Just got off the Oosterdam in Venice and my wife had Covid on the cruise, it has become a nightmare

[crystalspin]

2 minutes ago, ncgolferette said:

Can’t a Certificate of Recovery be issued for a person to leave the country even with a person still testing positive?   This has worked in other European countries but not Italy?

You should remember the apocalyptic hell Italy went through in the early days of COVID-19. Patient after patient with bilateral interstitial pneumonia rolling into the ERs.

[Guest ldtr]

6 minutes ago, ncgolferette said:

Can’t a Certificate of Recovery be issued for a person to leave the country even with a person still testing positive?   This has worked in other European countries but not Italy?

It can, but I believe you have to have gone 14 days after initial positive test and have not had symptoms for at least 2 days in Italy.  Certainly a longer period of time then the next test time.

[broberts]

On 9/5/2022 at 7:53 AM, HAL4NOW said:

Your debarkation may be bad timing: yesterday being Sunday and today being a holiday. HAL offices are probably pretty limited until Tuesday. Also, the time difference may make you feel like they are ignoring you longer; Italy is nine hours ahead of Seattle. I even see East Coast people on these boards complain about not being able to get ahold of HAL when it is before five in the morning at the home office.

Hope your wife is able to be released soon and you both have a pleasant flight home.

 

This is not an excuse. It was not an unscheduled stop. By no stretch of the imagination could one reasonably imagine that no passengers would require COVID isolation at the end of a voyage. A competent operation would have appropriate staffing for expected situations.

 

You have really pushed one of my buttons with the Seattle office hours argument. I am continually disappointed by those that seem to think a world wide multi-billion dollar business should be excused for not having duty personnel to handle serious customer issues 24x7. The lack of such service should be understood as a lack of interest in customer care.

[Guest ldtr]

11 minutes ago, broberts said:

 

This is not an excuse. It was not an unscheduled stop. By no stretch of the imagination could one reasonably imagine that no passengers would require COVID isolation at the end of a voyage. A competent operation would have appropriate staffing for expected situations.

 

You have really pushed one of my buttons with the Seattle office hours argument. I am continually disappointed by those that seem to think a world wide multi-billion dollar business should be excused for not having duty personnel to handle serious customer issues 24x7. The lack of such service should be understood as a lack of interest in customer care.

There is a real question about how much of the drama was due to HAL and how much to the OP.  Clearly all of the cruise lines have had problems with communications with guests in quarantine.

 

The OP states that the ship told them that they would be tested on day 7 and that they would be called.  The OP then indicated that they did not receive a call the first day so they called Princess, then their TA.  They then did get a call giving them the details for their day 7 test the night before.  They credited the responsibility for that call to the work done by their TA.

 

I will throw out the hypothesis that they might have received the call at that time, even if they had not called HQ or had their TA spend hours on the phone.  We as passengers want information immediately.  As far as HAL is concerned the requirement is to call and contact them with the information concerning their test in advance of the test.  Which in fact is what happened.

 

Kind of like a discussion happening over on Princess concerning refunds of OBC.  One person went on about all of their attempts to request a refund and to get the refund issued.  Then they post that after all of that effort and time they got their refund at the same time as another person on the cruise that did not spend lots of time on the issue.

 

We will never know for sure if they would have received the call at the same time if they had not spent all of their and their TA's time, unless we hear from others in the same situation that did not place such calls and they tell us when they were contacted.  I would not be surprised if the normal time for contact is the day before the scheduled test time.

 

Though the OP could ask the testing folks the next time they come to test, who normally contacts the person to be tested and when.

Edited September 7, 2022 by ldtr

[SumoCitrus]

On 9/5/2022 at 3:21 AM, terrydtx said:

 My wife has not had any symptoms more than a head cold and is doing well

 

 

What are we doing here? Really.

[terrydtx]

4 hours ago, ncgolferette said:

Can’t a Certificate of Recovery be issued for a person to leave the country even with a person still testing positive?   This has worked in other European countries but not Italy?

That will not work in Italy, the test has to be negative before the Italian Gov will release her from the quarantine hotel and then to fly.  Italy has the most stringent Covid Protocols in the EU.

[terrydtx]

4 hours ago, ldtr said:

It can, but I believe you have to have gone 14 days after initial positive test and have not had symptoms for at least 2 days in Italy.  Certainly a longer period of time then the next test time.

Actually in Italy it is 21 days and they issue a certificate of recovery, at least that is what we are being told by the people who do the testing for the government. The Italy testing protocols are first test 7 days after first positive test and isolation, then 10 days, if positive, then 14 days and after 21 days you are released with if you have no symptoms. My wife is at day 8 today.

[ncgolferette]

It is a very strange feeling to be in a foreign country and knowing you can’t go home.   It just was an issue apart from dealing with Covid.  My son and I went through this in Spain back in May when you needed a negative test result to get back to the U S.  

[Sea42]

19 hours ago, broberts said:

I am continually disappointed by those that seem to think a world wide multi-billion dollar business should be excused for not having duty personnel to handle serious customer issues 24x7.

