Ten million is the amount in dollars of paintings, photos and sculptures that are spread all around the ship; 2,300 is the number of merrymakers on board; 861 is the number of crew members; 53 is the number of their nationalities. And one is the general manager at the helm of this floating hotel.
Five is the number of gowns that the bubbly cruise director packed for this four-day cruise; four is the number of married couples that joined her Marriage Game; 19 was the age when she first worked on a cruise ship; and 800 is the number of naked bodies she once saw in a nudist cruise of another cruise company.
If this is beginning to sound like Harper’s Index, it’s because the mere numbers one encounters on a cruise are astounding.
Okay, here’s one more statistic: Twelve is the number of Filipinos in our group of journalists, Northwest Airlines and Royal Caribbean Cruise representatives. The group was composed of Alex Vergara of Inquirer, Ivy Lisa Mendoza of Bulletin, Donnie Ramirez of Metro, Mel Ilona of Manila Times, Antonette Reyes of Business World, Lorraine Belmonte of Lifestyle Asia, Dennis Serfino of Manila Standard, Resty Vergara of Mr. & Ms., Adin Gonzales and Melissa Garong of Northwest Airlines and Joy Abrogar of Arpan Air, Royal Carribean International’s representative in the Philippines. (12 was also the number of cell phones beeping and ringing or failing to get connected all throughout the trip).
This merry band of adventurers began their journey in Manila on a Sunday and flew via Northwest to the new Northwest Gateway in Detroit, the Edward MacNamara Airport, which opened just last year. In Northwest’s first or business class section, flying is definitely a pleasure (five is the number of courses served at dinner), even when it takes almost an entire day to reach your destination.
On Monday afternoon, after an overnight stay in Detroit, we boarded the Brilliance of the Seas, the spanking new ship of Royal Caribbean International (RCI), to be only the 11th batch of passengers. Judging by its new embarkation building, we knew the trip was going to be smooth sailing all the way.
Ten design and architectural firms worked on the ship, so the restaurants, lobby and other public spaces all look different. It was, however, the London Contemporary Art (LCA) that filled the spaces with art (not for sale, though they have had many offers).
What threads the look together are the artworks, and even then you get diverse media and subjects, depending on which part of the ship you’re standing. "This emphasis on art is unique to Royal Caribbean," says general manager Helmut Leikauf, who has been at the helm of Brilliance since it sailed off for its maiden voyage in July 2002. "The art is our trademark. We want to have the best artworks in the world." His ship is the 10th vessel of RCI that the London firm has designed an art program for.
The dominant theme of the artworks "explores urban images" from around the world: from sculptures of cell phones to generic sports figures, from chiaroscuro photos of New York to Barcelona, from glass and metal artworks to marble abstracts; from model ships to paintings of a Mediterranean marketplace. There are also vintage photos of Hollywood stars – such as Sarah Jessica Parker in a tutu and Candice Bergen – by name photographers along the corridors.
Alex, Ivy and I would sometimes stand in the stairways just admiring the art. (The glass elevators, too, were a kick to take since they provide views of the ship’s main lobby or the sea on the horizon.) It was an unexpected surprise to see such attention to detail. The three of us having gone on previous cruises of other companies, we agreed that this one tops our list of elegant taste.
The most dominant sculpture on board is the "Spiral Light" located in the seven-deck-high atrium. Made of stainless steel and architectural mesh, it is a tilted geometric form based on a mathematical sequence. Created by Americans Warren Seelig and Sheryl Gibson, its translucent mesh gives a soft, light touch to the huge vertical space.
Two of the best sculptures for me are "The Seagull Has Landed," by British Shona Kinloch, which shows a chunky cruise passenger wearing sunglasses and smiling contentedly with a seagull perched on his head; the second is David Thomson’s "Sunbather," a young naked subather looking so serene and seemingly oblivious to what’s around her. Both sculptures have a touch of humor and gives off the attitude most passengers take on a cruise ship: What the hell, we’re enjoying ourselves.
When we were being toured by Brilliance’s group coordinator Mary Campbell, who had very little time on her hands, I told her as we got to the shopping center that we could give her a tour of this place.
