Experience of testing positive at port

[dianerroy]

Opinions are categorically not "following the science", though. The science is simple. The PCR test is more likely to pick up a positive case than the antigen test, especially if the person is asymptomatic or only recently caught the virus. That's why Disney uses the more accurate tests.

I was speaking broadly about following the science regarding the entire current Covid situation.

 

[disneyseniors]

Fired Really?!? I am a nurse too, and there are two sides to every story and the OP was obviously upset. She may have interpreted the nurses' responses differently due to her emotional state. Everyone cruising today should be prepared for this scenario and have their kids prepared for a positive result and change in plans. Blaming the nurse or the cruise line for how they handled the situation is naive and not taking personal responsibility. Everyone should have a plan B and C in place in case this happens to them...prepare for the worst, hope for the best.

Maybe "fired" was too harsh. However, as nurses, we are trained how to handle these things.. Even if we have a bad day, we keep our professional training intact. So, I guess I don't give her a pass. At the very least, she should be retrained on this job. Laying all that on a child is not acceptable. It sounds like the poster did every thing correctly and didn't think they would be stopped from boarding. It's a sad situation for anyone, especially children.

 

[OoflowerbudoO]

Fired Really?!? I am a nurse too, and there are two sides to every story and the OP was obviously upset. She may have interpreted the nurses' responses differently due to her emotional state. Everyone cruising today should be prepared for this scenario and have their kids prepared for a positive result and change in plans. Blaming the nurse or the cruise line for how they handled the situation is naive and not taking personal responsibility. Everyone should have a plan B and C in place in case this happens to them...prepare for the worst, hope for the best.

I agree she shouldn’t be fired. It might been protocol to be direct and just simply and coldly state the facts in front of the family. If that’s the case, the protocol should be addressed right? Health care workers are burnt out and empathy is running short, I know, I’m an emergency physician. Like any other healthcare worker, this whole pandemic has really tested our field. I’m very familiar with delivering bad news and the necessity to deliver a concrete statement. HOWEVER, in this particular situation, it could’ve been handled better - whether it takes a change in protocol or training on delivering bad news. We would’ve had a much easier time with plan B if the internet was sufficient enough to just book a hotel room, but like I stated, that in of itself was a fiasco.

 

[Micca]

I appreciate you posting this. I'm awfully sorry you & your family had to endure that.

 

[TeamRiley]

At this point, anyone cruising should have a backup plan. We are leaving in a few weeks, but will rent a car and drive down to the keys if someone tests positive and things get messed up. Although very rare, even PCR can at times give a false positive.

 

[Alaska777]

At this point, anyone cruising should have a backup plan. We are leaving in a few weeks, but will rent a car and drive down to the keys if someone tests positive and things get messed up. Although very rare, even PCR can at times give a false positive.

I thought I read that inspire runs a second test in the case positives results?

 

[Kwami]

I thought I read that inspire runs a second test in the case positives results?

They retest the same sample. So, a false positive is exceptionally unlikely.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

We did not. Our whole family had it around Christmas time (because multiple family members tested positive but not all of us), and I tested myself about a week before and was negative. So I assumed we all were infected and recovered. Turns out my oldest managed to avoid it at christmas and pick it up for the cruise

I have to wonder about the positive test at the port, if you all weren't tested at Christmastime. If you've had COVID, it's quite possible to test positive for weeks, even months, afterward.

That's one thing that I'm worried about. Being vaccinated/boosted it's possible to actually have COVID and show no symptoms. But could still test positive later (after recovering). I'm thinking of getting a PCR test soon, just to make sure I'm negative, before actually traveling next month.

 

[OoflowerbudoO]

At this point, anyone cruising should have a backup plan. We are leaving in a few weeks, but will rent a car and drive down to the keys if someone tests positive and things get messed up. Although very rare, even PCR can at times give a false positive.

Yes! That was our back up plan too. But we tried to rent a car first and we were unable to find a car within 10 miles of port because it was Saturday and everything was closing within a few hours. Instead we booked a hotel room to regroup and were able to rent a car for the following day.

 

[OoflowerbudoO]

I have to wonder about the positive test at the port, if you all weren't tested at Christmastime. If you've had COVID, it's quite possible to test positive for weeks, even months, afterward.

That's one thing that I'm worried about. Being vaccinated/boosted it's possible to actually have COVID and show no symptoms. But could still test positive later (after recovering). I'm thinking of getting a PCR test soon, just to make sure I'm negative, before actually traveling next month.

yes, and if it’s still positive 14 days prior you can get a doctors note to exempt you from testing as well!

 

[ladyofthetramp]

Not a great experience-sorry that happened to you and your family. A big disappointment

 

[MomOTwins]

I am very sorry for OP and especially the oldest child.

For those who are saying the nurse behaved badly in telling the child they were the one who tested positive, I'm interested to know, is it medically ethical to do what OP is suggesting and let the parent lie to the child and say it was a parent who tested positive and not the child? I would have assumed that nurses would be obligated to give that information to the child (1) because at 9 years old, a child is old enough to understand and have a right know their medical diagnosis, and (2) so that the child knows to take appropriate precautions to prevent the spread of the virus. But I'm not in a medical field so genuinely curious to know what the answer is.

 

[lanejudy]

For those who are saying the nurse behaved badly in telling the child they were the one who tested positive

Actually, I wonder if most families have already communicated within the family about the positive test. I sounds like OP and her husband already knew before the nurse spoke to the family, but were hoping for a second test...quite possibly they hadn't communicated to the child themselves even though they knew the result...

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. ... My husband asked if he could be retested because he was asymptomatic, and the answer was a firm no.

