MS Brilliance of the Seas

Brilliance of the Seas docked at Valletta, Malta following the heeling incident at Alexandria
Career
Name:	Brilliance of the Seas
Owner:	Royal Caribbean International
Operator:	RCL UK Ltd.
Port of registry:	Nassau, Bahamas
Builder:	Meyer Werft, (Papenburg, Germany)
Cost:	US $350 million
Launched:	May 31, 2002
Christened:	July 13, 2002 by Marilyn Ofer in Harwich, England
Completed:	July 15, 2002
In service:	2002-present
Identification:	IMO number: 9195200 Call Sign C6SJ5
Status:	In Active Service as of 2012
Notes:	CDC sanitation score: 99% (July 6, 2008)
General characteristics
Class and type:	Radiance-class cruise ship
Tonnage:	gross tonnage (GT) of 90,090 tons
Length:	962 ft (293 m)
Beam:	105.6 ft (32.2 m)
Draft:	27.8 ft (8.5 m)
Decks:	12 decks
Installed power:	Gas turbine (20.5MW each), 3 bow thrusters
Propulsion:	2 azimuthing pods (19.5MW each)
Speed:	25-knot (46 km/h; 29 mph)
Capacity:	2,501 passengers
Crew:	859 crew

MS Brilliance of the Seas is a cruise ship belonging to the Royal Caribbean's Radiance class. It cruises the Mediterranean from April to January, and is based in Dubai - sailing to ports around the Middle East and India - from November to April, doing two repositioning cruises each year which take it through the Suez Canal. Brilliance of the Seas is operated by RCL UK Ltd., a subsidiary of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.

In March 2011, Royal Caribbean International announced that Brilliance will reposition to Northern Europe for the summer of 2012. She will be homeported at Amsterdam and Copenhagen to go on cruises to the Norwegian Fjords and the Arctic Circle and the Baltic, between 7 and 12 nights. After her Northern Europe season between May and September 2012, Brilliance of the Seas will cruise to Canada and New England between September and October 2012. She will then sail from Cape Liberty and San Juan 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
• 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 youth facilities
• Day Spa and Fitness Center
• Sports court with basketball/volleyball court
• Panamax 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 Shelley 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 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 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 had agreed to pay compensation to Smith's estate, later revealed to be more than $1 million. Investigation of the death continues in 2012. The NY Post reports the matter has been referred to the Mafia division of the FBI. A 2012 Dateline TV show sheds new light on the theories that the death was possible a robbery gone bad.

External links

• official website
• transcript of Larry King Live! interview with family of George Smith
• Brilliance of the Seas Cutaway