Mercury Jan 3rd - 15th 2011

[Snowman671]

First let me say I am a very to the point person when I speak for the most part I will not sugar coat it to make you feel better or make it seem not as bad. So When you read keep this in mind I don't beat around the bush it's plain simple facts.

 

Captain & Officers & Crew- Great Great Sailing Smooth 90% of the trip.

 

Entertainment - If you want to call it that then go ahead but basically it is a huge disappointment Same band for 12 days same music by the same DJ every night in the only lounge that stays open past 10PM. Name that tune is boring after the 10th time of them playing 20 seconds then waiting 15 seconds and telling you the answer. And the "Celebrity Life" that they promote should be renamed to "Geritol Life" as all their activities appeal to the older crowd and that's it. If you 20 - 50 or someone tha tlikes to have fun forget it.

 

Bars - What the hell are you thinking by closing the SKY BAR at 10:30 at night when you have 15 people sitting at it and its 75 degrees outside. Also there is no BAR FOOD available at all after 11Pm even the pizza place is closed so that is worthless. If you can get someone to find Stewart The CD then you can finagle a few bags of potato chips at night

 

Pools & Hot Tubs - all closed at Approx 8PM which means that 7:15 is approx 8:00PM. Not sure about everyone else but I prefer to get in the HOT Tub after dark when it is not near as hot.

 

Food - MDR was good and the service was great.. Buffets and such are pointless same thing every single day and then only 1/2 of it is open at one time. Dinner on Buffet is absolutely pointless other than you can get a seat wherever you want because no one wants to eat there at night.

 

Rooms - Great loved the huge shower and all the closet space.. Room Steward Was Great...

 

Other Guests - Rude Unbelievably Rude, People that think thier s**t don't stink and that they are the most important person really tick me off. Even worse are the older people that just have to jump in line because they are too dumb to realize there is a line and can't wait. Yes I said it I'm not ashamed of it either. Show some respect to others and I'll treat you the same. Chairs with books on them and no one there for hours people come on the deck to sleep by the pool and bundle up under towels so the sun don't hit them go back to you rooms if you want to sleep.

 

Smokers - OK I'm one and I paid attention.. There is exactly 5 count them 5 Places on this ship to smoke and it is not hard to figure out where they are. 4 of them are outside Aft end of deck 12 port side at the end of the jogging track. Post side on deck 11 at each end of the pool one is by the entrance to the Buffet and the other is by the bar. AFT end of deck 7 i believe Outside the Palm Springs Pool PORT Side only. And the one place inside is the Extreme Port Side of The Navigator Club.

Given the limited areas and the bright BLUE Ashtrays you would think that the NON-SMOKERS can figure out that it is a smoking area. Nope they sit down then go find someone on the staff to beeach that someone is smoking. Go sit at your pool chair you reserved at 4am this morning before you went for breakfast and your mid morning nap.

 

So my over all review of Celebrity right now is this -

 

Food 3- Stars

Service 5 - Stars

Entertainment 1 - Star

Bars 2 -Stars

Guests - 2 Stars

 

Catering to the "Older Crowd" 5 - Stars congrats Celebrity Your Now the New HAL pretty soon you can just have dedicated hover round parking all over the ship.

 

I'm sure some will not like my comments but they are 100% true and to the point.

 

BTW Stewart The CD did mention that Celebrity knows they are getting a reputation as the new HAL and they are not happy and are working on making changes to prevent it from getting any worse than it already is. But it's estimated it will take 3 years to do..

 

Happy Cruising And Don't Forget Scrap Booking at 2PM

[Ocean Dancer]

wow, we loved the mercury, sailed on her nov 29/dec11, loved her so much that we rebooked for your sailing but had to cancel due to an injury..........

 

i give

 

5 for service

4 for food

5 for carl williams band/60 to 80's band...........a good dance ship.....

5 for the wonderful folks we sailed with

5 for the value for our bucks

3 for late night entertainment

 

the mercury will be sadly missed, as she is leaving the fleet. i know i am in the majority with my views, you are in the minority............

