Cruising on a Cruise Ship on Shabbat (or Shabbos)

I have received some questions on how to cruise on Shabbat. Mostly people have been asking me that as a follow on to my post about kosher food on Royal Caribbean cruise ships https://robotsforroboticists.com/royal-caribbean-cruise-kosher-food/.

Anything I say below is based on my understanding on cruising and halacha. You should ask your local Rabbi if you have any questions.

Davening / Tefillah / Prayer

I have seen this take multiple forms. Obviously you can daven in your stateroom however there are often other options.

Most cruises that I have seen will have a chapel room that anyone can use. I have seldom seen it used by any religious Jews. On the schedule of many cruise ships they will have an open room available for Friday night services.

If you are traveling and there are a lot of other Jews on the ship there might be a room set aside for davening for each tefilla. This is particularly true in the summer and during “Yeshiva Week” (ie winter break). During Yeshiva week I have been on a ship with almost 900 people requesting kosher meals. On that trip there were 2-3 minyanim for each tefillah every day of the week. One of the groups even brought a Sefer Torah with them!

In all of these cases the cruise line provides the room and if there is a Minyan you need to figure that out on your own.

Obviously taking a Kosher cruise from Kosherica or similiar will be different than above.

Shabbat Packing List

• Incandescent (preferable) or LED, Battery Powered Lights (ie Candles)
• Grape Juice / Wine
• Challah (On all of the cruises I have been on they had Challah rolls, but always good to be prepared).
• Besamim
• Tape (Masking Tape, Duct Tape, etc..)
• Food items to augment the cruise ships food items

Determining Shabbat Start & End Times

When you are on a cruise you often need to determine when Shabbat begins and when it ends on your own. There are a couple ways to do this. You might need a different approach for starting Shabbat then for determining when Shabbat ends.

A small background to this section is that since the exact timing of "nightfall" is unclear we extend Shabbat to be cautious. The question is basically if "nightfall" is when the sun is setting, when it is dark enough to see 3 average stars, or sometime in the middle. This leads us to expand Shabbat based on the projected sunset times.

If you know your location

If you are in (or will be in) a port city you can use the sunset time for that city which are generally easy to look up (either by city name or latitude and longitude). Remember that you might be at a different location for Shabbat start and end, so you need to determine the correct times for both.

Also since most people have smart phones now you can often get your current latitude and longitude and determine the sunrise and sunset times at your present location (or just use a luach app). This simplifies Shabbat start times as it is easier to know your location.

Many cruise ships will also have sunset times on the daily planner sheets and/or display screens around the ship. I am not sure if those times are accurate based on the geographical location you will be in at that point, but it gives you a good starting point.

Friday Night Candle Lighting Time = Sunset - 18minutes

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Shabbat End Time = Sunset + 60minutes

or (based on your minhag/custom)

Shabbat End Time = Sunset + 72minutes

If you dont know your location

This is where things get more interesting. You will need to rely on celestial methods of looking at the sun and stars for determining when Shabbat starts and ends.

Shabbat Start Time = 2 minutes before the sun starts setting below the horizon (yes you need to estimate) 

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Shabbat End Time = Time the sun starts setting below the horizon + 60minutes

or (based on your minhag/custom)

Shabbat End Time = Time the sun starts setting below the horizon + 72minutes

or 

When it is dark enough to see 3 average stars

Note: This section above is based on my understanding of the Halochoscope from Parshas Lech Lecha 5769 Vol. XII No. 11 November 2008

Friday Night

There are a few issues that arise on Friday Night.

1. No open flames are allowed on ships. This means that you can not light candles. This is generally not a problem as electric lights are fine. While many people dont like them and fee l uncomfortable with them, electric lights are halachicaly fine. Friday night candle lighting is primarily about shalom bayit (domestic peace) and not tripping over things. Electric lights cover you for both of these, and you can/should say the brachah. Some people prefer incandescent bulbs over LED’s. Many people prefer battery (DC) powered lights over wall powered (AC) lights (since fuel source is present at the start).
2. The second issue is having hot food in the dining room. What I usually do (I get this can vary based on time of year) is schedule to go to the dining room as soon as Shabbat starts. Since you generally reserve the kosher food items that you want then day before, all of the food is fully cooked and heated before Shabbat starts (and before you arrive).
3. For Kiddush you usually need to bring grape juice or wine with you so you can have kosher wine. I have never seen a ship that had kosher juice or wine. Most ships will let you bring 1-2 bottles of wine per person onboard. I like to bring small individual sized (not glass) bottles of grape juice with me.
4. Before Shabbat starts you should let your stateroom attendant know about Shabbat and not to shut off the lights in your room if they come in (such us for the turndown service). Or just leave the “Do Not Disturb” door hanger on your room.
5. You might want to think about Shabbat morning breakfast now. See below.

Shabbat Day

Typically Shabbat day is the one cruise day that I wake up late (assuming my kids let me). After waking up if there is no minyan on the ship I daven, make kiddush, then eat breakfast in my state room. I then leave get ready to leave my room for the day. I generally spend the day exploring the ship and relaxing on the main (lido) deck.

