NCL Customer Care

[Ginny B]

My husband and I were on a cruise in May/June that started and ended in Civitavecchia, Italy. On the last night of the cruise, my husband started having some confusion and disorientation. I called 911 and medical came and brought him to med center. He had a temp, Dr said he had pneumonia, UTI and infection on leg from a fall on the ship. We were to disembark the next morning, but we were taken off the ship by ambulance to the hospital in Civitavecchia ER. They cruise staff did not let us know that we needed to have our luggage out of the port by sailing time that evening. After arriving at the hospital, he tested positive for Covid-19, inconclusive on ship. That is when hospital staff told me I couldn't stay there. ? That is when International Care Roma(ICR), Maritime Medical Services(MMS) and NCL Customer Care took over.

By Italian law my husband had to be hospitalized at least 5 days. I have my purse and don't speak Italian, when I see a woman come in to speak to hospital staff, and she proceeds toward me. She is from ICR and speaks English. She starts to guide me through process at hospital. I hadn't eaten since 6 that morning so we went to deli by hospital and got some food. I was able to use their wifi to use my phone to book accommodation for myself and get transportation there. That is when ICR connected me to MMS. They are the ones that explained and helped get my luggage from the port shortly before they closed. Took me shopping for groceries and helped me book accommodations after first two nights and provided transportation when needed. Then I had my first call from Daniel in Customer Care. They kept in constant communication with me and even provided the name of an Italian Dr to read over and translate what my husband's medical reports said(by the way he DID NOT have pneumonia or a UTI).

Customer care also helped book our return flights one week after our original flight was to go.

I can't say enough about all the care we got while in Italy.

Last tips, always get the trip interruption/medical insurance for the trip if you don't already have a policy. The 12 hours in the medical center was more than the 10 day cruise.

Second, check your international phone plan, France and Greece were on our plan, but not Italy.

If your a senior, Medicare doesn't cover out of country so plan accordingly and have good supplemental and good credit cards help too!

[Cruising Caribbean]

@Ginny B I'm so sad you had to go through all of this on your vacation! You have really opened my eyes to the importance of traveling with trip interruption/medical insurance. I truly can't imagine being somewhere where I needed to communicate with others and couldn't. International phone plan prep is a great tip. I can't imagine Medicare not working out of the country! This is something everyone should be aware of. Were all of your husband's symptoms due to that positive virus? 

[PaulB]

I'm sorry to hear that you had to go through all this while on vacation and hope your husband is doing ok now. However said, it's good that you had such a fantastic care routine, this could have potentially been a lot worse if you hadn't taken cover which would have made things even worse for you. 

[Kendall James-Vargas]

@Ginny B You are a trooper! It sounds like you remained so calm and contained throughout this whole process. I think I would still be shaken up after such an experience. Thanks for sharing all of your wise counsel with the group. I'm reconsidering travel insurance now. This is a circumstance that doesn't happen often, but when it does, the travel insurance really pulls through.