 

it was sad to read your review, sorry you had a bad time.....:(

[Cruisenouvelle]

Most amusing review! Thanks for sharing...I think!?!? :confused:

[smtcan]

We were on this cruise and for us it was one of the best we have enjoyed. The only point I would completely agree with was the Celebrity Life comment. We were very disappointed with the Beyond the Podium speakers, because we had better talks about the Titanic when we were on Eclipse, and I was not sufficiently interested in baseball to spend time learning about it on a cruise. We didn't attend any of the other activities because none of them caught our attention.

 

I have never been on a cruise where the senior officers were so visible and approachable. The Cruise Critic lunch was something we had never experienced before, and the menu was very good, with generous serving of wine.

 

What really made our cruise memorable were the people we met and new friendships we made. I don't recall anyone pushing into line, or being rude (and I'm quite sure we were not the ones pushing).

 

I'm always sorry to hear that people didn't enjoy their cruise, because I know that when you look forward to a holiday and it doesn't live up to expectations it is very disappointing. I hope the OP will enjoy his/her next cruise on a ship that is more suited to their requirements.

Sheila

[mcmarya]

I think this was our best cruise ever, but I can see how someone expecting a livelier experience might be disappointed. I do agree with some of the negative comments but fortunately the disappointments were so far outweighed by all of the positives IMHO that I barely noticed them.

[cookiejarvis]

Lmao

[Snowman671]

I was disapointed but the reality of it is most everything I said was true. And this being first cruise maybe I expected more. Will I do it again Yes differnt cruise line yes until I find on that suits.

 

I guess its all in what you expect but be assured that I was not the only one that noticed the items above there were many that I talked to that agreed. best part was the friends we made and will stay in contact amazing have to go 2000 miles to find someone that lives next door to you sometimes..

 

The thing that amzed me the most was the very nature that more than one staff member said that they realize there is no nightlife so to speak due to the age of the passengers.

 

If you dont do anything to attract other age groups then you will not get them.

 

Overall I enjoyed it but was very disappointed with the scheduled things. 3 days at sea both directions and not much to really do makes them days pretty boring. And the things they did do they limited to 45 minutes or so and bam shut them down and moved on.

 

i am not sure but they need to possibly send some of the activites people as well as some others out into the world to train someplace before they drop them in a job. it seemed that if they put on thier resume that they had held a game night at thier house 1 time they are suddenly experts in entertainment or if they ever played with a IPOD they are a good DJ. Sorry I ahve been around awhile and the DJ on this ship had absolutly no clue how to read a crowd he coudl have a packed dance floor and then instantly change to music that emptied the dance floor then wonder why they all left its not just playing music its interaction..

 

We went as far as to get some items from around the ship and play some Minute to win it games in the navigator lounge the last night. we had staff and others watching and having a good time our group had fun but we created our own.. Heck if the staff even watched they coudl learn alot its not a hard thing to do but if they have no clue then they have nothing to go off of..

[2SeaWithMe]

Did they really close the hot tubs before 8? They are supposed to stay open until 9 and the indoor one 10pm.

 

If they did, did you ask anyone about the discrepancy? I'm on Mercury soon and I need the hot tub! LOL

[Snowman671]

Yes they did and at 7:45 I had a guy watching over make sure I got out at 8 someone else got in at 5 of 8 and the guy had pissy look on his face they had already closed the pool and all the other hot tubs by then

[Fisherlady48]

Did they really close the hot tubs before 8? They are supposed to stay open until 9 and the indoor one 10pm.

 

If they did, did you ask anyone about the discrepancy? I'm on Mercury soon and I need the hot tub! LOL

 

I am with you.. I need the tub for my bad knees!!! I say we stay in and make them force us out!! hahahahaha

 

and I love love love the days at sea. I think the OP should have researched his cruise better before taking it. Sounds like a Carnival ship would be good for you, 9 ports in 5 days no sleeping allowed!!

