Flu on Anthem of the Seas

[PhoenixCruiser]

56 minutes ago, aflyingbuttress said:

 

Our cabin steward said they’re all given flu shots. She could have meant just cabin stewards, but that seems unlikely. 

 

Did you or your daughter get a flu shot before the cruise?

[aflyingbuttress]

1 minute ago, PhoenixCruiser said:

 

Did you or your daughter get a flu shot before the cruise?

 

Yes she did. But she didn’t catch the flu. She’s having other issues. I did not get one because I am allergic to certain components of the flu vaccine. 

[PhoenixCruiser]

Just now, aflyingbuttress said:

 

Yes she did. But she didn’t catch the flu. She’s having other issues. I did not get one because I am allergic to certain components of the flu vaccine. 

 

Thanks, just wanted to see if this year's dose was effective at all.

 

 

[aflyingbuttress]

Just now, PhoenixCruiser said:

 

Thanks, just wanted to see if this year's dose was effective at all.

 

 

 

My husband also got the flu shot and he is fine. They did tell me at the doctors that it hasn’t been that effective. 

[reallyitsmema]

5 minutes ago, aflyingbuttress said:

 

Well, I had no idea we could get food from the main dining room. You’re the first person to say that to me. They told me to get room service. My husband has gone to windjammer but this morning she was only allowed to have bread, bananas, applesauce, or rice. They only had bananas and bread. My husband asked for the other stuff and they said to order from room service. They did not have either and said to check windjammers. He has gotten her some stuff for dinner at this point but none of it was available through room service. If he wasn’t allowed to leave, she’d have had nothing to eat.

 

I did mention in my previous post that my husband was able to get us water. We DID call and ask for what we needed but were told they didn’t have it. Obviously your experience has been different than ours. 

 

We called guest services to see if we could get room service from the dining room. We could have easily picked up food from the mdr if one of us could leave, since we couldn’t, they sent someone in an hour. 

[Allura_317]

1 hour ago, aflyingbuttress said:

My daughter and I are both sick. I woke with a bit of a cough on Wednesday morning. I didn’t think much of it until Wednesday afternoon when my chest started burning. At that point I self-quarantined and went to our cabin hoping I’d feel better. My daughter then came back from the kids club that afternoon complaining of a severe headache. We all stayed in for the night and the next morning we woke up feeling worse.

 

My daughter threw up so we went to the doctor that morning to get her seen. We arrived at around 7:15 and since it was before open hours they wanted to charge us an extra $75 to be seen. We decided to return to our room and see how we felt later. By the afternoon I was pretty convinced I had the flu. My daughter hadn’t thrown up again but she was still complaining about stomach pains so we went back to the doctor around 5:20 PM.

 

when we arrived the waiting room was full. They triaged quickly but it was a pretty long wait to see the doctor. While we were waiting someone came in and said that they made an announcement that anyone having flu symptoms should get seen. They probably triaged another 20 or so people while we were waiting. 

 

‘When we were triaged, I was told my daughter was required to see the doctor but it would be complimentary. They gave me the option and I chose to see him because I knew I had the flu and I was hoping for some relief. I was charged a total of $276 for my visit, including medication. 

 

They swabbed my nose and confirmed i have influenza A and gave me 4 doses of tamiflu. The doctor told me they only had 18 doses left, so not enough for the whole ship. Yikes! I feel bad for the people who got there after me because I was totally wrecked last night and I think the medicine has made this at least bearable. 

 

‘My daughter was given something for her stomach pain and ibuprofen for fever and we were quarantined to our cabin for a minimum of 24 hours. Someone came back around a couple hours ago and checked our temps. We still have fevers so we are quarantined until the end. In total, we’ve missed 3 1/2 days of our cruise. 

 

They are waiving the room room service fee, but they have nothing on the menu that my daughter was recommended to eat by the doctor for her belly. She’s pretty much starving and existing only on bananas and the only plain rice my husband could find in windjammers. We asked for water and we were told there would be a charge because it’s not included in room service which, frankly, I find outrageous! If I’m quarantined, they need to give me free water. Especially since I have a beverage package that includes it. Thankfully, my husband is not sick and not quarantined, so he can get some stuff, but I don’t know what people are doing if their whole cabin is sick. Probably leaving anyway because they have no choice. 

