OoflowerbudoO
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2022
I thought back and forth about whether I wanted to post this but felt that in my initial question on this forum about COVID testing, it was hard to find info on what it would be like to test positive at port on this forum. I ultimately decided to write down this whole experience so people can assess whether or not it’s worth going through with their families.
We were supposed to board the Fantasy this last Saturday (2/12). All vaccinated and over 5, we were completely asymptomatic. When we got to port, we were directed to the testing tents. There is a tent that you walk through to get your test kits, where they will scan your reservation number and complete the swabbing process. Overall it was a fairly quick process. After that they scan you again and tell you what tent to wait in. We waited and watched test results come back on the TV, which showed your reservation number and whether you were cleared “terminal” or had an issue with testing “consult”. I think took about 40 min for our reservation number to show “consult.” Then I got a call on my phone saying to stay put and someone would come get us. Initially we had the false hope of maybe testing inconclusive, but when I checked the safe passage website, it said our oldest son had tested positive.
Knowing the awful truth and feeling like our stomachs had dropped, we waited a few minutes for a nice Disney representative to come for us. She was nice. My husband told her that we looked at the app and know the situation. AT this point, my 7 and 9 year old had NO idea what was going on, and happily followed us. We were taken to a trailer with multiple empty rooms (felt very much like a bare tiny hospital room) with a few chairs. We sat down, another Disney rep joined us and a nurse from inspire diagnostics walked in. She spent a very short amount of time with us, but basically said, outloud, that my son had tested positive. Everyone else was negative. But he was positive and so we cannot board the ship. We were handed a paper with his positive test result. My husband asked if he could be retested because he was asymptomatic, and the answer was a firm no. At this point, my oldest especially, exploded in tears. Both kids were very sad, but he understood…after this nurse loudly broadcasted that he was the one that ruined our vacation, and felt that he was at fault. We had prepped our kids for this possibility and understood that this can happen. But nothing could’ve prepared us for how much our hearts hurt seeing our kids like this. All of a sudden, all the preperation, the costumes, the star wars movies, the packed light sabers, the months of masking vigilance, talking up dolphin excursions and the kids club etc - all gone.
We were told that if we got a doctor’s exemption, we could come back within 90 days. I told the Disney rep that there is NO way I am bringing my kids back for another potential experience like this. Even if there’s one exception, one of us could test positive again.
They asked us if we traveled with anyone else and how we got to port etc. We had flown in and stayed at a hotel the night before. They arranged to have a shuttle take us “somewhere” but we had no where to go. So at this point, with crying children, we were left frantically searching for a car rental or hotel room. This process probably took us at least an hour and a half because the cell reception (ATT) was so terrible. We wanted to get OUT of that area. My husband finally asked them for the password for their internet, and after sometime, it was given to us. Seeing the cruise ship, seeing the Disney workers literally clapping for those who passed the test, was just too much to bear. When we finally got a hotel room booked, we walked to the shuttle, past the terminal port where the soft star wars music was playing, to a shuttle van. Our luggage was waiting for us, and the kids suitcases had a little tag saying “2 light sabers.” Not knowing what this meant, the disney cruise representative assumed that they were confiscated and made us wait another 20 minutes to see if they can locate them on the ship. At this point, my husband insisted we leave. $20 dollar light sabers are not worth sitting there in front of the ship.
Anyway, we luckily were able to find a beachside rental and are spending some time next to the ocean and in the warmer weather.
Looking back, the possibility of being turned away at port was theoretically awful. But in our minds, vaccinated/boosted/vigilance, the likelihood was so low we didn’t think it could happen. I would never put my children through this experience again so long as they can be turned away, at port, with the ship in plain sight and happy Disney music blasting.
If there’s any advice I can give:
1. Test right before you get on an airplane, changing your vacation at this point will be a lot less painful
2. If for some terrible reason, on the safe passage app it says one of you has tested positive, pull the RN/healthcare worker aside and tell them that you will let your children know. That way, you can control how the message is delivered. We would’ve told our children that one of us were positive and we couldn’t go on the ship. We would’ve never let our 9 year bear that burden of knowing he was positive right then and there. Maybe later once everyone had settled down, he would’ve taken that news a lot better.
3. Decide whether at the end of all this it’s worth it for your families. If we lived in florida, we could’ve just driven home. But this for us was time taken away from school and work and will not in anyway, resemble a vacation we could’ve had. Looking back, it feels silly of us to leave it up to chance that we would be turned away at the last minute.
