Cant Get Excited Until Pass Antigen Test

[ambula603]

I have definitely felt this anxiety leading up to our trip (and past trips we have taken in the last 2 years) but at some point, I have to tell myself to not let it steal my JOY. Part of the fun of any trip (to me) is the planning and excitement leading up to it. This is why I spend much more time on these boards when I have a trip coming up! Having a backup plan in place has given me some comfort. And knowing that even though it would be disappointing to not be able to board, being able to go is worth that risk of heartbreak for our family. Some families with younger kids may not be willing to take that chance.

Some things that I do when I feel anxious about it: I like to listen to Disney park music and visualize how excited I will be when I am there in the parks. Or for the cruise, I like to watch youtube videos of people on our same ship. Just to remind me how awesome it will be when we do finally get there. We are one week away and I am nervous and anxious and excited and trying to stay busy until we can finally relax next week!

I hope you are able to find a balance of being prepared for any outcome but also being excited to take a wonderful vacation!

 

[MomOTwins]

I didn't let myself get excited in the weeks approaching the trip. I had caught a nasty cold which was not Covid (took 4 Covid tests, 2 of them PCR, all negative, throughout the cold), but I still worried. By the time of the cruise, I was over my cold, and had PCR tested again just to be sure, but still worried. I sailed through testing at port. I hope you do, too. Hang in there. It's possible testing might not even be a requirement by the time you sail.

That was me next week too! Took three antigen tests and a lab PCR just to be extra extra sure, but boy was that a nasty cold considering it was not Covid.

I know like we are staying at VWL two days prior and I am like should I wear a mask anyway while there? I am the Only one still wearing a mask at work. I am like I’ve worn it for two years what’s two more months!! Just so over it !

I mean, I totally would. We stayed at Poly a night before our last cruise and we always masked indoors even though others were not, and did our best to keep distance from everyone and eat outside. I can't count how many times I've gotten sick at Disney World (including Covid)--it's just a place where a lot of people are getting sick--either from travel down, or at the parks, or because there are so many little kids and kids are germ factories--I say lovingly as a mom whose kids are total germ factories (why to they put EVERYTHING in their mouth??). You always see so many people coughing and blowing runny noses.

 

[MiddKid]

With switching to Antigen are they still doing the 90-day recovered status? I have a daughter who has a positive PCR from January which was 89 days before we board the ship in two weeks. My wife has a positive PCR from February.

 

[CindyLouB]

Been there, done that pretty much for any vacation I have taken in the last year! Found it hard to get excited to plan for any of them. Found myself always making a Plan B because that has been what travel has been for us. We just got off the Wonder a couple days ago after spending 5 days in Disneyland, cross country flights and a train ride. I had exposure risk up the wahoo before this cruise. We even antigen tested in our hotel the morning of the cruise because I needed to have the time to plan what the heck we would do!

But, we were all fine, all 7 of us!

On April 15 we head from Boston to Disneyland for 3 nights , then Susan Diego 3 nights before boarding the Wonder for 5 nights one way to Vancouver. We still mask up indoors with crowds ( except school,our 13 year old doesn’t have to mask at school). We’re all triple boosted , and all had Covid over New Years in Disneyworld. We plan to be extra cautious and self test before we leave home and night before cruise. Fingers crossed!!

 

[jujubiee4]

I feel the same way. I leave at the end of April and am watching cases skyrocket in the UK so I am nervous within a couple weeks we could be seeing the same thing. My wife has a hair appointment the week before we leave and I have been trying to convince her to reschedule. I have booked excursions however

I have loosely been keeping tabs on the new variant. Interesting enough we are pet sitting our
neighbor's parrot. He texted me from San Francisco after they disembarked the Ruby Princess. There
was a Covid outbreak onboard and they both tested negative but his wife last night got a bad headache.
Hour ago he called she now has fever and bad body aches. They ubered to an Urgent Care and she is
positive

We leave next week for DCL. I hope this isn't spreading real fast and will burn itself out soon.
I have the masks handy lol

 

[ambula603]

With switching to Antigen are they still doing the 90-day recovered status? I have a daughter who has a positive PCR from January which was 89 days before we board the ship in two weeks. My wife has a positive PCR from February.

We cruise on April 8 and when I just did my safe passage last week, there was still a spot to upload your 90-day exemption documents. That may change, but it was there a few days ago!

