Mercury-First time on Celebrity-2-27-2010

[lablvr]

Hi to all, I would like to write a review and express some opinions about this cruise and will try to keep some type of order to it all.

First of all, my husband and I have only 2 cruises under our belt before this one: Carnival Celebration and Mariner of the Seas. Mercury is now our favorite.

But I have a big bone to pick with the Port of Charleston. The passengers who parked in the handicapped parking garage experienced a totally unacceptable ordeal on boarding day. We parked and were lined up awaiting the shuttle buses. We were told there were 9 buses on the way to pick us up and transport us to the terminal. This was handicapped parking so there were passengers there with limited mobility, those who were not able to stand for long periods of time, those who took medications that resulted in more frequent trips to a bathroom, those with insulin requirements, and some with less tolerance to the cold. We waited at least and hour and 1/2 to 2 hrs if not longer in that cold garage with nowhere to sit and no restroom facilities. Some of us who were more able rounded up some chairs and finally officials started taking people by golf cart to the restroom. My heart went out to these passengers. They were not being treated fairly. They were not up to this long, cold wait with nowhere to sit. We must have been picked up last..and I don't know who is responsible. The nice lady who drove our shuttle said she had never seen people "rush" the bus to get on and it upset her. That is how badly some of the passengers felt.

Then it was at least another hour on the shuttle since we were at the back of the line. Finally we get to the terminal. After a while..check in just stops.

I know..things like that happen..can't be helped. But we are all looking at 30 to 50 empty check in terminals with no explanation. Finally a nice lady from Charleston who works on cruise days explains to us about the "key making machine" malfunction. Just a little more communication please.

So, finally on the ship! (about 5:45 PM) No more welcome aboard photo..they had long ago packed up and gone. We did get a glass of champagne (thank you) and a spunky little lady (who we discovered was the talented singer Valerie) grabbed our bags and off we went to our cabin.

Our inside cabin was very light and airy with plenty of storage space.

The crew was great and always seen cleaning something. BUT, the dresser top in our cabin had not been wiped down in a while so I didn't know how sanitized our cabin actually was. We sprayed every down but I did get sick the second day of the cruise and quarantined myself for a day and night till I felt well again. My husband was fine till we were on the way home. He developed a cold. Maybe coincidence.

Entertainment was wonderful. I walked by a darkened bar one day and saw Pearl Kaufman playing the piano. I listened for a while. What a treat.

We loved Select Dining. A+++ Very Accommodating.

We loved the no smoking policies on this ship. It will be very hard to revert back to smoky bars and casinos on other ships!

We felt Celebrity was generous with credits concerning the delay from Friday to Saturday sail date and missed port.

Overall we had a great time.

Lessons learned: Pack lighter- bring more socks- mark our luggage with big bright strips of duct tape so no one will take MY luggage home with them.

[cruiseacecat]

Thank you for writing your review. And congratulations that you did not let the disaster at boarding ruin your cruise. So sorry to hear about how badly it was done, especially with people with disabilities.

Also, very surprised to hear that Pearl Kaufman was on board. Had I known that, I would have been there also. She is just wonderful.

 

Anne

[JEDIKNIGHT]

Glad you had a good time.

 

And you are a GEM for quarantining yourself due to illness. Thank you so much for being considerate to other pax.

[Texed]

Lab,

Thanks for posting. :)

[zwolinski]

We were 2 of the people that got sick with the virus. We waited 4 hours for someone from medical to come to the room, at 2 AM . Out of our group of 14, 4 got sick. It was not pleasant, & we are still not completely over it. The ship did not handle this well. Yes, they were continualy spraying disinfectant everywhere, & you could not touch anything in the buffet area. Seeing how violently it comes over you, it was impossible to clean every nook & cranny properly.

 

We also were two of the handicap group left standing in the cold parking terminal for 2 hours. Then, one hour on a bus !!!! The whole embarkation process was pitiful. Could not find any Celebrity people to keep us informed as to what was going on. Will never go out of Charleston again, & pretty sour on Celebrity right now. Yes, they compensated us for the delay, & are giving us a 25% discount on another cruise. An apology would have been nice. None were given.