Any report on last week on Mercury?

[SheilaNC]

We're sailing on July 14th and are interested in a report from someone just off Mercury AND same for the next two sailings. Particularly interested in weather (which looks terrible on weather.com), clothing needed, and quality of the cruise. Thanks...we're really looking forward to this one and just interested in good info that will help with our final plans.:)

[SheilaNC]

Hmmm, seems like someone just home from Mercury would be willing to report. Anyone???

[luckylady1]

I am just home from Mercury. We got off her last Friday. Had a wonderful time. My DH and I were on her last September and this year we took several family members with us. It was a great cruise. As far as the weather goes it was pretty cool in all of the ports. We needed our heavier jackets for all of them. We were late getting into Juneau. We were scheduled for 3pm and got there around 4:15pm. Several shore excursions had to be canceled. Announcements said that the lateness was due to rough seas on Saturday. I don't know but according to the woman that took us to our shore excursion, they always expect the Mercury to be late. She said she is getting later and later. We made Skagway on time and also Hubbard Glacier. We were late to Ketchikan due to a medical emergency that required us to divert to Sitka. The person evacuated had to have emergency surgery. There was another medical emergency right after we left Ketchikan and another person was evacuated.

 

The food and the shows were wonderful. Jean Claude and Gaby are a must see. They are aerialists and the last show is not to be missed. The Celebrity singers and dancers had the same shows as last year but they were just as good. If I can answer any more questions let me know. I will be happy to.:D

 

Kay

[SheilaNC]

Kay,

Thanks so much for the report. We, too, are taking family members. Did this one on the Galaxy some years ago and are really looking forward to returning. Sorry about the continuing late arrival to Juneau...we have 4 pm Capt Larry whalewatching reservations...hopefully that will still work. Also hope the weather warms up a bit in the next two weeks...we have a family member who doesn't like the cold and I keep talking about how warm it was on our late June sailing in '98 :(

 

What did you do in Ketchican and Skagway and did you get any feedback from those who did late whalewatching? Also, were folks able to have time to get to the Mendenhall Glacier?? Thanks

[luckylady1]

The tour we took was with Captain Larry so like we were told if you tell them you are coming in on Mercury then they expect you to be late. We were on the Odyssey with Captain Larry and at first we were watching a couple of Humpback whales then Captain Larry got a call on his cell phone and we took off. In a few minutes we were in the middle of a pod of Orcas. We sat and watched them for about an hour. It was wonderful. Captain Larry was able to identify the pod by their markings and he told us that there were 52 whales in that particular pod. I don't think that happens every time. I think we got lucky.:D After we left the Orcas we saw 4 or 5 seals playing in the water and when we docked we were walking up the dock and saw several eagles flying around. We definately got our money worth. We got back to Juneau around 7pm. That would give plenty of time to go to Mendenhall. Dh and I went there last year and the others wanted to shop so we didn't go out there.

 

As far as Skagway and Ketchikan went we did the White pass rail train last year. It was a good trip and very pretty. Our son went into town and purchased a white pass but tour. It was half the price of the train and he said you got to see more plus you get to get out when you get to Canada. With the train you don't get out.:eek:

 

Since we didn't get to Ketchikan until after 11am and it was the last chance for shopping we didn't do anything. Last year we did the duck tour. It was fun and informative.:D

 

Hope this helps.

 

Kay

[SheilaNC]

Thanks, we do look forward to Capt Larry. We are renting cars in Skagway and driving to Carcross and, probably, staying in town in Ketchican...we enjoyed that last trip and the rest of the family will likely do their own things. I appreciate your sharing!

[yoshi]

We are also doing the Mercury Alaska trip, although not until August 25. There are several families brand new to cruising going as well. Could you all help us out with information on the attire in the Manhattan dining room for formal nights and informal? Sounds like the shows were good, what was the music like? Any good dancing? Was there anything that you wouldn't want to miss or anything that you would avoid? And last ?, did you have kids with comments on the kids program?

