Rosie's Mercury Review 11/26-12/6 #2

[JNLROSE]

We took a tour of the spa & all of its facilities and cruised through the Palm Springs dining buffet for a quick bite. After familiarizing ourselves with the ship, we all met for the sail away party on the balcony. What fun! Sailing from SD, though cold, was a beautiful sight to behold, a very beautiful city!

 

 

1st day was a sea day and though it was pretty cold, I guess we enjoyed it. We were still learning our way about the ship and had a lot of fun exploring. We would have preferred to be lying out at the pool in the sun. This was the one big downfall of this cruise. It was just too cold sailing to & from San Diego this time of year. Sun worshipers beware!

 

 

As we sailed into Cabo San Lucas on the 2ns day, it was just beautiful with the sun coming up and the smoothness of the sea. We tendered at this port, so we all got off & decided to do the town tour on our own. We had a ball seeing all the sights. We ended up at the Shrimp Factory for a late lunch and then made our way back to the ship for yet another fun sail away! We anchored so close to Los Arcos that we could get great pix from our balcony so we declined to take a boat tour out there.

 

 

Our itinerary was changed due to tendering schedules, so our next stop was Puerto Vallarta instead of Mazatlan. Here, we took the ships excursion “Tequila Factory & Historic Towns”. Although VERY interesting, I wouldn’t recommend it unless you want to spend a day on a bus with no lunch driving down dirt roads seeing all the poverty and poor towns in the area. It got just a little too long. There was no shopping to speak of either.

 

 

The next stop was Mazatlan, what a beautiful city! We hired a taxi right outside the terminal for $50 for 4 of us for approx. 3 hours tour of the entire city & all of its sights! The car was clean, air-conditioned & the driver spoke very good English! After the tour, we wandered the streets shopping & again had lunch at the Shrimp Factory! A very nice day! We grabbed an open air cart for a ride back to the terminal for I think $10 for the 4 of us! Once at the terminal, there was a BIG crowd drinking & partying all around so we sat & had a couple of beers & enjoyed the “view”!

 

 

The next day was a sea day, nice & warm & a REAL pool day except for the pool band—Centerfold. I have to report that this band although VERY musically pleasing, the girl singers cannot stay in harmony or carry a tune! They also had their volume turned so loud that we couldn’t hear our books on tape on the upper deck-aft! We did not enjoy this band very much. I wish they had been as good as Voltz from the Summit!

 

 

I’m going to interject here a review on the entertainment in general. The comedian, Noodles was FANTASTIC, the show they brought on board in Acapulco was FANTASTIC! The orchestra was great as was the string quartet and the Black & White Duo. Noli, the guitar player was just average in our opinion. We walked out of the Celebrity singers & dancers 1st show, we found it relatively boring and we were tired and it was late, so can’t comment on the rest of their shows as we didn’t go. We felt like the talent was nowhere near what we experienced on board Summit in February. I guess we were spoiled on that cruise. When I spoke to Julian (the CD) about it, he said you couldn’t expect the same talent on a smaller ship!!??!! Hmmmmm……….

 

 

Acapulco although hot & humid, was a GREAT city. We booked a private taxi tour for 10 of us & had a great day. Oscar, our driver, had a very clean van, air conditioned & spoke very good English. Saw a lot of wonderful sights, resorts & neighborhoods. We saw the cliff divers and ate at an authentic local restaurant. We grabbed a local bus from the restaurant back to the terminal—what fun THAT was!!! Upon return to the terminal, we shopped the shops within the terminal & enjoyed several margaritas at the terminal bar! What fun! The newly renovated terminal is very nice!

 

 

Next stop was Zihuatanejo/Ixtapa. Another tender port. We got off the ship and started cruising through the little fishing village. It is not much more than a souvenir shop stop. We took a taxi to Ixtapa, which is even smaller in terms of shopping. Nothing but several resorts & whatever they have to offer. We did not go to any of the resorts so I can’t say whether they were nice or not, but they sure looked nice! We were back on the ship by noon. If you are interested in doing a beach excursion, I’m sure the beaches there were beautiful. They certainly looked like it from the ship. We don’t do many beach excursions, since we also do beach land vacations along with cruises. We like to see the towns, countrysides, etc.

