We are booked on the Disney Dream October 11-15. All are vaxxed–Me, DH and DS12. When Disney changed requirements that everyone 12 and over be vaccinated, I was excited. Newest update is everyone tests with a rapid PCR test before getting on board. That’s awesome, however, my vaccinated husband tested positive for covid on August 23. He felt like he’d been hit by a truck for about 3 days and still has a cough but the vaccine did it’s job keeping him out of the hospital. DS and I did not get it. Again, vaccine did it’s job.
My concern now is, I’ve read those who have had covid can test positive for up to three months after first being diagnosed. So now, I’m worried that he’s going to get to the boat, test positive and we all get the boot. I had my TA call Disney and ask with my specific question of, “if he tests positive even though he is not contagious and can show his positive test was back on August 23 can we still go on the cruise”. She spoke with a supervisor and the answer was “a positive test is a positive test”.
So now for the next 32 days, I’m going to worry about whether or not we can actually get on the boat. DH is going to schedule a PCR test next week to see what kind of results he gets. I’m going to have him test weekly leading up to the cruise if necessary.
I’m also trying to come up with Plan B. If we can’t go on the ship, we could just go back to Disney World but hotel reservations are limited. We are staying 2 days before cruise at ASMo and one night at GDT when we get back. I was just at Epcot in March of this year and DS, DD18 and I went to Disney in November 2020. I really hadn’t planned on hitting the parks again this soon and honestly, really don’t want to.
So, send all your positive vibes my way that he will test negative soon and we can go on our cruise.
I would think it’s really rare to test positive more than a week after getting Covid, and extremely rare 3 months later! I think it’s more likely someone else in the family would test positive than DH. There will also be some risk with testing and Covid. (One reason why I personally am not going to cruise till testing isn’t required. Vaccine mandate is ok.)
I don’t know if research has shown things to be different than initially found, but for a while we wouldn’t even retest someone that showed positive until after three months because until that point there was a strong likelihood that they would test positive due to the infection. And the supervisor is correct that it’s not possible to distinguish active, contagious infection from remnants from past infection. Though once past 10 days from onset of infection the ability to transmit the illness is nil. It doesn’t sound like they will take documentation of recovered infection as explanation for a positive test. And I get that - they have to err on the side of caution. They have a lot sailing on being able to prove that their passengers and crew are infection-free.
So I think it’s valid to be concerned about testing positive despite being recovered.
This is still the case in our hospitals in WA. We don’t test within 90 days of a positive, because many are still testing positive even though no longer contagious.
That’s unfortunate, because the CDC guidance for cruises does include an exception for that, but I’m not seeing it recognized anywhere in the DCL info.
When I looked at Disney’s Know Before You, they have a link to the CDC site and this info in on there. I sent the screenshot to my TA and she is going to call back with that exact wording and ask again. I wonder if the health app thing if there’s a place for me to upload his positive test and a letter from the doctor. Fingers crossed.
To follow up…DH had a follow up covid test to see if he’s still showing positive. Got results back today and it was NEGATIVE. Now, I just need to keep DS and I covid free. 21 days away from sail date.
