Slept in a bit this morning because we don’t have to be at the Pier till sometime around 11am. The drive to the pier only took 15 minutes from our hotel. As we drove into the parking area at the pier we could see our ship, the Celebrity Mercury.
The check in process was better organized than what we experienced in Seattle when we cruised to Alaska. Here in the Port of Baltimore, we unloaded our suitcases from the trunk of the car right at the side of the ship, then we proceeded to the parking lot. We walked into the terminal and were checked in fairly quickly. It was a short wait and then we were allowed onboard. Everyone was heading to the Palm Springs Cafe, and the buffet lunch, but we weren’t hungry and we knew that all the tables and chairs would be occupied so we headed up to the Navigator Club and enjoyed a couple of drinks instead.
We had the whole Navigator Club to ourselves for about an hour, until other passengers started to explore the ship and started filling up the tables and chairs. By 1:30 the announcement came that our rooms were ready so we headed on down to our room.
The room, although not as elegantly decorated as onboard The Westerdam, is still a very nice room. We have more closet space and a nice size window. Our suitcases were delivered and we got unpacked.
After unpacking, we went to the Palm Springs Cafe for a late buffet style lunch. There are a lot more food choices than on The Westerdam. We had pizza and burgers, but there is such a wide variety of food that we won’t have any trouble finding things to eat that we like. There is a deli sandwich section, hot lunches, salads, fruits, desserts etc.
After lunch we explored the ship to get an idea of where things were located.
The La Playa Pool area has a ceramic tile wall that is very interesting.
The Pavilion Night Club.
The Fortunes Casino with its elaborate etched glass wall.
The Grand Foyer.
The Celebrity Theatre.
We untied and left the pier at 5pm and we are on our way to the Southern Caribbean.
We went to the Welcome Aboard Opening Night celebration in the Celebrity Theatre and then to the Manhattan Restaurant for dinner this evening. Our scheduled dining time in the Manhattan Restaurant is 8:30pm, quite a bit later than our usual 6:00pm dinner time at home, so I don’t know if we will be going to the restaurant very much on this cruise. Instead I imagine that we will be dining in the Palm Springs Cafe, which is more casual, and has the great buffet style selections.
Tomorrow is a full day at sea, I suspect that we will tour the ship some more and spend time relaxing and reading.
If you would like to see all of our photos from today, you can take a look at them on my FLICKR site.
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