Markanddonna

I have never seen a service led by the cruise director. I doubt I would attend that unless I knew his/her background. Protestant services don't require anything from the cruise line. One ship required that the Protestant leader be ordained clergy which only the mainline denominations consider as important.

I rapidly clicked through it. As an author, I have played with AI, and most new articles seem to be generated by AI. As an experienced cruiser, I find them not at all helpful. It is interesting that anyone can generate a pretty good article that is mostly true by just putting a well-thought-out prompt into an AI generator. I fear that is our future. Fiction, on the other hand, is pretty horrible. They use five swarmy, sloppy sentences where just one would suffice.

Totally agree. I thought it was a valiant effort to tackle an irritating problem. This was the nastiest group I have ever traveled with. I'm just saying that the guard was the tipping point to this group of entitled bullies.

On one of my cruises, there was a pool chair policeman in the adult area. I saw a very heated discussion with a man who wanted to claim multiple chairs at 6:30 AM. The crew member was large, and I doubt many wanted to mess with him. He won that round. The end result was a hostile group of passengers, and for a few days, it was like a mutiny on the bounty. People were angry.

I cannot understand why the ship wouldn't post a notice in the daily. Once again, the Jewish self-led Shabbat services are posted. I understand the frustration of some clergyperson who offers. They are giving up their vacation time and the room will be empty because on one knows.

My husband needed an IV drip because of illness and dehydration. MSC didn't charge a thing for any of his medical services. Nothing was there fault. We had travel insurance but never received a bill. He was in the medical center numerous times and we became quite friendly with the two wonderful doctors and their staff.

We have about 10 transatlantic, transpacific, and two weeks and longer sailings under our belt. We enjoyed the ones pre pandemic, but now it seems so many people become ill as the cruise progresses. On both of our last two TAs (Celebrity 2023 and 2024), a great number of people became progressively ill with that cruise cough. Posting on our roll call indicated several tested positive for COVID and quite a few people whose post cruise experiences were ruined. We both eventually succumbed. Fortunately, my COVID was very minor, with no fever, coughing, or sneezing. I tested positive once home. It was irritating that so many people with obvious serious respiratory problems would come to the packed theatres. We have decided that this environment just isn't worth it anymore. Our only COVID experiences have been the result of these two TAs. Actually, we haven't been sick at all except for cruising. From now on, we will stick to land travel and shorter cruises, which haven't been a problem for us. No more TAs.

Our last Celebrity cruise was supposed to be fixed dining. We assumed we would be seated with a group of strangers which usually works out very well. Not this time. We were put at a two top and no one was seated next to us until the very end. We sought the advice of the staff and they said to just show up at any of the four Apex dining rooms and we would be seated. Most of the time, that worked out quite well, but we found it tiresome to introduce ourselves to new people each night. Each night, for two weeks, it was a new set of people. We enjoy having the same group at the MDR each night. Instead of the trivia of getting the basics on people, you can focus on what exciting things they did in port and their plans for the next day. One of the nice features of traditional dining has now been replaced with a much inferior experience.

The excursion described in Maruzel's post sounds like it would be a very nice experience for Roman Catholics. I've been to the House of the Virgin Mary, and it is something Catholics would appreciate despite the lack of real evidence that it is based on history or real archaeology. The site is based on a 19th century nun's vision.

On some cruises, the balcony might be well used. Not really the case on a TA. It was nice to have a place to check the weather and the scenery.

We were recently on a transatlantic on the Apex and had this type of room. I believe they may only be about 8 of them on each side of Deck 6. They were wonderful and the cost was around $1,160 pp. These were not the infinite balconies and I am having a hard time finding them again. I noted they are now included in the veranda category for a higher price, similar to a regular veranda. There is a balcony with chairs and a table but the view is not full like a regular balcony. We don't use a balcony much on a transatlantic, so this was perfect. Recommended if you can get it for a lower price. The category is p2.

Here is the website that provides Catholic priests. It is the Apostles at Sea Program. I find it interesting that the ships often assume that Protestants would be okay with a priest conducting their service. On one cruise, a member of the entertainment staff gave the message during a joint service onboard. He was phenomenal and quite dynamic. I felt sorry for the priest who had to co-officiate with them. Summary: A Sunday mass would require a priest to officiate, and there is some cost involved for the cruise line. Protestant services cost nothing except the use of a room. https://www.aos-usa.org/store/pg/40-About-the-Cruise-Ship-Priest-Program-clone.aspx

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?