Mercury 4/7 to Mexico

[wenisirie]

I just returned yesterday from the Mercury to Mexico. It started as another bleach cruise but mellowed out about three days into the trip we all expected. All of the facilities were open and the service was marvelous. The one exception- coming from me who is a first time X cruiser and a long time RCI cruiser- the upper management of X sucks.

 

No one seems to have any ability to take care of problems. We had people moved from our table for no reason and when they objected to the move- no one in the dining room could fix the problem. It took two hours and calls to the Captain's Club rep- Delia- and converstations with the dinng room manager to solve a problem which could have been taken care of in five minutes.

 

Our friends paid full price for their four month old baby and were promised formula for her to eat. X NEVER got the correct formula. Even with Wal Mart and Sam's club in so many ports, the poor baby did not have the food she needed. They bought the wrong formula which the parents had ordered well in advance. The baby got sick from the wrong formula and spent hours crying and throwing up formula she was not used to. X's hotel dept did not seem to do much. My friends spent many hours running back and forth to guest relations trying to solve this probelm. Thank God the baby could still breastfeed. It just was not handled well.

 

We were overcharged while on a shore excursion. Be careful buying drinks from the Mayan Palace in Acalpulco. They tell you one price and charge another. That is, after they finally open the bar TWO HOURS after your arrival. Until then, nothing for you to drink. Not even water. I brought my concerns to the shore excursions dept for X. They were indifferent. They even went as far as accusing our party of not telling the truth. This is absurd. We have cruised so many times and know that two hours at a shore excursion without even water to drink is unacceptable. X should have stood behind their excursion and they did not. Now we must contact corporate and hope for a resolution. This is not exactly what I wanted to do upon my arrival home.

 

The service from the crew however was outstanding. Savio- dining room waiter- was excellent. He deserves a promotion. So many of the crew went the extra step to make up for the past two cruises I think.

 

I am concerned aboput the management on board X. They are "unavailable" when you calk on the phone. They are "off duty". Guest relations transfers you here and there to get you out of their space. If X can solve this customer service issue, they will get my vote as an oustanding experience. If not, we can only hope that no issues arise that need the help of guest relations. RCI and NCL just deal with the problem and move on. X seems to drag things out to the point that they hope you will wear out and give up.

[hardingk]

We were on the same sailing and had a great time as well. We too had a shore excursions problem. We did the Sea Turtle Release Progam in Acapulco. To sum it up, we paid $48 a person to drive an hour + to the other side of Acapulco just to pick up a turtle and put it into the ocean. Our guide barely spoke English and didn't really explain anything. I was also going to write to corprate about it as well. Our Waitress, Andrea, that's right :) the only female waitress!! was amazing and she deserves a promotion as well!

[ebk2795]

Ditto what hardingk said about Andrea. She was fantastic!

We had a problem with an excursion, too. Our pirate ship excursion was cancelled. When my sister talked to the person at the excursion desk, the rep said that the company was very vague about the reason. It couldn't have been a mechanical problem-we watched the pirate ship go out full 2 times while in port. We think a group of locals charted it and we got bumped off.

[FinelyCruising]

Kim you had Andrea????????????? She is amazing. No, not just amazing. Really amazing. PLUS, everyone fell in love with her. Not just the men...me too. I had my first girl crush. I have never seen anyone more beautiful, exotically beautiful. And she is amazingly genuinely sweet. We were blessed to have had her. We loved her and she is what the dining experience is all about. A true professional IMHO....plus so darn beautiful you just have to stare at her each night to drink it all in since you rarely see it. We all did it, it wasn't just me....

 

Yikes....I hope I haven't crossed a line here....

[hardingk]

Kim you had Andrea????????????? She is amazing. No, not just amazing. Really amazing. PLUS, everyone fell in love with her. Not just the men...me too. I had my first girl crush. I have never seen anyone more beautiful, exotically beautiful. And she is amazingly genuinely sweet. We were blessed to have had her. We loved her and she is what the dining experience is all about. A true professional IMHO....plus so darn beautiful you just have to stare at her each night to drink it all in since you rarely see it. We all did it, it wasn't just me....

 

Yikes....I hope I haven't crossed a line here....

