Living Vicariously Through Me

I am SO looking forward to being on a ship again.  I thought it might be fun to talk about that today!  Our ship is called Brilliance of the Seas.  Sometimes I wonder who thought up these names.  All Royal Caribbean ships are something "of the Seas."  We've been on Grandeur of the Seas, Enchantment of the Seas, and Explorer of the Seas.  Celebrity Cruise ships are all "Celebrity" something.  I think we went on Celebrity Infinity.  Princess ships are all something "Princess."  I don't remember at all what the name was of the ship we went on!  Crazy!  If you're keeping count, this is our 6th cruise, the 4th on Royal Caribbean.

All ships are mostly alike, with subtle differences.  They all have a large theater for shows, a large dining room for formal meals, and a large buffet/cafeteria for informal meals.  Don't let the word informal fool you, the food is amazing!  It's fun to have all 4 of us get our plates and meet up for a table.  When we sit down, we all look and see what the other people found.  Usually we didn't even see the things they found.  And we remember it for the next day.  :-)

Most of you have done cruises before, so this will bring back good memories for you.  :-)

I'm a map person, so I LOVE looking at deck plans.

Deck 2 has a few rooms, the medical facility, and that's about it, so I didn't post a picture.

Deck 3 has a zillion rooms, including ours, but that's it, so I didn't post a picture.

Deck 4 looks like this:

Can you see it if you click on it?  I'll describe it to you.  The front of the ship (I should know the official name with my fisherman husband and all, but I refer to it as front and back) has the first floor of the theater.  The back of the ship has the first floor of the formal dining room.  Note to people looking to cruise one day:  don't get a room on this level.  After dinner, people cut through those hallways to get to the shows.  And visa versa.  Back towards the dining room is a bar, guest services, and RC (Royal Caribbean) Online, which is the internet cafe.  They charge by the minute and don't plan to go there.  At all.  I also see a card room with bathrooms right nearby.  Sweet!  We may play some bridge there.  Usually we find a nearby bar, get some waters/sodas/whatever with some cookies and munch/sip while we play.  When the glasses are empty and we're done, they disappear!  The staff is worth every penny.

Deck 5:

The front of the ship has another floor of the theater.  Then, moving back through the ship, there's the promenade deck around the outside, where we'll see amazing views of fjords, waterfalls, and other good things.  Great place for pictures!  There's a conference center, art gallery, photo gallery & shop (where you buy pictures they take of you), shops, a cafe (in case there weren't enough places for food), and the very back has another level for the dining room - open in the middle to look down a the bottom level - with a grand staircase.  Every night there is a different menu for dinner.  They post it early in the day (yes, we like to look asap so we can plan our meals for the day accordingly).  They consist of several soups, several salads, other fun appetizers, several options for main dishes, and several options for desserts.  (You can order as many of all of those as you want.)  And there's a guy who's sole job is to serve us bread and make sure our water glass never gets empty.  And 5 cruises later, I'm here to say, that water glass never does get empty.  Cruises are where I get to have lamb, duck, and all sorts of fancy things.  I'm not into seafood, but Michael loves steak and lobster night and when we went to Alaska, I HAD to try Alaskan King Crab.  :-)

Deck 6:

The very front of deck 6 has a helipad, which hopefully we won't need to use.  Then the top level of the theater, the cinema (looks super cool!), another pub (even if you don't drink, all these pubs and bars have amazing live music and are worth it to sit and relax in before dinner for that alone), the casino, "Vintages" which is a wine bar, the Schooner bar (they always have great music, great views, and tables for us to play bridge on), Chops Grille (a steakhouse restaurant), Giovanni's Table (an italian restaurant), Jakarta Lounge (a bar), Singapore Slings (a restaurant), Chef's Table (another restaurant), and of course "Next Cruise" where they are happy to work with you to book your next cruise while you're on THIS CRUISE!  lol!

Deck 7 has nothing but rooms, so I didn't put a picture on here.

Deck 8 has nothing but rooms, so I didn't put a picture on here.

Deck 9 has nothing but rooms, so I didn't put a picture on here.

