Ship:      RCI Brilliance of the Seas Dates:    Monday, November 4 thru Friday, November 8, 2002 Ports:     Ft. Lauderdale, Key West and Cozumel

Ahoy!  Jim and Candy here... recovering from post-cruise depression and eager to promote this beautiful ship!  The ship is truly beautiful, and we found all amenities to be generous and well laid out.  We're in our second childhoods (55 & 60) and enjoy cruising at least twice a year.  We cruise for the shipboard experience, not for the ports (been there, done that) and this particular ship does not disappoint!  We generally cruise with couples (old friends from far or near) and have never had a "bad" cruise.

Prior to embarkation: Delta Emailed us updates regarding our flight from Savannah, so we knew the flight was on time.  Jim checked our luggage at the curb and got boarding passes at the curb while I parked the car. We were able to board right away after only 2 minutes in security.  After the pushaway, we were told we had to delay departure due to bad weather in Atlanta.  Fortunately this was only 22 minutes, so we were fairly certain we'd make the connection.  In Atlanta (since Jim couldn't walk very well) we hopped a tram to the train, and in the last concourse we flagged down a wheelchair lady and she took us to our plane, which was being held for us.  Our cruising friends were already seated and started a Wave on our behalf.  We arrived in Miami at noon, got a porter to get us a van, and arrived at the pier at 1:00.

Embarkation: The van let us out at the pier just as a bus unloaded, so it took a few minutes to find a dock porter to take our bags (he was quite specific about his need for a gratuity).  We were standing (there were benches for some people to sit outside the line) in the check-in line about 45 minutes during which we noticed a small buffet table which was not refreshed at all.  Five minutes later we were heading up the gangway and easily found our cabin.  Since our bags had not yet been delivered, we headed up to the Islands Café for the Welcome Aboard Buffet.  After the Lifeboat Drill, Jim took a nap while I toured the upper decks.  The last of our luggage arrived at about 6:00.

Cabin: Our ocean view verandah stateroom, category D, #9590, on the 9th deck, amidships (on the bump) was made up as a queen when we arrived.  The bed (rounded off at the corners, with night stands on either side) is by the sliding glass door to the verandah, and the sofa bed was next to the bed, across from the entertainment/desk console.  Two mirrors set on angles to the wall mirror hid additional storage shelving.  The cabinet over the TV (19" Philips, no A/V jacks) held the safe, which operates with pass code.  Under the TV is the refrigerator containing assorted sodas, snacks and water.  The small coffee table was convenient for room service or as a footrest.  Occasional decorative pillows in tones of navy, coral, rust and beige matched the privacy curtains (which closed all the way across the cabin) and the window draperies and carpeting.

The bathroom was adequate, with one flat and two angled mirrors, only one of which hid a medicine cabinet.  The shelf below the sink was deep enough for large bottles and appliances.  The shower has adjustable hand-held shower wand (which is convenient for the little guys) and a shampoo/conditioner dispenser.  Soap is replaced each day, but there are no other toiletries provided.  There is one low voltage outlet for shavers only, and the hair dryer that is provided was found in the safe cabinet, and was designed to be used at the desk mirror.

The closets are very generous but there are only six drawers (plus the two in the night stands) and one desk drawer.  The air conditioning worked well, but is designed to shut off when the verandah door is open.  This means you can't sleep with the air on and still hear the ocean noises.  Even though we were very close to the elevators, we were not bothered by sounds from the passageway, nor did we hear anything from adjoining cabins unless the verandah door was open.  I must say the decor was very pleasant and the lighting greatly improved with many overhead and high intensity reading lamps.

Ship facilities: The one outstanding feature I love about this ship is that it is so easy to get around.  At each Centrum elevator bank there is a ship diagram that not only shows where you are, but all the other features of the ship.  There is an easy flow of one area to the next that is so inviting!  The decor is of light and dark woods, gorgeous inlaid carpeting and flooring and glass everywhere.  I found myself stopping on the stair landings to admire the beautiful sculptures and other artwork.

Atrium area:

Pools: The main pool was in the center of deck 11, along with 2 jacuzzis, the bar, a stage for the band and teak dance floor.  Just about any time I saw a number of available deck chairs.
 
 

The Solarium:  This beautiful, air conditioned, enclosed lush garden has an East Indian theme and features a waterfall and elephant statuary, Jacuzzi, pool, thickly padded teak lounge chairs, bar and pizza stand.  This is the best pizza I have ever had on a ship -- even the lox and cheese pizza!

Movies:  The Cinema offered such movies as "The Majestic", "A Beautiful Mind", and "The Last Castle".

TV:  TV Movies offered (in English) 8 times daily in-cabin were: "Snow Dogs", "A Rumor of Angels", "Gosford Park", "A Walk to Remember", "America's Sweetheart", and "Tortilla Soup".
Movies offered in Spanish, German, French, Italian and Portuguese were, "Ocean's 11", "Gosford Park", and "The Count of Monte Cristo".

