Any report on last week on Mercury?

[buzzandjulie]

Dive

I also would like to know any of the details you would like to share about your trip I am sailing in 3 weeks and have only booked a tour in skagway, from last year I found I actually preferred arriving first and then playing the day by that, we always found very interesting tours portside

[PortCredit]

Just arrived home from a great week on the Mercury. The sushi bar was open. As the previous poster noted, we were late getting into Juneau, which resulted in cancellation of most shore excursions. I agree that the rain and drizzle would have made the excursion I had planned a bit of a bust. Any lingering disappointment about missing my excursion was tempered by the thought of how much worse it would be to be helicoptered off a ship on the second day of a cruise for emergency surgery!

 

I did the Eagle Preserve float trip in Skagway and it was a great adventure. In Ketichikan, I did the rain forest canoe trip which I also really enjoyed. And the Hubbard Glacier was breathtaking.

 

My family and I travelled on the Mercury to Alaska in September, 2003 and I found this week's trip to be just as great. The service was wonderful, the ship looked good and the scenery is unbeatable. Have a wonderful trip - I would do it again in a hearbeat!

[dive1]

dive1,

Thanks for your quick post after returning on Merc. How was the cruise overall? Much illness? Sushi Bar open? Tours other than Juneau. We're getting very excited since we leave in 2 weeks.

 

The cruise overall was great. I heard rumors of people getting sick but I don't think it was bad. Very calm seas throughout the trip. The Sushi bar was open from 6-10 on 11 aft. They had Sushi, Miso soup and Sushi rolls which were popular with my family. We went on the Skagway Train tour along with at least half the people on the boat. Everyone around seemed to love it. We also took a short hike out to the point across the foot bridge near the airstrip.

 

In Ketchikan, we took a taxi to the Deer Mountain trail head (8$) and hiked up to some observation points above the city. We hiked back to town and went by the Totem center and Eagle center and Fish hatchery. We then headed down Creek Streetand took the funicular to Fox lodge and had a great lunch with a view. I heard some of the people who went on the fishing trip were disappointed.

[SheilaNC]

PortCredit and Dive1,

Thanks so much for your reports. We're waiting with bated breath....really looking forward to this trip.

[cruisin'mama]

Hi,

 

I too was on the June 23 medical evacuation sailing on Mercury with my 3 sons. I had the helicopter/dogsled excursion cancelled in Juneau and changed my Skagway train/kayaking excursion to the helicopter excursion. I was extremely disappointed that now I wasn't able to take my kids dogsledding, on the train or kayaking, but at least they did get to walk on the glacier. We flew with Temsco, the only helicopter operator in Skagway. The glacier was cool and the helicopter was a narrated "shuttle" of sorts, back and forth to the glacier.

 

The Mercury was a lovely ship, a comfortable size with nice public areas. The service we received was fabulous and the food outstanding. I had a Sky Suite on the Sky Deck and had Mateus as our butler. I had heard some "ok" comments about him, but I found him to be very sweet and he tried to anticipate our every need. For us, we was wonderful. Our dining room table was 606 ( table for 8 ) on the upper level of the restaurant at the aft window overlooking the lower floor. It was a perfect location with great views of the wake and the scenery behind the ship. I highly recommend it. Our waiter was Melvyn from India and he was wonderful. He humored us by bringing extra food for us to try and one night I don't think he could have fit another dessert on the table. I never heard anything about any illnesses except for the lady evacuated with appendicitis and another woman who was taken by ambulance in Ketchikan who I heard might have broke her hip in a fall. There were containers of hand sanitizers at every entrance to any eating area and when you got on and off the ship. I saw typical cleaning of the ship, nothing extraordinary. I never smelled any bleach.

 

We had great weather except for Juneau. The locals in Ketchikan kept commenting on how lucky we were to have such a beautiful sunny warm day. They said that rarely happens. On our Kart Expedition, the driver of the bus to take us into the Tongass National Forest for the excursion said she had never been thru the area when it hadn't been rainy. On our way thru the Inside passage, the pool was a popular place and I broke out the shorts I had optimistically had packed. It was warm enough for women to don their bikinis.

 

The trip for us was spectacular and extremely disappointing at the same time. The ship exceeded our expectations, but the loss of our plans for shore excursions almost had me in tears. I had planned this trip for over a year, done my research and tried to get as much done as possible, and to no one's fault, everything changed dramatically for us. Not everyone was affected as much as we were, they just missed their Juneau excursion. We rearranged Skagway to trying to make up for the loss in Juneau. I hope I get the opportunity to return. Alaska is stunningly beautiful. I would love to sail on Mercury again too.

