4/24/05 Mexican Riviera Review (long post)

[sassystyxfan]

Mexican Riviera Cruise

 

Celebrity Mercury

 

April 24 – May 4, 2005

 

Arrival – Pier 35, San Francisco

 

 

We took a limo from the Northbay into the City because it was cheaper than Blue Shuttle ($110 instead of $129 each way). So what are ya gonna do?! We arrived at Pier 35 at 10:00 a.m. and checked our luggage via porter immediately. We weren’t supposed to be able to board until 1:00, so we grabbed our carry-ons and went to Pier 39. After window shopping some, we discovered a street artist with a juggling, comedy routine. Watched the whole show. He was hilarious! Then we strolled back to Pier 35 (just in case it was time – we weren’t anxious or anything!)

 

 

Embarkation: The smoothest, fastest embarkation I have ever experienced. We got our sea and sail cards - passports are a plus here, glasses of champagne at the gangway and were onboard at 12:30.

 

 

The Mercury: We love this ship. She is elegant and, although older, was clean, beautiful and easy to navigate around. We got to know her so fast and liked the intimate feel immediately. We found our stateroom, Concierge Class, to be very clean, with chilled champagne, fresh flowers, fresh fruit (we actually ate some) and our cabin steward made sure we were happy every single day. We don’t think we’ll need CC in the future. A regular veranda room would do just fine and save us a few unnecessary dollars spent on the cabin itself. The canapés – some good – some not so good, but appreciated just the same. I pre-ordered a liter of Captain Morgan that came with 6 cans of coke and nuts (mixed and cashews). The $50 was definitely worth it and it came to our stateroom automatically on our first day. We bought stainless steel logo coffee mugs and filled them for days around the pool; not to mention the hot chocolates and mochas onboard in the mornings too. We used our cups!

Entertainment: Hmmmm – in my opinion – fair. You will hear mixed opinions on this I’m sure. We thought the orchestra was below average, the singers and dancers were ok (there was one lady who was very good). The only show we really enjoyed was Jeff Harris, a comedian juggler. The Black and White duo – playing Bossa Nova music in the Rendezvous Lounge: Music sounded good, singing – not so good. The pool band – I thought they were pretty good. The best music on the ship was the string quartet. Robin, the cruise director plays a pretty good guitar and sings well too. No one was really dancing in the clubs at night either. Although, I’m not a spring chicken myself, I like a good disco at night. No party there! We made a party on only one night (tee hee).

 

 

Activities: Same ole stuff, really. The Not So Newlywed game, Trivia and around the pool games. I have found entertainment and activity schedules to be much better on Royal Caribbean. Especially the Entertainment – better singers and definitely better dancers. Productions are choreographed much better on the 3 other ships we’ve been on. Sorry - I had to compare.

 

 

Food: Good – not spectacular. I've heard the quality has declined since the merger, but I still thought the food was pretty good. Really thought the beef entrees were excellent and the fish dishes were just ok. A chef on our cruise thought the fish was very good. So there you go! The desserts were fabulous. And by the way, I ordered a shrimp cocktail every night except escargot nights (2) and a Caesar salad every night because I loved them. Lunch in the dining room: Excellent the one day we chose to do it. Buffets: Good. Very clean – most items are served by staff AND love the sanitizing thing in line.

 

 

Excursions:

 

 

Santa Catalina Island – Avalon Scenic Tram Tour – Very interesting and entertaining. Saw Patrick Duffy there doing a film shoot as a little bonus. Worth the price through Celebrity ($29 for two).

 

 

Monterey – Monterey Bay Aquarium. LOVED IT! The penguin exhibit was worth this ticket alone. Bought them half-price on Ebay @ $10 each. I really enjoyed the jellyfish exhibits as well. It’s a very nice place to hang out for a couple hours or less. Cannery Row – still beautiful as ever.

 

 

Mazatlan – Stone Island with King David’s Tour and Hugo – Hugo was a scream! Very funny. He was the best thing on this tour other than the actual water taxi ride. We saw lots of dolphin, sea lions and a great view of the city from the ocean. Stone Island – nice beach, lunch was ok (nothing to write home about, but good), and the vendors were just intrusive. Couldn’t read or lie quietly. Very disturbing because I felt bad for them! They didn’t make much money from all of us on this excursion. One of us did the horseback riding thing out to the beach and back (not along the water). Disappointing. We took the horsedrawn carriage ride through town. Well, it least it got us away from the vendors for a half hour! Wouldn't do this excursion again.

 

 

Puerto Vallarta – Beach Break at a 5-star resort – GREAT excursion! We went to Paradise Village. Beautiful resort, pristine beach, great buffet lunch – some American food, some Mexican, but the frijoles were very authentic. Guacamole was the best I’ve ever had too. We got boogie boards for free and played in the waves all day. One of us parasailed (not free), and there were a lot of seashells to collect. What a beautiful day. Definitely worth the Celebrity excursion price ($76 for two). I'd like to take a land vacation and stay here someday.

 

 

Cabo San Lucas – Snorkel and Sail Fiesta – I can’t say enough about this catamaran trip. We had a ball. The snorkeling – not much fish variety, not colorful coral, water was a little chilly at first and a tad murky, but we still enjoyed it. The ride around Los Arcos, Lover’s Beach and a rock full of sea lions made for spectacular photo ops. When the sails went up and we ventured out into the ocean with the drinks flowing and music playing…we couldn’t contain ourselves. We were SINGING, dancing (some formed a conga line) and really enjoyed the ride, fresh sea air and warm sun. Now THIS was fun! Well worth the Celebrity excursion price ($84 for two).

 

 

Cabo Wabo – We were pleasantly surprised. The lobster tacos are to DIE FOR. The waborita drinks are pretty tasty too, but I could only handle one. Pretty potent! So – been there, done that AND bought a t-shirt! Glad we put it on the agenda.

 

 

Disembarkation: No problems – customs was a breeze. Our scheduled meeting time to disembark was 9:40 in the Celebrity Theatre. We had our luggage and was on the sidewalk at 10:05. Our limo driver got into an accident on the way to pick us up so he hired a San Francisco company to take us home. We had to wait an hour, but we didn't care. As the only "inconvenience" during our vacation, I'd say it was darned successful!

 

 

We had a wonderful 10 days, but the best part of all of it was meeting all the wonderful, fun people (Cruise Critic related and otherwise). We hope we can all keep in touch because I really grew attached to these new friends. Thank you all for a great experience that I will remember for a lifetime. I tear up thinking about it. :)

 

 

Here's the link to our slide show. Hope it works and I hope you don't have dial-up! There’s a couple little downloads that only take seconds, but the show is 13 minutes long, I think.

 

http://www.photodex.com/sharing/viewalbum.html?bm=65443

Enjoy!

[hommebronze]

;<( sorry

[blueladybug]

Thanks, Laura! We leave in a couple days on RCCL Vision of the seas. Just seeing your pictures got me very excited about our upcoming trip. thanks for sharing!

[jaynak]

Thanks Laura - we'd like to try the Mercury next ... appreciate your review.

[Cptn. Heimlich]

The best online sharing format we've seen. Great choice of tunes to go with it too! Thank you.

:)

[sassystyxfan]

The best online sharing format we've seen. Great choice of tunes to go with it too! Thank you.

:)

 

I appreciate your feedback so much! We sure had fun and I'm glad I can share the feel of the whole thing. :)

[MAN86]

Great review - we are sailing on the Mercury late April 2006 for 11-day Mexican Riviera cruise. We reallly wanted to snorkel, but I am not getting any good feedback.

Any ideas/suggestions/comments, etc. would be greatly appreciated :D