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So I asked my fellow suite snob mother why she does the suite over the standard rooms. She told me she didnt always do suites. She and my father both have done everything from inside cabins all the way to suites. When they were younger they did a lot of the onboard activities like trivia, the shows, the lectures, the demonstrations, they were super active. But as they aged, they dont do so many activities. And they're not big sun worshipers either, not into the floriders or the rock walls or big into pools. They'll do the pool maybe once but their trip is all about the relaxation and the views of interesting destinations. So as they got older, the room became the focus rather than all of the activities.

Did run up for a few shots between servings at dinner.

Pub drink menu

This just in: cruising is awesome. Love sea days like this

However when you book an excursion through Royal, it will return prior to departure. There are plenty of signs and announcements when the ship leaves and when guests need to be back on board. Trying to say they looked at the app a couple months before sailing and one or two excursion came back at 5pm is a weak excuse for missing the ship.

Dinner tonight is at Giovanni’s Table. Great choices all around. While I think I prefer Jamie’s Italian, this is a solid menu. Garlic and olive starter Antipasta starter Buffalo Mozzarella Eggplant parm Beef ragu Tuna crudo appetizer Pasta of the day in an aioli

More photos from around Brilliance! First up is the movie theater on deck 6 near the pub Speaking of the pub, here it is.

As requested, a few photos from the mini golf course

Good morning from day 4 on Brilliance of the Seas! Above all other days, I hate to lose out on time onboard when it’s your last day so I forced myself to get up and going. The good news is it was all worth getting up for the amazing start to our day. I ventured to the Windjammer for breakfast this morning, for one reason and one reason only: the outdoor seating! The radiance class ships offer outdoor Windjammer seating and it is a must do! I also noticed sign for alternative milk options, which pops up here as a question occasionally. I also noticed this dress code sign at entrance to Windjammer. Intriguing, but highly doubtful it’s renotely enforced.

Then it was time to get ready for dinner. We met down on the royal promade as I wanted to buy a wow band. Then off for pre dinner drinks in The Shooner Bar (so far this is my favourite bar). Dinner was great we have a corner window table that is only the 5 of us. I had the antipasti, NY strip and creme brule. Everything was really good i do wish there was more crunch on the creme brule. After dinner we went to the casino we normally spend about an hour there in the evening everyday. My mother won so yay her!! Then time for karaoke. We love going even if we never sing! Then it was time for the ballon drop! This was awesome lots of fun dancing and the balloon drop. I’m glad it was less busy than New Years on liberty as that was crazy! Then grabbed a bottle of water and off to bed.

Spoiler alert: cruising is awesome

Welcome to the message boards! First of all, a great place to start is a tab at the top of this page "Getting Started": https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/getting-started Adventure is part of the Voyager class series of ship and Independence is part of the Freedom class series of ships. Freedom class is a stretched version of Voyager class. Same basic ship, just a little longer. When first introduced, each was the largest class of cruise ship in it's day. Both are excellent ships and both have been updated recently. I've sailed both over the past six months. Itineraries are two ports (Indy) versus three ports (Adventure). In my opinion Adventure's itinerary does look more appealing, especially for a first time cruiser while Indy's extra length does allow it to have a few more features. So it comes down to choosing the cruise leaning towards either itinerary or the ship. That is the real choice. Both are family friendly ships. Both have ice skating shows, water slides and plenty of things to do. For seasoned cruisers that know exactly what they want or seek, it would be easier for them to decide. In the case of a first time cruiser, both ships are going to seem incredible upon first sight, as they should because both are incredible in their own way. George Town is a tender port meaning the ship anchors offshore and tender boats are used to ferry passengers to and from shore. Once ashore the Cayman Islands are beautiful with many excursions and activities to choose from. Labadee is Royal's private destination. Beautiful and a favorite of mine but it's a beach day at a private area versus visiting a port where you can explore another country beyond the port area. As far as excursions, being a new cruiser the easiest thing to do is book your excursions through Royal Caribbean. There is some safety in this approach too since its your first cruise and you can get the swing of things on this cruise. If you enjoy cruising as mush as most of us do, on future cruises you can venture further out on your own. As more people respond you may see answers where the itinerary is more important to that user and answers where the ship is more important to that user. We all cruise differently and what each of us prefers is different but that's okay, and that is the nice thing about having so many choices. Indy does have a few more features as you have noted. However as a first time cruiser are you likely to notice or use them all? My first cruise was on a ship much smaller than either and with none of the features they have. I was still blown away by the overall experience. I'm not going to tell you what I'd do because you are not me. What is important to you may not be what is important to me and that is perfectly okay. I will say you will have an awesome experience on either cruise.