To be continued......................

[OCruisers]

JNLROSE "Rosie" .... Enjoying your cruise review! GREAT! Keep them coming! :D

 

Happy Sailing! OCruisers :)

[JNLROSE]

Hi there! Unfortunately, #3 is the last I have to report! :D

[OCruisers]

Rosie .... Doing 3 is great! Always enjoy your posts and respect your opinions! You always tell it like it is! :cool: Happy Sailing! OCruisers :)

[JNLROSE]

Thanks! I appreciate the comment! :D Just tried to tell it "like it was"!! ;)

[Lyn2005]

Great report! So would you say that there is not much to see at Zihuatanejo/Ixtapa? We aren't really into beach excursions either.

[JNLROSE]

The town is worth a walk through, clean, quaint little fishing village with a lot of little shops. I wouldn't waste my time going to Ixtapa if you didn't want to go to a beach resort though.

[TourDeCruise]

Rosie: Enjoyed your 3-thread review! I have a couple questions. Did anyone say how warm and calm seas were for kayaking or snorkeling in November? We go early-to-mid-November 2005, and I'm wondering if we should bring our snorkeling equipment.

 

Also, you wrote that Acapulco and Matzalan have bars at the terminals where people partied. Any other restaurants/clubs/bars very near the ship in the other ports (or additionally in Acapulco & Matzalan) that you recommend for groups to meet at the end of the port days? We have 2 "reunion" groups on the rollcall for our November 2005 Mercury Mexican Riviera cruise, so we're hoping to plan some places in advance where we might be able to meet at the end of some of the port days.

 

Thanks again for your great review,

Kathy

[JNLROSE]

A couple of our tablemates went snorkeling & said they had a great time, so I would assume the water was nice or they would have said something!

 

In regard to bars/clubs, etc, I didn't notice any clubs or bars REAL close to any of the terminals. The bar inside Acapulco terminal is quite small but fun. Mazatlan terminal had an outside bar with lots of tables & music. There's a lot or bars/restaurants in Cabo, but it's a little hike back to the tender dock. There were also some bars close to the tender dock in Z/Ixt. We didn't really go into any of them outside of the terminals, so can't give you much more info than that, sorry!

[JJPNYC]

Hi Kathy-

My wife I did snorkeling in 2 ports, Cabo & Zihua. Here's the lowdown on both:

 

In Cabo we did the ship's kayaking/snorkeling to Land's End. First of all, the price was reasonable for what you would've paid had you gone it on your own. Secondly, the kayaking was smooth and the snorkeling pretty clear. No complaints here.

 

In Zihua we did the ship's excursion again, the sailing/snorkeling on the "Vlatva". We sailed about 3 miles or so (I'm just guessing here) south of Zihua. We dropped anchor about 100 feet off shore and just jumped in. The snorkeling here was good as we saw sea turtles, eels, & puffer fish.

 

Also in both areas the water was nice & warm.

 

In both of these excursion the snorkeling gear is included so if you're thinking of doing these you don't need to bring your gear if you don't want to schlepp it with you.

 

Jeff

[JNLROSE]

Hi Jeff!!!! ;)

[fahywray]

We are scheduled on Mercury December 17th. Just curious why they changed the Mazatlan/Puerto Vallarta stops. When did you find out about this? We are scheduled for Randi's Happy Horses in Mazatlan and would need to let Randi know of any changes.

[JNLROSE]

We found out the first night when the CD made the announcement at the welcome speech. It had something to do with too many ships in port & us having to tender a 3rd time, so they switched us so we would not have to tender. Several people also had Randi scheduled & were able to contact her via the internet.

[JJPNYC]

Don't worry about Randi's and the possible date switch-a-roo. When we saw her, we gave her the low-down on what happened and also gave her the info on the port agent for Celebrity in Mazatlan. From the sounds of it, it seems like Randi knows that Mercury might be flip-flopping the dates she calls on Mazatlan for the rest of this season.

 

jeff