 |
 |
|
Name: Ted Hansen
Email: THansen153@aol.com
Age: 33
Occupation: Public Safety Dispatcher
NumberOfCruises: 2
TravelAgent: No
Ship: Celebrity-Mercury
SailingDate: March 15, 1998
Itinerary: Western Caribbean
FoodDiningRoom: 100
CruiseDirector: 90
CabinComfort: 90
FoodRoomService: 80
CruiseStaff: 95
CabinAmenities: 95
FoodLidoDeck: 90
DiningRoomService: 100
CabinQuietness: 90
FoodMidnightBuffets:
CabinSteward: 85
ShoreExcVariety: 85
FoodVariety: 90
DeckService: 90
ShoreExcValue: 85
GoodForHoneymoon:
CasinoStaff: 90
PrivateIsland:
GoodForFamilies: 90
LoungeService: 95
TenderService: 95
GoodForSeniors: 90
BeautySalonStaff:
EntertainmentLounges: 95
WheelchairAccess:
ExerciseFacilities:
EntertShowLounge: 95
OverallPortsofCall: 80
BeautySalon:
EntertainmentPoolside: 90
CruiseActivities: 85
Casino: 90
AirSeaProgram: 85
MedicalFacilities:
ShipCleanliness: 95
EmbarkDisembark: 90
DiscoNightclubs: 90
DeckSpace: 95
Stabilization: 100
ShopsOnBoard: 95
SpaceRatio: 95
OverallCruiseValue: 90
Submit: Submit Review
Date: 27 Mar 1998
Time: 19:47:42
Remote Name: 205.188.131.5
Remote User:
Comments
This was our second cruise. The first was aboard Holland America's Veendam, June of 1996
The Mercury is a beautiful ship. She is very modern. If your looking for dark mahogany
paneled walls, stained glass, and
port holes, this ain't the ship for you. The light colored walls, bright lighting and
large windows everywhere give this ship
a very open feel. As soon as you walk the halls you'll feel just how large this ship is.
You will burn many of your caloric
intake just walking from the Manhattan Dining Room to the Celebrity Theater each night.
Our March 15th sailing was sold
out, even with the nearly 2,000 passengers, lines moved quickly and you could always find
a quiet place to sit. However,
finding a chair pool side on a sea day is a different story. If you haven't staked your
claim by 10 a.m. you had to find
another deck. The art work throughout the ship is modern, mostly photographs, not to my
taste, but it works with this
ships style. Unless your looking for the pieces of art you'll most likely just walk by
them with out noticing them.
My wife, my 3 month old daughter, and myself were booked in category 4, room 9067, and my
parents and 18 year old
niece sailed in category 2, room 9149. Both had identical floor plans with the exception
of the verandah in category 2
rooms. The cabins were well appointed, the bleached woods with blue and green fabrics
worked nicely together. As you
enter, the bathroom is on one side and the closets on the other wall. The bathroom was
more than ample. The shower
was large for a ship and had both good water pressure and hot water. Even the
"cold" water was warm, there is nothing
like brushing your teeth with warm water. The hair dryer wasn't very powerful, I'd compare
it to your standard home hair
dryer on low. I'll caution you that the handle gets very hot with extended use. The twin
beds had been pushed together
to make a queen bed with nights stands on either side. There was no attempt to fill the
gap created when they pushed
the two beds together. A sofa bed (twin size), we never sat on, we used it for all the
baby's stuff. A small glassed top
cocktail table was in front of the large window. The drapes in front of the windows could
block out the sunniest of days. A
desk, chair and large mirror were opposite the sofa bed which is the location of the only
standard US outlet in the room,
my wife used this area for her makeup (hint: bring an extension cord with a multi outlet
end). A huge mirror is placed
opposite the end of the bed, both mirrors together do a great job in making the cabin
appear much larger. The TV, VCR,
safe and mini refrigerator are in a corner bookcase arrangement. The TV had CNN, in room
movies (2 in English and 2
foreign language), pay-per-view movies, music channels and the ships interactive channel.
