JackieRossLavender
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The time i got covid-19 while working on a cruise ship...
🕑 Added 2023-01-15 22:51:38 +0000 UTCHey guys... hope you enjoy! Here is the written version of what I was reading...
Strap yourselves in kids. This is going to be a long and wild ride.
*ding* Monday 27th Dec 11:52 - The message comes through on Facebook Messenger. “Guys. I’m positive. Please all head to medical centre ASAP. Go get tested.”
The message we had all been dreading. One of our cast had tested positive. My head goes into auto-pilot with the skills I learnt as a manager in corporate finance. I rally the troops. We pack a small bag to be safe in case we are thrown into a quarantine. We head to the medical centre to get tested and all is well in the world. We all test negative.
Now, we had been hearing of nightmares on other ships but so far our nightmare seemed to be held at bay. Seemed.
We are placed into a 7 day “working quarantine” in which the rules state you must only leave your cabins for work. Today is day 0. You may head to a designated area to collect your meals but they must be consumed in your cabin. While at work you must maintain 6ft distance and wear masks. We are to be tested again on days 1-4 and then again on day 7 to successful graduate from our “working quarantine”.
*beep beep beep* my alarm rings loud at 8.30am the next morning for my Day 1 testing. My head is a little delicate as I reach for my phone. I spot the 6 empty cans of Bud Light and suddenly remember why. I had a bad feeling about today and had decided to have one last drunken night while playing Adele’s “I drink wine” on repeat.
As I prepare to leave I can feel something isn’t right. There’s a tickle at the back of my throat. Is this covid? No. This is placebo. You are fine.
“Should I make a coffee or drink water?” My addiction to caffeine kicks in. “No” I tell myself, “You’re not suppose to eat or drink right before a covid test and this one feels more important than ever”.
I head down to the medical centre to see us, yet again, herded like cattle into the back entrance of the Medical Centre. They call us in 1 by 1 to be tested and instead of waiting inside for our results they are sending us back into the corridor to wait. “Imagine one of us is positive and they’re making us all wait out here together” one of the people in line jokes.
I head in. I have my test. I’m sent back into the line. The feeling of dread sets in. The person before me gets released “all clear”.
The nurse comes out fumbling over a test result. There’s some confusion over the name. After 29 years of being mistaken for a woman because of my name I instantly know its me. “Jackie - can you come back inside please?” That’s it. It’s positive. I know it.
The nurse tells me the LFT has come back positive so they need to do a PCR test. If that comes back positive then I will be heading into a 10 day quarantine in a cabin with no natural light and no fresh air. For 10 days. You read it right. You thought fresh air and day light were basic human rights? Not on cruise ships.
“Congratulations” says the nurse as she comes into the room. “You’ve just won yourself a 10 day cruise on the Carnival Sunshine!”
“Oh my god! I never win anything! I am so lucky!!” I reply. The inevitability of the situation allows my sense of humour to prevail.
I am told I will be moved to a guest cabin which doesn’t come as a shock as the same thing happened to my cast mate. I am told it takes a hot minute to allocate and organise so to just hold tight. We’re docked in Grand Turk and the room I’m in has a port hole. My cell service works here. Finally something good!
1 hour passes. 1 hour turns to 2. 2 hours turns to 3. The nurse appears “sorry its taking some time to get this sorted. We’ve had a lot of cases.”
“Umm… do you know how long I will be here? I haven’t had anything to eat or drink today and I’m starting to get symptoms” I say - my sense of humour quickly fading.
“Sorry” the nurse shrugs as she closes the door. My cast try to bring me water and snacks but aren’t even able to access the medical centre as the entrance is blocked off.
It strikes 1.30pm. I am finally being escorted by men in hazmat suits to my cabin to collect my belonging for my 10 day quarantine. I am mortified and I feel like a complete leper as crew are ushered well away from me and the hazmat parade disinfect my every step. I the most worthless I have ever felt in my life. This is what rock bottom feels like.
