| Overview
Mercury is the third and last in Celebrity's Century Class of ships, following Century in 1995 and Galaxy in 1996. Each ship in the series has improved design details and passenger flow over her predecessor.
Celebrity positions itself as a premium level cruise line, meaning that their target guest is looking for a cruise experience that includes some of the amenities and refinements of the luxury lines without losing the element of fun. Celebrity accomplishes this admirably by concentrating on sophisticated levels of food and beverage service most often associated with pricier lines: martini and champagne bars, cigar lounges and caviar service, while not skimping on shipboard activities for passengers who like to let their hair down.
Mercury's overall ambiance is a blend of fine art and an eclectic melange of decorating styles. Those who found the art in Mercury's sister, Galaxy, too edgy, would find a greater comfort level in Mercury's less confrontational collection. The eclecticism comes from Celebrity's design policy of hiring several different interior designers and giving each a single, separate public room to create.
Cabins
Mercury has 935 cabins, of which 296 are inside. Of the 639 outside cabins, 50 are suites, and of the remaining 589 outside doubles, of which 170 are Category 2 with verandahs. The non-suite cabins are all pleasant and airy, and all standard cabins, whether inside or out, measure a comfortable 171 or 172 square feet. Mercury has been designed with Alaska itineraries in mind. Even the lowest category cabins have unusually large amounts of storage space to accommodate bulkier wardrobes. There are no staterooms with obstructed views. Room service is available around the clock, and guests may order from the dining room menu during designated mealtimes. Eight staterooms are handicapped-accessible. Amenities in all categories include toiletries, hair dryer, Interactive TV system, and telephone with voice mail, minibar, and safe. Categories five and above have VCRs.
Family
Celebrity offers organized kids and teens activity programs for children aged three through seventeen, broken into four groups, Ship Mates (3-6), Celebrity Cadets (7-9), Ensigns (10-12) and Admiral Ts (13-17). Children have their own facility called the Fun Factory, also used by the teen groups since the facility includes those great unifiers of toddlers, tots and teens, Sony Playstations. Teens have a room of their own off to the side of the Navigator Club on Sky Deck (12). This teen area includes a second room with video machines. The designers must have teens of their own, since the teen room has its own entrance from the outside deck, so they can enter and leave without having to suffer the embarrassment of having to pass through a room populated by (gasp) adults. There is no official baby-sitting service, though off-duty workers from the catering department can be booked twenty-four hours in advance for in-cabin sitting through guest relations at a rate of $8.00 per hour.
Dress Code
Standard designations of Formal, Informal and Casual. On our sailing there were two each Formal and Informal and three Casual evenings. About 50% of the men wore tuxes.
Gratuity
Recommended amount is $10.25 per person per day as follows: Stateroom Attendant: $3.50 pp/pd; Dining Room Waiter: $3.50 pp/pd; Assistant Waiter: $2.00 pp/pd; Dining Room Manager: $0.75 pp/pd; Chief Housekeeper: $0.50 pp/pd. The last two items receive a lot of negative comment from passengers, and understandably so. Dining room head honchos are usually singled out for tipping on ships when they have provided unusual service, and asking passengers to tip the Chief Housekeeper, an invisible manager, has a grating effect. Given the fact that the total outlay to the cruise line amounts to $3.50 per person for the entire cruise, Celebrity would be well advised to consider simply upping the fare by $3.50 per person, which would be totally unnoticeable, but would avoid the negative PR fallout this tip request generates.
Fitness and Recreation
Another of Celebrity's signature element is the AquaSpa, a huge fitness/spa facility found on all the Century class ships. Though operated by Steiner's of London, these facilities are far larger in area and offer a far more extensive array of services than Steiner's typical shipboard fitness/beauty/massage center. The centerpiece of the fitness area is the giant Thalassotherapy pool, a kind of massive, saltwater. This airy room is highly atmospheric, relaxing, and gives the sense of having retreated into a different world altogether. There are numerous smaller rooms for Rasul, facials, seaweed wraps, massage, etc. positioned along the side of the Thalassotherapy pool. But, in order to accommodate those elements of the spa, space had to be taken from somewhere, and it is the gym on Mercury that got short shrift. There are too few treadmills, Stairmasters and other exercise machines for a ship of nearly two thousand guests. And, though the equipment was all up-to-date and state of the art (I particularly liked the combination recumbent Lifecycle/video game), maintenance was lackluster. Three out of the four Lifecycles were out of order or iffy for the entire cruise.
