Mercury Fun to Alaska!
Written: Aug 24 '04 (Updated Aug 26 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great personalized service, fantastic food, good shows, good excursions, great value for money!
Cons: Ports cut short by cruiseline, drinks expensive!
The Bottom Line: This is a wonderful roundtrip cruise from Seattle and a wonderful value. So much to do, see, and eat!
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| freesiae's Full Review: Celebrity Mercury |
Our trip started in Kentucky and we flew into Seattle. We (my husband and I) arrived in Seattle around 11AM local and took a cab to the pier. Celebrity's pier 66 is wonderfully located right in the downtown area. The cab fare with tip was $35. We had e-docs so we did not have luggage tags. We easily found the door that would lead us to get tags. Actually not having luggage tags and having to fill the out there put us at the front of the check-in line. Go figure. So we quickly checked our bags and felt like we were not quite ready to board as the entire area was jammed packed with people and we don’t like lines! I checked my carry-on bag with the concierge service located directly next to the luggage area for the $3 price per bag. The concierge service also helped us to obtain a map and directions to walk to the Space Needle. We took a left out of the concierge and walked down the sidewalk. About 3 blocks down we found a cute restaurant called “Rippe’s” and had lunch. I had a salad topped with Dungeness crab with an oriental dressing. It was tasty! Two busboys got into a little spat and some ice went flying at the table next to us, but that was ok. Then we continued to the end of the sidewalk where you must either turn and go up the street or straight onto a pier. To reach the Space Needle go up the street. It was probably 6 blocks from there, at least 4 being uphill. The entry fee into the Needle is $13 a person. As it had been raining there were very few people there. We went right up and enjoyed looking at Seattle, however with the overcast skies we were unable to see Mt. Rainer. We headed back down after a bit and hit a coffee shop next to Rippe’s-we couldn’t leave Seattle without coffee! We headed back to the pier where we saw no one else and were grateful to have avoided the mega crowds. We were inside by 2:45 and on the ship by 2:55-not too shabby!
We were met by an attendant who showed us our room, 8124. This is a category 5 “deluxe oceanview” which means it has a little sofa and a big window. The room was more than adequate for us and very bright with the wall mirrors and big window. The bathroom wasn’t fabulous, but it was fine. The bed was very comfortable I thought. The décor choices were “different”-an orange and blue bedspread-yikes! However “modern” art was the theme throughout the ship, so it worked. Soon after we entered, our cabin attendant Maria stopped by. She was great as was her assistant. She was always happy to help out and kept our room ship shape! We could not get our TV to work and as soon as we told her she had someone up to fix the problem (receiver box fell into the wall) it was only an hour or so until it was fixed.
Our dinner was second seating and we were at a table for two, #561 with waiter Jasao. He was from Portugal and very nice. Even nicer was the assistant waiter whose name I cannot remember. He was quick with iced teas, water, dressings, etc. Both men did a great job. Now food is a subjective experience, but the husband and I found it to be exceptional! The highlight (take notes) was the tournedos of beef-night 2 I believe. Very, very, very good. The best beef on the trip. Tender and juicy. Oh, the rest of food in the dining room. Well it never lacked variety! There was fish, chicken, beef, lamb, veal, cold soups, hot soups, frog legs, salads, etc all presented beautifully! The only thing that I did not like was the gazpacho and I think that was just me-I don’t like red peppers. The lamb chop could have been a little better, but overall good. The deserts were excellent so save room for that! I never went wrong. The sacher torte was amazing and was the pear and blueberry desert.
The buffet was very good and breakfast. There was something for everyone; eggs, sausages, bacon, pancakes, oatmeal, cereals, fish and a wide variety of pastries and fruits. If you were still hungry there was an omelet station and a waffle station. I cannot comment on the omelets but the waffles were dangerous good. They were light and fluffy and a variety of toppings were offered from syrup to blueberries. The buffet was always quite busy when we would generally go between 8-8:30AM. Only 1 morning did we have issues finding a seat in which we ended up just sharing a large table with other people. That was fine too; it was nice to meet others aboard.
When we first got to our room, we had invites to the cruisecritic’s party. We met on our first day at sea (Saturday) in the morning. I loved meeting everyone. It’s nice to put a face to a name! Winnie the social hostess was wonderful and helped arrange this along with Jillian the cruise director. It was great to feel so special to have this little gathering. I am terrible with names but I do remember Michael and Francine who we ran into on several other occasions, as well as a great couple who was celebrating 60 years of wedded bliss. Coffee and juices were available. We all probably hung out just talking and enjoying ourselves for about an hour. Winnie said this was the first one they had been able to have on this roundtrip to Seattle trip this season, so that was great!
