Explorer of the Seas - Positive Cases

[MindyJohn]

This is where I read about rules for disembarking from Explorer.  See post #5.

 

[igooutsidesometimes]

1 hour ago, MindyJohn said:

This is where I read about rules for disembarking from Explorer.  See post #5.

 

I found the original mentioning of the article, #5 and #14: 

 

[zpdw484]

9 hours ago, MindyJohn said:

I'm under the impression that even with the January 16 policy changes, disembarking U.S. citizens who fly back to the U.S. right away, without a post-cruise extension, will NOT be required to undergo testing. I hope I've got that right! 

That's the way I understand it also. No test unless you plan on staying a day or two in San Juan. I would think a lot of people like to add a day or two in San Juan when departing from there. If this is the way the new rules play out I would definitely want to do pre cruise instead of post cruise. We planned post cruise due to not wanting to miss Christmas at home

[Bfsroyal]

We got to the other testing site on Monday night. It was $75 per antigen test and there was about 100-200 people queuing for tests.

 

We decided to book an appointment for Tuesday and headed early. When we arrived we were about two hours early and the queue was short so joined the queue. The company actually also does testing for RC and Celebrity. We got to the front of the line about 30 minutes later and it was a good job we did as appointments weren’t really appointments you had to join the queue for your appointment. There was quite a few angry people. Our tests came back negative.

 

We optimistically booked our flights home prior to this. Generally one way flights are more expensive and it was close to departure. Flights were £600pp + baggage fees on top. Rather than hit Royal with that I used a very small amount of my airline miles to get them for £275pp including bags. It also meant they were cancellable and changeable so we could move them if worst came to worse.

 

We are on on our way to the airport and hopefully will be home soon!
 

The care line informed us that there is a place to claim for expenses on the the Royal site and if we have any problems locating it to give them a call and will point us in the right direction.

Edited January 5, 2022 by Bfsroyal

[sgmn]

2 hours ago, Bfsroyal said:

We got to the other testing site on Monday night. It was $75 per antigen test and there was about 100-200 people queuing for tests.

 

We decided to book an appointment for Tuesday and headed early. When we arrived we were about two hours early and the queue was short so joined the queue. The company actually also does testing for RC and Celebrity. We got to the front of the line about 30 minutes later and it was a good job we did as appointments weren’t really appointments you had to join the queue for your appointment. There was quite a few angry people. Our tests came back negative.

 

We optimistically booked our flights home prior to this. Generally one way flights are more expensive and it was close to departure. Flights were £600pp + baggage fees on top. Rather than hit Royal with that I used a very small amount of my airline miles to get them for £275pp including bags. It also meant they were cancellable and changeable so we could move them if worst came to worse.

 

We are on on our way to the airport and hopefully will be home soon!
 

The care line informed us that there is a place to claim for expenses on the the Royal site and if we have any problems locating it to give them a call and will point us in the right direction.

Sitting on the edge of my seat to see if you got home OK. Too late for you,  but today Boris changed the travel rules effective Friday I think,  no more negative test to travel to UK needed and you don't have to quarantine whilst waiting for your two day test on arrival .(unless it's positive of course)

[cruisegus]

3 hours ago, Bfsroyal said:

We are on on our way to the airport and hopefully will be home soon!

 

The care line informed us that there is a place to claim for expenses on the the Royal site and if we have any problems locating it to give them a call and will point us in the right direction.

Thank you for posting and being an example of CALM.

Safe Travels and great future cruising

[Ocean Boy]

25 minutes ago, cruisegus said:

Thank you for posting and being an example of CALM.

Safe Travels and great future cruising

Also a great example of how a positive test can impact one's plans both during and after a cruise.

[Bfsroyal]

12 hours ago, sgmn said:

Sitting on the edge of my seat to see if you got home OK. Too late for you,  but today Boris changed the travel rules effective Friday I think,  no more negative test to travel to UK needed and you don't have to quarantine whilst waiting for your two day test on arrival .(unless it's positive of course)

We are currently in London ... just our flight to Belfast to go so should be home in a few hours.

 

Yes these changes have came just a day or two late for us  ... I should have rode it out a few more days in Orlando! I can blame the partner for this one.
 

The change to a day 2 LFT instead of PCR. I am hoping that my currently required Day 2 PCR test doesn’t show positive (apparently can do so for weeks or longer), if it does I am required to isolate again under UK rules. Our tests are arriving today so will do them as soon as we are home and will hopefully know my fate on second full isolation by Friday.

[sgmn]

40 minutes ago, Bfsroyal said:

We are currently in London ... just our flight to Belfast to go so should be home in a few hours.

 

Yes these changes have came just a day or two late for us  ... I should have rode it out a few more days in Orlando! I can blame the partner for this one.
 

The change to a day 2 LFT instead of PCR. I am hoping that my currently required Day 2 PCR test doesn’t show positive (apparently can do so for weeks or longer), if it does I am required to isolate again under UK rules. Our tests are arriving today so will do them as soon as we are home and will hopefully know my fate on second full isolation by Friday.