I am left with the words “pack some belongings. We will call you shortly when we are ready to move you to the guest cabin.” I am given no more information. I have no idea about when to expect food, what my dietary requirements are, do I get internet to talk to my loved ones, do I have the ability to have my laundry done, can I order snacks and drinks from the crew bar to make my quarantine a little less awful?
Well, that call doesn’t ever come either. I pack up a suitcase full with everything I can fit in it. My snacks, Huel meals, clothes, Playstation even the bloody TV. Like hell am I getting bored during this quarantine. I finally receive a call around 5pm. It’s the public health officer. She quizzes me on what my average day is like and where I think I could have caught covid.
At the end of the conversation I ask “hey… do you have any idea if I’m moving cabins? I was told hours ago to prepare to move but I haven’t heard anything?”
“We don’t have any space right now. We’ve had so many cases today we’ve run out of cabins. Hold tight but I doubt you’d move tonight if at all as we need approval from the office to extend the isolation area.”
I also ask “and what about food? I haven’t eaten yet today and all they’ve given me is a turkey sandwich and I’m vegetarian?”
She apologised and said she would put a note on my file to make sure I receive veggie food. No dinner arrives. Or breakfast the next day. Or lunch. Or dinner. If it hadn’t been for a supply drop from crew bar from the cast I would not have eaten that night or the next day. I later find out that they had been delivering food to the cabin next door. 3 trays full of food all lined up next to each-other yet no one thought it was weird. 3 full trays of quarantine food and no one thought to check on the person inside to make sure they were okay? 3 full trays of quarantine food and no one thought to check to see if isolating in a cabin with no daylight or fresh air had become too much for that person? My feeling of worthlessness deepens. I feel so small and insignificant I may as well be invisible.
I settle into my marathon of Marvel movies giving my cast an in-depth review after each one. I wake on day 1 of my 10 day quarantine feeling worse than before. Headache, fever, aches, sore throat, head cold and no medication to treat it with as I wasn’t given anything from the medical centre and when I call the nurse on duty it says “unavailable”.
I set into another full day of Marvel movies and PS4. I enjoy the snacks the cast delivered while continuing to not receive any food from room service. Around 5pm I get a knock on the door. I open to find a nurse and 3 guys in Hazmat suits. “Hi Jackie, we’re moving you to your guest cabin.”
“Like fuck!” I exclaimed. “I haven’t had a single piece of contact since speaking to the public health officer yesterday. I haven’t packed a thing. I need at least an hour to get my shit together!”
“An hour?!” The nurse said. “You only need to pack some clothes and basic belongings for 10 days! I’ll be back in 30 minutes.”
I had unpacked most of the case from yesterday after not hearing from anyone so I panic as I start to repack. Snacks, toiletries, tv, PS4, Kindle… everything that will get me through the next 10 days. I get a call from the nurse an hour later “Hi Jackie have you packed your things?” I said yes and waited for them to arrive. 10 minutes later the Hazmat parade was back and as I was leaving the cabin the nurse says “what about the rest of your things?”
“Excuse me? You told me to pack for 10 days?”
“No, when I just called you I asked if you had packed your things”
“Yes and by things I assumed you meant my things for 10 days like you told me an hour ago!”
“Well it’s just changed and you need to pack up your whole cabin.”
I lose it. Shouting with what little voice I have. I feel so little and unheard I feel like all I can do is shout. How can a company that screams about Care and Respect treat us this way? When we are feeling our lowest make us feel even worse.
I tell the medical team I will need at least another hour to fully pack up my cabin. I call my manager and my department head and explain my dismay. How can a company I’ve worked for for so many years treat us all this way? Are they so hell bent on making money they don’t care if I commit suicide or have had enough or any food for the day? Are so they so determined to not have to pause operations again that they will put the crew through hell and back if it means the guests get what they want?
