Flu on Anthem of the Seas

[reallyitsmema]

3 minutes ago, Fishkillbill said:

 

How much does a consultation cost, otherwise?

 

Not sure how much it would cost just to see the triage nurse.  A new patient office visit, level 2 with a doctor was $135.96.  Not sure what level 2 means.  Five Tamiflu tablets was almost $100, but that is the retail price.  We have now had additional Tamiflu prescriptions filled through our insurance at home and with insurance that is only $12.  The retail price for the Tamiflu at CVS is showing over $200, so the ship is not overcharging for prescriptions.  

 

 

[molly361]

2 minutes ago, reallyitsmema said:

 

Not sure how much it would cost just to see the triage nurse.  A new patient office visit, level 2 with a doctor was $135.96.  Not sure what level 2 means.  Five Tamiflu tablets was almost $100, but that is the retail price.  We have now had additional Tamiflu prescriptions filled through our insurance at home and with insurance that is only $12.  The retail price for the Tamiflu at CVS is showing over $200, so the ship is not overcharging for prescriptions.  

 

 

Hope you are feeling better.  Sorry to hear that you were sick

[reallyitsmema]

1 minute ago, molly361 said:

Hope you are feeling better.  Sorry to hear that you were sick

 

Thanks, we are both improving. 🙂  We were lucky we got to medical why they still had Tamiflu and nasal swab tests.  They gave us one course of Tamiflu to share (10 tablets) and then we contacted our doctors while on the ship and had the rest waiting for us when we got home yesterday.  Someone is taking an unofficial poll in a group from this sailing on another site and at least 100 over the over 300 in the group got either the flu or an upper respiratory infection.  Lots who left the ship feeling fine yesterday, are now posting they are feverish and headed to their doctors at home.  We are staying home and contacting our doctors to see how long we need to isolate ourselves so we don't infect anyone else.  We were quarantined but were released after our fevers broke and were fever free for 24 hours.  We still pretty much stayed in our cabin, other than getting food to bring back (room service menu gets old quickly).

 

I hope those on the current sailing stay healthy, but with so many members of the crew sick, it is going to keep spreading.

[Aza1972]

This was one of the most poorly communicated outbreaks that could even be fatal for people who have had prior respiratory issues of the elderly.

 

No information was passed on to guest staterooms. The only announcement was made once by the Captain during his daily 12pm update and unless you were in a public place and were listening then you would have missed it like we did.

 

It first came to our attention from other passengers who had heard the announcement or had already had family members unwell. The next we knew of 2.5 yr old was running a fever of 39.4 degree celcius. He was confirmed to his cabin but was basically already confirmed from the day earlier as he was sleepy and unwell. This also meant as parents we were confined and lost the last 2 days of our cruise.

 

To make matters even more ridiculous we received a letter the night before saying those who were quarantined were to go to another location for breakfast and would not disembark until after 930am. Other family members were to leave ship at normal time. So what were we to do ? Leave our young boy ? Or go to the room full of hundreds of sick people to ha e breakfast and also get infected ?

 

As it turns out the day we disembarked I woke with a cough and it continues to get worse. My little boy is so miserable. The sad part is this is not the end of our vacation, it is just the beginning as we arrived from Australia the day before the crusie and are here for two weeks longer. We are now holed up in our hotel room.

 

Royal needs to step up and forget about negative media coverage and care about its passengers

[Itchy&Scratchy]

18 hours ago, aflyingbuttress said:

 

Someone mentioned it to us onboard. I never realized, but they said Disney was all inclusive. So no add-one. Had I known that before I booked, I probably would have chosen them to begin with. I assumed it was a premium price and then more for everything else on top of that. 

however, the price is so premium that we can go on 2-3 regular cruises instead of one Disney cruise.

[ONECRUISER]

34 minutes ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

however, the price is so premium that we can go on 2-3 regular cruises instead of one Disney cruise.

Agree, when my kids were little was double for Disney Cruise what was on Royal and could just afford a Royal cruise at the time. Then 25yrs ago a cruise was more expensive then week in Orlando, now I can take 2-3 weeks on Cruise for same price one week at Disney parks...

