A delayed and short Paradise report with Covid

[marci4tony]

On 3/26/2023 at 11:00 AM, csm5986142 said:

Wow, sounds like you made the best of the situation. 

Covid is still creating havoc and not just on the ships, it's everywhere. My daughter (about the same age as your son) and I went to Disney the first week of March and my daughter had nearly the exact same experience as your son.  We had to change her flight back to college because she was so sick.  Based on the timing, we think she probably caught it on one of our flights, but it's so hard to know.

Had some friends on another "company" cruise, and was sick on day 2 - confined to their balcony for the entire 8 day cruise.  Picked it up from the airport/airplane based on stats.

 

Its still out there...  precautions are never wrong; just be aware.  🙂

[65Mommy]

On 3/25/2023 at 6:31 PM, momof3cruisers said:

Now, here is where we go back and realize when trouble started.  That morning my son had commented that our cabin was so dry and his throat was kind of sore.  And then, on the shuttle back to the ship, we shared a bottle of water.  He had been fine all day.  
 

We were planning on dinner in the MDR but he said he was tired so we decided to get some room service.  Then he was going to karaoke and I wanted to check out the main show.  Part way in, he messaged me and said he wasn’t doing great and was going back to the cabin.  I didn’t like the show so I decided to check on him.  It was 7:30 and he was sound asleep! Huh.  Weird.  So I left and went to the casino, then hit the piano bar for awhile before heading back to the cabin for the night. (Piano bar guy was FANTASTIC! His name was Rawl.) 

 

aAt about 4 in the morning, my son woke me up and said, “I need help.  I need advil but I can’t move. My head hurts too much.” This is not a kid who complains so I was very concerned.  I got him advil and sort or rearranged his bedding for him as he’d been tossing and turning.  Then I basically laid there waiting for 8:00 so I could call the medical center.  In the morning he was absolutely burning up.  And was achy and coughing but not a lot.  I called medical and said I thought he had Covid and wondered what the protocol was.  The guy said “Well, we can test him but it’s $125.”  I said okay, did they come to us or did we go there.  He said for us to go down there and if we had masks, he should wear one but if not, they would give him one when we got there. Okay….so we headed down. I’ve been traveling with masks since the lovely epidemic so we both wore them.  Had the kiddo put on a clean shirt so maybe he’d be more comfortable but by the time we got to medical, it was soaked through.  Poor guy.  
 

Medical was a little odd.  They had us sit in the regular waiting area and fill out the paperwork. When I mentioned again that I was concerned about Covid they told me again that if I wanted him tested it would be $125.  Are they trying to discourage testing? This was odd to me. But it seemed like the right thing to do so we did it.  We got into a room and I mentioned that I’d like him tested for the flu if it wasn’t Covid.  Oh, that’s free. Wha?  Whatever.  So, the kid gets a positive Covid test.  They didn’t do any kind of an exam but did give him a variety of OTC meds.  And said he was confined to our cabin but I was not.  However, if I wanted, they could move me to a different cabin.  No thanks.  Also said, his meals would be brought to him on a schedule.  That didn’t sound right to me but okay.  I figured I could bring him what he needed.  
 

later that morning, I went to guest services to see if I could somehow either use his card or get his soda package transferred to me since I didn’t want to pay but he couldn’t leave the cabin.  The woman I spoke with was fantastic! So helpful.  She gave me a code so he could have premium Wi-Fi, and explained that he could order anything from anywhere on the ship via room service. From Guy’s to the MDR to sodas etc.  And she explained what the process would be to disembark the ship at the end. 
 

The next two days, I mainly stayed in the cabin to keep him company other than going out to get meals myself.  And lots of OJ for him each morning.  We relaxed and watched TV, he played on his phone and messaged with his brother and we read.  And he slept.  A lot.  His fever only lasted one day thankfully.  I was able to get clean sheets from our steward to remake the bed as the steward couldn’t come into our cabin of course. Room service was so helpful and kind.  And the guest services gal called a few times each day to check in and make sure we had everything we needed. Everyone was very caring and made the situation much less difficult than it could have been. All of his meals were delivered on disposable dish ware and we were given a red biohazard bag to throw the trash into. (The steward gave me one for the sheets too.) 
 

On the last morning, I was told to wait for last call to get off and after everyone was off, someone would come to get the kiddo. Also, we had to carry off all of our luggage.  So I did that and we agreed he would text me when they came for him so I could go get the car.  It took a LONG time for them to get him.  I was through customs and sat outside waiting for 45 min before he let me know he was on his way.  I hiked over to the ramp and then made a wrong turn and then couldn’t find him.  Eventually, we were on our way back to my Orlando condo.  He was supposed to fly out that night but we had to change that of course.  He stayed with me an extra 6 days and in the meantime, I got sick.  I mean, after that shared bottle of water AND sharing 180 sq feet of space for 3 days it was pretty inevitable even after my six vaccine shots. 
 

Thankfully, we are pretty easy going people so we still felt like we had a nice time just hanging out together and we got some yummy food and pretty views out the window.  And truly, our experience in Grand Cayman was such an awesome day.  I’m bummed he didn’t get to see Cozumel and that I lost my prepaid entrance to Paradise Beach, but things happen and we’ll just have to plan another trip.  And I’m so pleased that my previous experience with everything onSpirit seems to have been an off couple of weeks not the new normal. I already have a cruise booked on Breeze next winter. 

Was it $125 for a $10 drug store test or was it a full PCR test?

[momof3cruisers]

On 3/30/2023 at 1:59 PM, 65Mommy said:

Was it $125 for a $10 drug store test or was it a full PCR test?

It was just the 15 minute nasal swab. 

[65Mommy]

2 hours ago, momof3cruisers said:

It was just the 15 minute nasal swab. 

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