I take my time and crack open a beer. If I am leaving I’m leaving on my terms. I am not in control of any of this but I am clawing at the few strands of control I have. I pack my cabin slowly and properly while having a few beers and listening to some calming tunes. I call the medical centre and tell them I am ready to leave. The hazmat parade arrives again. I am chastised for how much stuff I have. I am left to carry it all by myself while feeling completely fatigued and down in the dumps from covid.
I get to my room and call room service and ask for some food as I haven’t been delivered anything for 2 days. They simply tell me “we are closed but we have Turkey sandwiches”. I explain, again, I am vegetarian so I will need something else. “I can’t do anything. Let me call my manager and call you back”. I never get a call back but an hour and a half later a plate of cold pasta and creamed corn turns up. I am so over-hungry I leave it and reside in another sleepless night. My throat is so swollen from the anger that I can barely swallow.
Today I awaken not feeling upset. Feeling totally and irrevocably let down. I left an aspiring career with an amazing company who took a risk on me and who cared about ME. For this? I put my faith in this company just to be treated like a caged animal. The events of the past few days have made me feel like I don’t need to eat, I don’t need medicine, I don’t need daylight or fresh air. Why? Because I am a crew member on a Cruise Ship.
I was greeted with the news last last night that I am being disembarked on New Years Eve to another ship that isn’t yet in service. There’s currently too many positive cases onboard and the next cruise itinerary would be affected and ports my turn the ship away. So, instead of the company putting the health of its crew first they instead are deciding to move the problem so they can continue to make money. Not taking into account how traumatic it will be for crew to have to disembark and move to a different ship while feeling their worst with Covid-19. They have also suddenly stopped testing my colleagues that are in Working Quarantine. Why? Yet again corporate greed prevails.
I invite the cruise industry to take a seat at this table and to do better. Many will say “if you don’t like it you know where the door is” and to that I say this: why should we settle for less than we are worth? Yes “we are back”. But at what cost?
I wrote this to voice my experiences and the experience of so many around me who are scared to speak out in fear of losing their jobs. I was told explicitly not to post on social media about this topic which has made me more determined than ever to be heard. There are so many others who have it even worse than I have experienced. The cruise industry needs to be held accountable for is greed. The mental and physical health of your crew should not be a worthy sacrifice for a CEOs pay check.
To my fellow crew. Stay strong. Keeping holding each-other up like we always do. Our voices will be heard.
Comments
Graham & Ruth May
I have never been on a cruise, nor am I likely to, but reading Michael’s comment made me think about the staff at the hotel in Egypt where I stayed just before Christmas, who were all poorly paid, but who were also treated (we thought) really rudely by many of the guests who didn’t even smile at them, let alone include the words ‘please’ or ‘thank you’. I could freeze the blood in your veins if I recounted some of my experiences from when I was teaching full time and very few of them are about the students. 😏 Suffice it to say that I always tried not to be that kind of parent when I spoke to my daughter’s teachers. Don’t get me started on the senior management team at any of the schools that I worked in…🤐
Graham & Ruth May
Ingrid, don’t worry about your English, it’s very good. Thank goodness that you are staying in your job, because your community there really needs caring, hardworking people like you.❤️❤️❤️
Michael
My memory of going on a cruise as a passenger was with P & O in September 2014 around the Med. It was great of course, but the thing that we were aware of was how little the crew got paid. A very high percentage of the crew were from the Indian/Sri Lankan/Pakistan regions and word had it that they were paid about half the British National Minimum Wage which worked out at about £5 per hour. They relied (especially the cabin cleaning staff) heavily on tips from the passengers. It was sort of expected to tip your personal cabin attendent about £30 at the time (after a 12 day cruise) which was a huge boost to their finances. Apparently, because the ship was outside the UK 12 mile limit for the majority of the journey, the company was not obliged to pay the normal UK minimum wage to their cleaning staff. I guess that this is still true today? The staff, food and entertainment were all great. I got to know a few of the entertainers as we had similar interests and it was interesting to hear their stories of how they got the job in the first place and the audition processes that they went through. I did get an opportunity to have a sit in on a jazz combo that was playing on board and I shook a pair of maracas along to some latin number - great fun! Anyway Jackie, so glad to hear that you've come out of your appalling workplace trauma and that you are settled down to a lifestyle that seems to be more to your liking. Just the final piece of the jigsaw needs to be positioned now and that is Reiss by your side permanently. Is that ever likely to happen? Hopefully it will in the not too distant future.
