Douglas Ayrer

Age: 58
Occupation: accountant
Number of Cruises: 2
Cruise Line: Royal Caribbean
Ship: Brilliance of the Seas
Sailing Date: February 25th, 2005
Itinerary: Panama Canal

I had quite a few apprehensions about Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines before departing on our 2/25/2005 Panama Canal Cruise. I had read reviews that rated the food bad and comments that Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines just did not care.

I found those comments misleading. The food was good and the personnel did care. The drink prices were very high, coffee was not convenient and much too strong, I will not cruise again with Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines is that they also charged for soft drinks and bottled water. I found Carnival to be different in that respect and will return to them for future cruises and the trip was more fun.

We did the “catamaran Snorkel trip in Aruba and despite rough waters, we snorkeled in a sheltered cove and saw a gorgeous reef and marine life of multi colored fish and plants, octopus and starfish.

The Panama Canal was awesome. Don't book a shore tour for that day. Stay aboard. The best part of the cruise is the trip in and out of the locks.

"Swim with the Stingrays" in Grand Cayman was very nice.

Brilliance of the Seas is a beautiful ship. The public rooms especially are awesome in fit and finish but like other reviews state there are no passenger laundry facilities on board, and the shipboard laundry charges are very high.

Another interesting tidbit, there were thirty of us in our group and our travel agent supplied each couple with a complimentary bottle of wine in their room, one couple who did not drink bought their bottle to dinner one evening for the other dinner companions and Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines attempted to charge a $15.00 cork fee . I think Royal Caribbean should make cruisers feel like guests and not cash cows.

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