My husband and I tested positive while onboard the QM2. We were tested by Cunard, told to pack up our stuff, a hazmat team was sent to pick us up and transfer us to their isolation area. We called it the Covid Walk of Shame. We were in a sheltered balcony room in a wing that was not fully renovated I think. The carpets were dirty, dingier room. Cunard medical checked on us every day. We were pretty much symptom free so it really was not a big deal. Food was delivered 3 times a day, hot and delicious right off the main menu I believe. Eating was about the only thing we looked forward to. We could be out on the balcony, but you could only enjoy any of it if you stood at the rail as the sheltered balconies are such that you can’t sit and enjoy the ocean. This was a huge disappointment to us as we had paid dearly for a full balcony room. Cunard staff was friendly and did try their best to make our stay in isolation doable. That said, they were not transparent about anything once you landed and were disembarked into isolation in NYC. They told us we could not travel, which was NOT true. They were only concerned about their interests. We were told only after we were shipped by bus to a hotel in Queens (the biggest nightmare of our whole trip) and dropped outside with no information other than a phone number of someone that would get us to the airport after our mandatory 10 days….which was the agreement Cunard had with the CDC. We were told 3 days into isolation in NYC that Cunard would not pay for our tickets home or any other arrangements until after the 10 days, neglecting to tell us that we could pay for it on our own and we could legally travel. This is eventually what we did done and would have done far sooner as we had an emergency at home. Even though Cunard knew of our situation at home they still were unwilling to give us any information except that they required us to remain in isolation.
while I cannot say the experience will be a deal breaker with cruising with Cunard in the future I will be armed with far more information in the future.
we still after more than 60 days have not received the FCC promised by Cunard and have just gotten a string of we will check on that emails to inquiries. I get that there were many people affected by Covid on the ships, but I think Cunard’s lack of transparency does not help their “white glove service” that they hold so high. The biggest problem is it seems that there is no way to even track it yourself. We were told that we probably would not get an email or notification about it, that we just have to keep checking.
the saddest part about this kind of situation is that word gets out about the hassles you go through and people will just stop reporting that they have Covid. This practice could result in exactly the thing they were afraid of, being shut down totally. It will happen when the ships are full of sick people again because the cruise line dropped the ball on customer service for those unfortunate enough to get Covid.
fortunately our Covid cases was mild (even for 2 high risk seniors) so I think the one thing people should do is continue to ask the cruise lines to limit sailing for fully vaccinated persons. I think that is going to protect the cruise lines far more than testing and all of that stuff. I tested negative on Saturday and got on the ship on Sunday and Tuesday morning I self tested and had a positive test. My husband tested positive on Thursday. So, no testing does not mean you have not been exposed by someone that has been tested. There are lag time, usually a couple of days is all.
Good luck and go in armed with information that you need to know, not just what Cunard is going to tell you, because that was zilch.
