Mercury June 20-27 review

[maylee]

We were on Celebrity Mercury from June 20 – 27th, this is my review.

 

We checked out of our hotel at 11am, and went straight to Canada Place, check in was busy but they were fast and we were onboard by 12 pm, with welcoming drinks as we boarded. We went up to the Welcome Buffet to have lunch. Food in the buffet was of very high standard. (We have only sailed with Carnival before and preferred to avoid buffet food on those ships, though always enjoyed the dining room food). The breakfast and lunches in the buffet were really good, my favorites were definitely the waffles with strawberries for breakfast and I had the Asian food at the wok station at least 3 times, fresh and hot and made to order…fantastic. We did try the breakfast in the dining room, but maybe because a lot of people had come to eat there at once, and the ship had mostly older people on it and they probably did not want to self serve at the buffet, service was incredibly slow, and by the time it arrived was cold, we only did that once, the buffet was actually much better.

 

At about 1:30 an announcement was made that our rooms were ready, so we headed to the room. We had indulged and booked room 1163 sunset veranda aft of the ship. We were very pleased with the size of the room, and it had a huge balcony and plenty of cupboard space. We have two teenage boys, the sofa converted into a large double bed and there was a fold down bunk above it. The main bed is a double, which has walls on 3 sides, but for us it was no problem at all, a partition separates the lounge area and the main bedroom.

 

Our bags arrived soon after and we unpacked everything and stored suitcases under the main bed. We are from Australia and were traveling with some friends from California, after they went to their room to unpack they joined us on the balcony for a bottle of wine and to watch the sail away out of Vancouver.

 

We had early setting and it was time for dinner. Dinner every night in the dining room was exceptional. We had lovely waiter staff that went out of their way to accommodate any requests we had. I don’t remember every thing I had for dinner, but my favorites where the Aged Prime Rib on the first night and the Colorado Rack of Lamb on the first formal night.

 

The weather was not great this cruise, we did get a lot of rain and very overcast days, however as we had just down a self drive tour of the Canadian Rockies the week before, we used the lazy afternoons to catch up on some sleep.

[maylee]

Icy Strait Point – We booked a private whale watching trip, Floyd was our guide and he was lovely and was constantly searching for bears along the way to where the whales where. He has a really cool boat, which was lovely and toasty inside and had hot chocolates ready for us all when we boarded. It was raining today and we enjoyed the 40 min ride. We saw around 7 whales, and lots of sea lions playing with the whales. One of the whales was breaching which was really cool to see, and I loved listening to the noises they made. On the way back we saw a brown bear on the beach.

 

 

[maylee]

Juneau – We had nothing planned for today, left the ship around 9am, it was drizzling so we spent the morning wandering around the town and doing some shopping. The rain cleared and we took the shuttle bus out to Mendanhall Glacier. I have seen many glaciers and hiked on them in New Zealand, but this one was the prettiest one I have seen, there was ice floating in the lake in front of it so beautiful. We took the path to Nugget falls at the base of the glacier, the path had been flooded over and people were trying to cross a very steep rock face to go around it, I slipped so decided as I had waterproof boots on to take the edge of the path instead. The glacier up-close is very spectacular and well worth a visit.

 

 

[maylee]

Ketchikan – This was my favorite day, the weather was lovely, clouds had lifted and we had some sunshine. Perfect day for our floatplane trip to Misty Fjord. We were picked up at the dock by Lesley who drove us to the plane. I will confess to being somewhat terrified, I have never been on a small plane, I hate flying in general and I get airsick. So taking precautions which included ginger, bonine, sea bands and ½ Valium, I was ready to go. At the dock there were so many bald eagles, they hang around the breakwater right outside the office. Steve asked us where we wanted to sit and I requested a good spot for talking photos, so I was put into the back seat on my own, so I could take photos out both sides of the window.

 

I could not believe how smooth the take off and flight was, there was hardly a bump the whole time we were in the air, so I had no reason to worry about being sick. We had perfect visibility, Steve first flew around the town and mountains and continued flying for around 40 mins around and over snow peaked mountains, lakes, rivers and waterfalls. The waterfall cascaded from one lake to the lower lakes, and was simply beautiful. Steve landed on a lake around 1800 mt above the main fjord and pulled over to a waterfall mostly covered in snow and ice. We were able to get off and have a walk around. I really had no reason to fear the plane, landing on water is so much smoother than landing on the ground and in the hands of an amazing pilot we had one of the best days of our lives.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[BonnieVA]

Liked your to-the-point review & the pics are great.

[Lois R]

Wonderful pictures:D:):D

[cruiseacecat]

Very nice review and spectacular pictures. Wow. :)

 

Anne

[maylee]

Thanks, so many beautiful pictures too take. Happy to answer any questions anyone might have.

[RickyandLucy]

Nice review and stunning pictures. Any pictures of the ship (interior)?

 

Lucy

[BonnieVA]

Have you submitted your review over at the review section of CC? People have been asking for recent Mercury reviews & have said there aren't many being posted lately.

