CafeBruno

Thanks for your concern Sumo Citrus! Like I said, I was writing to try and inform others that might be expecting HAL to help them once they test positive. Those that are might not be comfortable changing their own travel arrangements on the fly, like I did. Sorry if I can off as whiny....but it is disappointing to me when HAL makes promises but does not keep them.

Gray Lady, when we self tested positive at the Westmark Hotel in Fairbanks, we immediately reported it to the HAL tour desk at the hotel. They took down our names and room number and told us our Tour Director would be getting hold of us for the next steps (she never did, now 4 days later), and that our tour was over and we could no longer participate in the tour. They then told us to go to the hotel front desk to report it to them also. We did and the front desk gave us 2 letters, 1 from HAL and 1 from the hotel. The HAL letter told us we couldn't continue the tour and that we had to isolate, and said we had to pay for our additional expenses, and then submit to HAL for reimbursement. It also said we could contact Guest Relations, which we tried to but gave up after an hour on hold - I sent them an email instead on Friday, but again no response yet. The hotel letter told us "...we will contact Beacon, and Occupational Health and Safety Service we have contracted with to help manage cases that come up. They will be contacting you periodically to test you and check on you". We got these letters last Thursday, and to date, no one from Beacon or HAL or the hotel has contacted us to do anything. I even spent an hour on the phone last Friday trying to contact every Beacon phone number I could find, and got shuffled around to 3 voice mails, which I left, which again I have not gotten 1 return call. Since our HAL flight was supposed to leave last Saturday, and our 5 day quarantine does not expire until tomorrow, I was able to change our HAL flights myself on delta.com on Saturday morning, from Saturday to Wednesday (for an extra $210, which of course I had to pay). Hope this is helpful to you - let me know if you need more info. And safe travels to you

Double post

Wow Gray Lady, HAL must have just changed the policy to make masks mandatory rather than optional, surely in response to high covid rates on the preceding trip (mine). I wish you safe travels, but I would not assume HAL will take care of you...they sure didn't take care of us. Better to prepare for taking care of yourself in case HAL ignores you like they did us

Thanks, I also saw the policy, and am hoping HAL will honor that and reimburse us for the extra costs. In fact I emailed HAL's Guest Relations at the address on the letter they gave me when we informed them we were positive, but, no response yet. I am not holding my breath on getting a response quickly.

I wanted to let others know about our experience with Covid on our Alaska Cruise Tour. In summary, we enjoyed our trip a lot, but we learned a couple of important lessons that may be of value to others. First, that the land tour Covid protocols were nonexistent, increasing your risk of Covid, and second, if you do catch Covid on the land portion of the tour like us, be prepared to figure things out completely by yourself, with no help from HAL or others. I had my laptop with me and we were able to figure out what to do on our own - how long to quarantine, change our flights, extend our hotel stay, get more tests and medications, etc., so for us it was just an inconvenience, extra expense, and disappointment at not being able to complete the trip as planned. But if you are not computer savvy or expect assistance from HAL or others, you need to know that you might not get any assistance at all and be stuck completely on your own in Fairbanks or Denali. For those interested in the details of our experience: We sailed on the Nieuw Amsterdam, leaving Vancouver June 5, ending in Whittier, where we started our 6 day land portion to Anchorage, Denali, and Fairbanks. On the ship, we had a great time, with great weather in all the ports. We are very risk averse and wore masks constantly and avoided crowds on the ship, which was actually easier to do than on land. On the land portion, there were many more crowded situations, like on the busses and trains, on the 26 Glacier boat tour, the Denali Tundra Wilderness tour, and the other included land excursions. Both on the ship and on the land tour, very few people wore masks, maybe 10% at most. We are double vaxxed and double boosted, and we’ve managed to avoid Covid until now. From my understanding the incubation period for Covid is typically from 2 to 10 days after exposure, but for the most prevalent Omicron variant, it is typically 3 days. So we could possibly have caught it on the ship, but most likely, it was during the land tour, which is logical based on what we experienced – close quarters, no masking, and increasing amounts of coughing as the land tour progressed. My wife started feeling sick on our last night in Denali, on Wednesday last week, but she tested negative. When we got to the hotel in Fairbanks on Thursday, she tested positive, and I immediately contacted the HAL Tour Desk and the hotel front desk and informed them. They gave me a letter from HAL and one from the hotel, advising us that we needed to remain isolated and that we would be contacted by our Tour Director/HAL, and Beacon Health, who would “be contacting you periodically to test you and check on you”. Spoiler alert – no one from HAL or Beacon ever contacted us. I tried contacting Beacon myself on Friday; I called about 6 numbers and got shuffled around and sent to several voicemails. I left voicemails, but no one ever called us back. I also tested positive Friday. Long story short, we figured out that we should quarantine 5 days, so instead of flying out of Fairbanks Saturday the 18th, we’d need to stay in quarantine at the hotel until Wednesday the 22nd. I was able to change our HAL flights myself on Saturday morning (at increased fare), to avoid losing flight credit for our original flight. Some may say, “You knew the risk when you booked the trip, and if you were not comfortable with the risks you shouldn’t have cruised”. I totally agree with that – we completely understood the risks and are fine with them. This was our 4th cruise since October 2020, and we have several more booked that we are looking forward to. It was just our turn to get Covid, despite our precautions. But it is very disappointing to see so many people unmasked, in close quarters, especially while coughing and hacking. I just wish people had more consideration for others and take the small steps of wearing masks around others, especially if they have cold/covid symptoms. And even more disappointing that we got zero assistance from HAL, Beacon, or anyone else. At this point I am hoping HAL will reimburse us for the additional hotel nights, meals, and airfare increase. Time will tell. There’s a lot more to the story, so if anyone has questions, let me know.