Celebrity Cruise Line
Mercury Cruise Review
Mexican Riviera

David Pierce

Overall I would give this cruise an 8 out of 10. The food was excellent most of the time, 2 nights my main entrée during dinner was mediocre (tough and dry). The wine steward was excellent (Fernando) and very helpful to a novice wine drinker. The condition of the ship is clean with signs of wear becoming apparent (frayed carpet, scratched wood floors in the elevators, etc.). Vibration from the aft thrusters is apparent as noted in prior reviews, we booked our cabin prior to reading the reviews suggesting not to book aft.

The Cruise Director (Stuart) was excellent, very funny and entertaining. Most of the entertainment I would rate from good to excellent. The acrobatic dancers were excellent (a must see). Jack Walker (singer) and Don Sherman (comedian) were great too. The ship’s dancers were very good; the lead male singer was great. The lead female singer should be replaced. She tried too many solos that were beyond her capacity. Overall, I was pleased with the entertainment.

Shore Excursions were among the worst I’ve ever experienced. The excursion that I really wanted to go to (Las Brisas in Acapulco) was cancelled by the excursion staff supposedly due to lack of participants. When enough people complained, their story changed to “it was cancelled by the hotel”. The city tours in Acapulco, Cabo, and Puerto Vallarta all included the obligatory (should I say mandatory) “shopping spree stop” at shops that had deals with the tour operators. One of our shopping stops caused us to be late for the last tender, as the tour guide did not know when the last tender was leaving.

The tender crews loading their shore signs and equipment were too lazy to properly stow their signs, and the signs fell on passengers (twice) while tendering to the ship. Do not sit by the entry if you are on one of the last tenders.

Smoking policy. The ship supposedly has a policy to try to limit the smoking areas on the ship. The port (left) side of the ship is where the smokers are to be. They do not enforce this policy very well, and smoke in the “Grand Foyer” filters in to all 3 levels of the ship. This was the worst ship regarding 2nd hand smoke that I’ve experienced.

This was my first time with Celebrity. I think I will give them another try, but I would be wary of their excursions, especially in Mexico.