Thread: Mercury To The Panama Canal! 12-8-06

Thanks Reggie for the Bon Voyage wishes!

Patty, Snuggles would like that I am sure! Thanks for the good Cruise wishes also!

Donna, see you and Rick in the Navigator lounge! Have a safe trip to San Diego!

We are back from a very different trip............it was great.........but different.

Rita will help me fill eveyone in on what was an excellent trip...........as I know it.

Rick

It will be great to hear all about your cruise.
Hope you got some good info on the refurb.

Reg

Originally Posted by reggierail

It will be great to hear all about your cruise.
Hope you got some good info on the refurb.

Reg

Reggie.................it was not quite a cruise from Hell..............but within hours of leaving San Diego........we had a code red alert (Norovirus) onboard. The crew had bleach everywhere by day 3..........it was running down the glass on the stairways and inside elevators, and the ships captain come over the ships speaker system, both the ones on the inside of the rooms as well as the general speakers to talk about the Norovirus.

The officers and crew did an incredible job to contain the virus........but the ship has left Miami with the code red still running and will stay that way till day 3, when, if all goes well............it will go back to code green.

Unfortunately, although we had the captain in our cabin for a party, I did not have a chance to talk about the upcoming drydock for the Mercury...........except the one main item on the list is to redo the communications systems onboard. That is taking on the hightest priority.

Rick

Welcome Back Rick and Donna!

Yes, the Norovirus, really put a "damper" on our trip, litterally, as we were always wetting our hands with the Antiviral solution that we used several times a day!

Donna, sorry we didn't meet up with you two at the Navigator Lounge! Rick and I looked for you! I found Rick easily as he was the friendliest face there that day! Wonderful guy and his wife Bobbie is the greatest!!! Had many opportunitues to enjoy their fabulous hospitality , in fact that was one of the highlights of the Cruise! Another in our opinion was the Entertainment! Most of it was excellent! They also had a couple of nice bands to dance to, which we enjoyed often with our good friends, Bernal and Sara, who also had the good fortune to meet up with Rick and Bobbie! Hopefully we all will exchange visits soon! The dance floors could have been bigger though!

We are a little unhappy with the Guest Relations at this moment because we invested in an extra $30 to purchase a Valet program, associated with a few of the airlines, including ours which was American! They were suppose to handle our luggage from the time we went though customs until we picked it up in San Diego! Well guess what? None of our luggage (4 pieces) made it to San Diego , nor did many other people who also signed up for that program. ! It is now 1:30 pm PST, and have not as yet heard from them. They said we would receive it this afternoon, but we will see! The least they could do, is to launder all of our dirty clothes for the inconvenience!

Regarding our excursions, for the most part we did not feel that they were worth the money that we spent, with a couple of exceptions! The two snorkeling trips were fun and worth the expense! Not that the others were bad, but I think we will make more arrangements on our own next time. We did that in Acapulco, and were more then satisfied with our taxi driver.

The food at the dining room was mostly good to excellent! Buffet was about average, but didn't eat much up there! Wonderful waiter and Assistant waiter! Just wanted to take them home with us!. Good Crew overall! Great waiter and Assistant waiter! Adrian and Dimce! We gave them an A-Plus!

Embarkation was good, Debarkation, not as good, but not the worst we've had!

We had calm seas for the most part, and great weather! So all in all, we love Celebrity and will definitely sail her again. This was a great Itinerary! Loved the spacing of Sea days to Port Days! Never more then 2 ports in a row without a Sea Day to relax, and only had 2 Sea Days in a row, which was on the way home.
Probably have to say we enjoyed the Infinity a little more, but then they didn't have the Norovirus, so we will definitely give Mercury another chance! The beds were more comfortable on the Infinity, but we were in a CC cabin, but that shouldn't make a difference. The bedding on Holland America is wonderful, whether you are in an inside cabin or a suite! Heheh, an SS Cabin was the closest we have been to a suite! Much bigger then the CC Cabin on the Infinity, but smaller then most regular suites!

