Mercury,got back 12/12

[starrynites]

:D :D We had a great time! It was a rough start due to ship coming in late because of a medical emergency but that was quickly forgotten. The staff is wonderful and friendly.

 

I didn't expect the disco to be so much fun! DJ Derrick was friendly and accommodating to try and play something for everybody.

 

We had wonderful weather except the last day coming home. I've never been on such a smooth sailing cruise!!!! Zihwat (short spelling version) was so nice, wish we could have stayed longer. Great show by the dolphins when we pulled out of there.

 

Anyone sailing to the Mexican Riviera on the Mercury is in for a treat!

[Elcruzer]

Glad to hear about your good experience. We will be sailing her next month. Do you have any recommendations for tours etc. in the different ports?

[woody14h]

Was on the Mercury from Dec. 2 to 12. Took ship shore excursion in PV. Tequila tour. Not for the serious tequila lover. Better off booking excursions off the ship. Zihua left us very little time to explore as ship left around 1 pm. Gorgeous own will go back. Matzalan is also beautiful take a city tour incl the golden zone. Worth it $30. Overall cruise was great as usual. Acapulco was a rat hole btw. Don't like soldiers carrying guns. Ship docked in a dingy part of town. W found an internet store for $1 per hour and returned to ship. This cruise needs less time in Acapulco and more in Zihua and Matzalan. CC party was given short shrift by Celebrity even having another group interupting our meeting Cruise Director Jeff gave a brief intro and left. No officers or staff were visible but the CCers met new friends and exchanged info as was intended. Food was great at dinners, so so at lunch buffets. Celebrity cruises are so relaxing it is impossible not to have a good time. Booking our 3rd in a year soon.

[Fredr]

Hello,

 

My wife and I sailed on the Mercury's 11 day cruise to Mexico in November of 2004 and we are going on the exact same itinerary on March 27. This will be our 15th cruise. This cruise is an outstanding value, that is, you get a lot of cruise for your dollars spent. Here are some ideas....

 

In Cabo it is fun to take a boat ride out to the arches. The price per person can be negotiated. And you can walk around the town.

 

You can see much of Zijuantinejo on foot, as the town is not large. I found it fun just to walk around this colorful city. The tender will drop you off within a short walk of the center of town and you can go from there. This cruise we are going to take a water taxi to Ixtapa (I haven't done this so I do not know the particulars).

 

You can see much of Mazatlan by public transportation. The green buses are air conditioned and well maintained. You can see the main Cathredral and the Benito Juarez central market (this market is for the locals and it is a nice travel experience. From downtown you can take public transportation to the Zona El Dorado, the gold zone and see the tourist areas. Al of this will cost you about $12.00 total for two people. And if you can't find the right bus, you can take a pulmeria (these are golf cars that are widely used as taxis) back to the ship from downtown Mazatlan.

 

As for Acapulco, in my view, the ship terminal is not located in a poor area. After you exit the terminal turn left and walk about a half mile and you will be in a shopping area. Located here is Sanborn's which is an upscale department store where English is spoken. Around the corner there is a Woolworth's where very little English is spoken but it is fun to see everyday items from US companies in Spanish. Remember, for all of its remarkable economic progress Mexico is still nowhere near as prosperous as the United States.

 

Across the street from the cruise terminal in Acapulco is an old fort and museum (with excellent exhibits) which is very interesting. An added plus in that you can walk up to the top of the fort for some grear views of Acapulco, the surrounding countryside, and Acapulco Bay. You can get to the fort' s entrance by walking but this is a rather steep climb. Taxis are plentiful but get one outside the terminal as they might be cheaper. The cab fare will vary so negotiate. You can walk back to the ship from the fort or get a cab coming back.

 

In sum, you can have a wonderful time visiting cruise ports in Mexico without spending lots of money. I am not anti ship tours because we have been on several very good tours but in Cabo, Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta and Acapulco you do have to spend much money in order to have a great time.

 

Hope that this helps,

 

Fred

[cruisieparker]

Hi,

We are on the Mercury in April and are arranging some tours on our own. Do any of you know if Mazatlan is on the same time as the ship?

 

Thanks,

Sherry

[cechase]

Thank you for your comments. We are going on the 11 night cruise on Mercury leaving San Diego on Jan. 2nd.

 

Will pass your comments on to my DW, who keeps asking - "can we go yet!" :D

[oceanbear]

Mecury changes shipboard time to match the timezones, so time on the ship matches time on shore in every port.

[rianvi]

We are taking this cruise Jan.2 and our 17 yr. wants to spend some time at the beach. Any suggestions??????????????

Peace............Anna:)

[starrynites]

We had a wonderful day at the beach in Alcupulco. We took a taxi to Playa Caleta (air conditioned van, driver spoke English $10 for 4 people) From there we took a water taxi (glass bottom boat) $3 round trip to Isla La Roqueta. We walked to the far end of the beach and the swimming was nice! Clear water, not really any surf to speak of. I like to pick up sea glass and there was lots of smooth colored glass for a souvineer. We got a taxi back to the ship $3 each.

