As the father of three princess-obsessed girls age 2, 3, and 5, I was thrilled when my in-laws gifted our family a three-night Bahamian Disney Cruise, sailing from Port Canaveral, Florida, a year ago. Supply chain issues postponed our departure aboard the Disney Wish, but we set sail on July 22 and made many happy memories.
The health protocols that we had to comply with even to set foot on the ship, however, reflect just how irrational and impractical COVID-19 bureaucracy has become. As a society, we seem to have become averse to even the semblance of risk — always, of course, out of an abundance of caution.
Disney mandates that passengers age 5 and above be vaccinated; unvaccinated persons age 5 and above with natural immunity from an infection acquired in the recent past cannot board. My wife and I, who are vaccinated, vaccinated our 5-year-old only so that she could board the ship.
Of course, vaccination does not stop the transmission of COVID-19. President Joe Biden, after all, recently tested positive for the virus after being fully vaccinated and twice boosted.
Given the real possibility of contracting COVID-19 post-vaccination, Disney also requires passengers who have not had the virus in the last 90 days to test negative a couple of days before boarding.
When numbers are high, avoiding COVID-19 is not easy. Particularly for a family of five.
I had mild symptoms a few weeks before boarding and decided to get tested given our upcoming sailing. I received a positive PCR test and was able to prove to Disney, with a doctor’s note, that I was no longer infectious at the time of boarding.
My wife and I tested our asymptomatic 2- and 3-year-olds twice in the weeks leading up to our sailing. Disney requires a PCR test for those age 4 and under. And given that this test can stay positive long after an infection ends, we did not want a surprise positive result from a previous infection during the pre-boarding testing. Anyone who has had to test a young child for COVID-19 using a nasal swab knows well the kicking, screaming, and restraining that this can involve.
We were delighted when our two youngest girls tested positive at the time that they did, 11 days before departure. This meant that they would be just within the window for a doctor’s note attesting to their no longer being infectious at the time of boarding.
That COVID-19 poses the most minimal of risks to young children explained our nonchalance when our 2- and 3-year-olds tested positive (the 2-year-old had also tested positive last Christmas). Indeed, the irony was not lost on us that we were relieved that our daughters had contracted a virus that Disney deemed too dangerous to have on board.
The challenge for my wife and 5-year-old was to avoid catching COVID-19 for almost two weeks leading up to departure with now three exposures at home. If either of them tested positive in the days leading up to the cruise in the required pre-boarding testing, she (and our family) could not sail.
Having foregone the gym, eating out, socializing, visiting with grandparents, and playdates, my wife and eldest daughter were able to avoid a positive test after a couple of nasal swabs. This does not diminish the stress that was put on our family. The thought of having to tell our daughters that we could not go on the cruise because of unreasonable health requirements caused needless anxiety.
A few times during the month or so leading up to the cruise, I wondered whether all of this rigmarole was even worth it. I questioned why my wife and I were even subjecting our asymptomatic daughters to the torture of multiple invasive tests. None of us were seriously concerned about the health risks of COVID-19; we are all in reasonably good health.
The Disney protocols did nothing to stop vaccinated passengers (after having submitted their required negative tests in the days leading up to departure) from catching the virus in transit to the port, in large settings at hotels and restaurants, or even at the port before boarding. We could have caught the virus as we mingled with crowds in Nassau, visiting the Queen’s Staircase, Fort Fincastle, and other sites. We did not have to test upon returning to the ship, and it would be naive to think that COVID-19 was not spread by returning passengers.
As Disney itself admits in its marketing materials, an “inherent risk of exposure to COVID-19 exists in any public place where people are present.” This is, or at least should be, obvious. Why does Disney not just leave it at that?
As expected, Disney’s protocols failed to keep COVID-19 off the ship. My father-in-law tested positive for the virus the morning after we disembarked, and he had a great time getting it. Caveat emptor, the legal maxim meaning “let the buyer beware,” is a good adage for life and for cruises.
COVID-19 will be with us forever. Risk is inherent to life. My wife and I are teaching our daughters to live with risk, as humanity has been doing for millennia, and to make sensible choices based on costs and benefits. Mickey Mouse, and the country, would do well to do the same.
Robert Barnidge, a father of three girls, teaches high school social studies in St. Louis.