"Over here are the perfumes where Ivy bought J’adore; here are the ‘pashmina-like’ shawls (honestly, it does say that on the label) stacked to the ceiling that Tanya bought; here are the watches we all went crazy over (15 is the number of watches Lorraine bought for Christmas gifts); here are the gold bracelets you buy by the inch which Donnie went home with; here are the Brilliance of the Seas T-shirts, mugs, pajamas and other souvenir items which they cut in price by half on the last night, so hold your horses; here are the high-ticket items like digital cameras and camcorders, and Cartier watches and jewelry."
Past the shopping center was the photo gallery, displaying photos of passengers taken when they were boarding or during the Captain’s Night or at the makeshift studio (with a grand Roman staircase in the background, no less). You know, the Luneta-type photos that they sell at rather high prices ($4 each). The thing is, you’ve already been to the shops and feeling guilty over your purchases, so you are bound to be sober by the time you reach the gallery. Unless, of course, you’re Donnie Ramirez and you just won in the casino and felt like treating everybody to two photos at the end of the trip!
Arriving at RCI’s new embarkation building, we met Joy Abrogar of Arpan Air and were given our cruise pack and tags. Note: Don’t ever, ever lose your SeaPass card. It’s your life while you’re on board the ship. It opens your stateroom door, it indicates your dinner table number, it allows you to shop, and it lets you get off the ship and back on it.
So we were standing in line in the building waiting for our turn to fill up immigration cards (you need a multiple-entry visa because you’re leaving US waters) and to surrender our passports. Along the way were snack stations with coffee and oatmeal cookies that were so good you’d think Mrs. Fields was in there baking nonstop. Oh, there were lots more cookies on board (alas, we kept missing teatime because we were out gallivanting at the ports of call).
The first meal we had was at Windjammer Café, where most people eat during the daytime. It’s buffet style, so say bye-bye diet. There are several stations here for salad, main entrees, pasta, vegetables, desserts, soda and spirits, and coffee.
It’s also here that we met our first kababayans who are mostly single and having a good time seeing the world and, as any OFW, a hell of a time missing their families, too. Brilliance has around 180 Filipino crew members on board (the second biggest nationality, following the Indians) who work in the housekeeping, and food and beverage departments. One of the highest ranking crew member is Jonjon Baina, now a bar manager, who started as a bar waiter on board another cruise company when he was 19 years old. Married with two kids, he’s been able to build a house back home, get a franchise of a salon in Sta. Ana and regularly vacations with his wife Ruth at his mom’s home in LA. It’s a great way to earn a living, he says. "You see the world but you also miss home."
For dinner, we would often go to Minstrel, the two-level formal dining room. Luckily, our table was manned by a Pinay married to a Turk. She just fussed over us like a mother hen when we were too full to finish our food, waving off protestations about dessert.
On our last day at sea, we had lunch at Seaview Cafe. It’s a diner-style restaurant with the fare ranging from milkshakes to burgers, fish and chips, salads, burritos, chips and salsa, hotdogs, soups and to-die-for brownies. As the name implies, the nice thing about it is that it affords you a view of the sea while eating.
The Solarium Café serves pizza. Unfortunately, we were not able to try it as it was always full around meal times. It has a Maharaja theme going with elephant sculptures by the pool – no, I don’t think they serve curry.
For those looking for more fine-dining fare, there are two restaurants that require a fee ($20), Chops Grille Steakhouse and the Italian restaurant Portofino. And if you’re too lazy to get out of your stateroom, you can order room service around the clock.
The young Australian executive chef Leigh Hesling is on top of all the ship’s food outlets. Only 28 years old, his culinary career spans 11 years. He has worked in island resorts and city hotels in Australia and New Zealand and from there he worked in Europe, including at the famous Chez Nico in London. He started his cruise career on QE2 where he met his wife Lori (she’s now the leader of Brilliance’s dance troupe). They joined Royal Caribbean two and a half years ago and got married on Voyager of the Seas. No, he didn’t have to cook for his own reception.
So why go from a Michelin-star restaurant to a floating one? "It was an opportunity to travel, to learn, to get a different kind of exposure," he says.
As the ship’s executive chef, he is "still astounded every day by the sheer volume of food we cook and passengers consume." It’s a major production: ordering, storing and preparing the food. For instance, the ship has a special cold room for bananas alone which they get in three stages – green, almost ripe and ripe. They also have special temperature-controlled storage for each type of food.
