Denied boarding for Harmony of the Seas from Barcelona- due to Covid positive result at the terminal

[ONECRUISER]

7 minutes ago, sugarny123 said:

we suspect that my husband picked up the virus within that 2 days. God knows where and when but we suspect maybe it could've been from our multiple taxi rides? My husband was the one that sat next to the driver all the time. He started having fever on the night that we were put in a hotel.

 

Prepare yourself to worst situation if you're flying into Italy and make all the possible backup plans as much as possible or at least mentally prepare yourself. Traveling during Covid era is so unpredictable. Getting changeable ticket is a must. Best luck to you. 

Glad you are both OK considering. Safe Travels

[Jimbo]

18 minutes ago, ONECRUISER said:

Nope, original Cruise Critic was AOL/Cruise Critic. We all had to rejoin in 2000, was offline for few months that yr, ARMY Deployment, but was still CC Member 300 and something when I to rejoin then. Use be somewhere on here that showed Member # and when we Joined

Yeah , I do remember the member number thing they used to have. I was one of the early members too from AOL...............Wonder if that number thing is still somewhere to be found?

[ONECRUISER]

2 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

Yeah , I do remember the member number thing they used to have. I was one of the early members too from AOL...............Wonder if that number thing is still somewhere to be found?

I know, was on here still couple yrs ago. Anybody?

[sugarny123]

1 hour ago, Auntiemomo said:

Was your husband asymptomatic through this whole ordeal?  If so, how would one who is vaccinated  know at the time of embarkation that they caught covid.

Yes my husband was asymptomatic until the night we were put in a hotel. He started having fever the night we got to the hotel, for 3 days. So we believe we arrived at Spain as negative and he contracted the virus within 2 days we were at barcelona, possibly from taxi rides as he always sat next to the driver multiple times. 

I guess you would never know if you got covid or not until you test at the cruise terminal like us. It's rare but it happens as you can see. 

[CalTexCruiser]

3 minutes ago, sugarny123 said:

Yes my husband was asymptomatic until the night we were put in a hotel. He started having fever the night we got to the hotel, for 3 days. So we believe we arrived at Spain as negative and he contracted the virus within 2 days we were at barcelona, possibly from taxi rides as he always sat next to the driver multiple times. 

I guess you would never know if you got covid or not until you test at the cruise terminal like us. It's rare but it happens as you can see. 

 

You never know with the delta variant--it doesn't take much exposure to cause infection even among the vaccinated.

 

Traveling these days is a high risk-high reward endeavor--if everything would have worked out your family would probably have had the time of your lives on one of the largest cruise ships with low occupancy.  After the pandemic subsides it'll be back to crowded ships and ports of call.

[sugarny123]

18 minutes ago, tampadee said:

Just wondering, did you both wear masks everywhere?

Yes, we're strong believers of mask wearing. Especially my husband. If someone needs to get an award for sanitizing, he should be the one. I took some mask breaks outdoors when nobody was around but my husband would not take off his mask. It's odd that he's the one that got tested positive. We even shared ice cream and rest of us are fine. We believe his immunity went down, through red-eye flight and lack of sleep coming to Spain. 

[Jimbo]

7 minutes ago, CalTexCruiser said:

Traveling these days is a high risk-high reward endeavor--if everything would have worked out your family would probably have had the time of your lives on one of the largest cruise ships with low occupancy.  After the pandemic subsides it'll be back to crowded ships and ports of call.

I will take those conditions every day of the week and twice on Sundays if it makes a safer cruise/vacation for us.

Edited September 5, 2021 by Jimbo

[CalTexCruiser]

11 minutes ago, sugarny123 said:

Yes, we're strong believers of mask wearing. Especially my husband. If someone needs to get an award for sanitizing, he should be the one. I took some mask breaks outdoors when nobody was around but my husband would not take off his mask. It's odd that he's the one that got tested positive. We even shared ice cream and rest of us are fine. We believe his immunity went down, through red-eye flight and lack of sleep coming to Spain. 

Haha...same thing in my family...I'm the most careful of everyone (wipe down groceries, obsessive hand sanitizer use, the works) and yet I believed I caught Covid when we visited LA a couple of months ago with my wife and daughter.  I developed cold-like symptons (light congestion, stuffy nose, sneezing) after the LA trip, which I thought at the time was just the common cold but now I realize could possibly be Covid as I read that among the vaccinated, the delta variant attacks the nasal passages and overwhelms the antibodies until the rest of the immune system kicks in to fight it off.

 

My wife and daughter were fine and did not develop anything.

 

 

Edited September 5, 2021 by CalTexCruiser

[CalTexCruiser]

6 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

I will take those conditions every day of the week and twice on Sundays if it makes a safer cruise/vacation for us.

Nothing wrong with playing it safe at all--different people have different risk tolerances.

 

We chose to cruise now precisely because so many do not want to do it.  But we go in with eyes wide open on the risks.

 

 

Edited September 5, 2021 by CalTexCruiser

[Jimbo]

4 minutes ago, CalTexCruiser said:

Nothing wrong with playing it safe at all--different people have different risk tolerances.

 

We chose to cruise now precisely because so many do not want to do it.  But we go in with eyes wide open on the risks.

 

 

Cruising isn't must do for us, we just move on and do something else that we enjoy and makes us happy.  If we cruise again, it happens, if we don't. It's not the end of the world.

We had a good run of cruising.

[taglovestocruise]

1 hour ago, sugarny123 said:

Yes, we're strong believers of mask wearing. Especially my husband. If someone needs to get an award for sanitizing, he should be the one. I took some mask breaks outdoors when nobody was around but my husband would not take off his mask. It's odd that he's the one that got tested positive. We even shared ice cream and rest of us are fine. We believe his immunity went down, through red-eye flight and lack of sleep coming to Spain. 

