Markanddonna

Once again, I am not Catholic. Celebrity SAID there was going to be a Catholic mass but got it all wrong. There was no priest. I have been on a number of past sailings with other cruise lines and they gave the priest a free cabin. I believe there is a Catholic organization based in Seattle who organizes priests for cruises. If I were Catholic, I would be very unhappy with this, considering the short of priests, but most are retired who do the cruises. All we requested was a room. My husband and I have led Sunday services twice onboard. Once, we were given the theater and another was a meeting room.

What was requested was simply the use of a room based on the ship's availability. No priest, no food or supplies. Just a room. Non-denominational services used to be a common offering and often came together when a person, usually a layman, requested it. Sometimes they were posted in a daily or app, sometimes not. I understand why a cruise line would not want to pay for a priest to perform Roman Catholic mass on a cruise. A non-denominational service costs the ship nothing. I am not a Catholic, but am well aware of the shortage of priests in the USA.

We've been on many transatlantic and one transpacific cruise over the years and enjoyed the various nondenomination services and groups the cruise lines allowed to have room. Some were packed with standing room only, while others had perhaps twelve people who came only on sea days. We asked on our last two Celebrity cruises, and they didn't allow any religious gatherings, nor would they post any information about religious gatherings. However, they allowed a Muslim prayer gathering in a meeting room last May on the Constellation and had two Shabat services for Jewish people on this past sailing on the Apex. They provided challah bread, prayer books, glasses, and wine! It was self-led. I wrote a comment about this to the staff and was contacted several times by phone with a response. No acceptable answer just a response. After several others also inquired, the Apex relented and posted that there would be a mass at 8:00 in the Club on Sunday morning, our last Sunday onboard. Although not Catholic, I dropped in, only to discover a very nice man inviting me to stay for the non-denominational gathering. It wasn't a Catholic mass at all because there was no priest. The man said the staff was confused and put in the wrong information. So, any Catholic would have been disappointed, and most interested Protestants wouldn't have attempted to go. The staff phoned me several times- the first at MIDNIGHT to let me know a Catholic mass was happening the next day. They kept calling, thinking I would be so very happy about this. After several more calls from them, I thanked them and told them to NOT call me again with apologies. This has been our experience lately on longer sailings. Are other cruise lines equally resistant? We had an RCL entertainer join us for one sailing about eight years ago and he preached the Sunday service. James was amazing! I am aware that HAL often provides a priest for Roman Catholics, especially for Alaska cruises. Any good, recent experiences?

I believe that being around people who sneeze and cough into the air is the main culprit. We were on a TA in early May, and my DH caught the crud during the last two days. I eventually caught something, but it could have been from him or the numerous folks I encountered from a week in Scotland on the trains, buses, museums, etc. Fortunately, it didn't manifest until my first day home, and it is a pretty mild case of COVID. We are very careful about vaccines and cleaning hands and surfaces. Unfortunately, I might have used a restroom stall that was previously inhabited by a hacker or sneezer. You just never know, but I believe it is just breathing in the air of others inside buildings or structures such as buses, ships, etc.

Three day Highlands and Isle of Skye. The one day was Rosslyn Chapel, Sterling Castle and Dunfermline. I was on a transatlantic to get to Southampton, took train to Edinburgh and spent a week in Scotland. We are typically independent, on our own types so the Rabbies experience was a delight.

We took two separate tours this past week in Scotland. By far, the three days Rabbies tour was perfect. Andrew, our guide was so knowledgeable, caring, and a great storyteller. Every aspect was great- company communication and descriptions. I would highly recommend Rabbies 15 person tours over driving. We could just sit back and enjoy the views. We took a one day tour with a different company that was not as commendable. Not horrible, but inferior.

Here's what we ended up doing: we booked the train thru Birmingham. Everything was going fine until we learned that our train was cancelled due to track problems. No text or email, just conflicting info, esp from Liner who told us we had to change it with the company...waiting on hold .. We just followed the most common advice and hopped on the next one scheduled an hour later. No problem but arrived 90 minutes later. We very likely could have made that way Logan Air flight. Zippy debarkation and taxis right there to the left. No stopping for any check. Hope this helps someone.

We are in one right now. Great choice!

I'm onboard right now. You can go whenever. They also offer fixed dining which we signed up for. We ate totally as lone with no one even next to us. I asked for advice and they said to just show up and go to one of the four restaurants and tell them you will share. We noted a couple who refused to share a table and they were told they would have to wait thirty minutes. We were seated one night with a nor social group. It was sometimes like crickets and one lady had dementia and an unresponsive manner. We were seated with her two nights in a row and vowed to not have that happen again. I tried addressing her, but she looked fearful and rather vacant. The menu gets tires on me after 13 days.

On Apex now. Kettle yes, hairdryer in center drawer in bathroom.

I haven't seen a priest on a cruise ship since the pandemic. I understand HAL uses them, especially in Alaska. A Protestant group onboard might try to arrange for a room to hold a Sunday service, but they are led by people who may not be clergy.

