Brilliance of the Seas Ship Tour | New England and Canada Cruise Ship and Embarkation

Hey everybody, I'm Josh.

And I'm Rachael.

Come along with us over the next 7 days as we embark on a New England and Canada cruise.

We will be stopping in St. John where we have a small group kayak excursion.

Go to world-famous Peggy's Cove while in Halifax.

Create our own pub crawl in Sydney.

And enjoy lighthouses, lagers, and lobsters in Portland, Maine.

But first, let's check out our home for the next week onboard Brilliance of the Seas from Royal Caribbean. Let's go!

Here we go!

Yay! We made it on board!

Welcome to Brilliance of the Seas.

It has been a long time since we've been on a Royal Caribbean ship.

A full year and several other cruises since we've been on Royal. Feels like home.

It does feel like home.

Yeah.

Oh, I did see ponchos. Good, because we forgot our raincoats. Yeah, oddly enough.

Oh yeah, this cruise is going to be a cold weather cruise. Yeah, we are in Boston and we are headed north to Canada. Gonna hopefully get some leaf peeping in. We've already ate— yeah, and we've already ate a ton of lobster, so we're gonna probably eat a lot more. But let's see if our room's ready. It's also been a while since we've been on a smaller ship.

Yes, much smaller ship than the last one we were on.

Here is your atrium. Goes all the way up. It's a very pretty ship so far.

It is very pretty.

Yeah, I know it's one of the older, smaller ships.

Yeah, part of the Radiance class, I believe.

Yeah. All right, we did get a very nice upgrade from the casino program this time. Unfortunately, that means we have to climb the stairs up to 10 though. And we're up to 6.

And that was 1.

All right, we made it up to 10, and unfortunately we're about 10 minutes early before we can get to our room. But I'll just show you. So we typically do full tours day 1 just so we can get our bearings. Here's a quick look over what we're going to be going over once we get to drop off our bags, our jacket, And our 12-pack of soda.

And our wine.

And 2 bottles of wine. Yeah, no drink package this time, but if you didn't already know this, you can bring a 12-pack of soda and 2 bottles of wine.

Yes.

With you.

It looks like we're right under the fitness center. That's good.

So we're gonna end up being 10,000. And here's a pretty cool view of that atrium. From the 10th floor all the way down. Good news, the rooms are ready.

The rooms are ready!

All right, we were thinking maybe we're in the middle of the ship.

No, no, no, we aren't.

Yeah, 10th floor, room 1000, which means we're at the very end.

Yeah.

All right. This looks decent.

It does look good.

Well, it's definitely like an old-school style.

Definitely old-school. But look at— there's a coffee pot in the room.

I don't know that I've ever—

I don't think so either. Ever.

I think we may have had one in a suite before.

Yeah.

Let's kick on some lights. Oh, there's a Coke.

Um, there is no way that's real, is it?

What is it? I think we might have too many bottles of water.

I only ordered maybe 2. There's no way that's real, right?

All right, well, that'll be the fun— that'll be the fun part of this cruise, seeing if we make it through 48-liter bottles of water.

I don't think that's ours.

Well, it is now.

It is now.

Um, room looks good.

It does look good.

It definitely— it feels dated.

Yeah.

But not terrible.

It feels dated, but it's clean.

Yeah. All right, let me see. How'd that bathroom look?

It's small. It's tiny. There's no, uh—

Hey, there's a mirror.

There is a mirror.

Turn this low. Oh, did you notice that there's a curtain?

Yeah, that's what I was trying to word.

Hi. Okay, so the curtains aren't always the greatest. You can see they do have the body wash shampoo in one. I do believe that there's some storage.

I have to look this up.

Right there. So that's not too bad. A little bit of— it's a very interesting color combo. And we've got our closet right here. Sorry if I'm moving fast. Decent amount of shelving though. I would say that's good storage for— An older, smaller ship. What are you doing over there?

