Planning for the worst: Day 2 Contact Quarantine - what do you pack?

[Susandt]

18 hours ago, GeezerCouple said:

I have trouble understanding the couple being separated even if they preferred to remain together.  I mean, they'd been fairly close together after whatever "exposure" may have taken place, etc., anyway.

 

Also, were they/the one person at least given the same size accommodation (or better) than what they had paid for?

 

We ALWAYS carry about a 2 week extra supply of any important meds, no matter where we go or when we go.  I'd probably up the amount just in case in Covid days... a 2 week quarantine (seems to occur in places?) plus then needing new arrangements to continue on or to home... better safe than sorry.

 

However, IF someone is forced to remain in an interior cabin with no way to get fresh air or sunlight at all... that's pretty grim.

 

Strange times!

 

GC

I agree, sounds like she was exposed, she spent night with hubby and next am told of exposure.  My only guess is her viral load at that point would not had been strong enough to spread?

[hawkeyetlse]

16 hours ago, Paphillyguy said:

This review is garbage if you ask me.  The first and mainly glaring item is that she was in close contact but her husband was not.  Ok, let's say her massage therapist tested positive, I get that.  But she was now in close contact with her husband.  So he gets to travel the ship freely yet she must remain locked down.  Something is not quite right here. 

A contact case is someone who has been in close contact with a confirmed positive case, not just with another contact case. Of course, if it's your ship, you can make your quarantine rules as strict as you want, and lock up contacts of contacts, too, but it is perfectly legitimate to have a protocol that treats the wife and husband differently here, and requires them to be separated. Unless the wife then tests positive, then the husband becomes a contact case, but even then they would not necessarily be allowed to isolate together.

[aubreyc1988]

Regardless to the truth of the story, because of the unknown, I'm buying the internet package for the foreseeable future lol

[BermudaBound2014]

The one thing I no longer travel without is a pulse-oximeter and thermometer. Both are Super small and easy to pack, and it's a great data to have if you start to feel sick. Oxygen level is directly linked to covid. Less than $20.

[krittykat]

I was recently quarantined on a river cruise to our cabin due to possible exposure until verification PCR tests came back. Lasted 12 hours. Our cabin was tiny but we had a french balcony which helped.
I was prepared. Despite being 59, I have my hand held gaming device, my phone (more games)and when packing, I made sure to take my "medicine cabinet" - not just meds for the days we planned to be gone. 
We are going to do the same for our cruise on the Breakaway in Dec. Always prepare for the worst,  hope for the best. This time, we have a cabin much more tolerable for an extended amount of time but as far as entertainment, will take stuff, meds - will be prepared....

[dmlrra]

I just returned from the Breakaway Bermuda cruise that left on October 31, 2021. I can tell you that these stories about quarantining are real. One passenger's PCR test taken at the pier came back positive on Tuesday morning. The ship proceeded to gather anyone who spent at least 15 minutes within 6 feet of this person over the past 2 days. Our friend was one of them. She was moved to a smaller room clustered with other poor souls who did nothing wrong but be in the wrong place at the wrong time. There were small clusters of balcony rooms with quarantined passengers for the final 5 days of the cruise. The positive was a teenager who was in areas such as the teen club, the jacuzzi, and the comedy club. These locations appear to be where they viewed surveillance video from and took in anyone within the 6 foot radius. (they use facial recognition and located some passengers when they used their key cards) This included other teens and their families. Some were moved to smaller rooms, including 2 Haven passengers. They were not allowed out of their rooms for exercise. They were initially given food on paper plates with plasticware until they protested. Their key cards were taken away from them so they could not get back in their rooms if they left. Families with children were stuck there 24/7. It is absolutely disgraceful what happened to these people. Based on the cabin count (you could talk to the quarantined from their balconies from deck 7) there were approximately 27 cabins under quarantine. While Norwegian would not divulge how many people they were holding in their rooms against their will, a conservative estimate would be in excess of 60, all because of one positive PCR test. Most passengers opted to retest, but that was not done until day 5, with results coming back on the 6th day. But it didn't matter that they tested negative, since they were still not allowed to leave their rooms. Also, beware of NCL saying you can "Sail Safe" without masks, etc., because my friend asked if she would have still been quarantined if she were wearing a mask, and they said yes. I could go on and on with the poor treatment and humiliation these people went through, but suffice it to say that they were thoroughly disgusted with NCL.

