First Cruise...Caught Covid!

[LymingtonLad]

My wife and I took our first ever cruise earlier this year, a short trip from Southampton to Hamburg and Cherbourg on the QM2. What a wonderful experience, we've booked again on a longer Cunard cruise in August and are counting down the weeks!

 

But (there's always a but isn't there) the voyage wasn't quite as idyllic as it might have been. After a lovely day in Hamburg (here we are by the Binnenalster, sorry about the tilting horizon, we've yet to pass our selfie proficiency badge), I started to feel a bit under the weather.

 

 

My wife had brought some Covid tests (what hadn't she brought, but that's another story), and thankfully she tested negative, but I was positive.

 

We re-tested, same results, so contacted the medical centre. They arrived within a few minutes and instead of our lateral flow tests ran PCR tests. We were told to stay in our cabins and they'd phone back in half an hour. Their results confirmed our tests. We haven't anything to add to the various stories from all the very experienced cruisers who post here, but some may find it interesting to discover what happens if you ever test positive onboard!

 

Cunard handled the situation with all the grace and professionalism you'd expect. My wife was told she could stay in our cabin, because she'd tested negative she still had the run of the ship but had to wear a mask every time she left the cabin and was given a PCR test each morning. There was no exception to the mask rule even for eating, so she had to stick to room service.

 

I was asked to pack a bag and was escorted by two guys in hazmat suits, one behind spraying and one in front ringing a leper bell, well not quite but certainly keeping a clear gangway! I was taken to deck 5. On the little map we were given for the QM2 the mysterious deck 5 isn't listed. I was hoping for something amazing, but it all looked fairly normal. There, on the starboard side, we came across a door with "strictly no admittance" signs. Beyond were the isolation cabins, at a guess I'd estimate there was about twenty or thirty of them. I was given 5905, which was a perfectly pleasant cabin with a sheltered balcony, and told I mustn't leave under any circumstances. 

 

Leaving Cherbourg I saw a group of dolphins frolicking in the bow wave, my wife was watching sailaway on the Port side along with most of the other passengers, and they missed the show! Perhaps the dolphins are a bit shy and have figured all this out?

 

The ship's doctor and one of the nurses couldn't have been kinder. They phoned at least once a day to enquire how I was (absolutely fine thank you, symptoms no worse than a cold) and I was offered, but declined, pretty much every patent remedy under the sun.

 

Room service was really very good, but it was left outside my cabin on a tray with plastic plates and wooden cutlery, and after I'd finished I was requested to tip absolutely everything into a stout plastic bag and leave it outside the room for collection.

 

We were given clear instructions well ahead of time on the arrangements when we got back to Southampton. My wife was disembarked amongst the last group, she was offered a porter and told to wait at a specific location. After all the passengers had left I, plus the two other Covid cases onboard, were accompanied off the ship with the same spraying/hazmat ritual. One of the other people was a flooring contractor from Glasgow who was working onboard, he was going to be put up locally in an isolation hotel by his company. The other passenger, who lived in Winchester, was offered a specialist "Covid Contagious" taxi by Cunard (no, I'd never heard of such a thing either). We live close by in the New Forest, and had brought a car. As we both felt perfectly fit and well we drove home with the windows down, and I then isolated until I tested negative. I don't know what the arrangements would have been if we'd had a connecting flight?

 

It was a shame, but we'd had a wonderful cruise up until then and can't wait to go again (Western Europe, Queen Victoria, August, please introduce yourself if you meet us, we're not infectious!), and Cunard really can't be faulted in their sympathy and helpfulness.

[exlondoner]

Thank you very much for,this most informative account. Hope you are completely better soon.

[Bell Boy]

Thank you for sharing your experience with us , so sorry to read your post but thanks for being so upbeat and making the best out of the situation.  Hopefully by August and your next cruise  all this will be behind us .  

[Host Hattie]

Thanks for your report, it's good to hear the experience didn't put you off cruising !

I'm sure your August trip will be wonderful.

[bluemarble]

Thank you for that thorough report, @LymingtonLad. I have one question. You mentioned you were assigned cabin 5905 as your isolation cabin but there is no such cabin number on QM2. Did you mean cabin 5205 perhaps? That's the one sheltered balcony on deck 5 ending in "05". Or have they temporarily renumbered the cabins to help identify the ones that are assigned for covid isolation purposes?

[LymingtonLad]

Hello bluemarble, I'm such a Cunard neophyte that I hesitate to offer any opinion,  however I'm pretty sure 5905 was the correct cabin, as that's the number my wife 'phoned.

 

Pure speculation on my part, but I'm guessing that all cruise lines were alert to infection long before Covid, and therefore have permanent isolation cabins to tackle outbreaks of things like Norovirus. I'm going well out on a limb here, on a subject I know absolutely nothing about, but it wouldn't surprise me if Cunard deleted public reference to their permanent onboard isolation ward as it doesn't really fit with the party spirit!

[frankp01]

I would have guessed cabin 5095, since (in December) the isolation cabins were those on decks 4,5 & 6 between stairways A & B. 5095 would have fallen in that range.

[ew101]

I hope you feel better.  The lines are in a difficult spot here.  Based on my experience last week on a cruise (same family), the passengers have sounded the "all clear" to each other but the ship medical departments, public health, hospitals and port governments have not read that memo.  After whatever happened on the QM2 earlier this year with the cancelled NYC port stop, Cunard is on alert for outbreaks and possible impacts to operations.  I think it is best to not take out anger and frustration at them.  The latest quarterly reports are out and there is extreme pressure to get to 90% load factors and above to reach cash flow positive results.   I think this is the new Noro, and we all have to do our part to not pass it around if we can.   

Edited May 20, 2022 by ew101

[canoncruiser]

I was  on my way home on QM2 May 8-15, and two days from NYC I suddenly had a runny nose and lot’s of coughing. I called the Medical Office-they showed up promptly and four hours later they called to say that I was Positive and that they would move me. They did that very efficiently and I was in a BZ cabin on 6 Deck; apparently those cabins on 5 and 6 are for isolation. They are my faves and now I understand why one can’t book them at this time. They were very solicitous and my breakfast lunch and dinner were brought to my door and left own a table in from of the door-the food was hot and from the main menu.

Another benefit-they took care of immigration  and I was  disembarked via the crew gangway -and there was my car - so I was home in a flash.😂

[Jack E Dawson]

On May 1st we landed in London where we spent a week sightseeing. We mainly explored outside venues and uncrowded inside sites, always wearing a mask indoors. On May 8th we boarded the QM2 bound for NYC. We wore masks in the Royal Court and Illuminations theaters. On Sunday May 15th we arrived home to Chicago. Dee spent the next day, Monday, snuggling with and reading to our youngest grandchild. The next morning he tested positive for COVID. That Friday Dee tested positive. Fortunately her symptoms, and his, are mild. Dee and I gave a lot of thought to canceling this voyage. We are so glad now that we didn't but instead moved forward with our lives, made the best decisions that we could and had a wonderful time. We are so grateful to the staff and crew of the QM2 who made this wonderful voyage happen. 

Jack