Ingrid Machado Pena
Your experience made me think about the work environment in general... I work in the public health system with the trans community. I can tell you our managers could care less about our mental health... As long we deliver the numbers they don't mind asking how or at what cost we are able to do what we do. We are a few trying to give assistance to a large group of people who don't feel safe in seeking care in other services. I remember a week when 3 of my patients attempted suicide. They were sending me messages and calling me and I was trying to put together a support network, find a psychiatrist... We don't have one at the clinic... It was craaaaazy! I could not stop my daily activities, I had people to attend to but at the same I had to find a way to help the others as well... And I would listen things like "what a shame but there is nothing we can do about it" or "why is this person sending you messages? We are not an emergency service". Just like that. Not our problem. F*#@&" unbelievable! That week I thought about giving up the job. You know, I can't do this anymore... But, at the end of the day, my people remember me how important that space is and what we do there. So we keep going and looking for ways to make the job less stressful and more humane. Not easy but still trying. P.s: bear with me, people. It's hard to write all this in english. 🙈
Bekki Babineau
Wow. Just wow. Corporate greed, am I right?! Thank you for sharing so much of yourself with us through this story. I'm so disgusted and angry at how you were treated. Sometimes, we have to experience the lows to get to the highs. But man, while we're in those lows, it can be so lonely and feel hopeless. Wrapping you in virtual hugs and so very thankful life has brought you and this community together! ❤️
Audrey Gunn
Thank you so much for telling us that very personal story, I was reading/listening to it just totally aghast at what was happening to you, I really can’t believe how people can be treated like that by people who were supposed to be looking after your health and wellbeing, I mean the only reason you were on the ship in the first place was to entertain the passengers, if you got sick or got Covid like you did, it is your basic human rights to be treated well. As the others have said though, cruise ships gave you Reiss and that is something good. Look at you now, you are so much happier, you live in London, you have a job you absolutely love and you started a wonderful community where you met us load of weirdo’s 😂😂😂
Graham & Ruth May
I am sorry that you had such a harrowing experience and were treated so badly. But look what came out of it, because as you said, it proved to be a powerful agent for change. In a short space of time, you have created a very different and much more fulfilling life for yourself. And cruise ships also gave you something-or rather someone- Reiss, that you love. Sometimes perhaps we do have to go through the mill and get spat out the other side for reasons that don’t become apparent until a while later. I wonder if you hadn’t had this awful experience, would you have changed your life so much for the better or gone on a more negative path? We’re all grateful you ended up exactly where you are. ❤️
Ingrid Machado Pena
Thanks, Jackie, for sharing your experience with us. ♥️
Lane Wright
What a horrific experience you had to endure! I can’t imagine going through something like that and being treated that way by the people who you’re working for. I don’t at all blame you for posting the story or for leaving the industry. I’ve never been on a cruise ship, but I have had several friends who worked on cruise ships as entertainers, and of course, that was not during Covid and their experiences sound like they were pretty good ones. But clearly the time you least want to work on a cruise ship is when there’s some kind of medical emergency like Covid. Hearing the story makes me uninclined to want to ever give my money to a cruise ship company if they treat their employees that way. And you have clearly come a long way in the past year. I’m glad you are now working a job you seem to love and that you are in a much better place mentally than you were a year ago.
