New to Celebrity - Need Advice on Mercury Cabin Selection

[Frankie Sue]

We have only a few cruises under our belt and all have been with Holland American. For the Fall of 2010, I am looking at a Carribean cruise on Celebrity Mercury and my cabin choice would be a SV. However the cabin that I am looking at is just above the childen's pool area on the Penthouse deck. Would that be too noisy?? There are also cabins available on the Panorama deck but again they are above what seems to be busy public areas. I would really appreciate any suggestions..........

[Frankie Sue]

Could you tell me what your opinions are on the SV suites, compared to the CC balcony cabins on the Sky deck.

 

I really want to sail on the Mercury but I don`t want to make a mistake by choosing the wrong cabin.

 

Your help is very much appreciated

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

You're not getting a lot of response here, are you? I think it has something to do with your subject line--I usually glaze over those "new to Celebrity" ones. But your Mercury subject line caught my eye on the HAL board.

[Host Anne]

Frankie Sue ~ welcome to the Celebrity boards! I added a note to your title to include that you are looking for advice on Mercury Cabin Selection. I'm hoping that will gather more attention.

 

We have sailed Mercury twice and she remains on of our favorite ships. She's closer in size to what you are likely used to on HAL. I'm trying to recall if we've had an aft balcony on Mercury (we almost always stay in an aft veranda if possible) but I'll have to dig out my notes as it's been a couple of years since our last Mercury cruise. Hopefully some others who have sailed her recently can answer your cabin questions.

 

Happy planning!

[Gitane]

A good method is to just put a cabin # into the search function, and you will get a lot of responses to that cabin # and others.

 

We are in a SV on Mercury on 10/9 and just putting 1156 into search gives a lot of info, although some is not real recent.

 

Give it a try.

[MeKittykathy]

We are just back from a Mercury cruise. We did the Inside Passage to Alaska. We were aft on the Penthouse deck. Our room was virtually completely quiet and wonderful. Having only once sailed before on NCL I heard about Celebrity's reputation for service and believe me it is true. We were pampered and enjoyed every minute. The crew are all lovely and the food was divine.

[Frankie Sue]

Thanks to all of you for helping me get more info on the Mercury. I have to say that I got quite a few comments to my question on the HAL board and most of them were not very encouraging. Also I have been able to see pictures of the CC and SV cabins and they seem a bit smaller than what we are used to..... We are still debating sailing with Celebrity.

 

Our main interest apart from the itinerary of course, is to sail from a port that we can drive to. Flying is such a hassle....... So the othercruise that has caught our attention is the Carribean on the Queen Mary sailing from New York.

 

Your help is really valuable, but we will do a little more research before we decide....... In the meantime anything else that you can add about the Mercury will be more than welcome.

 

I really appreciate all the help and information from the wonderful people on the Cruisecritic boards

[Scottish Cruiser]

We have sailed 3X HAL and 3X Celebrity - one on the Mercury. Yes, the Celebrity cabins are smaller than HAL's. We were in CC class each time in X and the balconies are a good deal smaller then a veranda on Zaabdam. We were right beside the pool upper deck in the Mercury 1010 maybe? There was some noise during the day, but nothing to cause concern. We found the dining room service at dinner to be better than HAL, but the cabin staff were not as personable. Dining room for breakfast was a disaster on X, we either ordered room service or the buffet - the latter was excellent.

 

I suspect we will go HAL in the future. We went Celebrity the first time because of a group we were with. The other two were B2B and had the itinerary we wanted (Baltic+Fjords).

 

Hope this helps.

[usha]

Frankie Sue, I also posted on your HAL thread, but I see what you mean about some of the posts being pretty discouraging.:eek:

The fact is, you'll never know for sure if you'll like Celebrity until you try it for yourself.:)

(Personally, I like Celebrity more than HAL:D)

[Lois R]

Hi,:) I just read your thread over on the HAL board too.

 

Usha, you are a better woman than I....I am not going to post

a reply over there:eek:.

 

Frankie Sue, I have sailed Mercury 6 times and will be going again

4 weeks from today:D. I have a good friend who just sailed her

for the 10th time. He just returned home a couple of weeks ago

and had a fantastic cruise:)

 

Different strokes for different folks.

[takemewithyou]

Oh my gosh...those posts are so horribly discouraging over on the HAL board....I am about to go on X for the first time in a long time, and feel pretty confident that we will enjoy our cruise, and even find it an improvement over our past HAL cruises, but those posts even have me freaked out! :eek:

[Lois R]

Oh my gosh...those posts are so horribly discouraging over on the HAL board....I am about to go on X for the first time in a long time, and feel pretty confident that we will enjoy our cruise, and even find it an improvement over our past HAL cruises, but those posts even have me freaked out! :eek:

 

All I can say is the HAL folks don't like Celebrity...please don't

freak out.

I am going on my 23rd cruise on X in the past 6 years and I love

the product:)

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

Oh my gosh...those posts are so horribly discouraging over on the HAL board....I am about to go on X for the first time in a long time, and feel pretty confident that we will enjoy our cruise, and even find it an improvement over our past HAL cruises, but those posts even have me freaked out! :eek:

 

I think that people who have been on the boards for a while tend to take those totally negative posts (about any cruiseline) with a grain of salt. One of the best pieces of advice I've seen on these boards is to throw out the all negative reviews as well as the over-the-top positive reviews. The truth probably resides somewhere in between.

