Hi all,
My partner and I had a challenging and difficult experience on the Encore. Let me start by saying, we love cruising - just became platinum on ncl. Alaska was an absolute bucket item list for my partner! On vacation, we tend to be very go with the flow and rarely find anything to complain about. We spent the first half of our 27 year relationship being too poor to travel, so we appreciate and have gratitude for the ability to go on a cruise.
For the last 3 years, we have miraculously avoided Covid to come down with it on the first full day of our cruise. It was Monday night - we were both pretty shocked, up until then we had felt good, having spent a great weekend in Seattle. We had brought an at home test and tested in the cabin. My partner was positive instantly, mine was negative. The next morning, I called medical and was first told to call back as they were in a meeting. The timing may be off, we were both feverish and sick, but I called back hours later and was told they couldn’t see us as they had a critical case. Totally understood, no problem, asked them to call us back when they were available. The nurse then started asking questions, I explained our situation and our understanding of the need to quarantine, and wanted to get seen to potentially get Paxlovid. She cut me off and said, “Mam, things are back to normal” you don’t need to tell us if you have Covid” she then stated we would need “full diagnostic evaluations and quoted us at 6,000 dollars each. She stated many of these tests were maritime law and that we couldn’t just get a Covid test. We were both feverish and frightened. Despite being middle aged adults, being sick with what has felt like a terrible flu in the middle of the ocean is scary! We had purchased the NCL insurance, but worried that our medical expenses might not be covered and on top of the losses for our trip, we would also be out 12,000.00 I have seen what medical debt can do! Looking back, it seems that NCL did not want any documented Covid cases on the cruise and this was effective in keeping us away. Of course, with a clearer head now, I wish we had gone to medical. We tried our best to be responsible and only left the cabin to get food ( masked in N95) to bring back to our room or ordered room service. We never got off the ship and tried hard to follow CDC guidelines. We asked our room steward not to clean our room to avoid making him sick. He told us he would tell someone in guest services. I tried to call someone in guest services but only was transferred to medical.
I am writing this wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience with medical. I am very doubtful of getting any compensation, but will try and share our story with NCl if anyone thinks that would help. It is probably cathartic writing this and perhaps, it will help someone else. For the record, we are vaccinated and boosted and glad for it!
