As you might have suspected (or maybe not), I once again got COVID on a cruise. Except I didn’t know it was COVID until I went to the Medical Center. Despite leaving home with around 20 test kits (I simply packed everything we had left at home), we used them all by the time I actually got COVID. On our final turnaround day of the season we faced another big move, and I remember being really glad when we were at last settled in our cabin. I was feeling tired, but you might remember, I was fighting that whole ‘open season insurance thing’ and really did lose many nights’ sleep worrying about it, for good reason too, because it was hella screwed up for one of us, despite our written requests being for both of us on the same forms. But I digress.
That first night of that last cruise (Sunday night) I had an awful headache and sore throat. I didn’t leave the cabin that night or all day on Monday, but G brought me some soup from the buffet. As soon as the Medical Center opened on Tuesday, I went there for a strep test, thinking that was what I had. I never even saw the doctor. A nurse first tested me for COVID and it was positive, and then she asked if I wanted to see the doctor but there was really no need. I had brought Paxlovid from home in its lower strength due to my autoimmune diseases. My PCM won’t let me travel without it (I already have a replacement pack), which is a good thing. The ship’s nurse said they were running low on Paxlovid altogether, but that they never carried the lower dose. She said they had had a lot of COVID the week before, which didn’t surprise me. We had heard a significant increase in coughs around the ship on the previous cruise.
So I was quarantined until I had no further symptoms (not a set number of days), in our own cabin. G was able to come and go and could dine anywhere on the ship (things have definitely changed in the last few years). I was given a letter spelling out everything, and the Medical Center apparently notified Room Service, because around noon that first day a dining room menu was slid under the cabin door for lunch. And that continued two times a day for the rest of my quarantine. It was simply amazing how well it was handled, which was night and day different from my previous experiences. We let….darn, I can’t remember our last cabin steward’s name…know and he didn’t come into our room until it was all over, but G got fresh towels and dumped our wet ones in his bin. One time a hazmat crew came in and wiped down the walls for about two minutes and, honestly, that was only questionable thing we encountered because that did nothing.
Twice a day a nurse (not just the Medical Center admin) phoned to check on me and, in the end, I was quarantined until the morning of the last full day of the cruise when all my symptoms were gone. I never ran a fever, the headache was gone after a couple of doses of Paxlovid, so it was really just my sore throat keeping me down. I made it to dinner the last day of the cruise but didn’t go anywhere else. At that point I was simply over cruising. I just wanted to be home.
I was given a letter on the final evening documenting the amount of OBC I’d be receiving for missing most of that last cruise. I also received an itemized statement of medical expenses with just two charges on it: $75 for the nurse and $8 for throat lozenges. There was no charge to receive the bill (honestly, I’ve never been charged for a medical bill on a ship). We flew home the next day both wearing KN95 masks just in case (it was three days before Christmas and ain’t nobody got time for that at Christmas).
Except, apparently, me. That first evening at home, my eyes felt gunky and I wondered what that was all about. Well, it was about an eye infection but my ophthalmologist’s office wouldn’t allow me to come in for an appointment because I was still testing positive for COVID (I’m STILL testing positive and my doctor said I could for three months or longer). So on Christmas Eve, G was running up to Walgreens before the pharmacy closed at 5pm for eye drops the doctor sent in, and then again on News Years Eve because things weren’t better, and finally, three or four weeks ago, I told the manager at my eye doctor’s office that I was losing my vision and either they let me come in or I was going to the ER that day. Well, they let me come in, and the two prescriptions they had ordered were the wrong thing altogether and my ophthalmologist said he was really glad I pushed for an appointment because things were quite serious and he was saying things like “potential corneal transplants” which scared the bejeebers out of me.
As a result, I spent weeks not wearing hard contacts and being unable to do much of anything and the worst part was that I couldn’t even see to read or watch TV and I was not a happy camper. But I returned for a check up just this week and things are looking much better (haha), and I feel very adult being able to drive again and do exciting things like go to Costco and work on taxes.
When I agreed to take the Regal Princess cruises, I told G that if things didn’t go sideways with Princess and if I didn’t get sick, I thought I might be willing to resume cruising like we used to, or maybe at least for a couple of months at a time. Well, things obviously went very sideways with the Regal Princess and we spent more time in Galveston than I ever planned or wanted to, and I got sick not once, but twice. The first time, after the transatlantic, was not a surprise. Long cruises are sick cruises, and though we have no trouble avoiding gastrointestinal illnesses, I am going to pick up every airborne illness that comes my way. But I really thought I’d be safe on the one week cruises out of Galveston, and I was, until that second last cruise when it was obvious something was going around. People like to say that we can catch COVID anywhere, but I only get sick when I cruise, and I am, sadly, not too anxious to cruise again anytime soon.
I am pretty sure we are going to cancel the 22-night Ruby Princess Alaska cruise we are booked on in June (the timing was never going to be good for us, but the itinerary is amazing). I predict that cruise will have lots of respiratory bugs on it. Likewise, the 28-night Sapphire Princess South Pacific cruise in October. But having said that, we could change our minds (though it’s not likely). I did just book us on a one week cruise in March 2027. It helps that we have finally reached an agreement with Princess about our expenses related to the time the Regal Princess was out of service in October and November. It was handled as equitably as we might have hoped. At the same time, I finally received the OBC for my COVID quarantine. It gives me hope that, perhaps, Customer Support is returning under Princess’s new management. Which is a good thing. Because we seem unable to cruise for more than a couple of weeks without running into issues.
I am instead going to be making short trips related to my guys, the first one being an overnight to Seattle this weekend to watch McGee race, and then a few other indoor track and track-related trips this spring. McGuy graduates in May, and that trip is slightly longer, and we will inevitably do a road trip or two, and possibly a train trip this summer. But mostly I am going to enjoy being home and being healthy. And hopefully (knock on wood) getting this insurance thing straightened out.
Thank you again for your concern. I could see I was getting emails at my PescadoAmarillo email account, but was unable to read them until this week. Once I could, I was touched by the number of people who wrote to see if we were okay. We are now, and thank you for asking.
I wish you all safe and happy and HEALTHY travels, about which you blog or do Live Froms or post on Facebook. Because roles are reversed now, and though I don’t want to, I sure enjoy reading about your travels. Cruise on!