[cruisingmimi]

Maylee, thanks for sharing. Great pics! We just did the floatplane w/ Steve on 7/9. Had the same great flight. It was a little overcast so we didn't get some of the clear shots you did. I haven't even looked at all my pics yet or printed them out. Recuping from jet lag. Got home late Sun. evening.

 

We didn't get to get out of the plane and take pics because Steve sighted a brown bear as we were flying and landed on the lake so we could see the bear. We got the "tail end" of the bear as he was running back into the woods. However, it was a great sight to see. We had a wonderful day in Ketchikan.

 

Mary

[benelana]

Thank you so much for your review. There have not been many reviews for Alaska so far. We are booked in SV1156. I'm really excited about the aft room, but a bit concerned about motion and the bed situation. How was it?

 

Your pictures are stunning. We have booked the same floatplane excursion. I am also prone to motion sickness and somewhat clautrauphobic. Reading your review I am somewhat reassured. I really want to do it, but am concerned.

 

Do you have any more pictures, any of your cabin?

 

Thanks again.

Adine

[CruisingChick]

Thanks for posting and I loved your pictures. Brought me back to our Alaskan vacation 5 years ago.

[uncle-b]

Thanks for the review. I was the one that requested some reviews on the Mercury. Your review makes me feel good about my upcoming cruise. This will be our longest cruise yet. we usually do 14 nights and have done 16 once. This one is 17 going through the canal on Oct. 1. I am getting excited about this cruise.

[Woobstr112G]

OP;

 

Thanks for posting your review & pictures. Loved the whale pic's. Reminds me of an excursion during our 2005 Alaska cruise on the Summit. We were on a whale watching excursion, when a humpback breeched about 75 feet from our boat. What a sight.....:):):)

 

Bob

[TeaBag]

Thank you for your great review and pictures. We're glad you enjoyed your cruise even though the weather was not great.

[portofrome]

I'm glad you enjoyed your cruise. Thanks for the review and for the beautiful pictures.

[maylee]

Nice review and stunning pictures. Any pictures of the ship (interior)?

 

Lucy

 

Here is a link to some interior pics of the Mercury

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1153287&highlight=celebrity+mercury+pictures

[nseaman]

Great review

 

Who did you book the floatplane with? wouldnt mind booking up for that

 

and the mendenhall glacier trip, was finding the shuttle bus easy and was it a good trip?

 

Thanks.

[maylee]

Thank you so much for your review. There have not been many reviews for Alaska so far. We are booked in SV1156. I'm really excited about the aft room, but a bit concerned about motion and the bed situation. How was it?

 

Your pictures are stunning. We have booked the same floatplane excursion. I am also prone to motion sickness and somewhat clautrauphobic. Reading your review I am somewhat reassured. I really want to do it, but am concerned.

 

Do you have any more pictures, any of your cabin?

 

Thanks again.

Adine

 

Hi Adine, we have only ever had inside cabins, so we certainly felt more movement at the back of the ship. I had anticipated that so i started on ginger tablets a day before we boarded, and took a bonine tablet most days. The day we left Hubbard Glacier was particulary rough and even my dh took a bonine and he rarely feels it. Everyone on board was feeling it that night, we were glad when the ship moved back into the inside passage area. Occassionally the back was a little noisy as well, again I had read that so I was not surprised. Overall I loved the aft and would book it again.

 

I completely understand your concerns about the float plane, but in the end for me it was not a problem at all. It will be a highlight of your trip and well worth it.

 

Here are some pics of the inside of our cabin, for some reason i didn't take a good shot of the balcony, but you can get an idea from the inside pic looking out, it is a lovely size, we had 6 people on it and it would have fitted a lot more. I also added a pic of the inside of the float plane.

 

 

 

[maylee]

Great review

 

Who did you book the floatplane with? wouldnt mind booking up for that

 

and the mendenhall glacier trip, was finding the shuttle bus easy and was it a good trip?

 

Thanks.

 

 

We booked the float plane trip with Seawind Aviation. Leslie was lovely to deal with by email and even lovelier in person. They gave us a really good family rate too.

 

Yes the shuttle to mendanhall glacier is right outside the docks, it is impossible to miss, there is no need to book in advance, they have buses going all the time. Enjoy your trip :)

[RickyandLucy]

Thanks Maylee for the link. I appreciate you finding that for me.

 

Lucy

[maylee]

Your are very welcome Lucy. I didn't take photos of the inside of the ship or menus because I had seen that others had already done so. Having only sailed Carnival which is very bright and colorful everywhere, gaudy really, I liked the more subdued look of the Mercury. It really is a lovely ship and I felt was in very good repair.

[reklawr]

Maylee, Thanks for the review and your beautiful pictures. :)

We'll have to keep Seawind Aviation in mind when planning our Alaska cruise.

[suraps]

Maylee - thanks for the wonderful review, pictures and answers to other posters' questions. We will be on Merucy on July 25th (same itin as you) and are excited about our cruise!

 

Cheers,

~suraps