Celebrity Mercury

[Karen Henelde]

Does anyone know if this older Celebrity ship has been refurbished recently,
or if it's scheduled to be refurbished? We're looking at Celebrity's
Mexican Riviera itineraries sailing on the Mercury in late '07. This would
be our first Celebrity experience. Thanks.

Karen
Owings Mills, MD

[Bob]

The last time the Mercury was refurbished was 2002
"Karen Henelde" > wrote in message
. ..
> Does anyone know if this older Celebrity ship has been refurbished
> recently, or if it's scheduled to be refurbished? We're looking at
> Celebrity's Mexican Riviera itineraries sailing on the Mercury in late
> '07. This would be our first Celebrity experience. Thanks.
>
> Karen
> Owings Mills, MD
>

[number6]

Karen Henelde wrote:
> Does anyone know if this older Celebrity ship has been refurbished recently,
> or if it's scheduled to be refurbished? We're looking at Celebrity's
> Mexican Riviera itineraries sailing on the Mercury in late '07. This would
> be our first Celebrity experience. Thanks.
>

We were on it early this year on the 10 day Mexican Riviera Cruise
before it was refurbished ... even then though some complained that it
needed it ... I was suitably impressed with the ship, the crew and the
overall Celebrity cruising experience to rate Celebrity the top rated
mass market line in my book ... Though freestyle at Norwegian is the
controlling factor most often ... and usually is my cruise of choice
.... Celebrity would be my choice otherwise ...

You will enjoy everything about that cruise ... make sure you take one
that goes to Acapulco though ... the cliff divers put on a wonderful
show ...

[Karen Henelde]

The itinerary that we're looking at is the 10- or 11-night that does include
Acapulco, which appeals to us. Also, we liked that the ship starts and ends
in San Diego, which is one of our favorite U.S. cities. We spent a lot of
time there in the early '90s when one of my husband's subcontractors kept
him traveling out there quite frequently. Lucky me got to tag along on a
few of those trips. If we do this cruise, it would be a terrific
opportunity to revisit San Diego and spend a few days there.

Karen
Owings Mills, MD



"number6" > wrote in message
oups.com...
>
> Karen Henelde wrote:
>> Does anyone know if this older Celebrity ship has been refurbished
>> recently,
>> or if it's scheduled to be refurbished? We're looking at Celebrity's
>> Mexican Riviera itineraries sailing on the Mercury in late '07. This
>> would
>> be our first Celebrity experience. Thanks.
>>
>
> We were on it early this year on the 10 day Mexican Riviera Cruise
> before it was refurbished ... even then though some complained that it
> needed it ... I was suitably impressed with the ship, the crew and the
> overall Celebrity cruising experience to rate Celebrity the top rated
> mass market line in my book ... Though freestyle at Norwegian is the
> controlling factor most often ... and usually is my cruise of choice
> ... Celebrity would be my choice otherwise ...
>
> You will enjoy everything about that cruise ... make sure you take one
> that goes to Acapulco though ... the cliff divers put on a wonderful
> show ...
>

[Warren[_1_]]

Karen Henelde wrote:
> Does anyone know if this older Celebrity ship has been refurbished recently,
> or if it's scheduled to be refurbished? We're looking at Celebrity's
> Mexican Riviera itineraries sailing on the Mercury in late '07. This would
> be our first Celebrity experience. Thanks.
>

I was aboard in May. I was quite disappointed with Mercury. She felt
shabby. This was my second cruise aboard Mercury - the first being the
original rec.travel.cruises GGC in December '98. I wasn't terribly
impressed by Celebrity back then (more hype than substance) but I would
acknowledge that the dining room service back then was done with quite
a bit of panache. So I was quite disappointed to discover that now
there is very little difference between RCI and Celebrity - at least
comparing Mercury to my next most recent cruise aboard Legend of the
Seas (a similarly sized and aged ship). The menus were nearly identical
and so were the table settings, but the food was actually slightly
better on Legend of the Seas. I actually gave the edge to Royal
Caribbean in terms of ambience and service.

I recommend that you consider RCI, HAL and Princess for similar
itineraries and choose based on fare. You won't be getting anything
special or extra choosing Celebrity, in my opinion.

Warren
next up: cruise #36, aboard HAL's Noordam

[Karen Henelde]

Thanks for your response. I'll look at the other cruiselines and see what
they are offering for a similar itinerary. At this point, we're just
looking--not yet ready to book.

