Photo Tour and Profile of Celebrity Mercury

This week, Beyondships focuses on Celebrity Mercury. When she entered service in 1997, Mercury was considered a large ship. Since then ships have become increasingly bigger and thus Mercury is now on the smaller size of the large ship category. While

First, some people do not feel comfortable on a mega-cruise ship. A ship like Mercury is appealing to those people because she has a more intimate feel. Also, I have noticed that the crews of these smaller ships try especially hard to please perhaps in order to make up for the fact that they do not have all of the features that their bigger fleetmates have.

Second, ships like Mercury can get into ports that some of the bigger ships cannot. For example, Mercury has only a few feet of clearance going under some of the bridges that she must pass under in order to get to Baltimore, Maryland. A significantly larger ship could not pass under those bridges. Thus, in order to serve a port such as Baltimore, a cruise line needs a ship the size of Mercury. Since there are a lot of people who would much rather drive to a local port such as Baltimore rather than fly a thousand miles or so to take a cruise, such a ship allows the line to meet the demands of the market.

Mercury in particular is a pretty ship. She has a nice understated décor. Also, as alluded to her earlier, she has a very friendly crew.

Beyondships’ profile of Celebrity mercury is at http://www.beyondships.com/Celebrity-Mercury-Profile.html and the multi-page photo tour begins at http://www.beyondships.com/Celebrity-Mercury-Tour-1.html

Photo Tour and Profile of Celebrity Equinox

Celebrity Equinox is an impressive ship from every angle. From a nautical perspective, she has a nice sleek hull and a state of the art azipod propulsion system. Thus, she is relatively fast and can maneuver quite well. Her interior is tastefully decorated with an excellent use of lighting and attention to detail. She has an array of dining options ranging from formal up-market venues to casual eateries. Similarly, she has numerous entertainment venues.

My only disappointment about Equinox is that she looks too much like her sister ship Celebrity Solstice. However, the resemblance is understandable - - when you are onto a good thing, why change it? Moreover, as one looks around, one starts to notice some subtle differences.

Beyondships profile of Celebrity Equinox is at http://www.beyondships.com/Celebrity-Equinox-Profile.html. The multi-page photo tour and commentary begins at: http://www.beyondships.com/Celebrity-Equinox-Tour-1.html