 

I am so looking forward to this sailing!! Later, K

[TomCruises]

So am I!The last voyage.Celebrity Mercury should have some exciting events planned for this sailing.

Can't wait!

[Snowman671]

Last time I looked they don't post what the daily activites are on the website. Problem is they roll the sidewalks up way too early and the activites are strictly timed and hevan forbid if they run over. A litle more knowlegde on the staff could make things a bit better, maybe they just don't care and are happy with thier clients and thier activites.

 

Am I too young ? Im only 44 and yes I don't goto bed at 10 when on vacation. But this particular cruise seemed to be geared to people that want to eat and sleep by the pool.

 

Im pretty much done on the subject and yes the next one will probably be on Carnival Ship where there is good possibility of actual Life on board..

[2SeaWithMe]

I am with you.. I need the tub for my bad knees!!! I say we stay in and make them force us out!! hahahahaha

 

and I love love love the days at sea. I think the OP should have researched his cruise better before taking it. Sounds like a Carnival ship would be good for you, 9 ports in 5 days no sleeping allowed!!

 

I am so looking forward to this sailing!! Later, K

 

I know! FL, I was planning on getting passes to the T-Pool for My BF and myself, you should consider it, I think it's not too much extra but I think they are open later.

[wb3hyde]

I am in my 30s and really enjoyed this cruise. Although I do agree that some of the venues closed too early. I did not notice very many rude people on the ship and was never pushed out of line. Other guests I talked with were having a great cruise as well and many were quite sad that they were not going to be able to experience the Mercury and the outstanding service again. I also agree that the senior officers were everywhere and they were all very approachable. I personally had a fantastic cruise on the Mercury and am very sad to see her leaving the fleet in just a few weeks.

[Mary Ellen]

Thank you for sharing your experience with us.

[jgnova]

Wasn't this the sailing that was partially sold to a classical music group? I recall seeing the ad last fall and decided they wanted too much money for the classical music part- so we took the New Year's sailing instead (14 days instead of 12 to boot!). If there was a substantial group affiliated with the classical performances, wouldn't that change the mix at various events on board?

 

j

[smtcan]

Wasn't this the sailing that was partially sold to a classical music group? I recall seeing the ad last fall and decided they wanted too much money for the classical music part- so we took the New Year's sailing instead (14 days instead of 12 to boot!). If there was a substantial group affiliated with the classical performances, wouldn't that change the mix at various events on board?

 

j

 

The classical music group had very little impact upon the cruise. They invited everyone to their final concert in the theatre, which was most enjoyable. We met several musicians in the buffet who invited us to other concerts - DH attended a couple. We heard that there were 90 in the group in addition to the orchestra (about 50 musicians by my unofficial count), so it wasn't a large proportion of the passengers. There were some preschool children with the musicians, enough to be a visible presence, but very well behaved/supervised.

Sheila

[Snowman671]

Only impact I heard was complaints from them practicing in thier rooms. A Friend told me he had to listen to a Tuba all night. And the group had very wide range of ages..

[2SeaWithMe]

Having departed on the 2/5 sailing, sadly have to agree with OP on many points. Hot tubs closed as early as 6 pm even though I was told otherwise by "our famous and knowledgeable" celebrity phone service reps.

 

When I purchased the T-Pool package I was told 10pm was the closing time...not really wild about that either but it closed at 8pm or 6pm other days.

 

I thought our dinner staff however, were fantastic and made our trip. We had a lot of little problems that mounted into big problems later in the trip and having our fantastic waiting staff made the trip bearable. Humorously enough, the Maitre'D showed us to the wrong table the first night and we ended up kicking others out of their seats (!). It was a little horrifying to have someone come up and tell us "You are in the wrong seats!" When our response is..."You put us here!". :)

 

Biljana in the spa was the sweetest thing and I wish I had felt better to go for more treatments. She didn't know her next assignment as of the last day of our trip.

