Mercury 5-29-04

[transactionchick]

This is part I of a VI part review (to conitnue the fine multiday review tradition previously established on this board by other folk) and travelouge of our voyage on Mercury from 5-29-04 to 6-4-04. Hope you enjoy and if you are sailing Mercury in the future and I can answer any questions, please don't hesitate to email me at [email]cwagner@jetpay.com[/email]

5-29-04 Embarcation Day!!

It if finally here, the day we’ve waited for the last four months since booking the cruise – we get to board the ship!

Now, we certainly don’t want to be too early but we are anxious to board and start enjoying all the amenities, so we are up early as usual. I write yesterday’s journal and then head to the gym for my morning run. By the time I return, Rob has been to the Safeway for pastries and juice (no more $30 breakfasts for us this trip, thank you very much!) and we begin packing, again. One bag is earmarked for those items we don’t think we’ll need on the ship – the souvenirs we’ve purchased, items we’ll need on the way home etc. We get to tag our bags with the ship’s tags…it’s a thrill to see the big red square that says “SUITE”. This is supposed to ensure that we get priority baggage service, but we’ll see. I’ll be amazed if they can actually deliver on this promise with the massive amount of luggage they have to process.

We decide to save ourselves $10 in tips by making two trips down with our luggage – we leave Kelsy to guard the pile while Rob and I make the second trip. We quickly request a taxi (a van again due to the amount of luggage) and snag one that has just dropped some folks off. The trip to the pier is quick – there is some traffic around the pier but a policeman is directing so it is not too bad. Certainly not the chaos we’ve seen in Miami with three or four ships in harbor, and definitely more organized than departures from New Orleans. Another group grabs our taxi and a porter quickly finds us and becomes our new best friend. After counting the bags and leaving them and a substantial tip to his tender care, we head into the terminal building to see if we can check in yet.

It’s only about 10:30 and the computers are not up and running yet. They say it will be 10 to 15 more minutes. Rob is all for waiting – his impatience to board is barely contained. I don’t feel like sitting around in a warehouse type building, so we leave to stroll down to Pier 39 to see the seals in the daylight. They are as noisy and stinky as they were at dusk although a few more may be profiting from the sunshine to snooze. I stroll the walk area to look for the famous Bushman (his schtick is that he hides behind a bush frond and jumps out and scares people. Juvenile, I know, but you would be surprised…it works). People stand around and watch and laugh and he makes a pretty good living apparently. But he is not there – wonder if he has just moved on or if he is gone. The only ‘acts’ I see are a guy in a very large skeleton head (strangely disturbing to look at) and a flamboyant crossdresser in a hot pink hat and shocking lime green pantsuit. Kelsy donates the rest of our snack food to some hungry birds.

Finally we give in to Rob’s urgings at about 11:30 and return to the Pier to check in. There is a special check in line for suites and Elite captain’s Club members (I have no idea how many cruises one must take to get to this level), and no one is in it. There are only a few people in the regular check in line and all appears to be going extremely smoothly. There are not annoying stops between the check in and boarding that we experienced on our last cruise on Carnival and before we know it we are posing for our embarkation photo. We are all smiling and on our best behavior, hoping to be noticed by the Social Hostess as possible candidates for dinner with the captain. I don’t know if any of the people around the area are actually the social host or hostess but we smile democratically in all directions just in case. Alas, our charm seems to have been expended in vain. We get our welcome glass of champagne (OJ for Kelsy ) - what a nice touch. First we stop at the purser’s to sign up for the captain’s clud (misspelled on purpose – you CCers know what I am talking about J – Rob completes the application and we are told our temporary card will be sent to the cabin. Next stop is the Cova Café to buy Kelsy a soda card. We explore the ship from top to bottom. Our impressions are that it is a class act – classical music softly playing and the ship is in immaculate condition. As it is a few years old, (I forget exactly but think it is like 8 to 10) this is very impressive. The only place we see any wear at all is on the placards showing the location of all the places on the ship…the lettering is worn where people have touched it over and over.

We were handed a paper showing us what public areas are open and were asked to not go our cabin till 1:00. No prob, there is plenty to see and explore so off we go. The time passes swiftly until the buffet lunch is ready. Decent cafeteria style food, nothing to write home about. A nice touch is that all the ladies trays are carried to the table. Men are left to fend for themselves for the most part. Just like real life. Another nice touch is the lack of paper napkins anywhere and linen on the trays.

It’s finally 1 pm and we can head to our Sky suite #1221 and check it out. Every piece of our luggage is already there! Incredible! The balcony is HUGE – almost the size of the suite. We immediately lay plans to eat breakfast out there every morning! I sure hope we have nice weather and can enjoy the balcony. We settle into the unpacking mode, not too painful as the cabin is a marvel of storage engineering…even though we brought a lot, there is more than enough room. You could bring 10 suitcases full and still have enough room to store more. Probably great for those 14 day cruises.

Our butler, Stanley, stops by to introduce himself, quickly followed by our cabin stewardess Virginia. Both are smiling and helpful. I have a bit of a shock – I asked Virginia to see a pillow menu and was refused. Those of you familiar with Celebrity know that there are concierge class perks and suite perks. I had assumed, and been assured by all my cruise critic buds, that a suite included all the CC perks. Sports fans, NOT true, at least on our cruise. So, a word to the wise, look at both sets of amenities closely and pick the set that fits you best. For us, this would probably have been CC on this trip and not a suite. Although the huge balcony is nice, it is largely wasted on this cruise due to the weather. I really love having my own small piece of private deck, but a regular balcony would have been fine. Likewise for the butler – we really ended up not using his services. He brought us tea and canapés each day – although this was a nice touch we didn’t really need any more food. The only thing we asked him to do the whole trip was take our wine to dinner, which a cabin steward could have done for us. I for one would have preferred the special breakfast menu to the canapés, and we could have saved ourselves several hundred dollars.

