Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Cruising with Grandma // Cruising While Frum

Emet and I had a lovely week in the Caribbean with my mom and grandma. My grandma loves cruising and decided she wanted to take us on a cruise. My grandma is turning 93 years old this year. A breast cancer survivor, she has loved traveling and cruising for a long time. In the last six months, she has been on a cruise almost every month.

When Mom told me that Grandma wanted to take us on a cruise, I was concerned about being able to keep mitzvot (namely kashrut and Shabbat), so I specified that we need to be on one that doesn't require us to travel on Shabbat. Mom found one that went Sunday to Sunday, and I realized that on Shabbat we would be on the boat the whole day, so it looked great. We decided on Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas, the biggest ship in the world. The ship took us to Nassau, St. Thomas (we took an excursion to St. John), and St. Maarten. Emet had never been on a cruise before, and while the 7 day cruise might have been long for Emet's first cruise, I think we had a great time.

Keeping Kosher: Royal Caribbean has excellent options for those that keep kosher. We tend to be more lenient in our keeping, but if you keep absolutely strict kashrut, then Royal Caribbean provides sealed meals prepared off the ship and only heated on the ship. We ordered off the regular menu for dinner. Most nights, our meal consisted of baked salmon, steamed asparagus, potato, and carrots. The head waiter even had the chef prepare a somewhat Israeli salad (cucumber, tomato, hearts of palm) for us. Everything we ordered was nondairy, and the non-Jewish waiter and head-waiter were clearly schooled in what kosher means. They wanted to make sure that we were completely satisfied and brought us dairy free desserts, even when we knew we didn't need to eat them!

Keeping Shabbat: Shabbat was more tricky in some respects but not in others. You are on a ship with no internet, no phones. The only electronics we use are the television, the elevator, and of course prepared food, as well as the key card to get into our room. Emet and I noticed an observant family on board, but we did not figure out what they did for their rooms on Shabbat. Maybe they stayed in all day? We're not sure.
There was a self-led Friday night service. At Pardes, we are told that after studying at Pardes for a semester, we are most likely to have the most knowledge of Judaism wherever we go. This was definitely the case. Emet and I went to the service and had planned to just do our own thing, but about 20 people showed up for it! There were a few older couples and two or three families with kids. One or two Israelis, as well. The observant couple showed up at the beginning, but left after inspected what Royal Caribbean had set up for us: a bottle of Manischewitz with many glasses, electronic candles (no fire is allowed on board for obvious reasons), and challah with salt, plus the Gates of Prayer prayer book. I was impressed by how much the cruise company seemed to know about what we Jews require for Shabbat and kashrut. They even had kosher beds in the cabin! Anyway, before we started the service, an older couple (probably in their 70s) said about Emet, oh this cute boy must have just had his bar mitzvah not so long ago, would you want to lead? Emet didn't feel comfortable, but I said I could lead some, but not all. Finally, someone started the service, and it was clear to me that most people could not read Hebrew, even those who said that they attended services every Friday night. Most wanted to read responsively in the English, which was just not exciting. Emet and I sang a few songs, but no one else joined in. Then we did more in the English, and finally it was over. We said kiddush and motzi over the challah, and then we went to dinner to meet Mom and Grandma. Overall, I felt proud that I could help lead a service, but also disappointed that I couldn't lead better and that no one else, obviously except the Israelis, could read Hebrew or knew any of the traditional prayers. I wondered what services were like in the attendees' synagogues Friday nights.
During the day on Shabbat, we didn't do so much differently than the rest of the vacation - reading, eating, sitting and watching the ocean - and we also went to listen to the captain speak about the ship.

St. John was the best beach we visited, even though it was rainy and a little cold. It was not as busy as St. Maarten's Orient Beach and we didn't have anyone pestering us to buy things, like we did on Orient Beach. We saw a lot of shows - every single night there was some evening activity, including a performance of Chicago, a water acrobatic show, an ice skating show, comedians, a performance by Tony Tillman, and another acrobatic show. I was impressed by the talent, though the concept of the second acrobatic show and the ice skating show were bizarre. My favorite was Tony Tillman, who sang oldies and made a few jokes.

Emet and I had a lovely time with Mom and Grandma. We referred to the cruise as our Pre-Wedding Honeymoon with Mom and Grandma. Obviously, it wasn't a real honeymoon, but because we aren't having one, it was close enough. It was so great spending time with them both.

Coming up: This weekend is going to be packed with activities. Emet's mom is coming to Atlanta tomorrow, and both my grandmas and my sister Devon to celebrate with us. On Sunday, my aunt and mom are throwing Emet and me an engagement party, then Sunday afternoon, Ari planned my non-bachelorette bachelorette party - laser tag and tapas! Then, Monday night is Passover. It will be a crazy few days to say the least!

Chag Sameach!

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