[xpcdoojk]

On 2/3/2019 at 10:04 PM, Thorben-Hendrik said:

Your experince totally matches up with what I have experienced and seen over the years with RCI!

I do not understand all the praise that RCI gets for service  from the cheerleaders on this board...

 

 

So why do you continue to sail with them and post in this forum.... BTW I am in Gothenburg Sweden and the moment and will be in Norway 

Thursday...... other than that you seem like an....

 

jc

[Rarett]

On 2/4/2019 at 10:21 AM, Aza1972 said:

This was one of the most poorly communicated outbreaks that could even be fatal for people who have had prior respiratory issues of the elderly.

 

No information was passed on to guest staterooms. The only announcement was made once by the Captain during his daily 12pm update

 

""Royal needs to step up and forget about negative media coverage and care about its passengers""

 

Royal Needs to step up and care about its passengers - I'm sorry, they dont care, they only care about the bottom line - I'm one of the 'Cooked in 80+ inside cabin for 8 our of 12 days, our friends who are in their 70's had to bare 85 degrees for 8 days. They DO NOT CARE - I had even booked another cruise on the Anthem on day 2 of our 12 day cruise, and was told that I could get my money back if I decided to cancel the cruise within the 1st 30 days. Well after the BS $200 for 8 days of roasting, I cancelled... guess what ! I only get a $200 Credit, towards our next cruise ! so we got $200, and LOST $200. 😞

[Aza1972]

Can any passengers who sailed on Anthem of the Seas on Jan 26 and not already answered this question on any other social media sites please let me know how many of your travelling party fell ill on the cruise or within a day or 2 after disembarking. I believe that the outbreak has not been truthfully reported and that passengers deserve better. Please only comment if you were on this cruise and a member or members of your party were affected. I appreciate your responses

[mugtech]

19 hours ago, Aza1972 said:

Can any passengers who sailed on Anthem of the Seas on Jan 26 and not already answered this question on any other social media sites please let me know how many of your travelling party fell ill on the cruise or within a day or 2 after disembarking. I believe that the outbreak has not been truthfully reported and that passengers deserve better. Please only comment if you were on this cruise and a member or members of your party were affected. I appreciate your responses

Quite the response.  I thought there would be a few more.

[time4u2go]

42 minutes ago, mugtech said:

Quite the response.  I thought there would be a few more.

To be fair, only a small percentage of cruisers know about Cruise Critic.  Of those, only some of them ever make posts here.  Of those, only some of them were on that cruise.  Of those, only some have fallen ill, have read through this thread, have seen the request, and are motivated to respond.

 

The point I'm trying to make is, the absence of responses here really doesn't mean much.

Edited February 8, 2019 by time4u2go

[reallyitsmema]

1 hour ago, mugtech said:

Quite the response.  I thought there would be a few more.

 

The rollcall for this sailing was not very active on cruise critic.  It is more active elsewhere and the number is over 200 of us who were sick.

[Pami1968]

I'm sailing on the Anthem in a couple of weeks.  I was on the same cruise, same week in 2017 and came down with the flu on day 3.

After reading this thread, I think I might go get me some of those surgical masks.  I'm convinced I caught the sick during embarkation that time, and I'm determined to avoid it this time!

But this has me very nervous!

[blueridgemama]

When you put over 6000 humans in a relatively confined area during flu season it is not surprising that there are going to be upper respiratory and flu or flu like  illnesses. I can not place blame on any cruise line for this. If someone has compromised immunity, either the very young or the very old , they should probably not be on any cruise during flu season.

[constable145]

If only there was a vaccine that you get once a year that is incredibly effective when it comes to preventing the most common strains of the flu...

[time4u2go]

3 hours ago, constable145 said:

If only there was a vaccine that you get once a year that is incredibly effective when it comes to preventing the most common strains of the flu...

