So I tested positive for covid on Symphony

[Coralc]

1 hour ago, kandj05 said:

I'm so glad they did a fantastic job taking care of you and your family!  My hubby and I are quarantined here at home also.  Merry Christmas!

You did make the move! Congratulations and Merry Christmas! Sorry about the + diagnosis. 

Edited December 25, 2021 by Coralc

[vacationlover_mn]

Thanks so much for your review!  Wishing you a speedy recovery!

[cruisebot21]

25 minutes ago, vacationlover_mn said:

Thanks so much for your review!  Wishing you a speedy recovery!

 
Thanks! I see you’re in MN - we are just across the border to your north 🙂

We used to drive down to shop and go to the zoo 3-4 times a year, but haven’t been able to go since this whole thing started - we really miss it!

[vacationlover_mn]

25 minutes ago, cruisebot21 said:

 
Thanks! I see you’re in MN - we are just across the border to your north 🙂

We used to drive down to shop and go to the zoo 3-4 times a year, but haven’t been able to go since this whole thing started - we really miss it!

Hi!  Yep, I’m approx 5 miles from the MN zoo!  Hopefully things will get back to “normal” soon, so you guys can come back!  Lots of new things at the MOA, if you haven’t been there in a while 🙂

Edited December 25, 2021 by vacationlover_mn

[jean87510]

all i can say is I really like that plane!  If I could guarantee Id just get the sniffles, I wouldn't mind getting covid and flying home on that avoiding fights and crying children on a packed plane.

[Jimbo]

11 hours ago, cruisebot21 said:

Ha - I forgot to mention - we surprised the kids with this Symphony cruise.  We didn’t get a chance to go to Jamie’s Italian last time in 2019 and Freedom has the new Giovanni’s.

 

After we got off our 4-day Freedom cruise, we stayed downtown and kids thought we were flying back home the next evening, the whole time lamenting we couldn’t do a 7-day cruise this time.

 

The next morning I faked making couple phone calls / emails ‘executive style’ to arrange a pass for us to have lunch at Jamie’s via the suite concierge 

 

We joined the mass of people and went through the check in process - assuring the kids we needed to check in for the ships records, but we only had 2-3hrs to dine and get off before the ship sailed sailed - kind of like a travel agent tour

 

We got all the way through check in, onto the ship, made reservations via the app and even walked around visiting spots they remembered from last time- the whole time they were unaware were actually setting sail. We even walked over to Jamie’s to check out the menu - due to our later boarding, it was setting up for evening service 

 

They found out when we checked in at our muster station and the girl let it slip our cards would be on our stateroom door.

 

They looked at each other  ‘stateroom door?!?’
The kids were completely surprised and had tears of joy as we walked up and checked out the room.

 

We did have lunch at Jamie’s the next day and we all loved it 😉

 

And that’s how we surprised our kids with a cruise.

so you did this with taking no luggage with you? , how did you pull that off?

[cruisebot21]

1 minute ago, Jimbo said:

so you did this with taking no luggage with you? , how did you pull that off?

I took a taxi earlier and dropped all luggage off to the port alone - drove up, left it with a porter, and drove away - kids thought it was still at the hotel for later pickup.

[putercents]

23 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

Despite a few media-hungry stories about quarantine, what RC is doing for people is really amazing.

 

Your experience as a Canadian will be valuable for other Canadians wondering how it'll really work to get home.

Problem is Royal just eliminated testing onboard. So now they will not discover any more positive Canadians.  I can only think that this scenario is exactly why they stopped testing prior to disembarkation. 

[putercents]

22 hours ago, Mapleleafforever said:

Royal can do no wrong to some. 

I need a test to get on an airplane. I am willing to pay for the test, but royal is not willing to perform the test due to not liking the results. Royal promised a test, then denied the test. They lied  lol  put a spin on that

 

[D4]

3 minutes ago, putercents said:

Problem is Royal just eliminated testing onboard. So now they will not discover any more positive Canadians.  I can only think that this scenario is exactly why they stopped testing prior to disembarkation. 

Exactly.  I live in the USA, but I think this is a terrible change for people who are already booked.

 

Not only will it save Royal a ton of money in dealing with those people, but it will keep their positive counts down.  They can’t report cases they don’t know about.

[jerseygirl3]

20 hours ago, cruisebot21 said:

Umm - that was THEIR offer, not a request or demand on my part.  They came to me with a couple different options and this was one of them for the initial proposed quarantine.  In regards to the hotel, it is a popular one we’ve stayed at and has a number of room with two twins each. Not going to name it so as not to stigmatize 

 

Like I’ve said, they were balance of compassionate and professional and in my mind went way above the minimum required under the circumstances.

 

Anyway, have the day you deserve 😉

I don’t think I saw where you mentioned that in your original plans that it was Royal’s offer. Were there any other positives on your sailing?  Were they also flown home via private jet?  If not, I would hope they didn’t fly home commercial. 