Loved the overall size of the Mercury! One thing. the Mercury went over and beyond keeping that virus from spreading any further, which kept the cases way down, or we may have had to end this lovely trip too early! Thanks to the dilligence of the crew, who from what I heard, many crew members, in addition to their own job, had to spend an extra 2 hours just cleaning the ship! GREAT JOB!

Tita, welcome home girl. Glad to hear you guys didn't get sick. Hope your luggage shows soon and if doesn't, just ask Santa for all new stuff. Merry Christmas to you.

Merry Christmas Dru and Rita! Have your bags arrived home? We opted for the valet program for Bobbie's mom and dad.........and then found out that we had to carry the bags thru customs as it was.........so cancelled the program.

The way that Celebrity has it set up seems to be a waste of $15 per passenger, as you still have to handle your bags, so for $5.00 hire a porter at the dock........and then have the cabbie drop them off at the curbside check in and for $6.00 more get your ticket and check in at the curbside of the airport. Time lost.........none, savings per couple.............$19.00.

We are told that it is only handled this way in Miami. In San Diego, you do not have to handle your bags on the dock.

Rick

Welcome home,
It sounds like they handle the ourbreak very well. Usually when we hear of one, it is worse by the end of the cruise.

Rita,Sorry we didn't get to meet! Our plane returned to MKE on the way out so we were in and out of Navigator Lounge quickly since we hadn't had anything to eat and were exhausted. At one poiint, our luggage sat on the runway and we were talking with the car rental agency so we could drive to Chicago (shuttles were all full) and catch a flight from there.

Still don't know exactly what we did but we were busy all the time! Wonderful cruise even with the inconveniences. Were you at the ten top by the railing (upper level) at late seating? Just wondering since we had the same team and they were great. Met Adrian's wife in Aruba and they make a wonderful couple!

Rick, We kept missing each other but glad you had a great time too! We were out very quickly at the end and made it to FLL by 9:15 so we could get through the zoo.

Reggie, 8004 was the perfect cabin for the canal! Wondeful view and extremely comfortable. Only time I wouldn't recommend it would be when there were a lot of tender ports since the anchor noise is extremely loud!

Originally Posted by donnawtoo

Rita,Sorry we didn't get to meet! Our plane returned to MKE on the way out so we were in and out of Navigator Lounge quickly since we hadn't had anything to eat and were exhausted. At one poiint, our luggage sat on the runway and we were talking with the car rental agency so we could drive to Chicago (shuttles were all full) and catch a flight from there.

Still don't know exactly what we did but we were busy all the time! Wonderful cruise even with the inconveniences. Were you at the ten top by the railing (upper level) at late seating? Just wondering since we had the same team and they were great. Met Adrian's wife in Aruba and they make a wonderful couple!

Rick

Donna, we were at the long table by the rail with 10 of our group, but were at early seating! We were glad as, 8:45 is just to late to eat for us! 7 pm is just perfect, but of course we didn't have that option except when we did freestyle on the NCL Dawn! Overall I still prefer traditional, but that time, freestyle worked out good, as we were alone and met 3 of our kids at 3 different ports for a late lunch, so it was nice not having to eat right at 6 pm. Hope you had a wonderful Xmas!

Rick, our luggage finally was brought to us at 3 pm. on Xmas day. No more valet programs for us! Although I was impressed that we got it on Xmas Day. We could have received it at around 5 am, but we preferred to sleep since we didn't get back until 2am on the morning of the 24th, so needed to catch up on our sleep! Hope you guys also had a wonderful Xmas, and cheers for a great New Year! Sara, Bernal, Dru and I are going to the LaQuinta Hotel in the Palm desert area for a fancy New Years Eve Party with dancing of course! Not spending the night as the rooms run $500 per night! Oh this is NOT the La Quinta Inns!

Reggie, Hanna, and John, thanks for the welcome back, we are glad to be home again for awhile! I will be ready to Cruise again by the time the Ladies Criuise rolls around!