Cruise Weddings

[justmestace]

Priests will no longer be allowed to perform weddings on cruise ships.

I don't know if this applies to Disney Cruise weddings, as my daughter was married by a protestant minister from Abaco when she got married on Castaway Cay....but I do know that I saw a Catholic Priest perform a wedding on another cruise line...so this is just an FYI.

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February 16, 2010

The Catholic Church plans to issue new guidelines intended to clarify the role of priests on cruise ships, one of which forbids them from performing weddings while at sea.

Regional directors for the Church's Apostleship of the Sea program met at the Vatican on February 9th to set and ratify new guidelines for chaplains working on board cruise ships, according to a report by the Catholic News Service on Friday, February 12th.

While the new rules do prevent priests from celebrating Catholic weddings while sailing the high seas, priests will be authorized to offer blessings to newlyweds or couples celebrating wedding anniversaries. Priests will maintain their ability to perform daily and Sunday Masses, as well as ecumenical prayer when required.

The report also encourages priests to make their services available not only to cruisers, but to all cruise passengers, including the cruise ship crew and talent. Priests are even persuaded to attend staff meetings while on board to better understand the issues facing ship workers.

In exchange for services, the guidelines ask cruise lines to provide each priest with everything needed to celebrate Mass, like chalices and vestments, as well as a private cabin and all standard meals.

The new "Cruise Ship Ministry Guidelines" were prompted by the recent growth of the cruise ship industry and come only weeks after Celebrity Cruises discontinued their practice of regularly carrying priests on their ships.

The report states that seven cruise lines sailing out of the United States currently use the Apostleship of the Sea's services.

Inconsistencies across the industry presented problems when drafting the guidelines, which were meant to apply to cruises servicing a variety of different locations. While Italian cruise ships have priests that are integrated into the cruise ship staff as commissioned officers, many U.S. companies carry volunteer priests who exchanged their services for free accommodations.

"In Italy the priests go as part of the crew, while in the U.S.A. the priests go as part of their 'R and R',–there is a big difference," Father Bruno Ciceri told the Catholic News Service. "But at last we will have a common policy on many aspects of having Catholic chaplains on cruises."

The official guidelines are scheduled to be published later this year.

 

[mickeyfan1]

So the ship pays for the room and board and all the suplies, the priest encourages EVERYONE to attend mass, but can't perfom a wedding ceremony? And the Pope wonders why people are leaving the Catholic church? I shouldn't be surprised, but organized religion is too strange at times.

 

[truck1]

Legally and this is from both Disney and Orange County, you cannot be married at sea. Legally all of the paperwork,has to be signed pierside, which legally your married at that point.The ceremony is "For Show" for lack of a better term.Also, the same applies to the Island ceremonies I believe, since the Bahamas has a 24 or 48 hour wait period.
So in that sense, I cant see what the Catholic church would have an issue with.

 

[kcashner]

I can't speak to the legality of a wedding on Castaway...but I know that on our last cruise there was a couple who were married legally in Cape Canaveral in a civil ceremony right before boarding and then had a big "wedding" on Castaway Cay with their friends and family. They had previously been CMs on the Magic, and met during their employment. And, they played Match Your Mate as the "most recently married" couple. It was hard to beat "married 7 hours ago."

 

[justmestace]

I can't speak to the legality of a wedding on Castaway...but I know that on our last cruise there was a couple who were married legally in Cape Canaveral in a civil ceremony right before boarding and then had a big "wedding" on Castaway Cay with their friends and family. They had previously been CMs on the Magic, and met during their employment. And, they played Match Your Mate as the "most recently married" couple. It was hard to beat "married 7 hours ago."

Yes...that's how they do all of the "weddings" on DCL. Small legal ceremony at the port, in a side room, and then the "wedding" either onboard or on CC. My daughter did this several years ago.

But at the time, we had a choice of a protestant minister, a priest or rabbi. Apparently the Catholic Church isn't allowing priests to do this any more.

 

[truck1]

I can't speak to the legality of a wedding on Castaway...but I know that on our last cruise there was a couple who were married legally in Cape Canaveral in a civil ceremony right before boarding and then had a big "wedding" on Castaway Cay with their friends and family. They had previously been CMs on the Magic, and met during their employment. And, they played Match Your Mate as the "most recently married" couple. It was hard to beat "married 7 hours ago."

I just looked up the Bahamas wedding page, and their official stance is 24 hours in country.Theres a few other countrys that are longer. I want to say Jamaica is 48 hours or better. My fiance looked it up before we went with Disney.

AFAIK, all guests sign the marriage lic. in front of a notary at the terminal, before you board the ship.Mostly because from what I found in the paperwork they sent me, the DCL Capts. cannot legally marry a couple.We have a choice, if we were getting married on the Island of a ships officer, or a Bahamian official if I am not mistaken, and can even have a clergy member travel with us, I think.Id have to go back and look again,or send another email, on the clergy traveling with us.

 

[justmestace]

This is how they did it with my daughter:

We boarded the ship, everyone had lunch. Just before the lifeboat drill, my daughter, her fiancé, his parents, myself and my parents were called off the ship and into a small room in the terminal.

They had a cute little ceremony, where one of the CM's did a reading, took some pictures, and the couple signed a Florida license.
We got back onboard and sailed away.

We did have clergy with us, as a back up in case the person DCL had at Castaway Cay did not do a "traditional" wedding ceremony, with prayer.

As it turned out, they sent the Administer of the Bahamas, who happened to also be a Christian minister, and the ceremony he performed was identical to any Christian church ceremony...the whole "Dearly Beloved...." And then they signed a Bahamian marriage license also.

I think if we'd wanted a priest or a rabbi, we would have had to have one sail with us. I know that on Carnival in December, we checked in next to a priest who was there to perform a wedding.

So the point of my post was to let people know that sometime in the near future, your priest will not be allowed to come onboard and perform your wedding. You will still be married in Florida at the port, a civil ceremony, but you'll have to use DCL's choice of clergy.