Another beautiful sunset this evening.

It’s time for Who wants to feel like a millionaire!

What a crappy port to be left behind in...

I think im going to change my mind on this.. I found a suite on Freedom for what it would cost us for a balcony on Symphony or Harmony lol

Hello from Symphony! Wow!!! She’s a beauty! She sure put the other ships in port to shame, here in port of Miami was 2 carnival ships (did not see names), NCL Bliss, MSC Seaside, a celebrity ship, and symphony of the seas! I am sitting on my balcony and the view is amazing!! I am in 10329 a boardwalk view balcony with royal up. It is considered an obstructed view cabin but I think the view is perfect! Sitting in the chair I can see the people and the board walk, the aqua theatre as well as the beautiful ocean! It’s fantastic and not crazy noisy like some reviews said it would be. I really like the colour scheme on the this ship the blue is way nicer than the teal. Embarkation: wow was that easy! Easiest I’ve had over 6 RCL Crusies. To be fair the last one was awful, fog, delays, computer outages and people passing out in Gavelston. Total curb to ship including getting luggage tags from porters as Royal IT strikes again and our set sail pass had the new cabin number but the luggage tags were not updated took 15 minutes max. We boarded later than we normally do at 12 ish as getting 5 adults coordinated takes a lot of effort. We wandered until 1 then went to the rooms then off to explore and get the first drink. Next was muster drill in the aqua theatre boy was it hot! I liked the safety video though! It was cute James Bond style thing. Next was was sail away! 2 ships left before us a carnival ship and NCL Bliss. It was really cool watching them go past from deck 16. Next up was unpacking as our suitcases arrived and getting ready for dinner. We asked the stateroom attendant to separate the beds and give me ice and 2 wine glasses a day! So far he is amazing!!

Drink card is alive and well!

Day 5 (Night) After a long day of walking around and exploring San Juan we were really tired so we took a good nap. Cruise naps are the best naps. When we woke up we decided to go to the ice show that we had booked for later on in the cruise. We were able to get great seats basically in the front row so we cancelled our later reservation. Ice skating shows aren't something we would do on land but we are always so impressed with them on Royal Caribbean ships. The added effects on the ice on Harmony was a great added touch. After the show it was time for dinner and we were saving our final specialty dinner for day 7 so we decided to try out the Solarium Bistro. I thought this was a really great option and I really like the format of it. It makes it so quick and easy and you can start eating appetizers as soon as you sit down. I had a massive filet of salmon for dinner and my wife wasn't all that hungry so she just had appetizers for her meal. There are no vegetarian options the menu but the waiter did offer for the chef to prepare something for her. The service was great and right on par with what you would expect at the other sit down venues on the ship. For dessert I had the creme brûlée that they prepare in the kitchen. Tonight we had reservations for Columbus. We were excited to see this show and weren't disappointed. I was starting to question it when the singing and dancing cheeseburgers came out but I thought it recovered well with a creative ending. I liked how they used popular music to work into their storyline. I won't ruin the ending but I thought it was a really fun and unexpected way to wrap up the story. The ship on the stage was very impressive and the cast was great as usual. After the show we grabbed a drink at the Bionic Bar. I really liked how you could customize your drinks there and give them a creative name. We had a lot of fun with the names. It was cool to be able to see what everyone else came up with since it shows you the recipes people concocted. The bartenders there were very quiet, but they made some great drinks. Here is a video of them doing their thing. ?-Bionic Bar Video.m4v We closed out the night at Red which is the nightclub experience in Studio B. Afterwards we grabbed some pizza at Sorrento's before heading to bed. Tomorrow we will be in Labadee which will be our first visit there.