But is this a "serious" issue? There was no urgent medical care needed. It was a matter of having a test scheduled, which did happen. Is it frustrating? Sure. But it appears this was done within a reasonable time and the test was performed as scheduled.

HAL gave them wrong information which is unfortunate but hardly surprising. HAL has a reputation of not having their best trained people answering the phones. But sometimes people are just wrong, it doesn't mean they are lying. That seems to be the go to assumption these days. People cannot just be wrong, they are deliberately deceiving you.

Anyone traveling right now knows the risk that this can happen. Now they are at the mercy of the Italian government"s protocols which were (or should have been) known to them before they left home. It was a risk they were willing to take. 

We are not willing to take that risk. We will be letting our FCC expire and will not be cruising for the foreseeable future. It's just not worth the hassle for us.

[Stateroom_Sailor]

On 9/5/2022 at 1:48 AM, terrydtx said:

...I saw one guy who was coughing all over the place get bread with the tong and I know he coughed all over the bread. That was the last time I dined in the Lido. The so called Covid precautions done by HAL was a total joke. There was no one at the entrance to the Lido making passengers use the hand sanitizers as well. I saw way too many bypass the hand sanitizers.

 

I guess the more things change the more they stay the same.  On our final Carnival Cruise in 2017, people were coughing and sneezing on each other, often without apology or an attempt to cover.  One woman sneezed into her hands, then rubbed them clean all over the jello.  A staff member who saw what happened, just looked at us and giggled.

[broberts]

1 hour ago, Sea42 said:

But is this a "serious" issue?

 

The question has no bearing on the point I was making.

[cccole]

2 hours ago, Sea42 said:

But is this a "serious" issue? There was no urgent medical care needed. It was a matter of having a test scheduled, which did happen. Is it frustrating? Sure. But it appears this was done within a reasonable time and the test was performed as scheduled.

HAL gave them wrong information which is unfortunate but hardly surprising. HAL has a reputation of not having their best trained people answering the phones. But sometimes people are just wrong, it doesn't mean they are lying. That seems to be the go to assumption these days. People cannot just be wrong, they are deliberately deceiving you.

Anyone traveling right now knows the risk that this can happen. Now they are at the mercy of the Italian government"s protocols which were (or should have been) known to them before they left home. It was a risk they were willing to take. 

We are not willing to take that risk. We will be letting our FCC expire and will not be cruising for the foreseeable future. It's just not worth the hassle for us.

Thank you Sea42 for a such a reasonable response.   I also agree with OP that it has to be frustrating because a visitor did not educate themselves to the rules/consequences of a positive test in the countries they were visiting.  Traveling now is a risk, we either accept it or do not accept it.  In post #18 it was pointed out that the op "was done with HAL when the embarkation was changed to Trieste." Hopefully op's wife tests negative soon and they can leave Italy.  Cherie

[Florida_gal_50]

And here we going again 🙄.

[JesseLivermore]

18 hours ago, Sea42 said:

But is this a "serious" issue? There was no urgent medical care needed. It was a matter of having a test scheduled, which did happen. Is it frustrating? Sure. But it appears this was done within a reasonable time and the test was performed as scheduled.

HAL gave them wrong information which is unfortunate but hardly surprising. HAL has a reputation of not having their best trained people answering the phones. But sometimes people are just wrong, it doesn't mean they are lying. That seems to be the go to assumption these days. People cannot just be wrong, they are deliberately deceiving you.

Anyone traveling right now knows the risk that this can happen. Now they are at the mercy of the Italian government"s protocols which were (or should have been) known to them before they left home. It was a risk they were willing to take. 

We are not willing to take that risk. We will be letting our FCC expire and will not be cruising for the foreseeable future. It's just not worth the hassle for us.

 

I hear you. 

RE: letting FCC expire are they transferable? when do they expire. 

 

[Sea42]

35 minutes ago, JesseLivermore said:

 

I hear you. 

RE: letting FCC expire are they transferable? when do they expire. 

 

No, they aren't transferable. They were issued in April for a May cruise that was canceled by HAL. They were set to expire by the end of this year but I found out today they have been extended until the end of 2023. I still doubt we will use them.

[crystalspin]

1 hour ago, Sea42 said:

No, they aren't transferable. They were issued in April for a May cruise that was canceled by HAL. They were set to expire by the end of this year but I found out today they have been extended until the end of 2023. I still doubt we will use them.

Oh I had not heard that! We are set to sail in 29 December in a Vista suite to use up FCC from March 2020, same expiry. Hmm. Need to think about that but we are driving to port and only visiting Mexico, and I think we are ready to give it a try.

[geocruiser]

3 hours ago, Sea42 said:

No, they aren't transferable. They were issued in April for a May cruise that was canceled by HAL. They were set to expire by the end of this year but I found out today they have been extended until the end of 2023. I still doubt we will use them.

Mine we extended too.

[JesseLivermore]

8 hours ago, Sea42 said:

No, they aren't transferable. They were issued in April for a May cruise that was canceled by HAL. They were set to expire by the end of this year but I found out today they have been extended until the end of 2023. I still doubt we will use them.

 

I would try to get a refund thru your card, or look for further extensions. I do think we'll have more "normalcy" by the end of 2023.