👏👏Great,   glad you're just about home. Was in your city last September on a UK sailcation. Had a great tour of the country 

You'll be able to dine out on this story for years to come

[syesmar]

16 hours ago, Bfsroyal said:

…We optimistically booked our flights home prior to this. Generally one way flights are more expensive and it was close to departure. Flights were £600pp + baggage fees on top. Rather than hit Royal with that I used a very small amount of my airline miles to get them for £275pp including bags. It also meant they were cancellable and changeable so we could move them if worst came to worse…

The care line informed us that there is a place to claim for expenses on the the Royal site and if we have any problems locating it to give them a call and will point us in the right direction.

Did Royal instruct you to find your own flights, or were they willing to handle it for you? Glad they’ll be reimbursing, their policy makes it sound like they’ll handle everything for those who test positive, so I’m curious now after several passengers’ reports who did this on their own. They may be able to also reimburse your miles if you ask, by buying miles through the airline.

 

Best wishes for you on your journey home! Thanks again so much for all the helpful info during this stressful time!

Edited January 6, 2022 by syesmar

[Bfsroyal]

1 hour ago, syesmar said:

Did Royal instruct you to find your own flights, or were they willing to handle it for you? Glad they’ll be reimbursing, their policy makes it sound like they’ll handle everything for those who test positive, so I’m curious now after several passengers’ reports who did this on their own. They may be able to also reimburse your miles if you ask, by buying miles through the airline.

 

Best wishes for you on your journey home! Thanks again so much for all the helpful info during this stressful time!

It was sort of given as an option by the care line. I’m not sure if perhaps it was overload with the large numbers of positive cases or complexity of our case.
 

But information about anything was sparse throughout the whole experience. In a way it was somewhat being left in a hotel and no clear plan.

I think the expectation was that we needed to be in the hotel for 14 days and then we would be tested and then flown home. We didn’t know how long they wanted us to remain in position exactly at the hotel and nothing seemed to be moving forward. Royal did try to find someone to test us at the property but couldn’t. Perhaps if they could have then they would have then booked flights directly for us if the tests came back negative.

 

I should also say that I think most of those testing positive are likely more simple cases. Such as US citizens in the US which isn’t too burdensome. Royal seem to have also had some Canadian guests test positive previously and that was slightly more complex where they use the 14 days. I’m not sure they have had any UK guests out of San Juan before.

 

The guy we saw at the first hotel in San Juan before getting transferred to the second was from Mexico and was on his own. 
 

The care line was available 12 hrs a day and rarely was there a delay in speaking to them. They were absolutely lovely with a motherly type of tone. They are an external company to Royal which meant they didn’t really have answers immediately and were sort of a middle man between us and Royal.

 

I do feel very guilty at the exceptional costs Royal has incurred as a result of me testing positive. Whilst the % of positives they gave in their latest press release was small and averaged out must make sense to cover it. Who really knows where I caught covid? Royal are shouldering the burden and I may have got it on my flights on the way to San Juan. I don’t really mind using airline miles to bring the cost down. If I was on my own dealing with my travel insurance company it would likely be even more stressful with a lot of out of pocket costs up front.

 

The hotels were around $350 per night for 8 nights. Two nights in Orlando at $100 a night (and they were willing to give us 2 rooms at each hotel - we took one)

Room service 2 times a day (you could have it three - but we weren’t doing any meaningful exercise and two was more than enough)

Private individual transfers in mini buses.

 

 

 

[syesmar]

@BfsroyalOnce again, thanks so much for this information. It’s quite helpful for those of us contemplating cruising again & I’m sure a useful resource for others also in quarantine. 

 

Best Wishes!

[Bfsroyal]

Just as an update to this post.

 

I have now been home about two weeks. We were given the post cruise customer support email as the place to contact and submit the claim for expenses incurred in travelling home. I filed this on 10th January. I received an automated email the next day confirming receipt and to expect a response in a few days.

 

As two weeks had past with no response. I gave them a call today. They checked through the emails and confirmed that they were happy to reimburse all items (with the exception of tests). I forgot to attach a receipt for one of the flights so have sent those on to them.

 

I think the problem with the tests is they are meant to be arranged by the care line - but they were unable to find anyone to come to us to do the tests. So in a sense these are things that aren’t therefore on the list to be reimbursed. Due to the unique situation the Care Line informed us that they would be reimbursed if we sought our own.

 

Reimbursement is to a credit card and should take 2-3 weeks.

[Morecruisesplz]

On 12/24/2021 at 10:30 PM, Bfsroyal said:

Royal have been excellent and pro rata refunded everyone for the two days of their cruise. We are now having a sea day on Christmas Day as we head back to San Juan.

 

 

This is great! Wondering if there were nightly shows and singers/dancers performing. Wish Royal could be consistent on comp. On Symphony at Christmas we missed ports and had no entertainment but no compensation. 

[beshears]

I will say there was LIVE music all day on the Explorer of the Seas which we just got off from on 1/16. As we did late dining which we wanted (we didn't have to hurry back from the port to be at dinner for the early dining), we didn't do many shows in the evening.  There was a comedian Al Ducharme who did a 10:00 show and he was very good.  It takes a lot for me to laugh, and I was laughing, not only from what he said, but his movements as well. He did a later show, but I think it was more for adults only. We did watch the Love and Marriage show which is always good. Even though you have to register (the room was not full of people), the ice show is very good to watch too. Someone had ask about places to eat besides the specialty restaurants, and Cafe Promanade on deck 5 is a very good place to get snacks (pizza, sandwiches, deserts) till dinner time that is free. Their only charge is different kinds of ice cream.