[CKCruising]

I wish my experience was like the OPs.  It was the exact opposite.  Just off the Allure, my son tested positive on the last day.  Because he was a minor (17), one of us had to join him in the quarantine room, the other could stay locked in the original room.

On the last morning, we waited with no information until everyone was off the ship and the we debarked separately and met at a car. we were driven to a hotel by the Miami airport (we debarked in FLL).  We were given an envelope with two menus and a phone number written on it for the "Care Team".  The phones in the room couldn't connect to the number (the front desk made kept saying it was my issue - it wasn't).  We had to turn on one of our cell phones.  We phoned the number at least 1/2 a dozen times and left at least 3 messages.  By 5pm we didn't hear anything from Royal.

The hotel could only tell me that we had a reservation for 10 days and we were not allowed to leave the rooms (we had one room for my son and the other for us because there was only one king bed), although the CDC guidelines say with close contact/fully vaccinated/no symptoms do not have to quarantine.  They did say we could check out.

[cruisebot21]

21 minutes ago, CKCruising said:

I wish my experience was like the OPs.  It was the exact opposite.  Just off the Allure, my son tested positive on the last day.  Because he was a minor (17), one of us had to join him in the quarantine room, the other could stay locked in the original room.

On the last morning, we waited with no information until everyone was off the ship and the we debarked separately and met at a car. we were driven to a hotel by the Miami airport (we debarked in FLL).  We were given an envelope with two menus and a phone number written on it for the "Care Team".  The phones in the room couldn't connect to the number (the front desk made kept saying it was my issue - it wasn't).  We had to turn on one of our cell phones.  We phoned the number at least 1/2 a dozen times and left at least 3 messages.  By 5pm we didn't hear anything from Royal.

The hotel could only tell me that we had a reservation for 10 days and we were not allowed to leave the rooms (we had one room for my son and the other for us because there was only one king bed), although the CDC guidelines say with close contact/fully vaccinated/no symptoms do not have to quarantine.  They did say we could check out.

Crap - I’m really sorry to hear this.  Are they getting new testing / flights arranged?  If we quarantined in Miami, that was part of the process

[cruisebot21]

2 hours ago, jerseygirl3 said:

I don’t think I saw where you mentioned that in your original plans that it was Royal’s offer. Were there any other positives on your sailing?  Were they also flown home via private jet?  If not, I would hope they didn’t fly home commercial. 

no prob - I write a lot and it may be lost in there somewhere.  
Given the number of biohazard bags of used food containers, there were at least 35 other occupied cabins in my isolation area.

I’m not sure if anyone else was repatriated the same way.  They wouldn’t have been allowed to board a commercial flight to Canada with a positive test though.  Other countries may vary 🙂

[PC168]

30 minutes ago, CKCruising said:

I wish my experience was like the OPs.  It was the exact opposite.  Just off the Allure, my son tested positive on the last day.  Because he was a minor (17), one of us had to join him in the quarantine room, the other could stay locked in the original room.

On the last morning, we waited with no information until everyone was off the ship and the we debarked separately and met at a car. we were driven to a hotel by the Miami airport (we debarked in FLL).  We were given an envelope with two menus and a phone number written on it for the "Care Team".  The phones in the room couldn't connect to the number (the front desk made kept saying it was my issue - it wasn't).  We had to turn on one of our cell phones.  We phoned the number at least 1/2 a dozen times and left at least 3 messages.  By 5pm we didn't hear anything from Royal.

The hotel could only tell me that we had a reservation for 10 days and we were not allowed to leave the rooms (we had one room for my son and the other for us because there was only one king bed), although the CDC guidelines say with close contact/fully vaccinated/no symptoms do not have to quarantine.  They did say we could check out.

I am so sorry to hear that. Our cruise starting Jan. 2, this is something we need to consider that. Not everyone like OP was so lucky flew home on a private jet.

[cruisebot21]

6 minutes ago, PC168 said:

I am so sorry to hear that. Our cruise starting Jan. 2, this is something we need to consider that. Not everyone like OP was so lucky flew home on a private jet.

I posted earlier that my experience was probably different from that of covid cases  going forward.

I’m starting to think that I was the last case processed this way before new local quarantine procedures came into effect along with new preflight tests post cruise starting early Jan?

[CKCruising]

1 hour ago, cruisebot21 said:

Crap - I’m really sorry to hear this.  Are they getting new testing / flights arranged?  If we quarantined in Miami, that was part of the process

Since we didn't have any confidence of being able to contact anyone at Royal, we arranged our own way home.  We had a small window of being able to use the two negative tests at the border. 

They may have been working on arrangements, but I feel we were at least owed a call and an explanation of what was going on behind the scene.  They may have been busy, but they needed to keep people a little more informed.

You were given options, we were just loaded into a car from the ship.  We felt we were just "dropped" at a hotel and they washed their hands of us.  Granted, we didn't give them more than 6 hours to get in touch with us, from when we got to the hotel, we had no confidence that we wouldn't be stuck there for 10 days (and then isolated at home for an additional 10 days if we couldn't get three negative tests).

