Medical disembarkation story

[celoplyr]

I wanted to give my experience on the medical disembarkation that we experienced on our last cruise, just in case any one else has to undergo this in the future. Long story short: my mom is fine.

 

So, we were on a 13 day cruise from Rome to the Holy Land, my parents and I.  On day 3, mom started getting sick with what looked like a nasty cold.  We were at sea.  On day 4, in Athens, I went on a tour to the Acropolis, and mom decided that she needed to go to medical.  Medical did a work up, and after a bit of a back and forth, they ended up calling her an ambulance, and she and my father went to the ER. I was still on the Acropolis, so had to rush back to the ship.

 

We had to pack (no steward help, some people say that they will help, no one contacted us to offer assistance of any kind), and then we wheeled all of our luggage downstairs to guest services.  30 minutes in that line (again, no joke, and only 2 people in front of us) with 30 minutes while they figured out that "surprise, the whole family will get off, not just 2 of 3 people".  Mom and Dad had their disembarkation cards because of medical, but I was a surprise.  It was also a surprise to them that I wanted a refund on my prepaid activities (shore excursions, spa, internet, etc).  I just called today, and they still haven't refunded everything!  The number they gave us for the port authority didn't work, so we had to stand in line at guest services, and I think they had to call a supervisor in.  

 

Once we got our card, we went down to the gangway and they took our seapass cards and our disembarkation card. We were told guest services would call us a taxi, they did not (and we got right royally ripped off by the taxi driver). After the fact, they called my mom's emergency contact to see if everything was ok, and they tried to call us.  However, the number to call back is just the normal line, so the abnormal procedures seem to befuddle them.  We left items in the room, that we discovered once we got off the ship and had a moment to breathe, those have not been recovered yet.  I filled out both lost luggage (who said they wouldn't do a sweep of the room, we would have to list every item individually if we wanted it back) and the care team (who did say they would call our steward and have him sweep the room, but we haven't heard back yet).  No assistance was given for if we wanted to go back to the ship (which we thought we might have, but mom ended up being in the hospital for too long, and you know, war and stuff).  For the timing, we got off the ship on the 5th, Israel went into chaos on the 7th. When we left, I was devastated to miss it.  Later, I was ok with knowing I wouldn't have made it anyways.

 

One thing I was most discouraged about was the number of passengers who made a comment.  We were two people, carrying off hastily packed suitcases for a 2 week cruise for 3 people (so 3 big bags, 3 carry on bags, and a lot of personal items) and a lot of people made comments like "getting off so soon?" "did you just get your luggage?".  Obviously, to me, we were in a crisis.  No one offered to help, they just decided to judge us for getting off the ship.  It was probably 20-30 people, so not a small number.  Dad thought the help that RCL gave was very minimal, and he had expected basically someone to guide us to get off the ship and help (since we were sent by the RCL medical staff to the hospital, they knew what was going on) and instead we were just on our own. 

 

Could it have been worse? Yes. We met someone in the hotel by the hospital where the spouse had passed away. Mom got great care, and is doing fine, and needed the hospital rather than the ship.  We weren't in tel Aviv when we got off.  It's just money (probably about 35k, who knows how much travel insurance would pay, but probably most of it).  The hospital was a mess, but workable (only one person visiting at a time, which meant that one was alone in greece, not in the most touristy neighborhood, hotel was really sketchy, but no more than most European hotels, etc). And we got home.

[Luckynana]

I am glad to hear that your mom is fine, and that you and your parents are safely back home.

With that said, my husband had a medical disembarkation last year while we were on a New England/Canada cruise.  Sadly, Customer Service isn't always the best.  I made at least two calls down to CS asking for help with our luggage before they finally sent one person to help.   My DH was in too much pain to do anything more than walk down to Medical.  The paramedics were already on the ship waiting for us.  I will say that the Doctor, nurse, and medical laison were all wonderful!   The medical laison and I followed the stretcher out to the Ambulance, while medical tried repeatedly to contact the Port Agent, whose job it was to help me and my luggage.  The paramedics told me they had to get my DH quickly to the hospital;  there wasn't room in the ambulance for both me and our luggage.  After several calls to the Port Agent to no avail, I took it upon myself to go out to the street and get a cab to help with my luggage and get me to the hospital.  Major fail with the Port Agent!

