Day 6: Big News - We are "released" from isolation!

Yesterday, we got a call in the morning telling us that a nurse would be around to perform our Day 5 covid test. No time estimate, of course, but the nurse did arrive a couple hours later. We were emailed with log in information to a website to get our results. An hour or so later, our first test results came back negative. It would be another few hours before medical called and, after some confusion, confirmed that our covid tests had come back negative.

This morning, there was no warning call, but a nurse knocked on our door and took a quick swab from both of us. Online, we can see that the results our negative again. But, of course, we've heard nothing to clarify what this means for us. 

The letter we received before moving into our quarantine room on Deck 6 said that we would be tested on Days 5 and 6. If we remained asymptomatic and tested negative on both days, we would be allowed to leave our room wearing masks.

As a practical matter, however, this is ridiculous because the room keys we have from our previous cruise do not work on this stateroom door. So we cannot both leave the room if we plan to return to it. Further, being aboard a ship without credentials is, as Craig has described it, a bit like being a ghost or a stowaway.

Craig called the medical office and was informed that the doctor was reviewing results and would be calling with more information. The nurse who performed our tests on Day 5 told us that if both tests were negative, we would be "released". But again, we do not know what that actually means.

UPDATE: The medical office called us! We have been released from isolation. We were told to pack up all of our things and guest services would call us to move us to a new room.* Or, if we were packed before we got a call, we could call guest services and tell them that the doctor has released us.

We packed up the room in record time and called guest services...

Just to learn that the new staterooms are not yet ready (they may have told Craig that they had to assign and ready more than ten rooms this morning, but he isn't entirely sure that's exactly what the man was grumbling). So we have unpacked our computers to play games while we wait for a phone call.

*This move certainly suggests that the other dozen-plus rooms we can see down the hall, with trays outside after every meal, contain one or more guests who are within the first five days of isolation, still testing positive, or have symptoms.

Covid Cruise Day 5: Monday May 30 2022

Woke up to a knock at the door. I was so deeply asleep that I thought it was down the hall. 

Laura: “Did somebody just knock on our door?” 

Me: “I don’t think so.” 

There was a second knock then, clearly on our door. 

Laura: “Is it room service? They didn’t call.” 

Normally they phone the room to alert you that breakfast is coming, likely just in case you are asleep. We had no call. A third knock was barely cognitively registered in our waking fog. I got up to the go to the door. It was breakfast, delivered at 6:35 am instead of the indicated on the hangtag time of 7:30-8:00.

As I maneuvered the tray into the narrow hallow of our cabin and closed the door, Laura was turning on the TV. “I wonder if we changed time zones. But even still, why didn’t they call?” Before I had the tray to our little makeshift dining table she confirmed it: “Yeah. We are an hour ahead now. It’s 7:35.”

Well, gee thanks, Celebrity. As I’ve mentioned before, we feel like ghosts on this ship. Our cruise app stopped working because we aren’t registered for a cruise right now. We don’t have room keys. We don’t get the daily printed events program that is carefully placed on the corner of the bed each evening. Because of all that, we had no way of knowing there would even be a time change. They even make tasteful little table tents that exclaim the importance of knowing ship’s time will be changing, so you can plan accordingly.

But that doesn’t pertain to covid ghosts. 

Talking of ghosts, look at this cool photo
I took when we arrived to port in Helsinki.

Late morning Medical came by and swabbed our noses for the Day 5 covid test. If this test turns out negative we then test again on Day 6 and if that one is negative as well we will able to leave our room with masks on. Don’t know what that means exactly as we have no room key. 

An hour or so after our tests the lab results came in via email. We are negative! This is a great first step toward freedom!

Onward to Estonia…

With a time change (an hour later from the EU) sunrise is at 3:45 am and sunset is at 10:35 pm. The last of these amazing sunset photos was from around 11 pm local.

Covid Cruise Update: A tour of our spacious accommodations

 

Covid Cruise Day 3: Saturday May 28 2020

We have begun to settle into a more normalized schedule, I believe. Breakfast came as ordered on our breakfast room service hangtag. Around 10 am we got a call from room service to order lunch, and it showed up around 12:30. Late morning we got a call from guest services if there was anything we needed and we gave them a short list (towels, robes, an order form for laundry). 

