Mercury All Well by April 28th Sailing?

[cruznduo]

My husband and I just booked a last minute trip on the April 28th sailing and thought we were lucky to get one of the last OV cabins available since we just wanted a quick and affordable get away! Well...now we are wondering how lucky we are with all the reports of the Mercury being a "sick ship." I really had never paid too much attention to how long it really takes for a ship to be considered pretty much "all well" from a virus like this when outbreaks have occured on other ships, lines, etc. If anyone has any statistics, ideas, etc., I would really appreciate any information, I really do not relish the idea of getting sick on what is supposed to be our one chance to get away and relax for the year! Yikes...and thanks for any help...Linda

[tangerinebunny]

You might want to check out what the CDC has to say:

 

http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/vsp/surv/outbreak/2006/update_march16mercury.htm

 

 

They seem to be handling their part of the situation quite well.

[teedee]

I'm also on the April 28 sailing. We have a great rollcall for this cruise, I hope you join us!

 

Terri

[cruznduo]

Bunny...thanks for the info...hopefully, they will get a handle on this situation!

 

Terri...I will check out the thread. Are there very many people signed up? Last time we went to a CC party there were a lot of people signed up, but not too many people showed up or really socialized after months of writing back and forth on these boards! It was a shame since it was so much fun gettting to know each other via e-mail beforehand. Guess everything will be OK with all the groups as long as they don't shake hands...ha! ha! Thanks for the invite...Linda

[teedee]

Linda - We have over 30 signed up for the party. I hope everyone shows up. It seems like a great group, we've got a few get togethers scheduled. More people are always welcome!!

 

Terri

[Andy]

My husband and I just booked a last minute trip on the April 28th sailing and thought we were lucky to get one of the last OV cabins available since we just wanted a quick and affordable get away! Well...now we are wondering how lucky we are with all the reports of the Mercury being a "sick ship." I really had never paid too much attention to how long it really takes for a ship to be considered pretty much "all well" from a virus like this when outbreaks have occured on other ships, lines, etc. If anyone has any statistics, ideas, etc., I would really appreciate any information, I really do not relish the idea of getting sick on what is supposed to be our one chance to get away and relax for the year! Yikes...and thanks for any help...Linda

 

Hi Linda !

 

There is no way to predict if all will be ok by then, but the good news is, you have just about a month before your sail date. That is still a long time away, in terms of this situation. I would think the odds are good, that Celebrity and the CDC will do everything they can to resolve this.

[Beth & Rob]

We are back from our 10 day cruise to Mexico on Celebrity's Mercury. What a terrible disappointment.

 

Apparently the ship was "sick" from the last cruise. Several people and

staff became ill with the Norwalk Virus and it was far from elimated by the

time we boarded. We could not access our staterooms for several hours as

they were being disinfected. By this I mean spraying with bleach.

 

This bleach became the theme of the cruise. Wherever you went, they were

spraying. It was dripping all over. All glass and mirrored surfaces had

streams of bleach. By the end of the trip all of the varnish had all but

disappeared from any wood surface. They sprayed the dining room chairs just before the doors opened and we all wound up sitting in bleach. After the first night of that, I would get there first and wipe them all down before our table mates came.

The buttons in the elevators would not light as they were all burned up. Many people ruined very nice clothes by leaning up against a sprayed surface. They were lined up at customer relations to get refunds of their ruined articles of clothing. Much of this happened on formal nights.

 

I heard more than 300 people became ill. And when they went to see the

doctor, they were all charged. CHarged for an illness they caught on the ship, that the ship knew about. $140 just for the visit and then more for

medication. We heard a couple that were quarantined to their room refused

to stay in there and would leave the cabin. Apparently they kicked them off in Ixtapa. Even had a tender come to get them.

 

They pulled the service staff to do all of this spraying so there was a very

limited staff to serve food. Lines were 15 - 30 minutes long for the Palm

Springs Cafe, the grill and waffles. The midnight buffets were all

canceled. Salt and pepper shakers were removed from the tables. You could

not get your own juice or coffee, again you had to wait in a line for it to

be poured by one person manning.

