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Celebrity Mercury
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 |
#2
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Celebrity Mercury
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 |
#3
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Celebrity Mercury
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 ... |
#4
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Celebrity Mercury
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 ... |
#5
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Celebrity Mercury
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 |
#6
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Celebrity Mercury
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 |
#7
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Celebrity Mercury
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 ... |
#8
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Celebrity Mercury
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 |
#9
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Celebrity Mercury
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 |
#10
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Celebrity Mercury
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 |
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