Karen
Owings Mills, MD


"Warren" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> Karen Henelde wrote:
>> Does anyone know if this older Celebrity ship has been refurbished
>> recently,
>> or if it's scheduled to be refurbished? We're looking at Celebrity's
>> Mexican Riviera itineraries sailing on the Mercury in late '07. This
>> would
>> be our first Celebrity experience. Thanks.
>>
>
> I was aboard in May. I was quite disappointed with Mercury. She felt
> shabby. This was my second cruise aboard Mercury - the first being the
> original rec.travel.cruises GGC in December '98. I wasn't terribly
> impressed by Celebrity back then (more hype than substance) but I would
> acknowledge that the dining room service back then was done with quite
> a bit of panache. So I was quite disappointed to discover that now
> there is very little difference between RCI and Celebrity - at least
> comparing Mercury to my next most recent cruise aboard Legend of the
> Seas (a similarly sized and aged ship). The menus were nearly identical
> and so were the table settings, but the food was actually slightly
> better on Legend of the Seas. I actually gave the edge to Royal
> Caribbean in terms of ambience and service.
>
> I recommend that you consider RCI, HAL and Princess for similar
> itineraries and choose based on fare. You won't be getting anything
> special or extra choosing Celebrity, in my opinion.
>
> Warren
> next up: cruise #36, aboard HAL's Noordam
>

[number6]

Karen Henelde wrote:
> The itinerary that we're looking at is the 10- or 11-night that does include
> Acapulco, which appeals to us. Also, we liked that the ship starts and ends
> in San Diego, which is one of our favorite U.S. cities. We spent a lot of
> time there in the early '90s when one of my husband's subcontractors kept
> him traveling out there quite frequently. Lucky me got to tag along on a
> few of those trips. If we do this cruise, it would be a terrific
> opportunity to revisit San Diego and spend a few days there.


Below is a cut and paste from my review ... it is part 1 but part 2
never happened ...


After 10 days cruising the Mexican Riviera on the Celebrity
Mercury2/3/2006-2/13/2006 , the comedy of errors on our return to New
Jersey from San Diego couldn't dampen the feeling we had from this
cruise ...

First the criticisms ...


WORST LIFEBOAT DRILL EVER - When we got our information about our
muster stations my hopes were raised as they were in lounges or the
casino ... The Pac Princess did it that way and that was the best
lfeboat drill ever ... seated with a concise run through followed by an

easy trip back to one's room ... Well no such luck ... that was merely
gathering us crowded together for part one ... this was long and boring

enough ... then we all followed the leader outside to our life boat
station ... and waited ... there was a call for a crew drill ... and we

waited ... then other areas went outside ... and another crew drill and

we waited ... and again ... then we just waited and they had another
crew drill ... then they let us leave back to our rooms but told us to
keep out life vests on ...like they weren't on long enough already ...
I think to make the elevators hold less and make it more uncomfortable
and delayed to return to one's room ... longest/least efficient most
uncomfortable drill ever ...


1) The entertainment was too similar ... pretty much singing and
dancing from the production company ... Though they were excellent ...
and the vast majority of the audience seemed thrilled ... only one late

hour comic, a Mexican revue, a banjo player and a gymnast couple were
there for 10 days ... plenty of good music in the lounges so to me ..
too similar ...


2) The soap dish in the shower and the toilet paper holders were
terrible... The soap fell through very easily and it took great
technique to get more than one square of toilet paper ... and with all
the great food on board ... believe me that was annoying ...


3) The cruise director was terribly remiss in his duties in reminding
me of Bingo and art auctions ... I missed them all ... I'm used to
being constantly reminded and here ... lucky once a day at noon ... and

then only in public areas ...


OK ... I'm being facetious about #3 ... and #2 shows how picky one has

to be to find fault with this cruise ...


Everything about this cruise rated very highly ...


