TelecomTom

Don't think if paying for the stock purchase with the "perk". However, looking at it as a dividend in addition to any dividend the stock pays it looks pretty good depending on how often you cruise each year. And, it's nice having a little tax free spending money on board.

The country is clearly moving from a pandemic to an endemic. I think we saw this when the CDC reduced the Conditional Sail Order to voluntary. And, with the lack of test kits, the cruise lines could push back and say if there are no test kits the CDC needs to recognize the testing recommendation needs to be reduced to symptomatic cases only. We're going to have to treat Covid just like the flu ... urge vaccination and stay at home when you're sick.

Okay, I heard back from eMed. Much to our surprise they replied in a timely manner! Response is below: ******************************* Thank you for contacting eMed. I understand you may have some concerns about the expiration date on your BinaxNOW COVID-19 Ag Card HOME TEST kits. The BinaxNow COVID-19 test kits were originally made in a bulk in late 2020 thru early 2021 and was approved for testing by the FDA under the EUA (Emergency Use Authorization). The test kits have an original expiration date of September 2021, October 2021, and November 2021. Effective immediately, these expiration dates have since been extended for an additional 6 months by the FDA making the new expiration dates **March 2022, April 2022, and May 2022. **The new expiration date will be determined by the date you have on each test kit. Please take a look at second line of the white label to find the original expiration date. Once you locate the original expiration date, you can add an additional 6 months to that date. For example, if if your current expiration date is September 6, 2021, your new expiration date is now March 6, 2022. Please note, if your purchase was made on or after December 1, 2021, you should have received test kits with an expiration date in October 2022 or November 2022. These particular kits are not under the extension at this time since they were just recently manufactured. When you are ready to test, please visit www.emed.com and click on "start testing". Once your test kit expiration date falls within the afore mentioned dates, you will be able to test with no issues. For more information regarding the extension date extension, you may visit www.fda.gov or click on the actual link to the FDA extension letter: https://www.fda.gov/media/155326/download Thank you for choosing eMed.

BB1 is right. eMed tests are the way to go and the people were very helpful in walking you through the test. DO NOT OPEN the test as it says, otherwise they won't pass you as it voids the test! One thing that concerns me is where you depart and you return. I don't know if the UK will accept these to get on board or how far in advance you need to do them. It's complicated even more with your flight times/durations. Check the Royal site and check the CDC and UK requirements. You may also check past posts on RoyalCaribbeanBlog and google for other articles. Clearly, I'm not up to date on these things but a lot of warning bells are going off.

That's where I got the letter I attached. Thanks though!

Blow, they do! I've had the same experience in the past. I wrote them so I wouldn't actually have to talk to someone (and get the response in writing). But, the product and supervised service is pretty good!

I bought an abundance of at home tests for a November 21 cruise and found that their expiration was January, 2022. I've held on to them due to the testing shortages. I came across a letter from various sources today that the expiration had been extended another 3 months. See below. This should extend me through early April. I've written to eMed to see if they are honoring this extension for their supervised testing. If anyone has any additional info, it will be appreciated. I'll let you know when I hear back from eMed.