The Colony Club: (More later... I'm still thinking)

    Jakarta Lounge
    Singapore Sling's
    Calcutta Card Club
Bombay Billiard Club - Self leveling pocket billiard tables

Dining:  Overall, the Main Dining Room experience left a lot to be desired...

Dining Room: The Minstrel Dining Room is an understated beauty with two levels, a sweeping staircase and a quiet decor.  We were unimpressed by the food and even less so by the service.  Our waiter took our orders and disappeared, and the assistant couldn't remember our beverage preferences.  The four of us were seated at a table for 10, sharing with half of a group that should have been seated together.  The next night we were switched to another table of 10 and only 8 diners.  The third night two more skipped and one was added (actually, Cookie was the life of the party, so we aren't complaining).   If they're going to do this, they may as well have open seating.  It's awkward for those sitting on the end when people don't show.  There was no consistency of staff, except for the Dining Room Supervisor, who did his best to ensure we were all served properly.

Buffet: The Windjammer Café was cleverly arranged in two sets of islands rather than one long cafeteria line.  Each course was displayed on both sides of an island, making it easy to look around before you commit to a selection.  Entrees changed daily, but hot dogs, salads, lox and cream cheese and omelets were fairly consistent all week.  Meals are self-served on platters provided at each island, and you must carry this platter, salad plate, drink and silverware without the aid of a tray.  I found that it's easier to get your salad first and take a table, then get a drink, then entree and dessert.  Hopefully your table will not be taken while you're gone.  I never saw a line.  There was plenty of seating inside (air conditioned), outside (sheltered) or outside in the open, but you won't find a steward to carry your food for you or help you find a table.

Alternative Dining (reservations only)

Chops Grille offers elegant upscale dining for the "perfect steak".  Only USDA prime, midwestern grain-fed beef aged 2-3 weeks are served.

Portofino:  This gourmet italian restaurant features intimate Italian dining and offers  Lobster, Risotto with Prawns and Saffron, Fettuccine Al Funghi and Tiramisu!  A dining fee is applied.

Seaview Cafe:  This little snack shop is tucked away on deck 12 for those who like burgers and shakes, Nathan's hot dogs, beer, wine, coffee or limited desserts.

Latté-Tudes:  This coffee bar sells a limited variety of espressos and other flavored coffees, and is conveniently located at the Centrum, deck 5.

Room Service:  We only used room service for early breakfast, and it's wonderful to enjoy your morning coffee out on the veranda.  On one occasion, though, the steward had to make three trips to get it all.  One for most of the food, one for the fruit plates and one for the silverware.

Library:  This is the tiniest library I've ever seen on a ship.  Located on deck 9 off the Centrum, there is one small couch and two chairs, and is totally open to Centrum traffic.  I never saw it empty, but it must be just the right size!

Soda Package:  Unlimited fountain sodas are available for pax 18 years of age and under for $11, and over 18 years for $19.  Purchase this sticker when you board (15% gratuity is added).  As this was a 4-night cruise, this charge may be higher on a longer cruise.

Cocktail Package:  You can buy 12 drinks of choice (call brands, house wines by the glass or domestic beer) from any bar for $39 + 15% gratuity.

Showroom: The Pacifica Theater located on two levels, offers comfortable seating movie-theater style, with drink holders in the arm rests, rather than coffee tables.  There were a few obstructed views, but generally great sight lines.  It was really cold in there, so I would recommend you bring a wrap of some kind.  The Royal Caribbean Dancers put on a great show, "Turn the Beat Around" and the comedian, Jay Johnson, was very funny (He's the ventriloquist from "Soap"). Rodney Johnson, the comedian, and Jody Reynolds, the magician were also good, although it's hard to be impressed by magic when you're sitting in the next county.

Shops:  The Centrum Shops are located in an area off the Centrum on Deck 5.  The selection of perfumes was limited and almost no cosmetics are available.  The liquor (never undersold, always guaranteed) and sundries shop is small, but offers tastings occasionally.  The daily specials offered include rings, watches, gold and silver by the inch, leather goods and RCI logo items.  The photo shop has a nice variety of film, batteries and cameras.

Casino:  Casino Royale is a beautiful room, spanning the breadth of deck 6, and arranged around the bar in two levels.  Here you'll find the usual gaming tables and slot machines and will be able to enter a progressive Caribbean Stud Poker challenge.  The Casino is open to guests 18 years and older (ID is checked).

Mini Golf Course:  We enjoyed this beautiful 9-hole course several times, though in high winds it can really be a challenge.  Clubs and balls are available all day, and some of the holes are wheelchair accessible, too.