Scottie99:For our May 15th disembarkation at Southampton, we made the decision to take the train through Birmingham. We are giving up a half day of touring Edinburgh, but we have less time and higher expenses since we are just a few weeks away. The flights to Glasgow were all sold out, and we decided we didn't want to deal with London airports plus a train either. Not at all happy with Logan Air, but they agreed to refund our fares. I haven't seen a prompt email with that processing yet.

Also I'm looking forward to the statue of Wojtek the bear from WWII Poland.

He's always accurate anyway...

Thanks so much, John Bull. You are a wealth of knowledge. We are also starting to have a splitting headache thinking of taking a train to GAT and then a flight. So, we decided to take the 10:15 train to Edinburgh and just chill. The only transfer is at Birmingham, and the platforms are right across from one another. Not stressing when you travel is important, and I think the train/fly combo would put me over the edge. I'm a big planner and even traveled solo last year to Poland using trains and buses around the country. No problem! We decided to go with the trains when we discovered another ship passenger had the same problem. We will be traveling together.

We have the same problem on the 15th going to Edinburgh. Logan Air's later flight is all sold out so they said our only option is a refund. Egads! It looks like our best bet is the train through Birmingham with one easy transfer at their station. Not happy we are losing time on our first day. There are other flight/train combos but with luggage added on, they are getting to be too costly and require transfer from train station to airport. The SOU to Glasgow flight on easyjet is sold out.

This amount of money is probably well beyond small claims court. I'd suggest a single, quick meeting with an attorney, to find out how you can go after this "TA". The amount of money you mention may put this into a serious legal category. (IANAL, so I won't speculate about categories or names of crimes, etc.) It is possible (maybe not probable, but *possible*) that a letter from an attorney will get her to take action that will at least make your family whole, even if it doesn't help others who may have been scammed. And you all SHOULD file complaints with assorted regulatory agencies, including her state's Attorney General's office. There may be other victims, but the AG/etc., can't see a pattern if victims don't report. Absolutely agree with the above!

You learned a very hard lesson. Many people think that a travel agent is a great option. Maybe, but only if you know them or they are from a reputable company. Most often, we prefer to book the cruise through the cruise line. So sad to hear about this for everyone!

MSC uses a strange policy where the passengers must register their credit cards at the terminal to pay for OB expenses. Most cruise lines do that before you board the terminal upon check-in. You hear the reminder to register your CC many times before the end of the sailing. I saw someone detained when they tried to debark for this reason. I imagine, as others have said, that you are escorted to the bursars' office to work out the details.

I called Celebrity. It appears we all have to change our passwords. Egads...is Celebrity becoming MSC?

Sometimes, if there is a group of Bible Study participants onboard meeting on sea days, they are asked to do a Sunday service. We have held services jointly with a priest. I agree HAL is your best bet in Alaska. I haven't seen a mass on any other cruise line in recent years.

I emailed the company asking if this person was employed there. She has an email address for the company but is not currently on the list of employees they post (about 25 people.) I want to give them a chance to respond first.

Yesterday, a luxury travel company in Great Britain contacted me to ask if I would be a tour guide for a group of 35-40 people who wanted to tour Portland, England. I'm sitting here in a midwestern state in the USA, wondering how I became an expert after being there just once. I then saw that she found my email on my website, which contains a lot of information for many sites I have visited, including Portland, Dorset, etc. The entries I made were meant to be helpful to those on my specific sailing but could have been appropriate, although dated for anyone wanting info. I always thought travel companies knew their resources quite well before contracting them. This email reminds me to do a deep dive into the reviews. It also explains some of the inferior guides I have had on private tours (that means YOU, Elizaer, who didn't know the basics of some sites in Israel in 2022.) Perhaps the pandemic's effect on the travel industry continues. Anyone on a cruise that stops in Portland in August may get to meet me. Supposedly, she wants to contract me for a group of 35-40. My evil twin thinks I should tell this travel company I am available. Hey, a free trip to England?

Another observation. I've been on 30 cruises and generally found every crew to be top notch, efficient and polite. Two out of our three past MSC cruises had some really significant crew problems. The worst MDR server we have ever had, and on one ship that was way understaffed, we saw the crew looked weary and sad. One in the buffet even told his stories of MSC woes to us. He said that they now had three times the responsibilities. That MDR server kept blaming the slow kitchen, but it was her curt, surly tone that was bothersome. Someone should have told her that saying "yeah, yeah" in a sour tone after every request is viewed as impolite. Calling women who were of any motherly age "Mama" and anyone younger "baby" is not cool.Unreal.

Unless you are able to pay for the Yacht club, ignore the comments about that category. I find MSC pretty close to NCL and RCL. The food is somewhat disappointing, but like others have said, you can always find something appealing. Really, I make much better Italian food! On our last MSC cruise last month, I'd say the theatre entertainment was perhaps the second-best of all our cruises. The lounge entertainment was mediocre. Every sailing is different. For example, we traveled about 5 years ago in Europe out of Rome and there were announcements in EIGHT language (1/3 of the passengers were mainland China.) That got irritating really fast. Last month, the announcements were ONLY in English out of PC.