I decided on Saturday to stop by the spa and buy a Thassolotherapy pass that I had heard so much about. It was $50 for the week, or $20 a time, so I did a weeks worth. It is very nice and warm. It was never crowded which I thought was grand. However you notice the ships movement a great deal in the pool as the water sloshes quite a bit from side to side. After the pool, I would go to the sauna inside the locker room. I believe this is free for anyone to use. It was HOT! I never stayed more than 7-8 minutes max. There were plenty of fresh towels provided in the bathroom and I used a locker. I looked at the spa services when we first boarded and deemed them too expensive to use, however everyday there were specials and port day specials were the best! I did a little $79 package on Tuesday afternoon which was a 30 dip in the Thassalotherapy pool, 25 min. back, shoulder, neck and back of legs massage, a 25 minute facial. I had never had a massage or facial so this was a fun time for me. However, I wouldn’t have wanted to pay anymore than I did for these services. My masseuse/facialist was a man from Ireland named Andres who was quite professional and nice. I really appreciated that he didn’t try to sell me any of the items he used for my facial. He gave me a brochure with prices but didn’t really push it on me. That was nice of him.
Now for the ports! Sunday we stopped in Juneau after lunch time. This day the husband and I opted to try room service for lunch. I had the veggie platter with hummus and fruit and cheese platter. My husband got a bowl of clam chowder and a ham sandwich. We had a fun time eating in the room looking out. Juneau was oddly enough full of Diamond Internationals, Little Switzerland’s, and Tanzanite stores. I really wasn’t expecting to see that type of what I would call “Caribbean” stores here. Ah well though, people obviously enjoy that sort of thing or they wouldn’t be in business! Juneau was hot! Well, may it was my black long sleeved top, hoodie, and jeans that did it. Seriously it was like 78 degrees, sunny, and no stores had any air in them. Everyone said the weather was quite unusual in that it was so warm all summer long. As one store clerk said “Only Fred Meyer’s has air conditioning”. We saw the Red Dog saloon but it was too crowded to really go into. We did a little light shopping, got a few post cards, some Russian nesting dolls, and cheap souvenirs. We took those back to the ship and soon it was time for our whale watching expedition with Capt. Larry and Orca Enterprises. To actually get to the small boat, you have to take a bus ride about 15 minutes out of town. Then you head down a local dock onto your boat –you can either get the “Awesome Orca” or the “Orca Express”. The “Awesome Orca” is piloted by Capt Larry so that is a good one to get! The boat had I think 22 on it plus Capt Larry and 2 helpers/tour guides. We would go around this harbor/sound type area looking for whales. They can be tricky. They will not just jump up and wave at you to take a picture so be on the lookout! Super tasty smoked salmon and cheese was served. We got some good photos and headed back into Juneau. We boarded the ship and stayed on even though they would be in Juneau several more hours we had seen it.
The next day, Monday, was Skagway day and my personal favorite. Skagway is very charming. We got there early and were able to just go right off. We walked around the town which is super cute! Very old-timesy/folksy sort of town. A whole building there is made of driftwood in fact! I had bought a Fodor’s guide about cruising the inside passage and there was a hike recommended to Lower Dewey Lake. Now, the book and I share a difference of opinion about this hike. The directions to the trail are not very clear in the book. The best I can tell you is to got to the corner of Spring and 4th street. The “old path” has been blocked. Go next to the Avis car rental right there and there is a bridge over a stream. This is the start of the trek. Now, the book indicated it was a “short jaunt” to the lake. It took us a good solid 40 minutes of tough climbing up the side of a mountain/hill to get there. It is strenuous! If you have any physical problems I would think twice because it is steep up and steep back! This is not a paved or woodchipped city trail. Now that being said, we made it to the lake and took a look around. I honestly didn’t see much, but we did not want to go the several miles all the way around. We headed back down (much easier in this directions) where we met several people asking how much further it was. At the bottom at the stream we saw multiple salmon attempting to swim upstream…it was neat! Back in Skagway, we bought some smoked salmon as gifts and ourselves a piece of fudge. We headed back to the ship and I used a pay phone to call home and say “hi” to the folks. It was $1 for 3 minutes. However they weren’t home, so I just left a message. We dropped off our salmon in our mini-fridge and headed out to the Salmon bake at Liarsville. This was perhaps my favorite excursion. We had arranged this one through the ship and took a bus right off the pier to a small reenactment camp called Liarsville about 5 miles away. The bus driver there was hilarious….can’t remember his name. When we got there we were met by costumed actors and showed to the salmon. The salmon was cooked over a grill made our of an old water tank from a steamer. The salmon was moist, delicious, and a good portion. Also coleslaw, baked beans, a roll, and apple strudel were served. Pitchers of lemonade and coffee were on each picnic table. We sat with a nice couple from Pennsylvania. After lunch, I used the facilities which were clean and modern (at least for the ladies). We were led to the main reenactment camp where they also have a nice little gift shop. I bought my brother a t-shirt which came with a free pint glass. He got the tshirt, the pint glass is in my cupboard! My husband took a picture with one of the local “working girls”. After looking around for a bit, it was time for the big show! This show had poetry, saw playing, and a gold panning demo. After the demo, we lead to a gold panning area to “find” gold in our pans (which had been placed there in the AM). Amazingly I found a few flakes! Over in that area there is a beautiful flower garden and small shack with a waterfall nearby. Great photo op location. Soon it was back on the bus and back to Skagway. Our tour guide was just as hilarious on the way back! We loaded the boat and left Skagway around 3 that day.