After lunch, Gene, our old butler, called to see how we were doing and if we were still asymptomatic. He asked about “Mr. & Mrs. Thompson” and I told him they were fine and had made it back home. He was happy to hear that. He offered to help us, should we need it. (As a side note, we had thought about calling Gene to request a bottle opener when it was our sole focus of frustration, but we determined we had one favor with Gene and to hold out for something serious, not waste it on Day 2 on a bottle opener.) We told Gene we truly appreciated his call and went back to playing video games, reading the book Sapiens aloud to one another, and working on Laura’s Stardew Valley mod.

A passing ship and some distant islands
were all we saw this day.

I’ve decided to try to make a short dramatic film, starring me!, and taking place in—of all places!—a ship’s stateroom. I did some test footage this morning and toyed with it in my video editing software for a bit to see if the idea might be feasible. Now, I just need a story…

The rest of our at-sea day was quiet with nothing to report. They brought us a bottle of wine without incident and they brought us one set of towels, not two, but tomorrow we will try for a second set. 

We made contact!

Since we moved to our quarantine room on Deck 6, I have been "threatening" to call staterooms down the hall in a systematic manner to determine how many people are quarantined on this ship. Of course, anyone who knows me also knows that the likelihood of me cold-calling total strangers is about nil. (To be clear, the chances were highest on the first day of quarantine when we could not get anyone to answer the phone and we had a water shortage.) But I am still extremely curious to know how many people are quarantined on this ship, for no good reason.

We routinely see at least a dozen room service trays outside rooms up and down the hall. (We cannot see the entire length of the hallway from our door, much less the hallway on the other side of the ship.) If you've taken a cruise, you probably know that cruise lines do not like you to put the trays in the hall like you would in a hotel, because anything in the hallway is a potential hazard in case of evacuation. Cruise ship hallways are much narrower than hotel hallways. With covid quarantine, the staff is not entering our rooms, so some allowance must be made. So while I am not, as yet, making random calls up and down the hall, I am making an effort to figure out how many people are quarantined here.

Yesterday, when we stepped out to put our tray in the hallway, we saw another woman quite a distance down the hall doing the same thing. I said hello, and she said, "Oh! There are other people on this floor!" After a moment, her husband stepped out of their room as well. Both were wearing masks, as we were. She told us that they had moved down here on disembarkation day (the same day we moved). She had tested positive, but her husband tested negative. I assume she had few symptoms, because she was the one taking the tray out into the hall. We only talked for a moment because there was staff coming down the hallway. Like us, she had tested for her return flight to the US from Amsterdam.

After dinner, I spotted another woman putting out her tray without a mask on. I was unable to talk to her because the staff was rather aggressively asking her to put her mask on and go back into her room. (This is slightly odd to me, because the staff we've talked with have been largely unconcerned - one stateroom attendant even came in and made our bed when we finally got some sort of mattress topper to make the bed softer.)

As the ship pulled into Stockholm late this morning, we opened our veranda window to look out at the port as the ship docked. I noticed a traditional camera sticking out over the balcony next to us. I shouted hello until a man peeked out of his balcony at me. Initially, he seemed reluctant to talk, but when I mentioned that we were quarantined, he became very chatty. 

He said he was traveling on our previous cruise with a party of six - his wife, another couple they enjoy traveling with, and his son and his son's fiance. Someone in the party got symptoms and they were all tested at some point. He is quarantining alone in his room. His wife tested negative and is enjoying a room to herself on another floor. He said she is not quarantining, but is "being very careful". (I assume this means she is wearing a mask and has been encouraged to eat in her stateroom.) The other couple both tested positive and are quarantined on this floor. His son also tested positive and is quarantined on this floor. His son's fiance tested negative and was able to leave the ship and fly home from Amsterdam. He mentioned that they had all hoped to test negative on Day 5 and fly home from Amsterdam, but that didn't work out.

In one of those "small world" moments, we learned that he was from Southern California. In fact, he grew up just half a block into Pasadena...therefore about half a block from Eagle Rock. His son still lives in the Los Angeles area. He and his wife retired to Washington. The couple they are traveling with retired to Virginia. The two couples take several vacations a year together. This was the first trip his son joined them on, which was meant to be something of an engagement gift. (I'm guessing that all the uncertainty of covid was not what the young couple was expecting.)

So that's 6 covid-positive people on this hallway (plus ourselves), and at least 7 people in quarantine.

