Brilliance of the Seas - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Motor ship

A motor ship or motor vessel is a ship propelled by an internal combustion engine, usually a diesel engine. The name of motor ships are often prefixed with MS, M/S, MV or M/V.- See also :...

Brilliance of the Seas is a cruise ship

Cruise ship

A cruise ship or cruise liner is a passenger ship used for pleasure voyages, where the voyage itself and the ship's amenities are part of the experience, as well as the different destinations along the way...

belonging to the Royal Caribbean

Royal Caribbean International

Royal Caribbean International is a Norwegian and American cruise line brand based in Miami, Florida and owned by Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.. With 42 ships in service under 5 different brands and one more under construction, it controls a 25.6% share of the world cruise market...

's Radiance class

Radiance Class

The Radiance class is a class of cruise ships for Royal Caribbean. It is preceded by the Voyager class and succeeded by the Freedom-class...

. It cruises the Mediterranean from April to January, and is based in Dubai

Dubai

Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...

- sailing to ports around the Middle East

Middle East

The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...

and India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

- from November to April, doing two repositioning cruises each year which take it through the Suez Canal

Suez Canal

The Suez Canal , also known by the nickname "The Highway to India", is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Opened in November 1869 after 10 years of construction work, it allows water transportation between Europe and Asia without navigation...

. Brilliance of the Seas is operated by RCL UK Ltd.

Royal Caribbean International

, a subsidiary of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. is a Norwegian / American company based in Miami, Florida. It is the world's second-largest cruise line operator, after Carnival Corporation & PLC. As of March 2009, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd...

In March 2011, Royal Caribbean International

Royal Caribbean International

announced that Brilliance will reposition to Northern Europe for the summer of 2012. She will be homeported at Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

and Copenhagen

Copenhagen

Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...

to go on cruises to the Norwegian Fjords and the Arctic Circle

Arctic Circle

The Arctic Circle is one of the five major circles of latitude that mark maps of the Earth. For Epoch 2011, it is the parallel of latitude that runs north of the Equator....

and the Baltic

Baltic

-Northern Europe:* The Baltic Sea* Baltic states : Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia* The Baltic region, an ambiguous term referring to the general area surrounding the Baltic Sea...

, between 7 and 12 nights. After her Northern Europe season between May and September 2012, Brilliance of the Seas will cruise to Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

and New England

New England

New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...

between September and October 2012. She will then sail from Cape Liberty

Bayonne, New Jersey

Bayonne is a city in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. Located in the Gateway Region, Bayonne is a peninsula that is situated between Newark Bay to the west, the Kill van Kull to the south, and New York Bay to the east...

and San Juan

San Juan, Puerto Rico

San Juan , officially Municipio de la Ciudad Capital San Juan Bautista , is the capital and most populous municipality in Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 395,326 making it the 46th-largest city under the jurisdiction of...

to the Southern Caribbean.

Itineraries

The Brilliance of the Seas sails from Barcelona to the Mediterranean and from Dubai to the Arabian Peninsula and India. She is also sails through the Suez Canal during her repositioning cruises. Starting in 2012, she will sail from Copenhagen to Northern Europe and in September 2012 she will make a transatlantic crossing to New York. From there she will sail to Canada and New England until November, when she will sail from Cape Liberty to San Juan where she will do Southern Caribbean voyages.

Characteristics

Rock-climbing wall
Climbing wall
A climbing wall is an artificially constructed wall with grips for hands and feet, usually used for indoor climbing, but sometimes located outdoors as well. Some are brick or wooden constructions, but on most modern walls, the material most often used is a thick multiplex board with holes drilled...
Portofino Italian Restaurant
Chops Grille
Seaview Café
Latté-tudes, a specialty coffee house featuring Seattle's Best Coffee
Themed bars and lounges
Casino Royale
Indian Raj-themed Solarium
Colony Club, a unique British colonial-style lounge with self-leveling pool tables
Indoor/outdoor country club with golf simulator
Adventure Ocean
Adventure Ocean
Adventure Ocean is the brand name for Royal Caribbean International's youth activity program on board their vessels. There are different programs tailored to fit seven age groups. Most Adventure Ocean activities are free. Some activities are sponsored by Fisher-Price and Crayola...

youth facilities
Day Spa and Fitness Center
Sports court with basketball/volleyball court
Panamax
Panamax
Panamax and New Panamax are popular terms for the size limits for ships traveling through the Panama Canal. Formally, the limits and requirements are published by the Panama Canal Authority titled "Vessel Requirements"...

Ship

Incidents

On December 11, 2010 Brilliance of the Seas left Rhodes, Greece on a 6-port cruise to Alexandria, Egypt and other stops around the eastern Mediterranean and experienced very high seas and hurricane force winds overnight. During the night winds were noted by passengers watching the ship's heading and statistics channel to max out at around 82 miles per hour. At around 2:15 AM, it is reported that in a cluster of ships rushing to enter the port of Alexandria, a freighter turned in front of the Brilliance, forcing the ship's captain, Erik Tengelsen, to slow her below the 9 knots per hour necessary to maintain her stabilizers' function. Brilliance was thus at the mercy of 50 to 60 foot waves and started to heel port and starboard violently. Passengers reported that they were thrown out of beds; furniture and unsecured objects tossed and slid about their staterooms. A grand piano smashed through a window. The ship's Christmas tree fell over in the Centrum Lobby giving an eerie Poseidon Adventure feel to the incident, beckoning back to the 1972 movie starring Gene Hackman and Shellie Winters in which passengers of a capsized ship were forced to climb up a toppled Christmas tree to escape before she sunk completely. Windows and mirrors were smashed, and the spa basins were damaged. A reported 105 passengers needed medical treatment for their injuries, although that number continues to be disputed by both passengers and Royal Caribbean International interests. The heeling incident lasted several minutes, after which the Captain acknowledged that it had been a "horrifying experience." Captain Erik reported to news outlets that he was taken by surprise at the force of the storm when, he said, weather reports leaving Rhodes only forecast winds at 40 mph. That claim however flies in the face of some reports by passengers who said the captain warned them via the ship's intercom system soon after leaving Greece to prepare for a bumpy night with "very high seas" and winds as much as 60 mph. It is for that reason that many passengers felt the Captain and Royal Caribbean were partly responsible for the horrifying heeling incident that passengers were subjected to, since they knew well in advance what the potential for trouble was. The next morning, Royal Caribbean International announced through its crew that a $200 per-stateroom refund would be given. Following a brief, but vocal outrage in the Centrum Lobby, Royal reconsidered and announced that on top of the $200, passengers could also expect a full refund of each passenger's stateroom fare.

George Allen Smith controversy

In July 2005, Royal Caribbean

Royal Caribbean International

was plagued by a controversy that involved the disappearance of one of their passengers, George Allen Smith. Although the cruise line claims that his death was the result of an accident, evidence suggests that foul play may have been involved. Blood was found in his cabin and on the side of the ship where he allegedly fell overboard and drowned. The FBI announced that they were investigating the disappearance on July 29, 2005. Geraldo Rivera

Geraldo Rivera

Geraldo Rivera is an American attorney, journalist, author, reporter, and former talk show host...

aired a news story interviewing Josh Askin, one of the last people seen with George Allen Smith, along with two Russian boys, Greg Rozenberg and Zach Rozenberg. On June 29, 2006, it was announced that Royal Caribbean International

Royal Caribbean International

had agreed to pay compensation to Smith's estate, later revealed to be more than $1 million.

External links

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