Brilliantly cheap travel to Europe

At first I was nervous to disembark on my first transatlantic cruise for fear of rough seas but we had nothing but smooth sailing from Florida to Spain.

We chose to travel from Tampa to Barcelona on the Royal Caribbean's Brilliance of the Seas because it was only a little more expensive than to fly from Canada. It cost us about $850CAD each for a 14-night voyage including food, accommodation and entertainment. (it later came on sale for $650CAD).

Specifically 're-positioning' cruises usually happen twice a year, in spring and fall, as a means of getting a ship from the Mediterranean to Europe. Because they have long stretches at sea (Without stopping at ports - 7 days straight for us) they tend to be a bit more 'bland' than destination cruises.

There was quite a bit to do on board but we only did each activity once and generally each day was very repetitive. I read two whole books while on board, played board games, had a few drinks, slept, gymed, ate and repeated the process daily.

Of the four other cruises I have been on, across Carnival, P&O, Princess and Star cruises, none have had more than two paid restaurants. Most disappointing about Brilliance is that it has five.

As a young couple, who chose a cruise as a cheaper option for travel we weren’t using any of these eating places. Which meant our only option the entire 14 nights was either at the formal dining room or buffet. (We used Rita's Cantina on the one day it was half price lunch).

There is a snack bar but the sandwiches were little more than bread with a thin slice of meat and a lettuce leaf. We were spoilt on Carnival Spirit which had a full serve lunch buffet on deck everyday as well as the regular buffet.

It also meant that although this was the biggest ship I have been on, I was able to use less of the actual space on board. To compensate for the space taken up by restaurants many other facilities were smaller or not on board at all. For example is no library on board, just a ‘book nook’ with some chairs around.

There is a cinema however they played documentaries all day every day (five showings a day) but at 4pm when there would be a movie (Star Wars, Spectre and Daddy’s Home) in German. After asking for the movies to play in English twice (along with other passengers) they did put on In the Heart of the Sea in English (cinema packed every viewing). They continued English movies but by then it was the end of the cruise and we were at port (we fell asleep during Spectre after the day in Gibraltar).

The ship does have an impressed outdoor theatre but the noise from passers-by deterred us from sitting outdoors.

The same activities repeated each day but we did enjoy attending (once each) the giant Jenga, table tennis and Baggo (bean bag throwing) competitions. Best event was definitely the free Scotch tasting, who wouldn’t agree after 12 good size tastings of Scotch. We also had a hypnotist (always entertaining) and a ventriloquist and comedian, which were only okay.

Happy with the gym located at the front of ship with lots of free weights, cardio machines and weighted machines. Bit disappointing that you had to pay to use the spa and sauna in the spa area, never had that before. The buffet area was also modern and always clean. I enjoyed the food although breakfast and lunch never changed. We ate there twice for dinner and I wouldn’t say I particularly enjoyed it either time.

The main dining room food was what we expected, we’re the type of people who just appreciate having food cooked and prepared for us so we thought it was luxury but I constantly heard from other guests that they didn’t think the food up to scratch compared to other Royal Caribbean ships or that because it was a transatlantic they 'cut corners' to save money.

I cannot fault check in or embarkation, it was flawless, nor would I fault the service and friendliness of staff, although as on most cruise ships many staff were overworked and looking exhausted. Our table server was fantastic and met all our needs and served us promptly, but I felt for the poor guy, the passion had gone out of him. When we asked our assistant waiter what he would do with his few hours break between breakfast and dinner he was so excited just to go and sleep.

We entertained ourselves with shuffleboard, air hockey, had a go at the rock climbing wall and hit the casino (90% slot machines) a few times.

Overall we gave the Brilliance an average mark of 7.5/10 for satisfaction because the cruise was so darn cheap for what we got even if we didn't experience a particular wow factor that I have come to expect from bigger cruise lines.

RANT ABOUT OTHER PASSENGERS

We met a lot of great people on board, we played board games with a couple with children our age and we enjoyed the company of the people on our table. But we also saw so many occasions of people being rude to staff and having no patience at all.

Day one sailing we went to an information session on our upcoming destination ports. Guests were given raffle tickets for attending. One lady had not got hers as she walked in the door so as the raffle began she demanded to get a ticket. As the attended came back down the corridor with more tickets the lady held her arm out at full length, palm upward. We saw that a lot, people with their hands out, take, take, take, grab, grab, grab.

Another night we were watching a cocktail demonstration. After the first cocktail was made a server put the drink on a tray and approached me, offering me the drink. Behind me a women stuck her hand out past me and snatched the drink off the tray. Then proceeding to give it to her already drunk daughter, most likely under age. We saw the same woman yelling at a chef in the buffet because she had to wait five minutes for more sauce to put on her pudding. She said “not good enough” and lectured him on procedure to refill the buffet.

Early one port day we were up at 7am for the buffet, when it opened I went for toast which the attendant was in the process of toasting. I stood patiently for a minute or two while guests around me got agitated, one man exclaimed, “come on!”, he left and the toast came up another minute later. Not hard to be patient.

The only place for late night food was at Park Café which got slammed every night. The same poor girl took harassment from people every night. I watched on one occasion as three people all demanded her attention at once, when she turned to get something for the first guest another turned to me and said “now where is she going!”. I said, “as you can see she’s trying to serve three people at once so maybe we could step back and give her a chance”.

Rant over. But please if you’re going on a cruise ship don’t be one of these people! Patience goes a long way.

#blog #travel #Cruise