Rock Climbing Wall:  This 33-foot climb is quite a challenge, but is only open for limited hours and only in good weather conditions.

Country Club:  Equipment for the Golf Simulator, Putting Green, Shuffleboard Court, Basketball, Soccer, PingPong Tables are available at no charge.

Internet Café:  RoyalCaribbean Online is offered in 3 locations on Decks 4, 5 and 7.  Surfing is 50¢ a minute, but e-mail is more.  I tried to get election returns from my local newspaper, but it took 10 minutes due to very slow downloads.  Cybercabin (in-stateroom internet) can be arranged at Guest Relations.

Excursions: RCI offers online excursion booking, which is recommended for those trips that sell out early.  When you arrive at your cabin you will find Explorations!, which is a shore excursion order form listing each excursion and indicating the activity level (mild , moderate or strenuous), choice of departure times and prices for adults and children.  You may fill out this form, indicating your first, second and third choices of tours and/or times, or you may use RCTV (using your cabin's TV and remote control to order and receive instant confirmations).  Your tickets are delivered to your cabin within 24 hours of booking. It is your responsibility to review your tickets and bring any mistakes to the attention of the Excursion Staff.  You may also take the order form to the Explorations! Desk (deck 4) in person.  This cruise offered:
        19 trips for Key West ranging from $6-150 per person
        23 trips for Cozumel ranging from $28-110 per person
        4 trips for Miami ranging from $24-65 per person
These two items are so important they will appear in all my reviews:
Warning 1: Some of these have very limited space and sell out very fast, and are assigned on a first-come, first-served basis.  If there is a trip you absolutely must take, sign up now!
Warning 2: If you want to go with someone in another cabin, put the request for all tickets on one cabin's order.
American currency is welcome everywhere. Take small bills and change.

Ship Activities:  The first day we were offered the usual lectures and ship tours to acquaint us with the facilities, and offered opportunities to make appointments and reservations.  Each day we received a Compass (daily program) listing all planned activities, meals, movies, etc.  If you care to, you can enjoy Bingo, Line Dancing, Fun Trivia, Love and Marriage Game Show, Knockout Sports Trivia, Art Auctions, Karaoke, Cooking Demonstration, Liquor Tasting, Sock Hop, Shippendales (!) and various other things.  There may be many more offered on longer cruises.

Staff: We ran into our Cruise Director, Clodagh O'Connor many times during the cruise.  She is very energetic and has a nice rapport with the passengers.

Adra, our cabin stewardess, left us a note saying she was on duty from 8:00 am - 1:00 pm, and from 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm, and gave us a number to call should we need any further cabin services.  I called her once during off-times and she meet our request immediately. Even though we had the Do Not Disturb card out a lot, she always found out when we were gone and cleaned up in record time!  She is also the only steward/ess who ever left us towel animals.

Our waiter and her assistant, were a bit distracted, and sometimes were not to be found.  She was very personable when it came to conversation, but absent when it came to service.  We are accustomed to excellent service, and I can't say we were pleased on this trip.

Children's Program:  Activities for youngsters seemed really well organized.  Typical activities were:

Aquanauts (ages 3-5):  Lucky Leprechaun Bingo, Games of Chance, Sail into Storytime, Find the Four Leaf Clover, Chill Time, Rattlesnake, Stepping Stones, Pluck the Chicken, Canoe Races, Adventure Art, Boot Scramble, Fort Building, Chuck Wagon Races, Pirates Night, Pirate Parade, Steal the Coconuts, Feltboard Storytime and Pirate Island.

Explorers (ages 6-8):  Norwegian Baseball, Chinese Fortunes, Mexican Pottery, Wacky Water, Look up, Look Down, People to People, Aztec Football, Crocodile Hunter, Mask Making, Hunter Games, Adventure Science, Games, Face Painting, Steal the Treasure, Bandana Making, Pirate Cheers and  Chants, Pirate Parade and Pirate Bingo.

Voyagers (ages 9-11):  Board Games Challenge, Adventure Science, Adventure Art, Wet 'n Wild Afternoon on the Sport Court, Viking Water Games, Water Cup Relay, Water Balloons Toss, Water Cup Pass, Water Balloon Volleyball, and Mystery of the Motion of the Ocean.

Navigators (ages 12-14):  Across the Seas Basketball, Name That Tune, Music and Board Games, and Adventure Science (Volcanos).

Teens 15-17:  Hot Shots (sports court), Living Room, Psych 101/201, Dinner with Friends, Showtime, Dancing Under the Stars.

Smoking:  Smoking is prohibited in The Minstrel Dining Room, Windjammer Cafe, Pacifica Theater and the Library.  Throughout the rest of the ship, ashtrays are provided in certain designated areas of the port side.  You are encouraged to do your smoking in the Crown and Anchor Room where you can also enjoy an assortment of fine liqueurs.

