Was it all we expected?
No
Was it worth it?
Yes!
Expectations are always quashed by reality. We would have liked to spend a lot more time in New Zealand after the surprise tour on arrival and our subsequent day in Tauranga. What a beautiful country (at a price…expensive)! We really missed stopping on Rarotonga because of it reputation as a true tropical paradise. Papaeete Tahiti (or Mexihiti as we now call it) was a disappointment but Bora Bora was beautiful. Kiritibati would have been a bust if we hadn’t gotten involved in the aid program for the island schools (great work Sheila!) That was a high point for us. Overnight or late departure in Hilo would make Volcanoes National Park or other time intensive activities do-able. The sea days were many and that’s not a problem for us. Love the sea days!
The Mercury was in remarkably good shape for its age. There were some bare spots on the railings in the nether regions like the sports deck and the tables in the Palm Springs Café have seen better days, but all in all it is a beautiful ship with clean, well-maintained public areas and the sea days were all the better for it.
The working staff was a joy. All of our “regulars”, the cabin steward, waiter, assistant waiter, and assistant maitre d’ were top-notch. The general waiters in all locations were uniformly attentive and polite. The bar staff was a bit pushy with the drink sales, but backed off politely when told no. The bar staff that we used regularly were real gems. The Captain’s Club hostess was very nice and even endured the jolting, rainy tuck ride to visit the schools on Kiritibati. The first-line crew on Celebrity ships has always been a big part of what sets them above the competition.
The Customer Service desk was damaged. With the exception of Erwin, who we learned to ask for, they were either kept uninformed or, at best, lacked any concern for passenger’s problems. The upper crust of officers was distant, but that is often the case unless they are fluent in English.
We haven’t sailed Celebrity since late 2005, so we expected the Celebrity Singers and Dancers to have new material. Oh well…we’re not into the shows much. They had a tenor that was said to be pretty good, but if I’m going to spend A Night at the Opera, it had better feature Groucho, Chico and Harpo! The Hawaiian steel guitar player was about 100 years old, but it didn’t dim his skill at all. That was a good show.
I wish we would have timed our days better so we could see the Enrichment Series lecturers. One of them got stellar reviews and new info is never a bad thing for me.
The casino was not at all rapacious. Kim ended up spending about $200 in it, but on most days, she was playing on their money and had a lot of fun
The food was superb. Celebrity has a fourteen-day menu rotation, so we hit day one again on the last day. Ok with us! The menus offered a good selection of both appetizers and entrees. There are always some clunkers in the café (Euro-chefs don’t do Mexican!) but there were always alternatives. The legendary Eggs Benedict and Waffles were up to par and the evening sushi was great! Elegant tea was just that…elegant. Even Peri was always able to find something to eat (if you know Peri, you’ll realize how exceptional that statement is!) The pasta, pizza and burger bars served excellent examples of their respective cuisines. The 4 oz. premium Martinis are actually worth $10!
Are we glad we did it?
Oh, yes!
Would we do it again?
Not soon, if ever. Maybe, someday, we’ll do the Sydney to Auckland leg. Australia still beckons.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Day sixteen – Homeward bound!
There was a stunning sunrise over Honolulu to start the day. We got off a little late and waited for buses way longer than was comfortable.By the time the bus got there, the luggage area was completely vacant except for one lonely bag.
Check-in and security was no problem and we ended up our two-hour wait chatting with our new friends, Art and Sheila. After that, we had a pleasant and uneventful flight home.The rental car shuttle took forever, but the actual pick-up was easy and the mini-van had more than enough room for our luggage. Nobody fell asleep on the way home, even though we dropped Ron and Peri off at about 2:00 AM.
Home to the hugely excited wienerdog and our own bed! We’ll deal with the broken washing machine and non-functional computer tomorrow.
Day fifteen – Hilo
Up early and off the ship! Rainy and cloudy, but we’re used to that by now. We dodged the ship photographer, but Ron & Peri got caught.
Caught the shuttle to the car rental and off we went! The radio provided us with information that Kilahuea was erupting and the road to the ocean wouldn’t be open until 2:00 PM so we
decided to scout for snorkeling spots. Never found any. We did, however find a beautiful black sand beach and some of the most striking coastline we’ve ever seen. We drove by the southernmost bar in the US and found a dead windmill farm and a suspiciously large tracking dish out in the middle of nowhere. There was also a lot of chatting and laughing.
Caught the shuttle to the car rental and off we went! The radio provided us with information that Kilahuea was erupting and the road to the ocean wouldn’t be open until 2:00 PM so we
decided to scout for snorkeling spots. Never found any. We did, however find a beautiful black sand beach and some of the most striking coastline we’ve ever seen. We drove by the southernmost bar in the US and found a dead windmill farm and a suspiciously large tracking dish out in the middle of nowhere. There was also a lot of chatting and laughing.Back to the volcano at 2:00 PM. The winding nineteen mile drive to the lava flow would have been do-able with our 4:45 PM deadline if you didn’t have to hike the last mile and a half! We turned around disappointed, but got some good pictures of the unearthly landscape on the way out. 