 

I know how you feel though We had free healthcare heros tickets on Qatar Air (to fly anywhere in the world!)  that were extended several times, bummer is the final one ends 9/30/22 and we can't make schedule work b/f

 

 

 

 

Edited September 9, 2022 by JesseLivermore

[cruisequeen4ever]

It’s totally understandable why this situation is rife with stress for you, but it has always been that when we choose to cruise, we are responsible for knowing the laws and requirements of the ports we

will be visiting. We acknowledge that it’s our responsibility to research these things for ourselves as part of the terms. Certain countries’ current policies are exactly why we haven’t chosen certain itineraries for this year. We are not at the mercy of the cruise line when we step off the ship; it all comes down to the country in which we set foot. I hope everything works out for you guys soon and that your wife tests negative on her next test! 

[Sea42]

10 hours ago, JesseLivermore said:

I would try to get a refund thru your card, or look for further extensions. I do think we'll have more "normalcy" by the end of 2023.

Our FCC was just an apology gesture from HAL for our May cruise on the Volendam being canceled so they could provide housing for Ukrainian refugees. All of the money that we had paid for that cruise was refunded to us. We just won't be using the extra FCC that they issued.

[terrydtx]

Update:

 

On Wednesday we were able to get a private test and a negative test for my wife set up by the first knowledgeable person I had talked to in the Hotel. We flew home yesterday, thanks the efforts on one of the overnight emergency Flight Ease agents who at 4:00am his time in Seatle Wednesday, found us Business class seats all the way from Venice to San Antonio with one stop in Atlanta on Delta. The same flights we were originally booked on last Monday. We got the last 2 seats to Atlanta. Our original flights were all business class, and he booked the new flights with zero change fees and no additional costs to us. He works the emergency overnight fight bookings. I asked how he likes working overnight and he said he does it because of the joy he gets for helping people like us stranded from home. This says a lot about why you should book your air with FE. A couple of the others from our cruise who were in the Covid ward and didn't use HAL FE are finding the best their airlines will do are flights the middle of next week. One was a Priest from San Fransisco, and he tested negative with us Wednesday, but United told him they couldn't get him home until next Tuesday. He now is on his own for the hotel costs until Tuesday as HAL will not pay or reimburse once you are negative, so he was moving to a much cheaper hotel.

 

We made it home to San Antonio this morning at 1:00am..

 

 

[syesmar]

1 hour ago, terrydtx said:

Update:

… We flew home yesterday, thanks the efforts on one of the overnight emergency Flight Ease agents….

A couple of the others from our cruise who were in the Covid ward and didn't use HAL FE are finding the best their airlines will do are flights the middle of next week…He now is on his own for the hotel costs until Tuesday as HAL will not pay or reimburse once you are negative, so he was moving to a much cheaper hotel.

 

We made it home to San Antonio this morning at 1:00am..

Glad to hear your wife is negative and you are safely home! That is something to ponder regarding for how long HAL will reimburse, in the event flights are not available.

Thanks for all the helpful information you have passed on from your experience.

[BetsyS.]

2 hours ago, terrydtx said:

Update:

 

On Wednesday we were able to get a private test and a negative test for my wife set up by the first knowledgeable person I had talked to in the Hotel. We flew home yesterday, thanks the efforts on one of the overnight emergency Flight Ease agents who at 4:00am his time in Seatle Wednesday, found us Business class seats all the way from Venice to San Antonio with one stop in Atlanta on Delta. The same flights we were originally booked on last Monday. We got the last 2 seats to Atlanta. Our original flights were all business class, and he booked the new flights with zero change fees and no additional costs to us. He works the emergency overnight fight bookings. I asked how he likes working overnight and he said he does it because of the joy he gets for helping people like us stranded from home. This says a lot about why you should book your air with FE. A couple of the others from our cruise who were in the Covid ward and didn't use HAL FE are finding the best their airlines will do are flights the middle of next week. One was a Priest from San Fransisco, and he tested negative with us Wednesday, but United told him they couldn't get him home until next Tuesday. He now is on his own for the hotel costs until Tuesday as HAL will not pay or reimburse once you are negative, so he was moving to a much cheaper hotel.

 

We made it home to San Antonio this morning at 1:00am..

 

 

I am so glad that your wife tested negative and that you are home now.  Your information has helped other people.  Thank you for the updates.

[deck chair]

Hi Terry!  What a story and monumental hassle.   Hassle is an understatement.    So, when is your next cruise???  Be well.

Deck Chair

[terrydtx]

One last thing about our ordeal and the lies or misinformation for HAL.  When we got the private test on Wednesday, I asked the nurse how long it would take to get released from to fly home from the government.  She said the tests do not need to be reported and that the Italian Health authority does NOT flag passports until negative tests are done. She said just go home. She also told us a negative self-test would have been fine as well. HAL fed us a huge lie when we were told my wife's passport was flagged so she could not fly home unit a negative test was given to the Italian Health.  This is perhaps the biggest lie of all for the staff on the

ship.

 

Yesterday morning when we went through Italian passport control at the airport, not a word about needing a negative test.

Edited September 9, 2022 by terrydtx