 

Enjoy your wine cruise on the Millie--she's a good ship! Were there some things that were less than perfect? Yes. Did they ruin our cruise? No. I almost signed up for that wine cruise myself. Two days in San Francisco, how cool is that?

[Frankie Sue]

Thanks you guys...... I really appreciate that you took the time to reply and give me your impressions of the Mercury........ I know that we can only be sure until we try ourselves but there again..... when you look forward to your cruise and your vacation, you want to be as sure as possible that you buy what you thought you bought and that your vacation is what you expect it to be.

 

I am trying to read between the lines but there are very compelling views that the Mercury is ageing and pretty run down, with smaller and lesser quality cabins than Holland....... I have to take that into consideration because to us when cruising "the ship is our destination" and the ship and cabin's comfort is very important..... Maybe at some point we will try one of the newer Celebrity ships and experince Celebrity for ourselves.

 

However for the time being, I think that we will stay away from the Mercury and I have turned my attention to the the Queen Mary 2 which sails from New York which is also a easy drive for us. Cunard does have a reputation for quality service and a quality product although their prices are a little steeper.

 

I would also welcome your comments on that particular ship. We are looking at a Brittania B1 or B2 veranda cabin.

 

It is very nice to get such knowledgeable advice from the Cruisecritic family.

[Lois R]

Thanks you guys...... I really appreciate that you took the time to reply and give me your impressions of the Mercury........ I know that we can only be sure until we try ourselves but there again..... when you look forward to your cruise and your vacation, you want to be as sure as possible that you buy what you thought you bought and that your vacation is what you expect it to be.

 

I am trying to read between the lines but there are very compelling views that the Mercury is ageing and pretty run down, with smaller and lesser quality cabins than Holland....... I have to take that into consideration because to us when cruising "the ship is our destination" and the ship and cabin's comfort is very important..... Maybe at some point we will try one of the newer Celebrity ships and experince Celebrity for ourselves.

 

However for the time being, I think that we will stay away from the Mercury and I have turned my attention to the the Queen Mary 2 which sails from New York which is also a easy drive for us. Cunard does have a reputation for quality service and a quality product although their prices are a little steeper.

 

I would also welcome your comments on that particular ship. We are looking at a Brittania B1 or B2 veranda cabin.

 

It is very nice to get such knowledgeable advice from the Cruisecritic family.

 

Yes, Mercury was built back in 1997 so she is nowhere near the

new status of the S class ships. (the newest on X). I have only sailed on

Hal once and that was 5 years ago. They didn't leave a good impression

on me...so things can work both ways.

Mercury is either a ship you love or hate..well, some hate her....I love

her:D

 

Seriously, good look in finding whatever ship is best for you and

your family. Can't help you with Cunard but I am sure the folks

who have sailed with them will give you first hand advice.

[sammiedawg]

Lois, I'm glad you are still enjoying your cruising. You are a great customer of Celebrity and glad you found what suits you.

[mimimary]

Contemplating a December cruise on Mercury out of Baltimore. We've sailed on her before but several years ago. We like inside cabins for a number of reasons - mainly that I like complete darkness at night! Anyway, looking at the deckplans, I see that on Vista Deck the cabins #9001-9004 in the very front of the ship look interesting - like maybe you can walk out on a front deck??? Anyone sailed on those or know anything about them:confused:

[Pat&Paul]

Contemplating a December cruise on Mercury out of Baltimore. We've sailed on her before but several years ago. We like inside cabins for a number of reasons - mainly that I like complete darkness at night! Anyway, looking at the deckplans, I see that on Vista Deck the cabins #9001-9004 in the very front of the ship look interesting - like maybe you can walk out on a front deck??? Anyone sailed on those or know anything about them:confused:

 

I don't think that part of the ship is open to explore; but I'm just not sure. I do know for a fact that 9005 & 9006 have forward facing windows and are HUGE cabins compared to other oceanview cabins.

[Shebinz]

hi

 

we just got off of the mercury on sunday.

the cruise was wonderful.

yes, the ship is older, and cabins a bit smaller than some of our other cruises (2 of them were with holland america), but we enjoyed the mercury very much!

our cabin (9181) was fine. the verandah was small, too, but we enjoyed having it!

food and service were excellent. onboard naturalist (milos) was terrific!

ports were just as we had hoped they would be.

 

it is not a huge ship, but it was just right for us! :)

 

sheila

[Scotsnomad]

I don't think that part of the ship is open to explore; but I'm just not sure. I do know for a fact that 9005 & 9006 have forward facing windows and are HUGE cabins compared to other oceanview cabins.

 

I have been trying to get some more information on 9005 for our forthcoming Christmas cruise. By any chance do you have any piccy's? :)

[PatC]

We sailed Mercury in March in Sky Suite 1218. Loved the balcony, the butler and the size of the cabin. The ship was in great shape and the crew was outstanding. If you get to the Sky Bar tell Vinnie the bartender that he pours a mean drink!

 

Pat C