Covid Cruise Day 2: Friday May 27 2022

Yesterday was a bit frustrating. It was boarding day, so the ship is already fairly chaotic in terms of guest needs, but we were unable to raise anyone on the phone (guest services, room service, etc.). They phoned us at about 2 pm to ask if we had ordered lunch and we informed them we had no idea how (we thought they were providing us a menu with options and none came) and we had tried calling room service and no one answered. 

Lunch came and was okay. We ate at our tiny little end table on our balcony, as there is nowhere else to sit and eat together (there’s a desk, but it’s obviously for one). The afternoon was quiet and passengers boarded the ship and made their way around. The ship sat at the cruise terminal in Amsterdam for the day as forklifts banged and clanged as the ship was reprovisioned and luggage was hoisted aboard. 

We played games, attempted to contact guest services for basic things like water and snacks for Laura, and watched pedestrians. As afternoon rolled into evening and we set sail, we awaited our phone call for dinner, but none came. We started a movie and continued to sit on hold with guest services and room service, to no avail. Finally, around 7:45 pm, room service answered and a very frustrated Laura placed our dinner order. As we waited for room service, guest services finally answered after about 30 minutes. They apologized, saying there was only one person working guest services line (I don’t know if that means one person for covid quarantine guests or all guests) and I sternly stated we had been waiting seven hours or more for water and internet access. Eventually, dinner arrived, a case of water was provided, one small bottle of San Pellegrino arrived, and two comforters were added to pad our concrete hard mattress.

Before we went to sleep we peeked out of our room down the hall in both directions. The hallway was lined with room service trays, set out in the hall. We counted at least a dozen such piles to either side of us, and can clearly hear the dry, hallow coughs of Covid to either side of us. Laura pointed out we had been told on previous cruises to not leave room service outside the room because it violates maritime safety. Clearly, with quarantine, those restrictions are out the window. 

Our onboard app stopped working. We do not have room keys. We have not been informed where our muster station is. We are ghosts with room service.

Today, the Captain announced that guests are recommended to wear their masks while out of their cabins, and masks are required in the Theater. This is a change from our previous 12 days at sea where they didn’t seem to care. Something is clearly amiss. 

When we went to bed last night we hung our room service breakfast order on the door, unsure if that was even a thing on our covid cruise, and requested on the form a time for our order to be delivered. And guess what? Our breakfast showed up as ordered and on schedule! What a relief!

We called room service for lunch and got connected right away! Big changes over yesterday! Placed our order, requested a beer and a cider with lunch. The attendant offered two beers and two ciders. Why not? When lunch arrived this is what we received:

We learned they had run out of cider on the entire ship. This was the last bottle. What we didn’t have in our new stateroom was a bottle opener. Laura aaaaalmost took the opener from our old room, but didn’t at the last second, sure we would have one in our new room. I shouted down the hallway after the guy who delivered our lunch, “We don’t have a bottle opener!” He made mumbles about looking for one. The soup Laura ordered with our lunch was forgotten, so I called room service to let them know, and asked for a bottle opener. The soup arrived—long after we finished lunch—but there was no bottle opener. 20 minutes later Laura’s soup arrived—again—and this time there still was no bottle opener. 

Long after lunch was complete, I called room service again to ask for a bottle opener. “You did not get one?” she asked. “Not yet,” I informed her. (As of this writing it is 3:30 pm local time and the bottle opener still hasn’t arrived as we stare longingly at the Heineken and Strongbow, a sick joke.)

The door knocked a few minutes ago. Each time there’s a knock at the door I holler, “Coming!” and fumble for my mask to the answer the door. There was no one there, but someone was placing notes in the doors going down the hall. I pulled the printed piece of paper from the slot to our room expecting some new and insightful communication and instead found a xeroxed dinner menu. The room service menu is highly limited. Literally only three starters and three basic mains (one would assume to not encourage in-room dining on regular cruises) so the idea had occurred to us that spaghetti, hamburger, or caesar salad would not get us through ten days. Fortunately, the menu offered a wider selection of standard and nightly entrees from the restaurant upstairs where the unstick and uninfected dine in splendor. Very exciting.

Things might be looking up. (And isn’t it amazing how quickly one adapts to new parameters and things seen as a nuisance or limited suddenly because exciting new opportunities for betterment.)   

