Conniepo Posted June 11, 2011 #1 Share Posted June 11, 2011 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gonzo70 Posted June 11, 2011 #2 Share Posted June 11, 2011 No, only during major holidays. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glo Posted June 11, 2011 #3 Share Posted June 11, 2011 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare cruisestitch Posted June 11, 2011 #4 Share Posted June 11, 2011 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Conniepo Posted June 11, 2011 Author #5 Share Posted June 11, 2011 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seashells bonita Posted June 11, 2011 #6 Share Posted June 11, 2011 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare cruisestitch Posted June 11, 2011 #7 Share Posted June 11, 2011 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NSgal Posted June 11, 2011 #8 Share Posted June 11, 2011 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SingingMom1 Posted June 11, 2011 #9 Share Posted June 11, 2011 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. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hancock Posted June 11, 2011 #10 Share Posted June 11, 2011 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bellybutton530 Posted June 11, 2011 #11 Share Posted June 11, 2011 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catalina56 Posted June 12, 2011 #12 Share Posted June 12, 2011 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SingingMom1 Posted June 12, 2011 #13 Share Posted June 12, 2011 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.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lambcom Posted June 12, 2011 #14 Share Posted June 12, 2011 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 + Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare cruisestitch Posted June 12, 2011 #15 Share Posted June 12, 2011 When the Catholic priests are on board Celebrity, they do the same. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nebr.cruiser Posted June 12, 2011 #16 Share Posted June 12, 2011 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare cruisestitch Posted June 12, 2011 #17 Share Posted June 12, 2011 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom23guys Posted June 12, 2011 #18 Share Posted June 12, 2011 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nonna and Papa Posted June 12, 2011 #19 Share Posted June 12, 2011 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tippster Posted February 28, 2018 #20 Share Posted February 28, 2018 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? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare cruisestitch Posted February 28, 2018 #21 Share Posted February 28, 2018 That question is best asked on the HAL board. Also for those reading this thread, note that it is from 2011. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fouremco Posted February 28, 2018 #22 Share Posted February 28, 2018 As the question was asked here, yes, HAL does sail out of Australia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vagabond Knight Posted February 28, 2018 #23 Share Posted February 28, 2018 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daisy-mae Posted February 28, 2018 #24 Share Posted February 28, 2018 "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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Covepointcruiser Posted March 1, 2018 #25 Share Posted March 1, 2018 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now