The reception was a little
snowy for a cabled TV. We used the programmable safe and had no problem. I had brought a
12 pack of soda and 2 liter
bottles of water with us. I emptied the refrigerator and stored my own supplies in there.
The closets were ample for all of
our clothes, even the amount over packed by my wife. (hints: 1) ladies - pack your bag...
then take out half 2) Use the
ships hangers or place your own between theirs or you'll hear them all night as the boat
rocks). The low voltage lighting
used through out the cabin did a great job in lighting the room at night. I wish there
were options to the lighting levels,
instead of either all on or all off. The A/C in the room worked very well. The only
difference between the Category 4 and
my parents Category 2 was the verandah. In place of our window; they had a full view glass
door leading to a verandah
which was approximately 4 X 9 feet. There was a chair and ottoman and a small table. It is
really too small for a second
chair. When the sofa bed is made into the bed, you have to climb over it to get out on to
the verandah. Also, when the
sofa bed is made-up there is very little floor space. They do not provide a curtain
between the sofa bed and full size
beds, which is fine for a family with a small child, but doesn't work well if you want
privacy. If I had to do it again I would
certainly pay the difference and get the verandah. The steward was unseen and did a good
job with the room. I do,
however, feel that HAL did a better job of keeping up with the room.
The Celebrity Theater is nice and is loaded with the latest in electronic gizmos. Spaced
throughout the rows of seats are
glassed topped tables reducing the isle width. The theater is well laid out with virtually
no bad seats. We had read on
other posts that the shows were lacking and need much help. Well they got it, the shows, I
found, to be very good, with
the exception of the ship's production number 'Bond Voyage'. I found it much too loud and
is meant to show off the ship
special effects capabilities and not the talent of the performers. The solo performers
were also very good, Michael
James, AKA the ladder guy, should not be missed. Mark Preston was also good when he sang,
but spent most of his time
patting himself on the back and selling his new CD. Comparing Mercury's theater to the
Veendam's, I do have to say I
give the edge to the Veendam's sofa and chair layout.
The Manhattan Dining Room is simple but elegant. Outstanding service and the food is
second to none. The portions are
small, but the lines claim to fame is quality not quantity. We were traveling with my 70+
year old parents so I had
requested a table on the upper level to avoid having to go up or down the flight of stairs
or use the worlds slowest
elevator. It was a table for eight but just the 6 of us sat there. Here, I give the
advantage to the Mercury for its dining
room. At dinner they had a quartet playing, three times during the week I heard the theme
song to the Titanic (?!?)
Good thing there are no icebergs in the Caribbean. We only ate dinner in the main dining
room, the rest of our meals
came mainly from the Palm Springs Cafe. Each morning they offered virtually the same menu.
The omelets are very
good, always a better choice than the runny scrambled eggs. The lunch menu did change each
day and were fine. There
are four identical buffet lines. Often the ones towards the rear of the ship were shorter.
The outside grills served
hamburgs and hot-dogs with fries and/or pizza. The pizza is very good and was a nice
change from the buffet lines.
Room service was slow up to 45 minutes to wait with a very limited menu, although
pizza-for-one is now available. Only a
continental breakfast is offered by room service, I did miss the full breakfast offered by
HAL. We never made it to a
midnight buffet the sure sign of having a 3 month old with you.
