My first cruse.

This month is my 20th wedding anniversary. We are going on our first cruse for our second honeymoon. We are flying from JFK to San Juan Puerto Rico. Then we get on the Royal Caribbean Brilliance of the seas that evening. We were supposed to sail overnight to the British Virgin islands but they just changed it. We now first cruse all the next day and stop at Cabo Rojo, Dominican Republic. We stay there for the day. Then we cruse overnight to Aruba and stay 2 days and 1 night. Our first honeymoon was in Aruba. Except we flew straight there and stayed for 10 days. It was great. But it was a little too long. From Aruba we cruse overnight to Willemstad, Curacao and stay for the day. From there we cruse all the next day back to Puerto Rico. Then get on a plane that afternoon and fly back to JFK. We were going to fly straight to Aruba on a Monday and fly back on a Friday. But the 4 night stay in the Marriott Surf club(Where we stayed last time) cost more alone then the entire flight and cruse combined. Including the deluxe food package. Everything so far cost less then $2500. I am sure we will spend at least a couple thousand more during the trip. But our first honeymoon 20 years ago cost us close to double that. How can cruses be so cheap?

Brilliance of the seas is considered a small cruse ship. At 962 feet long, 106 feet wide and 90,090 gross tuns it is by no means small. It would cover my entire property and the 15 property's lined up the street next to mine But it is the fourth smallest out of Royal Caribbeans 30 cruse ships. The largest is 1196 feet long and 216 feet wide and 250,800 gross tuns. That is just obscenely large.

Brilliance of the seas.
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Sounds like fun congrats on the 20 years of marriage.

I went far too long without taking a cruise for the first time. Been on 2 in the last couple of years and I need to get to planning the next one. I know its not for everyone but the wife and I sure enjoy them. The second one we took was to Alaska, can't recommend that experience enough. Worth the money.

Shouldn't have any trouble getting you two up on one ski. Enjoy!

Happy 20th and Congratulations Sounds like a great Time! :cheers:

Happy Anniversary

Congratulations on 20years. Keep up the lovin. :D

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Originally Posted by Dain

I went far too long without taking a cruise for the first time. Been on 2 in the last couple of years and I need to get to planning the next one. I know it’s not for everyone but the wife and I sure enjoy them. The second one we took was to Alaska, can't recommend that experience enough. Worth the money.

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What do you do all day on a boat? I hate crowds. I would feel trapped. I would like to see the sites.

Happy Anniversary , to answer the question , Drink

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Originally Posted by mercrazy

What do you do all day on a boat? I hate crowds. I would feel trapped. I would like to see the sites.

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We got off and did excursions and walked around at every port. The two days that we were "at sea" we just checked the schedule of events and went to see/do what we wanted or just relaxed in the room. Eat whenever you want. That kind of stuff.

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Originally Posted by mercrazy

What do you do all day on a boat? I hate crowds. I would feel trapped. I would like to see the sites.

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Really it's not a boat. It is a floating city. There are 16 bars and lounges on the boat. At least 9 restaurants. 2 pools and several whirlpools. A movie theater. A Broadway style theater. Al least 2 spas for thing like massages and facials. A full casino. Plus a bunch of other stuff I haven't discovered yet. Most food is included. Even room service for a $7.95 service charge. Plus we will be docking at 3 ports. There are shore excursions at each port. We went quading in the Dominican Republic. Next is Aruba for 2 days

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Massive propwash from the ship. Twin screw.

https://youtu.be/-Pa_rk8dlvE?si=8-oB2J7dDHxHIx87

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Originally Posted by mercrazy

What do you do all day on a boat? I hate crowds. I would feel trapped. I would like to see the sites.

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Want more? How about a rock climbing wall? Maybe 9 holes of miniture golf? Like video games? A full video arcade. Half court basketball? How about a water slide?
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Pretty freaking amazing! We just left the Dominican Republic. 965 foot long ship needs no tugboats at all. Just uses the azipods and bow thrusters. Pushed off the pier about 100 feet. Then made a 180 at the pier like a zero turn lawnmower.
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Sounds like it’s for kids, drunks, or gamblers. New movies ain’t fit to watch. I doubt if they have old black and white westerns. Is the food like tv dinners? Do they have senior cruises with real chefs?

