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Brilliance 3/3/18


RestingBird

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Ever wondered where the geographical center of Canada is?  I haven't either.  But, it's 5 O'clock in the morning there (Baker Lake, if curious minds are wondering).  However, that's cold, and I don't like cold.  I could try jumping ahead to 5pm, and I'd hit Bishkek, in Kyrgyzstan.  I'd rather not be there at 5pm, considering I only just found out it's a place (thanks World Book Encyclopedia).  It's 6am for me, and I just punched out from work, marking the beginning of this year's first week of vacation.  Now, we already know it's 5 O'clock somewhere, but I have a few hours until I can reach that 5 O'clock state of mind.

With a 1yr old we didn't want too many days on board our first cruise with him.  4 just seemed too short, and for only a few $'s more we could do 5.  We've been on 4 cruises, and we're ready to take it to the next level...you guessed it...Platinum!!!  But alas, those 4 or 5 nights just wouldn't get us there.  But wait!  RC invented Junior Suites (and the double C&A points that come with them), hooray!  This will be a good way to see what kind of space we need while traveling with a kid, and push us over that threshold into our next precious metal (or whatever Platinum is).

My wife hates driving, and we didn't want to spend the money to fly to a cruise port, so for us that narrowed it down to Port Canaveral.  However, with only Oasis (7nights and too much mulah this time around), and Majesty (4 nights and small) available from said port, I moved on to the next logical choice, Tampa.  Aforementioned wife has family in the Tampa Bay area and has made the drive an infinite number of times, thus helping her hate of driving, due to familiarity (I'll be sleeping for the ride over).  Tampa has Rhapsody doing 7 nighters, and Brilliance doing 4s and 5ers...boom!  So what's inside the little envelope?  Brilliance, out of Tampa, with the lava flow.  We'll be parking at my sister-in-law's, and she'll drop us off at the port.  Her sister (my other sister-in-law) will be picking us up.

Now, back to that state of mind...  With this being our first cruise with a child we plan on having no plans.  Work and life have been going well these last 4 months, but we're still ready to relax, so if there's a plan, that's it.  Our beautiful transport will be stopping in Cozumel, and Grand Cayman.  We've been to both islands once, with Freedom, so we may get off the boatship, or we may not.  My only solid wishes for the week are to find the elusive honeystung chicken, shake Michael Poole's hand, try sushi/Izumi for the first time, and take advantage of the rock climbing wall.

Nothing says "Come to me tropical vacation!" more than a heavy, dairy-chocolate-Deep Eddy infused beverage, so hopefully one of the drink stations will be able to make me one; but, if not, maybe I'll go back to that lava flow...

We don't purchase Voom, so I can't say this is a live blog, but I'll see if I can't take some notes throughout the week and post them right here, on RoyalCaribbeanBlogDotCom, upon our return.  Until next time, I'm RestingBirds, and we'll talk again soon.

"Gonna put the world away for a minute, pretend I don't live in it..."
 

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Brilliance is at terminal 6 here in Tampa, not sure how normal that is.

Used a porter.  Super convenient.  Tipped a couple three $'s per bag.

Having our son in a stroller got us moved to the shorter "wheels" line (wheel chairs, walkers, strollers, etc).

No line for Gold C&A that I saw, just Platinum and up.

Suite/Pinnacle line was a little confusing to find, but a terminal attendant caught the "suite" on our set sail pass and set us on the right path.  I didn't keep track of the time, but I'd guess 20min or less to get from curb to ship.  We got stuck in hockey game traffic (flyers vs lightning started at 1pm) around 11:30.  Go Bolts!

Rooms were ready right at 1pm.  2 of our 4 checked bags showed up shortly after.  The last 2 came one at a time within the next 30min.

I had ordered the RC slippers for my wife and myself, along with the tote/cooler/thing (both on sale at some point months back), and they were waiting on our couch.  The complimentary robes are hanging in the closet.

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4 minutes ago, RestingBirds said:

Brilliance is at terminal 6 here in Tampa, not sure how normal that is.

Used a porter.  Super convenient.  Tipped a couple three $'s per bag.

Having our son in a stroller got us moved to the shorter "wheels" line (wheel chairs, walkers, strollers, etc).

No line for Gold C&A that I saw, just Platinum and up.

Suite/Pinnacle line was a little confusing to find, but a terminal attendant caught the "suite" on our set sail pass and set us on the right path.  I didn't keep track of the time, but I'd guess 20min or less to get from curb to ship.  We got stuck in hockey game traffic (flyers vs lightning started at 1pm) around 11:30.  Go Bolts!

