Brilliance of the Seas

[jerryf]

WOW! Who doesn't love a cruise?! My wife and I just returned from our Royal Caribbean cruise on the Brilliance of the Seas out of Tampa on 4/18-22/2016. Having cruised with Royal Caribbean several times before we were sure this trip would be equally amazing especially since our port of call was Cozumel, Mexico; check that off the bucket list.

The revitalization of the ship, Brilliance of the Seas, was stunning and the entire staff was awesome.  Unfortunately Royal Caribbean really missed the mark with the food - AWFUL - cafeteria food for fine dining! Room Service:  Breakfast- 30min early - YEA... only cold & flavorless. The Danish appeared to have been left over from the day before. The scrambled eggs were a flavorless ice-cream scoop mound of yuk. By the way, no amount of salt and/or pepper can fix cold (powdered?!) eggs...believe me we tried.

Buffet Breakfast:  Not bad but nothing special...again the eggs left ALOT to be desired although the eggs from the “eggs cooked to order†looked good if I felt like waiting and waiting and waiting.

Lunch Buffet:  Standard lunch fare....probably better than breakfast but nothing memorable except the self-serve ice cream.  Park Cafe:  Thankful for a go to spot for a quick snack "after-hours"- oh wait... that was only till 10:30pm. Guess that explained why I saw so many guests squirreling food away to their cabins. Aside from that...snacks, pizza, and sandwiches were adequate.

Minstrel Dining: THIS IS WHERE IT WENT FROM BAD TO WORSE. Ever since I can remember, one of the highlights of cruising was the food; specifically the main event-dinner.  I gotta hand it to the wait staff...really on top of their game.  It's just a shame they have such a poor product to work with.  Many of the entree items featured were simply leftovers from the Windjammer lunch buffet or at best the same food prepared again for dinner with a slight variation and better presentation. Two specific items topped the list of worst of worst for us- the chicken marsala and the seafood medley were complete failures.  Mrs. Paul’s, Gorton's & Tyson have better or comparable products. So disappointing. We both felt like the bulk of the dinner entrees were essentially cafeteria food in a fine dining environment-and many of our fellow cruisers relayed the same sentiment even going so far as to advise others ahead of their meal of what NOT to order...sad, just sad.

Bartenders:  Not the most jovial bunch but who can blame them; so overworked it seemed they could barely look up.

Regrettably this cruise was to be the benchmark for a future family cruise in February and it really has left a very poor taste in our mouths. No comps, coupons or refunds are being solicited, just needed for you to be aware of why you will not be seeing us for repeat business anytime soon.

[arebee]

Thanks for the info on the cruise, you do realize this is a blog and I doubt anyone in RC will be reading this.  Now if you write something on the "Write a Review" for your cruise you might get a response.  More likely they will post a response to your review.

[bcarney]

We sailed on Vision out of Tampa 4/2 thru 4/9/16.  We had quite the opposite experience - we found the food to be outstanding, best we've had in years (well, other than breakfast which was 'ok', there's only so much you can do with eggs).  Granted, the food is not the same quality/quantity it was when we first started cruising 17 years ago, but then again what else does?

If you haven't done so, make your concerns known via the emailed survey form that RC send out post-cruise.

[WAAAYTOOO]

jerryf, make sure that you note your disappointments in the post-cruise evaluation that you will receive as an email.

 

RCI DOES read those.

 

I absolutely agree with you about the eggs.  It is the one place where Royal is consistently horrible.   Unless you are in a suite, there are very few places (any ?) where you can get a real egg anymore.

[Matt]

Thanks for the review and I agree all of Royal Caribbean's scrambled eggs are inedible.

 

That being said, I'm sorry to hear of your experience.  Food is such a subjective thing, because I am sure we could have found a number of people that loved the very same food you disliked.  You would both be right, it's just one of those things.

 

I'm frankly surprised the food selection was enough to turn you off from RC.  I think they do a great job with their food. Not everything is going to be amazing, but they aren't promising 5-star cuisine either.  I think their international foods are quite good, especially for dinner.  I also like the variety of food served.  Of course, burgers, hot dogs, pizza and sandwiches are the staple of any mass-market cruise line.  

[DocLC]

Sorry to hear about your experience with the food. For many of us, that's a highlight of cruising.

 

For what it's worth, some of the best food I've had on a cruise was aboard the Brilliance last summer, but as Matt said even this is subjective and can vary week to week. I did a back to back once and was excited that I could repeat a couple of my favorite dishes. However, on the second week of the cruise, the preparations and taste were quite different, so don't give up so readily.

[tonyfsu21]

IMHO if you want to eat above average food then you must spend the extra $ and enjoy the speciality dining options every night. STAY OUT OF THE MAIN DINING ROOM. I was just on the BOTS and the "for fee" dining options were abundant. Breakfast and lunch at Park Cafe were decent options compared to the slop they serve in the RC buffets. Thankfully RC has enough speciality dining that my family and I don't have to ever go in the MDR.