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Originally Posted by mercrazy

Sounds like it’s for kids, drunks, or gamblers. New movies ain’t fit to watch. I doubt if they have old black and white westerns. Is the food like tv dinners? Do they have senior cruises with real chefs?

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Not a lot of kids. I would say about 25 to 30 adults per kid and most are teens. Not many little kids at all. Plus there is an entire section of the boat that is adults only. Has it own indoor pool. There are 2 movies playing. The new Superman movie. (Not very good) and F1. The food is all 5 star quality. All prepared by professional chef's. Even the free stuff is fancy smancy. Tonight I had the Lasagna El Forno. My wife had the Spiced Lamb Kofta. Check out tonight's menu.Attachment 546328 Attachment 546329 Attachment 546330

I just open up my gps speedometer in my phone. This giant floating city is doing 25mph.

Did the fancy food names make it taste good? I’m very hard to please with food.

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Originally Posted by mercrazy

Did the fancy food names make it taste good? I’m very hard to please with food.

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I am the pickiest eater you will ever meet. I like basically nothing. Beef pork chicken pasta, and pizza. yes. Seafood is lobster shrimp and some tuna. Nothing else. Very few vegetables. If I try something new and I don't like it I might actually puke. Wrong texture will also set of my gag reflex. But everything here so far has been delicious. Filet minion had a surcharge. But everything else has been free. Beef tenderloin. Burgers, fries, hotdogs. Bacon and eggs. Spaghetti, rigatoni, mac and cheese. All delicious. I think I already gained 5 pounds. By the way I don't gamble at all and I barely ever drink. I still have bottles of alcohol left over from my 50th birthday party. I will be 58 soon. I am having a great time.

Holy crap it is rough out tonight. Must be 8-10 foot waves. The wind is blowing really hard. The bow is closed because of the amount of spray on the fifth deck. I am even getting some spray on my 8th floor balcony. The boat is rocking and bouncing. Things are creaking and groaning. The pools are sloching back and forth. Even the crew said it is very rough tonight.

my honeymoon cruise was 87 worlds, Mcdonalds for lunchs, Benihana for dinners!wouldn't change a thing.

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Originally Posted by skialot2

I just open up my gps speedometer in my phone. This giant floating city is doing 25mph.

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I always tune in to that channel on the TV that has the ship info like location, speed, etc. Can't look away from it lol.

Docked in Aruba today. Still find it amazing that this giant ship can dock all by itself with no tug boats in 20 to 30 mph winds. Just 1 pilot boat to drag the ropes to shore because the ship doesn't actually fit at the pier with another ship in the way. They also needed to use a truck to drag the ropes to the dock cleats
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We had room service last night at 1am. I had a bacon cheeseburger and my wife had a Philly cheesesteak. My burger was very good. My wife said it was by far the best cheesesteak she ever had. Some more pictures of the free cafeteria food. Pictures do not do the food justice. Specialty dining tonight at Chop's Grill. More Felet Minion for me.
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when i was younger i might have gotten my cruise money's worth out of the food, now we share a steak,unless I'm at st. jermaines casino rama then eat the whole thing and feel like getting valet wheelchair service when leaving!

Wow!!! Chops grill was fantastic. Absolutely delicious. Filet minion for me. Grilled Branzino for my wife. Plus a loaded baked potato. Giant tater tots. Key lime pie and warm chocolate cake for dessert

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We just left Aruba. It is still beautiful but it is so much more commercialized. It is so much more devoloped. There is so much more traffic it takes forever to get anywhere now. The view of the ocean is nice except it gets destroyed by an ugly ass giant oil platform that dominates the horizon. But I guess it's ok because it's not a windmill.

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Another great meal at a specialty restaurant on the ship. Giovanni's table. Awesome again. Beef Carpiccio for an appetizer. More Filet Minion for me. Gnocchi gorgonzola for the wife. Yummy
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Must be nice. $2500+ is far out of my price range for entertainment. On a side note, some people like to travel, some don’t. I get nervous if I’m more than 20 miles away from home. Must be something different in our dna?