I, I'm checking to see about the water because there's no way I ordered that much water.

Um, there is a little bit of storage right here. Very little. I don't know what you can store in there. Obviously some good lighting. And these are because of, uh, Crown and Anchor Society. We get those 4 baby bottles along with our other billions.

I know. I'm positive I did not.

Uh, are there plugins?

It does not appear that there are.

No plugin on that side. Usually you do end up needing to use— we have found USB on other phones, not this one. So no extra with that?

No.

Here is our few outlets that we have. So those and then some European. We will see how that goes for charging.

Yeah.

And then we might as well take a look. We do have a balcony, and as I said, it is at the very end of the ship. And there's a little better view of the balcony zoomed out. It'll, it'll be good.

I'm pretty positive I only booked 24 water bottles for a total of 50. Well, it's hard to say. It doesn't say. It says 12 or 24 bottles.

We have plenty of water for this trip.

Yeah.

So let's see how many we drink at the end of this. If you want to leave a comment down below saying how many of these 48 we finish. That could be a fun one. And we will say it in our final video of this series, how many bottles we drank.

Yeah.

All right, later. All right, we are one bottle of water down, and now it's time to go explore this ship. We're gonna start at the top because the weather's terrible, and I'm guessing it's only gonna get worse. So let's see what we can see up top. Starting where everybody likes to start, the gym.

That's right.

In the Shipshape Center. Did you see that?

Yes, it's very cheesy.

Cute name. Okay, this looks better than I expected already.

Yeah, 75 pounds.

Just enough for me.

Oh, they do have some classes as well.

That's good.

Yeah.

You can see some Bikes. Lots of treadmills up ahead. Decent amount of cardio.

Yeah.

And it does look like there's a running track out on this level.

Oh.

So we'll probably check that out. Yeah, it's a good view. Try to get here later this week. All right, probably not going to talk a lot out here because I do believe it's going to be windy and cold.

Yes.

But I'll try to show the highlights. This is a cool spot for a view.

You should be able to see—

yeah.

Oh, the helipad?

Helipad where you can get to for take away. Yeah, sail away.

We might head down there, we'll see. How the weather is, but we believe that you can go on the helipad when it's opened. That makes no sense. You get it, right? And this does indicate to me the running track is out here. There's a sky bar up here on 12 overlooking the pool. Got a couple hot tubs down there. And at least one of them is open. Looks like they're both open.

Yeah.

And I think they have movies out here. I don't know how many movies we'll want to see.

I know, not unless they also provide blankets and sweatshirts. Yeah.

And art. And there's a plane. Always good to know that 1 mile is 6 laps or 4 laps for a kilometer. Here's another view of the pool deck. You can see there is a bar that's open down below, and I love the sign for the Brilliance of the Seas. Back of the ship seems to be the sports area. You can see there's a big rock climbing wall. There is miniature golf, basketball court, and a slide. And here's the golf course— miniature golf course. I like how it's got lighthouses because that's kind of this trip.

True.

In the very far back, we found the arcade, and Rachel thinks Izumi's back here. Shuffleboard. Let's check this out. Major arcade. Some decent games.

Yeah. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Welcome to your vacation.

Oh, here's Izumi, the very back of the ship.

Now of course, ladies and gentlemen, inside your stateroom there was a Canadian immigration form. We are kindly asking all guests, please, if you could fill this Canadian immigration form out and drop it off at guest services no later than 6 PM this evening.

Here is Adventure Ocean, which is for children. Babies and Tots, and then I think the teen room is right here. And that is on floor 12, and we have to go up to 13 to see the Viking Crown Lounge. There's some art. Star Quest. The heck is that?

Ooh.

Is this the Viking Crown Lounge? I think it might be. Oh, this looks very nice. Nice looking bar area. Yeah, major piano moves on over here. Oh, they broke it into 2. Interesting, because you can see over there. Okay, but this is nice. And this overlooks the pool. So they have a Concierge Club here, which I don't think that we're high enough status to get, but this is what it looks like.

