Mercury Calendar Empty May thru Mid-Sep

[waunabcruizin]

I just looked at the sailing calendar for Mercury next year on Celebrity's web site. I wanted to book an Alaska cruise, but there are NO ALASKA CRUISES ON MERCURY'S SAILING CALENDAR FOR 2007!!!!! Does anybody know anything???? I have an Alaska cruise on temporary hold until tomorrow, but according to the sailing calendar, there aren't any Alaska cruises scheduled. If they pull Mercury for a Century-like drydock prior to the Down Under cruises would there be another ship to fill her slot from Seattle to Alaska round trip? So, what is going on all you old Celebrity hands?

 

Carol.

[Andy]

I just looked at the sailing calendar for Mercury next year on Celebrity's web site. I wanted to book an Alaska cruise, but there are NO ALASKA CRUISES ON MERCURY'S SAILING CALENDAR FOR 2007!!!!! Does anybody know anything???? I have an Alaska cruise on temporary hold until tomorrow, but according to the sailing calendar, there aren't any Alaska cruises scheduled. If they pull Mercury for a Century-like drydock prior to the Down Under cruises would there be another ship to fill her slot from Seattle to Alaska round trip? So, what is going on all you old Celebrity hands?

 

Carol.

 

Hi Carol !

 

You may have stumbled on to something. I checked Celebrity's website a few moments ago, and it does appear that most all of the Alaska season for Mercury between May and August 2007, has disappeared from the sailing calendar.

 

Now, before everyone panics.... it could simply be some modification of itineraries. Another possibility is, Celebrity MAY be trying to fit a drydock into Mercury's schedule and stopped selling these sailings until they can figure out possible drydock dates. The good news is, any Mercury upgrade should only take 2 months or less, if they do similar work as to what they did with Century.

 

The last possibility, is that Mercury could be re-deployed elsewhere. Although, this is probably the least likely scenario. Of course, it could be a good old Website glitch. Let's not rule that out either.

 

I will try to make some calls tomorrow, and see what I can find out. Hopefully, some of our other friends here (Rick, this is a job for you <smile>), can shed some light on this. I am quite interested myself.

 

Good Luck !

[waunabcruizin]

Andy - I just looked at the Alaska courtesy hold I had on Celebrity's web site and guess what.....it's gone. Poof, disappeared. Annnnddd, if you try to book an Alaska cruise on the web site only Summit and Infinity appear to select from. So, 'tis a mystery to be sure. I'm glad I hadn't plopped down the deposit on the Alaska cruise yet. I was going to wait to confirm until Friday from onboard Mercury on the 3-niter 9/15, but was trying to hold cabin 8004 until then. Sigh.

 

Sure hope we can find out something....I'm dying of curiosity:D .

 

Carol.

[Andy]

Andy - I just looked at the Alaska courtesy hold I had on Celebrity's web site and guess what.....it's gone. Poof, disappeared. Annnnddd, if you try to book an Alaska cruise on the web site only Summit and Infinity appear to select from. So, 'tis a mystery to be sure. I'm glad I hadn't plopped down the deposit on the Alaska cruise yet. I was going to wait to confirm until Friday from onboard Mercury on the 3-niter 9/15, but was trying to hold cabin 8004 until then. Sigh.

 

Sure hope we can find out something....I'm dying of curiosity:D .

 

Carol.

 

Hi Carol !

 

I had a near identical situation happen to me a couple of months ago with Constellation. The wind up was, our Cruise was cancelled and subsequently changed from a 10 night Caribbean sailing to a Transatlantic sailing. Fortunately for us, we were able to change to another Constellation Caribbean sailing, and all worked out fine..... but not without plenty of stress while many of us waited to see what the outcome was !

 

I am certainly not suggesting that any of this is the case, but it is very curious to say the least. Stay Tuned !

[carbon]

Andy - I just looked at the Alaska courtesy hold I had on Celebrity's web site and guess what.....it's gone. Poof, disappeared. Annnnddd, if you try to book an Alaska cruise on the web site only Summit and Infinity appear to select from. So, 'tis a mystery to be sure. I'm glad I hadn't plopped down the deposit on the Alaska cruise yet. I was going to wait to confirm until Friday from onboard Mercury on the 3-niter 9/15, but was trying to hold cabin 8004 until then. Sigh.

 

Sure hope we can find out something....I'm dying of curiosity:D .

 

Carol.

 

What is so special about cabin 8004? I am booked in that cabin in January.