 

Cathy

[SheilaNC]

cruisin' mama,

Thanks so much for the additional info. So sorry about losing your long planned excursions, but glad that the cruise was a good one. This will be our second so hope that you have one in your future as well.

 

Anyone back yesterday?? Or am I expecting too much? You must be either traveling or doing laundry, right?

[Happy ks]

spengle, I do understand your concerns, especially after reading the recent news of th Noro virus outbreak on Mercury.

 

Some things to remember are that when a ship like this has had the virus going around, they are a lot more careful and have gone through a thorough cleaning. The ship isn't what makes the pax sick, it is other people, whether it is another passenger or a crew member. Your risk may be more minimal now than a couple of weeks prior.

 

You know you may be late to a port and reading the disappointment experienced by cruisin'mama may prepare you a little better. BTW, sorry you had such a disappointment cruisin'mama, I know how that feels :( .

 

Cruises can be different from one week to the next, no one can predict weather, new mechanical problems, or medical emergencies. Go with a positive attitude and go with the flow if something does happen.

 

What I would like to ask, I've been reading there is a delay in boarding????

 

We're supposed to be on the ship for a wedding before sailaway and have been asked to get to port by 10:30 am. If they aren't getting into port until much later, it would be nice to know this in advance. We don't mind waiting a couple of hours, but if they won't let us on until 2pm, there's no way we will be happy cooling our heels for 4 hours dressed in wedding attire!

[SheilaNC]

Happy ks,

I certainly agree with your comments. I'm a pretty experienced cruiser and am not really concerned at all. Just trying to get the most up-to-date info since this time we are sailing with our kids and grandkids for whom this is their first week long cruise and first time to Alaska.

 

Re: your wedding plans. The latest I've heard was that for the past two sailings, due to cleaning regimens, they were not allowing boarding until 2 PM. Prior to that time, folks were boarding shortly after 11. So...hopefully, someone just returned and someone next weekend will report on their embarkation times. Do the bride and groom have any more info??

[Happy ks]

Geeze, not that I know of. It's my niece, it will be her first cruise and first wedding. She's pretty easy going about things, but I doubt any of us(about 40 in all, I think) want to wait that long. I'll have to email her and let her know about this, perhaps the wedding planner can let her know more.

 

I think we'd all much rather stay in the comfort of our hotel instead of wait:rolleyes: . Thanks for the info, you may have saved us from a lot of frustration.

 

Any advance info is great, for both of us!

 

Don't forget to wave to us! I'll be in a pink pantsuit :)

[SheilaNC]

We will certainly wave. Our Roll Call is happy to be having a wedding onboard...we might just have to adopt your niece and her new husband. Our grandsons will wave, too....

[cruisin'mama]

We were allowed to board as soon as our bus got there. I think it was around 11am. There were not many people boarding at that time at all so it went extremely quick. I have just posted about my experiences on the sailing that just returned on Friday. I'll answer any questions I can to help.

 

Cathy

[SheilaNC]

Cruisin' Mama (Kathy),

Thanks so much...will certainly make Cathy happy to be able to board at 11 AM and US, too. We'd like to check in with our luggage, get our Sea Passes and then disembark to go over to Pike Place Market for a couple of hours. Then we can eat lunch on board and get settled in our cabin before muster. Hope the experience was the same last week.

[luckylady1]

We were on the June 16th sailing and we were allowed on the ship around 12:30pm. They had refreshments for people who had already checked in and were sitting around waiting to get on the ship.

[Happy ks]

Well, that is all good news!

 

I already emailed my niece about all this, just to give her a heads up. She may want to contact the wedding planner (don't really know if they can do anything!) and I'm very happy to say, she is definitely not a Bridezilla :) , she's just going with the flow.

[dive1]

On the June 23rd sailing, we boarded at around 11:35. It only took 10 minutes. Debarkation was at 9:40 am for us and took only ten minutes. There was still plenty of people leaving at 10:30 am and a few people arriving. The boat arrived in Seattle around 7:10 am the last few sailings. You can go to the Celebrity picture archives and check the actual times in the ports. http://www.celebrityatsea.com/index.aspx?Value=8&Loc=CR2