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After managing to get through my whole contract on the Enchanted without even getting even a little bit sick, I decided I was immune. No one else on my team on the Enchanted had gotten sick either. On the Coral we managed to go the whole month crossing the ocean without an outbreak. The Australian media wasn’t very kind to cruise ships. Even though the ships follow guidelines set by the local authorities, the media tends to blame the ship for a health crisis. Since we were the first Princess ship back in Australia, there was a lot of pressure to salvage our reputation. Just like on the Enchanted, about a month into being in service with guests, the guest infections started to rise, and then the crew started getting sick. Jack, one of the Juniors, tested positive, so he and his roommate, William, were isolated. Then, about a week after he was released, William tested positive. We were already a small team. We were supposed to be getting help from the dancers but they were still rehearsing their shows and they couldn’t host things on the microphone like Joseph and I could. They reduced the amount of activities on the schedule, but with just two of us (one of us had to be the DJ, working past midnight, and one of us had to hand out water shuttle tickets before 7am) we were still working harder than we would have with a full team. I think that if I hadn’t been so overworked, my immune system would have been able to fight it off. We weren’t alone- every team was missing people and the people left on the outside were kind of hoping to get sick just so we could sleep for 7 days. Finally my day came. I was IPM so I covered all of the activities for the day and toward the end I felt terrible. Joseph had a secret stash of tests, and that bottom line appeared bright pink before the liquid even reached the top line. In Joseph’s words, I was ‘hella positive.’ First I called my mom and then I called medical. Then I let my boss know I was positive. Since our return to service, the ship keeps cabins for guests and crew who test positive to remove them to a designated area. There were so many positive cases, that I was able to stay in my cabin- I didn’t want to pack anything, though it would have been nice to have access to a balcony. I sure did appreciate my big bed and port holes (on other ships I have an inside cabin with a single bed)!
After the PCR test confirmed what I already knew, I settled down with my COVID packet. There was a form where we could fill out our meal preferences, though the first night was the only time I got my preference – vegetarian.
Look at all those plants! This wouldn’t be so bad! I changed into my pajamas and went to bed.
Finally I was able to catch up on sleep. The medical center gave me some drugs to help with my painfully sore throat and stuffy nose. I was able to talk to my mom on the phone as much as I wanted. Ron Voyage shared his guest internet with me so I could download TV shows. My mom and I downloaded and read books together. I think I read 3 books that week. And I slept. The medical center and crew welfare called me every day to see how I was doing. I felt a guilty that I couldn’t help my team – I knew what it was like out there, but every time I offered to help or prep things they just told me to rest (though I did give my hard drive to Joseph so they could use my music and power point presentations for activities).
The food went downhill pretty fast. There were so many guests and crew in isolation that there weren’t enough people to deliver food. Cold boxes of rice and mystery meat came to my door.
Everyone was going down. The morning before I called in, Dusan (the #2 in production) tested positive. The next day Daiana, the Senior Production Manager (#1 in production) and the Entertainment Director tested positive. Then both Audio guys were out. The Music Manager was out.
Once we started feeling better we did a 4 way video call:
They weren’t quite as good at keeping themselves entertained as I was. They were bored out of their minds.
Seven days later I tested negative and was set free. The food in the officer’s mess never tasted so good. After six months of the same menus repeated over and over, I get so tired of the food, but having more variety than what had been delivered to my door and warm food – it was like a holiday feast!
I had gone in at the beginning of a seven day cruise with quite a few guests that were doing back to back segments and I was sad that I wouldn’t get to say a proper goodbye. Well, the weather changed that. We couldn’t get into Brisbane. For three days we didn’t know if we were going to get into Brisbane so the guests could disembark, or if we would be at sea a little longer. We had updates every few hours. While the rest of my team was exhausted, I was relatively fresh so I jumped right in offering to do activities that hadn’t been done for a while. It reminded me of March 2020 when we didn’t know what was going on, except this time we’d been through it before. I mean, except I’d never been this late coming into a turnaround port. Every few hours we would get an update from the Captain and then throw some more activities in the schedule. The singers from the cast did a set with the Party Band. My mom was staying on for a couple more cruises so they got to stay in the suite they had booked for a couple extra days. The guests weren’t too upset – they got an extended vacation! It was pretty rocky (we were, after all, being delayed for weather) but that’s part of the deal of being on a ship in my book! When we finally arrived in Brisbane the sun was shining. Finally we were in the news for reasons besides COVID! My back made it on the news- I was standing on Deck 7 saying goodbye to guests as they disembarked, and the news was filming from the ground