 

The ATM machine (the only one) in the casino was out of order the entire

cruise. If you wanted cash from the casino, 12%. They would only allow one

check for $200 per cruise at the bank.

 

Our cabin steward was a most pleasant man, but the carpeting in the cabin (and all

over the ship) was tattered and torn, as was the bedspread. Seams

ripping.........The furniture in the bars and sitting areas were worn and shabby.

 

They closed the Manhattan room, (which on this ship was the only dining room) for breakfast and lunch a couple of days so EVERYONE was up on deck to eat at the Patio. I thought the activities were very limited.

 

We did get back to the Manhattan for breakfast yesterday. No bananas, no

danish, no eggs benedict, several other things not available.

 

In Puerto Vallarta we were #2 for the tender. Princess had the dock. We

spent over an hour waiting for our number to be called and then headed for

the dock. We were almost there, and then told to pull back to so a craft

belonging to Princess could deboard. We spent another hour just in the

tender............

Last night our waiter told us that after cleaning and scrubbing the dining room, which would take to about 1:30AM, he would get to bed but had to be up by 5 to assist with the cleaning of the cabins. Again, with all sorts of toxic cleansers.

 

There were absolutely no compensations for any of the inconveniences, no

apologies. Only bleach being sprayed non-stop.

 

Additional CDC staff (Center for Disease Control) boarded in Puerto Vallarta as the

illness continued. I heard that if the ship did not come up clean after our

disembarking today, they were going to shut the ship down, quarantine for 21

days.

 

I broke out in a very itchy rash from my neck, down my trunk and on my arms. I'm not sure what caused it, the sun or the chemicals. Going to the doctor tomorrow.

 

Anyway, we along with about 1800 other folks will be writing Celebrity with

our complaints.

So naturally we'll be steering clear of Celebrity. The food was ok, but nothing like we were told to anticipate.

[conflexrules!]

we are supposed to go on the april 7th sailing to mexico.............after reading all this, i really want to just stay home!! i can't stand the smell of bleach and can't even imagine how this trip is going to turn out...................

 

i read somewhere on another post that they give you an option to board or not................is this true??

 

please let us know what comes about with your complaint to celebrity...............

 

i saw online that the mercury has left again for mexico almost two hrs ago...........so i guess they passed inspection................

[WillK]

Have sailed HAL in the past and am booked for my first Celebrity cruise on the Mercury departing Ensenada on May 8th. Now I'm wondering...Would much rather stay home than endure what the previous poster reported.

[teedee]

I'm on the April 28 sailing & I'm not worried at all. For every disgruntled cruiser there is someone who had a good cruise, even on this one with the virus problem. It can happen on any ship at any time and contrary to what Beth & Rob said about over 300 ill, the number from the CDC website put the number at slightly over 100, which granted is still a large number. The same article says that Celebrity has responded to the problem correctly. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure all the cleaning & the bleach problems were very upsetting, but I realy think there's some over reacting going on.

 

I have a friend who was on today's sailing & she said they had the option of not getting on the ship & having their money refunded. They decided to take the cruise. They were about an hour late getting on the ship, but food & drinks were provided in the terminal while they waited.

 

I have NEVER heard of Celebrity charging 12% to get money from the casino, my niece wasn't charged anything extra to do so last week on Zenith.

 

Terri

[poetic license]

 

I have NEVER heard of Celebrity charging 12% to get money from the casino,

Terri

I agree, Terri: That 12% sounds more than a little suspect; I have never been charged to get money from the casino, ever, on any of the three Celebrity ships I have sailed.

 

Take Beth & Rob's entire report with a grain of salt, since a portion of it is clearly without veracity. Makes you wonder what else is less than the truth as well.

 

Cheers~

[mktmzm]

Beth and Bob's comments about the cleaning conditions of the ship are totally accurate. Bleach was being applied by spray bottles and there was always a mist of bleach in the area where the crew was cleaning. If you happened to be walking by, you were often inadvertantly sprayed.

 

I did not notice much "wear and tear" in the public areas, but we did not use them very much.

