Brilliance of the Seas - Royal Caribbean Cruise - Jennifer's 60th Birthday

Brilliance of the Seas out of Tampa, FL 

We are back and finishing the last load of laundry. The goodbyes were hard and we didn’t get to see Jim & Jennifer nearly as much as we would have liked. As you read my comments and final thoughts we have not been on Royal Caribbean in years and our favorite 3 cruise lines are Princess, Celebrity and Holland America. This was a fun cruise that was all about friends and being there to celebrate Jennifer’s 60^th birthday. We had a great time!

Day 1 - November 23 – Thanksgiving Day!

Check in was painless and we arrived around 11:30 (despite the 2 emails saying we couldn’t check in before 2:00 and they would leave promptly at 4:00 even though check in was delayed.)

We ran into Jim & Jennifer and Elaine in the hallway and we all had lunch together. We saved 3 tables and the others filtered in shortly.

We couldn’t get into our staterooms until 1:30, so we hung out until then, only to find they changed the sign to 2:00. So, we went to the Solarium again to wait. It was 2:30 or 3:00 before we got in. They don’t let you drop your hand luggage in the cabin and they lock the doors to the hallways so you can’t get into the cabin. They wait until all rooms are finished and they open them all at once. 

We met our cabin steward Dwi Kamalianto from Indonesia. He was quite nice and efficient, though it seemed he had a lot of cabins to take care of, but he always had a smile.

Jennifer & Jim had our cabin decorated for our anniversary which was the day before the cruise. Very nice touch! Sign on the door to the cabin, sign on one of our mirrors, streamers hanging from the ceiling and a nice picture frame and a hanging photo holder. Then, after dinner we find chocolate covered strawberries in our cabin from Jim & Jennifer. The next day or 2 we got a card saying we had a $75.00 shipboard credit from Cruise Brothers (Jennifer’s Cruise Agency). We can’t thank them enough for all of the thoughtful gifts. (but, mostly for their company – man, we miss those guys!)

We unpacked and explored the ship before meeting the group for dinner. Sail away was a bit lackluster as it was cloudy and rainy.

 pool area

 Rita's Cantina

 Tampa

 atrium

 one of the smaller show lounges

 there were 2 pool tables

 Casino

 Solarium - indoor pool area

Jennifer got the group a table for 12 by the window. We have met their daughter Holly and their friends Carol & Elaine once in Panama when they came to visit, but we had never met Holly’s husband Nick or their friends Rick & Sarah. We also were meeting Norm & Linda for the first time, also friends of Jim & Jennifer. Jim, Jennifer, Carol, Elaine, Norm and Linda all met in the Coast Guard Auxiliary. 

Claudiu was our waiter and Zaian was our assistant waiter. We got a special “anniversary dessert” and everyone sang. Zaian really did a lot of work and always refilled drinks and other requests were done quickly. Claudiu was very nice, but he had a couple of large tables and was spread pretty thin. 

Jim & Claudiu our waiter on first formal night

 Jennifer & Claudiu our waiter on first formal night (we didn't get a photo of Zaian)

left to right - Elaine, Rick, Sarah, Nick, Holly, Jim, Jennifer, Annette, Greg, Norm, Linda, Carol

I'm hoping Jim got a better shot of our group since Claudiu's photo isn't great.

Here's for you Jim, "just know Jim was hurt". Jennifer and I are ruthless at teasing Jim. Jennifer said "I think we have learned Jim has feelings." We both agreed, "now we really know how to hurt him". (all in good fun and said with love of course!)

We were able to catch about the last 10 minutes of the Comedy show by Don Gavin, but he had a second adult only show later that we went to. He was pretty funny. 

It was bed time and we looked forward to Key West tomorrow. It was a 10:00 arrival, so we could sleep in a bit.

our first towel creation