 

I think the ship has a tour going over there but it's so easy to do this on your own and way cheaper.

 

Puerto Vallarta is really looking good. It has really been cleaned up from a few years ago. The waterfront marina is very nice. We took a taxi to Mismaloya beach. It's a lovely ride. $17. Took a bus all the way back to town for 50 cents each. Great deal. PV is very lush with lots of bouginvilla. The surf was quite active and people were having lots of fun.

 

Good shopping right off the ship in Mazatlan. Also good shopping in Zihuat.

The air quality in Mazatlan is so bad, so sad. I really couldn't stand it.

 

Have a wonderful time! If you are so inclined, the Martini tastings are really fun!!!!!!!!:D

[C 2 C]

Thanks for the positive reports. We sail B2B in Feb. and I was getting a bit concerned about the negative comments.

[starrynites]

We took a water taxi out to "Lover's Beach and Los Arcos" That was gorgeous!!!!!! $10 each. Our boat driver was a riot. He chummed in the fish and took us to the seals and out and around the rocks so we could take some good pictures. Water is clear and beautiful. It's a bit tricky getting off and on the boat according to the surf but there is help from the shore (taking your bags and giving you a leg up) It's an adventure for sure. Wear your swimsuit! or don't get off the boat and just go for the ride. Watching the kids surf out there was really something to see. They were getting pounded and coming up laughing. There is some calm water for swimming too. The beach is very beautiful out there, much nicer than the beaches right off the ship.

 

If you don't want to go out to Los Arcos you can take a water taxi to the beach near the ship instead of walking and if it really hot when you are there it is well worth it!

 

We heard from some people that the jungle tour in Mazatlan was good but I don't know first hand. I'm not much into traveling in a group. My husband hiked up to a light house (you can see it from the ship) and he really enjoyed it. Air quality doesn't bother him like it does me. hack, hack

 

All in all, each port has something to offer for everyone. I couldn't believe how many people didn't get off the ship in Zihuatinaeo. The tender was so short. Some people were freaked out because the tender ride to Cabo was a little exciting with waves splashing. We took a taxi to a GORGEOUS beach by some lovely resorts in Zihaut. (sorry, can't think of the name) check your travel book:rolleyes: We'd like to go back there for sure. Very peaceful, friendly and clean.

 

Guess I rambled on enough. If you are not excited about going yet, you should be!;)

[starrynites]

Ok, asked the husband about the beach in Zihuateneo and it's Playa Ropa. Long beautiful beach, not crowded, small surf, clean, short taxi ride.

 

I think I might have given the impression that we enjoyed ourselves and we certainly did!

[jukeboxy]

Was on the Mercury from Dec. 2 to 12. Took ship shore excursion in PV. Tequila tour. Not for the serious tequila lover. Better off booking excursions off the ship. Zihua left us very little time to explore as ship left around 1 pm. Gorgeous own will go back. Matzalan is also beautiful take a city tour incl the golden zone. Worth it $30. Overall cruise was great as usual. Acapulco was a rat hole btw. Don't like soldiers carrying guns. Ship docked in a dingy part of town. W found an internet store for $1 per hour and returned to ship. I think your comment is unfair to ACA.This cruise needs less time in Acapulco and more in Zihua and Matzalan. CC party was given short shrift by Celebrity even having another group interupting our meeting Cruise Director Jeff gave a brief intro and left. No officers or staff were visible but the CCers met new friends and exchanged info as was intended. Food was great at dinners, so so at lunch buffets. Celebrity cruises are so relaxing it is impossible not to have a good time. Booking our 3rd in a year soon.

Post cruise ramblings is a better discription of this posting than a review.

Our cruise started with a four hour delay in leaving port and lots of people having their plans changed. There was a medical emergency on the cruise before ours and the ship had to return to Cabo to get a passenger the quickest aid for a heart attack. Most of us took this in stride since X was doing it for the survival of one of us. I did hear one kind soul said to one of the pier staff, "It is not worth disrupting the lives of two thousand for only one person!" When ask if that applied to his family members he said "yes".

We did get boarded late and we did get to sea about four hours behind schedule. That threw off the standard timing of the things you do when you are use to boarding early in the day. We had a full day at sea to make up time and most of it was made up by the time we got to Cabo. They kept us on ships time to save further disruption for the passengers an extra day so in Cabo our time was one hour different than Cabo time. I was in hopes that the only people who were left behind would be the ones that would delay us on disembarking day. Maybe it worked because the were no delays when we got back to San Diego.

The weather the whole cruise was as you would expect on the MR at this time on year cool in San Diego and warm as you got to Cabo and below.

