Quoted from jitneystand1:

Link? Sorry to ask, I looked but couldn’t find it

Quoted from jorge5240:

I posted this in the Disney thread but thought it would interest some here as well.
I know it is a lot. You can skip to the end for the cliff’s notes.
So my story starts on February 28th. My wife, my parents and our two boys leave California for Orlando to depart on a Disney Cruise that will take us to Cozumel, Grand Carmen, and Jamaica.
We board the ship on the 29th and are aware of the virus but are not concerned. At that time I had posted on here many times that virus is really a non issue.
There is screening to get on the ship and even one group gets turned away because they had been in Japan in the last 14 days. The first night we go to the show and they announce between crew and passengers over 70 countries are represented on board.
The cruise goes on and we have our fun, also watching the news to see what is going on around the world. The concierge informs us they are bombing the ship nightly with disinfectant and they are cleaning the ship day and night. We continue cruising and having fun.
Wednesday, my wife gets an email from my son’s school informing us that he will be quarantined for 14 days upon his return because he has been out of the country. I think it is crazy because there are no cases in the area we are cruising and cases in the county we live in California. We call the school and they tell us that if we get a note stating our son does not have corona virus he can go back. We call his doctor’s office and they tell us there is no way they can provide that. They tell us we would have to go to public health. Public health states only to see them if you have symptoms. So I am certainly not taking my healthy son somewhere where there are very sick people. I talk to my wife and parents about extending our stay in Orlando upon our return and going to Disney world for a few days because we have never been. We discuss it and all agree to do so.
On March 7th we finally disembark the ship and take the hour ride to Disneyworld. Everyone is pretty excited. We finally arrive, and it is very crowded. We spend the day in Epcot and my mom seems very quiet. My mom sometimes gets like that when she is uncomfortable. My dad actually is a little pissed because he thinks she is upset we went and the park is too busy. My parents end up going back to the hotel early. We stay and do some rides and make the best out of the crowds. I mean it is Epcot on a Saturday what do you expect?
Sunday we wake up and go to Magic Kingdom. My mom is super quiet. She says she feels kind of off. About 1PM my mom and dad decide to go back to the hotel and rest. We stay and ride a couple rides, park is obviously super crowded. Finally we get back to the hotel around 9PM. My dad says my mom has gone straight to bed when she arrived and that she has a fever.
We wake up Monday morning and my mom is not feeling well. She still has a fever and has now added chills and an uncontrollable cough. My dad stays with my mom and I take my wife and boys to animal Kingdom. My dad tries to get my mom to go to urgent care but she is an incredibly stubborn worman and resists. She has another day of the same symptoms, with them progressing throughout the day. We arrive back late in the evening and go to bed. We are in a one bed room suite and I can hear my mom coughing uncontrollably throughout the night. The driest, painful cough I have ever heard.
Finally we wake up Tuesday morning and my mom is toast. She can’t move barely can talk. I am scared shitless. She is still coughing uncontrollably, but now has added vomiting and diarrhea. We finally convince her that she needs to go to the doctor. She says she has to get ready before going, again very stubborn proud woman. She tries to get out of bed for over an hour but can’t manage to do so. She is just too weak. Everyone at this point is freaking out. Finally I have had enough and call 911!
The EMTs arrive in about 15 minutes. They are in full hazmat gear, shields over there faces and plastics over all their clothes.They say they really don’t know what to do. They take my mom’s vitals and her temp comes back at 100.8. She is 5’5 and about 105 pounds, so she is pretty frail and has heart issues. The EMTs finish all there tests for vitals and say my mom is stable. They offer her the option of going to the hospital and she refuses. They pack up their hazmat shit and leave.
