Religious services on Celebrity

[Conniepo]

We've been cruising on HAL for a while and they always have a Catholic priest on board to celebrate mass. Does Celebrity provide religious services of any kind?

 

Thanks,

Connie

[Gonzo70]

No, only during major holidays.

[glo]

We were on the Infinity in April, 2011 and there was a Catholic priest on board. Mass was held every night. This was a two week cruise that ended on Easter. Maybe that is why Mass every night a 5.

[cruisestitch]

Priests are only on board on major holidays. Sometimes when the ship is in port on a Sunday they try to get a local priest to come aboard to say mass.

 

Be careful if you see "Catholic mass" scheduled on the daily program as they often use the word "mass" even though there is no mass. There may be a prayer service but not a mass, and the staff who make up the daily program don't seem to recognize the distinction.

[Conniepo]

We were on the Infinity in April, 2011 and there was a Catholic priest on board. Mass was held every night. This was a two week cruise that ended on Easter. Maybe that is why Mass every night a 5.

 

Interesting! I guess we'll just wait and see. We are planning our cruise now and we are purposely avoiding the Easter season anyway since DH and I sing in our church choir.

 

Connie

[seashells bonita]

We've been cruising on HAL for a while and they always have a Catholic priest on board to celebrate mass. Does Celebrity provide religious services of any kind?

 

Thanks,

Connie

It has been our experience that Mass is only said when a Priest, who is a guest, is on board and is kind enough to say Mass.

If we are in port we go to a local church.

They usually do have a Joel Olstein video available, if you're at sea. Not the same.

[cruisestitch]

Celebrity used to have a priest on every cruise, but a few years ago changed to only during special cruises. The priest receives his passage for free in exchange for saying mass for crew and passengers while on board, as well as being "on call" for emergencies/pastoral care/etc. This is from the priest who sat at our table a couple of years ago, who reported that he had been hired by the cruise line on several occasions to travel during the Easter holidays.

[NSgal]

Priests are only on board on major holidays. Sometimes when the ship is in port on a Sunday they try to get a local priest to come aboard to say mass.

 

Be careful if you see "Catholic mass" scheduled on the daily program as they often use the word "mass" even though there is no mass. There may be a prayer service but not a mass, and the staff who make up the daily program don't seem to recognize the distinction.

 

On Millie in March there was a "Catholic Mass" listed for each day in the daily program, but I can not say as to whether it was an actual mass or not.

[SingingMom1]

It's a shame that they discontinued the practice, except for holiday times. Luckily we are on a Sunday-Sunday cruise, so are heading out now for our local Saturday evening mass... :)

I booked Disney 11 years ago Saturday-Saturday cruise, not realizing there was no priest aboard. I spoke to our parish priest, who gave us "dispensation" as we weren't purposely "missing mass", but that it was logistically not possible. We decided to go to Friday morning mass the day before, just to start off vacation on a good note.

If we were in a port on Saturday/Sunday, we would have looked for a Catholic church. One of the things we enjoy as a family on vacation is to attend mass in different locations. We've met such lovely local people and viewed some beautiful churches while doing this. :)

[hancock]

There is a Catholic priest on board for Christmas, Lent and Easter. Occasionally, if you are in a port where a priest is available, he may come on board to say the mass. That happened to us in St. Kitts twice. Only knew about it because there was a sign at guest relations. It was not listed in the daily paper.

[bellybutton530]

It is really tough when we sail on a Saturday afternoon. No masses early enough.

 

So I simply let my priest know when mass is not available, and get absolved.

 

Lucky for me I mostly cruised when there were priests onboard the ships

[Catalina56]

That's why we don't sail Celebrity anymore. They use to always provide a Catholic Priest, but changed their policy about two years ago.

 

We sail HAL exclusively because they always have a Catholic Priest on board.

 

Catalina56

[SingingMom1]

That's why we don't sail Celebrity anymore. They use to always provide a Catholic Priest, but changed their policy about two years ago.

 

We sail HAL exclusively because they always have a Catholic Priest on board.

 

Catalina56

 

That's good to know and something to consider in the future....

[lambcom]

A further point in favour of HAL for those who find attending a religious service to be important: unless things have changed in the last year or so, not only does the Catholic priest celebrate Mass daily, but he also does a Sunday "non-denominational" service for Protestant passengers. A simple but lovely service of prayers, hymns, scripture and a short sermon. Sadly, it is not terribly well attended.

 

George +

[cruisestitch]

When the Catholic priests are on board Celebrity, they do the same.

[Nebr.cruiser]

On our recent Eclipse sailing there were Jewish, Catholic and Protestant services, including daily mass; however, it was a TA over Easter/Passover. The Easter Protestant service was very well attended.

 

What I do not know is whether the pastor/priest/rabbi's were just passengers who happened to be on board or were brought on board by Celebrity for the express purpose of religious services over the holidays. Since it was a 13 day cruise with 6 sea days in a row, they couldn't have just come on ship at port.

[cruisestitch]

As I said above: The priest receives his passage for free in exchange for saying mass for crew and passengers while on board, as well as being "on call" for emergencies/pastoral care/etc.

[mom23guys]

I've only sailed twice on Celebrity and both sailings there was a priest who said daily mass. I was hoping that would be the case on our Eastern Med cruise. Heck Carnival even had a priest on our Med cruise with them.

[Nonna and Papa]

We boarded the Infinity on Easter Sunday and there was no priest on board, even for a later afternoon Easter Mass. This cruise was a B2B for us, so we didn't have the opportunity for Mass at all while on onbard. We got up early and went to Mass in FLL before boarding, just in the event there would not be a priest on board...good thing we did. There was a rabbi on board and I think she did have services.

 

In February 2010 during our Antarctic cruise there was a priest on board for the entire cruise, and Mass was available every day.

 

Mary

[Tippster]

That's why we don't sail Celebrity anymore. They use to always provide a Catholic Priest, but changed their policy about two years ago.

 

We sail HAL exclusively because they always have a Catholic Priest on board.

 

Catalina56

 

 

Does HAL sail from Australia?

[cruisestitch]

That question is best asked on the HAL board.

 

Also for those reading this thread, note that it is from 2011.

[Fouremco]

As the question was asked here, yes, HAL does sail out of Australia.

[Vagabond Knight]

We are leaving on the Eclipse out of Miami on April 1st, which is Easter Sunday. I called Celebrity and was told that there will be a Catholic mass onboard that day. They could not tell me WHEN, and told me to check with Guest Services upon boarding. Another couple in our roll call contacted Celebrity as well and was told the same thing. We would have booked another date if we'd realized it was Easter, but we were originally supposed to go last year and had to rebook for personal reasons, but we missed that it fell on Easter.

[daisy-mae]

"They could not tell me WHEN, and told me to check with Guest Services upon boarding."

We were recently on the Reflection for 10 nights, spanning two Sundays and Ash Wednesday. There were three well-attended Catholic services (Ash Wednesday in the theater). After the first Sunday service the priest explained that there would be a Wednesday mass, but could not guarantee the time, as the scheduling was arranged by on-board staff.

The mass times can be found in the "daily", and are usually in the morning.

[Covepointcruiser]

We have been on Celebrity many times and over major Christian holidays when no minister or priest was onboard. However, there were always Friday night services for Jewish passengers but I don’t know if a rabbi is always on board. We have been in the main dining room when a rabbi was conducting services at a large table.