We got back with a little time to spare and flew up to the palm Springs Café to get something to eat. We’d been rocketing around the island all day and hadn’t stopped for food!
We finished packing and had the “Last Supper”. It was sad parting with Darma, Siwikorn and Ruby, but we just can’t afford to bring them home.
Off to bed.
Home tomorrow. (Booooooooooooooo!)
We got back with a little time to spare and flew up to the palm Springs Café to get something to eat. We’d been rocketing around the island all day and hadn’t stopped for food!We finished packing and had the “Last Supper”. It was sad parting with Darma, Siwikorn and Ruby, but we just can’t afford to bring them home.
Off to bed.
Home tomorrow. (Booooooooooooooo!)
Day fourteen – At sea
HAPPY BIRTHDAY RON! 
Could you find a better place to celebrate?
Sunrise was bland except for a brief rainbow. Sunset was not the best of the trip, but it was pretty cool.
Another spectacularly lazy day spent reading and sorting photos. I need a job testing cruises!
Start packing tonight, but we’re ready for Hilo tomorrow!
Could you find a better place to celebrate?
Sunrise was bland except for a brief rainbow. Sunset was not the best of the trip, but it was pretty cool.
Another spectacularly lazy day spent reading and sorting photos. I need a job testing cruises!Start packing tonight, but we’re ready for Hilo tomorrow!
Friday, March 14, 2008
Day thirteen – At Sea
Recovering from the long day on Kiritibati. We received a shock when it was announced that a credit was going to be applied to our account as an apology for the missed ports. Ok, woo-hoo and all, but it says in our contract that ports may be cancelled at the discretion of the cruise line at any time. Someone must have struck a nerve with some major bitching to the powers-that-be! Or perhaps Celebrity is just the class act we have always found it to be. I’ll bet on the latter.
We went to our first show of the cruise and the last Gala Buffet of our lives. You would think the fellow cruisers that invaded the buffet like it was Poland in 1939 and shoving like a European soccer team with ‘roid rage would have been the worst part, but no… The Maitre ‘d shouting for us to move along, move along, even with nobody behind us was the straw that broke it. They are announcing that it takes 48 hours to prepare it…why 
would they start herding you for the exit after 5 minutes? Oh, well. I have enough fancy food pics from prior cruises that I can skip the hassle and Photoshop in a different color of Jell-o from an old shot and use it over.
Another Sea day tomorrow!
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Day twelve – Kiritibati
It was movie title day…The Good, the Bad and the Ugly!
The good: We crossed the Equator! A first for us (not counting the flight down under)! We actually crossed at about 2:03 AM, but it’s hard to get a crowd of people on deck for a celebration at that time of day. The crossing ceremony was at 10:00 AM, poolside. Ron got into the line to be christened with the rest of the crew’s first-timers (a la the navy) and was doused with pasta, green whipped egg-whites, flour and chocolate syrup. He was then forced to kiss a large fish and was thrown into the pool. A total of about thirty people went through the process leaving the pool looking like a very large bowl of cheap stew. Big crowd and a lot of fun! More on the pool later.
We have been loosely associated with a group that has been collaborating with Celebrity to deliver a large amount of donated school supplies to the children of Kiritibati. The New Jersey-based company shipped nearly two tons of supplies to Auckland where it was picked up by the Mercury and transported for free to the island.
Celebrity chipped in and donated hundreds of bed sheets, nearly a hundred pairs of new shoes and other items as well. We were invited along to help document the delivery of the supplies and the various thank-you ceremonies. We were taken on a tour of several schools and it was very eye-opening. The country is very poor and the school facilities were reflective of that. It would have appeared tragic except that the people and children seemed to be very happy. No price on 
happy, is there? It was a moving experience and we were pleased to be a part of it, however small. Oh, yeah…we got some great pictures!
The bad: Tendering to the island did not go well. Hundreds of people that were given tender tickets were denied passage to the island due to the extreme shallowness of the harbor (our tender boat was grounded briefly on a sand bar on the way in!) and some really bad logistics on the part of the people in charge. This was compounded by some incorrect and somewhat misleading announcements made trying to explain why some people were going ashore and most weren’t. Most of the crew was given the day off since port days are usually light so there was minimal staff available to control the crowds. We heard stories of crowds so bad that the elevators full of people would open on deck 4 and the people could only wait and choose another floor, being unable to exit. When it got near riot level it was announced that there would be open bars from 4:00-6:00 PM to compensate people for their inconvenience.
