Blog du Wren

Cruise Amenities

While you can get the official word on the amenities of our ship, Brilliance of the Seas, from Royal Caribbean or the ever helpful Wikipedia, I wanted to share the features as they pertained to our experience, not just the official line. (Note: the ship was headed into dry dock directly after our trip to undergo a significant revamping, so much of this info is probably already out of date)

Like I've mentioned before, there was a ton of stuff to see, do, and experience. Ten days at sea, however, gives one lots of time to explore them all. So here's my report.

Pools: There were 2 pools onboard*, one outdoor and one indoor in the solarium. At first impression, the pools were quite small, but then I realized there was a reason—11 floors above the ocean on a rocking ship can cause water to slosh to an extreme degree. It was pretty weird being in the pool and having waves slosh back and forth more than waves at a beach. But it was neat. The pool also had some very specific design features to try and lessen the slosh which made me marvel at all the ingenuity that it takes to build such a massive ship*. Another neat feature of the pool was that it was saltwater, which makes total sense*. The water is just pumped in from the surrounding waters (after being filtered). Great idea! There were also a couple of hot tubs (both indoor and out), but the temperature was tepid and the weather was warm enough anyway, so we mostly just played in the pools. (I did try the kiddie waterslide a time or two, but it wasn't made to entertain such a waterslide connoisseur as myself.)
Shows: There was a show in the huge, state of the art theater every night. While styles of shows ranged from singing and dance, to comedy, and even to juggling, the majority of the shows were music/song based. We at least poked our heads in to every show, but ducked out of a couple. But this can be said about all of them: they were very professional. The dancers were incredibly well rehearsed and the sets for those shows were amazing. The "headliner"* were good too, all of whom seemed like they were used to the cruise ship gig. The jugglers (a husband and wife duo named Airborne) had a great show, although nothing mind boggling skill-wise. But very professional. We also got a chance to meet up with them for a drink later in the cruise and they were incredibly nice.
Movies: If the main attraction show didn't suit us, we would usually check out the cinema. They played a different movie every day (usually 4 times a day*) with pretty good variety of action, comedy, etc. We saw the Dark Knight Rises, Bourne Legacy, and Sherlock Holmes 2. What surprised me, however, was that the cinema wasn't all that nice. It had super tiered seating, which made you feel super close to the screen, but it was a square screen (instead of widescreen) and the projector looked like it cost $129 from the local Wal-Mart hooked up to a bootleg DVD player. The movies were still totally watchable, but I was really unimpressed. We figured they wanted to discourage movie watching because it meant you weren't out buying drinks or gambling in the casino.
Gym: Della's got me going to the gym more at home, so I had a good comparison for the gym onboard. Basically, it was pretty good. Lots of machines, treadmills, stationary bikes, and ellipticals. We tried to make it up there every day (Della sometimes 2 times a day). It's a good thing too, because we were eating a 9000 calorie-a-day diet (more on that later). But the gym wasn't the only exercise we got. Our stateroom* was on floor 4 while most activities were up on deck 12, and we vowed not to take the elevators. So 8 flights of stairs 4-5 times a day is a great additional workout.
Climbing Wall/Mini-Golf/Pool Table/Ping Pong: I never got around to doing the climbing wall, but it seemed mostly like a gimmick that everyone thought was neat but very few people did. It makes for great promotional pictures though. The mini-golf was more or less the same. It was less a traditional mini-golf with windmills and loop-d-loops than a faux putting green for real golf enthusiasts. It was all moot, more or less, though because of the rocking ship not allowing a putt ball to take its directed path. The pool table, however, didn't suffer from the boat's rocking. It was self-leveling and totally hypnotic to watch*. We played a game or two, but the tables were usually full up with other players. We also had a couple gos at ping pong, where the rocking of the ship mattered a little less.

So that's just a taste of our impression. Speaking of taste, this list leaves out the main activity of the cruise: eating. I'll have to work up a different post on just that. Thanks for reading!

Thursday April 25 2013

File under: travel, cruise

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