Day 5 (Old San Juan) Today we arrived in San Juan bright and early at 7AM. We are not morning people, but really wanted to make sure that we were up to see us sail in to San Juan at sunrise. We were able to get up just in time and afterwards had a quick breakfast in the Windjammer before heading out. We didn't have any plans for the day other than that we wanted to explore the city on foot. When we first got off the ship we just walked around the streets of Old San Juan and were just blown away by the beauty of all the buildings. It had so much charm and it quickly became our favorite cruise port we had ever been to. We do like beach days, but our favorite thing to do in port is to explore on our own and San Juan is perfect for that. It's even better that you can do it all on foot or just hop in an Uber if you don't feel like walking. After walking around for a while we had worked up a little bit of an appetite. It was still really early so lunch didn't feel quite right and we happened to stumble upon a restaurant that one of our favorite YouTubers (The Endless Adventure) had been to on their trip to San Juan. It was called Waffle-Era and they are known for their coffee and tea as well as their waffles. It was incredibly good and I definitely recommend it as a place to stop in and grab some coffee and a waffle. We just shared a half waffle to hold us over, but we saw a ton of really unique waffles that looked incredible and they have breakfast and lunch options that incorporate waffles into the dish. They make their coffee in a very unique way that I wouldn't be able to explain but the menu pictured below does. When we finished breakfast we really wanted to go see the famous Restaurant Barrachina where the original Pina Colada was invented and try one for ourselves. We sat at the bar and had a really good chat with the bartender who taught us a lot about Puerto Rican rum. It was really great talking to him and I wish we had gotten his name. The Pina Colada was delicious and you could get them to-go as well if you wanted to take it with you on the street. When we left there we came upon the pigeon park that we have seen in a lot of pictures. My wife is not of fan of birds so she was squirming at the park. If you visit there you will probably find a local holding a bad of bird seed offering to let you feed the birds. I declined, but he threw a bit around my feet while I walked by and the pigeons swarmed me. It didn't bother me and I thought it was funny because I am not afraid of birds, but if you are not comfortable with them maybe avoid this area. It was pretty cool though! Here is a video of all of the pigeons. Pigeons Video.mp4 My wife was drawn to a sign featuring affogatos at a gelato place called Chocolato so we stopped in to get one. For those who don't know an affogato is a shot of espresso served with a scoop of ice cream. She really liked it and you get to pick from lots of flavors of gelato. They also had a great courtyard patio in the back where you could enjoy it. We decided to head up the hill and check out the fort. We didn't pay to go inside but just walked around on all of the grass and enjoyed all of the kites flying. It was a really cool place and felt like a massive park. We also got a great look at a several iguanas. I would really like to do a tour inside at some point and learn more about the history of the fort. It was getting pretty close to time to get back to the port so we started making our way over there. On the way back I was having some regrets about not trying some local food, particularly mofongo, so we stopped in to a place called Triana Tapas Flamenco near the cruise port. We only had about an hour until all aboard and we were pretty uneasy about it, but the bartender assured me that he could get me some mofongo and fried grouper with plenty of time to enjoy it and make it back. Sure enough he came through and it was really good. The mofongo was good, but the grouper was incredible. We made it back to the ship with plenty of time and got onboard to enjoy an incredible sail away. There are no words to describe the beauty of seeing the fort from the ship as you leave Old San Juan. This was by far our favorite cruise port we have ever visited and I could easily see myself spending more time there. The ABC island itinerary is on our bucket list and when we do it we decided we would sail out of San Juan and stay a few days before or after. I got a video of the fort as we sailed away. Day 5-San Juan Sailway Video.m4v

Speaking of @twangster I learned one important photography lesson, which is the best time for photos is the hour or so around dusk. Great contrast in the sky and the ship.

Everyone knows @twangster photoshops all his photos

I'm calling fake news! Last week he declared Vision never opens it's roof yet it was open in January. This is Serenade's solarium roof open in St. Maarten next to Adventure (in 2018). #SolariumRoofOpenDenier

That happens a lot here at Cruiseaholics Anonymous. ?

Quick! Take a last minute 3-night cruise on Mariner in a JS! ?

That's my biggest fear.. especially with time changes and such.. I think that's the only reason I wear a watch on a cruise and set it to ship time..

I didn't get the invite! ?

One more very good reason why I want to move to Florida!

I can’t say enough good things about being able to enjoy a weekend getaway cruise just to mix things up and be a good buffer between true vacations. Really helps in the notion of “getting away from it all” for a bit.

Yes, you will enjoy Elite level benefits for life unless RCCL changes the program which is rumored to be in the works towards a more unified program but who knows when that might occur or what that means. Until then, welcome to Captain's Club Elite benefits. PS - D+/P don't do any better. It's capped at Elite recognition, for now. https://www.celebritycruises.com/captains-club/exclusive-offers/loyalty-reciprocity-program

First cruise for both my husband and I! March 23 2019 Brilliance of the Seas.