Dinnertime rolled around and we were hoping to get a cocktail. I called room service and ordered a Red Bull and vodka for Laura and a negroni, which I had to spell for the order taker. A little later, what arrived was exactly what Laura wanted, but the negroni tasted more like grapefruit juice and vodka. It was definitely pulpy and there was no Campari or sweet vermouth in it. 

We then phoned to order dinner. We both wanted the tournedos of beef but learned the menu was wrong. I had the Steak Diane, but Laura doesn’t care for that and “panic ordered” the vegetarian option, a “stuffed portobello mushroom.” We also asked for some wine to accompany our dinner. The lady stated that room service would only provide one glass per person. I said we often will have more than that. She had the Cellar Master call us. I stated the situation and she said she’d take care of us. She also said she’d make a standing order for each day we were on the ship so we wouldn’t have to call every day and she wouldn’t have to take our call every day. 

Our dinner arrived with an opened bottle of Malbec and our dinners. Our salads were quite good. As far as entrees, mine was delicious, but Laura’s mushroom was stuffed with piped feta and sautéed spinach on an indeterminate orange sauce. It was not her favorite. I think, mostly, we were happy to have the wine. 

Baby spinach and treviso salad,
tomato watermelon salad

Literally one of the best crab cakes
we've ever eaten.

Steak Diane

The unloved Stuffed Portobello Mushroom
with unidentifiable orange sauce.

After our “semi-al fresco” dinner I set about to attempt to get the bottle opener we’d requested dozens of times and had been promised an equal number of times. We found out room service would only send someone who had their own bottle opener to let us use in the moment, which I explained was a problem for us and for them because we had multiple bottles accumulated at this point and neither we nor they would want us to have to call each time we wanted to open a beer or a cider. They agreed that was only a short-term solution. Guest services called Housekeeping who stated they had none. 

Finally, a random person (I don’t really know which department) came to the door with his personal bottle opener and offered to let me use it. Once again, I stated the problem with “single-use” and he agreed, and said “I will take care of this” when I said I would buy one from the gift shop if only someone would go get it for us since we were stuck in our cabin. A few minutes later, he proudly returned with a bottle opener and I slipped him 20 pounds. 

Having achieved my goal for the day, we settled onto the bed with my laptop to watch TV shows we had painstakingly downloaded via phone hotspot while in port in Amsterdam. 

Covid Cruise: Day One

On the last night of our cruise, when everyone else is hustling about putting their luggage outside their rooms, we had our dinner delivered to the room. Our stateroom attendant told us that we could order room service for breakfast and it would be delivered at 7 a.m. the following day (normally, there is no room service breakfast available on disembarkation day). 

We woke just a few minutes before breakfast was due to arrive. We knew that we would be changing rooms, presumably to a room on Deck 6, but we had not been given a specific time. We assumed that they would wait until most, if not all, of the non-covid guests** had left the ship before moving us. So we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast and finished packing up the rest of our things. I believe my mom stopped by with a few last things. I urged her to turn off airplane mode on her phone as soon as they were off the boat, so that she could keep me informed on their progress to the airport.

So much waiting. 

We tried to distract ourselves by playing games on our iPads. (We have plenty of other devices and activities with us, but those were all packed.) My parents were able to get off the ship, collect their baggage and get a taxi to the airport. They left very early, but that was probably a good thing because there were a large number of people waiting for assistance at the airport. 

(We had experienced some delays with accessibility assistance on our trip out...everyone is short staffed, even the airport shuttle drivers and accessibility staff. On the trip to Amsterdam, I had wondered how a person who relies on a wheelchair or other assistance could possibly travel alone right now. My parents are able to walk short distances and we were with them to chase down assistance and assist with bags when they were chairs/carts. As you might expect, I think we all had some fears about how their travel home would go without us along for additional support. I have no details yet, but I do know that my parents are safely back at home.)

Without warning, at 11 a.m., a number of staff from the ship appeared outside our stateroom. They asked if we were packed and ready to move. We were, so they gathered our many suitcases and led us to the midship area. We passed through a "staff only" door to wait for a staff elevator at midship. (The Celebrity Apex has guest elevators only fore and aft, none at midship.)  I believe there were four people "assisting" with our bags. (I would like to point out that Craig and I managed our entire trip before this point with all of our bags and assisted my parents with theirs, so I'm not sure why it took quite so many people to move us.)

