Brilliance of the Seas: Eating in the Baltic with Royal Caribbean

Now first of all I need to make my excuses for my online absence for the past few weeks; the recent warm

Sightseeing in Russia - Petershof Palace - Photo by Vicki

weather has made the prospect of sitting in front of a laptop incredibly undesirable so I have (sadly) been neglecting my blog.

Moving on from my heat induced laziness; I would like to write about my recent family holiday (with a focus on the food and drink). I am lucky enough to have parents who are still willing to take their (almost) grown up daughter (and her brother) on holiday with them, and so at the beginning of July I spent 12 all-inclusive days on one of Royal Caribbean’s cruise ships Brilliance of the Seas, cruising the Baltic. 

I saw some amazing places, one of the most interesting being St Petersburg and the most beautiful being Stockholm, but never having spent much time in Northern Europe visiting Copenhagen, Helsinki, Gothenburg and Tallinn made this a unique and intriguing holiday. 

Medieval walls of Tallinn - photo by Vicki

In order to take full advantage of the all inclusive nature of the ship we ate all of our meals on the ship, although this meant that we didn’t always take advantage of the beautiful cafes in these European towns, it was quite a lot easier and of course cheaper! 

That being said we did visit cafes for coffee (and sometimes a

snack). My favourite cafe for view and venue was in Tallinn, built into the medieval walls of the city this cafe offered great coffee with a brilliant view. In terms of food, my favourite would have to be a cafe in the old town section of Gothenburg known as Haga. Attracted by pastries the size of dinner plates, we couldn’t resist going into a cafe and buying what turned out to be a Hagabulle, which is a huge sugary cinnamon bun really, it’s definitely something I want to try making myself, it really was so tasty!

A Hagabulle! - photo by Vicki

Food on the ship was also tasty and interesting. As Royal Caribbean is an American company, a lot of the food is very different to what British people are used to, you are experiencing American cuisine really. There was the option of “gravy and biscuits” for breakfast, which is rarely seen on the breakfast tables of Britain. There were two main options for food on the ship, the casual Windjammer Cafe and the more formal Main Dining Room, but there were also a selection of specialist dining restaurants you could visit at an extra charge. 

The Windjammer is a buffet style restaurant which serves food for most of the day. It was a favourite of my parents for breakfast and lunch, ideal for variety and differing appetites the Windjammer is incredibly popular. You can basically have whatever you want, I saw people with sausages on the same plate as their desserts!  

Delicately presented pork escalope (melt in the mouth!)

The Main Dining Room however is  more fun for your evening meal, a three course meal with attentive waiters? Could it get any more luxurious? There was a wide variety of dishes you could have, catering even for specialist diets. The pomp and circumstance of the Main Dining Room isn’t for everyone, but personally, dressing up for a special and tasty meal is a lot of fun. See the pictures for examples of my favourite dishes from the dining room! 

One night we decided to give the dining rooms a miss and try one of

the specialty options. We decided to go for Giovanni’s Table, an Italian “family style” restaurant, promising a warm welcome and plenty of food. As many of you will know I have a particular soft spot for Italian food and Giovanni’s definitely didn’t disappoint. We spoilt for choice! We enjoyed a sharing starter between the four of us, similar to an antipasti (but with pasta and scallops), alongside particularly tasty polenta bread. For my main I had a steak, which really was melt in the mouth, despite being quite full I couldn’t resist finishing it! The dessert was probably the cutest part of the meal, we were given the choice from a variety of cakes

Banana Creme Brulee (crunchy, caramelly and tasty)

and pastries presented in what could only be described as a dessert cart. I had a chocolate marzipan cake, which was rich and delicious. Overall it was a very good experience, yet it is hard to justify paying more when the dining room is so desirable is rather difficult!

Salmon fishcake starter (always a favourite for me!)

In all I would have to say that the food on Brilliance of the Seas was tasty and offered a wide variety. The staff are incredibly friendly and helpful (as you would expect with an American firm) and we felt incredibly welcome while we were there, particularly in the Schooner Bar in which we picked up our Cocktail of the Day every evening. The only downsides would have to be that American cake icing is different to ours (soft and creamy rather than more solid) and how tight my jeans felt when I got back to the UK!