With excited anticipation, we left Fremont (Milpitas for my mother and father-in-law, American Canyon for the E-clan) and headed to Pier 35 in San Francisco to board the Celebrity Mercury for our 7 day cruise. Jake started getting restless as we got nearer and nearer the port and we all could do nothing more but laugh at his excitement.
Both groups met up at the front of the pier and my mom had requested a wheelchair because she needed on, but also because she wanted early entry onto the ship, so we all piled in as one group and got early entry onto the ship, however, due to traffic in the bay, the ship was delayed an hour. In the secured area for early boarding, they had sandwiches, chips, cookies and drinks waiting for us and we all took a seat or a space to wait out the arrival of the Mercury. We were part of the early batch and watched more and more people come in. We also noticed that as more and more people came in to wait, the ratio tended towards the geriatric set…about 75 years old and older. There were also quite a few wheelchair-ees and a few disabled people. Now I hold no bias against the disabled, I want them to enjoy life as much as I do. However, there was a small handful I question whether they had the aptitude to enjoy life at all, let alone a cruise. I didn’t judge and hoped they had a wonderful trip. An hour or so in the waiting area and we finally see the ship docking at the pier through the dirty windows. Now, this is where it gets surreal…
Across from us an elderly man starts choking on some chips and sandwich. A gentleman with the port/terminal that was helping push the wheelchair-bound into the waiting area picks up the man and starts administering the Heimlich maneuver. It’s not working. The man’s face went from pallid, to white, to grey. My mother-in-law is an RN. Now, I don’t know if it was instinct or adrenaline or what, but she sprung from her seat and bounded over me towards the choking man, almost like a superhero and she instructs the man giving the Heimlich to put him down on the ground and that she’s a nurse. She starts CPR as, I’m assuming, he isn’t breathing at this point. She’s going at it for a couple of minutes already and nothing is happening other than that she’s getting tired. My father-in-law sees that she’s wearing out and jumps in, taking over the compressions. Meanwhile, a crowd is gathering as people are still being let in. Finally, port security comes in and overzealously tells people to “go around” when there’s really no place to go around to. Another nurse/passenger comes and also helps. Over the CB radios, we hear the security asking for the AED (Automated External Defibrillator). No one can find it. More minutes pass. I’m checking my watch…eight minutes…nothing. Fifteen minutes and they finally locate the AED and bring it to my in-laws. Mom puts it on the man and behold…LOW BATTERY. It’s not going to work. Twenty minutes into the ordeal and paramedics finally come and take over. We’re finally ushered into the adjoining bay. My mother-in-law gets separated from us because she needs to wash her hands. We’re all worried that she won’t find us and as I move to go find her, she comes back. Everyone is an emotional wreck at this point. Thirty minutes later, we are told that we’re ready to board and as we pass the scene where he lay, we see a blue drape over him and his wife kneeling beside him reading the bible. My wife was brought to tears.
We finally board the ship and make our way to a late lunch at the buffet. As with all cruise buffet food, it’s good and it’s plentiful and after we had our fill we walk around the ship for pictures, then we headed down to our cabins and rest for dinner and wait for our bags. We get them all except for Jake’s before dinner and we all get dressed and head to the main dining room where we meet Felix, our head waiter from
Peru, and Lastra, our assistant waiter from Indonesia. We also meet our tablemates, Diane and Emma, a grandmother and her eleven year-old granddaughter from Southern California.
The cruise was supposed to leave San Francisco by 5 PM. We finished dinner by 8 and watched the show which ended by 9:15 at which time we finally left port. By the time we made it to the aft part of the ship to see the Golden Gate it was already far behind us. We headed back to our rooms to rest for the night as the day’s events were extremely tiresome. It wasn’t a good night. The Captain decided to make up time and throttled the Mercury into the choppy seas which made for a difficult night for many including my wife and my in-laws as the rocking of the ship and the memories of the man that died kept them up for most of the night. I was banking on this being a wonderful trip for my in-laws as this was their maiden voyage. The beginning was quite memorable to say the least.
By morning, the ship had made up all it’s time and we were able to spend a peaceful and restful day at sea. We had breakfast, did the emergency drill that was postponed because of the delay, hung out a little, at lunch, took a nap, and got ready for our first formal of the trip and the Captain’s dinner (note, have to try the guava sorbet). We all dressed in our traditional Barong Tagalog which turned a lot of heads. We got a lot of comments from the Filipino crew and staff, proud that we were wearing such traditional and nationalistic clothing. The show that night was a not too funny East Indian/Japanese comedian. After the show, my parents went dancing, the “grown-ups” played at the casino while we turned in for the night.