Brilliance is a nice ship. Was on her in January.

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Just now, RestingBirds said:

I just met him today, right before disembarkation.  We happened to sit down next to him in the Centrum.

Awesome, thanks for the update! @mpoole3 sounds like a lovely man, I really enjoy following his Periscope broadcasts :) 

Are you staying on for a B2B?

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     Has anyone else noticed that smell when walking onto the ship?  With only 4 cruises before this it already feels like I'm home when that smell hits me.  Great feeling.
     Dinner was in the MDR most of the week.  The first night i had the horseradish salmon.  It was delicious, and my favorite dish of the week.  For dessert I had the hazelnut chocolate cake...amazing, and the best dessert of the week.  The NY strip was really really good.  I tried the duck, and lamb, later in the week, both were so so.  The lobster bisque was pretty awful.  We had dinner in the Windjamair one night, so I was able to try the chicken curry, and sapi jamur (beef), both were delicious.  The pepperoni pizza was pretty decent for a buffet.  My wife visited the omelet station in the Windjamair every morning.
     The rock wall had weird hours all week, so I didn't get to climb as much as I wanted, but I made it to 3 sessions I think.  There was 1 route on the wall I just couldn't complete, but I got a little farther each time I tried, so I'm happy with that.  The wall was closed on day 4 due to high winds.  I had to skip the adult speed climb this time around due to formal night dinner.
     I had lunch at Izumi on day 2 (1st sea day) while the baby and wife napped.  I haven't had raw fish, so this being my first time trying sushi I started with something cooked to some extent...the crispy spicy tuna roll, and the champagne lobster roll...wow.  I absolutely loved both of them.  They organized the rolls beautifully on the plate.  It was more food than I thought it'd be, so I only ended up eating 9 of the 16 pieces, and took the rest back to my room for later.  I loved the crispy spicy tuna roll so much I got it on day 4 (2nd sea day) for lunch and took it back to my balcony.
     Cruising with a baby was not the best experience.  We enjoyed the cruise, but there just wasn't a whole lot for a 1yr old to do, which is fine, Brilliance is a wonderful ship regardless.  It was a great learning cruise I guess.  My wife said our next one will have to be on a ship with a toddler pool, so Freedom-class or above.  Our son loved the Schooner Bar (as did I), the Colony Club, climbing stairs, and the mini golf course.  But, his favorite activity was riding the elevators by the Centrum and/or ocean.  The crew loved him and would stop to say hi to him when they could.  We left him in the nursery 3 times.  The first time he did great, but the last two times he screamed as we dropped him off, so we ended up picking him up an hour early each session.  We're hoping he'll grow out of it for next time.  We took him to the open play twice and he loved it, since we were there with him.
     Our day in Grand Cayman was...interesting.  We did the Trolley Roger tour, which was nice and short for the baby (we booked it on board, on embarkation day I believe).  We walked around town afterwards and long story short I lost my phone.  I freaked out, finally settled things in my head after back tracking and searching our bags, then we got back on board.  My wife dumped the diaper bag out on the bed...there's my phone.  Hooray!  It had fallen to the bottom of the bag and I missed it each time I checked in there.  I felt like an idiot for a few hours, apologized to my wife, and we moved on with our day.
    The next day in Cozumel went much better.  There were 4 ships in port...Empress, Liberty, Brilliance, and Carnival Breeze.  We received the "dangerous ferry" letter about Cozumel, so we decided we'd better try to book an excursion in Cozumel before everyone else started rebooking due to the ferry cancellations.  We wanted somewhere our son could run around and get in the water.  I probably should've booked Nachi like I originally planned, but we decided to go into this cruise with no plans.  So, during our sail away in Grand Cayman we booked Chankanaab National Park day pass.  For us it was a good choice.  A small beach our son could walk into, a splash pad, a small playground, a pool with a swim up bar (in this case it was full of booty shaking spring breakers...I thought people only acted that way in movies/tv, lol), a sea lion show, and more.  Our pass got us all that and more, including a small buffet lunch, and open bar at 3 of the bars on property.  It was $50 per adult, the baby got in free.  We were there 3hrs, but could've stayed longer.
     Our Junior Suite was amazing.  The space in the room, and hump balcony were great.  The bathtub was perfect for our little dude.  Also, I really liked having the bath robes.  We were able to put a blow up pool on the balcony for little man to play in.
     Overall it was a good cruise.  Brilliance is a great ship.  We've been on Serenade as well, so now I can say I'm a fan of the Radiance-class.  Next time we cruise we'll have a 2 1/2, and 1yr old, so we'll be looking for that toddler pool on Freedom-class or higher, and we'll be looking into 2 connecting cabins as Matt and others have suggested.  All my wishes came true...honey stung chicken, rock climbing, sushi, and meeting Michael Poole.  I'll post some random pictures whenever I get around to it.
     Thank you to everyone on the forum, blog, and podcast for all the little tips and tricks!

