This week we continue our look at Celebrity Mercury by talking to two of the people who play a key role in shaping the vacation experience on the ship - - the hotel director and the cruise director. My goal in presenting this type of interview is to let the people who are actually running the ship explain what they are trying to do. One can learn a lot about ships by reading facts and figures but I don’t think one can get a feel for what a ship is like without hearing from the people who actually sail the ship.
Sheldon Thompson is the Hotel Director on the Mercury.. Since he is in charge of all the services and facilities that immediately impact the guests, he is a particularly good position to talk about the experience that they seek to provide on the Mercury. In addition, Mr. Thompson and has worked on nearly every Celebrity ship since before the line was acquired by Royal Caribbean. Thus, he was also able to explain why a between a Celebrity cruise is different from a Royal Caribbean cruise. My interview with Mr. Thompson appears at: http://www.beyondships.com/Celebrity-Mercury-art-HD.html
Lisa Richard did not follow the usual path to becoming a cruise director. She did not come up through the ranks in the cruise line. In fact, she had only been on one cruise before Celebrity hired her. However, she had been a senior executive with a multi-national corporation and thus had the skills and managerial experience to handle the behind-the-scenes administrative and planning aspects of being a cruise director as well as for supervising an array of employees. In addition, she came with theatrical experience including four years in the cast of the hit musical “Mama Mia.” In addition to discussing her career, I asked Ms. Richard to give her views on why Celebrity Mercury is so popular, particularly with repeat passengers and other experienced cruisers. My interview with her appears at: http://www.beyondships.com/Celebrity-Mercury-art-CD.html
Sheldon Thompson is the Hotel Director on the Mercury.. Since he is in charge of all the services and facilities that immediately impact the guests, he is a particularly good position to talk about the experience that they seek to provide on the Mercury. In addition, Mr. Thompson and has worked on nearly every Celebrity ship since before the line was acquired by Royal Caribbean. Thus, he was also able to explain why a between a Celebrity cruise is different from a Royal Caribbean cruise. My interview with Mr. Thompson appears at: http://www.beyondships.com/Celebrity-Mercury-art-HD.html
Lisa Richard did not follow the usual path to becoming a cruise director. She did not come up through the ranks in the cruise line. In fact, she had only been on one cruise before Celebrity hired her. However, she had been a senior executive with a multi-national corporation and thus had the skills and managerial experience to handle the behind-the-scenes administrative and planning aspects of being a cruise director as well as for supervising an array of employees. In addition, she came with theatrical experience including four years in the cast of the hit musical “Mama Mia.” In addition to discussing her career, I asked Ms. Richard to give her views on why Celebrity Mercury is so popular, particularly with repeat passengers and other experienced cruisers. My interview with her appears at: http://www.beyondships.com/Celebrity-Mercury-art-CD.html
While we are on the topic of Celebrity Mercury, I thought I would mention that I traveled from New York to Baltimore, Maryland where Mercury was beginning the cruise via Amtrak. In fact, I have now done several cruises from Baltimore and each time I have traveled by Amtrak. It only takes a little over two hours to get to Baltimore Penn Station from New York and the price is reasonable, particularly if one books in advance and takes the Northeast Regional train. From the train station, it is only a short taxi ride to the cruise ship terminal. If one is traveling light with one or two bags per person, I have found it to be a viable alternative to driving.
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