We were given a letter that we will use to rebook another cruise, but we definitely don’t plan on returning this year.
We were supposed to board the Fantasy this last Saturday (2/12). All vaccinated and over 5, we were completely asymptomatic. When we got to port, we were directed to the testing tents. There is a tent that you walk through to get your test kits, where they will scan your reservation number and complete the swabbing process. Overall it was a fairly quick process. After that they scan you again and tell you what tent to wait in. We waited and watched test results come back on the TV, which showed your reservation number and whether you were cleared “terminal” or had an issue with testing “consult”. I think took about 40 min for our reservation number to show “consult.” Then I got a call on my phone saying to stay put and someone would come get us. Initially we had the false hope of maybe testing inconclusive, but when I checked the safe passage website, it said our oldest son had tested positive.
Knowing the awful truth and feeling like our stomachs had dropped, we waited a few minutes for a nice Disney representative to come for us. She was nice. My husband told her that we looked at the app and know the situation. AT this point, my 7 and 9 year old had NO idea what was going on, and happily followed us. We were taken to a trailer with multiple empty rooms (felt very much like a bare tiny hospital room) with a few chairs. We sat down, another Disney rep joined us and a nurse from inspire diagnostics walked in. She spent a very short amount of time with us, but basically said, outloud, that my son had tested positive. Everyone else was negative. But he was positive and so we cannot board the ship. We were handed a paper with his positive test result. My husband asked if he could be retested because he was asymptomatic, and the answer was a firm no. At this point, my oldest especially, exploded in tears. Both kids were very sad, but he understood…after this nurse loudly broadcasted that he was the one that ruined our vacation, and felt that he was at fault. We had prepped our kids for this possibility and understood that this can happen. But nothing could’ve prepared us for how much our hearts hurt seeing our kids like this. All of a sudden, all the preperation, the costumes, the star wars movies, the packed light sabers, the months of masking vigilance, talking up dolphin excursions and the kids club etc - all gone.
We were told that if we got a doctor’s exemption, we could come back within 90 days. I told the Disney rep that there is NO way I am bringing my kids back for another potential experience like this. Even if there’s one exception, one of us could test positive again.
They asked us if we traveled with anyone else and how we got to port etc. We had flown in and stayed at a hotel the night before. They arranged to have a shuttle take us “somewhere” but we had no where to go. So at this point, with crying children, we were left frantically searching for a car rental or hotel room. This process probably took us at least an hour and a half because the cell reception (ATT) was so terrible. We wanted to get OUT of that area. My husband finally asked them for the password for their internet, and after sometime, it was given to us. Seeing the cruise ship, seeing the Disney workers literally clapping for those who passed the test, was just too much to bear. When we finally got a hotel room booked, we walked to the shuttle, past the terminal port where the soft star wars music was playing, to a shuttle van. Our luggage was waiting for us, and the kids suitcases had a little tag saying “2 light sabers.” Not knowing what this meant, the disney cruise representative assumed that they were confiscated and made us wait another 20 minutes to see if they can locate them on the ship. At this point, my husband insisted we leave. $20 dollar light sabers are not worth sitting there in front of the ship.
Anyway, we luckily were able to find a beachside rental and are spending some time next to the ocean and in the warmer weather.
Looking back, the possibility of being turned away at port was theoretically awful. But in our minds, vaccinated/boosted/vigilance, the likelihood was so low we didn’t think it could happen. I would never put my children through this experience again so long as they can be turned away, at port, with the ship in plain sight and happy Disney music blasting.
If there’s any advice I can give:
1. Test right before you get on an airplane, changing your vacation at this point will be a lot less painful
2. If for some terrible reason, on the safe passage app it says one of you has tested positive, pull the RN/healthcare worker aside and tell them that you will let your children know. That way, you can control how the message is delivered. We would’ve told our children that one of us were positive and we couldn’t go on the ship. We would’ve never let our 9 year bear that burden of knowing he was positive right then and there. Maybe later once everyone had settled down, he would’ve taken that news a lot better.
3. Decide whether at the end of all this it’s worth it for your families. If we lived in florida, we could’ve just driven home. But this for us was time taken away from school and work and will not in anyway, resemble a vacation we could’ve had. Looking back, it feels silly of us to leave it up to chance that we would be turned away at the last minute.
We were given a letter that we will use to rebook another cruise, but we definitely don’t plan on returning this year.