We took an impromptu tour of the staff area of the ship, as accessible by that elevator. First, someone made a "priority call" for the elevator, causing the elevator (full with four staff, the two of us, and all our luggage) to go to a different floor. I guess the priority call caught another elevator, because no one was there when we got there - but we did get out and mill about before learning this was not our stop. Then I think someone pushed the wrong button, because we did the same thing on another floor. Finally, we arrived on Deck 6 and were led to our new room.

Craig took a video of our new room, which I hope he will post alongside the video he took of our initial room... (*hint* *hint*)

We assessed the room and decided to unpack. Craig took this picture of me in the middle of unpacking:

We found places to stow everything away, knowing that we might be in this room for the next ten days. We've left most of our formal clothes and shoes in a suitcase that is under the bed, but we unpacked everything else. We had received a letter earlier explaining the process and confirming that we would be tested on Day 5 and Day 6. All we can do is hope that we will both test negative on those days, I guess.

I took the picture below of the "infinite veranda" to send to my sister when I was describing the room. Outside, you can see Amsterdam. The window opens from the top down, so that this space is like a balcony or deck. One strange thing about this window is that it can be closed remotely due to weather or window washing. There is an automated shade just in front of the window that we can close at night. About five feet inside from the window, there is a set of folding doors that we can close...for privacy? so one of us can sit outside on the deck while the other sleeps? honestly, I'm not sure why anyone would close these doors except as we did, upon arriving in the room, to see how they work.

After unpacking and settling in, we noticed a few differences between this room and our last. This room did not have robes - though, to be fair, our robes were not in our suite when we boarded, but appeared in our closet at some point on the second day of our cruise. There is no corkscrew or bottle opener in this room - I almost plucked the one from our suite when we were leaving, but thought there would be one here. There are tissues in the bathroom, but there are no cotton balls or q-tips - I did, handily, fill my q-tip travel container from the suite supply before we packed up. There was nothing in our mini-fridge - in the suite we started with two bottles of water, two bottles of beer, two cans of coke, and two cans of diet coke.

Someone called to ask if we had gotten moved into our room and asked if we needed anything. Craig told them we needed a mattress topper, bottles of water and sparkling water, and an internet connection (our previous one shut off after the last of the guest departed the ship, but we had cellular coverage while we were in port). We were told these things would be provided.

I called the number given to us to contact medical, because I realized I was going to run out of the vitamins I take in order to prevent my migraines. I had packed my prescriptions for the duration of our cruise in a daily pill organizer, but I tossed the full prescription bottles into my luggage as I always do when we travel internationally, so I should not run out of any of those medications on our extended trip. But for my vitamins, I've gone to mostly taking gummies (because it's so much more fun! and it's like a snack!)...but gummies are bulky, so I did not pack more than a couple days extra.

I was informed that I would need a consultation with the doctor, which costs $149. Then they would contact port authority in Stockholm, our next stop, to see about getting them brought to the ship. I would then have to pay for the cost of the vitamins. I said I would talk to my husband. Craig said it was worth doing if it prevents me having a migraine...so I called them back. They asked me to email a list of vitamins and they would see what they could do. I did get an email back saying:

Good day

Noted. You will receive a call after 4pm.

I have not, as of this writing the following day at 3 p.m., get a call back from them. We shall see what happens with that. I suppose we may also learn how much those vitamins do to prevent my migraines...

We did get a second call asking if we had gotten settled into our new room, but this time the person had the wrong last name for our party. She had obviously confused us with another family moved to covid quarantine rooms. She asked what our previous stateroom number was, then asked if we needed anything. I restated our list, prioritizing water. We had been in the room for a couple of hours without any water at this point. She assured me these needs would be taken care of, but they were managing the move of many people into covid quarantine.**

At some point, we began to wonder about lunch. We could hear that passengers were boarding the ship for the next cruise, so we hoped things would be open again. Craig tried to call room service and guest services, but gave up after being on hold for 5, 10, and 15 minutes (we tried more times than I can count, sometimes shifting off holding the phone while the other was doing something else). We got no answer. We eventually broke into the candy Craig had purchased as gifts for our granddaughters to fend off the headaches* we were both getting from a lack of food and water.

Around 2:30, there was a knock on our door and a man asked if we wanted any lunch. We said yes! We asked for water and sparkling water to go with lunch. Our lunch, including two bottles of water and two small bottles of sparkling water, arrived at 3 p.m. After having lunch and water, my headache disappeared. 

