Some thoughts on our recent Mercury cruise: Auckland to Sydney – 3rd Jan 2008

[Julie Jean]

Just a few thoughts and observations…

Overall we had an excellent time. The comments below just highlight some of the good and some of the not so good – although I would stress that the ‘not so good’ elements didn’t really spoil what was a great cruise. Also, it’s just my opinion on things!

 

Travel

We booked flights independently as we got a much better deal. We booked with Cathay Pacific from London Heathrow to Auckland via Hong Kong. We spent 3 nights in Hong Kong en route which was great.

 

Embarkation

Not the best of starts! We were staying at the Hilton Hotel in Auckland which is literally opposite where Mercury docks. We walked a few metres down to start the embarkation process but because we approached this from a slightly different direction to most passengers, we managed to miss the area where we dropped off our suitcases. By the time we got inside the terminal building, we were told that we would have to carry all of our suitcases and hand luggage on ourselves. We had four cases and four other bags – and it was a very hot day! Lugging these bags through the entire embarkation process with no help was quite an effort! There was also some confusion over where to queue. We had priority embarkation but were sent to the wrong queues twice!

 

Eventually we made it on board and the obligatory glass of ‘champagne’ was the smallest I’ve ever experienced – barely ¼ of a glass! Fortunately I’m not a huge champagne drinker so we headed for a bar to get a cocktail!

 

Cabin

We had booked Sky Suite 1218. We specifically wanted this cabin because of the larger than normal balcony – and it certainly did not disappoint! The balcony had 2 sun loungers, 2 tables and 4 chairs and still lots of spare space.

The cabin itself was very clean and reasonably spacious – it had some of the best storage space we’ve experienced on ships. We met our butler, Efren, (who was average but not memorable) and our stateroom attendant, Estrella (who was very good).

 

The Ship

I thought that Mercury was in a reasonably good condition given her age. There were a few areas where she was showing her age (the elevators and some public rooms) but nothing significant.

 

Food

For the past couple of years, we have felt that the quality of food was slipping in the restaurants on Celebrity. We felt however that it was back to its best on this cruise. The new menus in the Manhattan Restaurant were a refreshing change. Sushi was as good as ever as was the pool grill. There were some surprising issues of a lack of cleanliness in the café area on deck 11. Tables seemed to take a long time to get cleared and there was often food waste on the floor. Some of the themed lunch time buffets were excellent though – it was just very difficult to find a table to sit at. We were also witness to a few rather sad and childish ‘fights’ for tables with passengers launching themselves at tables and arguing over who had their hand on the table first!

 

We were second seating for dinner in the main restaurant. We had an outstanding table in terms of both position and company. We were on deck 5 aft with great views out the back of the ship. Or waiting staff were good and the assistant maitre d (Dixon) was excellent.

 

Itinerary

Just a few brief comments on our ports of call:

 

Tauranga – a group from our roll call booked a tour with Mount Classic. This took us to some of the national park areas, a kiwi farm and Maori cultural centre. It was a good trip.

 

Napier – probably my favourite port and an easy one to do on your own. The art deco architecture was stunning. There was a display of classic cars on the quayside and a band playing 20s/30s music as we left – really memorable.

 

Wellington – also quite easy to walk around independently. We did the ship’s ‘pub tour’ in the afternoon which was fun

 

Christchurch – we booked a flight seeing trip with Canterbury Aviation. This took us to Mount Cook where we transferred to a ski plane and landed on one of the glaciers. The scenery was amazing and the landing on the glacier was dramatic!

 

Dunedin – a group from the roll call booked a trip with Arthur’s Tours. Amongst other things, we saw the albatross colony and the beautiful yellow-eyed penguins. A very informative tour.

 

The Sounds – slightly spoilt by a dramatic turn in the weather. We had to miss Doubtful Sound out all together. The weather broke a little bit to enable us to get into Milford Sound which was beautiful

 

Crossing the Tasman Sea – we had very large swells for two days during the crossing which made for very dramatic views of the waves from our dining table! One night the show had to be cancelled and I believe quite a few people were unwell. During this time, we had to clear Australian immigration which was set up in the Navigator Lounge on Deck 12. This was probably the worst organised element of the cruise. Two of the officials were unfortunately suffering from sea sickness so the queues were huge. Queuing on Deck 12 for over an hour and a half in rough seas (with people being physically ill) was not fun!

 

Melbourne – We got a ‘free’ Captain’s Club Excursion to a wildlife sanctuary (Healsville) which was ok. Unfortunately, owing to the bad weather we were about 2 hours late into Melbourne which left us no time to explore the city ourselves.

 

Newcastle – we did the ship’s tour ‘Duning & Dolphins’ – the weather was terrible but once we’d resigned ourselves to being wet all day, the sand duning was fun

 

Sydney – an amazing sight to cruise into Sydney harbour – the opera house is stunning. We did the ship’s tour to the Blue Mountains. Sadly the weather was against us again so our views were limited to lots of clouds. On the way back, we stopped at an amazing wildlife sanctuary where we were able to stroke koala bears and kangaroos. During this trip, however, I also experienced some of the worst pushing and shoving from fellow passengers (some of it ‘very physical’) and open warfare on the coaches over passengers who were 30 minutes late back to the coach!

 

Disembarkation – the best we’ve ever had. We left our cabin at 7.30am and were checked into our hotel in Sydney by 8.00am!

 

The Crew

Damien was our Cruise director and he was he usual affable and charismatic self. He was the only senior member of the crew who was regularly seen around the ship stopping to talk to people. His memory of past guests is also very impressive.

 

Any sign of other senior crew was sadly lacking – notably the Hotel Director and other ship’s officers

 

Some final thoughts

A great itinerary and good service onboard – a very enjoyable few weeks away. We booked another cruise on Azamara Quest for next year whilst on board!

[uktog]

Hi Julie

Hope you and Vas are back safe - your review is spot on! I posted some thoughts and am also waiting to see if CC posts my main review on the Review Page

See you in Raffles in 2009!!

Ann and Charles

[Julie Jean]

Hi Ann

 

Good to hear from you - and yes we look forward to seeing you and Charles at Raffles next year - if not before!

 

Our journey home was good - hope yours was too!

 

Julie (and Vas!)

 

PS Sorry about the font size - I can't edit my original post!

 

PPS I should also add that the cruise actually left on 6th Jan (we arrived in Auckland on 3rd!)

[Karynanne]

Thank you for your great review! We're on the 2/17 and 3/2 trips, and are hoping the Tasman Sea is a "kind" to us on our crossing.

 

Karyn