Royal Caribbean, Brilliance of the Seas Review

Overall Rating

Meet & greet service at Heathrow
Well organised airport to ship transfer
Clean, attractive ship with good facilities
Fantastic waiter service in main dining room
Excellent guides on organised excursions

Expensive extras (drinks, spa treatments, phone calls)
Main entertainment too short and of variable quality
Poor flight options

We chose Royal Caribbean mainly because of the appealing itinerary and the facilities available on the ship (Brilliance of the Seas).

The cruise started from Barcelona and ideally we would have liked to have flown there from our local airport (Leeds/Bradford) but the supplement was far too high. Manchester was unavailable so we had to take the Heathrow option with BA instead, which meant an extra 4.5-5 hours driving each way, plus an overnight at the airport. Inconvenient flights seemed to be a bit of a theme with RC, as even the Manchester (KLM) flights were routed via Amsterdam (meaning that what should have been a short 2 hour hop to Spain actually took 6 hours).

We were pleasantly surprised to be greeted at Heathrow by a representative from Royal Caribbean and we made use of the advance check-in to avoid the queues. At the other end, the transfers to ship and the check-in all went very smoothly and we were eating lunch on board less than 2 hours after landing at Barcelona.

The cruise itself was very good. The ship is only a couple of years old so it's in very good condition. Our room was quite spacious and well equipped with a comfy bed, hairdryer, safe, minibar, a sofa and a TV. It was kept nice and clean throughout the trip by the Room Attendant, who was quick to report any maintenance issues (although they weren't fixed until we chased them ourselves!).

The food in the main dining room was of a high standard and we didn't feel it necessary to visit the two theme restaurants (Chops Grille and Portofinos), though this was partly due to the $20 per person cover charge. Wine was a little expensive, averaging around $25-28 for a bottle of house wine and $8 for a glass. A word for the Waiters though, who were fantastic. Our Head Waiter had a permanent (genuine) smile and very quickly memorised all of our names, portion sizes and food/drink preferences. He also treated us to his repertoire of card tricks and other tricks at the end of each meal. We were always greeted as we arrived at the table, and we were never rushed when the meal was over. Note that in an attempt to cater for its Spanish guests, Royal Caribbean has altered the dining sittings to 6.30pm & 7.30pm (main) and 9pm & 10pm (second sitting).

The entertainment after dinner was a little disappointing. In the main theatre, the 'showcase' event each night lasted only about 45 minutes (though it was shown a second time to cater for the later dining room sitting). The quality was variable, from good to poor. There were a number of other singers & musicians in the various lounges and bars around the ship, all of a pretty good quality. Other than that, the entertainment was mostly of the participation sort - quizzes and karaoke. The quizzes usually took place whilst we were dining, and the only one we managed to catch was very short (about 15 minutes).

There were plenty of sports facilities on board, all well maintained. We used the gym, the 30 foot climbing wall, miniature golf, shuttle board and the amazing self-levelling billiards tables. The sports court was rather small and we were a little disappointed that there weren't more organised games & tournaments in it (there was no football at all, perhaps because they only had one goal!). The climbing wall seemed to be the most popular facility, and was particularly well used on the days at sea.

We booked the organised excursions for most of our ports of call (just doing our own thing in Rome, Mykonos and Messina). The guides were excellent and very informative and whilst it might have been possible to go it alone a bit cheaper, I think they represented good value. I can particularly recommend 'Taste of Florence' and the trip to Herculaneum (from Naples) which is a marvellously preserved town buried in mud during the eruption of Vesuvius in 79AD.

One hint if you're thinking of taking this cruise - take a mobile phone with you. Calling home from your room will cost a massive $15.50 per minute and we heard of people who ran up bills of hundreds of dollars doing just that!

Oh, and being an American cruise line, don't forget to budget for plenty of gratuities. They automatically add 15% to every bar bill and if you wish you can prepay the gratuities for your waiter and room attendant (though this seemed to present a problem for one guest who'd prepaid before the cruise then received poor service and didn't want to hand over the voucher to his wine waiter - RC didn't appear to have a method of re-imbursing him or enabling him to give the tip to anyone else).

Overall, a very enjoyable cruise experience. The 'extras' were a bit expensive and pushed at every opportunity but the food, facilities, service and excursions were all very good and we'd definitely recommend the trip.