When walking around I primarily use the steps. But the elevators are busy enough you can jump on with others. On ships with a lot of Jews I have seen the cruise line create “Shabbos Elevators”. They do this by having a crew member stand in the elevator and press the button for each floor continuously from Friday night till Saturday night (and often till midnight even though shabbat has ended).

On Shabbat day there are a couple things to think about:

Breakfast

Breakfast on Shabbat is generally the one time that I use room service. On Friday before Shabbat starts I fill out the room service form to get cereal, milk, challah rolls, etc.. delivered to my state room in the morning. This lets me eat breakfast in my room after davening without needing to venture out of my room.

This is also the meal where I try to bring a pastry (rugelach or so) onto the ship with me to enjoy.

Lunch

I will usually eat in the buffet area either food that I brought with me, or go simple with challah and cream cheese (and lox if you ask). You can often request what you want on Friday for them to have ready for you.

Dinner / Seudat Shlishit

For seudat shlishit (shalosh sheudos) I already had breakfast and lunch which gets me 2 meals during Shabbat day. That plus you can have snacks throughout the day to be yotzei.

Based on when Shabbat ends I try to request a dinner time that is 30+ minutes after Shabbat ends. This way I can eat in the dining room and they have time to heat my food with enough time after Shabbat to allow that.

Based on when Shabbat ends I try to request a dinner time that is 30+ minutes after Shabbat ends. This way I can eat in the dining room and they have time to heat my food with enough time after Shabbat to allow that.

Havdallah

I will say “baruch hamavdil…” then ask the state room attendent to let me into my stateroom where I can do havdallah.

For the fire you can either use electric lights or skip that brachah. The Gemara in Berachot 53a says “Rav Yehuda said in the name of Rav: One need not search for a candle on Motza’ei Shabbat the way one search for other Mitzvot.” This means that if one does not have a candle for Havdala, one need not go and look for a candle; rather, one may recite Havdala immediately without reciting the blessing on the candle. [Source] This statement is not applicable to besamim.

Note: For havdallah people are stricter to use incandescent bulbs and not LED bulbs (as opposed to Friday night). Friday night is about having light. Havdallah is specifically the “flame”.

You did remember to bring besamim?

Getting In & Out of Your Room

The decks are fully enclosed (so nobody falls off the ship) so there should be no issue of carrying and eruv.

For the doors this is similiar to being at a hotel. However you need to remember that the stateroom attendants come to your room several times a day.

Here are a few methods

• Leave your room and do not come back till Shabbat ends. When the weather is nice I have slept on a beach chair on the Lido deck (it was not Shabbat, but it could have been…).
• Put tape on the lock (possibly reinforce with a credit card type card)
• Slide plastic or similiar shim between the lock and the door as you close it
• Before Shabbat ask stateroom attendant to always open your room for you if they see you in the hall with out being prompted (this option is not as preferred as above)

Getting On & Off the Ship

When I book a cruise, I specifically look (and find) a ship that does not visit a port on Shabbat so that I can still visit all of the ports. Having a sea day as Shabbat can be very relaxing (I am always surprised to find that others use the ship library). However if you want/need to leave the ship here is some advice.

The simpler first case is if security or customs requires you to leave the ship, such as if you disembark on a day/time you did not expect.

How about for shore stops? The general rule is that you can not carry anything on the islands since there is not eruv. This makes things tricky. For some this means you can not get off the ship. For others they are more creative about making the sea pass (id card) part of there clothing. One way to do this is to make your key into a belt clasp, so that the key is now an integral part of your clothing.

Assuming you figure out the carrying issue, the next issue is techum. Cruise ships are a bit different than the standard boat discussed is halacha since the bottom of the ship never gets near (within 10 tefachim of) the ocean/sea floor. The practical implication of this is that after docking you have 2000 amot from the ship in which you can travel (ie. you can not go more than 2000 amot away from the ship in any direction). Unlike standard techum calculations the 2000 amot is based on the ship, and not the end of the houses/city.

Depending on which opinion is followed, 2000amot is between 3140ft/957m (assuming 1amah=1.57ft) and 4200ft/1280m (assuming 1amah=2.1ft). It seems that most opinions follow closer to a maximum distance of 3140ft/957m. Consult your local rabbi for what distance to use for techum.

When You Get Home

Remember you just got back from an ocean voyage, and that Birchat Hagomel should be recited.

Other

• I ignored the halacha and details about departing in a ship within 3 days of Shabbat starting.
• Most public bathrooms (not in your stateroom) are all electric sinks and electric hand dryers
• Most bathrooms in your stateroom are not electric and should be used when possible. The toilets are suction based and not electric.
• On many ships you need to leave the main cruise cabin light switch on the entire Shabbat, or your heat/air-conditioning will shut off. For ships that want you to leave your room key in place, any credit card shaped item will work.
• Refrigerator in your room probably has a light, and if there is a minibar there might be mini scales under each item.

Did I miss any Halacha issues related to Shabbat? If I did leave it in the comments below.

Note: I specifically left out issues of tznius (modesty) as that is a general question, and not a Shabbat question.

Also I know this post is on a robotics blog and is a bit off topic.