How to arrange a burial at sea with Celebrity?

[dad son team]

It's very interesting to read all this.  My family has had instructions to do this with me for years.  They are to do nothing on land and take the immediate family on a cruise instead.  I'd rather see the money spent on that.  Of course when this idea started it was a smaller family.  Now that some of the kids are married and have kids of their own I need to put more money aside, lol. They can't all share a cabin anymore I'd love for them to have cocktails and music played.  I'm just not sure what song.  I thought of Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot since it's a cruise staple and given my future condition of being ashes it would be appropriate, or maybe Drift Away.  I have a list for them to chose from

[jpsykes]

we've told the daughters to wait until we have both passed away and scatter our ashes together off a Celebrity Cruise that we (hopefully) will be paying for via inheritance to them.

Father-in-law was retired navy (Enterprise WW2) and he was buried at sea - navy sent back video of the burial - they did it with a lot of respect and formal ceremony. Mother-in-law passed away years later and was also buried at sea by the navy and again we got a nice video of it. Navy would do it for the wife (direct descendant)  but not me.  

[RomanyUY]

On 6/24/2022 at 11:37 AM, OtherFigment said:

I had called the CC number and was told to email  emergencytravelteam@celebritycruises.com. i did get an email back after a couple weeks indicating it was possible. I had a follow up question that I never heard back on though, so definitely not the best communication.

I emailed them back on Feb 1 (it's now Feb 27) and haven't heard back from them. I attached copies of the paperwork I have and asked if I needed anything else. I'm in Uruguay so there is sometimes a communication issue with respect to what Party A calls something and what Party B is expecting. I ordered bamboo "scattering tubes" from Amazon which are supposed to be TSA friendly and biodegradable. I would have no idea how to get a Certificate for the tubes. I have cremation paperwork but I wouldn't call it a "certificate". The cruise is in May.

[drowelf]

Interesting that all this paperwork is required. Maybe a Post Covid thing. When we did this for my Father and Mother on Holland America I did not have to provide anything, other than the biodegradable container and the ashes. I have death certificates, for both, but I don't think I ever got any certificate of cremation, especially for my Mother, who passed away in the 90s. 

[NevadaCruiser2023]

On 6/24/2022 at 7:40 AM, 81Zoomie said:

My brother handled the correspondence.  The original request was pre CV.  We were delayed for 2+ years.  The original request went to an address provided by the Captains Club.  
 

As stated above, you toss the entire e envelope/urn.  It requires a pretty strong push to get clear of the ship.
 

air_sea_cci_web@celebritycruises.com 
 

Forgive me if this sounds callous, but a deck mounted slingshot would be pretty cool to accomplish this. I'd want to be shot into the sea that way.  

[81Zoomie]

4 hours ago, RomanyUY said:

I emailed them back on Feb 1 (it's now Feb 27) and haven't heard back from them. I attached copies of the paperwork I have and asked if I needed anything else. I'm in Uruguay so there is sometimes a communication issue with respect to what Party A calls something and what Party B is expecting. I ordered bamboo "scattering tubes" from Amazon which are supposed to be TSA friendly and biodegradable. I would have no idea how to get a Certificate for the tubes. I have cremation paperwork but I wouldn't call it a "certificate". The cruise is in May.

I would just bring whatever documentation comes with the tubes.  The cremation papers should suffice.  All of our paperwork was collected and reviewed once on board.

[RomanyUY]

On 2/27/2023 at 8:09 PM, 81Zoomie said:

I would just bring whatever documentation comes with the tubes.  The cremation papers should suffice.  All of our paperwork was collected and reviewed once on board.

Documentation with the tubes? I've got the Amazon page.
Cremation papers? I've got what looks like a copy of the cremation work order - in Spanish. It's on a form from the government of Montevideo (Uruguay), Departamento de Acondicionamiento Urbano, Servicio Funebre y Necropolis (Department of Urban Conditioning, Funeral Service and Necropolis). I'm trying to get a Certificate of Cremation and have it translated into English.
The death certificate was emailed to me - it's got a QR code and a bar code. That counts as "certified" here. Thankfully, I also have the Consular Report from the US Embassy.

I run into these issues often. The US wants some standard form that pretty much doesn't exist in Uruguay. Or vice versa.

[RomanyUY]

UPDATE: I finally got a phone number to call (it's the emergency travel department) and the nice lady said "we do this all the time". Interestingly, they wanted the documents as JPEG or TIFF files, not PDF. I found an online app that converts things. Within minutes I got a Burial At Sea Request receipt with my name, cruise, cabin, etc. and the scheduled date for the tossing of the container.

 

Instructions are:

Ashes must be in an approved scattering or biodegradable urn and the entire urn must be tossed. A certificate proving the urn is biodegradable may also be required. 

Guest will need to provide the death certificate and cremation certificate.

Upon boarding, contact the Front Desk to set up a time and place for the this request.

Right - approved by whom? Do certificates from other countries need to be officially translated? Apostilled? So many questions and not much time.

[Butterfly0822]

I am sorry for your loss and hope everything goes well for you in May.

 

I buried my husband at sea in on Celebrity Reflection this past December.

 

I contacted the company I purchased the biodegradable urn from on Amazon by email. They emailed me a little blurb about their urn being biodegradable and I printed it. That's all I had -- no problems. 

 

The concierge team that worked with us on the ship took the paperwork to the back for a bit and then brought it all back when we were planning the details of day/time of the service. That was it. 

 

We had the cremation certificate, death certificate and the info from the urn company.

 

We did the burial at sunset, and they brought a bowl with rose petals for our daughter to scatter. I wasn't fully prepared to throw the urn off the fifth story deck. It was a long drop and the ship was moving at a good pace. (I was so worried about the lid coming off since it was secured with the enclosed kindergarten glue stick that came with the urn. But it made it.)

 

One quick glance as it hit the water and then I couldn't see him again. 

 

An officer signaled to the bridge when I tossed it overboard and the last day of the cruise we received a certificate with the coordinates.