But halfway through, after experiencing symptoms, Shields said he tested positive for COVID-19 and was moved to the ship’s quarantine floor where he spent the rest of his vacation in self-isolation.
Shields documented the positive result and its impact on his ICT Tac Account, @squatchout, with videos amassing over 1.7 million views.
Insider spoke to Shields to find out more about what it was. Representatives for Celebrity Cruises did not respond to Insider’s request for comment.
Shields spent five days exploring the ship before testing positive for COVID-19, he said.Shields of Travis
On day 6 of the cruise, Shields tested positive for COVID-19
On Dec. 30, Shields told Insider that his girlfriend’s mother started feeling sick and tested positive for COVID-19.
She was moved to the cruise’s quarantine floor, he said, and the rest of Shield’s group also took tests, all of which came back negative. They were ordered to self-quarantine for 24 hours in their room (which was also on New Year’s Eve, “which totally sucked,” according to Shields).
After 24 hours, all band members were tested again and Shields tested positive.
Shields tested positive for COVID-19 on the sixth day of the cruise, he said.Travis Shields/TikTok
What Quarantine Looks Like on a Cruise: Isolation and Medication Delivered to Your Door
After testing positive, Shields told Insider that cruise passengers arrived at his doorstep to transport him to the quarantine floor where he would spend the final three days of the cruise. In one of Shields’ TikTok videos, workers appeared to don masks, face shields, gloves and hazmat suits, and walked behind Shields while pushing his luggage and spraying disinfectant into the air behind him.
He said the cruise line told him that after disembarking the ship at the end of the trip in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, he would be transported to a hotel to complete his quarantine free of charge, as part of Celebrity’s health and safety policy. The policy states “If you test positive for COVID-19 while on the cruise, Celebrity Cruises will cover the cost of medical treatment related to COVID-19 on board, any required shore quarantine and return home to travel for you and your travel party.”
The fine print adds that these costs are covered for guests who have fully complied with all Celebrity Cruises and Royal Caribbean Group COVID-19 policies and procedures in effect at the time of travel with additional terms and conditions that may apply.
Shields said the next three days of quarantine on the cruise have extended. He could order room service from restaurants on the ship, but said it often took more than two hours to arrive and then it was cold.
Wi-Fi was spotty, Shields also said, so he relied on a book and the TV for entertainment. He ‘watched a few indie movies that I couldn’t even tell you the names of because they were so bad’ and texted his family, who were enjoying the rest of their vacation on the boat, he said. said.
Shields, pictured inside his quarantine room on the Celebrity Apex.Shields of Travis
“It took a lot of patience not to get frustrated,” he told Insider. “You can see Cozumel out the window, but you can’t go to Cozumel. You can see the Bahamas; you can’t go to the Bahamas.”
Every day, a doctor called Shields to see how he was feeling. When Shields started feeling sick, Tylenol, cough medicine and other medications arrived at his doorstep, he said.
At the end of the cruise, Shields said he couldn’t wait to leave the cabin, which he described as “covid prison” in his first TikTok video about the experience.
Shields said he had to complete his five-day quarantine in Florida after the ship docked.Travis Shields/TikTok
The cruise landed in Florida, where Shields continued to self-quarantine
Shields said he waited for all the passengers on Celebrity’s Apex ship to disembark, after which, once again, workers in hazmat suits arrived at his door and asked him to leave through a separate exit.
When he got off the ship in Fort Lauderdale, his teary-eyed girlfriend and her family were waiting for him.
“It was quite emotional,” he said. “It was only three days, but it felt like an eternity.”
There was also a car waiting to transport him to a hotel, he said, that had been booked through Celebrity Cruises where he believed he would finish the rest of his quarantine.
The hotel wasn’t up to his standards, he said, so Shields and his girlfriend’s mother, who was also finishing her quarantine, decided to rent an Airbnb.
Shields told Insider that the aforementioned Celebrity Cruises Politics was to help him book return flights, “but they just disappeared,” he said, referring to the cruise line. So Shields said he had booked his own flight to Portland, Oregon.
Shields said he was told he would be reimbursed for both flight and Airbnb costs, in accordance with the Politics, but has not yet submitted receipts.
Throughout the process, Shields said he was shocked by the lack of communication and that no one checked that he had completed his quarantine.
“There was no structure,” he said. “It was like once you got to Florida, you were on your own.”
Shields said he would probably take another cruise – once he felt it was safer
“I will probably cruise again,” he said. Next time, however, he plans to wait until there is no increase in COVID-19 cases.
For other travelers considering a cruise, Shields said don’t go.
“I would stay home until Omicron was finished or at least mostly gone,” he said. “I wouldn’t go out.”
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