Yes! she was awesome!!! Do you happen to know the correct spelling of her last name? I want to write to Celebrity and tell them how great she was and that she should be recoginezed for her outstanding work!

[cricketz]

Wenisiric. . . . Wondered where Savio was. He was our waiter on the Summit last summer in Alaska, and our entire group thought he was just wonderful! I can't believe he hasn't been promoted yet. Maybe somebody from Celebrity will see our comments and do the right thing! We're doing Alaska again this summer and hoped we'd see him, but I guess not.

[FinelyCruising]

Kim - Yes I do have it I beleive, I will get it to you shortly. My husband filled out the comment card and I am not sure if he was emphatic enough about her. She deserved much praise.

[fauxpaz]

Our friends paid full price for their four month old baby and were promised formula for her to eat. X NEVER got the correct formula. Even with Wal Mart and Sam's club in so many ports, the poor baby did not have the food she needed. They bought the wrong formula which the parents had ordered well in advance. The baby got sick from the wrong formula and spent hours crying and throwing up formula she was not used to. X's hotel dept did not seem to do much. My friends spent many hours running back and forth to guest relations trying to solve this probelm. Thank God the baby could still breastfeed. It just was not handled well.

 

We were the other family on the boat that had the formula problem. I am sorry to hear that your friend's baby was sicker than mine. I think they tried to keep both families in the dark as far as what was going on. I regret weaning my daughter a month before the cruise.

 

I typed up a separate review with our experience in a separate thread.

[mkringen]

We had shore excursion problems too. We were on the totally lame Sea Turtle release too. Kim is right, our guide was not comfortable with english therefore barely spoke. Our tour consisted of eggs and dead turtles in glass jars that were handed around and a plastic tub of live turtles. We then saw some fencing that supposedly had turtles under the sand. We then went to the shoreline and released the turtles. This all took about 15 minutes. When we got back on the bus we each received a huge cardboard lunchbox that contained our snack. This huge box contained a bottle of water, an apple and one cookie that was totally burned and inedible. I don't really care about the snack. I care that on a supposedly "environmental" tour we each received a huge carboard box that could have held 3 meals. How is that environmental? It was truely laughable.

 

We were also scheduled for the Pirate excursion in Puerto Vallarta. I heard that they totally overbooked it and that is why they cancelled. Something like 150 people too many. Not sure if it was true or not but that is what I heard. We ended up having a great day in PV so did not miss the pirate thing too much. We went with our tablemates and got a guide for a 3 hour tour of the city. We loved the city and had a blast with our tablemates. The only reason I was not happy was that was my only chance during the cruise to get in the ocean and swim. Oh well I live a mile from the Pacific so I guess I will live.:rolleyes:

 

Michelle in SoCal

Mercury 4/7/06

[hardingk]

Kim - Yes I do have it I beleive, I will get it to you shortly. My husband filled out the comment card and I am not sure if he was emphatic enough about her. She deserved much praise.

Thanks! That would be awesome!

[pkexton]

We were also scheduled for the Pirate excursion in Puerto Vallarta. I heard that they totally overbooked it and that is why they cancelled. Something like 150 people too many. Not sure if it was true or not but that is what I heard. We ended up having a great day in PV so did not miss the pirate thing too much. We went with our tablemates and got a guide for a 3 hour tour of the city. We loved the city and had a blast with our tablemates. The only reason I was not happy was that was my only chance during the cruise to get in the ocean and swim. Oh well I live a mile from the Pacific so I guess I will live.:rolleyes:

 

Michelle in SoCal

Mercury 4/7/06

 

Michelle,

 

We were supposed to be on that too - when we were back on ship we saw plenty of party boats going out filled to the brim with locals - I would have assumed that since it was a holiday that they really booked things up. To me it seemed that some of the boats were way overcrowed.

 

Pat

[FinelyCruising]

Kim - I am sorry for the delay. I cannot find it. I also just went through my photos to see if I could blow up her name tag, but they are all too dark to get anyhting....I am sorry I could nto have helped. She will just be Andrea from Croatia to me for now.

[ebk2795]

We were at Kim's table for dinner, too. We also thought Andrea was wonderful. Andrea is from the Czech Republic.