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Thanks for your post-cruise review, and, oh my goodness, your son is adorable :) I miss them so much when they are small, but do agree that cruising with children can be challenging. (Fond memories of my six month old niece screaming her head off for a half hour on the Disney Wonder nearly three years ago :4_joy:)

Sovereign of the Seas was my first cruise ever, so seeing her name in print brings out the warm fuzzies in me :)

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Final random thoughts and pictures.

I ordered the brownies from Royal Gifts in the cruise planner, had them delivered mid week...omg, they were awesome.  More like fudge with a thin layer of brownie on top.

I loved having the coffee maker in the room.  It wasn't the best coffee by any stretch, but it was so nice not having to run up to the Windjammer, or have room service to worry about.

The Schooner Bar on Radiance-class is huge.  It was my go to drink stop.  I loved sitting on the backside of the bar so I was facing the ocean.

The suites have doorbells, which are actually very nice to have, I was surprised I liked it so much.  But...we had some ding-dong-ditchers one night.  They rang and ran 2 or 3 times, and it woke my wife, thank God not the baby.  We told guest services about it and asked if they could have someone turn our doorbell off.  Sure enough a few hours later one of the ship's electricians came and unhooked some wires for us.

Cozumel from our balcony

Grand Cayman tour

One of the many elevator rides

Smith Cove on Grand Cayman

 

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On 3/9/2018 at 2:29 PM, Matt said:

Best smell not coming from the Windjammer!

 

Since it was nearly two years (I know, I suck) since our last cruise, I had completely forgotten the smell.  OHMYGOSH - when we boarded a few weeks ago, 

it all came back to me and I was literally overwhelmed.  I really did feel like I was where the Lord meant for me to be.

 

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On 3/9/2018 at 2:09 PM, RestingBirds said:

Has anyone else noticed that smell when walking onto the ship?  With only 4 cruises before this it already feels like I'm home when that smell hits me.  Great feeling.

 

12 hours ago, Floski said:

 

Since it was nearly two years (I know, I suck) since our last cruise, I had completely forgotten the smell.  OHMYGOSH - when we boarded a few weeks ago, it all came back to me and I was literally overwhelmed.  I really did feel like I was where the Lord meant for me to be.

OK, now I'm going to be keeping my nose peeled for this apparently wonderful smell. I don't suppose anyone could make some attempt at describing it, so I have an inkling if I'm smelling the right thing or not? :3_grin: :10_wink:

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6 minutes ago, JLMoran said:

 

OK, now I'm going to be keeping my nose peeled for this apparently wonderful smell. I don't suppose anyone could make some attempt at describing it, so I have an inkling if I'm smelling the right thing or not? :3_grin: :10_wink:

lol, no describing it.  Not sure you'll even notice it until your 2nd cruise (Anthem?).

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7 minutes ago, JLMoran said:

 

OK, now I'm going to be keeping my nose peeled for this apparently wonderful smell. I don't suppose anyone could make some attempt at describing it, so I have an inkling if I'm smelling the right thing or not? :3_grin: :10_wink:

I love the smell. March 25 I will be smelling the smell.

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21 minutes ago, JLMoran said:

 

OK, now I'm going to be keeping my nose peeled for this apparently wonderful smell. I don't suppose anyone could make some attempt at describing it, so I have an inkling if I'm smelling the right thing or not? :3_grin: :10_wink:

Smells like ......money.:27_sunglasses:

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3 hours ago, rjac said:

Interesting you mention gluwein. Didn't know they had that in Charleston. When we visit Charleston, all I'm interested in are raw oysters, shrimp & grits and the local beers. So, where have you had gluhwein?:27_sunglasses:

I lived in Germany for 7 1/2 years.  Have drank viele gluhwein!   That and some gulaschsuppe is the best thing for a bitter cold day (and perhaps some apfelkorn).

 

I miss Germany so badly.  We were considering going back last year for our 30th, but it's so expensive, and now that I've found cruising....well, you know.

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58 minutes ago, Floski said:

I lived in Germany for 7 1/2 years.  Have drank viele gluhwein!   That and some gulaschsuppe is the best thing for a bitter cold day (and perhaps some apfelkorn).

 

I miss Germany so badly.  We were considering going back last year for our 30th, but it's so expensive, and now that I've found cruising....well, you know.