Embarkation Day ... went smoothly ... we pre registered ...and a 1
person ,1 minute wait was all that kept us from going up the gangway to

get on board with our welcome abord champagne awaiting us as we boarded

at about 11:00 am ... Though they don't guanantee rooms will be ready
until 1 pm ... ours was at 11 am with our room steward Elvie and
assistant putting a few finishing touches here and there ... very
competent ... Elvie's done this ship for a few years after 5 on the NY
to Bermuda route on a different Celebrity ship ... Her competence gets
the routine done quickly ... leaving time for a few nice touches ...
Then to lunch on the welcome abord buffet ... and very quickly I
realized this was not your typical buffet - having been on several
Carnival and NCL ships and the Zuidy and Pac Princess ... I've been
pretty jaded by all the buffets as good ... but not special ... well
here I met special ... Fresh fruit ... not just melons and canteloupes
.... but some strawberries ... and kiwi and raspberries and blackberries

and blueberries ... which appeared throughout the cruise in various
concoctions ... how they kept them all fresh throughout the cruise
amazed me ... lots of other good looking good tasting interesting
dishes ... plenty of servers around both filling your plates (someone
told me that Celebrity does this to prevent Norwalk - along with the
numerous disinfection stations all over ...) and carrying them to
tables ... much more than anywhere else ...
Next, a walk around the ship quickly impressed me as to how well the
ship was laid out ... 5 sea days awaiting us was reason to find nice
places to relax on board ... we're not pool people ... but finding
quiet places on board to relax was easy ... the Navigator club forward
deck 12 was perfect for sea days ... but plenty of relaxing places
abound ...
With early seating at 6 PM we anxiously awaited our luggage ... which
seemed to be coming in dribs and drabs ... This too though was
something special as they used smaller carriers and no passenger
elevators to do this ... first time we've not had baggage crushed or
damaged by the cruiseline ... slower smaller and more careful seems to
be their method ... and even though the last bag containing my wife's
dresses did not arrive until until 5PM ... both our room steward and
the baggage carriers assured us all along that all would be fine ...
and it was ...
We were greeted for dinner very pleasantly and led to our table shared
with 2 other couples ... one a dozen years older than our 54/56 and the

other 2 dozen years older than us ... my first impressions were what
was Celebrity thinking of ... I was dead wrong ... we had the most
pleasant time ... always near the last persons leaving dinner ... We
prefer freestyle on NCL ... having had some terribly incompatible
tablemates before but mostly because set eating times and shore
excursions don't mix ... With tablemates like these ... we'll put up
with that problem ...


Then an energetic production show ... a small donation to the casino
and a relatively early 11 PM bedtime since out bodies were still
feeling like the 2AM eastern time ...

[Stan]

The Mercury has not been refurbished since 1998. You may want to check
out Norwegian Star or Golden Princess. They were both built in 2001 and
both offer a freestyle cruise option. The Star may have a better
itinerary, but the Golden Princess has a better service record. Hope
this helps.

http://www.MyGreatTrip.com

On Nov 3, 2:41 pm, "Karen Henelde" > wrote:
> Does anyone know if this older Celebrity ship has been refurbished recently,
> or if it's scheduled to be refurbished? We're looking at Celebrity's
> Mexican Riviera itineraries sailing on the Mercury in late '07. This would
> be our first Celebrity experience. Thanks.
>
> Karen
> Owings Mills, MD

[Blackbird71]

On Fri, 3 Nov 2006 15:41:37 -0500, Karen Henelde wrote
(in article >):

> Does anyone know if this older Celebrity ship has been refurbished recently,
> or if it's scheduled to be refurbished? We're looking at Celebrity's
> Mexican Riviera itineraries sailing on the Mercury in late '07. This would
> be our first Celebrity experience. Thanks.
>
> Karen
> Owings Mills, MD
>
>

She is do a major dry dock in Apr timeframe. A lot of what they did to the
Century will be done to her then. She is newer than the Century and had the
verandas that were added to the Century.



--
Turkey Day Cruise on Seabourn Pride - Nov 18 2006
In Search of Lost Hobbits cruise on Celebrity Mercury Dec 12, 2007

[Karen Henelde]

Thanks to all for your responses. We will continue to research the options
for a Mexican Riviera cruise. We are considering our options and have
plenty of time before making any final decisions.

Karen
Owings Mills, MD


"Stan" > wrote in message
ups.com...
> The Mercury has not been refurbished since 1998. You may want to check
> out Norwegian Star or Golden Princess. They were both built in 2001 and
> both offer a freestyle cruise option. The Star may have a better
> itinerary, but the Golden Princess has a better service record. Hope
> this helps.
>
> http://www.MyGreatTrip.com
>
> On Nov 3, 2:41 pm, "Karen Henelde" > wrote:
>> Does anyone know if this older Celebrity ship has been refurbished
>> recently,
>> or if it's scheduled to be refurbished? We're looking at Celebrity's
>> Mexican Riviera itineraries sailing on the Mercury in late '07. This
>> would
>> be our first Celebrity experience. Thanks.
>>
>> Karen
>> Owings Mills, MD
>