on the ships TV, always funny. Poolside games and evening games kept us entertained as well. Not a gambler so did not spend much time at the casino, just enjoyed watching others as we passed through. The staff overall were great, always accommodating the only bummer was to get waited on for a drink. Inside or outside bars were always backed up due to each customer having to sign a receipt. Honestly my experience not so great, on two occasions the bartenders served 'butt ins' before myself and other customers that were waiting, so I walked away, twice and went and got a soda once and an ice tea next, since fountain soda is not generally sold without a soda package.  Lets discuss, fountain soda. I did not purchase a soda package, I very rarely drink it, but after not being served at the bar in a timely manner I proceeded to get a fountain soda and was told I had to buy a can of soda instead, why? Still not sure why but after four agents approached the bar they sold me one.(Actually two glasses for the price of one something about the ounces) They were at least very, very nice and made an exception. Yes we all have our little quirks, myself included, putting those little things aside, honestly our trip was full of new memories and very enjoyable!

We have cruised more that 2 dozen times on various cruise lines and decided to take a "short" long weekend cruise on the Brilliance of the Seas. If you are looking for a party boat, then this is your ticket. We usually sail with RC and have been very happy with the cruises in the past. Drink prices have gone up to $10.00 per drink.  Add in the tax and gratuity and my wife and I were spending $25.00 every time we ordered a drink.  This encourages passengers to get the drink packages.  Believe me, people are getting the drink package and they drink constantly. The pool area is small and crowded and VERY loud because of the drunks. One passenger took off his swimsuit while competing in the belly flop contest and again in the sexiest man contest.  Really? No one stopped him from the staff. After sailing away from Cozumel for a couple of hours, we needed to turn around to take an injured passenger back because he fell down the steps on the upper deck.  No he was not sober.     Food was just ok.  Service is always good with RC however.  Maybe if you're young (or older for that matter), like to drink your days and nights away and don't mind low standards of behavior, this is the cruise for you.

Ship was very clean and the staff were very attentive and courteous.  Food was great.  There was lots to do, but the live entertainment was limited.  This was our first cruise and we were told longer cruises have a variety of entertainment.  Overall excellent experience.

In my view, the ship was woefully understaffed.  Pool bar waiters, and, for the most part, drink waiters almost anywhere were hard to come by

Simiiarly, I had heard about the increase in bar drink prices, I asked a waiter in one of the lounges how much a mixed drink was, and he would not tell me, and was not happy about me asking.  Since prices are no longer on the drink menus, I had to buy one to find out

The first two days, Anytime dining was handled poorly.  We were told, in so many words, that we had to make a reservation.  Whenever I have cruised, "Anytime Dining" meant at any time.  Sorry, guys, Princess does this so much better.  The 3rd night was better, and we ate in Chops on the 4th night.  I also think that Anytime dining should include larger tables, in addition to tables for 2.  I love my wife, bet we both like to socialize too

Service in the main dining room during dinner was usually very slow

The "No Towels to save seats" in the pool area seemed never to be enforced

On the plus side, the food was always very good, even in the Windjammer.  We liked having the Park Café in the Solarium Pool area.  The theater house band was just killer, one of the best I have seen, and the last night's show "Live Music" was very good, I enjoyed it a lot.  The room steward was very efficient and friendly

We will continue to cruise Royal Caribbean, but it is not our line of choice.  RCI could really do some things better

The cruise was very nice.  

However, getting into the cruise port and out of it with all the one way streets and road closings - makes it very difficult. 

I have cruised Royal Caribbean before; but was not as happy with this one.  The cabin was very nice and the cabin steward, Harry, was excellent!  I found the pool very small considering we had 2 full days at sea.  I was only able to be out working on my suntan for about and hour or 90 min..  It was hard to find any space to sit near the pool.  Drink specials were not offered at the bars unless I asked about them.  Some bar servers didn't seem to be very knowledgeable about this feature.  In the Minstrel dining room where we ate most of our dinners, some crew were very good and some seemed like they were new and in training.  In the Windjammer we would go for breakfast in the mornings.  Eggs were cold usually.  Tables weren't cleaned off very quickly to make room for more guests, and we often had to find someone when we wanted coffee refills, etc.  My last cruise was on the Oasis and I loved that one.

This was our first cruise and we boarded with no real expectations other than to have fun and relax. The ship was great, it was festive and clean, and the cabin (balcony) and staff were very curteous and helpful. The trip was entertaining and enjoyable.                                                                                       The cons were:                                                                                                                                              There was a tight window to get to the pools early in the morning or around dinner in the evening. At all other times there were no chairs available or movement space in the pool to enjoy. The dinning room meals were close to two hour events (made reaching the show seating difficult at times). Long periods between courses (appetizer, main course and dessert). Most of the staff struggled with english and some rude guests often made the situation worse and uncomfortable. Disembarking for excursions was tedious (felt like we were kids back in grade school). First you have to meet here and then move as a group to there (staff stood in the halls to make sure you stayed with the group). Once given the okay, then as a group you followed your leader like baby ducks until you reached the pier.                     The pros were:                                                                                                                                           When you could find space, the experience and facilities were excellent (very plush and relaxing). Plenty of activities to do and keep you busy. The food selections were wonderful. My wife is a vegetarian and we always struggle with selections for her, However, this cruise always had a variety for her to choose from, and she was in heaven throughout the trip. The type of dining and styles were a definite plus, with the formal night being a big hit all around. The nightly shows (vegas style) and the casino were fantastic, we looked forward to each evening onboard.                                                        We will definitely book another cruise as our vacation. You cannot beat the value and return for your money. Just be smart and be sure to pay attention to the timing and anticipated crowds on your selection. We are in our mid-fifties. The (<40) crowd is to loud and obnoxious most of the time. The (>60) group does nothing but complain and gripe about everything. The (<30 with kids) refuses to control or correct them and elects to get drunk so they wont have to deal with it.                                     We went right after spring break (far less kids). The majority onboard were seniors (which works out better for the evenings). The rest were around our age bracket and we met some really nice people.

We will be cruising again in the future. Especially now that we know what to do.