Western Caribbean from Tampa, 17 April 2021 (5 nights)

01 Sep 2019

While we enjoyed our recent cruise, I have to say that the price of the drinks was way too expensive - worsened by the additional 18% gratuity added. While all the staff were very friendly and helpful - and the food was very good - we would not either recommend or cruise again with Royal Caribbean, based purely on the extortionate price of the drinks. Also, we found out that the policy of the ship will wait for late excursion returns when guests use Royal Caribbean International trips, but they warn independent travellers that the ship will depart without them; rather distasteful. All in all, Royal Caribbean does not seem to be a very nice corporation and not recommended by my wife and myself.

16 May 2017

Just returned from 12 night eastern med cruise on brilliance of the seas. I love the radiance class ships, for me , they offer something for everyone without being too big, and have a great layout, and easy to get around. The staff onboard this ship have been second to none and a credit to royal carribean. The atmosphere onboard brilliance was wonderful. It has a relaxed, happy, and good feel about it. The food was excellent with a good choice to please and cater for all tastes. I ate mainly in the dining room in the evening and all the meals where excellent with attentive and professional staff. Windjammer was as always great, but as usual on sea days this could get very busy and sometimes could be a problem to find seating. The outside wicker chair areas , the flooring could do with a good steam clean, but apart from that , the ship overall was very clean. The evening shows were great, well balanced to suit all tastes and once again clean, and bar staff very attentive and good humoured. Ports of call has been one of my favourite to date, which included an overnight stay in Venice.... wow. Venice is now my new favourite destination with kotor coming in a very good second! Fantastic itinerary! I have now sailed on jewel of the seas and brilliance of the seas, and I love both ships. Thank you to all the staff onboard brilliance and to all my new found friend is for a holiday of a lifetime. Wonderful memories have been created and my love for cruising has grown ever stronger! 10 out of 10.

24 Aug 2015

This was our second Royal Caribbean cruise...we booked a 12 day Baltic cruise..we sailed on Adventure of the Seas on a 16 day Med Cruise last year...unfortunately the Brilliance did not meet up to the high standard organisation of the Adventure of the Seas...we were advised to call each morning to book at table for My time dining...but we were only shown to a table at the time we booked on 8 of the 12 evenings..the waiters in the Minstrel Dining room at My time dining seemed to be struggling to serve the guests and on at least 5 occasions we were not asked if we wanted a drink with our meal..the gentleman who greeted guests at the door of the Minstrel dining room seemed to exacerbate the problem by leaving his post on a nightly basis to check on the availability of tables...this NEVER happened on the Adventure of the Seas..the Captain when he did decide to use the Public Address system couldn't be heard...another major failing on this ship...toilets in public areas on 2 decks were unable to be used for over 24hrs due to blockages..there didnt seem to be any rush to fix this problem..certain lifts seemed to be programmed not to stop at deck 4..unfortunately this was our deck!...again this was unheard of on the Adventure of the Seas....if we do use Royal Caribbean for future cruises we will be giving the Brilliance of the Seas a wide berth!...but finally a word on our cabin attendant Fostor...he was a star! and deserves to work on a better ship

14 Aug 2015

We cruised on brilliance of the seas on 29th july 2015 to the fijords and iceland. We had a splendid coach journey with eavesway coaches to harwich from south wales and went speedily through the passport control to the ship. A verygood start to the cruise.The stateroom was to our satisfaction also the attendant was very good..1st night dinner started off unfortunately we had specifically booked a table for 4 through our travel agent we were offered a table of 10 however after some plain speaking we were given a table for 4. From there on everything was 1st class nothing was too much trouble all round, everything was fine. One other problem was not enough warm heating with the shower in the stateroom this was soon put right. This was our first cruise with royal caribbean and we would certainly use Brilliance of the seas again. The disembarkation was trouble free, and in fact the best we have every gone through as was the coach journey home. 

13 Jul 2015

Our cruise was fabulous. The ship was excellent, the staff were all very professional and the waiters at our table in the evening, Covalen and Nitin were outstanding, they could not do enough to help you. The bar staff waiters were also very pleasant. The places we visited were all very beautiful in different ways and were all pristine. I would recommend this cruise to anyone.

