We are just off the Equinox this morning. We tested positive on day 8 of an 11 night cruise. We reported to medical and were put on isolation for the rest of the cruise (otherwise it would have been 5 days and a negative test in isolation). We were required to stay in our cabin and were assigned a quarantine concierge, who was very helpful. We could order meals from room service, Luminae (we were in a suite) or the MDR and could also order drinks using our beverage package once we felt up to it. We had a daily call from medical to check on our symptoms and see if we needed any additional meds. This morning we were escorted off the ship away from other people, which I appreciated. We have holed up in a hotel for one additional night so that we do not fly home outside of CDC guidelines.
As I know some are curious—we are fully vaccinated and boosted. We got the bivalent vax 30 days before our cruise, hoping for maximum efficacy during our cruise. I had COVID once before, in July 2022. DH had not had it before. Our symptoms were at the level of a moderate cold and lasted about 36 hours. We have no idea where/when on the ship we got it, but since it’s everywhere, we were not particularly surprised.
We will be receiving a refund for the days we were in isolation. We are covering the cost of our extra hotel night and changing our flight home. I will submit a claim to our travel insurance and see what happens.
We came close to canceling this cruise before final payment because of COVID fears and knew there was a risk this would happen. It was not as bad being in isolation as I had envisioned, and we did get 7 full days before we got sick, so it definitely could have been worse,