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Originally Posted by mercrazy

Must be nice. $2500+ is far out of my price range for entertainment. On a side note, some people like to travel, some don’t. I get nervous if I’m more than 20 miles away from home. Must be something different in our dna?

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This is our first Vacation together in 17 years. Scrimpt and saved for a long time to afford it. Already cant wait to get home. We head back to San Juan Puerto Rico tonight. Tomorrow I am going on a behind the scenes tour of the inner workings of the ship. I get to tour the bridge and everything.

Last night while cruising to Curacau I saw lights off the starboard side. Turns out we were around 7 miles off the coast of Venezuela. Yikes!Attachment 546371

Curacau was nice. We went to the aquarium. It was smaller than I thought it would be. We should have worn bathing suits. They actually let you swim with the dolphins. They let you play with them and do tricks with them. That would have been cool. I don't think you can do that in the USA. We are now headed back to Puerto Rico. It's about a 35 hour cruse. Sunday morning we are taking a 3.5 hour transport back to the airport. It's actually a guided tour of old and new San Juan. It was either that or go sit at the airport for 7 hours. I can't wait to get back home.


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I would asy of the three ports of call we went to I would say Aruba was by far the best. Than Curacau. And the Dominican Republic was the least devoloped. There is absolutely nothing near the port. The closest town is a 1/2 hour away. I would have rather we went to the British Virgin Islands as originally planned.

Went on the Behind the waves tour today. It a tour of parts of the ship most passengers never see. We saw the kitchen and the laundry facility. That was interesting but the cool part was when we went to the engine control room. The ship was originally powered by two gas turbine engines that generate all the electricity the ship needs. One engine provides enough power to run the entire ship if necessary. But it has 2 for redundancy. About 12 years ago they added a diesel generator because the turbines use too much fuel. We could not go to the actual engine room but the had pictures of some of the mechanical stuff.Then we went up to the bridge. There are 3 aets of controls. 1 in the center and a set on each side for docking. There is a glass floor where you stand for the side controls so you can see where the hull hits the water to make docking easy. I thought that was really cool.

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Final night of the cruse. Making good time back to Puerto Rico. 20 mph. Ocean is about as smooth as I have ever seen. Looks almost like a giant river. It is absolutely beautiful out. Best weather on the trip.

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Big thank you for the ride along :thumbsup: ships are cool mechanically for sure , spent some years on them . the Ocean or " Mother O " gets in your veins . the sea conditions are forever changing , part of the alure . all that food and entertainment is over the top , was thinking I could enjoy myself tied to the dock for 7 days :D , 2500 seems a bargan for all that . Gotta get the princess her sea legs :rolleyes: she's never been outside the US , thru the Panama canal has always made a vivid memory I'll always cherish , Thanks again , Keith Out :cool:

When we got back to Puerto Rico we had to be off the boat by 8:30am. Out flight home was not until 3:34pm. The cruse company had to types of transfers to the airport. Straight to the airport or take a 4 hour tour of old and new San Juan. So we took the tour. The tour guide was great. Nice kid. Dropped us at the airport right in front of our luggage.

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We still had to wait for over 3 hours at the airport. 3:34pm flight was delayed 14 minutes. It was a four hour flight. At 38000 feet, I was able to watch the sunset from above any clouds. It's a unique perspective. I could see the curvature of the earth. We came back to the mainland around the Carolinas. Most of the flight was smooth. The decent into JFK got kind of bumpy. There was a gale warning. Still only a one bump landing. Took an overpriced cab back from the airport. Surprisingly we hit no traffic at all and got home a little after 8:00 local time. After getting attacked by our dogs we ordered in a Pizza. The Pizza on the ship was the only food that was not good. But we are used to New York Pizza.

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Originally Posted by skialot2

When we got back to Puerto Rico we had to be off the boat by 8:30am. Out flight home was not until 3:34pm. The cruse company had to types of transfers to the airport. Straight to the airport or take a 4 hour tour of old and new San Juan. So we took the tour. The tour guide was great. Nice kid. Dropped us at the airport right in front of our luggage.

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That's a nice little end of trip excursion to kill some time.