A lot rests on this young chef’s shoulders because "food is a big part of the cruise." Honestly, every passenger complains about gaining weight even as they heap food on their plates.
He says, "I’ve been approached by many guests who tell me that our food is comparable to the best hotels in the world. As far as value for money goes, Royal Caribbean stands out." It’s not only the cooking that’s a challenge for him, but managing people, too. Imagine working with eight nationalities in the galley – all carrying their own cooking traditions. Sometimes he has to fix little accidents like when an Indian cook decided to put cayenne pepper in the huge pot of lobster bisque, making it too spicy.
His worst nightmare? A food-borne disease on his watch. But he boasts proudly, "Brilliance passed our health inspection with 100 points, a perfect score. Only four ships have done that."
Entertainment on board varies from Rockettes-style dancing to Broadway revues to comedy shows. On our first night, we watched standup comedian Rodney Johnson make fun of growing up with a mama that could "whup his ass" anytime.
The best entertainment was actually when passengers participated. Clo had organized a Marriage Game where four couples, including an elderly couple, displayed their knowledge, or lack of it, about their spouses. First the wives were brought backstage and the husbands were asked questions about them – bra size, including, and you can imagine one wife’s horror when her husband wrongly answered 38E – and then they were brought back in to match their answers. Then it was the husbands’ turn.
Clo had every retort for every answer and had the audience laughing. But, contrary to speculation, she doesn’t have a background in or ambitions of becoming either a comedian or a performer, she told us when we met up with her at the business center (yes, there are business centers and conference rooms on this leisure ship).
"I love to host," she says. "I genuinely do not consider myself a comedian. You’ll never hear me tell a joke. But I will tell true stories."
So her story goes like this: She left school at 19 and worked for the Irish Tourism Board. At winter, she’d get bored out of her mind because there were no tourists. That’s when she saw an ad in the paper that said, "Do you want to see the world?" So her parents put her on a plane to Ireland and she went to Alaska. She started as a cabin steward, making beds and cleaning toilets. "There were four cultures in one cabin when I first joined this small ship (300 was the number of passengers). Me, I was Irish, a Canadian, an American and a Filipino girl. The four of us in one cabin, and we got on like sisters. It was wonderful. There were never any arguments – and this was one bathroom!"
After that cruise ship, she worked at Logan Airport in Boston for six months, but found the city too cold. "I had to get back on a ship." She became a DJ, a shore excursion manager, assistant cruise director and assistant stage manager.
Last year, she transferred to Royal Caribbean and she’s been having a blast since. With her staff of 72, she puts together the ship’s magazine Compass, which features activities for the day, and she also evaluates the entertainment acts on board. "I’ve worked with the Osmonds and recently with the Platters. It’s wonderful."
Apart from the shows at Pacifica Theater, there are theme parties going on all over the ship like the ‘70s theme at the Starquest disco (ths DJ wore a wonderful Afro wig; alas, he lacked an appreciation for ’70s music), a Caribbean party at the pool, or a rock ‘n’ roll night.
One of the most memorable cruises she’s had was a nudist cruise. "Not Brilliance of the Seas," she emphasizes with a laugh. "It was chartered by 800 guests with nothing on for a week. Fortunately, the crew was allowed to wear their clothes." Sure beats spending an afternoon at the bingo room.
One of the best times to go on a cruise she says, is Christmas and New Year. "It’s wonderful. We have Christmas carols, a Christmas tree and Santa Claus for the children. I will warn you, though, that there are usually about 500 to 600 children on board. Anything can happen!"
Speaking of children, Brilliance has facilities for kids to teenagers and offers babysitting. Kids have a grand time playing video games, romping in the daycare or hanging out in the disco.
For fitness buffs like Alex, they can work out at the huge gym to burn off calories, or they can climb a wall or practice their putts and drives with a computer simulator.
Joy Abrogar says that as far as the Philippine market is concerned, lots of families are now holding reunions at sea. A cruise is also the preferred incentive reward of employees.
Eleven is the number of friends I made on board (some of them old friends, some of them new). Two is the number of pictures I had in my passport holder (one of Freeway the dog and one of R. the husband), whom I missed.
Finally, four is the number of days and nights we spent aboard Brilliance of the Seas. And more is the number of days we would have liked the cruise to be.