 

Room stewards were significantly better after I had to ask for towels (not replacing dirty towels...no towels at all!) & TP twice from CS. I was told there was a mix-up in some staff crossover where our room was started, than not finished. Still sometimes not what I was expecting in CC. There was a time a soda had been spilled on the desk while we were out, and the surface was sticky/tacky the whole week. Fruit would appear and disappear at will. Maybe we had a fruit ghost. :) We received flowers on the 4th day, I believe.

 

Leaving from Baltimore, there was a significantly higher amount of Americans on this sailing, so I can see some of the rudeness factors the OP mentioned. It wasn't unbearable and minor. I had more issues with staff openly disgruntled about future assignments or lack thereof of assignments.

 

There were really tons of other things that occurred that would just make this unbearably long.

 

I did injure myself on a broken sauna bench and while that was unpleasant and frustrating as it could have been easily avoided, the hospital staff was very caring, and thorough. However, they didn't seem to carry a lot of medication on board for emergencies. A big disappointment was a security officer coming to me immediately after receiving pain & muscle relaxing injections and demanding I show him the bench in the sauna. I mean literally, I'm laying in a bed in the infirmary and the nurse is still removing the needle and he wants me to go on a field trip.

 

I told him to ask the spa manager and he ended up going to my room and retrieving my best friend whom I cruised with and making her (who was not present when I fell) show them the spa bench. It was completely bizarre. And than he refused to enter the locker room, and everything had to be done with the spa manager after all.

 

The staff and policies that seemed to change day to day really was the big disappointment in this cruise for me. This was supposed to be this great gift for my best friend, and I had spent weeks talking up the superior service of Celebrity. Also, I had planned to book a Thanksgiving cruise on-board for my hubby which of course, didn't happen.

 

I know a vacation is what you make of it. I was grateful to just have time with my best friend to chat and laugh and shop. However, as far as the product that was advertised and sold to me...I didn't receive it. There were serious affects of not having items I planned to have access to.

 

We apparently did a little too much time lying in bed and chatting and reminiscing...whomever was in the room next door had a penchant for banging on the wall if they felt we were too loud...at 10pm or 7am. Which was ridiculously humorous to us the day the asst. service manager and spa manager stopped by to check on me after my first set of injections after my fall...around 4-5pm. At some point during the conversation, the banging started in full force! The two ladies looked so shocked as we told them we'd gotten use to our neighbors.

 

There was no wall banging after them...hmmmm.

 

 

It clarified a few things I've seen mentioned here:

 

1.) The customer service reps, as well as the website, can be consistently wrong. Each individual ship has it's own rules and functions as an independent hotel of each other. Your vacation is in the hands of whomever is making the rules at that time, on that ship...nothing whatsoever to do with brand consistency.

 

2.) There are great inconsistencies from ship to ship as far as food, service, design, accessibility, staff, cleanliness...more significant that I have experienced say, from one hotel in one city to the same hotel in another city. I took for granted what Celebrity was as a brand and the product they presented as a new cruiser to Celebrity.

 

Which again, returns to the number 1, as each ship as it's own rules regardless of what the website or reps might inform you.

[BOLOTRAVEL]

Feb 5, 2011 X Mercury out of Baltimore

 

5 for service - EVERY crew member was excellent

5 for food - fantastic variety and never had a bad item

5 for bands - all musical groups we talented and were fun

5 for the fellow guests - We met so many great people!!

5 for the value for buck - BEST in travel, accommodations, food, service, entertainment, etc.

5 for late night entertainment - we danced and were entertained every night until 1am

5 for shows - great performers, great variety, and all are very nice (we met several performers on many occasions)

5 for pools and atmosphere

5 for Celebrity Life Crew and fun

 

Hey, its a cruise and you are vacation! Enjoy life!!

[2SeaWithMe]

I'm glad for your opinion and glad you enjoyed your cruise.

 

 

I'm however, a little insulted that I don't enjoy life because I had a bad experience on a ship? If you knew me, you would be embarrassed you even insinuated that.