Cruise Ship Priest Program

[bobby3334]

I forgot to mention after over a lifetime of cruising on a variety of lines, in all about 65 cruises, I now confine my cruising to 14 or 15 day trans Atlantic.  After about 130 countries “my bucket list” is almost entirely empty.   So if all goes as announced a priest should be on board.   There are several other threads on cruise critic about this change by HAL but very difficult to find.  I do know Cunard and the transatlantic Queen Mary 2 provide a priest as well as another major line which is rumored to be beginning.   I would suggest you contact the Apostleship of the Sea for most up to date information.   Mike

[Wayward Son]

On 6/21/2024 at 4:45 PM, bobby3334 said:

Thanks to all who wrote about the importance of Mass and priests’ to them.   Whenever I have been on a Holland America on Sundays the two Masses attracted around 250 total on the larger ships and 40-50 at the early (8am) daily Mass.

 

I am a smoker, and I can assure you that if there was no place for the 10% of us, there would be a problem. If a ship can have a designated smoking area, it can have a priest.

 

Just sayin', it's a stretch, but I'm sticking with it.

 

[dockman]

On 6/17/2024 at 5:27 AM, iflyrc5 said:

I contacted AOS and they said they had nothing to do with it and have priests available.  I talked to our Parish priest who does HAL cruises as a working priest about this and he also said that getting priests is not an issue.  He told me their cabins are small interior cabins that are used for the guest entertainers so by not have a priest it does not free up a cabin for paying guests so it can't be a money issue.

 

But if guest entertainers cabins are given to a priest what about the non religious that don't care about priests or religion but prefer more entertainers?  I personally prefer to have an extra enrichment speaker than a priest.  Impossible to please everyone for sure.

[bobby3334]

28 minutes ago, dockman said:

 

But if guest entertainers cabins are given to a priest what about the non religious that don't care about priests or religion but prefer more entertainers?  I personally prefer to have an extra enrichment speaker than a priest.  Impossible to please everyone for sure.

I like enrichment speakers too but I have no way to measure this but it seems the lines are cutting back on these as well or the speakers have nothing to do with ports to be visited.  I am not talking about HAL here but a couple of other lines I recently have been on that either had no enrichment speakers at all or talked about things like “how to improve your golf game”    A few guys were interested but I don’t play golf.  I suppose everyone considers themselves expert on somerhing.   On my last transatlantic cruise on the Rotterdam to Rotterdam from Ft Lauderdale the exceptional entertainment director from Belgium gave the best port talks I have ever heard.   Unfortunately I can’t remember his name.  He was truly great and the theater or venue was packed when he talked.   He and the Captain were everywhere and the Captain even introduced the whole staff and gave an extensive talk.  I assume both already had accommodations.  Mike   PS They are cutting back on entertainers as well on other lines.

Edited Sunday at 04:10 AM by bobby3334

[dockman]

26 minutes ago, bobby3334 said:

I like enrichment speakers too but I have no way to measure this but it seems the lines are cutting back on these as well or the speakers have nothing to do with ports to be visited.  I am not talking about HAL here but a couple of other lines I recently have been on that either had no enrichment speakers at all or talked about things like “how to improve your golf game”    A few guys were interested but I don’t play golf.  I suppose everyone considers themselves expert on somerhing.   On my last transatlantic cruise on the Rotterdam to Rotterdam from Ft Lauderdale the exceptional entertainment director from Belgium gave the best port talks I have ever heard.   Unfortunately I can’t remember his name.  He was truly great and the theater or venue was packed when he talked.   He and the Captain were everywhere and the Captain even introduced the whole staff and gave an extensive talk.  I assume both already had accommodations.  Mike   PS They are cutting back on entertainers as well on other lines.

I have been fortunate to be on cruises that had some really good enrichment speakers that would do several presentations over a week or so....word would quickly get out as the best ones and it was then standing room only. 

 

I have also had some enrichment speakers who had lots of fancy degrees from Harvard or wherever that were more boring than watching paint dry...they certainly knew their subject but some would stand and read a prepared text and had the charisma of a bucket of mud.

 

  There are so very many subjects that would likely interest a lot of cruisers especially on longer cruises with sea days..  Seems there used to be lot more good ones on various cruises who would educate you to the history of places on the itineraries and make it much more interesting for all the passengers who cared to attend.  It does seem to me that holland america generally had better speakers than Princess over the years.

[3rdGenCunarder]

9 hours ago, dockman said:

I have been fortunate to be on cruises that had some really good enrichment speakers that would do several presentations over a week or so....word would quickly get out as the best ones and it was then standing room only. 

 

I have also had some enrichment speakers who had lots of fancy degrees from Harvard or wherever that were more boring than watching paint dry...they certainly knew their subject but some would stand and read a prepared text and had the charisma of a bucket of mud.

 

  There are so very many subjects that would likely interest a lot of cruisers especially on longer cruises with sea days..  Seems there used to be lot more good ones on various cruises who would educate you to the history of places on the itineraries and make it much more interesting for all the passengers who cared to attend.  It does seem to me that holland america generally had better speakers than Princess over the years.

 

It was standing room only for some of the speakers on Queen Anne recently. Cunard records the presentations and runs them on cabin TV for those that don't go in person. No droners on that cruise--one woman had lots of pictures, and she just talked about them, as if she were giving a tour, not a lecture. I felt as if I were at the places she talked about. It's been ages since I've seen a guest speaker on a HAL cruise, good or bad. 

 

I miss the days when port talks were more about the port than the ship's excursions.

 

Many of the guest priests are well traveled. Perhaps if they would offer to do a port lecture or some other travel talk, HAL would be more inclined to have them on board.