Motion:  I personally like to feel the ship move a little.  The seas were calm except for one night/morning when we had 10-12 foot swells and the ship rocked enough that we had to hold on a bit.  Nothing serious, as the stabilizers worked their magic to keep us as steady as possible.

Rules and Regs:

Monday, Miami, Embarkation Day:

Boarding had already started when we arrived at the pier, and the line was about 45 minutes long.  Fortunately for Jim there were places for some people could sit and wait while others stood in line.  The actual checkin was only a few minutes, so I don't know what the holdup was.  After checking out our cabin we headed up to the Windjammer Café for our Welcome Luncheon.  What a beautiful Café!  We took a seat in the main air-conditioned room, only slightly disappointed that we had to find our own table and carry our own plates/glasses.  Our lifeboat station was in one of the lounges (apparently we were charged with the responsibility of saving the liquor), and we never did go out to the boats.  We had our first dinner in the main dining room and went to the Welcome Aboard  Show with a little taste of all the entertainment to come.

Tuesday, Key West:

Jim was still ill, so we spent the day on the ship napping, eating, napping... it's a shame we missed this beautiful port again, but it was a short stop, anyway.  We skipped the Captain's Welcome Aboard Reception, but did attend Formal Dinner and a great show by the Royal Caribbean Singers and Dancers called "Turn the Beat Around".  We have seen lots of similar productions, but this one was particularly well done.

Wednesday, Cozumel:

Jim was feeling better, but not enough to venture into town.  We docked at the International Pier which was farther than walking distance from our usual stop at Cinco  Soles.  I did go out to the shops at the pier, but the vendors have become more aggressive than before, and shopping was not as enjoyable as before.  The silver prices were not so good (one necklace started out at only $750 and came down to $300 and I still didn't think it was worth it).  Our friends took some kind of Tulum/shopping excursion and they were gone all day, so we took advantage of the readily available chairs by the pool and baked for awhile.  By the way, the sun is HOT in Cozumel, any time of the year.

At dinner we were shifted to another table for 10 and the service went down from there.  I described it earlier, so I won't go into it again.  We finally got it down to four other couples (and Cookie, but I don't have her photo) which made up a great table!

Celebrity Showtime starred Jay Johnson (we've seen him before on the Enchantment, I think) and he was hilarious!  Monkey Joke -- Bwa-ha-ha!  We also got to enjoy the Casino a bit.  I love playing Craps and only lost $25.  Actually, while a tablemate of ours was rolling the dice, I had about doubled my money, then he left and I didn't have the good sense to cash in.  Oh well, I got my money's worth of entertainment.
 

Thursday, At Sea:

Well, Jim was finally back to normal on this last day.  He got in two rounds of minigolf, a couple of extra snacks and a little sunshine.  We wandered the ship, discovering new places we wished we had seen earlier.  We stopped in at the Colony Club for the Trivia Challenge (won an RCI label nylon rollaround suitcase) and stayed around for Jackpot Bingo.

Dinner was great... almost everyone showed up (!) and we had a great time despite the disappearing waitstaff.

"The Gravity-Defying Comedy of Jody Reynolds" was this evening's show, and we found it mildly entertaining.  We were seated at the rear of the Theater, so we couldn't appreciate all his magic tricks.

When we retired to pack (it's easy in a really big cabin, especially when you don't shop much) we found another towel creature (great steward).  We stopped at the Casino to cash in some leftover chips and headed out to find some dessert.  We missed the Windjammer Delights in the Casino and nothing was open except the SeaView Café, so we headed there for brownies, pie and coffee.

Friday, Debarkation Day:

After our usual coffee, croissants and fruit, we went up to the Islands Café and had a full buffet breakfast (Open Seating Breakfast  was also available in the Minstrel Restaurant from 6:00 - 8:00).  After collecting our carry-ons we returned to the Islands Café and waited about 30 minutes for our color to be called at 9:00.  Debarkation began at 7:30.  The luggage was easy to find, the porter put us in a cab, and we were in the airport at 9:30 (in plenty of time to check in for our flight).  Check-in and boarding passes were available curbside and Security took about 15 minutes.  We went through quite an ordeal at the Miami airport, none of which was the fault of the cruise line, so I won't go into details.

Overall, this ship is by far the most beautiful, well-laid-out ship I have ever sailed.   While the amenities were fabulous, I have to rate them poorly on service, mostly because of the Minstrel Dining Room experience.  Part of it may have been due to a new crew making adjustments and finding their rhythm.  Another downside was the lack of a Thalassotherapy Pool, which I definitely would have used.  Now that the post-cruise depression is beginning to ease, I'll have to gear up for the next cruise.  I hope this review has shed some light on your personal cruise decisions.  I would strongly recommend the Brilliance of the Seas.  We will not let another year go by without sailing this ship again.  I cannot wait!