[SheilaNC]

Andy,

IMO, this goes along with what I posted when we returned from Mercury in July - the staff (can't mention names) told me that there would be a 'significant' updating - similar but not on the same scale as Century - before the Down Under deployment. They indicated that there would be some structural changes but couldn't give specific details. Our understanding was that, in addition to bedding and other cosmetic changes, there possibly might be a specialty restaurant, change in location of cruise sales location, and, perhaps, but not likely additional balconies. Obviously, I'm not sure how much of this was speculation and how much fact, but at least 3 people at different times told us similar stories and most were expecting to be on the ship in OZ and NZ. The current change in schedule could be affirming what we were told. Hope so given our bookings down under! :) But sorry for those whose plans have been changed without notice :(

[Andy]

Andy,

IMO, this goes along with what I posted when we returned from Mercury in July - the staff (can't mention names) told me that there would be a 'significant' updating - similar but not on the same scale as Century - before the Down Under deployment. They indicated that there would be some structural changes but couldn't give specific details. Our understanding was that, in addition to bedding and other cosmetic changes, there possibly might be a specialty restaurant, change in location of cruise sales location, and, perhaps, but not likely additional balconies. Obviously, I'm not sure how much of this was speculation and how much fact, but at least 3 people at different times told us similar stories and most were expecting to be on the ship in OZ and NZ. The current change in schedule could be affirming what we were told. Hope so given our bookings down under! :) But sorry for those whose plans have been changed without notice :(

 

Hi Sheila !

 

As I mentioned in my last post, this could certainly be one of the reasons for the hole in Mercury's schedule. I would think that if Mercury were to have a Century type revitilization, the scope of work would be less than what was required for Century.

 

Mercury is the newest of the 3 ships in the Century Class, and has more balconies than Century had before the revitilization. This should probably make for a fairly short drydock - perhaps a month or 2.... unless Celebrity has some greater plans. Time will tell.

[Karynanne]

Andy,

IMO, this goes along with what I posted when we returned from Mercury in July - the staff (can't mention names) told me that there would be a 'significant' updating - similar but not on the same scale as Century - before the Down Under deployment. They indicated that there would be some structural changes but couldn't give specific details. Our understanding was that, in addition to bedding and other cosmetic changes, there possibly might be a specialty restaurant, change in location of cruise sales location, and, perhaps, but not likely additional balconies. Obviously, I'm not sure how much of this was speculation and how much fact, but at least 3 people at different times told us similar stories and most were expecting to be on the ship in OZ and NZ. The current change in schedule could be affirming what we were told. Hope so given our bookings down under! :) But sorry for those whose plans have been changed without notice :(

 

Sheila, we were informed of this in May, 2005. A Specialty Restaurant would be added, and changes to some of the public areas. We probably hear more about this in the future months.

 

Karyn

[Cruise Arizona]

We are currently booked for the June 15th Sailing on the Merc in 2007 for a Family Reunion. We have just three cabins booked for our group now, but we thought that possibly we might add more.

 

My hope is that they may be planning dry dock in the Spring, and they are currently updating the web site and information. They probably want to keep new bookings at bay until they sort out the new cabin configurations. Hopefully our cruise will not be cancelled or rescheduled.

 

We are hoping that possibly our FOV will become a Family Veranda and hopefully no cabin change or price increase. Re-doingthe Merc would be great for us because they currently have no regular balcony cabins for 4 and the FOV are just that Ocean View and not Verandas.

 

I'll have to be sure to keep checking the Celebrity site for any news or updates.

[Cruise Arizona]

We were posting at the same time.

 

 

I might just start a thread specifically about this ;)

 

This could be great news as long as my cruise isn't cancelled.

[SheilaNC]

thanks, Karyn, we've heard so many different stories over the past year or so that we didn't lend much credence to them until when actually on Merc in July. Then the folks with whom we talked were 'in the know', so to speak, and we paid more attention. Seems like upper executives had been onboard a few weeks before to talk to the staff and more were coming a few weeks later. Guess we'll all know exactly what transpires when the work is done. I'm just glad it will happen before we sail Down Under and sorry for the diappointment and inconvenience to those affected by the drydock schedule.