Thanks so much for any info, the anticipation and planning is half of the fun!

[SheilaNC]

Yoshi,

I'll be sure to post when we return. We have 5 kids in our group ranging in age from 7-14 so will be able to fill you in on their opinions as well. Dress in the main Dining Room is as noted in the Celebrity materials. There are 3 categories from Formal to Semi-formal to Casual. Formal means dark suits and ties or Tuxedos for the men - long dresses or dressy cocktail dresses for women; Semi - mean jackets and shirts (some say ties and some don't) and dresses or dressy pants and tops for women; Casual is what is often referred to as' Country Club Casual' - no jeans, tee shirts, etc. My DH usually wears chinos or other slacks and Golf or regular sport shirts, I wear slacks and nice tops. Kids depend on age - ours will likely wear chinos and button downs with ties, vests of jackets on more formal nights (unless they go to kids' program dinner). Hope that helps.

[SheilaNC]

Other new reports on Mercury? This topic seems very quiet after all of the buzz over the past few months.

[chessbriar]

maybe all the buzz was over blown. Or Maybe the outbreaks were just confinded to a couple cruises? Who know?

[SheilaNC]

Rick,

Would like to think you're right. But ... I'm interested in the plus side of this cruise, not just the illness/cleaning, etc. Must have been more than one family of CCers onboard :)

[CruizeFans]

We were on the June 2, 2006 cruise to Alaska that I believe everyone is talking about. It was our first cruise and it was Fantastic. Everything on the ship was perfect and the crew went beyond our expectations.

 

As we headed north the weather got overcast and we did have a few light showers. We dressed in a medium jacket and were OK outside watching all the beautiful sights. The only cold experience was at the Hubbard Glacier, but then we did arrive around 6am and the wind was blowing a bit. We still managed to say outside for a couple of hours. We are from Florida so we were not as comfortable with the cold as some other passengers.

 

I (male) was a little concerned about the dress code, but my concerns vanished the first formal night. We saw Tuxes, dark suits and sports jackets and slacks for the men. All the women looked good, but then I am a male. I had a dark blue sports jacket and dark blue slacks and felt perfectly comfortable.

 

When we returned to ship at Ketchikan (June 7th) we noticed that most of the crew were very busy cleaning everything in sight. No more serve yourself coffee or juice and no touching any food. There was someone there to take care of everything for you. We did ask what was going on and learned that a few of the passengers had become ill. A couple of hours later, the captain made and annoucement that some passengers had become ill and we were requested to sanitize our hands before entering the dining areas.

 

Later that evening we made a planned stop at Price Rupert and a couple of passengers were sent to a local hospital. The next day I talked to a couple that had gotten sick and they had been quarantined to their room for 24 hours.

 

After leaving the ship in Seattle we learned that about 125 people had become ill, but the ship had been cleaned and cleared to leave again on schedule.

 

We have already booked another cruise with Celebrity next spring and making plans for another cruise after that.

 

We loved the entire experience.

 

Gary and Kathy

[luckylady1]

Actually I don't think there were anymore ccrs on board. I tried to start a roll call for this cruise before Christmas and only had one other person post with some questions. I answered the questions but they never posted again. I kept bumping it up but there were never any more posts on it but mine.:confused:

 

Kay

[SheilaNC]

We have a very small group for our 7/14 cruise as well. Seems strange since we already have a large group for a 2008 cruise (down under).

 

Thanks for the info. shared. Sorry to hear that the virus is still with us. We'll take appropriate precautions and hope for the best. Do you know if the Sushi Bar has re-opened? Our family was really looking forward to it!

