Just back from Mercury Alaska

[cherbobtt]

We were on the 8/25 Mercury Alaska cruise and it was fabulous! We had sunshine most of the trip and temperatures in the 50s and 60s. Unbelievable! One of the locals in Skagway offered to pay us to stay there if we could bring sunshine.

 

We saw many whales, bald eagles, and sea lions. We took the Whale Watching and Mendenhall Glacier tour in Juneau. At the glacier, we saw a black bear walking upstream looking for salmon. In Ketchikan, we took the Lighthouse tour, which was also spectacular. Hubbard Glacier was calving (dropping ice into the ocean). This is not a bad thing. The Hubbard Glacier is actually getting larger - a phenomenon with global warming.

 

The ship definitely needs to be dry docked. However, nothing that ruined our enjoyment of the cruise.

 

Food was excellent. Although, I do not eat seafood, which was the most prevalent item on the menu. I had beef every night. Only once was it a little tough and tasteless. Every other night it was "as tender as my heart" (an old saying I learned from my mother).

 

If you have questions, feel free to ask.

[C 2 C]

If you have questions, feel free to ask.

 

Do you recall the name of the Captain and Cruise Director?

Have the beds been upgraded?

[Rstamper]

Did you go to the Cafe Cova? What kind of pasties did they have? What time did they have them? Who was the pool/party band? How was their music? Did you have a sailaway party? Did they serve anything to eat at the sailaway party?

 

Thanks,

Rstamper

[cherbobtt]

I saw pastries at Cova in the a.m. and then again before dinner. I didn't have any in the a.m. so I'm not sure what was there. The only one I tried in the p.m. was sun-dried tomato pastries. There was so much food, I couldn't get to it all (but I tried).

 

The Captain had a very long Greek name. The Cruise Director was Robin and he was excellent. The Naturalist was also very good and very animated.

 

The pool band was great, but I can't remember their name. The female singer in the pool band was wonderful. I also enjoyed the string quartet that played in the Cova Cafe.

[cherbobtt]

I forgot to answer the question about the sailaway party. They did have one, but there was no food that I saw. We boarded around 12:30 and there was a buffet. Around 1:00 they announced that you could go to your stateroom. We had dinner at the usual times and at the table we would sit at the entire cruise. We always get a table for 6-8 and this time was no exception. The company was wonderful. We have never had bad tablemates. I guess everyone is pleasant when they are on a cruise!

[Rstamper]

Cherbobtt,

 

Thanks for your answers. We will be cruising on the Mercury in a week and a half and I am so excited. Love to listen to the party band while being in the hot tub!

 

Rstamper

[GoinSouth]

We were aboard on the same cruise, and it was a great trip. The clear air at Hubbard Glacier was amazing, yeilding some wonderful video footage. I also got a wonderful Humpback shot within about 20 feet of the side of the ship.

 

The dining room food was very good and the overall ship condition was fine.

 

My only disappointment was Ketchican, which looked like every other tourist port with T shirt shops and House of Tanzanite shops and discount jewelers. Several of them operate shops in Alaska in the summer and in the Carribean in the winter. No wonder they looked the same.

 

This was our first Celebrity cruise, and we loved it.

[poohtaz]

We were on the 8/25 Mercury Alaska cruise and it was fabulous! We had sunshine most of the trip and temperatures in the 50s and 60s. Unbelievable! One of the locals in Skagway offered to pay us to stay there if we could bring sunshine.

 

We saw many whales, bald eagles, and sea lions. We took the Whale Watching and Mendenhall Glacier tour in Juneau. At the glacier, we saw a black bear walking upstream looking for salmon. In Ketchikan, we took the Lighthouse tour, which was also spectacular. Hubbard Glacier was calving (dropping ice into the ocean). This is not a bad thing. The Hubbard Glacier is actually getting larger - a phenomenon with global warming.

 

The ship definitely needs to be dry docked. However, nothing that ruined our enjoyment of the cruise.

 

Food was excellent. Although, I do not eat seafood, which was the most prevalent item on the menu. I had beef every night. Only once was it a little tough and tasteless. Every other night it was "as tender as my heart" (an old saying I learned from my mother).

 

If you have questions, feel free to ask.

 

 

What did you notice that you feel she needs to be in dry dock?

[cherbobtt]

The cruise director noted that there were 250 children on board last week. We rarely saw any children. The ones we did see were very well behaved. Kudos to the Children's Program staff.

[cherbobtt]

Poohtaz - The things I noticed that needed fixing or updates included carpets, chair upholstrey, and some of the tables and chairs in the aft pool area. Our shower tile was dirty and the grout was black. (I wrote the shower comment on the comment card.) However, I still had a great cruise and just put these things out of my mind.

[poohtaz]

If You don't mind me asking what room did you have?

[daisymae253]

We were also on the Mercury 25th of Aug....I will agree the weather was out of sight...I was very impressed with Celebrity ....this was our first cruise with them...but it will not be the last...we were a cat. 8...oceanview window....the bed was a little lumpy...so i ask for a egg shell foam padding....the cabin stewart was very helpful in obtaining one...i felt the service was above average as well as the food...had one if not the best cruise we have taken...can't wait to sail again:)