I spent a total of 9 years in Germany when I was in the Army. I totally agree with your menu items, not to mention the schwein hoxen! Yeah, it woould be nice to visit Germany again, but, the current political situation, mid-eastern immigrants and cost makes it not desirable. And yes, cruising is THE answer. :5_smiley:

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4 hours ago, Floski said:

It's hard to describe, really.  Best I can say is that it simply smells like relaxation.   I sigh the biggest sigh of all when I cross the plank, get a squirt, and "smell the smell".

 

Kinda like the warm, enveloping feeling when you sip a good whiskey or gluhwein.

 

5 hours ago, Sweety said:

I love the smell. March 25 I will be smelling the smell.

 

5 hours ago, RestingBirds said:

lol, no describing it.  Not sure you'll even notice it until your 2nd cruise (Anthem?).

Hand sanitizer?

 

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1 hour ago, Floski said:

I lived in Germany for 7 1/2 years.  Have drank viele gluhwein!   That and some gulaschsuppe is the best thing for a bitter cold day (and perhaps some apfelkorn).

 

I miss Germany so badly.  We were considering going back last year for our 30th, but it's so expensive, and now that I've found cruising....well, you know.

Ah, that's why you know so much typical German food :8_laughing:

13 minutes ago, rjac said:

I spent a total of 9 years in Germany when I was in the Army. I totally agree with your menu items, not to mention the schwein hoxen! Yeah, it woould be nice to visit Germany again, but, the current political situation, mid-eastern immigrants and cost makes it not desirable. And yes, cruising is THE answer. :5_smiley:

To be honest, I currently wouldn't advise anyone to visit the bigger cities or Metropolitan areas. The countryside is still quite unaffected - and is much more enjoyable anyway :1_grinning:

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1 hour ago, Neaxan said:

Ah, that's why you know so much typical German food :8_laughing:

To be honest, I currently wouldn't advise anyone to visit the bigger cities or Metropolitan areas. The countryside is still quite unaffected - and is much more enjoyable anyway :1_grinning:

I don't care about the big cities, either (except maybe Heidelberg, which isn't really "big") - I just want to go back to my little village in the Pfalz and the surrounding area.

I'm tempted by the river cruises, but then again, I want to be in control of where I go and they don't have that kind of flexibility.  

 

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22 hours ago, Neaxan said:

Ah, that's why you know so much typical German food :8_laughing:

To be honest, I currently wouldn't advise anyone to visit the bigger cities or Metropolitan areas. The countryside is still quite unaffected - and is much more enjoyable anyway :1_grinning:

I totally agree with you on that! LOVED Bavaria!:27_sunglasses:

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We’re heading out on Brilliance on the 22nd of March! 8 days! We too will be cruising with a one year old, unfortunately we couldn’t score a balcony. We’re you able to blow up the little pool near the main pool? Do you have any other suggestions for cruising with a little one? This is cruise 13 for me, but first with an infant! 

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18 hours ago, CaptTJ said:

We’re heading out on Brilliance on the 22nd of March! 8 days! We too will be cruising with a one year old, unfortunately we couldn’t score a balcony. We’re you able to blow up the little pool near the main pool? Do you have any other suggestions for cruising with a little one? This is cruise 13 for me, but first with an infant! 

We didn't take our blow up pool anywhere outside our balcony.  However, my neighbor took a blow up pool and set it up by one of the pools on Freedom, so you should be able to do the same on Brilliance.

Our son is walking quite well, and is super active and curious, so we took him to the mini gold course and colony club to run around.

Try out the nursery, especially if you don't have someone with you to watch the baby for a few hours.  The girls working the nursery were super nice.  Scotty, Kelly, Krispy Kreme, and Rebecca are the names I remember.

Ask any crew member at the restaurants/Windjammer for a high chair if needed, or just grab one if you see it.

Bring more than enough diapers, and formula.  We told our pediatrician about the cruise, so he gave us a bunch of prescriptions for various "what ifs" that might happen on board.

Have fun!  

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7 hours ago, RestingBirds said:

We told our pediatrician about the cruise, so he gave us a bunch of prescriptions for various "what ifs" that might happen on board.

It's great that you have a physician that will do this.  Mine did the same.  Many years ago, when learning that we were going on a cruise, she gave us a prescription for Cipro so that we could take it with us in case we go into any situations with stomach bugs.  It has never happened but I love having that med along with us just in case.  I did use it once (at home) for a cold-turned-sinus infection.  Very handy to have around !  She has always re-written the scrip when we needed it.

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