I guess currently it mainly related to the Spectrum Of the seas . In Spectrum they published the golden and Silver cabin types , the interesting thing (and that is why I used cabin and suites type) in the golden you can see even rooms that are only balcony (golden balcony) or golden suites. Which mean you can choose to have the perks of suites while not require to be in a suites , (or maybe just be in JS) ( F.Y.I @Lovetocruise2002 ? ) Its seems that beside the Golden dining room for the golden cabins they are also adding Silver dining room (and lounge) for the Silver cabin type (JS mainly), this one is still speculation as RC did not discussed it yet (And I can not see it in my cruise planner). As I committed to check such things, I booked an October cruise on Spectrum OTS so I can report back ?). Here you can see deck 16 that contains the golden cabins/ dining room and deck 14 which show the silver dining room and lounge

Loving this all! we have 27 days till our first ever cruise on Navigator and your posts are just getting me more and more excited! all the food, the shows, the sunsets.. amazing!

Evening entertainment tonight is The Las Vegas Tenors

The peace of mind of having the passport is worth far more than the effort to getting it.

I haven't eaten dinner yet and I feel full just looking at your pictures...so.much.food... yum.

Have to agree with @twangster on this one, if you search the boards you will find that this very subject has been debated to death. It is our preference to carry them anytime we are outside of USA, just in case. It almost comes to a "what if" scenario at times but lets just say that "what if" is what the wife and I specialize in at our jobs so we always try to prepare for the worst case scenario. You never can plan an illness or an injury and never know when you may need the appropriate documentation. Few years ago we were in Belize doing an excursion in Belize, tubing through the caves (Darknight I believe it was) and we also went through the forrest in the mountains. It was an amazing adventure, on the forrest portion we were climbing up a trail and all of a sudden we heard some screaming coming from the group about a tenth of a mile behind us. Come to find out once we got to the end someone in the group behind us slipped on the trail and went over the side of the trail and fell about 30 feet. Something that I guarantee you nobody in his group planned on! If they did not have the appropriate paperwork with them it would have been more of a pain than if they did. I always carry our passports, as well as our trip and health insurance information with me when I leave the ship and go on foreign soil. Birth certificate may be enough for the ship but will not help you in another country and will add a frustration to an already frustrating situation.

Totally agree. Its the air fare that's the killer and brings up the total cost of the trip (and less room for nicer rooms)

Paradise Beach was a fun day. Unfortunately the service was a bit of a let down because when we moved from beach to pool, our waiter was not great at being as available as we would have liked. In retrospect, we should have closed out our bill after leaving the beach and gotten a new waiter at the pool area. Alas, we still had a fun time. My plan was to head downtown after we wrapped up at Paradise Beach, but I felt pretty tired and the thought of a nap sounded really good. So we got back on the ship and I slept off quite a few Dos Equis beers.

Cruise day!!! I will do an update on about an hour but here’s my view

When I was a kid I went on a couple cruises with my grandfather. We always got a porthole/ocean view room....I always loved the idea of cruising...but hated the rooms I was familiar with. In 2000 my mother in law took the family on a cruise...so my wife and I got another ocean view room. I hated it.....so did she. So we never considered going on a cruise again. Flash forward to 2018 big things happened with my company and we were just coming out of a bad year with a health scare with my son....so I decided to give it another try....except this time since I was paying...I was going top of the line. We are going on our 3rd cruise now in 8 months because we enjoyed it so much ? So yes, the suite life is for us.

This makes me laugh. We just leave them behind now and tell them where to find us. Great parenting lol...

We are at Paradise Beach!

We got ourselves ready to go and grabbed a cup of coffee from Cafe Lattetudes. Amazing how easy it is to get going without kids! No lines for disembarkation. We walked off to perfect beach weather.

Hola! Today we are in Cozumel, and arrived around 8. I’m assuming it was 8 because I was sleeping.

I don't know about that, looks okay to me. Besides, fashion goes out the window below 5°C.

After lunch we headed down to the Pub for some sports trivia. Didn’t win, but learned the origin of the saying “a hop, skip and a jump” After trivia I made the fateful decision that all must wrestle with on a sea day: to nap, or not to nap. That, is the question. Whether ‘‘tis nobler to remain awake or prepare for the evening. Anyway, I opted for a nap.