We decide since my mom is so frail that the best option is to call private doctor to the room because my mom is just too weak to get to urgent care. At this point I am sure my mom has the flu, my wife and I had it a couple weeks prior and it kicked our asses. At this time my 4 year old also started to have minor fever. He was the only member of our family not to have the flu so it made sense. The private doctor arrives that afternoon very nice. No hazmat gear, just super casual, tells us she has visited two other cruise ship patients earlier in the day and both tested positive for the flu. At this point I am like this sucks but it is the flu. So the doctor takes my mom’s temperature and it is now 102. She tests for the flu and you should have seen the look in that doctor’s eyes when that test came back negative. She tells us immediately that my mom must go to the hospital.
My mom and dad go to hospital. I stay back with my son that is running the fever. My mom goes into a special room at the hospital. She by passes the lines. No hazmat gear or anything like that. The doctor’s start running tests. They tell my dad it is some type of infection. After running some more tests they say she has pneumonia and that she is free to leave the hospital.
My parents finally return from the hospital at 12:30 in morning and my son is now coughing uncontrollably and burning up. We are planning on leaving that Wednesday and fly back to California. Even though the hospital told my mom that she was free to fly, she was just too weak. My wife and I are stressing if we would be let on the plane because my son obviously has a pretty intense fever. Finally on Wednesday I say good bye to my parents and head to the airport. No one looks or cares that my son has a fever or is coughing uncontrollably. We board the plane and head for California.
Thursday we wake up and I call my dad. My mom is still very weak. No way she can fly. We are having problems getting her meds for her heart because we had extended our trip and she had only brought a few days extra of pills. Finally that gets squared away. I tell my wife we should take my son to the doctor because he still has fever and uncontrollable cough. They ask if we have been out of country and we go through the whole drill. They tell us to bring him in. They see my son and tell us that he has um “a virus”. They say take him home and if he still has the fever on Saturday to bring him back.
Meanwhile my parents are still in Florida and I hear that Disney is closing Disneyland. I call my dad and tell him they got to get the hell out of there because Disneyworld is going to be next. My mom is still super weak. He books the air flight for Friday.
Today my parents head to the airport, my mom is still coughing uncontrollably and is very weak. The plane is delayed and has mechanical issue. After two hours the plane finally takes off and hopefully my parents will arrive soon from the trip from hell.
My dad now has fallen ill and my wife and I feel off. I don’t know if our symptoms will worsen or it will just pass.
I left for this trip with complete faith in our medical system. Maybe that was naive but that is how I felt. After this whole experience, I feel no one has any idea what they are doing or how to handle the situation.
My whole family had:
Been on a cruise ship
Been out of the country
Had flulike symptoms
Tested negative for flu
And was allowed to fly and roam freely without any Coronavirus testing.
I am not saying we have Coronavirus or not but we were not quarantined, visited theme parks and flew on air planes and were told it was fine to do so by medical professionals.
After my experience the virus is everywhere and probably has already infected hundreds of thousands of people but I guess we will find out.

Quoted from mrbillishere:

Where do you connect through to and from St Marteen?
FWIW I'm cutting short a two week stay in the UK (work related) so that I don't risk a hassle flying home at the end of the week IF the US adds the UK to its list. That's because a few days later I would expect flight cancellations until the airline reaches its new normal for daily traffic.

Quoted from Spencer:

Doug, I understand all your points, and agree with you, but here is the reality I'm faced with.
Our government has said, don't travel but has done nothing to help out people who have already booked. ( like make it mandatory for refunds )
I called Westjest and they said no refund, period. We will gladly switch your flight to a later time. Ok, great! The later time is $5000 more. lol. I've been going twice a year to Punta Cana for 12+ years now, I know the prices like the back of my hand. When I'm only offered one option and that is to switch my flight at a grossly overpriced option to only benefit the airline company, screw that.
I will not piss 10K down the drain and not go altogether. I also will not pay $5000 to switch my flights because Westjet feels it needs to recoup lost funds.
Either they refund my money or I'll be on that plane. I have no events to attend, just sit on the beach and that cant be cancelled. Yes, I risk possibly getting sick but I risk that here as well.
If Westjet decides to pull there head out of there ass and issues refunds, I'll be first inline. Otherwise, if the plane is flying, I'll be on it.