Deck 10 has the big rooms on it and the bridge in the front.  This is where the dudes control the ship. Sometimes there are windows above that let us see down in there.  Michael has his own boat, so he loves to see all their controls.  

Deck 11:

The front has the spa and fitness center.  The views right up front while you're on a treadmill or whatever are amazing.  So I've heard.  Running on a treadmill doesn't sound super fun to me when I'm on a cruise ship, but to each's own!  (I don't care to splurge on the spa either, but I bet that's relaxing.)  Moving back, we have the solarium (an adult only, indoor pool) with the whirlpool.  This will be the place to hang out on this cruise which will actually be chilly.  I, however, don't even plan to pack my suit.  It'll be all-bridge all-the-time for me!  Moving back, there is a cafe and bar - because they want food and drinks steadily available!  Then the outdoor pools and whirlpools.  Then a giant movie screen.  Think drive in.  I've done this before and it's a blast.  Once it's dark out, they have an outdoor movie and you get to lay on the pool lounge chairs to watch it under the stars.  Free popcorn and everything.  That is SUPER fun.  Although, up near the arctic circle, I'm thinking the sun won't go down until around 11pm, so it won't be dark enough until about midnight!

The whole back of the ship on that level is the Windjammer cafe.  This is the large informal dining room that serves amazing food buffet style all.  day.  long.  Breakfast has every kind of breakfast food you have ever thought of, from every country.  Oatmeal and yogurt buffets.  Eggs, bacon, hash browns, toast, bagels, waffles, pancakes, pastries galore, and the list goes on and on.  Not to mention every kind of fruit you can ever think of, all cut, cleaned, and prepared for you.  They serve breakfast right up until lunch.  Lunch has some dinner types of foods (again, they cater to all nationalities), the biggest salad bar you've ever seen, and the back has a grill for burgers, hot dogs, paninis, etc.  I'm here to say Royal Caribbean french fries are the best in the world.  Afternoon snacks include guacamole buffets, scones and all sorts of sauces you could ever imagine, ice cream buffets, and more!  Then dinner is....well, I'm usually down in the formal dining room for dinner.  But, I'd imagine it's amazing.  After dinner, they usually keep it open and we play cards in there - which is nice because we can have cookies or whatever they have left out for us and drinks (coffee, tea, water).  Are you hungry yet?  :-)

Deck 12:

The very front is the second floor of the spa and fitness center.  Like I said, I've never visited either - but I hear they're very nice!  Then we have another bar.  *ahem*  All around deck 12 is the jogging track.  I can't even tell you how beautiful these views are.  Then we get back to the kids areas.  They have amazing arcade type rooms for teens plus pseudo-nightclubs that are appropriate for teens (not too dark, no alcohol, etc.)  Then, a nursery for the babies, and "Adventure Ocean" for the little ones.  The one cruise we brought Kara on, she went there several days.  They do everything very well there.  Security is super tight, which is great, and they have the coolest things to do there.  One day they played music and blew up 30 or so balloons and just let the kids go nuts.  Other times were coloring, games, movies, etc.  They had games that went on every day, but were cool with us coming and going as we pleased, so we didn't leave her there much.  If we took her on a longer cruise, she would have had time to meet friends and she would have begged us to take her more often, but it was super short and she was only four.  Maybe one day in the future....  Continuing back on the ship, you have the "sports court" for basketball or whatever, "Adventure beach" (a smaller pool with water slides for kids), another arcade, more sports stuff, and Izumi (an asian restaurant).

Deck 13:

This is the tippy top and is pretty small.  Starting in the front, is the Viking Crown Lounge (this place is GREAT to see wonderful views while sitting at a table playing cards and listening to more live music), the Concierge Club (for fancy, schmancy, cruisers who have done WAY more trips than us), Starquest Nightclub (not really my scene), and the Rock Climbing Wall.  Michael loves to do this, so does Steve.  Must be a guy thing.  Last, but not least, "Fairways of Brilliance" which is a put put course!

Whew!  This ship is GIANT and there will be thousands of people on there.  It's like a floating town.  I am a silly goof who gets motion sick, but if I pop a pill for it, I'm good to do and after day 3 I get my sea legs.  I love being on a ship.  And I can't wait to go soon!