Passover on Celebrity Summit

[BrooklynCruiser]

Hello,

 

Question for Jewish travelers: how was your experience of celebrating Passover on the Summit? Celebrity's website includes the following in its Q&A section: "Jewish Services: A Jewish Rabbi or Cantor will conduct services during Passover, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Hanukkah." I have heard, however, that the above does not necessarily apply to smaller ships.

 

Thank you!

[Bo1953]

If you do a search, there have been some travelers less than enthralled with Jewish services aboard X for High Holy Days.

 

For me, it was fine.

 

If it is important for you, I recommend considering a sailing outside of this time when it will not matter much.

 

bon voyage

[casper106]

Or you could call Celebrity directly and ask about the Summit. The Friday night services are lead by one of the passengers as I recall. And yes,there was a thread here recently about someone who wasn't pleased with the High Holiday service.

 

And while you are on the phone with Celebrity,inquire about the availability of matza on the Summit. You may need to request it.

[BrooklynCruiser]

Bo1953 and casper106, thank you for your responses. This week works best as our kids are on a spring break. Based on your responses as well as other threads, I believe we should be fine as long as they have Holiday Services (by the way, I did e-mail Celebrity but have yet to hear back).

[denatravels]

I saw matzah on the summit but not much else.

 

 

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[BrooklynCruiser]

Thanks, denatravels. I did read the long thread about someone's negative experience on the Summit but agree with the majority of responses that he had unreasonable expectations at best and, likely, had an agenda. I am not looking for a synagogue-like experience but, perhaps, just a basic service led by a Rabbi or a cantor. An organized seder would be a plus but not a must.

[ghstudio]

Contrary to what has been posted here, several years ago (2011) we were on the eclipse when Passover began. There was nothing publicly announced, but we asked at guest services if there was anything planned. They invited us to a Passover dinner...with a retired Hazzan. The next day, we went to the dinner in the buffet. Shock!!! Celebrity had isolated part of the buffet area and set individual tables with china, wine glass, passover plate (yup) and a one page hagaddah. Did I mention there ware about 250 people at the dinner. They even had Manechevitz wine :) Gefilte fish, matzah ball soup and a choice including brisket. It was delightful...and, incredibly, no charge.

 

I have no idea if that still happens...but that was a wonderful experience.

 

My original review (and thread)

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1415696&highlight=passover

 

Note: the one recent negative review was from someone who had what was viewed by the respondants as much too high expectations. See: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2419773&highlight=Rosh+Hashanah

Edited December 5, 2016 by ghstudio

[rose6]

We were on the Eclipse during Passover this past April 2016. A Seder was held on the port side of the

upstairs buffet. I would estimate that 80 or 90 people were present, and a Rabbi led a service with a haggadah provided by the cruise line. Several children who attended a Jewish school in London were on board and the Rabbi asked them if they knew the four questions. The children enthusiastically partipating in the Seder was my highlight of the Passover meal. As another poster mentioned the Seder was not announced in the daily newspaper and one had to go to guest relations to request to sign up to participate.

[alcpa1]

We were on one of the M class ships for Pesach and had one of the most inept rabbi's ever. She did not bring a Haggadah and the ship did not have any. She never checked on the traditions so there was no Seder plate with symbols. The chef found one box of matzo "crackers" and I did not see a peh on that box either. There were dumplings in the chicken soup!!!!

I'm not making this up either. It was that bad.

We've been on board for Yom Kippur too. Erev Yom Kippur was poorly attended as it was right after the muster drill with no real announcement and Yom Kippur was given one hour to observe in the morning with about 30 minutes for the concluding service.We left the ship and attended services in a port synagogue until we had to board and attended the concluding service.

We will not sail on any of our religious holidays again.

It seems to vary so much from ship to ship and line to line. One of our former rabbis in retirement sailed so many times with Crystal that his new cruising flock booked far in advance to attend his beautiful services. Wish we could have been on any of those cruises. They did it right.

[bboop51]

Hello,

 

Question for Jewish travelers: how was your experience of celebrating Passover on the Summit? Celebrity's website includes the following in its Q&A section: "Jewish Services: A Jewish Rabbi or Cantor will conduct services during Passover, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Hanukkah." I have heard, however, that the above does not necessarily apply to smaller ships.

 

Thank you!

 

We took our first cruise on Celebrity. I called Celebrity first (before booking) and was assured there would be a Rabbi on board who would conduct services. I was unaware of how notification was made and called the Concierge (we were in Concierge class.) He said he knew nothing about it. To make a long story short. By the time I found our ( the day of Rosh Hashanah ) it seems that the Rabbi on board decided she was only going to have a Havdalah service (the night before) and no other. That is not what I call "services." I was pretty upset. That was compounded with major problems with our cabin. But.. that said I saw a lovely photo on Facebook of a Rabbi classmate of mine, on a Celebrity cruise. He was performing a beautiful candle lighting service for the first night of Hanukkah for 200 cruisers.

[sanger727]

It does sound like the quality of services all depends on the rabbi that happens to be onboard. This matches our experience with the daytime enrichment lectures. We spoke with one of the presenters and he said that he was offered free cruises from Celebrity in exchange for presentations on the ship, so they would change week to week as different people took them up on this offer. Perhaps they have a similar program for religious leaders with the simple requirement that they conduct a service onboard. If this is the case then there would be zero way to predicate the quality of a service on any particular sailing.

Edited December 27, 2016 by sanger727

[denatravels]

Perhaps they have a similar program for religious leaders with the simple requirement that they conduct a service onboard. If this is the case then there would be zero way to predicate the quality of a service on any particular sailing.

 

 

I can't speak about NOW but I know someone that used to do this across several lines-- I would assume that the expectation would be that services are ACTUALLY performed.

 

 

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[bboop51]

It does sound like the quality of services all depends on the rabbi that happens to be onboard. This matches our experience with the daytime enrichment lectures. We spoke with one of the presenters and he said that he was offered free cruises from Celebrity in exchange for presentations on the ship, so they would change week to week as different people took them up on this offer. Perhaps they have a similar program for religious leaders with the simple requirement that they conduct a service onboard. If this is the case then there would be zero way to predicate the quality of a service on any particular sailing.

 

Exactly... Celebrity counts on the Rabbi. Eventually we had a meeting with the Guest Relations Manager who could not have been more embarrassed for all our issues. I put that in the live and learn category, but stay home during the holidays now :rolleyes:.

[Bo1953]

Exactly... Celebrity counts on the Rabbi. Eventually we had a meeting with the Guest Relations Manager who could not have been more embarrassed for all our issues. I put that in the live and learn category, but stay home during the holidays now :rolleyes:.

 

Yes, that is what I 'try' to do on the High Holy Days. I purposely pass by sailings which occur during these three (3) unless my spouse decides it is a sailing which we must take regardless. So now you know the non-practicing one in my family... ;-)

 

Yet my disappointment only happened twice over our last 15 cruises, so not a real big deal...

 

bon voyage