 

I am not sure about the number of sick passengers. We, luckily emerged unscathed. However, we did have a Royal Suite and spent a lot of our onboard time there on our balcony. We didn't go to the buffet often.

 

It was APPALLING to experience the lack of courtesy between the passengers. Sick passengers were not staying quarentined. They were being sick in public washrooms and returning to public areas. While handwashing was STRONGLY encouraged, it was impossible to enforce. There are FAR too many people who don't wash their hands!!

 

In another instance, a man from Boston came to the pool on one of the "at sea" days and promptly told us in grisly detail how he had been sick that morning. We promptly turned away from him. He later got up and went somewhere else for a bit... only to return and ask us to hand him is personal items on the pool chair. EW!!! We told him we would prefer not to and he went ballistic on us. Like WE were the ones who were wrong!!!

 

Do people truly understand the nature of this virus??? It is a FECAL to ORAL transmission. Meaning... if you get this.. you have been in contact with a sick person's vomit or feces.

 

WASH YOUR HANDS. Don't put your hands in your mouth. Carry hand-sanitizer with you. On our cruise, it was recommended that "hand shakes" be discouraged.

 

Also, We ALL paid for our vacations. I am sorry if someone becomes sick on a cruise, but DON'T be selfish and share it with the rest of us. Those who were quarentined will be compensated by the cruise lines for those days.

 

BE CONSIDERATE of your fellow passengers!!!

 

Marcy

[cruznduo]

Thanks to all for your information. We live close to San Diego so we have seen the TV coverage of the Mercury passengers disembarking and the ship leaving for the next sailing, along with the coverage of how many ill passengers were reported on the last cruise. I am still leery about what is in store for us on the April 28th sailing, but at this point there really isn't much we can do but wait and see what happens with the next couple of cruises and hope for the best! I truly hope that the worst is over and that everyone on board has a wonderful and healthy experience!

 

Terri...I am going to check out the roll call and try and get registered. I am sure you have all been "chatting" for quite awhile, but it is very nice of you to welcome some last minute add-ons! Guess we may as well make the best of it since the only way we are going to get a refund at this point is (heaven forbid) we have a reason to use our cruise insurance!

 

Hope to hear more info from other posters concerning this issue...Thanks, Linda

[wave412]

To the poster who wrote:

I heard more than 300 people became ill. And when they went to see the

doctor, they were all charged. CHarged for an illness they caught on the ship, that the ship knew about. $140 just for the visit and then more for

medication. We heard a couple that were quarantined to their room refused

to stay in there and would leave the cabin. Apparently they kicked them off in Ixtapa. Even had a tender come to get them.

.....

In Puerto Vallarta we were #2 for the tender. Princess had the dock. We

spent over an hour waiting for our number to be called and then headed for

the dock. We were almost there, and then told to pull back to so a craft

belonging to Princess could deboard. We spent another hour just in the

tender...........

.......

There were absolutely no compensations for any of the inconveniences, no

apologies. Only bleach being sprayed non-stop.

 

You are wrong on a few points.

 

Acutally it was about 150 people or so who got sick, and included in that count are people also in the stateroom with sick people, whether they were ill or not. And our friends did get sick, and they weren't charged at all for their doctor visit. They upheld the quarantine AND were offered a future cruise credit because of the lockdown. The number of ill passengers significantly decreased during the last days at sea (which were considered the most risky), and that's why the CDC cleared the ship to leave again.

 

And the reason it took so long in PV was because they couldn't get the ship cleared. I believe I was on the same tender as you (waiting for a morning shore excursion) and we were only on the tender (from ship to shore) for about 25 minutes. Most of that time was spent actually driving to the tender pier. Princess had the DOCK...they weren't sending any vessels into the tender pier. It was a Mercury tender that they let in first.

 

I'd bet 10 bucks you were the folks I overhead complaining (quite loudly) about the trip while we were waiting in line to disembark. No one wanted to hear your bitching...we were all there on the same ship. We saw what was happening.

 

To other readers: Sorry for all the negativity. My husband and I had a great time, and the only thing that really bugged us was the smoking sections and the ever-present grumbling from complain-y passengers. Yes, were in a weird situation...but just be quiet already!

 

=)