 

[18sprint]

With you 100%. We were on the first 7-night Fantasy cruise back in October last year for the restart. Barely missed being canceled by 1 week as things were changing rapidly. Our cruise itinerary was changed and we were getting a double dip at CC. Yea! We drove down from Ohio because airlines were/are a mess and we didn't want to cooped up with 100's of people in an aluminum tube for 2 hours. We stayed at OKW resort for 2 days prior to the cruise hoping to start a relaxing vacation, ease in to the cruise then 4 more OKW nights when we returned.

We both took covid tests a week before leaving to help ease some of the anxiety that testing at the port was causing. Both were negative. My DW handled it very well, me, not so good. All I could think of was, what if we test positive at the port? Do we stay in Florida, find a place to stay for 7 nights, then go onto OKW, knowing one or both of us tested positive? Or, do we just head back home and lose our DVC points? I decided, IF the worse happens, we're heading home.

Arrived at OKW and the weather was terrific. Spent both days at the resort relaxing by the pools, basically just trying to stay away from anyone. We went to Disney Springs one night for dinner at Enzo's Hideaway.

Embarkation day we drove over to the port about 9am. We stopped in to Dreams Unlimited Travel so we could finally meet Teresa Echols. We had a wonderful time shooting the breeze with her. Before we realized, it was time to head to the ship for our boarding time of 1:30pm. Heading to the Disney port, the anxiety really took its toll on me. Testing was very easy, we parked our car and the countdown began. We only waited about 25mins when we got the email......Negative.

Ok, now you would think that all the weight of the world would have fallen off our shoulders, but it didn't. Don't get me wrong, we were very relieved and happy we were good to go, but neither of us felt the jubilation we were expecting. I think the months of worry finally caught up with us.

The sailing was great. Can not complain about anything. I really had no intention of sailing again till all this madness stops. I won't get into any politics. Like everyone else, we're over it. Had a hard time coming up with a Christmas gift for my DW so I surprised her with the Podcast cruise in May. Hoping that things would change for the better before then. Well, mask mandates are gone. Good. Testing has gone from PCR to antigen. Good. I think. I really don't think testing at the port will be gone by May, but we can only hope. Sorry for the long response, just felt like typing today.

 

[Sarahslay]

I feel you about the anxiety, of course I'm having to be around people way more than usual this week so it's making me all kind of nervous (I leave on the Fantasy on Saturday). However, I still booked everything the first day I could because I don't want to get on the boat and then be like "Oh....now I don't have anything to do..." because I never actually booked anything and all the stuff is sold out. I'm looking forward to the cruise, but I won't be excited like I usually am until I walk on, my husband and kids are excited so I'm happy they've at least gotten there (because my husband wasn't at all until a few days ago, it was like the cruise was an abstract thought to him and we weren't actually doing it lol). I say book the stuff but stay with your precautions. We did a few sample PCR tests leading up to this just to make sure everything was good, especially since allergy season just hit and we couldn't tell if the snot and stuff was that or not, we were all good but it was a good thing to put our minds at ease.

 

[Drfate102]

Honestly, I am super excited and super anxious at the same time for our cruise in May.

 

[BWV Dreamin]

With you 100%. We were on the first 7-night Fantasy cruise back in October last year for the restart. Barely missed being canceled by 1 week as things were changing rapidly. Our cruise itinerary was changed and we were getting a double dip at CC. Yea! We drove down from Ohio because airlines were/are a mess and we didn't want to cooped up with 100's of people in an aluminum tube for 2 hours. We stayed at OKW resort for 2 days prior to the cruise hoping to start a relaxing vacation, ease in to the cruise then 4 more OKW nights when we returned.

We both took covid tests a week before leaving to help ease some of the anxiety that testing at the port was causing. Both were negative. My DW handled it very well, me, not so good. All I could think of was, what if we test positive at the port? Do we stay in Florida, find a place to stay for 7 nights, then go onto OKW, knowing one or both of us tested positive? Or, do we just head back home and lose our DVC points? I decided, IF the worse happens, we're heading home.

Arrived at OKW and the weather was terrific. Spent both days at the resort relaxing by the pools, basically just trying to stay away from anyone. We went to Disney Springs one night for dinner at Enzo's Hideaway.

