Throwback Saturday..Mercury then and now!

Our first cruise was on the Mercury in January 2003. Purchased a sky suite when we checked in (from a regular balcony cabin) for $110/person, as I recall. The veranda was HUGE! Our butler, John, helped me get into my tuxedo. We hosted 6 of our friends/fellow-cruisers on our veranda for a cocktail party.

 

We were spoiled. Experience unequaled until we lucked into the penthouse suite on the Azamara Journey, this time for $110 total upsell (not at checkin, however) for a 12-night Baltics cruise.

Loved the Mercury Sky Suites, even with an occasional bit of soot. I wish they had staterooms with a little more space and large verandas without going all the way up to Royal suites and the like, now they are all basically the same until you get into "butlered" suites. Another thing lacking on the ships.

Attached is a photo of Eduardo the best waiter we've had on any of our cruises back in the Baked Alaska days. We ran into him again 2 years later (2008) on Infinity. Anyone remember him or see him lately?

Watching the video of Mercury transformed into Mein Schiff 2 brings home that with the proper investment X could have kept the 3 Century class vessels in the fleet, kept them fresh and relevant and offered unique and diverse itineraries that they current cannot due to the small number of ships. At the time the decision was made to retire the Century class however it was considered more important to keep the fleet small and focus on the bread and butter routes.

If the Century class were in the X fleet today they could offer many more longer exotic cruises, perhaps even a World cruise like HAL and Princess do. Sadly the folks in Miami do not seem to have that vision for the brand.

The Mercury was our first cruise on Celebrity. We really liked the ship.

Service and food. Everything was exceptional.

 

Tendering back from a Western Caribbean port.

 

 

The multi deck MDR. We had a table assigned at the rear window that cruise.

 

 

This is one of the things I cruise for. Sunrise on Mercury

 

 

I found a place on her that I've not seen on another Celebrity ship since.

 

 

We also sailed her last voyage before going out of Celebrity service. We regretted that cruise because they had apparently transferred the best staff to other ships so we were stuck with what was left. They kept running out of food items as the cruise progressed due to under provisioning. The stores began packing up their inventory days before disembarkation. There were also no sales in the shops.

 

We thought the final voyage would be made something special. There was no celebration or acknowledgement on board of the sailing being her last under the flag.

 

We do still miss her although we'll not book another final sailing.

Great pics Steve, I am sure I saw a similar deck on the Century.

Too bad they didn't make a better last cruise for everyone.

Watching the video of Mercury transformed into Mein Schiff 2 brings home that with the proper investment X could have kept the 3 Century class vessels in the fleet, kept them fresh and relevant and offered unique and diverse itineraries that they current cannot due to the small number of ships. At the time the decision was made to retire the Century class however it was considered more important to keep the fleet small and focus on the bread and butter routes.

 

If the Century class were in the X fleet today they could offer many more longer exotic cruises, perhaps even a World cruise like HAL and Princess do. Sadly the folks in Miami do not seem to have that vision for the brand.

I remember watching the video when they were doing the Mein Schiff 2 work.

Celebrity apparently wanted to concentrate the home ports in larger ports than the regional ones and focus on the larger ships. Celebrity used to have a vision for the brand many years ago and it appeared successful. Quality service, quality food and interesting ports have apparently not been the recent focus as bottom line seems to be.

I am surprised at your lousy experience on her last Celebrity sailing. We were on Zenith's last Celebrity sailing, a 15N repo Tampa/Bayonne, and had the opposite experience even though some of the art & was missing around the ship. They had a farewell Zenith party on the pool deck one night with all of the officers & much of the crew attending. Our final port before Bayonne was Bermuda, & the Captain hosted a luncheon for Bermuda big wigs. As she sailed out of Hamilton her final time, after 16 seasons there, she was accompanied out out the harbor with a fireboat water salute & all of the harbor vessels giving salutes with their horns. Barely a dry eye on deck! Still one of our favorite cruises.

I had heard about the send off for the Zenith and Horizon so thought they would do the same for Mercury which is why we booked it. We had been booked on Mercury a few weeks later but they cancelled the Charleston embarkations to speed up the transfer to TUI so we had to switch to Baltimore or cancel.

My first Celebrity cruise was on Mercury. Service was flawless, food was excellent, and we had a fantastic time. Sure got me hooked!

 

Ditto on your comments. Do you remember Mercury, Horizon and Century they are the three (3) ships that hooked us on Celebrity Cruise Lines. Excellent !!! Excellent !!!! was their motto.

Wow, talk about a blast from the past! Great memories. I almost forgot about how great the T pool area was on the C class ships. And isn't it cool that suites had a VCR?! Also love the TV screens!

 

Thanks.

Rich

Don't know if you remember but one of the highly advertised options on the C class ships was the Sony store. Latest entertainment options from Sony, sort of like Apple on the current ships.