Did they do a second test to rule out a false positive.  Could you board this following weekend if you wanted..

[Iamcruzin]

4 hours ago, livingonthebeach said:

 

Weren't those for people who tested positive during the cruise but not pre boarding?  I seem to recall those private charters were arranged for people who tested positive on the ship and not before getting on the ship. 

That's what I remember as well.

[sugarny123]

9 hours ago, taglovestocruise said:

Did they do a second test to rule out a false positive.  Could you board this following weekend if you wanted..

everyone gets a rapid test done and for someone who tested positive on rapid, they do pct test on you.

my husband got positive for both. 

 

I wish we could go on a next cruise! but I have to go back to work and Kids need to back to school.😪

[steamboats]

14 hours ago, Sunshine3601 said:

what is interesting is the OP's family member had tested positive at the cruise terminal before boarding the ship and Royal is still covering their hotel/food quarantine expense.       Is that rules for Europe?

 

It depends on the country ... Spain has a mandatory 10 day quarantine. So RCI has to follow this as the OPs cruise started in Barcelona.

 

14 hours ago, Billy Baltic said:

I’ve read other threads where covid positive guests have been repatriated by private flight. What did this not happen it this case?

 

First it´s because of the mandatory 10 day quarantine of Spain. Second those Medevac flights were out of the Caribbean. We are talking about Spain. A private flight from Barcelona back to the US might be a bit more pricey. After the 10 days (and a negative test) they can fly back home on regular flights.

 

steamboats

[LuCruise]

I'm really sorry this has happened to you and your family.  Just awful to have gone all the way to Barcelona and then only to be quarantined.  

 

Is testing at the port part of Barcelona requirements for adults?  I thought you only need to test 2 days prior.  But does make you wonder if Royal will add this to all cruises.

[sugarny123]

15 minutes ago, LuCruise said:

I'm really sorry this has happened to you and your family.  Just awful to have gone all the way to Barcelona and then only to be quarantined.  

 

Is testing at the port part of Barcelona requirements for adults?  I thought you only need to test 2 days prior.  But does make you wonder if Royal will add this to all cruises.

Currently different rules are in place in different countries. For Spain, negative test result is not required but they perform rapid test on all passengers before boarding. I feel like RC is more favorable to outside of US cruisers at the moment. 

 

Thanks for your concern!

[debrinski]

I'm so sorry this happened to you. Hope your husband is feeling better.  Thank you for sharing the information.   We are taking the same cruise on Oct 17th and spending 3 days in Barcelona before the cruise.  We're hoping to get the booster shot for Phizer before the cruise and hope that will give us extra protection.  If it's not too personal can you tell me which vaccine you received?  

[sugarny123]

2 hours ago, debrinski said:

I'm so sorry this happened to you. Hope your husband is feeling better.  Thank you for sharing the information.   We are taking the same cruise on Oct 17th and spending 3 days in Barcelona before the cruise.  We're hoping to get the booster shot for Phizer before the cruise and hope that will give us extra protection.  If it's not too personal can you tell me which vaccine you received?  

Thank you for your concern!

 

We all got Pfizer vaccine. Booster would help for sure. Good luck to you guys!

[cruisequeen4ever]

I’m sorry your fun plans were foibled. You have a great attitude about it, and it’s wonderful of Royal to cover everything for you guys. Keep us posted about the journey home. 

[debrinski]

2 hours ago, sugarny123 said:

Thank you for your concern!

 

We all got Pfizer vaccine. Booster would help for sure. Good luck to you guys!

Thank you!  

[ludde]

5 hours ago, sugarny123 said:

Thank you for your concern!

 

We all got Pfizer vaccine. Booster would help for sure. Good luck to you guys!

Was your husband fully vaccinated with at least 2 doses?

[sugarny123]

7 hours ago, ludde said:

Was your husband fully vaccinated with at least 2 doses?

yes. we fully got 2 doses of vaccine in April.

[Tee & Chilli]

Wishing all the best for you and your family. Thanks for sharing your story.

[Gracie115]

On 9/5/2021 at 3:47 PM, sugarny123 said:

Yes, we're strong believers of mask wearing. Especially my husband. If someone needs to get an award for sanitizing, he should be the one. I took some mask breaks outdoors when nobody was around but my husband would not take off his mask. It's odd that he's the one that got tested positive. We even shared ice cream and rest of us are fine. We believe his immunity went down, through red-eye flight and lack of sleep coming to Spain. 

Was he wearing an N95 or KN95 mask?

[megr1125]

On 9/5/2021 at 1:00 PM, CalTexCruiser said:

OP, thanks for sharing and so sorry for your ordeal.

 

This is the first detailed account I've seen of an RCCL or Celebrity customer when testing positive prior to embarkation.  

 

We'll be sailing from Athens on the Apex in a few weeks so are quite interested in how RCCL (and by extension Celebrity) would handle this.

 

We plan to take a test before our flight to reduce the chances of a positive test at the terminal--i.e., we will get on the flight only if negative.aa

 

And with respect to the chartered private jet question posed by another poster, that only happens if you test positive DURING the cruise.

 

 

I sailed Apex from Athens in August. To my knowledge, no one tested positive at check in.  I'd spent 2 days in Athens pre cruise.  The test at the pier was easy (the whole process is pretty smooth).  I know that 2 people tested positive on the day before we returned.  They were to be housed in a hotel at the expense of the Greek government for 10 days and then I presume Celebrity sent them home.  The Greek quarantine was mandatory. 

I do not know what happened after the 10 days.   I was speaking to some other guests who also spoke with one of the positive cases.  She had not heard from them (they actually live close to the one guest who was positive so they swapped emails).  I am not sure if the 2 positive cases were a husband and wife, but I only heard of one up until a week ago.