 

I’m also a little shocked that even though my daughter was feverish and had just recently thrown up, that they would not see her without charging extra. That felt really irresponsible, especially now that I know they were treating gastro issues for free.

 

all in all, the whole experience has been frustrating. I don’t blame anyone for us getting sick. But they should have seen my daughter the first time we went. They should have food available to eat that they advise people to eat. And they should be providing us with water.

 

There has been no talk of refunds or credits. It would be nice, but I’m hardly expecting one. 

I am so sorry to hear this, this is very frustrating and rather outrageous how they are handling this after what they did on the noro Oasis cruise.  I think you do deserve at least a partial refund or future cruise credit as you are missing 3.5 days of your cruise (so far) and are sick.  But then again, not sure how if Royal would as you mentioned.  Thank you for sharing and please give updates if anything new arises.

[reallyitsmema]

3 minutes ago, PhoenixCruiser said:

 

Thanks, just wanted to see if this year's dose was effective at all.

 

 

 

We both got the flu shot and both are sick. 

[PhoenixCruiser]

2 minutes ago, reallyitsmema said:

 

We both got the flu shot and both are sick. 

 

UGH, that is what I was afraid of.

 

Hope you all feel better soon.

[Allura_317]

I saw this on your thread and it seems terrible, I truly hope you get some sort of compensation especially after seeing this and the information on this forum.  Just thought some others may want to see it as well:

40 minutes ago, aflyingbuttress said:

We’re on the Anthem and came down with the flu. We’ve missed half our cruise. We never ate in the main dining room even once. We had 5 nights of dining through a dining package and intended to eat there on the other nights, but we only managed 3 specialty dinners, which we tipped $20-30 on top of the package price. We’ve tipped cash on every drink we ordered, whether from a package or paying by the drink, and we’ve already left our cabin steward around $45 in cash and plan to leave her another chunk of cash at the end if we do this. She’s been amazing. But considering we’ve hardly taken part in the services that the gratuity covers, it would be nice to apply it to my medical bills, which are around $276. 

[reallyitsmema]

Just now, PhoenixCruiser said:

 

UGH, that is what I was afraid of.

 

Hope you all feel better soon.

 

Thanks. I have improved, no fever for over 24 hours. My husband is finally fever free. I have to check in at medical in the morning. The nurse who visited us suggested we stay put even if I do get released. At least if I can go grab take out from mdr or coastal kitchen, we would be happy. We can survive on the room service menu otherwise. 

[Allura_317]

Just now, reallyitsmema said:

 

Thanks. I have improved, no fever for over 24 hours. My husband is finally fever free. I have to check in at medical in the morning. The nurse who visited us suggested we stay put even if I do get released. At least if I can go grab take out from mdr or coastal kitchen, we would be happy. We can survive on the room service menu otherwise. 

Glad to hear that you are improving, sounds like things are starting to get better for you!

[aflyingbuttress]

2 minutes ago, Allura_317 said:

I saw this on your thread and it seems terrible, I truly hope you get some sort of compensation especially after seeing this and the information on this forum.  Just thought some others may want to see it as well:

 

‘It would be nice. I’m not the type to ask for compensation so it’ll just come down to what they decide. But it is frustrating that some things we paid in advance for and can’t use feels like flushing money down the toilet. I asked about the gratuities on the other thread because $350 seems steep to pay for only a few meals in the buffet. But someone said if we remove them our cabin steward will have to add all cash we gave her to a pool of tips for everyone anyway. I really don’t want to penalize her for it, so I probably won’t change them. 

[Allura_317]

1 minute ago, aflyingbuttress said:

 

‘It would be nice. I’m not the type to ask for compensation so it’ll just come down to what they decide. But it is frustrating that some things we paid in advance for and can’t use feels like flushing money down the toilet. I asked about the gratuities on the other thread because $350 seems steep to pay for only a few meals in the buffet. But someone said if we remove them our cabin steward will have to add all cash we gave her to a pool of tips for everyone anyway. I really don’t want to penalize her for it, so I probably won’t change them. 