08 Jul 2015

23 June 2015 12 day Scandanavian and Russian Cruise. Thoroughly enjoyed the cruise and ports of call. Our stateroom and the ship in general was fantastic. However, though the food was good, it wasn't very hot which was our main complaint. The waiters couldn't do enough for you and if there wasn't anything on the starters which we liked, they would willingly arrange for you to have something of your choice - one evening we had salmon. I didn't much rate the shows in the Pacifica Theatre except for the flautist but loved the live entertainment in the Centrium!!!! We had a cabin with balcony which was lovely as a viewing point when entering/leaving port. St Petersburg was ab fab though hectic; can thorough recommend T J Travel, the independent Russian tour company we used. The only RC trip we did was Helsinki highlights and Ice Bar which for, £64, we thought was not value for money. We did our own thing at the other ports but were well armed with maps and guide books. The hop on hop off buses are a fantastic way of getting round the ports. We opted to pay our tips up front but were taken aback at getting an envelope the night before departure to enable us to give a further tip for "WOW service". We are Brits and we don't tend to tip willy-nilly!! Also all drinks at the bar (whether coffee, tea, alcoholic or soft drinks) had 18% added on as tips (which we were aware of) but there was space on the tab to give another tip which we thought was somewhat excessive!!! Neither my cousin nor I (both females) drink but for someone who likes a tipple, then I guess the drink package would be the best bet. Also, we only found out by accident when talking to someone that the tap water is actually purer than the bottled water in the fridge which wasn't cheap!!! I didn't use any more bottled water after this revelation. Overall, I enjoyed the cruise and the ship's facilities but if I cruise again (this is only my second cruise) I think I would try another cruise line. It was lovely to meet all the different nationalities (70 on the crew) and the other guests including Brazilian, American, Canadian, Israeli, Australians, New Zealanders etc ect.

21 Jun 2015

We had a wonderful holiday on the brilliance sailing from harwich to the baltics, the food and entertainment were both superb as was most of the staff although a small amount were a little rude. We were however very disappointed in the fact that we were sold this cruise as all inclusive and when we tried to get drinks we were told we had a beer and wine drinks package which to us was not all inclusive. The holiday was advertised as all inclusive by lots of websites and travel agents, so anyone booking a cruise with royal Caribbean please be wary .

15 Jun 2015

A classy ship, great food in the main resteraunt, but let down in the Windjammer buffet.

14 Jun 2015

The cruise Itinerary, customer service, food quality, stateroom and organisation were excellentl. Some of the entertainment from the onboard staff was poor. Great cruise

13 Jun 2015

Ship very good in most ways. Very expensive but glad to have had our drinks package included! The enterrainment in the theatre was a bit 2nd class (much better on Thomson ships). Also wifi very expensive. Cabins excellent as was food & ports of call. Trips in St Petersburgh organised through yourselves was excellent.

08 Aug 2014

Just finished the Norway, Faroe and Iceland cruise aboard Brilliance of the seas. Nice ship with good facilities but with 6 'at sea' days, I did become a bit bored on these days. Yes there was a range of activities but often seating, particularly around the Centrum area was sparse and limited participation. Having been on a number of RCI cruises in the past, I got the distinct feeling that the accountants have been active with the scalpel as a number of the luxuries I have experienced in the past are no longer there. Stateroom staff seem to be stretched and the evening 'towel visitor' waiting to surprise you only appeared 4 times rather than every night. Corridor passageways seemed to be constantly filled with trolleys, vacuums suggesting that there are less stewards doing longer hours. Bar staff also seem in short supply with nowhere near the number of waiters on previous cruises. As for the dining rooms, the slick and speedy transfer from reception to table has vanished with long queues building up and the receptionist frequently having to leave their post on various occasions which only exacerbated the problem. In past cruises we always had two dedicated waiting staff per table but this seems to be more like 3 between 4 tables and without doubt the quality, variety and quantity of meals are only a shadow of the past. A good cruise for newbies who may have little comparative experience but sadly for RCI, it has had the effect of encouraging me to look at the other cruise lines for future trips. Interestingly, all of these comments were voiced by other guests so I think the board level members may need to look at their Corporate Strategy.

01 Sep 2013

Just returned from Baltic cruise with wife, son, daughter in law and 2 grandchildren. I have never really fancied cruising, thought it would be boring, how wrong I was? From the start our cases were taken on board and taken to our really nice cabin there was something for all of us, the food the bars all the staff were all outstanding we all had a great time and we had great weather