The ugly: They announced that there would be open bars from 4:00-6:00 PM to compensate people for their inconvenience…
This, of course caused a rush on the bars. All the folks that had been restrained in their drinking because of $6 drinks suddenly loosened up a bit. Since the staff had the day off in expectation of a light day, there were only a few waiters and fewer bartenders on duty. More lines…long ones. When the people in those long lines got to the front and ordered the $10 premium martini, they were told that free drinks were limited to house wine and domestic beer. This, of course, hadn’t been part of the announcement and was made worse by the fact that the main bar on deck seven hadn’t been given the wine and beer memo and was serving any drink asked for (word spread quickly by the folks that were bar-hopping to collect as many freebies as possible). Late in the period, the bars were instructed to loosen up and serve anything in response to another near riot fuel by cheap wine and beer. Many people, frustrated by the inability to reach the island, went to the pool. It still had spaghetti and such floating in it from earlier since it now was classified as grey water and couldn’t be drained until the ship was twelve miles at sea.Only one fist-fight that we heard of…
We, of course got back late and knew nothing of these goings-on. We wore the flower headdresses that were given to us by the grateful islanders and were greeted with withering looks and sharp questions from surly fellow passengers wanting to know why we were allowed to go to the island and they weren’t. Indignant attitudes softened when we explained that we were part of the donating group and then were regaled with their tales of woe. On seeing what the minimalist infrastructure on the offered (port-a-potties were a luxury), most people would have just turned around and gone back to the ship had they been allowed to go. Having no way to know that, the loss of the opportunity to visit another port brought caused some excusable bitterness.
At sea tomorrow. Plenty of time for the indignant masses to write their letters to the cruise line.
The good: We crossed the Equator! A first for us (not counting the flight down under)! We actually crossed at about 2:03 AM, but it’s hard to get a crowd of people on deck for a celebration at that time of day. The crossing ceremony was at 10:00 AM, poolside. Ron got into the line to be christened with the rest of the crew’s first-timers (a la the navy) and was doused with pasta, green whipped egg-whites, flour and chocolate syrup. He was then forced to kiss a large fish and was thrown into the pool. A total of about thirty people went through the process leaving the pool looking like a very large bowl of cheap stew. Big crowd and a lot of fun! More on the pool later.
We have been loosely associated with a group that has been collaborating with Celebrity to deliver a large amount of donated school supplies to the children of Kiritibati. The New Jersey-based company shipped nearly two tons of supplies to Auckland where it was picked up by the Mercury and transported for free to the island.
Celebrity chipped in and donated hundreds of bed sheets, nearly a hundred pairs of new shoes and other items as well. We were invited along to help document the delivery of the supplies and the various thank-you ceremonies. We were taken on a tour of several schools and it was very eye-opening. The country is very poor and the school facilities were reflective of that. It would have appeared tragic except that the people and children seemed to be very happy. No price on 
happy, is there? It was a moving experience and we were pleased to be a part of it, however small. Oh, yeah…we got some great pictures!The bad: Tendering to the island did not go well. Hundreds of people that were given tender tickets were denied passage to the island due to the extreme shallowness of the harbor (our tender boat was grounded briefly on a sand bar on the way in!) and some really bad logistics on the part of the people in charge. This was compounded by some incorrect and somewhat misleading announcements made trying to explain why some people were going ashore and most weren’t. Most of the crew was given the day off since port days are usually light so there was minimal staff available to control the crowds. We heard stories of crowds so bad that the elevators full of people would open on deck 4 and the people could only wait and choose another floor, being unable to exit. When it got near riot level it was announced that there would be open bars from 4:00-6:00 PM to compensate people for their inconvenience.
The ugly: They announced that there would be open bars from 4:00-6:00 PM to compensate people for their inconvenience…
This, of course caused a rush on the bars. All the folks that had been restrained in their drinking because of $6 drinks suddenly loosened up a bit. Since the staff had the day off in expectation of a light day, there were only a few waiters and fewer bartenders on duty. More lines…long ones. When the people in those long lines got to the front and ordered the $10 premium martini, they were told that free drinks were limited to house wine and domestic beer. This, of course, hadn’t been part of the announcement and was made worse by the fact that the main bar on deck seven hadn’t been given the wine and beer memo and was serving any drink asked for (word spread quickly by the folks that were bar-hopping to collect as many freebies as possible). Late in the period, the bars were instructed to loosen up and serve anything in response to another near riot fuel by cheap wine and beer. Many people, frustrated by the inability to reach the island, went to the pool. It still had spaghetti and such floating in it from earlier since it now was classified as grey water and couldn’t be drained until the ship was twelve miles at sea.Only one fist-fight that we heard of…
We, of course got back late and knew nothing of these goings-on. We wore the flower headdresses that were given to us by the grateful islanders and were greeted with withering looks and sharp questions from surly fellow passengers wanting to know why we were allowed to go to the island and they weren’t. Indignant attitudes softened when we explained that we were part of the donating group and then were regaled with their tales of woe. On seeing what the minimalist infrastructure on the offered (port-a-potties were a luxury), most people would have just turned around and gone back to the ship had they been allowed to go. Having no way to know that, the loss of the opportunity to visit another port brought caused some excusable bitterness.
At sea tomorrow. Plenty of time for the indignant masses to write their letters to the cruise line.
Day eleven – At sea.
Ultimate sea day…lounged and read most of the day. Kim too!
We broke from the mold and went up to the casual dining venue on deck 11 instead of regular seating. It was pretty good. We still prefer the structured dining, but it seems the industry is edging towards flexible schedules.
Big day tomorrow!
We broke from the mold and went up to the casual dining venue on deck 11 instead of regular seating. It was pretty good. We still prefer the structured dining, but it seems the industry is edging towards flexible schedules.
Big day tomorrow!
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