[luckylady1]

I don't know about the sushi bar since we don't eat sushi, however, by the middle of our cruise everything was back to norm. We were able to serve ourselves and all drink stations were open for self service. We were never inconvenienced by any of the enhanced cleaning. I did hear people complain about having to clean their hands so much but some people just live to complain imho.:rolleyes:

[buzzandjulie]

Hi

I will be sailing on the Mercury July 28th and despite making several attempts to find other passengers for this sailing on CC no one has responded. I am very glad to hear that your cruise was so wonderful. I cruised Alaska last June on Serenade with my husband and on deck was really the only time I could say we were at all cool not even cold. The ports by mid day were well into the 60's. I also found from previus cruises the formal nights did not seem quite as formal as maybe the carribean cruises. Certainly some were very dressed but most not nearly as dressy. I know I am just bring dressy tops and pants this time and not anything very fancy. I will post when I return

[SheilaNC]

Buzz and Julie,

I will post when I return on the 21st...should give you some up to the minute feedback before you sail. If anyone sailing on Friday reads this, please post a review when you get back....the last one that I would see. Thanks

[buzzandjulie]

Thanks Spengle

[Isaac]

I'm a little concerned about the late arrivals in Juneau. We have a fishing trip booked through an independent provider and have already had to shorten it due to the change in itnerary. We're really looking forward to fishing and we certainly don't want to be out $ for a trip we can't take. Any other recent cruisers have any reports on Juneau arrival times?

[kruzeesuzee]

We were late getting into Juneau. We were scheduled for 3pm and got there around 4:15pm. Several shore excursions had to be canceled. Announcements said that the lateness was due to rough seas on Saturday. I don't know but according to the woman that took us to our shore excursion, they always expect the Mercury to be late. She said she is getting later and later.

 

It has been mentioned that the Mercury will go into a 2-week drydock next spring (April, I believe), and I don't know if that has changed, but it appears there may be something mechanical that is causing delays.

 

Juneau is such an important port, due to all the extraordinary excursions available there, that on-time performance is something Celebrity must really be able to guarantee, barring significant weather problems, of course. But if other ships can get there on time, the Mercury should be able to arrive on time, too.

 

We're thinking of booking one of the Australia and NZ itineraries, but we want to arrive on time to make the most of the trip and the long flight necessary to take us there.

[Isaac]

Chronic speed issues are no fun. We sailed an 11-night Hawaii/Fanning Island on NCL a few years ago and on our way down to FI, the captain announced that we weren't able to make the proper speed to arrive on time. Our time there was cut in half. After talking to a few crew members, we found out this was a regular occurance and not a one time mechanical problem as had been suggested by the captain. Here's hoping we get there on time...

[SheilaNC]

Today's the day for a return to Seattle by Mercury...hope someone posts a report this weekend and includes time of arrival into Juneau. We're booked on a back to back on Mercury in Australia/NZ in Feb 2008, so, we too, are really interested in the work to be done during the drydock. I would hope that serious mechanical problems would be dealt with prior to APRIL, 2007!!

[dive1]

Just got off of the Mercury today. We had a medical evacuation off of the northern tip of Vancouver Island. The boat stopped for two hours to wait for arrival of the Canadian Coast Guard Helicopter. While we were waiting, a Humpback whale played in front of the boat for our entertainment and watching the evacuation was quite exciting. We ended up two hours late to Juneau but they announced we would be 3 hours late. All tours were cancelled, but I think it was a blessing in disguise since the low clouds and rain would probably have made the experience poor. Otherwise we had partly sunny skies even though the pre-cruise weather reports said rain everyday. Seas were very calm and we were able to get right up to Hubbard Glacier. We were told that this is as close as they were able to get all year! The naturalist was very good on board. Saw about 12 whales and many eagles from the ship. The eagles were plentiful in Ketchikan.

[C 2 C]

It has been mentioned that the Mercury will go into a 2-week drydock next spring (April, I believe), and I don't know if that has changed, but it appears there may be something mechanical that is causing delays.

 

When I checked the Celebrity website there is no sailing scheduled between April 13 and April 27. 2007 But none in April 2008 either?:confused:

[SheilaNC]

dive1,

Thanks for your quick post after returning on Merc. How was the cruise overall? Much illness? Sushi Bar open? Tours other than Juneau. We're getting very excited since we leave in 2 weeks.