Craig tried again to get through to guest services about getting some water for our room. We couldn't get through. We passed the afternoon exchanging texts with friends and family back at home and playing games on our iPads.

Craig answered a call about the internet. He was given our login information, but was told that it might not be active for an hour or so, because they had to manually enter all the covid quarantine guests.** I was able to log in, but then it wanted me to pick an internet package (all had price tags) and we were not able to get anyone to answer our calls to find out what I was supposed to choose.

I explored the television and found a movie that was just starting. Craig recognized the movie from watching it on a plane and suggested that I would like it. So I settled on the bed to watch the movie for a change of pace. Craig joined me. 

We were getting very hungry again, so Craig tried calling room service again. This time, he stood next to me (the phone is on my side of the bed) and I took turns holding the phone when he wanted to sit down. Eventually, I was laying on the bed with the phone on my shoulder watching a movie when a person started talking to me.

I was so startled by this voice from my shoulder that I bolted upright in bed, having held the phone for so long I had forgotten it was there (Craig says we had been on hold for at least 45 minutes, I have no concept of time except that I had literally forgotten I was holding the phone and I had turned out the hold music enough to watch the movie without closed captioning). The room service person wanted my order, but I didn't have a menu. So we had a long back and forth about the options before I could place our order. We requested all of the water, as I complained that we didn't have any water in our room and obviously couldn't go out and find our own. I asked for sparkling water, but was told she would have to check our beverage package to see if we could get that.

We are in a very strange place of not having a room key (we still have our old one for the previous cruise, but the account numbers and such on that don't work on this cruise because it's a different sailing). We are supposed to have the same things we had on the previous cruise, but the accounts aren't consistently linked. This experience has raised a number of questions about back-to-back cruising, which is something I know people do and something I have been interested in trying, but perhaps they have an actual system for that.

We finished the movie before our dinner arrived. We decided to open the bottle of champagne we had brought down from our suite (or maybe it was my parent's bottle of champagne; neither had been opened). Moments after Craig poured glasses of champagne, our dinner arrived. I think we did get one tiny bottle of sparkling water with dinner, and two more bottles of still water.

After we finished dinner, Craig tried calling guest services again. Emboldened by our success in reaching room service after approximately 45 minutes, he waited patiently on hold for another 40 minutes before the call was answered. He again requested water, a mattress topper, and help with our internet connection (which was still not working about 6 hours after it had been promised). He also told them we really needed to have some snacks in our room, so that I would not get a migraine from failed mealtimes.

He was told that the woman answering the phone was the only one on duty at guest services. And "all these covid quarantine guests keep calling"!** He remarked that we were all calling because we couldn't leave our room and we had no information about what we were meant to do. He also mentioned the amount of time we had spent on hold. She told him it would be better tomorrow, but disembarkation and embarkation days were always "busy". 

We were eventually promised a flat of bottled water. And a mattress topper. By this point, we were both exhausted and, frankly, dehydrated. We did get the case of bottled water. And after some adventures, we got the bed remade with two comforters under the sheets to make the bed somewhat softer. We finally went to sleep.

*I mentioned in an earlier post that we have no symptoms of covid. Since testing positive, I have had a mild headache that comes and goes, but I think it's mostly tension or stress.  On the day of the test, I was worried about what would happen and how we would get my parents home. On this day, I had a serious lack of food and water - the headache would disappear each time we addressed those needs, but reappear when I was thirsty or hungry. It doesn't help that eating off schedule and not getting enough water are serious migraine triggers for me. So far, fingers crossed, I haven't crossed that threshold.

** It's odd, the number of times we've been told that they are "too busy" or "very overwhelmed" managing all the quarantine guests...but they also have never told us how many guests that is. I wish I knew, out of morbid curiosity more than any other reason.

And So It Begins...

As Craig has described, we decided to take our covid tests on the last full day of our cruise. We would need a negative antigen test in order to board our flight in Amsterdam to fly back to the US. Craig was unable to log into the app on his phone, so I decided to try mine. I was able to navigate the multiple apps, sign ins, and websites, and get connected to a proctor who would “watch” me take my covid test. (We used the same process back at home before heading out on our cruise. It had taken nearly two hours to get all four tests done, even doing them together at mom’s kitchen table.) 

