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Published: July 20th 2010
Cruiseline: Celebrity Cruises
Ship: Celebrity Mercury
Sail Date: 30th May, 2010
Departure Port: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
My boyfriend, 4 of our friends and myself went on a 7-night cruise to Alaska with Celebrity Cruises. It was the first time any of us had ever cruised before so none of us really knew what to expect. We were all on a tight budget and managed to score a pretty reasonable deal by rooming 3 per (inside) stateroom, costing about AUD$850pp. It was pretty early on in the summer over here so that's why we managed to something a little cheaper, later on in the summer the fare rises a few hundred dollars more. The fare covered everything on board except for alcohol and some entertainment (like bingo and wine tastings etc).
My friend Emma has kindly suggested to write about a few specific things, so here they are:
Ship and amenities
Celebrity Mercury was fairly old but had been renovated in the 90's, so it wasn't completely outdated but certainly due for an overhaul soon. The ship was fairly easy to navigate around though we did get lost a few times because of the lack of maps (perhaps
the alcohol didn't help either..) so make sure you bring a map with you if you get on this boat. There were a couple of small wading pools and outdoor hot tubs but these were pretty tiny and not worth it for the early summer chilly weather. The gym had a few dozen treadmills/bikes etc and you never had to wait for more than 5-10 minutes to use a piece of equipment.
Service
Service was attentive and more than what we're used to. You could do a pre-paid fixed gratuity of $11.50 (USD) per day which covered housekeeping and dining room service, and all purchases from bars/specialty cafes have an included 15% tip attached to the bill. We never bothered with room service but it was available 24/7. The staff were generally quite friendly and polite, though the entertainment staff could have tried a little harder to get everything involved in the activities etc - though I guess that's more a personality comment than service.
Entertainment
There was a martini bar, champagne lounge and 2 nightclubs. The Pavilion Nightclub had a live band and played more jazz/blues/swing/chill type music, and the Navigator Club had 'DJ Angelo' who played
more retro/pop/dance music. The demographics of the passengers were largely retirees so the dance floors weren't that busy, needless to say our little gaggle of under 30's were the last to leave the dance floor every night... Other entertainment included Broadway-style song-and-dance shows (average quality, though I'm biased as I'm used to the standard of London's West End and New York's Broadway!), a comedy show, a magic show and an acrobatic show. The last two were particularly superb and the magician's last act especially left us dumbstruck! They also have a new Celebrity Life program which offers a myriad activities to do on board from wine tasting, cooking demonstrations, ice sculpting, language lessons, bingo, trivia (which we kicked ass at!), dance lessons, naturalist talks etc.
Food
I am the fussiest of eaters and am vegetarian (only by choice - so I couldn't resist some of the very tempting dishes in the restaurant!) and gluten-intolerant, but you could be a vegan and lactose/gluten-intolerant and still be overfed. There's plenty of non-meat dishes, curries, salads, roasts, pizza and pastas available in the buffet section, and there are also burger, stir-fry, sushi, sandwich and ice-cream stations open at various hours of the
day if you feel like something a little different. The 2-storey sitdown Manhattan Restaurant had great views of the oceans and the meals here were absolutely impeccable and really was fine-dining at its best, then again I'm not used to eating with 72 pieces of cutlery! There was a standard menu every night but an alternative menu that was different each night of the week, with culinary delights like escargot, frog's legs, creme brulee, steaks as big as your head, roasted quail, etc. And if you really still need food after all that, there's an afternoon tea buffet and coffee and cake/cookies for supper. I had no trouble getting gluten-free meals in the restaurant though in the buffet nothing is labelled, so be prepared to make friends with the buffet attendants and ask them about the food if you have any allergies. There are 2 formal dinners on this cruise, but it wasn't that big a deal if you didn't wear a suit - none of us wore ties and one even wore jeans and a leather jacket.