 

Ultimately, NCL should be ashamed of themselves for not publishing their covid protocols to unsuspecting travelers so they can make an informed decision whether they want to travel on their ships with these rules in place. When we all booked this trip it was the last thing we thought of. We figured we were fully vaccinated, and had tested negative 3 times. What more could we do. It was an absolute disgrace on the part of NCL.

[cruising sister]

I did not think they let people who had positive antigen test board the ship without a negative PCR. It does not make sense to let someone run around the ship until his test was proven negative. That makes me very uncomfortable with my up coming cruise if that is the policy. 

[goldmom]

9 minutes ago, cruising sister said:

I did not think they let people who had positive antigen test board the ship without a negative PCR. It does not make sense to let someone run around the ship until his test was proven negative. That makes me very uncomfortable with my up coming cruise if that is the policy. 

This was on a Bermuda cruise where both an antigen test and PCR test are done at the pier before boarding.  The second test is part of Bermuda's protocols.

The results of the antigen test are available at the pier.  If you are negative, you can board the ship.  The PCR test is sent to a lab for processing and takes a day or two to receive the results.  In this case, someone who tested negative on the antigen test then received a positive on the PCR test.

[shof515]

I was also on the Breakaway 10/31 sailing. My cabin was down the hall from cabins where people in are quarantine. The crew members were dressed in every PPE including that blue gown, face shield, etc, etc

 

There was  FB group for this sailing and i read lots of complaints of family's in quarantine

[jotxl]

On 11/7/2021 at 10:07 PM, dmlrra said:

I just returned from the Breakaway Bermuda cruise that left on October 31, 2021. I can tell you that these stories about quarantining are real. One passenger's PCR test taken at the pier came back positive on Tuesday morning. The ship proceeded to gather anyone who spent at least 15 minutes within 6 feet of this person over the past 2 days. Our friend was one of them. She was moved to a smaller room clustered with other poor souls who did nothing wrong but be in the wrong place at the wrong time. There were small clusters of balcony rooms with quarantined passengers for the final 5 days of the cruise. The positive was a teenager who was in areas such as the teen club, the jacuzzi, and the comedy club. These locations appear to be where they viewed surveillance video from and took in anyone within the 6 foot radius. (they use facial recognition and located some passengers when they used their key cards) This included other teens and their families. Some were moved to smaller rooms, including 2 Haven passengers. They were not allowed out of their rooms for exercise. They were initially given food on paper plates with plasticware until they protested. Their key cards were taken away from them so they could not get back in their rooms if they left. Families with children were stuck there 24/7. It is absolutely disgraceful what happened to these people. Based on the cabin count (you could talk to the quarantined from their balconies from deck 7) there were approximately 27 cabins under quarantine. While Norwegian would not divulge how many people they were holding in their rooms against their will, a conservative estimate would be in excess of 60, all because of one positive PCR test. Most passengers opted to retest, but that was not done until day 5, with results coming back on the 6th day. But it didn't matter that they tested negative, since they were still not allowed to leave their rooms. Also, beware of NCL saying you can "Sail Safe" without masks, etc., because my friend asked if she would have still been quarantined if she were wearing a mask, and they said yes. I could go on and on with the poor treatment and humiliation these people went through, but suffice it to say that they were thoroughly disgusted with NCL.

 

Ultimately, NCL should be ashamed of themselves for not publishing their covid protocols to unsuspecting travelers so they can make an informed decision whether they want to travel on their ships with these rules in place. When we all booked this trip it was the last thing we thought of. We figured we were fully vaccinated, and had tested negative 3 times. What more could we do. It was an absolute disgrace on the part of NCL.

that sounds really horrible, like staying in a jail. Does anybody know, if there were another cases in the last weeks on ncl cruises ?

[xfer]

2 hours ago, jotxl said:

that sounds really horrible, like staying in a jail. Does anybody know, if there were another cases in the last weeks on ncl cruises ?