The next morning was Hubbard Glacier day. I’d say we were at the glacier by 8am. The announcer said that the Captain wanted us to be the first boat there! It was really amazing. It was huge! We hoped to see some calving, or pieces breaking off, but alas, we must have been there at the wrong time. Soon though we were joined by the Radisson Diamond. The husband and I decided that now was a good time for breakfast while lots of people were upstairs, so we went to the buffet and snagged a table on the opposite side of the glacier as we knew the boat would be turning soon (hint, hint). We had great breakfast seats! We spent quite a bit of our day today in the casino.
The Fortune’s casino not very big, but quite adequate. My husband was excited about the $1 roulette and $5 blackjack tables. I bellied up to the nickel slots! For those of you who like the “poor man” slots like me, they had 2 sides of the casino with them, one smoking one non-smoking, but this policy wasn’t enforced at the slots. They had some good ones-Reel Em’ In, Texas Tea, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, etc. They were all the interactive ones. I won 10,000 nickels on Neon Nights-at that was only playing 1 nickel on that line-imagine if I had 5 nickels on that line. My husband enjoyed playing blackjack and entered in a tournament the first day. He didn’t win, but had a nice time. I entered the slots tournament ($20 entry fee) and did not win, but was in the top 12, which landed me a cool t-shirt. There is a bar in the casino that looked well stocked, but I never tried it. I was there at midnight one night, and had some of the little snacks they bring around. They were sooo cute! They had little tiny hamburgers and hot dogs on one tray. Don’t fear though, there was a desert tray too!
We were surprised on Tuesday to receive an invite to the Chief Engineers table for Wednesday, the last formal night. I was super excited! More about this later. On Wednesday it Ketchikan day. Once again a short stop from 8-3 made even shorter by the use of tender service. We had a ship booked excursion for the lumberjack show to start at I think 9:30am. We were told on our tickets to meet at 8:45 in a lounge and wear our special stickers since those with excursions would get first priority. Well, needless to say we didn’t get to shore until 9:45 and to the lumberjack show until 9:50-we missed 20 minutes of it. That made me sad. It wasn’t the advertised show, instead it was the World Championships so there was a camera crew and actual competition! Mainly, the morning focused on the women and last year’s champ Erin Lavoie was looking like the favorite again. We saw some underhand chop, powersawing, and regular sawing by the ladies. The men did the “endurance” which was climbing up a pole, chopping a log in half, and sawing off the end of a log. They all did a good job. I only wish we would have tendered in on time so I could have seen the whole thing. After the show, we walked around a bit and found Creek Street. This is a charming area with lots of neat shops. We also found Dolly’s house and took the tour. I thought $5 a head for a total of 6 rooms and 10 minutes was a bit steep, but I looked at is as a donation. I would have liked a brochure to help guide me about the house and really detail the artifacts as there were no signs really telling what anything was; only a short voice narration in some rooms. I was especially curious about the closet wallpaper in the main bedroom-anyone else notice the seams? After this we wanted to grab some lunch on Creek Street at this little fish fry place but could not find a seat. We wandered a bit and found Annabelle’s which is on the main front street. I had the smoked salmon alfredo pasta and it was rich! My husband had the fried fish and chips. The restaurant was (maybe still is?) in an old hotel. We had the berry pie for desert and that was good. It was around 1:30 and we decided that since last tender was at 2 that it was time to go. We were great with hot chocolate at the pier and boarded a tender. Ooops! Halfway to the boat, the husband realizes that he forgot his video camera at Annabelle’s! So we go back to the dock He sprints down to Annabelle’s (not far from the dock, he was fine) and finds his camera (yea!!!). By this time, around 2, the line back to the boat is long, so we go wait in line and catch another tender. Back on the ship we hang out and relax. I look out the window and see tenders coming until past 3 PM so, I guess 2 is just so people make an effort to be on time. However, better to be safe than sorry!