Ports
The departure and arrival port was Vancouver, BC. I live here with my boyfriend so it was perfect for us,
and it took about 10 minutes to get to the ferry terminal. However there are also sailings from Seattle and LA I believe. The cruise ports we stopped at were Icy Strait Point (tendered), Juneau (docked) and Ketchikan (docked). We had about 8 hours in ISP, 12 hours in Juneau and 6 hours in Ketchikan. I would have preferred more time in Ketchikan rather than Juneau, as the latter is completely tourist-y and full of diamond/jade/souvenir shops that I wasn't particularly interested in. However Juneau is the biggest city of the 3 ports (also the capital of Alaska and the only capital in the US not reachable by land!) and there were a lot of other things to look at outside of the tourist/cruise strip, including museums, galleries, shops, totem poles, native art etc. There is little of interest to do in ISP apart from the activities, but Ketchikan had a lot of historical monuments and interesting streets that we missed out on seeing because we were already booked on a 4-hour activity.
Activities
Yes, some of the activities are ridiculously expensive, but please don't let that deter you from doing some of the activities. Of course the cruise
gets a whole bunch of commission (one of the tour operators told me 50%) but honestly some of these activities are a once-in-a-lifetime experience. If you feel a bit guilty (as I certainly did) you can help the local economy by trying to buy your souvenirs and gifts from local businesses - a lot of the stores in Juneau have signs saying that they are locally-owned. My boyfriend and I did an activity at each of the ports - sea kayaking in ICP (AUD$150), a helicopter flight followed by a glacier walk in Juneau (AUD$450) and a wildlife cruise in Ketchikan (AUD$150).
3 of our friends chose to do the zipline at ICP which was apparently a lot of fun, but since I hate heights I decided to do the sea kayaking instead. We kayaked around for about 2.5 hours and saw eagles and 1 whale, there didn't happen to be a lot of wildlife when we were kayaking but you often are able to see a lot more whales. It was just amazing kayaking in Alaska, seeing snow-capped mountains tower above you with American bald eagles soaring ahead..
The glacier walk was incredible, and as I'd never
been in a helicopter before, that part was particularly amazing. Alaska is one of 3 places in the world where glaciers meet the sea - the other two being Chile and Norway. This creates beautifully unique vistas of this junction as you fly over the sea in the helicopter. You fly around for about 15 minutes looking over the Mendenhall Glacier (the largest in the Juneau glacier fields) and then you land on the glacier itself and strap on the walking gear. It's like walking on another planet and very surreal, incredibly beautiful and totally worth the $450!
The wildlife cruise we did in Ketchikan was quite tame - we went as a group of 12 on a small catamaran, and were given binoculars (and snacks and water) so that we could see the wildlife close up. We saw half a dozen eagles and eagles' nests, 3 black bears (extremely rare to see more than 1!), dozens of sea lions, wild geese and salmon. Didn't get to see a whale but there are other tours specifically dedicated to whale-watching that you can do if you are more interested in that. It was pretty amazing to see the bears in
the wild, unfortunately hunting is legal in Alaska so we won't be able to see them for much longer.
Recommendations
Save up some money and do at least 1 activity in each port. Go to Alaska to see the bears, glaciers and beautiful landscapes - not the diamond stores and overpriced souvenir shops at port. Research the ports before your cruise as your time is limited in each port, and if you do an activity it's even more so. Go beyond the ports and contribute to the local economies and see the real Alaska - not what the cruise companies want you to see. The State Museum in Juneau is highly recommended, as is the nature trail in Icy Strait Point, and the historic streets/shops in Ketchikan. During the summer the weather is not that cold (at the beginning of summer it was no less than 10 degrees) so no need to bring any heavy winter coats/scarfs, but it would be a good idea to pack a waterproof raincoat and a warm jacket as it can be quite windy on the decks at night (when you're scurrying back to your stateroom from the Navigator Club at 2am!). Make sure
you go to the restaurant as often as you can for meals, we made the mistake of only going to the buffets for breakfast and lunch (largely because we slept in or were too hungover) as the meals in the restaurants are not only fresh but very unique, and the buffet foods are nothing that special at all. Take lots of photos, and bring a camera with a really good zoom because you don't get that close to the Hubbard Glacier and can't really take good photos without at least 10x optical zoom or a 100-200mm range SLR lens.
Celebrity Cruises is probably not the most ideal if you're looking for a completely young-adult demographic, but all 6 of us are in our mid-20's and we managed to have the time of our life (and got told by quite a few people that we were the highlight of the cruise!) - we've learnt that in a cruise you make your fun, so if you go on board with a negative attitude thinking you won't have fun, you probably won't have fun. From what I hear, Holland America caters more for the younger crowds and they probably have more dance
floors etc.
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