You can get better snacks in here.

Still on lucky number 13th floor. Here's the Crown Lounge, and yes, we have access to that. So we are Diamond status with Royal, so we get access to this. And the big key is going to be getting coffees there during the trip. I think they also have breakfast here and snacks. Cookies!

They have cookies.

Yeah, Rachael's eating the cookies. But here's your view that you get of the Pool. As you can see, the color is awful out there.

Mm-hmm.

Hopefully we'll get some good weather this trip, but it's not today. Here's something we have not seen before on Royal. So up on Deck 12, this is where the loyalty club is, or loyalty desk.

But you can only get in and out from one way.

Yeah.

Odd.

But that's cool. All right, Windjammer, which is the buffet for Royal Caribbean. That's a nice little area right out there.

Yeah, lunch till 3. Okay.

Yeah, let's go check this out. All right, there's a dark wood, nice tile floor. This looks good. It's actually a good size and it seems pretty well spread out so that there's not a lot of people fighting over each other here. Got drinks over here. Over here by the desserts, you can see this is something you don't always see anymore. There's some outdoor seating just behind The buffet. And there's a bar area too. Looks like you can get your Starbucks even. And the wind's picked up, but here is more seating. Found the ping pong table. It is just off from the pool, and there's the 2 hot tubs that are outdoors. I do believe that there's some indoor pool and hot tub that we'll be finding soon. And then the pool bar right over there. All right, and inside to the Solarium, which I believe is 18 and up.

I believe so too.

You can see there's a Solarium bar here and then a pool area.

The theming.

Yeah, I love how ridiculous this theming is.

It is absolutely ridiculous.

It is over the top, gaudy, and great. You can see there's a hot tub over here, but check out this pool. And as I got to the forward, I did realize that there is a drink station even in the back there, right there, just beyond the slide. I think we found the spa. Okay. On this side. It does seem like they have a hair salon. I might get my hair done today. Probably not today. I might get my hair done sometime this trip. Looks like a full-on thing. We're heading back into this lair because I think we missed something. And I think I see it already. So Park Cafe is in here. It's just on the other side. You can see there's some fresh options over here.

Sandwiches.

They do have fresh salads here, cold sandwiches, fruit, and then there's a carving station over there. And there's no Sorrentos on this one, but they have pizza up here. All right, so 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, and 10 are all staterooms. So we are headed down. We're gonna go to 4 now, and then we'll do 4, 5, and 6.

Yes.

Uh, change of plans. We are now at 6 because we saw the theater and we're like, let's just go check out the theater.

It's pretty big.

I'm secretly impressed so far what I've seen of this ship. I was not having the highest hopes. But what about you?

I am too. I can tell it's dated. It's aged. But it's really kept up well.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And here we're gonna run into the English Pub and then the casino. Looks like the pub is pretty happening right now because games are going on.

Football game.

It is Sunday with football. So we might be back there later, but for now, let's go in the casino. Easier to record when there's no machines going on.

Look at how many Ultimate Firelinks they have.

They have a lot of Ultimate Firelink. Dancing drums. There's some roulette, blackjack. Ultimate Texas Hold'em.

Um, it does appear that they have like the air purifying fans.

Oh yeah, which is probably a sign that there's some smoking.

I would assume you can smoke in this casino.

All right, check out these peacocks and the floor.

Like, the floor goes— is a peacock.

I love— there's like stained glass. This is a very old-school style.

Very much so.

But I really like it. I do see craps.

Blackjack.

Yeah, yeah, blackjack, Ultimate Texas Hold'em.

And that must be the Lady Luck.