Yes, that makes sense.

[time4u2go]

31 minutes ago, aflyingbuttress said:

 

‘It would be nice. I’m not the type to ask for compensation so it’ll just come down to what they decide. But it is frustrating that some things we paid in advance for and can’t use feels like flushing money down the toilet. I asked about the gratuities on the other thread because $350 seems steep to pay for only a few meals in the buffet. But someone said if we remove them our cabin steward will have to add all cash we gave her to a pool of tips for everyone anyway. I really don’t want to penalize her for it, so I probably won’t change them. 

That's not necessarily true.

[xpcdoojk]

2 hours ago, aflyingbuttress said:

My daughter and I are both sick. I woke with a bit of a cough on Wednesday morning. I didn’t think much of it until Wednesday afternoon when my chest started burning. At that point I self-quarantined and went to our cabin hoping I’d feel better. My daughter then came back from the kids club that afternoon complaining of a severe headache. We all stayed in for the night and the next morning we woke up feeling worse.

 

My daughter threw up so we went to the doctor that morning to get her seen. We arrived at around 7:15 and since it was before open hours they wanted to charge us an extra $75 to be seen. We decided to return to our room and see how we felt later. By the afternoon I was pretty convinced I had the flu. My daughter hadn’t thrown up again but she was still complaining about stomach pains so we went back to the doctor around 5:20 PM.

 

when we arrived the waiting room was full. They triaged quickly but it was a pretty long wait to see the doctor. While we were waiting someone came in and said that they made an announcement that anyone having flu symptoms should get seen. They probably triaged another 20 or so people while we were waiting. 

 

‘When we were triaged, I was told my daughter was required to see the doctor but it would be complimentary. They gave me the option and I chose to see him because I knew I had the flu and I was hoping for some relief. I was charged a total of $276 for my visit, including medication. 

 

They swabbed my nose and confirmed i have influenza A and gave me 4 doses of tamiflu. The doctor told me they only had 18 doses left, so not enough for the whole ship. Yikes! I feel bad for the people who got there after me because I was totally wrecked last night and I think the medicine has made this at least bearable. 

 

‘My daughter was given something for her stomach pain and ibuprofen for fever and we were quarantined to our cabin for a minimum of 24 hours. Someone came back around a couple hours ago and checked our temps. We still have fevers so we are quarantined until the end. In total, we’ve missed 3 1/2 days of our cruise. 

 

They are waiving the room room service fee, but they have nothing on the menu that my daughter was recommended to eat by the doctor for her belly. She’s pretty much starving and existing only on bananas and the only plain rice my husband could find in windjammers. We asked for water and we were told there would be a charge because it’s not included in room service which, frankly, I find outrageous! If I’m quarantined, they need to give me free water. Especially since I have a beverage package that includes it. Thankfully, my husband is not sick and not quarantined, so he can get some stuff, but I don’t know what people are doing if their whole cabin is sick. Probably leaving anyway because they have no choice. 

 

I’m also a little shocked that even though my daughter was feverish and had just recently thrown up, that they would not see her without charging extra. That felt really irresponsible, especially now that I know they were treating gastro issues for free.

 

all in all, the whole experience has been frustrating. I don’t blame anyone for us getting sick. But they should have seen my daughter the first time we went. They should have food available to eat that they advise people to eat. And they should be providing us with water.

 

There has been no talk of refunds or credits. It would be nice, but I’m hardly expecting one. 

 

The water out of the tap is perfectly fine.  

 

It is potable water, which means it is safe to drink....  

 

Doctors and nurses are free?  They have no value? They are a right of others to make them perform for the others?  I thought we had ended slavery, apparently not.

 

 

jc

[reallyitsmema]

3 minutes ago, xpcdoojk said:

 

The water out of the tap is perfectly fine.  

 

It is potable water, which means it is safe to drink....  

 

Doctors and nurses are free?  They have no value? They are a right of others to make them perform for the others?  I thought we had ended slavery, apparently not.

 

 

jc

 

Part of the issue is the captain announced that a consult was free and to be checked out if you had symptoms. Seeing the triage nurse was free, seeing a doctor wasn’t. 