We awoke to us porting in Astoria, Oregon. What the hell is in Astoria, Oregon? We had breakfast at the main dining room to eggs Benedict, cereal, assorted pastries and breakfast meats. After breakfast we made our way to the gangplank and into Astoria. Astoria is a sort of old town/small town on the Pacific Coast of Oregon near the Oregon/Washington border. We boarded the local trolley that probably went no faster than 2 miles an hour and got a brief history and tour of the town. The movies Free Willy and The Goonies were filmed in Astoria, The Goonies now gaining a cult following. We went into town afterward and visited t-h-e smallest JC Penney that I’ve ever seen. We bought a few trinkets and necessities and were back on the ship for a late lunch and a nap. Dinner that night was great again and we were treated to crème brulee for dinner, the wife’s favorite! Dee-lish! The show was a Broadway review which was pretty good. If I ever get to see you in person, ask me or the wife about Dennis Rodman, Olive Oyl, or New York and you’ll get an earful and a good laugh. Trust me on that! After the show, we went back to the room to freshen up before heading to the Navigator Lounge for some dancing and the midnight chocolate buffet. Y-U-M! The band was great, playing a lot of 60’s-80’s dance music and we danced the night away. That was a lot of fun. We found out that night that this was the band’s last performance and that they were heading back to the Philippines when we docked in Seattle. I guess they were touched by how proud we were of them and how good they played that as we left, they gave us all a hug. We saw them leaving as we left the ship the following morning.
Tuesday morning in Seattle and we head to the buffet for breakfast before heading out to town, there’s so many things I was to see and do here! It was so exciting seeing the Space Needle from the window in our stateroom. We catch a cab to Pike’s Place Market. The wife has been to Seattle before, but I’m excited! I’m dying to see the fish catchers. We make our way through one end of the market and there are millions of flowers in every color of the rainbow. It was beautiful and it smelled pretty good too! There were also many fruits and vegetables and vendors selling trinkets and artwork and it was so my style to be there! We get to the center of the market where the men do the fish-throwing and they start and it’s so much fun (they know how to get the crowd going. 
To top it all off, I ask if one of them would take a picture of Jake and wouldn’t you know it, he grabs a fish (a silver salmon) and “tosses” one to Jake. Jake’s an honorary fish “catcher”. Of course, afterwards as proud of himself as he was he was completely grossed out at how the fish felt and all the scales left on his fingers! Go figure, he’s obsessive-compulsive that way! From there, we walk around and find the first Starbucks! I L-O-V-E I-T!!!!! So retro! Had to get me a mug. We all got some coffee, or tea, or a Vanilla Bean for Jakers! We decided after that to head to the Space 
Needle. Dang it if it wasn’t hard to hail a cab in that town. We finally got some good advice and went into a boutique hotel and had them call one for us. The Space Needle was amazing and the day was so clear! Mother-in-law was a little scared to go up so she shopped on solid ground instead. After a few minutes and dozens of pictures, we headed back down. We took the monorail back to downtown and hoofed it back to the ship. Wife and I prayed that mom could make it back to the ship as we had to go down over a hundred steps on over a dozen flights of stairs to head back. We got back to our cabin, ordered room service and took a well deserved nap. We left port sometime during dinner…another amazing dinner at that. Vancouver here we come!!!
The port in Vancouver was very quiet and unassuming. From the outside it’s very beautiful with its roof of white peaks pushing through the corner of downtown. Another delicious breakfast at the buffet before we headed out into town. Apparently, nobody did any homework on Vancouver, so when we left the ship we got all turned around. After asking a few questions from one of the doormen at the Pan Pacific Hotel which is connected to the port, we got pointed towards Gastown. The cobblestone streets and brick sidewalks along with the gas lamps and the steam clock gave this corner of Vancouver its appeal. The quaint little shops didn’t hurt either. From there, we met up with my mom and dad and headed to Chinatown. Mom was craving some fruits that we don’t normally get in the US, but are Filipino favorites. She found some, bought them regardless of price and we found a bench in the corner of Chinatown and ate. At this point my in-laws are tired, Jake and his cousin Joseph are tired and my dad looks ready for a nap. We had met up with my mom’s cousin and her husband and they were kind enough to take them back to the ship. We headed towards the ship so he could come back and pick us up. When we met up again we headed towards Granville Island. I loved this place! It’s a lot like Pike’s in Seattle. It’s big and there’s a ton of food shopping and different “sectors”…there was a kid’s market that we went to and loved. After an hour or so there, we headed back to the ship for a much needed nap.
The following morning, we arrived in Victoria. We ordered breakfast room service as we wanted to get a head start in Victoria. We were only going to be there a few hours and we wanted to get to The Buchart Gardens. As we disembarked, I was cornered into an interview with the local news. We were the first ship of the season and they wanted to know where and how much I would be spending my hard earned greenbacks. We took a cab to the gardens and that was probably the best idea of the trip. We ended up having a nearly private tour as no buses had made it there yet. The gardens were magnificent even thou
gh only a few of the flowers had bloomed. By the time we ended our tour of the gardens, the buses had just arrived. The cabbie then took us back into town and we did a bit of picture taking and souvenir shopping before we headed back to the ship. Our last stop was short, but it was fun.
Back aboard we enjoyed another formal night, we looked at and purchased pictures that the photographers had take
n of us during the cruise. We had a good day at sea and we were able to relax as we headed home, back to San Francisco. Disembarkation in San Francisco proved futile as many passengers had difficulty following directions…I’ll just leave it at that and hope you understand what I mean, but when we finally got off, got our bags and caught our ride, we were glad to be headed home.
I have to say, Celebrity Mercury and this cruise had its ups and downs and I have equally many gripes as I do bravos. I’m just glad to have had the vacation and I look forward to another cruise sometime soon…2009???????
