{"id":11290,"date":"2012-03-06T01:00:34","date_gmt":"2012-03-06T09:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cruisingdoneright.com\/?p=11290"},"modified":"2012-03-06T01:00:34","modified_gmt":"2012-03-06T09:00:34","slug":"mercury-just-a-memory-celebrity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/?p=11290","title":{"rendered":"Mercury Just a Memory Celebrity"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>She disappeared a year ago last month, without a whimper, without a wake. If we hadn’t visited Celebrity’s website<\/a> this week to check on the size of its fleet, even we may have forgotten the passing of the Mercury.<\/p>\n

In horse vernacular, you’d say she was being retired to stud. Or maybe that should be HE was being retired to stud. Off to Germany, to live under an assumed name, Mein Schiff 2. Off to sail in Europe as part of a relatively new brand, co-founded with an old sibling, the Celebrity Galaxy, now living its new life as Mein Schiff I.<\/p>\n

Somehow, the names will never sound as pleasant as Mercury and Galaxy, in German or in English, will they?<\/p>\n

The Mercury’s flaw was she got old and small, which happens to people, too. At fewer than \"\"<\/a>1,900 passengers, it would take three of her to carry the load of Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas<\/a>, and Allure of the Seas<\/a>. She’s only 15 but how much is that in ship years?<\/p>\n

When cruise ships reach that day of reckoning, to be re-furbished they have to be in good enough shape to look like a 5-year-old. It’s a bigger chore than turning a 60-year-old person into a 20-year-old. Facelifts aren’t enough. Deep pockets aren’t needed, deep wells are, and when the job is finished she better be attractive to a couple of thousand people every week.<\/p>\n

If not, they are sold to the highest bidder. In this case, the bidder happened to be in the Royal Caribbean<\/a> family, so presumably TUI Cruises<\/a> got a good deal. Fans of the Mercury will tell you TUI got a good ship. Cruisers get attached to ships, and the Mercury was no exception. It’s unlikely they feel the same affinity for Mein Schiff 2.<\/p>\n

Like many broken relationships, it would never be the same.<\/p>\n

Photos by Stan Shebs<\/em><\/p>\n

DAILY DEAL:<\/strong><\/span>
\nHolland America Nieuw Amsterdam<\/a>
\n17 nights
\nApril 1, 2012
\nFort Lauderdale<\/a>, Punta Delgada, Lisbon<\/a>, Portimao, Cadiz, Malaga, Barcelona<\/a>
\nInside $699
\nwww.hollandamerica.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

She disappeared a year ago last month, without a whimper, without a wake. If we hadn’t visited Celebrity’s website this week to check on the size of its fleet, even we may have forgotten the passing of the Mercury. In horse vernacular, you’d say she was being retired to stud. Or maybe that should be… Continue reading Mercury Just a Memory Celebrity<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,25,19,15],"tags":[203,804,138,188,86,2209,848,53,33],"class_list":["post-11290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-deals","category-people","category-ships","category-stories","tag-allure-of-the-seas","tag-bargains","tag-celebrity-cruises","tag-celebrity-mercury","tag-cruise-ships","tag-deals","tag-mein-schiff","tag-oasis-of-the-seas","tag-royal-caribbean","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11290\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}