If you are referring to the common flu shot, it's anything but "incredibly effective".  The CDC says that at best, it's 40-60% effective: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/qa/vaccineeffect.htm

[mugtech]

11 hours ago, time4u2go said:

To be fair, only a small percentage of cruisers know about Cruise Critic.  Of those, only some of them ever make posts here.  Of those, only some of them were on that cruise.  Of those, only some have fallen ill, have read through this thread, have seen the request, and are motivated to respond.

 

The point I'm trying to make is, the absence of responses here really doesn't mean much.

In January in the USA, 200 people out of 5,000 having flu symptoms is not unusual, no big deal.

[Milwaukee Eight]

I’m still trying to understand how Royal is responsible for travelers catching the flu and what people are wanting from Royal (any cruise line). ???

[reallyitsmema]

4 hours ago, constable145 said:

If only there was a vaccine that you get once a year that is incredibly effective when it comes to preventing the most common strains of the flu...

 

Nice try, many of those that got sick, including us, had flu shots.  The flu shot does not cover all strains of the influenza virus.

[Ocean Boy]

4 hours ago, constable145 said:

If only there was a vaccine that you get once a year that is incredibly effective when it comes to preventing the most common strains of the flu...

Maybe someday we will have one.

[momofmab]

Aflyingbuttress ...I COMPLETELY agree with you!  It is NOT unreasonable to ask for reimbursement on some of the extras that you were unable to use.  Does RCI have to reimburse you?  No, but it would be a great goodwill gesture on their part, and wood go a long way to ensuring future business from you.

 

It's also not at all unreasonable to ask for clear instruction from RCI on what you should do in case of quarantine, what services, food, etc. are available to you and the procedures for getting those items.  They should be giving you a handout as they quarantine you that is the same handout they give everyone who is quarantined - so there are no discrepancies over who gets room service food, who gets MDR food, whether or not bottled water is free, etc.  It would literally take someone less than 30 minutes to type something up. 

 

You shouldn't be getting attacked for making reasonable observations about how your situation could have been handled better by RCI.  I hope you contact them directly and restate the issues you had.  Your experience will no doubt help others who may have a similar circumstance in the future. 

 

Hope you're feeling better and your family gets a re-do on your vacation!

[blueridgemama]

7 hours ago, constable145 said:

If only there was a vaccine that you get once a year that is incredibly effective when it comes to preventing the most common strains of the flu...

 

Flu virus is constantly mutating so no vaccine is going to be 100% effective. Even if only 40-50% effective it's worth getting the vaccine and then using common sense precautions during flu season like washing your hands frequently, covering your cough, staying away from people when you are sick etc.

[CruiseKeeper]

On 2/6/2019 at 11:42 PM, Aza1972 said:

Can any passengers who sailed on Anthem of the Seas on Jan 26 and not already answered this question on any other social media sites please let me know how many of your travelling party fell ill on the cruise or within a day or 2 after disembarking. I believe that the outbreak has not been truthfully reported and that passengers deserve better. Please only comment if you were on this cruise and a member or members of your party were affected. I appreciate your responses

 

Two of us were onboard.  One became ill for about a 24 hour period onboard.  Cough and body aches.  The cough lingered about 36 hours.  No official diagnosis.  

[time4u2go]

9 hours ago, mugtech said:

In January in the USA, 200 people out of 5,000 having flu symptoms is not unusual, no big deal.

Uh...I never said anything about how many people had the flu, or if it was unusual.  I was pointing out that a lack of posts on here about a topic really means nothing.  I'm really not sure what your point was in regards to my post.

Edited February 8, 2019 by time4u2go

[twangster]

As a routine business flyer I often get sick this time of year.  150 people in a plane for a few hours boarding right after 150 got off the plane is a recipe for germs and viruses to spread despite how careful I try to be. 

 

It's entirely possible patient zero boarded the ship without knowing they were sick.  Many viruses take 2 - 3 days to incubate and get to the point where symptoms are first felt.  They could have picked it up on a plane, in a cab, on a bus, church the day before, school, etc.  

 

Ships don't generate viruses, it all starts with patient zero who introduces it onto the ship/plane/taxi/uber/bus/etc.  Sucks when it happens for sure.