Embarkation day we drove over to the port about 9am. We stopped in to Dreams Unlimited Travel so we could finally meet Teresa Echols. We had a wonderful time shooting the breeze with her. Before we realized, it was time to head to the ship for our boarding time of 1:30pm. Heading to the Disney port, the anxiety really took its toll on me. Testing was very easy, we parked our car and the countdown began. We only waited about 25mins when we got the email......Negative.

Ok, now you would think that all the weight of the world would have fallen off our shoulders, but it didn't. Don't get me wrong, we were very relieved and happy we were good to go, but neither of us felt the jubilation we were expecting. I think the months of worry finally caught up with us.

The sailing was great. Can not complain about anything. I really had no intention of sailing again till all this madness stops. I won't get into any politics. Like everyone else, we're over it. Had a hard time coming up with a Christmas gift for my DW so I surprised her with the Podcast cruise in May. Hoping that things would change for the better before then. Well, mask mandates are gone. Good. Testing has gone from PCR to antigen. Good. I think. I really don't think testing at the port will be gone by May, but we can only hope. Sorry for the long response, just felt like typing today.

Your trip sounds almost identical to our trip coming up in May ( we sail one week before the Podcast cruise). We are eating at Wine Bar George at Disney springs and staying at Boulder Ridge 2 days prior. And all we have planned is the pool and that dinner! Thank you soooooo much for your reply. I am grateful to hear others experiences and does help me feel like I am not the only one going thru this. So thankful for my DIS community (( hugs to all)).

 

[shelldub]

Yep. I’m coming from Ireland for my honeymoon. Currently need a PCR just to get into America but yes, until I’m on that ship I won’t be totally excited!!

 

[jcgcaron]

With switching to Antigen are they still doing the 90-day recovered status? I have a daughter who has a positive PCR from January which was 89 days before we board the ship in two weeks. My wife has a positive PCR from February.

We cruise on April 16 from PC, we uploaded our recovery documentation 2 days ago and received today the safe passage notification : clear to sail.

 

[emilymad]

We just got back from the Dream and had a great cruise. However, the stress and anxiety leading up to the cruise was not worth it to us. We tested at home 3 weeks and the day before we flew. We even did a covid test in our hotel room on embarkation day. It took forever to get through the testing process at the port even with the antigen tests. From the time we pulled up it was almost 90 minutes to boarding. Test results were back in about 10 minutes.

It was more stressful then we thought seeing the ship but not being sure we would be able to sail. We kept looking at all of the other cruise ships in port and thinking if we had sailed with them we would have been onboard already. We won't sail with DCL again until they change to 2 days before testing like other cruise lines. This was our 8th DCL cruise. We had fun but it lost some of what used to made it worth the extra costs.

 

[BWV Dreamin]

Honestly if you have been vaccinated and boosted, they should only do a temperature check at the port. One can still be negative ( with the antigen test) and not present symptoms or turn positive until days later. I knew cruiselines would be the last to drop the testing requirements. But nothing is 100% certain. It’s time to move on.

 

[princesscinderella]

We cruise on April 16 from PC, we uploaded our recovery documentation 2 days ago and received today the safe passage notification : clear to sail.

We are also on the same sailing and got the all clear today from safe passage but my online check in still says pending review in the headshot/passport section

 

[melissa723]

We just got back from the Dream and had a great cruise. However, the stress and anxiety leading up to the cruise was not worth it to us. We tested at home 3 weeks and the day before we flew. We even did a covid test in our hotel room on embarkation day. It took forever to get through the testing process at the port even with the antigen tests. From the time we pulled up it was almost 90 minutes to boarding. Test results were back in about 10 minutes.

It was more stressful then we thought seeing the ship but not being sure we would be able to sail. We kept looking at all of the other cruise ships in port and thinking if we had sailed with them we would have been onboard already. We won't sail with DCL again until they change to 2 days before testing like other cruise lines. This was our 8th DCL cruise. We had fun but it lost some of what used to made it worth the extra costs.

We felt the same way! We just got off the Fantasy and that was the worst part of the trip. We originally had a cruise booked with Royal, but Southwest cancelled our flight 9 minutes prior to boarding and we missed our ship. With them you test 2 days prior so if you end up with a positive test you can avoid all of the extra travel expenses. We booked Disney last minute and drove down this time, testing right before hopping in the car. Nothing could prepare us for the anxiety and length of the testing process once we got to the port! And then it took us about 20 minutes to get our results because phone service was so spotty, which was pure torture. Once onboard everything was amazing, however, I'm not sure if I'd do it again anytime soon.