Who Here Sailed & Loved Celebrity Mercury?

My first Celebrity cruise was on the Mercury to Alaska in 2006, and I loved it. We had a large group (25) and had 3 tables in the MDR. We pre-paid our gratuities so that we could sit in different seats each night. The wait staff was some of the best I have experienced. And, the maitre d' came to our tables every night and sat down and chatted with us. I also loved the color scheme of the ship.

Carolyn

Our first Celebrity cruise was on the Mercury in January 2003. While the cruise for the most part was great, coming out of Progreso and turning in the channel, Mercury suddenly healed over to the extent that my wife rolled out of bed. I was down by the main dining room, where the tables had been set for dinner, and everything was on the floor. The captain never did explain what had occurred (I'm guessing wind caught it sideways) and we later heard that the same thing had happened in the Parana in Argentina. But despite this, we have since taken a couple dozen more Celebrity cruises. We love Celebrity.

Loved the Galaxy class ships, but admit Galaxy was our favorite. Had some great times on Mercury - particularly remember a wonderful sailing down the Mexican Riviera before the drug lords and crime took over some of those ports (sadly). She was a great ship. That was back when Celebrity gave you a premium experience for a mainstream price. I miss those days:)

Mercury was my first Celebrity cruise. Service was impeccable, food was great, and I loved every minute of it! Pretty much made Celebrity my cruiseline of choice. Also sailed Century just before she was sold off and enjoyed that. I prefer smaller ships.

We sailed on the Mercury 2005. 12 day Mexican Riviera Cruise.

Our first Celebrity cruise was on Mercury in 2006 to Alaska. The week before we sailed the captain of the Mercury was removed for being drunk on the bridge! Needless to say we were very skeptical about sailing on Celebrity. We boarded her with serious doubts about what we were doing. The captain that replaced the removed captain was wonderful. The food and service was outstanding. We've been hooked on Celebrity since. Nice thinking about that first Celebrity cruise and fond memories of Mercury.

Ah, memories......................

We too sailed on the Mercury. We met one couple who have become our dearest friends for 17 years and counting.

We saw her in her TUI livery a couple of months ago which brought back such wonderful memories.

Someone mentioned missing Key West and we did too. That was our first and only missed port in almost fifty cruises.

Cruising was so different then, wasn't it!

Mercury was THE ship for me & my parents. Our 1st X Cruise and our fave from then on. So many fond memories- SKY SUITES on deck 12....Hawaii, Mexican Rivera & Alaska. Heading out under the Golden Gate Bridge on Merc.....wow

All of my cruises(8) with Celebrity have been on ships no longer in the fleet so it has been a while. A couple were on the Mercury but tried finding my cruise history on the infamous Celebrity web site and could not get to details.

My parents came off their Mercury cruise to Alaska the most relaxed I've ever seen them. We later took our kids on their first cruise on the Mercury which we all loved for its design, excellent food (great to see a five year old seriously trying frog/s legs and escargots) and friendly staff, some of whom recognized us later on the Galaxy.

We loved sailing on Mercury. Classy, pretty ship. Nice cozy size. I spent lots of time in the fabulous Thalassotherapy pool. Miss that.

Loved the Mercury! Excellent food, Thalassotherapy pools, smaller ship experience...

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Yes. I think twice - loved each ship in the Celebrity fleet.

That was my first Celebrity cruise! The service and food on that ship was beyond anything they have now. Closest to it would be the suite life!

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Mercury was our first cruise on Celebrity in 2001. It was Oct. 10 2001 right after 9/11. We flew to Hawaii on Oct. 8 that year and it was an a very strange plane flight as hardly no one was traveling then. We flew to Hawaii for two days and then boarded Mercury back to Ensenada after going around the Hawaiian Islands. I fell in love with her and Celebrity and have been sailing Celebrity ever since.

Pat

We sailed Mercury twice 2005 and then 2010 (near the end of her Celebrity career). Actually on our 2010 cruise the executives from Mein Schiff were on board and sat at the table next to us every night in the dining room for dinner. Of course that staff was falling all over them.

Such great memories of a by gone era. Unbelievable how much cruising has changed - not all for the better IMO.

We were fortunate enough to sail on Mercury not too long before she was transferred out of the X fleet.

When it was announced she would be doing a series of cruises out of my home port of Charleston, booking was a no-brainer as we live 20 minutes away. Shortly after arriving in Charleston the ship was hit with a huge case of norovirus that went on for weeks. Every few days our local news would report on the high number of cases of sick passengers coming back and of course airing interviews with the most upset ones. Friends thought we were nuts for not cancelling and cutting our losses.

Our sailing ended up being the first with no major outbreak since the whole thing started and became one of our best cruises ever. The ship was so charming, easy to navigate and the crew could not have been better. Also met our "cruising buddies" on that trip that we have since taken several cruises with, so Mercury will always hold a special place in our hearts.