[PC168]

7 minutes ago, CKCruising said:

Since we didn't have any confidence of being able to contact anyone at Royal, we arranged our own way home.  We had a small window of being able to use the two negative tests at the border. 

They may have been working on arrangements, but I feel we were at least owed a call and an explanation of what was going on behind the scene.  They may have been busy, but they needed to keep people a little more informed.

You were given options, we were just loaded into a car from the ship.  We felt we were just "dropped" at a hotel and they washed their hands of us.  Granted, we didn't give them more than 6 hours to get in touch with us, from when we got to the hotel, we had no confidence that we wouldn't be stuck there for 10 days (and then isolated at home for an additional 10 days if we couldn't get three negative tests).

Did you pay for your flight home?

[CKCruising]

1 hour ago, PC168 said:

Did you pay for your flight home?

We rented a car (actually 2 - MIA to BUF, BUF to YYZ) and drove.  Although they don't require a test in to fly within the US, it would have been extremely irresponsible to fly with a positive test MIA to BUF.

The only other option would be a private flight and the prices for those are not readily available (If you have to ask, its too much 🙂 ).

Note that when you cross (any method) without a Negative Test or a Positive Test between 14 and 180 days, you are subject to a fine (or warning if they are nice).  They will let you in assuming you are a Canadian citizen.  The Government of Canada web site isn't extremely clear on this.

[PC168]

Thanks. I am glad you made it home. I believe it must be very stressful.

Were there anyone from RCCL contacted you when you were in Miami hotel to let you know and arranged you a flight home at that time after your quarantine? Did they just booked you the 10 nights hotel until you are all negatives?

Sorry many questions.

[edrussell]

CKCruising so you crossed at a land crossing with your Son being positive correct?  Were there any issues with CBSA?  We are driving to our sailing in Jan of 2022 and this is our plan should either of us test positive.

[emeraldcity]

21 hours ago, cruisebot21 said:

Ha - I forgot to mention - we surprised the kids with this Symphony cruise.  We didn’t get a chance to go to Jamie’s Italian last time in 2019 and Freedom has the new Giovanni’s.

 

After we got off our 4-day Freedom cruise, we stayed downtown and kids thought we were flying back home the next evening, the whole time lamenting we couldn’t do a 7-day cruise this time.

 

The next morning I faked making couple phone calls / emails ‘executive style’ to arrange a pass for us to have lunch at Jamie’s via the suite concierge 

 

We joined the mass of people and went through the check in process - assuring the kids we needed to check in for the ships records, but we only had 2-3hrs to dine and get off before the ship sailed sailed - kind of like a travel agent tour

 

We got all the way through check in, onto the ship, made reservations via the app and even walked around visiting spots they remembered from last time- the whole time they were unaware were actually setting sail. We even walked over to Jamie’s to check out the menu - due to our later boarding, it was setting up for evening service 

 

They found out when we checked in at our muster station and the girl let it slip our cards would be on our stateroom door.

 

They looked at each other  ‘stateroom door?!?’
The kids were completely surprised and had tears of joy as we walked up and checked out the room.

 

We did have lunch at Jamie’s the next day and we all loved it 😉

 

And that’s how we surprised our kids with a cruise.

What a wonderful story of a family surprise. 

 

I appreciate your upbeat outlook on handling what many would view as an earth-shattering, bubble breaking interruption of what should be perfection. Travel comes with a lot of surprises ... and not all of them are happy ones. But you go with the flow, and you end up with stories your kids will be telling their grandchildren some day.

 

I wish you wonderful family adventures in the years to come.

 

[CKCruising]

12 minutes ago, PC168 said:

Thanks. I am glad you made it home. I believe it must be very stressful.

Were there anyone from RCCL contacted you when you were in Miami hotel to let you know and arranged you a flight home at that time after your quarantine? Did they just booked you the 10 nights hotel until you are all negatives?

Sorry many questions.

No-one from RCI contacted us, but I only gave it 6 hours (I called 6 times and left a few messages).  All I know is that the hotel was booked for 10 days and we were trapped inside.  I don't know anything more. 

[CKCruising]

10 minutes ago, edrussell said:

CKCruising so you crossed at a land crossing with your Son being positive correct?  Were there any issues with CBSA?  We are driving to our sailing in Jan of 2022 and this is our plan should either of us test positive.

The only issue, as I mentioned, is that you are subject to a fine or warning. 

He has to isolate for 10 days (with a test on day 1) and we have to quarantine for 14 days (with tests on day 1 and day 8 - if we both test positive on day 8, we start the 10 day counter - if one tests positive, that one starts the 10 day counter and the other starts the 14 days again).  It took about 30 minutes extra as we needed to talk to the government rep to get the testing procedures and rules.

[edrussell]

Thanks so much for answering the questions.  Which crossing did you come through?  One last question, did you still fill out the ArriveCAN app?  Assuming you entered a positive result for your son via the ArriveCAN system.  Thanks again.