 After the sample collection, they set a timer and tell you that you can leave but you need to be back at your phone in fifteen minutes to complete the test. I picked up my iPad and returned to the game I had been playing. About thirteen minutes into the test, Craig asked, “How’s it going over there?” 

 I looked at my phone, still a couple minutes left. Then I looked at my test sitting on the table in front of my phone. Wait, that’s not right! I’ve taken plenty of covid tests at home, but I’ve never seen more than one line. 

 “Uh, I think this says I have covid.” I told him.

The proctor came back online and confirmed that my test was positive. He said the app would provide resources, but the app and website really had nothing to offer to people outside the US. 

Things got a bit hectic after that. We informed our state room attendant, who told us to stay in the room and medical would call us. When medical called, they asked if I had any drug allergies (for anyone who doesn’t know, I’m allergic to seven antibiotics, so this question is always an adventure when we travel internationally). They asked if I had symptoms - I did not. They told me a nurse would be up to test me to confirm that I had covid. 

 I texted mom to let her know, but I got no answer. I sent a few texts to people back at home, knowing none of them would be awake. I sent my dad a text asking if he was awake. When he responded, I told him that mom wasn’t answering her texts. Then I got a response from my mother: “Oh my.” 

 That about sums it up, really. The day dragged on with a trickle of information and very little activity. I spent the time researching everything we could think of: Could my parents fly home without us if they tested negative? Where could we quarantine/isolate in Amsterdam? What would we need in order to fly home after quarantine/isolation? Are false positives really a thing? 

A nurse from the ship had come to our room in full hazmat gear (disposable gown, face mask, face shield, gloves, etc.) and taken a PCR test on me and an antigen test on Craig. We were told that if my PCR came back positive, they would test Craig’s antigen test. If mine came back negative, they would give me that report (so I could fly home) and toss Craig’s test (he would then need to do the proctored test for our flight). The nurse said that the test took 15 minutes to run, but they had a “bit of a backup” so it might be an hour and a half. Craig estimated that there were more than twenty tests in the nurse’s bag, each labeled with various room numbers. We waited. 

My parents decided to test using their home kits first, rather than the proctored tests that would be needed to fly (those “official” tests were, of course, handily located in our room, but they had the home tests in their own luggage). Both tested negative. They had, thankfully, gotten their booster shots about a month before the cruise. Nearly three hours after seeing the nurse, we got a call from medical. My PCR test was positive. Craig’s antigen test was positive. They would send a nurse up to run a PCR test on Craig to “confirm his positive test.” They asked about my allergies a second time (this nurse/doctor did notice that I’m allergic to basically all antibiotics and said something about how it must be really challenging when I need antibiotics) and asked for a list of medications I take. They also asked if I was diabetic or had any other risk factors for severe covid complications. They asked if I had gotten off the ship at any of the ports - I said yes and they did not inquire into any specifics. 

I mentioned that we were traveling with my parents. She seemed confused and asked what my question was. I asked if they needed to be tested. She said the ship did not consider them close contacts because we were not sharing a stateroom. (I find this a bit strange, considering that we were seated for all of our meals at the same table in the dining room, went on all our excursions together, and met for tea and bridge every afternoon in The Retreat…but what do I know?) 

I was informed that we would get a call from guest services about our options, but it might be a little bit because “things were very busy.” The nurse said that we would have the option of staying on the ship to quarantine, though we would be moved to another room, and they would test us again on Day 5 and Day 6. If we tested negative, we would be allowed out of isolation, but they could not give us a certificate of recovery until ten days after the positive test. The other option would be the cruise would arrange a quarantine hotel on land; she was very vague about what that would mean or what would happen there. I assumed that was because she has not had to deal with anyone who chooses that option.

So we waited. 

Then everyone in Kansas woke up with questions. (Unrelated, would you like to know when your friends and family wake up in the morning? Travel internationally and text them that you’ve tested positive on a cruise in the middle of the night…) But we still had very few answers. Craig had been texting with Delta about flight options for hours at this point. (Have we mentioned that our internet was not great?) 

When we finally got an answer that my parents could fly with a negative test, mom came by to pick up two of the test kits. Thus began an adventure as they tried to navigate an online process that is not intuitive, with terrible internet. Their first attempt was invalidated when they lost the connection midway through. My dad’s solution? I should certainly come to their room and do it for them. Me - the one with the covid. Craig was able to convince him that he did not want to get a false positive on his test because I had covid. Instead, they went up to The Retreat and were able to get help from a combination of staff and other guests. They were even able to acquire two extra tests from another guest. (That guest told them that he and his wife had tested positive for covid early in the cruise, quarantined in their room for the required period, and now had certificates of recovery to fly home with, so they did not need their tests. Oh, and had a full refund on their cruse!) 