Now we flash forward to our formal night!!! We met the social hostess, Winnie, in the Rendez-Vous Square lounge at 5:50. There we met 3 more couples ( I am terrible with name and don’t have my name chart here, sorry)-the Flagger’s who were celebrating their 25th anniversary, another younger couple like my husband and myself, the husband was from Sweden and they lived in Arizona, and a third couple who I honestly don’t remember much about! We were invited to enjoy a complimentary drink from the bar, I had a chardonnay and I think my husband had the same. Soon, after we had met, the Chief Engineer and Chief Electrician joined us all dressed up in their nautical suits. We were all taken down to the Manhattan to the Captain’s table which is at the aft right by the window in the back. The shades were down when we first started and they the Manhattan skyline on them-it was neat! We never got to see them before at we were seated downstairs and towards the entrance and second seating, and they were probably up at that point. We sat across from the Flagger’s and I sat next to the Chief Electrician. Somehow our drinks from upstairs magically followed us 5 minutes later and ended up at the right spots! Our picture was taken by a photographer up on the balcony and we ended up getting that delivered to our cabin gratis! It is my favorite picture of the whole trip in fact. Anyway, they delivered a wonderful bottle of wine to our table and we all got a glass or two on the house. The water served at the table was Evian, and no detail was left out to make us feel special! Soon the shades were lifted and we had a wonderful view of the ocean and mountains. My husband and I both had the lobster for dinner-fantastic! For desert it was the “baked Alaska parade”. We all got a slice and the Flagger’s were kind enough to share their anniversary cake with us, which, by the way, was EXCELLENT! Soon our time was coming to and end, and the Chief Engineer presented all of the ladies with a single red rose. It was a perfect, unexpected touch. We had our technical stop in Prince Rupert this night. However we were at the show when we briefly docked.
We saw a few of the shows, the first night’s “welcome” show, the next night’s “and the winner is” show, the musical theatre themed show, and the last night’s show. I personally found them all wonderful. The dancers were especially great. They even had a dancer who had worked for Cirque-he did a short fabric aerialist show the last night, which was great! Anyway, the shows we saw had a live band, good costumes, good sets, and good variety. I don’t know how people can expect a Tony award winning performance of Les Miz in a 45 minute block to be done!
Thursday was our last at sea day and we took it easy. We slept in and I went to the “spot the fake” amber draw. The answer was A-the most amber looking piece by the way. I didn’t win the final drawing, but had a great time looking around and bought myself an amber slide and silver necklace to put it on. It made a nice souvenir for me. I prefer jewelry over tshirts. I also took this time to look at the ship’s shops and picked up a few souvenir’s that I had forgotten earlier. Nothing big, just a little box of candy and an Christmas ornament. Everything on the ship is duty free including liquor and cigarettes. We did not buy either, but if you are into that sort of thing, I guess it’s a good deal.
Thursday night we were told to put our goods by the door by 11PM and do our tipping. Speaking of tipping this can be done in cash, or on your seapass however the seapass tipping must be done by Wednesday. We had our bags out by 7PM and enjoyed the farewell show and dinner. We did some last minute gambling and turned in because we knew we’d have to be up and ready to go by 8AM since we wanted breakfast and were to depart by 9AM. We got our breakfast and headed to the theatre to wait our turn. We had bought bus passes back to the airport so that made it easier for us. We passed through customs and found our bags easily. I think was because they were black and no one has black bags-just kidding-it was because we had distinguishable luggage tags. I think this is a must! It was quite crowded to get a bus but we did fight our way onto one at 30 minutes later our bus took us to the airport. Now for a word of warning. If you take the bus or any bus to the airport, they are to stop at a designated spot that is on one end of the airport before the start of the terminal, and if you are on Delta, the check in is at that other end-probably ˝ a mile with heavy baggage and congestion. We had a 1PM flight and made it through security and were sitting down by 11:45, so we only had less than an hour to kill. Not too bad. We made it back to Lexington, and now have great memories of a fabulous vacation!
QUICK NOTES:
Sushi-I don’t really like it, but husband thought it was great-nightly 6PM in the buffet
Kids-What kids? They didn’t bother me if they were there!
Teens-Well what can you say, they loved the sense of freedom they got and I heard an interesting version of “I’m a little teapot”
Adults-Civil
Elderly-They were quite kind and spry!
Furniture-Looking worn out in spots, like the arms of chairs
Coffee-Intense
Ice Cream-No regular chocolate-bummer, but the hot fudge sauce rocked!
Lifeboat drill-I know I didn’t look as ridiculous as those around me—did I?
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Couples
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Epinions.com ID:
freesiae
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Reviews written: 4
Trusted by: 0 members
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