I don't think so. This seems limited to Bermuda cruises where they required an additional PCR test before boarding, but the results came back 2 days later. In most cases, there's only the antigen test now, where we have our results before boarding. 

[BermudaBound2014]

4 hours ago, jotxl said:

that sounds really horrible, like staying in a jail. Does anybody know, if there were another cases in the last weeks on ncl cruises ?

 

1 hour ago, xfer said:

I don't think so. This seems limited to Bermuda cruises where they required an additional PCR test before boarding, but the results came back 2 days later. In most cases, there's only the antigen test now, where we have our results before boarding. 

I agree that it happens more on Bermuda trips due to the extra testing, BUT it is happening on other ships too (follow social media for more updates).
 

All it takes is for someone to feel ill onboard, test positive, and the contact tracing quarantine begins. Best I can tell, there are covid positive cAses on many cruise ships at this moment. 
 

now with that said, i believe the odds are still greatly  in your favor. It’s  matter of how risk tolerant you are.

Edited November 11, 2021 by BermudaBound2014

[lixogab]

On 11/7/2021 at 3:07 PM, dmlrra said:

I just returned from the Breakaway Bermuda cruise that left on October 31, 2021. I can tell you that these stories about quarantining are real. One passenger's PCR test taken at the pier came back positive on Tuesday morning. The ship proceeded to gather anyone who spent at least 15 minutes within 6 feet of this person over the past 2 days. Our friend was one of them. She was moved to a smaller room clustered with other poor souls who did nothing wrong but be in the wrong place at the wrong time. There were small clusters of balcony rooms with quarantined passengers for the final 5 days of the cruise. The positive was a teenager who was in areas such as the teen club, the jacuzzi, and the comedy club. These locations appear to be where they viewed surveillance video from and took in anyone within the 6 foot radius. (they use facial recognition and located some passengers when they used their key cards) This included other teens and their families. Some were moved to smaller rooms, including 2 Haven passengers. They were not allowed out of their rooms for exercise. They were initially given food on paper plates with plasticware until they protested. Their key cards were taken away from them so they could not get back in their rooms if they left. Families with children were stuck there 24/7. It is absolutely disgraceful what happened to these people. Based on the cabin count (you could talk to the quarantined from their balconies from deck 7) there were approximately 27 cabins under quarantine. While Norwegian would not divulge how many people they were holding in their rooms against their will, a conservative estimate would be in excess of 60, all because of one positive PCR test. Most passengers opted to retest, but that was not done until day 5, with results coming back on the 6th day. But it didn't matter that they tested negative, since they were still not allowed to leave their rooms. Also, beware of NCL saying you can "Sail Safe" without masks, etc., because my friend asked if she would have still been quarantined if she were wearing a mask, and they said yes. I could go on and on with the poor treatment and humiliation these people went through, but suffice it to say that they were thoroughly disgusted with NCL.

 

Ultimately, NCL should be ashamed of themselves for not publishing their covid protocols to unsuspecting travelers so they can make an informed decision whether they want to travel on their ships with these rules in place. When we all booked this trip it was the last thing we thought of. We figured we were fully vaccinated, and had tested negative 3 times. What more could we do. It was an absolute disgrace on the part of NCL.

How do they determine who in close ( less that 6 feet) contact for more than 15 minutes?

Unlike Celebrity NCL doesn’t provide tracking bracelets.

I understand that if seat at the same dinner table they can track you, but other than that how can they track close contacts for more than 15 min?
 

[BermudaBound2014]

21 hours ago, lixogab said:

How do they determine who in close ( less that 6 feet) contact for more than 15 minutes?

Unlike Celebrity NCL doesn’t provide tracking bracelets.

I understand that if seat at the same dinner table they can track you, but other than that how can they track close contacts for more than 15 min?
 

 

I'm not dmlrra (hopefully they will come back to answer directly), but I can add that based on social media postings it appears they are using facial recognition software. They trace where the infected person moved around on the ship and identify close contacts based on that. We are all being recorded on every part of the ship (except the interior of your cabin).