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Monday departure, rapid testing over the weekend problems


Egeria

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I was looking into where to get tested locally on Saturday or Sunday to get tested for my Monday departure, and finding out that the places who offer Saturday and Sunday testing state that it test results may not be available until Tuesday. So, they test you, but the lab doesn't open until Monday to run the test. Is anyone else running into this issue and have suggestions? I should say I was looking at the free options, and may just bite the bullet and pay for the RC testing kits. 

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Monday departures are proving to be a problem for obtaining rapid 2 day results. It seems kind of useless to me, as you can have a negative test on Saturday and have Covid on Monday. I agree with having everybody fully vaccinated, but this last minute Covid test is adding additional stress to what started out as a pleasant care free cruise. 

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CVS opens their booking window for appointments 2 weeks out ... just punch in your zip code and it'll show you which brick-and-mortar stores are doing testing, and whether it's rapid antigen or NAAT PCR. 

I went through a dummy-booking process a month before my cruise just to identify which stores were doing the rapid antigen tests.  then came back at the 2 week mark and snagged an appointment on a Saturday (for a Monday sailing) without any problems.  admittedly this probably was easier living in a large metro area with plenty of CVSs.  I had the results within 30 minutes.  

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42 minutes ago, Sandy A said:

Monday departures are proving to be a problem for obtaining rapid 2 day results. It seems kind of useless to me, as you can have a negative test on Saturday and have Covid on Monday. I agree with having everybody fully vaccinated, but this last minute Covid test is adding additional stress to what started out as a pleasant care free cruise. 

It depends on where you live, here in the Chicagoland region there are multiple Walgreens and CVS's where you will have your results in 15-20 minutes and there are others who send them out to a lab but now results come back within 24-36 hours. Labs here are open even on the weekends processing tests but depending on where people live that may not be the case.  But the BinaxNow option is available and in my opinion anyone going on a cruise should have a BinaxNow kit as their backup insurance policy to speed up their boarding process because testing pier side sounds out right dreadful.

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16 hours ago, Sandy A said:

Monday departures are proving to be a problem for obtaining rapid 2 day results. It seems kind of useless to me, as you can have a negative test on Saturday and have Covid on Monday. I agree with having everybody fully vaccinated, but this last minute Covid test is adding additional stress to what started out as a pleasant care free cruise. 

Get the at-home tests. Super easy and convenient.

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On 10/4/2021 at 8:13 PM, Egeria said:

I was looking into where to get tested locally on Saturday or Sunday to get tested for my Monday departure, and finding out that the places who offer Saturday and Sunday testing state that it test results may not be available until Tuesday. So, they test you, but the lab doesn't open until Monday to run the test. Is anyone else running into this issue and have suggestions? I should say I was looking at the free options, and may just bite the bullet and pay for the RC testing kits. 

Did you try cvs? Appointments made online, 2 weeks in advance. Without any problems. Not sure if last minute thing is available. Quick in and out. 

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On 10/4/2021 at 9:28 PM, twangster said:

The PCR tests I've done are the ones that get shipped to a lab.  In my case the lab worked on weekends.

The Rapid ID NOW tests at Walgreens in my area are NAAT tests but they do them right in the store.  I've had results by email before I've driven home from the test.

I've had same done In CVS. 

They call it rapid pcr, but basically it's similar technology as lab pcr. I wasn't aware it's available. Much more accurate then rapid antigen. 

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17 hours ago, PurdueFlyer said:

CVS opens their booking window for appointments 2 weeks out ... just punch in your zip code and it'll show you which brick-and-mortar stores are doing testing, and whether it's rapid antigen or NAAT PCR. 

I went through a dummy-booking process a month before my cruise just to identify which stores were doing the rapid antigen tests.  then came back at the 2 week mark and snagged an appointment on a Saturday (for a Monday sailing) without any problems.  admittedly this probably was easier living in a large metro area with plenty of CVSs.  I had the results within 30 minutes.  

I've just typed similar reply. And already done that test in cvs. 

Not sure what you've taken. 

But I had rapid NAAT / PCR, not rapid antigen. Much more accurate. It just happened that my closest location had equipment... Rapid antigen were being done in much farther away CVS 

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