Yeah, there's got to be something we can rub to win. Lots and lots of slot machines, but I think it's really cool and unique. All right, and since we're here in the casino, I do want to give a little shout out. This is not a sponsored ad. We are not being paid to say this. However, we did recently start working with You Are Comped, which is a program where you can upload your offers that you're getting from other casinos to go to places that you've never been to on a comp stay. So we used our Royal Caribbean comp to be able to book a casino that we haven't stayed at for years near, near home in Blackhawk, Colorado, which we're going to be staying at here in a couple of weeks. It was very simple. All I did was do some screenshots, send it in. They have a host who works with the casino that you're looking to stay at and you get a free stay. So we'll be staying there here in the next couple weeks. We are also looking in the future to be able to go on cruises with MSC, Virgin, and Margaritaville because we've already been on Royal Caribbean. I think Carnival is also in there that you can use. We're going to give you a link down below that you can go ahead and click on to sign up for this, and hopefully you can get some free comps at places you've wanted to stay at, you just didn't want to spend the money. Oh nice, we found Vintages.

We found the wine bar.

Yeah, I like the look of it over here. And then on every ship you guys see a Schooner Bar. You can see this is a huge Schooner Bar.

Oh, Chops Grille is right off the bar.

Well, let's check it out. Here's Chops. This is the steakhouse. It is an upcharge. Hello.

Nice.

It's very nice. It's got open kitchen, nice views. And then back into the bar. This is happening, and there's really good theming going on here. Giovanni's Table. This is the upcharge Italian restaurant on board. So there's 3 upcharge restaurants: Izumi, Giovanni's and Chops. I like the look of this even better than Chops.

Yeah, it's very pretty.

And just outside you can see there is a piano in the Schooner Bar. I think there's probably some Name That Tune going on during the trip or just entertainment. All right, and here's the Colony Club. Wow, this looks really nice. You can see there's some pool tables. Check out these pool tables. Oh gosh, there's an activity going on already.

What color is yak's milk?

We found the Chef's Table at the back of the Colony Club. We'll be here later this week. All right, we are on Deck 5 now in the main dining room. It looks like it is 2 floors.

Look, there's a piano.

What do you see?

Grand piano.

Oh, I wonder if somebody will play that during dinner. I doubt it, but it'd be cool if they did. It's very classy looking. Okay, so we booked this cruise way in advance, and usually we're really good at planning things. We booked it so far in advance we forgot about it and did not book My Time Dining. So we just realized that our dining was 4:45 every day. That's too early for us. Yeah, so we just came down and this young, nice young lady just helped us And she did move us to 8:15 every night, which is more our style.

And a window seat.

Oh, did she say that?

Yeah.

Nice. And we could have done my time, but she was like, if you want to do 8:00 or around then every night, you could just have 8:15 as a set time. So we did that.

There you go.

We all make mistakes, but these guys did a great job. Café Latitudes, if you want to get a coffee. And here is the shops, which we came through earlier. If you forget stuff, you can pay more for it here. Here is an art and photo gallery, so you can still get your picture taken.

I was gonna say, when you do the pictures, keep in mind—

Go for some awkward poses. That's what I recommend. All right, we're back in the theater, but one floor down because This is where our muster station is. And now we can get a little better view. Oh, they have a bar right there. Yeah.

Interesting.

I like the colors for some reason. They're all weird.

Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah, this is a big theater and big seats. Don't they seem big? Oh, they even got some 2-seaters.

Oh, nice. I always worry though about the cup holder thing because—

I know.

It'll spill any other glass besides a wine glass.

Yeah, wine glass is about the only thing you can use these with.

You really like the colors?

Like, they're unique. Not, not in my house.

Okay.

But on a cruise ship that did some gaudy theming, I do.

Yeah, it's interesting.

And this is one of them. All right, on Deck 4, over half of the ship is rooms, but there's something up ahead. All right, and we are coming to the Centrum area where I feel like this— the R Bar looks like it's been the place to be. Definitely the most exciting, most people we've seen.

This is hiding with project number three. Hiding with project number three.

Card rooms on this side, and on the other side you have guest services and shore excursions. And the final room, I believe, I think so, is the card room where you can come do some puzzles. And that's the ship.