My DH had surgery the next morning, and he is fine, thank goodness!

We had Medical Travel Insurance, and we got back almost all of our expenses.  It is very important that you have receipts for the hospital, doctors, tests that were taken, etc.  

Good luck.  

[ARandomTraveler]

Sorry that your family had this frustrating experience during your vacation. Sounds like there isn't a well understood protocol for the staff to follow when this happens. Very frustrating I'm sure. I'm glad your mom is ok, and it's good that you were able to see a bright side in the scenario in not being in Israel during the start of the war and evacuations.

[Basketball wife]

Was this the Odyssey? We were on the Odyssey Holy Land tour last year. In the Diamond Lounge while I was waiting in line for the coffee machine, I got hit in the mouth with a cup by an irate passenger. At the same time she stepped on my foot which caused more immediate pain— I was limping around for days. Anyway, as the sailing progressed I noticed my tooth seemed a bit wobbly so about four days before the end of the cruise I went to Guest Services to get an accident report (I wanted a copy in case I had to make a claim for dental insurance.) I was told they “take note” of incidents but they can’t give me a “written” report🤷🏻‍♀️ Turns out, I lost the tooth and have an implant. I am pleased with my travel insurance as they did cover everything even without an official report; however, Odyssey Guest Services and Royal policies need work.

[robmtx]

When we were unfortunate enough to have a medical disembarkation, our experience was completely the opposite.

 

At first we were sent ashore to the hospital. The plan was to return to ship before departure. Instead, my GF was admitted.

 

I returned to the ship to inform them that we would disembark. They had a room attendant (not ours) meet me at our room, help me pack, and then a second attendant showed up to assist with us getting the bags off the ship.

 

I got back to security checkpoint where a member of guest services was waiting with our invoices, and a member of the medical team was there to provide us with all of the documentation for her medical issue. I never had to stand in any lines. They had the port agent waiting to take me to the Customs office (because we were now staying and needed a formal entry to the country) and then drove me back to the hospital. I had to ride with him in his personal vehicle lol. 

 

Once we had to medivac from the island, the port agent came to the hospital to retrieve our large luggage that wouldn't fit on the plane and he got them shipped to our home stateside. 

 

All in all I'd say Royal did a pretty good job here. It's unfortunate your story isn't the same, and this goes to show us that their is a bit of inconsistency in the processes.

[Billy Baltic]

26 minutes ago, Basketball wife said:

Was this the Odyssey? We were on the Odyssey Holy Land tour last year. In the Diamond Lounge while I was waiting in line for the coffee machine, I got hit in the mouth with a cup by an irate passenger. At the same time she stepped on my foot which caused more immediate pain— I was limping around for days. Anyway, as the sailing progressed I noticed my tooth seemed a bit wobbly so about four days before the end of the cruise I went to Guest Services to get an accident report (I wanted a copy in case I had to make a claim for dental insurance.) I was told they “take note” of incidents but they can’t give me a “written” report🤷🏻‍♀️ Turns out, I lost the tooth and have an implant. I am pleased with my travel insurance as they did cover everything even without an official report; however, Odyssey Guest Services and Royal policies need work.

That’s sad to heat but not the first time I’ve heard of RC wanting to stay out of a situation like this. 

[celoplyr]

11 hours ago, ARandomTraveler said:

Sorry that your family had this frustrating experience during your vacation. Sounds like there isn't a well understood protocol for the staff to follow when this happens. Very frustrating I'm sure. I'm glad your mom is ok, and it's good that you were able to see a bright side in the scenario in not being in Israel during the start of the war and evacuations.

We actually got off the ship before Israel was in their war, and things changed so suddenly!!

 

I am big on policies and procedures, which is why I wrote this out, hopefully they can get a better protocol started. It's really scary anywhere when someone is that sick, so being in an unfamiliar area makes it even worse.  Big picture, as long as it ends fine, it's ok, but I know my family has some trauma afterwards (mom is swearing she will never travel again, dad still can't sleep through the night, etc...)