The public rooms are all very tastefully done, each with their own feeling. The
entertainment groups were some of the
best I've ever heard and played a good cross section of music for all ages. The movie
theater and the screen was on the
small side. There wasn't much of a pitch to the floor so you'd have to be careful of who
you sat behind. The casino was
larger than that of the Veendam's and again much brighter. You could always find a machine
to leave your deposit for
your next cruise in. The gallery of on board shops was large and had everything you could
think of. They did howeve, run
out of underwater cameras mid-cruise. If you are planning to do any of the underwater
activities (sting ray city or
snorkeling) bring them from home (much cheaper) or buy them early on board. This cruise
instead of visiting the spa,
we opted to do more shore excursions. The same outfit runs the Spas on both lines and the
massages are always worth
the time and money. The workout room was well appointed, but we never used it...we were on
vacation. The public
restroom were clean and bright, HAL did use cloth hand towels as a nice touch. The biggest
fault I found on board were
the elevators. More times than not if you had to go 3 flights it was quicker to use the
stairs. If you were lucky enough to
find an elevator with room they scaled the stories quickly, its just getting one to stop
on your floor is the problem. The
lack of a self service laundry and ironing station is a big negative. If you are on a
extended cruise, longer than 7 days, or
your shirts come out of the suitcase full of wrinkles your going to pay a pretty penny to
clean or iron them. ($2.50 to
wash a shirt and $1.75 to press each shirt)
We sailed during spring break and found that the age ranged from your 3 month old to
probably 100, with the median
age of 40s with a fair number of children under 16. There was a good mix of ages, I'm not
sure if this the rule or
because of the school vacation. We enjoyed the mixed age group better than the older 60
range we found on HAL.
We took the beach snorkeling excursion in Cozumel. The taxi ride alone was worth the
price. No really, the water is clear
and there are many beautiful, colorful fish to see here. The trickiest part of the tour is
getting into and out of the water
using the algae covered steps which lead to the ocean. Some people in our group slipped
and cut their legs or got
thrown around by the waves crashing onto the retaining wall. In the 'port' of Calica, we
elected to stay on board. When
you dock you'll see 2 houses, a couple of grass covered shelters, a concrete operation and
trees. That's it for miles. Its
only used as a jumping off point for the land excursions. We had been to Xcaret a couple
of years earlier when we
vacationed in Cancun. It is a very nice park and the underground river is a can't miss,
but couldn't see spending $36
each to go again. The ship's management was telling guests to avoid Cancun trips because
of all the college spring
breakers that had invaded the town. During our travel from Key West to Cozumel there was a
medical emergency that
required the ship to return to Key West. The boat had to rearrange the rest of our
itinerary. With this change also came
the change in the schedule of shore excursions. In Grand Cayman, we were able to do both
the snorkeling by boat and I
(the rest were chicken) was able to go to Sting Ray City which you are normally not able
to do. The snorkeling was great.
The boat part was a joke. The water was deeper than what I had seen in Cozumel and the
crew were feeding the fish so
they came to the surface and you were surrounded by them, very beautiful. Then they
brought you to a location of a ship
wreck. Very interesting to see but not as many fish. The joke part is the boat. The whole
time we were no more than 400
feet from the dock. It took longer to load and unload the passengers than it would have
been to swim to the sites. Sting
Ray City was the best. Although not as many sting rays as I expected, you did see your
share. You could feed them if you
cared to or the boats crew would 'catch' them and hold them for you to feel. Its just a
little freaky when they brush by
you with their soft wings. You are not in a pool with them, your on a natural sand bar a
couple miles off shore in their
world. It should not be missed if you can at all help it. In Key West we took the
complementary tram to town and walked
around. The ship docked at 7 am, by the time you ate breakfast and got off the boat there
just wasn't enough time to
see everything I would have liked to and be back on board by 1 PM.
I do prefer HAL's no tipping required policy. Cruise Lines should include the workers pay
in the fairs they charge. Having
to payout an additional $150.00 on top of a $3,000 cruise just hits me the wrong way. CCL
should also increase the
number and variety of daytime planned activities, though there were things to do, the
choices were a bit limited.
Overall, the Mercury is a beautiful ship and was a delightful cruise experience. I would
recommend this ship for anyone
seeking a peaceful and relaxing cruise vacation. This ship is not for the party 'til dawn
crowd, but is well rounded from
both the first time couples or the family vacation.
Want to book your cruise at a great rate?
Click here.
Questions or comments? Mail to webmaster@cruiseopinion.com.
Copyright ©1996-2001 CruiseOpinion.com. Last modified: January 17, 2000.