Celebrity Mercury cruising Down Under

[MVPinBoynton]

Just saw this news on the Celbrity Mercury doing cruises to NZ and Australia. It should make a lot of folks quite happy. Well you got to post quickly on CC. I just noticed that the full itineraries are already on the Celebrity board.

 

Celebrity Cruises will sail in Australia and New Zealand for the first time beginning in December 2007.

At an event in New York May 11, Celebrity President Dan Hanrahan said the Celebrity Mercury will operate six 15-day sailings between Auckland, New Zealand, and Sydney from December 2007 to March 2008.

Hanrahan said that based on valuable feedback and extensive research, the line anticipates a successful season there.

Itineraries will include stops in Tauranga, Napier, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin, Dusky Sound, Doubtful Sound, and Milford Sound, New Zealand, and Melbourne, Newcastle, and Sydney, Australia, along with Hobart in Tasmania.

The sailings will be preceded by Celebrity's first trips to Papeete, Tahiti, and Moorea and Bora Bora in French Polynesia, on a 17-day relocation sailing from Honolulu to Auckland departing November 23, 2007.

Bookings for both itineraries go on sale May 17.

[Aussie Gal]

Mike,

 

It is good news that Celebrity is finally coming "down under". I have read some bad reports about the Mercury though and am disappointed that we are not getting one of their better ships.

 

Jennie

[blackbird71]

What more can I say :)

[aussie52]

I was very excited to see Celebrity was coming to Australia and immediately booked on the Jan 6th Cruise. What is wrong with Mercury?? We have sailed on Infinity to Alaska - is Mercury very different??

[fun2travel]

We sailed on the Mercury, March of this year. I thought the ship was fine. Don't understand why it would be a disappointment to some. There was a bad outbreak of the Norvirus (I did not catch, but many in our party did).

I don't think this has anything to do with the ship's state of repair. Many of the cruiselines have had this problem at some point or another.

 

The trip sounds great,I am thinking about it! Enjoy and don't worry.

[kruzeesuzee]

When I called Celebrity last month they said the Mercury was going to have two weeks in drydock next April, including some sprucing up, maybe new beds and bedspreads. Then I read somewhere it was only going to be a normal drydcock. Does anyone reading this know the answer? For such a major journey as to OZ I want the ship to look good and be very clean.

 

I don't want new cabins. That just takes away enjoyment of deck space.

[blackbird71]

When I called Celebrity last month they said the Mercury was going to have two weeks in drydock next April, including some sprucing up, maybe new beds and bedspreads. Then I read somewhere it was only going to be a normal drydcock. Does anyone reading this know the answer? For such a major journey as to OZ I want the ship to look good and be very clean.

 

I don't want new cabins. That just takes away enjoyment of deck space.

 

Look at some of the things on the X board they did to the Century. Some of them will be doing to the Mercury. The Mercury already has lots of veranda cabin that were added on to the Century.

[KiwiIan]

Not sure if you missed the footnote on the first thread here but would recommend checking out Mike's cruise report from last season, a wealth of info on NZ. Regards Ian.

[Senga]

Not sure if you missed the footnote on the first thread here but would recommend checking out Mike's cruise report from last season, a wealth of info on NZ. Regards Ian.

Thanks soooo much for the heads-up Ian. Mike, that is the most amazing review site I have ever seen. The pictures are incredible and the information very useful. I'd love to view your Kodak site but need a password. Thanks again.

[MVPinBoynton]

Senga,

Thank you so much for the nice comments. I am so glad you enjoyed the reviews. I can assure you, you will enjoy NZ and Australia first hand a lot more.:D It is an incredible place with some of the nicest people in the world.

 

You can view the photo site by signing up with Kodak Photo Gallery. There is no charge and you don't get any spam. Plus if you want to post photos there it is totally free. We have thousands of photos on the site and couldn't live without it