Not to be negative on the OP, and I'm very sorry their vacation plans were dashed at the last minute. But I suspect there may have been an expectation that the results were already known and discussed among the family members by the time the nurse mentioned it.

 

[RedHead0186]

Actually, I wonder if most families have already communicated within the family about the positive test. I sounds like OP and her husband already knew before the nurse spoke to the family, but were hoping for a second test...quite possibly they hadn't communicated to the child themselves even though they knew the result...



Not to be negative on the OP, and I'm very sorry their vacation plans were dashed at the last minute. But I suspect there may have been an expectation that the results were already known and discussed among the family members by the time the nurse mentioned it.

I tend to agree. OP said that her husband told the Disney rep that they "knew the situation." That's pretty vague, but I could see it being interpreted as in "we know the situation and have already communicated it." I think the nurse probably could have erred on the side of caution, but I don't think it was quite as black and white as it seemed. I also wonder if it was truly a nurse or just a tech-I don't know what the protocol is/who the personnel are. But if it was a tech they probably have less training in delivering bad news than a nurse does. It's still awful what happened, and it's truly a bummer. But we have only heard one side of the story.

 

[RedHead0186]

I am very sorry for OP and especially the oldest child.

For those who are saying the nurse behaved badly in telling the child they were the one who tested positive, I'm interested to know, is it medically ethical to do what OP is suggesting and let the parent lie to the child and say it was a parent who tested positive and not the child? I would have assumed that nurses would be obligated to give that information to the child (1) because at 9 years old, a child is old enough to understand and have a right know their medical diagnosis, and (2) so that the child knows to take appropriate precautions to prevent the spread of the virus. But I'm not in a medical field so genuinely curious to know what the answer is.

I do work in medicine (not front lines, but in training medical professionals). I actually don't think that physicians can talk to minors about their health without a parent present, except for specific circumstances. I'm not sure if the nurse would have been obligated to share this directly with the child, or to the parent first. I agree with your point about having a "right" to know their medical diagnosis at 9 years old, but I'm not sure legally how that plays out. I also don't know COVID-19 testing plays into that legality. As others have noted, it's possible the nurse assumed that the parents had already told the child, too, so she didn't think she was sharing "new" information.

 

[OoflowerbudoO]

I am very sorry for OP and especially the oldest child.

For those who are saying the nurse behaved badly in telling the child they were the one who tested positive, I'm interested to know, is it medically ethical to do what OP is suggesting and let the parent lie to the child and say it was a parent who tested positive and not the child? I would have assumed that nurses would be obligated to give that information to the child (1) because at 9 years old, a child is old enough to understand and have a right know their medical diagnosis, and (2) so that the child knows to take appropriate precautions to prevent the spread of the virus. But I'm not in a medical field so genuinely curious to know what the answer is.

I am a medical professional ( emergency medicine physician) and in a situation like this, I would not find it unethical to let the parents decide how to break the news. Some parents may want to have the nurse deliver the bad news. Many parents I suspect would want to tell their kids themselves. If this was pediatric patient who I just discovered has cancer, I would 100% pull the parents aside to let them know before telling the patient. It is ultimately the parents job to ensure a 9 year maintains Covid quarantine and it would never be our intention to withold that information from him, but would’ve preferred to do it our own way. My husband said that he would say he tested positive only because I think he wanted so badly to remove the pain from our son but we would’ve absolutely told him.

 

[OoflowerbudoO]

Actually, I wonder if most families have already communicated within the family about the positive test. I sounds like OP and her husband already knew before the nurse spoke to the family, but were hoping for a second test...quite possibly they hadn't communicated to the child themselves even though they knew the result...



Not to be negative on the OP, and I'm very sorry their vacation plans were dashed at the last minute. But I suspect there may have been an expectation that the results were already known and discussed among the family members by the time the nurse mentioned it.

No we saw on the app but did not tell the kids. All the other families were waiting in the tent and it would’ve been terrible to see another family go through telling their kids that. Agree my husband should’ve explained to the Disney representative that our kids didn’t know yet, but that should’ve been amply clear by the way they were merrily following along.

 

[DCLMP]

Fired Really?!? I am a nurse too, and there are two sides to every story and the OP was obviously upset. She may have interpreted the nurses' responses differently due to her emotional state. Everyone cruising today should be prepared for this scenario and have their kids prepared for a positive result and change in plans. Blaming the nurse or the cruise line for how they handled the situation is naive and not taking personal responsibility. Everyone should have a plan B and C in place in case this happens to them...prepare for the worst, hope for the best.

I have to agree with you. She was giving them a positive covid test result, not a terminal cancer diagnosis. The kids should have been prepared for what could happen and how to handle it. Maybe the health care worker could have been more sensitive, but they see a lot worse stuff than being denied boarding a cruise ship.

 

[Elsa75]

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.

I am so sorry to hear this. This is too bad, and denies really what we know about PCR testing. It is VERY well established that PCR tests do not indicate infectivity and that they can remain positive for a long time. Hoping that this will be dropped ASAP - especially if they will not retest!!!

 

[Elsa75]

I have to agree with you. She was giving them a positive covid test result, not a terminal cancer diagnosis. The kids should have been prepared for what could happen and how to handle it. Maybe the health care worker could have been more sensitive, but they see a lot worse stuff than being denied boarding a cruise ship.

It does not matter that this is not a "cancer diagnosis". A health care worker is (or should be) held to a standard of professionalism when giving test results, especially to children and families. The need for empathy, privacy and confidentiality does not change with the test ordered, or the results to be given. This whole approach is a shame.