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Celebrity Cruises - Celebrity Mercury
The west coast of North America is perhaps not the first region in the world you would consider for a 'wine cruise', but if you take each port on its own (San Francisco and its proximity to the celebrated Napa and Sonoma Valleys, Monterey and the boutique wineries of the Carmel Valley, Astoria in wine-rich Oregon and so on to Vancouver), it covers a considerable sum of America's leading wine regions.
We board Celebrity Cruises' Mercury for the week-long cruise - the ship's first after a major makeover in a San Francisco dry dock, when new verandahs were added, the ship's boutique transformed and all cabins fitted with new bedding, from double-spring mattresses to Italian bed linen. We certainly sleep soundly.
Our first port of call is Monterey, whose bay last century was the centre of a thriving sardine industry. The buildings of Cannery Row recall local literary luminary John Steinbeck's eponymous novel. We sample excellent wines at a bayside wine visitors' centre that stocks 200 wines from 70 different wineries in Monterey County. We taste more at Georis Winery in pretty Carmel Valley, lunch on local bay fish and sip more wines at Chateau Julien.
Meals are a highlight on board Mercury and with 109 chefs preparing everything from Danish pastries to ice-cream under the supervision of Gold Coast-based executive chef Philip Dale, the quality and choice of food is exceptional. Dinner in the Manhattan Restaurant is a five-course affair with good choices each night. We could have chosen to eat sushi or a hamburger at the grill, but getting togged up for dinner is part of the fun of cruising. Celebrity Cruises' service is slick and friendly and within a couple of hours 850 guests are dined and wined each night in the two-level dining room.
The Mercury's wine cellar is vast and we further our knowledge of local wines. We also have winemaker Randy Ullom from acclaimed Kendall-Jackson winery in Sonoma on board, and he hosts informative wine talks and wine nights.
There are six clubs and bars, several with live music, but it's to the Celebrity Theatre that passengers head each night after dinner for entertainment. The ship has its own dancing and singing troupe and a few other entertainers, but it is charismatic concert pianist Elliot Finkel who wins fans, playing popular classical pieces with sensitivity and entertaining all with his intellectual wit.
The 77,713-ton Celebrity Cruise vessel is more at home cruising the chilly waters of Alaska's Inside Passage or negotiating the islands of the warm Caribbean - this cruise is essentially a repositioning from winter cruising in the south to summer sailing in the north.
Mercury exudes a friendly ambience: although there are some 1756 passengers on board, the public areas are so spacious, it appears more like a few hundred. With a passenger to staff ratio of 2:1, service is very good and usually comes with a smile. In fact, Mercury's repeat passengers are as high as 40 per cent. This cruise has attracted 1400 Americans, 250 Canadians, a handful of Australians and other nationalities, plus 17 children.
After Monterey, the next port of call is Astoria in Oregon, the oldest settlement west of the Rocky Mountains. Following a walk around its main streets, which are lined with Victorian architecture, I head back on board for a 90-minute Elemis aroma pure seaweed massage that is aimed at detoxing and energising my body.
In Seattle, 295 nautical miles north, we dock right in the city, very handy for discovering this delightful metropolis. The next day in Victoria, on Vancouver Island, spring blossoms and tulips edge the central harbour that is dominated majestically by The Empress hotel, famed for its High Tea. We sip coffee and watch jaunty ferries ply the waters and seaplanes land and take off like taxis. As we leave this little pocket of Englishness, we realise this will be our last evening on board before disembarking in Vancouver.
Celebrity Cruises' Mercury heads 'down under' in November for several 14-night cruises between New Zealand and Australia, it will be her first time in Pacific waters. Ports of call include Auckland, Tauranga, Napier, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin, Melbourne, Sydney, Hobart and Newcastle, where she will become the largest passenger cruise ship ever to dock there.
Written by Tricia Welsh