[xpcdoojk]

I was posting in terms about concepts.  You are posting in legal terms about what the captain said.  

 

I don’t know what the captain said, if he said, you can see the doctor for free that is one thing from a legal point of view.  If he said you can be checked out at the clinic, that is a different thing completely.  

 

Either way the nurse, doctor, or paramedic are not slaves and just because you are sick you don’t own them is my point.  They are not obligated to take care of people just because.  On the upside because they are generally very compassionate people they often do so at their own detriment.

 

Jc

[xpcdoojk]

I hope you get better

 

jc

[aflyingbuttress]

9 minutes ago, xpcdoojk said:

 

The water out of the tap is perfectly fine.  

 

It is potable water, which means it is safe to drink....  

 

Doctors and nurses are free?  They have no value? They are a right of others to make them perform for the others?  I thought we had ended slavery, apparently not.

 

 

jc

 

Good lord. Way to twist my words. I’ll give you the water comment. I was not actually thinking about that. In my defense, I have the flu and a 102 degree fever. As to the doctor comment, I never said I expected them to work for free. I stated facts about what they did and did not charge me. I said I was shocked that they wanted to charge EXTRA when she had been feverish and throwing up. That’s because you’d think a cruise ship would want to address that quickly. And once I found out it would be free, I was even more surprised. None of that says I expect them to work for free. Nothing I said implies that. 

 

I expect that Royal Caribbean pays their staff regardless of when the cruise line decides to offer free medical treatment. There’s no reason to believe they would go unpaid. 

[xpcdoojk]

Often times the doctors and nurses work to cruise at sea, ie they are not RCI employees.  I know that was the case when my wife broke her foot in Aruba.  They typically have a minimal medical staff, that are not full-time RCI employees.  Shocking I know.

 

jc

[aflyingbuttress]

4 minutes ago, xpcdoojk said:

Either way the nurse, doctor, or paramedic are not slaves and just because you are sick you don’t own them is my point.  They are not obligated to take care of people just because.  On the upside because they are generally very compassionate people they often do so at their own detriment.

 

Jc

 

NOBODY said they were slaves or even thought of them as slaves. They ARE obligated to take care of people because it is a job they are paid to do and that they chose to do. 

[aflyingbuttress]

1 minute ago, xpcdoojk said:

Often times the doctors and nurses work to cruise at sea, ie they are not RCI employees.  I know that was the case when my wife broke her foot in Aruba.  They typically have a minimal medical staff, that are not full-time RCI employees.  Shocking I know.

 

jc

 

So you are telling me that if Royal Caribbean offers free treatment they don’t get paid? If that is true, that is horrendous. However, the fact that most people don’t know that doesn’t make them ok with slavery. Choose your words a bit more carefully please. 

[xpcdoojk]

 

Sounds a lot like hookers.  They are paid, so they have to perform....  really.... that is the way you think it is.  What is the difference between obligated and forced?  The way you say it.  It sounds the same to me.

 

jc

[reallyitsmema]

2 minutes ago, xpcdoojk said:

Often times the doctors and nurses work to cruise at sea, ie they are not RCI employees.  I know that was the case when my wife broke her foot in Aruba.  They typically have a minimal medical staff, that are not full-time RCI employees.  Shocking I know.

 

jc

 

Surprisingly there there were three doctors working when we were in medical which was at the same time as flying. 

[aflyingbuttress]

3 minutes ago, xpcdoojk said:

 

Sounds a lot like hookers.  They are paid, so they have to perform....  really.... that is the way you think it is.  What is the difference between obligated and forced?  The way you say it.  It sounds the same to me.

 

jc

 

They are employees on a ship that offers medical care. It is the same as any job. You do the job you signed up for. Do you go to your job and expect to get paid even if you don’t perform? Eventually you would be fired. That is how jobs work. It’s not the same as hookers. By your logic, they shouldn’t be here at all. Again, I never said they should work for free. You said I said that. But I didn’t. You’re deliberately twisting my words. This is the last I will say about it. 

Edited February 2, 2019 by aflyingbuttress