[kruisecat]

We are booked on the 6/22/07 out of Seattle. Went in and looked up by res # and it now shows RT out of Vancouver but NO PRICING. The itin is exactly the same in terms of stops but the times have changed somewhat and now there is no Jones Act stop. I will be keeping a very close eye on this as this is a family reunion of sorts for us as well and it will be a huge pain in the @$$ if I have to start the research again :eek:

 

I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that the pricing remains the same for those of us who have paid our deposits :rolleyes:

[c-legs]

:confused: Good morning,

 

Was she not originally scheduled for an April 2007 drydock ???? What's happened to THAT drydock ???

Cheers

Claude G

;)

[chessbriar]

To help with a little info, X had been updating their website. It might be affect the itineraries page

[anla_shok]

Well the reservation I had placed two weeks ago for the 8/17/07 cruise has disappeared.

[waunabcruizin]

anla shok - What has happened to your deposit, inquiring minds want to know?

 

I had a courtesy hold on the 8/31 sailing but had not produced the deposit money because I'm sailing on Mercury this weekend and planned to consummate the reservation then in order to get the onboard credit. Like your confirmed reservation, my courtesy hold has disappeared.....but I didn't have any money on it.

 

Wonder when they are going to announce something.

 

Carol (and Linda).

[kruisecat]

anla shok - What has happened to your deposit, inquiring minds want to know?

 

I had a courtesy hold on the 8/31 sailing but had not produced the deposit money because I'm sailing on Mercury this weekend and planned to consummate the reservation then in order to get the onboard credit. Like your confirmed reservation, my courtesy hold has disappeared.....but I didn't have any money on it.

 

Wonder when they are going to announce something.

 

Carol (and Linda).

 

I looked up our reservation as if I was going to purchase a shore excursion. It shows the cruise, the itin and that we are "booked" in the same cabin but does not show any $$$. Based on my conversations this am with CC rep they should have more information within the month.

 

I'm just curious of this, if they raise the prices of the cruise will those of us with a deposit be price protected or will we be forced to pay more for our cruise?

[waunabcruizin]

Carbon - I understand cabins 8004 and 8007 on Mercury are larger than the normal cat 5 cabins and have a very nice window facing forward for a terrific view. I thought that would be great for an Alaska cruise.

 

Carol (and Linda).

[anla_shok]

anla shok - What has happened to your deposit, inquiring minds want to know?

 

I had a courtesy hold on the 8/31 sailing but had not produced the deposit money because I'm sailing on Mercury this weekend and planned to consummate the reservation then in order to get the onboard credit. Like your confirmed reservation, my courtesy hold has disappeared.....but I didn't have any money on it.

 

Wonder when they are going to announce something.

 

Carol (and Linda).

 

I don't know yet. I just saw this thread and hopped over to the Celebrity site to check my reservation and sure enough, *POOF* it was gone. I'll have to give them a call to see if my deposit ever actually went through in the first place. It's possible that they never actually charged my card (though I recieved a confirmation e-mail that the deposit was applied).

 

Gah! I had 8007 booked, too!

[Jenbo57]

We were posting at the same time.

 

 

I might just start a thread specifically about this ;)

 

This could be great news as long as my cruise isn't cancelled.

I was on the Mercury on the 8/25 Seattle to Alaska sailing (fabulous trip, by the way). I attended a talk given by the shipboard sales director on future Celebrity sailings and was told that the Mercury is going in for some minor retrofitting. We're sailing the Mexican Riviera from San Diego on the Mercury 4/6/07, which appears to be her last sailing before going under the knife!!! I think the Infinity and/or the Summit are taking her place on the Alaska runs next spring/summer.

[ocngypz]

It will be announced tomorrow that the ship will be sailing from Vancouver for the Alaska 2007 season.

[cruiser2004]

I don't know yet. I just saw this thread and hopped over to the Celebrity site to check my reservation and sure enough, *POOF* it was gone. I'll have to give them a call to see if my deposit ever actually went through in the first place. It's possible that they never actually charged my card (though I recieved a confirmation e-mail that the deposit was applied).

 

Gah! I had 8007 booked, too!

 

Anla_shok,

What a great word to describe yet another Celebrity "situation" - "POOF"!

[suemoon]

It will be announced tomorrow that the ship will be sailing from Vancouver for the Alaska 2007 season.

How do you know this if I may ask?

[Angel]

Hi

Booked for the Oct 5th 2007 cruise out of seattle on the mercury also for a family reunion. Will should watch out for that sailing to see if it is still on.

Hi Carol and Shelia, this is Bev ( Angel).

[SheilaNC]

Hi, Bev,

Isn't it funny how we get around...will be watching for me details on this situation...