[wenisirie]

Wenisiric. . . . Wondered where Savio was. He was our waiter on the Summit last summer in Alaska, and our entire group thought he was just wonderful! I can't believe he hasn't been promoted yet. Maybe somebody from Celebrity will see our comments and do the right thing! We're doing Alaska again this summer and hoped we'd see him, but I guess not.

 

Savio was the best. I put that on the comment card. Hopefull it will make a difference. Glad that youhad the same experience.

[wenisirie]

Our friends paid full price for their four month old baby and were promised formula for her to eat. X NEVER got the correct formula. Even with Wal Mart and Sam's club in so many ports, the poor baby did not have the food she needed. They bought the wrong formula which the parents had ordered well in advance. The baby got sick from the wrong formula and spent hours crying and throwing up formula she was not used to. X's hotel dept did not seem to do much. My friends spent many hours running back and forth to guest relations trying to solve this probelm. Thank God the baby could still breastfeed. It just was not handled well.

 

We were the other family on the boat that had the formula problem. I am sorry to hear that your friend's baby was sicker than mine. I think they tried to keep both families in the dark as far as what was going on. I regret weaning my daughter a month before the cruise.

 

I typed up a separate review with our experience in a separate thread.

 

Where is it? I would love to read it. Thanks.

[ebk2795]

I was able to zoom in on a picure of our waitress Andrea so that I could read her name tag. Her name is Andrea Grilecova from the Czech Republic.

[stinsowm]

I think we had her as a waitress on the Horizon a few years back. Wish someone would publish a picture so I could be sure it is her. She is beautiful if it is and at the time wore her hair up and had beautiful eyes.

 

Walter

[hardingk]

I think we had her as a waitress on the Horizon a few years back. Wish someone would publish a picture so I could be sure it is her. She is beautiful if it is and at the time wore her hair up and had beautiful eyes.

 

Walter

Yup, that is her!!! And she said she has been on every Celebrity ship!

[FinelyCruising]

I will if someone can tell me how to do it. Can tell you this though, as beautiful as she is, photographs do not do her justice, well at least mine don't anyway.:o Yes...her eyes...amazing!

 

Funny thing, my husband and I thought we encountered someone just like her on a prior cruise, but can't figure it out. It may have been her, but the person in our mind was blonde, Andrea is almost a bit strawberry.

 

So with some help I can get a picture up.

[hardingk]

Go to advanced reply and hit the inset picture icon (yellow with a moutain looking image).

[fauxpaz]

Our friends paid full price for their four month old baby and were promised formula for her to eat. X NEVER got the correct formula. Even with Wal Mart and Sam's club in so many ports, the poor baby did not have the food she needed. They bought the wrong formula which the parents had ordered well in advance. The baby got sick from the wrong formula and spent hours crying and throwing up formula she was not used to. X's hotel dept did not seem to do much. My friends spent many hours running back and forth to guest relations trying to solve this probelm. Thank God the baby could still breastfeed. It just was not handled well.

 

 

Where is it? I would love to read it. Thanks.

 

Here is the link, however I stopped reviewing the responses since I have been labeled a "bad parent" for this mishap on that thread.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=334607

[elsje]

 

Here is the link, however I stopped reviewing the responses since I have been labeled a "bad parent" for this mishap on that thread.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=334607

 

Faux ~ my heart goes out to you! It is very unfortunate that some of the so-called "grown-ups" feel they have the right to attack you. Try not to let it bother you that much. You wrote a great review and you guys had a great cruise and that is far more important than the negative critism from some. Els;)

 

Ps. don't believe for one second that some of the oldies never made a "mistake" (if that's what you call it). As a young parent you will pick up ideas and you learn from past experiences. Please do not stop cruising with your little one. We traveled all over with our two girls and they turned out wonderful.

[FinelyCruising]

[stinsowm]

Thats Andrea. Thank you for posting her picture. Just as I remember her from the Horizon. Now hopefully I can request her to be our server on the 28th.

[FinelyCruising]

Well get cracking now while on land 'cause once you get on the ship and that Rat B*****d of a matire'd is on board you may/will be sucking wind if you are not originally seated at her table.

 

And she is oh, so good, it may be worth the pain of this guy to get there.....

 

Have a great time! :) If you can find her table, please let her know Cheryl and Ed said Hello.

 

Thanks in advance.