Celebrity Mercury Cruises Reviews

Thursday 24th May 2012

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Celebrity Yes - Mercury No!

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Celebrity Yes - Mercury No!

Reviewed By: Reeves, Curbridge on 7th Jan 2010
Cruise Line: Celebrity Cruises	Times cruised before: 10+
Cruise Ship: Mercury	Sailed: October, 2009
Destination: North America	Age: 46-55
Cabin: Outside	Occasion: Family holiday

We took a four day round-trip cruise out of Seattle on the Celebrity Mercury in October 2009, calling at Victoria and Nanaimo. We have been on several cruises before, including many on Celebrity, but we must say this was our least favourite of all the Celebrity ships. The Mercury is the oldest of their fleet, I believe, and, unlike the Century which is the same size but has been extensively refurbished, it is looking a little old and does not seem to run as efficiently as their other ships. Although the ship's personnel were generally up to the high standards expected on Celebrity, we found the staff in the dining room not to be up to par in several ways. Their language skills were much poorer than normal, the delays in producing the meals were MUCH longer than normal or acceptable, and the little things like producing the bread basket or filling water glasses were often ignored until we had to ask for service. Although the delay in producing the courses can be probably blamed on the galley's efficiency, there was no excuse for not providing bread or water, or paying attention to the other needs of the cruisers. We usually eat at the first sitting which can be rather early, but after having experienced the second sitting, we are wondering if the delays could be in some part attributed to delays from the first sitting. Not sure about that, but we certainly will be sticking with the earlier sittings in the future. I don't know if the least experienced people are put on this particular ship because it is perhaps their "lowest quality ship", but it certainly seemed that way to us. We also noticed that the bar staff were not as friendly as normal and were too pushy on trying to sell their "special" daily drinks. If you asked for a soda on your soda card, they obviously were not too impressed! The drinks did arrive, but were not provided with the usual cheerful smile and greeting from the staff on the other ships. The cruise itself was fine. We have actually been to all the ports before so did not have to spend extra on excursions and were able to wander around both Victoria and Nanaimo independently. For the information of others going to these ports, you can certainly find enough entertainment easily by yourself in Victoria, but you might want to consider going on one of the offered excursions from Nanaimo as the town itself is quite small and to get away from the smallish downtown area requires independent transportation. Excursions to Port Alberni (via Cathedral Grove and stops in Coombs where the main restaurant and market boasts goats on the grass roof!) or up to the small but quite charming town of Qualicum Beach are good. If enough time is available, a trip across Vancouver Island to the west coast towns of Tofino and Ucluelet provide an opportunity to see the really wild west coast - very impressive on stormy days - and Pacific beaches with fantastic miles of sand. Several major "stars" have homes in this area including John Travolta who flies his own plane in! Having said all the somewhat negative things about the Mercury, Celebrity is still our favourite cruise line by far.......we will just be avoiding the Mercury from now on!
Quality of Food
Food quality was very good, but the service was not good in the dining room, bringing the ranking down to just "good".
Entertainment
Not much provided on this short trip but what we saw was pretty good.
Shore Excursions	n/a

Staff
Although the dining and bar staff left something to be desired, other members of the staff were good, including the room attendants. Can give a "satisfactory" ranking because of their efforts.
Children's Facilities	n/a

Onboard Activities

Cabins
NOTE - our overall rating for the cruise was "good" but this is very low for our normal ratings for Celebrity. We have never rated outside the "very good" or "excellent" range before for this cruise line!
Overall Rating