The main sunning area is amidships, with the two and hot tubs. The area we preferred, however, was the smaller aft, Palm Springs Pool, which felt more intimate, with the additional plus of having the retractable dome, another concession to the Alaska market. Other fitness offerings include a golf simulator and a short jogging track on Sky Deck (Deck 12), which, because it doesn't top passenger cabins, has no time limitations.
There are numerous daytime activities, even on port days, including all the standard cruise chestnuts. A local Alaska lecturer was present throughout the voyage. Except for her descriptions of local flora, fauna, history and geology, the ship was virtually, and blessedly, announcement-free. Daily movies are offered in the onboard cinema, augmenting those shown on the ships video system.
Dining
If there is one thing the name Celebrity is synonymous with it is cuisine. Combining a menu designed by Michelin 3-star chef, Michel Roux, with Apollo Catering and a per passenger/per day catering expenditure of more than $24.00, it is clear why Celebrity ships are at the top of their game for their price range. Fresh seafood and produce are provisioned on the fly, major plus when cruising a seafood rich area like Alaska, and much of the food is cooked to order. With all the positive press about the quality of Celebrity's cuisine, many foodies may mistakenly expect cutting edge, contemporary preparations and presentations. They are likely to wonder what all the hype is about. However, the cuisine is consistent with Roux's publicized rejection of many of the trendier trappings of contemporary cuisine as being gimmicks; this is basic, classical cuisine, well executed, but don't look for sculpted presentations or unusual multicultural fusions. The menu features nightly spa and vegetarian choices. There is a children's menu on request, and special diets can be accommodated if requested at the time of booking.
There are two facilities serving the pool area, the Palm Springs Cafe and the Palm Springs Grill. The Cafe is the basic lunch and dinner buffet operation, with a good variety. There are a handful of assistants available to help passengers to their tables. The Palm Springs Grill serves bouillon in the mornings, tea in the afternoon and pizza at various times during the day. They also do burgers and hot dogs at lunchtime. The grill also serves an alternative casual sit-down dinner on long port days (three out of seven on our cruise), for which reservations must be made.
Fellow Passengers
Here you can expect a true mix of old and youthful, families and singles. This is a refined crowd, but, by no means, sticks-in-the-mud. And, for the Alaska market, this would be an excellent choice for families and younger couples. Entertainment
Celebrity Theater, Mercury's two-level main show lounge, is one of the most intelligently designed we've seen. The absence of obstructing columns combined with a fairly steeply raked floor; create a room with no bad seats. The ornate second level balconies, broken into separate units descending along the sides of the room, reminded us of the private boxes of classic opera houses, becoming part of the decor as well as being functional. The stage has adequate bells and whistles, though the constant use of the video wall system as a background scenic element began to get distracting after a while. The production shows, though improved over prior seasons, are still basically bread and butter cruise fare. The ship did have, however, an extensive slate of individual performers and lounge acts, including two comedians, two pianists (with very different repertoires), individual singers, a local entertainer from Skagway and an a capella group. I also liked the presence of the Cantabile String Quartet, which provided the soothing counterpoint of classical music at various times and places throughout the ship
Fortunes Casino is quite small for a ship this size, having a few blackjack tables, one craps and one roulette table, plus the ubiquitous video poker and slot machines. However, during our cruise there seemed to be little crowding. This may be due in part to the fact that, on shore excursion-intensive itineraries like Alaska, onboard casinos get less traffic. Another factor may be the ability to gamble in-cabin through Mercury's interactive TV system.
Public Rooms
Besides piquing passenger interest, Mercury's wide spectrum of design approaches serves to satisfy different preferences in different people, and, after a few days, most everyone finds a destination which appeals most to his or her individual tastes, which spreads passenger load across the whole ship. We found little overcrowding and few. At one extreme are Mercury's dramatic, large public rooms, the Celebrity Theater (showroom) and Sky Deck (Deck 12) s spectacular Navigator Club, her top-of-the-ship, forward-looking observation lounge. There is an elevated bar and additional seating area in the center, so that even those who don't stake out window side tables aren't deprived of an unobstructed view. We found our niche in the smaller, intimate lounges peppered around the main public gathering areas of the vessel. One such area fronts the two-deck entrances to the to the Manhattan Dining Room. Our favorite was the Martini Bar on Deck 6, which sits dramatically on a mezzanine overlooking its sister, the Champagne Bar. A huge, colorful wall sculpture connects the two lounges through the vertical space between them. Along with another nearby lounge, Rendezvous Square, they make excellent pre-dinner cocktail and meeting spots.
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