But, I digress. Next it was on to a spa tour and register to win some free spa services. Frankly, that will be the only way we would use them – like all cruises, they are vastly overpriced compared to similar services on land. I do sign up for a $60 ‘all you can eat’ exercise class plan that includes a body composition analysis. As I am sure I will attend at least 6 classes this is a bargain. I know what the body analysis will tell me and I am not especially looking forward to it. But I do want to know just how bad it is! The thassolotherapy pool is included with our suite, otherwise I do think we would have bought this as well. It looks great and I have heard rave reviews.

We sail away PROMTLY at 5pm – hope everyone made it on the ship) and we head up to Deck11 to watch sailaway and look for our cruise critic buds. We can only find one, Diane, and I am so disappointed not to meet Shelly. Maybe we can hook up later in the cruise.

Sailing under the GG bridge is truly spectacular, and we have the perfect weather for it….not a cloud in the sky, and no fogbanks. Then it’s out to sea. It is quite windy and there are some whitecaps. Although we do not suffer from mal de mer, I think there are quite a few who may be suffering this first evening.

Our late seating dinner is at 8:30, so we attend the early show – some jugglers. They were just OK, validating the reviews I’d read that said entertainment was not Celebrity’s strong suit. No matter as we don’t normally go to shows, anyway. If we want to go to a nice show, we’ll go somewhere and pay for it.

After the show, Rob takes Kelsy to the teen center for the introduction and I head to the Martini Bar for the Martini tasting! The Martini bar is like a little throwback to the 60s in decoration – chrome and silver with bubbles on the wall. Two very cute waiters are shaking up the martinis and pouring. My favorite is named Martin…..how appropriate J
You get 5 generous tastings for 10.95 – cosmo, French, century, peach and citrus. The French is my favorite – no big surprise. Due to the fact that I had only 30 minutes to down the five samples, I was feeling no pain by the time Rob and Kelsy rejoined me for dinner.

We had already been to the restaurant and checked out the menu, so we gave Stanley our wine to be delivered to the table. We had, as we requested, a large table – set for 8. Our tablemates are a group of 3 from Phili and a mother and daughter from SF. Our table is on the lower level right by a window. Nice view. But, horrors, the M-D combination are pushing a stroller!! What!! (Cue music from Psycho). Immediate visions of a screaming child passed through our minds.

Now to me, small children are like smoking. I totally respect your right to bring your child on your cruise, you must respect my right to not be around your child. So, I am worried – needlessly it turns out as the kid sleeps though the entire dinner. We don’t get much of an impression of everyone this first night as most are tired…everyone but us had traveled in that same day and Naomi (the mother in the MD combination) was suffering from a touch of illness, so she and her daughter left early.

Our waiter, Stana is from Yugoslavia, and she is cool, calm and competent. She addresses everyone but Kelsy as Madame and Sir (she learns Kelsy’s name immediately). Her assistant is young, quiet and efficient. The food and drink flow effortlessly. The food is good. In our opinion (heresy to many people I am sure) it is of about the same level of quality as RCI and Carnival. The much vaunted difference is just, well, not there. Perhaps we suffered from too high expectations, having heard over and over how great it was. But it is good, and we will not miss any meals in the dining room.

Kelsy achieves instant fame at our table by ordering (and eating) one of each dessert (5 in total).Oh to have her metabolism!

I am tired so I head to the cabin…the rocking of the ship is going to make me sleep like a baby. Rob heads to the casino and Kelsy goes to sample the late night teen activities (they must be pretty good as she does not return until 1:30 am.I don’t hear her come in but Rob tells me the next day he had one eye open till she got there. Short of falling off the boat, I am not sure what could happen to her, so I am less worried. The teen center is on our deck (12 ) and across the jogging deck.

Our beds are turned down with chocolate on the pillows and there is a little notecard with the next day’s weather forecast and “good night” in 10 different languages – nice touch.

Well, goodnight and sweet dreams, on this the first day of our six day cruise.

Happy Sailing!

Cyndi Wagner, AKA Transaction Chick
Carnival Celebration - 5/98
RCI Rhapsody - 5/00
Carnival Sprit - 10/01
Celebtrity Mercury - 5/04

Parley Vouz Francais? Si vous pouvez, email moi en Francais!

[norma2424]

Terrific review, can't wait for part 3. I was also on this cruise and loved every minute, except the disembarkation process.

[Tatka]

Very nice review (we probably gonna sail her next year)

Wow..food on Celebrity slipped that much? [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_frown.gif[/img]

Last year Century food was MUUUUCH better than
this year Splendour. Presentation, choices etc.
Even the same dishes tasted differently.

------------------------------
<UL TYPE=SQUARE>
<LI>Zuiderdam 8/21/04 FLL - Key West - Cozumel - Grand Caymans - Half Moon Cay - FLL
<LI>Splendour of the Seas 05/15/04 Barcelona - Marseilles - Villefranche - Livorno - Chivitavecchia - Naples - Barcelona
<LI>Century 07/12/03 Eastern Caribbean FFL-San Juan - St. Thomas - St.Maarten- Nassau -FFL
<LI>Komarno(Volga)07/91 Moscow - Astrahan' - Moscow (honeymoon)
<LI>Komarno(Volga)07/90 Moscow - Astrahan'- Moscow
<LI>Admiral Nachimov(or Nakhimov) (Black Sea)04/1986 Odessa - Batum [/list]

GO BRUINS!!!!