With this part of the plan settled, we started the process of packing. Mom brought things to us that they would not be taking home - the bottle of champagne provided in their room on embarkation, the spare covid test, etc. We gave them the keys to the vehicle we had parked at the airport, the parking ticket, instructions on how to leave the Parking Spot (we had used Craig’s account, so they needed his QR code and such). I packed our bags, still not entirely sure if we were doing the following day. 

Eventually, guest services called and gave Craig basically the same options that the nurse had earlier described. We had the option of staying aboard, but we would be moved to another room. We had been in a suite on our cruise, but those were fully booked, so we would be moved to Deck 6. She wasn’t sure what room we would get, but it would be an exterior room with a veranda. If we stayed aboard, we would have room service, medical care if it became necessary, and internet. We would get our certificate of recovery in ten days and we could disembark in Copenhagen. They would provide assistance rebooking our flights, if necessary. 

We also had the option of getting off the ship in Amsterdam. But we would be on our own finding lodging, food, and medical care. She could not tell us anything about what we would need to do there except “follow local regulations”. I had been researching “local regulations” for hours at this point - it was basically, isolate (no suggestion of where you should do this) until you test negative (again, no idea where you could test, how often, what it would cost) and then you can fly home, with the throw-away suggestion that if you needed further assistance you could contact your embassy. 

At this point, the biggest question in my mind was: When did I get covid? And when will I test negative for covid? 

I had no symptoms specific to covid. Shortly after landing in Amsterdam, I had noticed a runny nose - but no congestion, cough, fever, or anything else. I assumed it was allergies or a step-up in the chronic rhinitis I live with. A few days later, Craig “caught” my runny nose, but again, no other symptoms. The following day, my mom also had my runny nose. But mom had now tested negative for covid at least twice - on the home test and the proctored test. If that symptom was when I caught covid, it seems like my mom would have been the most likely to test positive as the last to catch it. But that isn’t what happened. 

Without any indication of when I got covid, I really have no idea when I might test negative again. (If you’ve recently tested positive for covid, I do not recommend googling to find out when you will test negative - I can assure you that all you will find is horror stories from people who went for months without symptoms, continued to tested positive, and were unable to continue their lives, be it travel, work, or the like.)

We opted to stay on the ship.

Our Covid Cruise

Hey! It’s Craig. Once again we are on the road (or water, as the case may be) and I’m “guest writing” along with Laura for this new chapter of A Traveling Kansas Girl: Covid Cruise!

An Introduction and an Explanation to Begin, from the World Travelers:

Things got really interesting yesterday (May 25). It was Day 11 of our 12 day cruise around the British Isles with Laura’s parents. Things had been, shall we say, flexible from the start, as Dublin had been scratched a few months before our sailing date due to vague Covid issues and replaced with a second day in Liverpool (no one ever asked for a second day in Liverpool, I don’t think). During the cruise, our final destination of Shetland Islands in the UK was scrapped because local government was going to require so much inspection as to be too time consuming to make sense, so operations got creative and we stopped in the sleepy French seaside town of Cherbourg and an extra day at sea added to our 12 day itinerary.

These are unprecedented times. Still. (Evidently.)

The last day before arriving at our final stop of Amsterdam meant we had time to do our verified Covid test for our flight home to the U.S. This test is done via an app and someone in an unidentified southeast Asian city watching as you open your test kit, swab your nose, and watch the result appear. We thought we’d wait and do this upon arriving in Amsterdam so we’d have cell signal to guarantee a better internet speed, but with 15 min per test and the four of us, we were looking at an hour, minimum and we knew we’d be requested to get off the ship promptly.

We heard in the lounge for suite guests that they were recommending people connect via the ship’s wifi, so Laura gave it a try back in our stateroom. She connected, got the live human on video, and set up her test and the timer to 15 minutes and proceeded to play a game on her iPad. A few minutes later, the timer ended and the Laura looked down at her test and said, “Oh God, I’m positive.” 

That began a whirlwind of events, calls, anxiety, and a lot of sitting around. I’ll let Laura take it from here: