Got positive - Princess cruise- we disagree with results- WWYD?

[Beachandcity]

So texted Monday negative for land portion at cruise at urgent care- 6 of us. Negative-  Today tested to board ship and our 5 year positive. So super upset but fortunately we brought 3 home tests (from my sister a doctor ) and one government issued one. Just to be sure we tested three times. All three separate tests negative.  
    The testing here at Princes is hot mess. Like assembly line and chaotic. 
    So now we feel their test was invalid. 
   What can we do? And my best excursion is tomorrow. I feel confident their test is wrong so I hate to miss as it’s a once in lifetime and I’m clearly negative. 
     No one at cruise line answering Phone at the hotline number. 

[hilliss]

Are you at McKinley?  We are here… hearing and seeing the same thing.  10 in our group.  One tested positive.  9 negative.  There is no way.  The tester never switched gloves… at the front desk (McKinley) today, I stood there as one female guest was asking the male clerk what to do after she tested positive.  He told her “your vacation is over” and to go pack.  That she would be contacted.  The one in our group that tested positive has had to call the front desk repeatedly to try to get answers.  Same thing with Princess on the phone.  No assistance at all.  I have gone to Facebook and posted on the Princess Cruise account.  I opened a Twitter account and tweeted them (and I HATE Twitter, this was hard for me to do…) and also did the same on Instagram.  Do the same.  Also, email Roger Frizzell.  He is the Chief Communications Officer at Carnival.  His email in actually listed on the Princess and Carnival websites.  Then, file a claim with your states Attorney General.  Not the BBB… but your Attorney General and copy that to the California Attorney generals office.  As to your self testing, the one in our group that tested positive, asked.  They will not accept your tests or even allow you to retest.  They will kick you out.  No choice there.  The tests they use are 98% correct for negative results, and 87% correct for positive results.  So there are 13% (at least) false positives.  But they wont even allow the retest.  Your best course of action is to YELL using the internet… Tweet, Instagram, Facebook, whatever and call them out and then warn others about the hot mess that Princess is right now.  It would be a little better if they would at least respond and let you know what comes next… but they aren’t even doing this.

[Beachandcity]

No not at McKinley. . I think the testing can be wrong- or at least maybe they mixed up our tests.  I mean, I wouldn’t normaly question it at all, but we just happened to have the home tests ( we worried airline would require them to travel home so we took -how can two home tests come back negative? We did the tests like mad scientists we were so Uber carful. We figured it would validate test and we could make plans to head home. Never thought they would all be negative. 
  So just seems like another test shousk be offered. 

[hilliss]

I agree with you that they should offer a second testing knowing there are false positives and also with your negative home tests.

 

Not sure how careful your tester handled the packages.  Again, ours didnt change gloves from the couple before us.  But he also didn’t appear to touch the swabs.  He did touch the packages and as such, there could be transfer.  But most likely, the efficacy of the test is most likely the cause of the false positive.  

 

But, I know from the couple across the hall, that despite repeated requests, Princess wouldnt accept another test after the positive results.

 

I am very sorry… I agree this is a hot mess right now for Princess.  They clearly aren’t ready for this and once you test positive, they essentially hand you off to a third party.  I am hearing they are transporting folks from McKinley down to Anchorage and they are being placed in a hotel with a rate of $550 per night!  Wow!!

[cruisequeen4ever]

The home tests can become faulty if exposed to extreme temps; we Alaskans were warned of this when the government shipped their free ones during the winter. If you live in a cold climate, yours may have become faulty if ordered during the winter. I’m very sad for you having your vacation ruined and hope you can have a redo.

[MommyOTwins]

On 7/1/2022 at 1:19 AM, hilliss said:

The tests they use are 98% correct for negative results, and 87% correct for positive results.  So there are 13% (at least) false positives.

I think you have it switched around, actually.  All Covid tests are FAR more likely to be a false negative than a false positive.  

[KKB]

Realize this--when I had COVID, the home test was negative on Monday evening but the docs test positive Weds AM.

DH never tested positive tho we are certain he had it, with very mild symptoms.

I have a friend who never tested positive but she KNOWS she had it--loss of taste smell for months.

Yes, false negatives are FAR more common than false positives:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7850182/

 

Most likely they didn't have enough viral load to trigger the 1st test & did by the time the 2nd test was administered.

 

I suppose you could ask for a 2nd test to be done by them.

[geoherb]

It is too bad that Princess isn't equipped to offer a confirmatory PCR test for someone who tests positive with the rapid test. I know I started feeling bad on a Thursday and did not get a positive test until three days later. I still canceled all of my activities, not wanting to spread the virus to others if I had it. 

[LACruiser88]

1 hour ago, geoherb said:

It is too bad that Princess isn't equipped to offer a confirmatory PCR test for someone who tests positive with the rapid test. I know I started feeling bad on a Thursday and did not get a positive test until three days later. I still canceled all of my activities, not wanting to spread the virus to others if I had it. 

At the end of February, I tested positive on the Emerald on a b2b Antigen test.  Medical staff came to our cabin and conducted a PCR test to confirm the results.  Both were positive and I was asymptomatic.

[Firepath]

That’s why it’s so important to have really good insurance. We had to cancel our cruise because 1 person out of 4 tested positive. Our doctor said you have to have symptoms for at least a day before the test will be positive. That has been our experience also.

[Cali Viajera]

Kenai Princess tested us before we ere to board Majestic. We used our CVS home tests first . 27 year old DD tested positive and we went into freak mode. Best excursion to Kenai Fjords was next day. We went together to face our fate with Princess testing, all negative! My TA said home tests can be unreliable.Another family before us had one member of their group tested positive. They were going to do another test, the health care person told them that sometimes a person’s blood type can cause false positive??!

[tetleytea]

I was in a similar situation when my travel companion tested through Princess.   That is never going to happen again.  We will always test on our own and bring the negative result.   If someone tests positive, we will be the judge of what to do from there.

[KKB]

1 hour ago, Cali Viajera said:

 They were going to do another test, the health care person told them that sometimes a person’s blood type can cause false positive??!

There is nothing to suggest this.

It does seem Type O blood types are less likely to get COVID--didn't know that!

Love misinformation...from a health professional no less.

[Beachandcity]

So to give the follow up. I did believe when we first got the positive it was probably correct because I agree easier to get false negative than positive. However if you Google, the test results actually have a pretty high percentage of wrong results either way. Not like a pregnancy test that is like 99 % accurate for positive lol!

   The only reason we tested back in our room is that we had them ( two types and tests -doubt two would be wrong) so really we did to confirm. Both being negative convinced us their testing was wrong. Also let me add the testing at Denali was a hot mess. Super super nice people but short staffed and they were stacking the tests like dominoes. . So we did feel more than justified in pushing for another test.

  It was a bit of battle. - and we were isolated missing all our Denali events- finally we got the call to retest with PCR which they charged us $155 for. And as we thought it was negative and we continued our trip. 
   Honestly we thought Princess handled this all very badly- the third party group has two numbers to call and neither works. 
    The testing that could eventually end a many thousand dollar trip was disorganized and complety likely to cross contaminate- and for any positive at all, the standard protocol should be an automatic retest of PCR by Princess.

   We felt they ruined a significant part of our trip- unnecessarily.