J
justcruisin
Guest
Hi ...
Saw the chicken pox mentioned in a thread by muntzfab4 but thought I would post this to everyone ....
It was my son who came down with the chicken pox while on the cruise. Though he did spend some time in the kids club (maybe 5 hours) between Saturday, Sunday and Monday, it was on Tuesday when the spots really popped out. He has a few spots on his face on Monday, but he is really faired skin and always seems to have some sort of skin irritation. I initially though it was from mosquitos, then realized there are not mosquitos at sea. No other symptoms of illness prior to Tuesday afternoon when a fever started.
We decided to go to the ships Dr. so others would know. It can be dangerous for adults and women late in pregnancy (though there should not be any of those on the cruise). Though most people from the US are not a risk, we kept thinking about the hard working staff from all over the world. (gave him some antivirial med which he said may help, but usually does not ... acyclovir?)
It is most contagious prior to the spots showing up, it is no longer contagious once all the spots crust over. He would have been exposed 2-3 weeks prior to the spots.
He (5) was in isolation (aka not allowed to leave) in the cabin from Tuesday afternoon until we left the ship at 9 on Saturday. Our dining room server brought us our meals at about 7:30 each night, literally running between sittings (he also called just before 6 to take our order). We have a 15 year old, so he stayed with DS5 one night so we could keep our Palo ressie.
I knew they'd isolate him prior to going to the Dr., but I was afraid they'd isolate all of us. We decided if this was the case we would get off the ship in St. Thomas and spend thousand of dollars to fly home when DS was not contagious!
Our cabin steward was wonderful! His "boss" asked him if he had chicken pox and he answered "Yes", had he said no, they would have put him in isolation for 2 weeks. Isolation for a CM is a tiny cabin.
I think I cried for 2 days, DS did great though. I was disappointed for everything he's miss, though he didn't even know he'd be missing it. A few times he asked if there were kids at the club having fun. He wanted to know when was the Goofy Pajama Party and I told him they cancelled it! I was SOOOOO thankful we were facing the dock and not the beach on Castaway, that would have been awful for him. The best thing about that day was packing!
(I did do the jetski tour with DS15 on CC, very nice!, also went up the tram in St. Thomas with him).
After disembarking (BTW, we had no special procedure for that, which we thought a bit strange) we rented a car drove to vero, went to the ER and received a note saying he as no longer contagious. Had a few great days there! We arrived home last night.
I would say guest services was OK. They came to our cabin right away, gave us a vcr, and some coloring pages and crayons. She said she'd bring some boardgames, which didn't happen and we had to call every day to get out dinner menus. We also had to call a few times to receive a list of movies. Someone did call to see about our plans for getting home and contacted the airline for us, which was nice ... we hadn't considered that problem! Not sure what else they really could have done ---- maybe a get well card signed by Mickey??
Will go back to Royal Caribbean for our next cruise, DS15 said he prefers RCCL and it will be a little while before we're back into our "big disney fan" mentality.
One more strange thing .... I called the ship's dr's office and said "I think my son has chicken pox, do you want to send someone to our cabin" ... they said "no, bring him down, we're here from 4:30 - ?" .... I called again on Thursday to have him checked, again when I asked if they would send someone to the cabin, they said "no, bring him down"???? I asked the Dr, if we could take him to deck 10 late a night for a ice cream on Friday night, he said no. That left us a bit puzzled.
Thanks for listening!
Saw the chicken pox mentioned in a thread by muntzfab4 but thought I would post this to everyone ....
It was my son who came down with the chicken pox while on the cruise. Though he did spend some time in the kids club (maybe 5 hours) between Saturday, Sunday and Monday, it was on Tuesday when the spots really popped out. He has a few spots on his face on Monday, but he is really faired skin and always seems to have some sort of skin irritation. I initially though it was from mosquitos, then realized there are not mosquitos at sea. No other symptoms of illness prior to Tuesday afternoon when a fever started.
We decided to go to the ships Dr. so others would know. It can be dangerous for adults and women late in pregnancy (though there should not be any of those on the cruise). Though most people from the US are not a risk, we kept thinking about the hard working staff from all over the world. (gave him some antivirial med which he said may help, but usually does not ... acyclovir?)
It is most contagious prior to the spots showing up, it is no longer contagious once all the spots crust over. He would have been exposed 2-3 weeks prior to the spots.
He (5) was in isolation (aka not allowed to leave) in the cabin from Tuesday afternoon until we left the ship at 9 on Saturday. Our dining room server brought us our meals at about 7:30 each night, literally running between sittings (he also called just before 6 to take our order). We have a 15 year old, so he stayed with DS5 one night so we could keep our Palo ressie.
I knew they'd isolate him prior to going to the Dr., but I was afraid they'd isolate all of us. We decided if this was the case we would get off the ship in St. Thomas and spend thousand of dollars to fly home when DS was not contagious!
Our cabin steward was wonderful! His "boss" asked him if he had chicken pox and he answered "Yes", had he said no, they would have put him in isolation for 2 weeks. Isolation for a CM is a tiny cabin.
I think I cried for 2 days, DS did great though. I was disappointed for everything he's miss, though he didn't even know he'd be missing it. A few times he asked if there were kids at the club having fun. He wanted to know when was the Goofy Pajama Party and I told him they cancelled it! I was SOOOOO thankful we were facing the dock and not the beach on Castaway, that would have been awful for him. The best thing about that day was packing!
(I did do the jetski tour with DS15 on CC, very nice!, also went up the tram in St. Thomas with him).
After disembarking (BTW, we had no special procedure for that, which we thought a bit strange) we rented a car drove to vero, went to the ER and received a note saying he as no longer contagious. Had a few great days there! We arrived home last night.
I would say guest services was OK. They came to our cabin right away, gave us a vcr, and some coloring pages and crayons. She said she'd bring some boardgames, which didn't happen and we had to call every day to get out dinner menus. We also had to call a few times to receive a list of movies. Someone did call to see about our plans for getting home and contacted the airline for us, which was nice ... we hadn't considered that problem! Not sure what else they really could have done ---- maybe a get well card signed by Mickey??
Will go back to Royal Caribbean for our next cruise, DS15 said he prefers RCCL and it will be a little while before we're back into our "big disney fan" mentality.
One more strange thing .... I called the ship's dr's office and said "I think my son has chicken pox, do you want to send someone to our cabin" ... they said "no, bring him down, we're here from 4:30 - ?" .... I called again on Thursday to have him checked, again when I asked if they would send someone to the cabin, they said "no, bring him down"???? I asked the Dr, if we could take him to deck 10 late a night for a ice cream on Friday night, he said no. That left us a bit puzzled.
Thanks for listening!
It took about 2 weeks for the rash to disappear even with oral antibiotics. My doctor told me as adults (especially those 50 and above) we run the risk of PHP...simply means extended tingling of the nerves which can continue for months. Mine just stopped tingling about a week ago. Since I hadn't been exposed to anyone with shingles, doc said it was the stress. 
