And it was from the cursed cruise.
Mostly it was just a mild cold and resulted in a runny nose, fatigue, and what I call a “fat lip” that was kinds like a cold sore. Still though it wasn’t great and it meant waiting in long lines for tests not to mention not being able to take Dex to the baby sitter, missed school, etc.
I put the whole thing about the cruise on Twitter but I’ll add it here too just in case. In case of what? I don’t know, just in case you don’t want to look at twitter?
The only thing missing from twitter is that I contacted them via email and this “case number” they gave me on the boat to get me to go away. They made it seem like Carnival would do something about it. Weeks later and they didn’t even reply.
All of the below is from twitter
https://mobile.twitter.com/tooshel/status/1476723271081111560
Ran into more families that were surprised they were trapped on the Carnival Panorama on the only port day. Carnival didn’t communicate that “vaccination exemption” really meant “trapped”. We talked about how the Rachel Maddow MSNBC Story would go.
Customer Service lies and says they did tell us via email and while also saying it’s a new policy outside their control. At the gate to get off the boat, security lied and said we signed something.
Meanwhile, the boat is shut down since it’s a port day. And there is almost nothing a 0-4 year old kid can do. Not allowed in the pool. Can’t do kids club (starts at 5). No water slides. No rides. Internet sucks so no streaming. There are 3 TV channels. The list goes on and on.
They said we could do a “bubble tour” but of course we had no idea and there was no capacity when we looked (plus, you know that was going to be CHA CHING either way but that was nothing compared to being trapped).
There was NO COMMUNICATION! Nothing in the printed materials. I have several examples I could post where they didn’t say anything about “exemptions”.
In our case we went to leave the boat early (7:45) waited for at least an hour in huge crowds in the stairwells and it would have been longer if I wasn’t vigilant in that crowd. Others have stories were way worse.
The boat had at least 2-3 medical emergencies where we had to stop. We don’t know if it was related to covid but we also saw hasmat suits from our vantage point (WISH I took a picture!!).
Lots of children were crying aboard the Carnival Panorama this week. We talked to 4 families and none of them got concessions beyond a bear in their room and a bottle of wine. Everyone got a $50 onboard credit but that’s nothing and doesn’t address how kids were treated.
Last full day we had to subject the kids again to covid testing. I’m sure they brag about all the tests they do and while I appreciate it’s not the qtip up the nose for the kids’ sake, is the “test” they do really effective? Is it meant to make sure the positives are low?.
PLUS having to wait for hours before we could board with timeline after timeline slipping “we will have news at 2” “between 2:30 and 3” “by 4pm”. Always sounded like a threat “if you are allowed on board”. Even though we all jumped through hoop after hoop beforehand.
I gotta admit it was nice not having to cook and clean up Christmas dinner but that was the end of the fun on this ship. We get it was risky booking a cruise in the first place and in hindsight, we feel stupid.
We, of course, went to Carnival Customer Service but they just don’t seem to care. They have been hearing complaints all week I’m sure. Christine (carnival president) worked to clear us to arrive in Cabo but I guess kids are not a big enough market.
I don’t watch much news but this story seems compelling. I wish I had contacts at CNN, CBS, MSNBC and the like. And I would round up families all around the Carnival Panorama if it mattered but in the end, me writing this is my only concession.