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My Impressions of Brilliance And Her Staff
Having just spent 25 days on board Brilliance, I can say that she is in very good shape. (Well she was until the window episode).
We flew into Barcelona one day before our cruise and spent the night near the airport. We arrived at the port at 11am and we were on board sitting in the sun on the pool deck by 11.30am waiting for our Honey Stung Chicken. For us the embarkation process was fast, easy and efficient.
We had a cabin on deck 8 a little more forward than I normally like but since we could have it for both legs, we took it. It was very nice and very clean. Our Cabin Steward David was quietly efficient throughout the entire voyage. He catered to all our requests without fail. We have had more out going stewards but David was very quiet always polite and our cabin was always spic and span.
As this was a very port intensive 2 cruises, we decided to forego the MDR and ate our evening meals either in the Windjammer or in the specialty restaurants. We were fortunate enough to be invited to the Captain's table so we did eat dinner in the MDR once. It was a very nice experience and Captain Hakan is a gracious host. The Windjammer meals were fine and always hot where applicable. The staff were efficient and friendly. Chops and Portofino were excellent as usual. One disappointment was the Seaview Cafe. I did not care for the menu of Pasta, Paninis and Pizza. I much prefer the menu on other ships especially the Clam Chowder and the Onion Rings. On the few sea days that we had, we had very nice platters in the Solarium Cafe and we really liked the Salad Bar in the MDR.
The entertainment was pretty much the usual mixed bag so I'll list the highlights for us. There were 2 Four Seasons Tribute Groups. One was better than the other IMHO but the music was great. The Beatles Tribute band was very good. I always enjoy those shows. We don't care for magicians, jugglers etc and we have seen the Production Shows although we did go to the "Tango Buenos Aires" it's always so good. The "Rosario Strings" were exceptional on this ship. A pianist who also sang beautifully as well as violinist. We caught them every time we could. I also can't say enough about Will Bailey who is also a friend. We had many fun filled nights in the Schooner Bar with Will.
Gordon Whatman and his staff did a very good job under what would become very difficult circumstances. Gordon was always visible and approachable. He worked very hard to keep us informed when we had the incident with the storms and the damage as well as the very late arrival back into Barcelona.
Our Concierge was Katherine Valenzuela. She was wonderful in every respect. When the ship was delayed both times, she stayed at her desk for hours on end on the phone helping people to rebook flights and find hotel rooms as well as anything else they needed her to do. We had an emergency at home and she facilitated phone calls for us as often as we wanted to check things out. She absolutely went above and beyond that which was expected of her even when some were using her to vent about the situation. Her helpers Gusi on the first leg and Norman on the second, were super bar tenders.
The end of the first leg was memorable because of the storm going back into Barcelona which caused damage and made us late getting in. This caused us to stay in port an extra day and delayed embarkation for the passengers coming on. The end of the second leg unfortunately was similar and we were very late getting in to port. Even with those incidents, we found the staff to still be smiling and rolling with the punches.
Over all we had no complaints and we would not hesitate to cruise on Brilliance again.
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Brilliance of the Seas in the Med B2B Leg 1 and 2 and ship impressions.
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