We sailed on Mercury 9 times. We loved that ship! The interior spaces were elegant and spacious. Great memories of interesting itineraries.

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We were fortunate enough to sail on Mercury not too long before she was transferred out of the X fleet.

 

When it was announced she would be doing a series of cruises out of my home port of Charleston, booking was a no-brainer as we live 20 minutes away. Shortly after arriving in Charleston the ship was hit with a huge case of norovirus that went on for weeks. Every few days our local news would report on the high number of cases of sick passengers coming back and of course airing interviews with the most upset ones. Friends thought we were nuts for not cancelling and cutting our losses.

 

Our sailing ended up being the first with no major outbreak since the whole thing started and became one of our best cruises ever. The ship was so charming, easy to navigate and the crew could not have been better. Also met our "cruising buddies" on that trip that we have since taken several cruises with, so Mercury will always hold a special place in our hearts.

We may have been on the same cruise. When we boarded, they were still under code red but a couple of days into the cruise, they put out the salt/pepper shakers and the buffet was self service again. I agree that we fell in love with the Mercury on that cruise. She was a very comfortable ship with great crew.

Unfortunately, that was not the case when we sailed her last sailing out of Baltimore before being transferred to TUI. We had booked another Charleston embarkation however they cancelled all of those and we had to move to her final sailing.

That February 14, 2011 was a bad cruise. All the good crew had already transferred off. Mostly what was left were newbies. It was under provisioned so as food stuffs ran out, they were not replenished. And there were plenty of those items disappearing. There were construction people that actually began dismantling things in the public areas on the ship prior to our Disembarkation.

I fondly like to remember our first Mercury sailing. However I'll never knowingly sail a final cruise again.

We may have been on the same cruise. When we boarded, they were still under code red but a couple of days into the cruise, they put out the salt/pepper shakers and the buffet was self service again. I agree that we fell in love with the Mercury on that cruise. She was a very comfortable ship with great crew.

Was it the March 29, 2010 - 11 night Eastern Caribbean cruise out of Charleston? If so we were on it also. We were delayed boarding until very late. I want to say after 3 pm. We all had to board buses where you drop off your luggage to be taken over to the pier for check in.

Was it the March 29, 2010 - 11 night Eastern Caribbean cruise out of Charleston? If so we were on it also. We were delayed boarding until very late. I want to say after 3 pm. We all had to board buses where you drop off your luggage to be taken over to the pier for check in.

It was the 10 Night Western Caribbean Apr 09 - Apr 18, 2010 just following yours. We were the first sailing not delayed embarking.

We may have been on the same cruise. When we boarded, they were still under code red but a couple of days into the cruise, they put out the salt/pepper shakers and the buffet was self service again. I agree that we fell in love with the Mercury on that cruise. She was a very comfortable ship with great crew.

 

Unfortunately, that was not the case when we sailed her last sailing out of Baltimore before being transferred to TUI. We had booked another Charleston embarkation however they cancelled all of those and we had to move to her final sailing.

 

 

That February 14, 2011 was a bad cruise. All the good crew had already transferred off. Mostly what was left were newbies. It was under provisioned so as food stuffs ran out, they were not replenished. And there were plenty of those items disappearing. There were construction people that actually began dismantling things in the public areas on the ship prior to our Disembarkation.

 

I fondly like to remember our first Mercury sailing. However I'll never knowingly sail a final cruise again.

We were on that cruise, too, and somewhere I have the menu board from the Manhatten Restaurant that our waiter presented us at the conclusion of the final dinner in that dining room.

Annemaria and Ryan-we loved that cruise. Our kids, you guys, so many other close friends all sailed that clean ship. Remember saying we were the cleanest ship at sea! I remember those darn buses too to go 100 feet to board. I also remember folks at the Mast Bar telling those Mein Schiff people to stop measuring and annoying us since they didn't own her yet!

I can beat those Mercury shirts! I have one from the Zenith in her inaugural year!!!! I do bring it with me when we cruise and the crew don't even remember that they owned her. She was our first Celebrity cruise way back when, then Horizon, and every ship since then except Infinity No S class, only one left is Reflection and now we are booked on Edge so another milestone.

But, Summit from the first was our favorite, and Century 3X's.

Pat

OP Here. Thanks for all your great responses. We were sad to see both Century and Mercury go. I think Celebrity was in the middle of their direction change: i.e. Modern Luxury when they were pawning off those older ships. I remember late in Century's life: we were in a Sky Suite when our Butler (as subtlety as he could say without getting in trouble) was lampooning this "Modern Luxury" notion. He was a 10 or 12 year veteran of Celebrity and remembered the good old days. :)

I sailed on the Mercury for a B2B Alaska cruise and it was probably the best cruise I've ever taken. I can't remember having such a severe case of cruise withdrawal as I did after that cruise. Lol. For me the ship was a perfect mix of the Century and Galaxy which I also loved.