HillaryG

3 hours ago, JC Pats said:

For the underlined part, if you miss your cruise, your cruise planner items are cancelled and refunded (at least that's my understanding of it). It won't be instant, but usually within 7-10 days you'll see the credit on your CC. 

We missed our cruise and our excursions and drink packages were not automatically refunded.  We are still waiting on refunds 3 month past cruise date. I would recommend using air2sea for possible airline issues resulting in missed cruise. 

Sorry you had a bad experience. I work at a Walgreens that provides PCR testing though labcorp and the rapid ID now NAAT test. There was a computer glitch a week or so a go when automated emails were not being sent correctly. Like the previous poster said, if you ever take a rapid test at a pharmacy and they tell you you should receive your results in 2 hours and you don't get them in the time frame, call them.  They can attempt to resend or they can be printed at any store and picked up. The ID now testing machine sends the emails automatically once it is completed. So as long as the sample is run though the machine there should be a result. The Labcop PCR tests all depended on the lab, which is usually in a different state (Virginia flies their tests to NC) . I would never recommend getting one, unless required. They take so long and the pharmacy has no say in when you get your results back, they are just a collection site.  The issues that we usually run into at our pharmacy are email addresses not entered in correctly or names or dates of birth are not correct and people signing up for PCR tests and they need their results in a time frame that may not occur. 

7 hours ago, Keiffer-b said:

I asked the pharmacist who proctored the test about your question, she advised that some people are using Uber/Lyft and just scheduling a special service with either company in order to meet the requirement of being in some type of vehicle.  

We used a taxi to go through the drive through in Puerto Rico, to get our tests done at Walgreens. I thought the driver was going to get frustrated at how long we were in line, but he was getting paid based on the time, so he didn't seem to mind. 

If testing sites in your area only have the Naat or pcr and offer them at no cost (ie. Walgreens), I would just sign up and take one now to ease your concerns. But like others have said you should be fine with the antigen test. 

That does sounds frustrating, but I would like to make a counter opinion based on our experience.

We booked our flights through air2sea and our flights got canceled (this was the day before our cruise) and we ended up missing our cruise. Air2sea got us flights to the first port of call which is the only way Royal will let people join the cruise through a port of call.  There was an issue at the port of call and we never made it on the ship and air2sea made sure we got home and we are getting a full refund for the whole trip (partial credit), which I don't think would have occurred if we hadn't booked flights through air2sea.  Yes, all the calls are a very big headache, but there is some assurance using the program, when issues do arise. We are planning a cruise for August and I plan to use Air2 sea again, since they made it right when there were issues our of our control.  

We were not charged for our NAAT tests at Walgreens and my parents got the rapid antigen and were not charged.  We all selected "for travel" as to why we were getting them. They didn't even ask of insurance information. 

We used Walgreens. Rapid antigen or even rapid idnow would work. Ours had plenty of availability and results come back quickly right to your email. Just make sure your email and date of birth is correct when registering online. 

We just used air2sea a couple of weeks ago. We had a party of 6 (2 young children). All 4 of our flights had our seats all together without us picking our seats and one of our flights was booked a couple of hours before it took off and even then our seats only had one person in-between our group and we easily asked them to switch a middle seat for an isle once on board.   

We asked about joining allure or the celebrity ship that was docked and they said both were full. 

So much for boarding late. Symphony never made it into port. Allure ran into mechanical problems blocking the dock.  They can’t get us to the next port, so they put us up in a different hotel and our flight home is not till the day after our cruise was scheduled to end.  It could be worse I guess, just nothing we had been planning for months.

We didn’t have to pay anything extra for the flight to San Juan and they did rebook our flight for us and they put us up in a hotel. And told us there is only one port in San Juan. 
 

I also emailed the concierge to change our show reservations and specialty dinning and to try and cancel our excursions since the app isn’t letting me do it. 
 

I’ll try and see if I can find the number for the local port agent.  

Anyone have any advice joining a cruise at a port of call because they missed the ship at the original port? (Currently waiting in San Juan for symphony to port here). 
 

Other than retaking all of our Covid tests, the people at Royal just told us to show up at the port.  My son is 3 years old and will need a Covid test day of embarkation as well I guess. 
 

If you join late, do you reimbursed on anything? (We opted not to get travel insurance since we had cruise with confidence and we booked flights through royal).  This experience will probably make us starting getting it.

We are cruising on Symphony at the beginning of April and are wondering if we could request a step stool to be used in the bathroom to make it easier for our 3 year old to reach the sink and toilet. Is this something they have on board or should we look into packing a folding one?