This was our first Cruise and although I cannot compare our experience with other cruises, we have travelled extensively by other methods including coach tours. My Wife chose a Cruise, which was essentially a repositioning cruise from LA, via San Francisco and Victoria to Alaska, finishing in Vancouver.

Fortunately in LA, we found time to visit the moored ocean liner, ‘The Queen Mary’, which is now a floating Hotel at Long Beach. She of course is British like ourselves, but I’m sure that we are not being bias when we describe her as magnificent. She is enormous, particularly in length, yet her lines are so sleek. Inside she is a floating palace of ‘Art Deco’ styled timbers, glass and Marble. She was also one of the fastest liners in her day, and still more than ten knots faster than modern cruise ships.

Our ship, the ‘Mercury’ was rather a different kettle of fish. Perhaps I should not even attempt to compare them, but I’m going to anyway, after all they were both considered the finest ships in their day. It will be interesting to see what advances have been made in sixty years of nautical design experience. I should point out that the Mercury was built late1997 and this Cruise was her first to Alaska.

If you have never seen a modern Cruise ship in the flesh, their scale is breathtaking – they are the biggest moving man-made objects. Standing next to the Mercury, she too was enormous, although she appeared taller than the Queen Mary, she was shorter. I believe the two ships have a similar gross tonnage and passenger capacity, give or take a few digits. However, the ‘Mercury’ resembled a series of square boxes put together like ‘Lego’ bricks, for that was exactly how she was constructed. Only the bow section looked remotely ship like. Although, when viewed side-on at a distance the ‘Mercury’ looked much sleeker. I could not help thinking that the Mercury resembled a giant Tower Block, which had been felled into the sea. However, in fairness, her lines were not untypical of most of the new breed of cruise ships.

Boarding took about an hour or so, which was very efficient considering that their were 1900 passengers which had to be processed plus some 4000 items of luggage. We had a lovely cabin with double bed and picture window, which was great, considering that we had only paid for an inside cabin (thanks Celebrity). The ships decor was very garish in places, maybe Ronald McDonald had been the interior design consultant. The passenger corridors just went on forever as you would expect. The Grand Foyer and staircase was pleasant and functional, but had more in common with a Shopping Mall than the ‘Grand Staircase’ of the Titanic, for example. The Casino was a little tacky for my liking, but the Celebrity Theatre with its 1000 seats was prettyimpressive. Although being at the bows of the ship it was rather subject to the pitch and roll of the sea. Various items of modern art decorated the ship which was a very nice touch, if you like modern art. The ‘Promenade Deck’ was our favourite as this looked rather traditional, with a wooden deck which encircled most (but not all) of the ship. If you are wondering if it is possible to get sea-sick on such a giant, the answer is YES it is!

In her defence, the Mercury was a clean, functional and spacious ship. It never ever seemed like you were sharing her with 1900 other passengers. Queues of more than half a dozen people were rare. This was in part due to the fantastic organisation of all the events and excursions by the staff. The staff, almost a 1000 in number, were generally excellent. The entertainment was good and succeeded in providing something for everyone. We particularly liked the Science Lecturer Tom Logsdon.

The food is an important part of any cruise, and it was certainly good. However, I felt that Celebrity were often a little too ambitious in their main Restaurant, the Manhattan. They of course had an impossible task, of providing a 2000 quality meals for two evening sittings, using assembly-line techniques. We soon tired of the exotic French dishes with rich aesthetic looking sauces, which were served every evening. By our own admission, we enjoy plain cooking and we soon began to dream of a simple Hamburger and Fries, although, these could be obtained during the lunch buffet. We plumed for the breakfast buffet which was very good too and flexible. Surprisingly, they never had mushrooms or tomatoes for breakfast, a small point I suppose. We too experience the strange vibrations from the propellers (I imagine) which were occasionally vibrated the restaurant during our meal. Once again the motion of the ship could be felt quite strongly when dining on some occasions. Maybe that’s why all the old Ocean liners located their Restaurants in the middle of the ship? (If anyone out there designs Cruise ships, please Email me). Room service was reasonably prompt but only limited items were available.

Every thing on board ship is designed to relive you of your hard earned cash, apart from the food which is included. Beware, you can spend a fortune on onboard shopping, drinking, smoking, gambling, buying photographs and excursions. The ‘cash’ free system make it very easy to loose count of your expenditure. However, I understand that this is the case with all Cruise lines. After all, they are a business – they would hardly give it all away, would they? Fortunately, for us Brits, the tips for the staff were included in the price of our holiday. This is not always the case with every company.

Glacier Bay was very impressive and it was amazing just how close our big ship could get to the blue walls of ice. The ports of call in Alaska, Skagway, Ketchikan and Jeneau were all surprisingly touristy, featuring gift shops after gift shop. Each day six or more Cruise ships could descend on them, making them very busy ports indeed. The excursions available were numerous, of good quality, but were veryall overpriced in my opinion. The best things about the Cruise for us, was the excellent staff and the fantastic ‘Inside Passage’ scenery. The weather was very warm and it never rained once. I would certainly recommend ‘Celebrity Cruises’ and ‘Mercury’ as long as you don’t expect a cruise on a 1930’s style palace. Alaska’s scenery was certainly very impressive, but her ports were a little too crowded for our liking. Times have changed, this is contemporary Cruising, maybe we just read too many history books?

Malcolm Oliver
London