I had read other postings about the Mercury being old and thread bare but I didn't see that. It could be because I was too busy being spoiled by the crew and the friendlyness of fellow passengers. We had a good CD and staff the guest relations desk were fantastic and they had a new Captains Club Hostess named Daila who was kind and wonderful. I could dwell on the nice things the crew does for hours because they are all so special on the Mercury. There were only about four crew members we had sailed with before and they remembered us and I think gave us extra kindness.

I think this is the first cruise we didn't look and the daily and run to keep up with all of the activies. So it seemed like we did not do so much at the end but our time was filled and even made it hard to get the daily nap. Our cabin attendent was so good we only saw him in the passageway and he always filled our extra needs as soon as they were requested.

If I have one thing that disapointed me it was the Cruis Critic party. We have been to several and this was so low key that we didn't really get together very much. I think the ship and the people there we equally to blame. Some of that could be a Roll Call that was not very active and the way it was approached. I was sorry not to get to know some of the people better.

The only port we did any touring was Acapolco and there we got a van to take four of us on a city tour and we got to see the divers one more time. The other ports I just cruised around on my scooter and made my wife walk three steps behind. Mexico makes getting around will a scooter very interesting to say the least. Unlike the USA they have no strong ADA rules so just trying to ride the sidewalks is hard. So I spent lots of time in the streets playing dodge cars. Curb cuts in sidewalks are to say the least inconsistant. You will have a cut at one end of the block and a one foot drop at the other end so you have to retrace and go to the street.

Speaking of dealing with my scooter I go back to the ship and elevators. I am always disapointed with the way able bodied people will rush an elevator even though a scooter or chaired person was there first. I often had to wait several because of these people and many could have walked the one floor they were going. I don't expect anything but my fair turn not to get on before someone that was there before me. So to the able bodied out there please be more aware of people in chairs of any kind. One other thing about chairs and scooters, not all users use them all the time when not cruising. Many are on a scooter for the first time and they also don't understand the proper was to deal with the little things that are different in using one.

The bottom line is we had another fantastic cruise on X and I rate things as follows;

Food- very good to exellent,

Service-exellent,

Cabin-very good.

Entertainment comes in several catigories; Dinner music in dinning room- Exellent, Lounges and public areas-very good. I did not go to any of the shows in the theater so I can't speak to those.

OH, we ended our cruise much as it started. We got to San Diego six hours early because of another heart attack victim. In this case it was faster to increase speed to go forward to get the person help than it was to go back. Either was my hat is off to X for putting the well being of each person first.

FYI This was our fourth time in the MR and each time we enjoy it more as we learn more about the people. As for the docking area in ACA it is across the street from the old fort and just down from the main square of the city. And the tourist areas are further away. In my mind it gives a chance to see how well or poorly the people live being so close to their living area. I don't cruise to see glitz and glamor I would see in the USA but the real lifestyle of the place I am visiting.

[Texed]

Jukeboxy,

 

Thanks for the nice, thorough, review.

[rianvi]

We are sailing on Jan 2/o6. Ship is to sail at 8pm. What time was muster? And what time were you able to board? Thankyou.

 

Peace.............Anna

[C 2 C]

Does anyone remember the name of the cruise director?

[ML147000]

Cruise director on Mercury for our sailing was Jeff Potts.

[C 2 C]

Cruise director on Mercury for our sailing was Jeff Potts.

 

Thanks.. I read elsewhere that it was Dru Pavlov. I was looking forward to meeting him again

[DocJohnB]

IMO, Zihuatanejo, is the unsung hero of the Mexican Riviera. An absolutely beautiful, quiet port. No pushy vendors. Just a lovely spot to enjoy Mexico. I agree, I wish we could have stayed longer and enjoyed more of this lovely port.

[ctipton55]

You will find a new addition when you visit Acapulco. They have built a foot bridge from the terminal across the road to the Fort, Very nice and easier to get to!

[Randaw]

My wife and I are taking our first Celebrity Mercury Mexico cruise in Feb. o6. We have been on the Royal Carribean and Norwegian ships. Can any one tell me of a good place to golf on this itinery? Not a real difficult course, but a decent one. Thanks alot.

[flowy]

Thanks.. I read elsewhere that it was Dru Pavlov. I was looking forward to meeting him again

 

Yes, cruise director was Dru Pavlov on 12/12 Mercury cruise. Really terrific -- best one I have ever seen. Great jokes!

[rianvi]

We sail on the Mercury Jan. 2. What time were you able to board? The ship sails at 8pm. Also what beaches would you suggest...our 17yr D.D. wants to spend sonetime at a beach at on e of the ports. Any advice or suggestions is appreciated.

 

Thankyou Anna

[rianvi]

Just bumping this up. Hoping for a reply.

 

Thanks Anna

[M&M CRUZERS]

Thanks.. I read elsewhere that it was Dru Pavlov. I was looking forward to meeting him again

 

We just got off of Mercury on 23rd and Dru was our CD. The best we've had -- a great personality. Loved his nightly jokes.