Ship tour done.

Cheers.

Sparkly.

That's good. We almost missed this. There's a cinema.

Yeah, a movie theater showing newer movies.

They have like a Jurassic Park, one of the new ones. I don't know how many there are now, but yeah, I think we're gonna have to watch a movie at some point this trip. And we have set sail. Holy cows, look at this. That might be perfect timing. There's gonna be an airplane taking off. Here we would have— we've been on board for over 5 hours and we are just now eating.

So we had breakfast like 7 hours ago.

We did. So roast beef sandwich with some au jus and pepperoni pizza. Here's the football game. The weather's not nice, but the bar is open. All right, for dinner tonight we are here in the, uh, main dining room. You can see there, here is our bread service. We are gonna go ahead and push our limits, try to get 3 starters as well as 3 main courses. I'll let you see what we get later, and then a couple of desserts.

We're gonna get 3 starters?

We are getting 3 starters. You are learning it now.

Okay.

All right, for our appetizers, we did get some escargot. Always love it. First way I've ever had it, and I still enjoy it. And then a Little baby shrimp cocktail. There is also a crab cake, and it's here right now. Crispy crab cake looking good.

Oh, there it goes.

All right, all right, our main courses are here. We ended up with a prime rib. You can see there's some gravy on top of there, some carrots, some broccoli, and I think there's mashed potatoes underneath. This is a chicken Sog, which does come with a little roti, um, and like crisp— I don't know what the—

Papadon.

Papadon, there we go. Um, yeah, and some rice and fried chicken and mashed potatoes. Yeah, looks great. All right, for dessert we have a key lime pie, and Rachael got the artisanal cheese plate because she's all fancy now that we've been to Wisconsin. Yeah. Hallway. Yes, um, so we ended up hanging out with our friends Jordan and Ashton. We had some drinks.

The boat is rocking.

Yeah, it is really rocking tonight. Rachael's walking on top of me.

Tripping.

Um, but we had some drinks, we went to the casino, we did not go to a show, but we did— you saw we went to dinner in the main dining room.

Yeah.

It was overall pretty dang good.

Best bite of Best bite of today? This is so weird. And it has to be on the ship, right?

I think so, because otherwise, uh, it would be included in our Boston video, which is gonna come out probably after this video.

Okay, it was a piece of pizza.

Oh wow.

I mean, like, sometimes at once— if you've ever cruised, you understand, like, you end up loving or hating the free pizza, and I liked it today. It really did taste good.

Oh, you might be right.

Um, now my fried chicken at dinner was good too, but it, it's not going to be memorable.

Fried chicken was good. Okay, I, I'll go with the escargot because it was the first way that I ever had escargot was on a cruise ship like this. It's always the same, it's classic, and they give a little bit of bread that you can just dunk in that butter and it's great.

Yeah. Uh, best I think, um, we did our little ship tour, and I would say we sat down at the Vintages Wine Bar and finally grabbed a glass of wine, and it's like, we're back on a cruise! We're back on a Royal Caribbean cruise, which is— it's been almost a year since we've been on one.

Yeah, I kind of think the same thing. I would probably even, uh, whether it was at Vintages where we were just after we did our tour and we were just Relaxing. If not, I would say up in the Solarium. I was so excited to see the over-the-top theming. Yeah, because nothing is built like this anymore. It feels like everything is just like modern luxury-ish. Yeah, kind of thing is what they're all going for. So I love the kitschy feel that— like the giant elephants, give me a break. I love it. All right.

It's cheesy, but it's fun.

On that note, we are headed to Saint John, New Brunswick, which is in Canada. Uh, we are headed there tomorrow. We're gonna do some kayaking. We do have 4 ports this cruise. We're gonna bring you along for all of them, but we gotta go to bed. We'll see you tomorrow. If you're enjoying our videos, don't forget to hit that like and subscribe.

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This boat is rocking so bad. Good night!