Asking for help on easiest way to get Covid test on Saturday. My pharmacies are booked. TY

[Nancy Pazmino]

[SpeedNoodles]

Have you checked pharmacies near your cruiseport?  Major airports may also offer testing (Miami and Orlando do).  They aren't cheap from what I understand, but they may be an option and you can schedule it.

[CrznTxn]

Agree with SpeedNoodles you might try near your cruise port. Royal announced that they are going to offer tests at some ports and would check with them although I heard it will be around $100 per test.

[steverk]

Can you order one of the at home tests? Be sure to get an approved one 

[Jill]

Where are you? Flying? Driving? What port? 

[twangster]

Walgreens in Florida only offers appointments within the next 48 hours.  I am waiting until Wednesday to make an appointment for this coming Friday. 

The early bird gets the worm... stay up until midnight Tuesday night when they open up the next block of appointments or get up early Wednesday morning to book something.  By noon they are often booked up. 

[PG Cruiser]

17 minutes ago, twangster said:

Walgreens in Florida only offers appointments within the next 48 hours.  I am waiting until Wednesday to make an appointment for this coming Friday. 

The early bird gets the worm... stay up until midnight Tuesday night when they open up the next block of appointments or get up early Wednesday morning to book something.  By noon they are often booked up. 

I need to be tested on Saturday in Florida myself.  So far, the Walgreens in my area are mostly showing "Many Appointments Available" even at midday.

 

[twangster]

8 minutes ago, PG Cruiser said:

I need to be tested on Saturday in Florida myself.  So far, the Walgreens in my area are mostly showing "Many Appointments Available" even at midday.

 

It's definitely a lot better these days.  There are a bunch of appointments available over the next 48 hours here at the moment.  A month ago and these would all be booked.

 

[Nancy Pazmino]

32 minutes ago, PG Cruiser said:

I need to be tested on Saturday in Florida myself.  So far, the Walgreens in my area are mostly showing "Many Appointments Available" even at midday.

 

Where are you located? I can’t get one within an hour of my home in St. Cloud. Thx

[Nancy Pazmino]

1 hour ago, SpeedNoodles said:

Have you checked pharmacies near your cruiseport?  Major airports may also offer testing (Miami and Orlando do).  They aren't cheap from what I understand, but they may be an option and you can schedule it.

All pharmacies near me are booked out two weeks. I booked one at Orlando airport, at Advent Health, but was hoping to get something closer to home. Thx

[D Alt]

Walk-In health clinics?  

[twangster]

8 minutes ago, Nancy Pazmino said:

All pharmacies near me are booked out two weeks. I booked one at Orlando airport, at Advent Health, but was hoping to get something closer to home. Thx

St. Cloud, FL?

Keep in mind Walgreens does not offer appointments for two weeks in advance.  At the moment they only have appointments through Wednesday since it's Monday.

Tomorrow they will have appointments through Thursday.

Wednesday they will have appointments for Friday.

Thursday they will have appointments for Saturday.

Friday they will have appointments for Sunday.

There are appointments for Wednesday in the St. Cloud area.  Try again in a few days for weekend appointments.

https://www.walgreens.com/findcare/covid19/testing?ban=covid_vanity_testing

[twangster]

14 minutes ago, Nancy Pazmino said:

All pharmacies near me are booked out two weeks. I booked one at Orlando airport, at Advent Health, but was hoping to get something closer to home. Thx

BTW - I'm on the coast.  I am sailing Allure on Sunday.

I plan to make my Walgreen appointment on Thursday or Friday.  

[Nancy Pazmino]

Have a great trip! I hope to go on the Allure one of these days. Starting with the Mariner for my first time back cruising!

[Nancy Pazmino]

1 hour ago, Jill said:

Where are you? Flying? Driving? What port? 

Driving to Port Canaveral. I scheduled one at Advent Health at the Orlando airport, but I’d prefer to go to a pharmacy closer to home. Thx

[twangster]

7 minutes ago, Nancy Pazmino said:

Have a great trip! I hope to go on the Allure one of these days. Starting with the Mariner for my first time back cruising!

Mariner is a great ship. 

I know it feels unsettling to wait to book a Walgreens test but I have used them for several cruises now and they always come through for me.  Sometimes I get the results back by email before I've driven home from the test.  No cost.   Done in the drive through, never leave the car.  

[Nancy Pazmino]

Thank you so much!

[SDFTMYERS]

If you are in Florida, look up Curative and Nomi Health.  Both are walk /drive up locations with rapid test and they are emailed /texted to you in 20 minutes.  They also offer PCR but those take 48 hours.  I think Royal Caribbean takes the rapid. 

These are located all over Florida.

 

Good Luck

[Jill]

29 minutes ago, Nancy Pazmino said:

Driving to Port Canaveral. I scheduled one at Advent Health at the Orlando airport, but I’d prefer to go to a pharmacy closer to home. Thx

I’d map every Walgreens between St Cloud and PC. I’m in St Johns (between Jax and St Augustine) and Walgreens books only 48 hours out

[MotleyCruiser]

2 hours ago, twangster said:

Walgreens in Florida only offers appointments within the next 48 hours.  I am waiting until Wednesday to make an appointment for this coming Friday. 

The early bird gets the worm... stay up until midnight Tuesday night when they open up the next block of appointments or get up early Wednesday morning to book something.  By noon they are often booked up. 

I booked at CVS today for Oct 24th cruise

[twangster]

18 minutes ago, MotleyCruiser said:

I booked at CVS today for Oct 24th cruise

CVS does schedule 2 weeks out but in my area they don't offer rapid tests, only PCR.  I'd have to drive to Kissimmee for the closest CVS that does rapid tests.  

Consequently I adapted to use Walgreens who does rapid tests in my area but they only offer appointments 2 days out.   

Back when the test could be 3 days before the cruise I was able to use the CVS PCR tests but with a two day window the PCR is too slow.  

[Matt]

I'll put in my vote for @twangster's 48 hour strategy for Walgreens.

Also many urgent care locations do not offer advanced reservations, just day of.

[twangster]

Walgreens opened Friday appointments.  I'm booked Friday morning for a Sunday cruise.  

Lots of times available.  

[CrznTxn]

Am glad FL have Walgreens with the rapid tests. In North Texas the Walgreens only does the PCR tests which take too long. CVS does the rapid tests but only in a select few places. We can get into these for our tests but have opted for the eMed testing online and purchased enough to last through our January cruises with one to spare. After that we will see which one we will use, the pharmacy or the online. Maybe by then the pharmaceutical company (Abbott) will have new online kits available.

[KevinJ]

I'm going to have to scramble now, CVS just canceled both my wife and my appointments we had for tomorrow for our Sunday cruise. Now it's to late to even get a Walgreens test as they are all gone. I'll have to check if there are any walk in clinics doing testing. I did get three of the home tests which will cover all three of us, but then I have no backup in case we mess one of them up.

 

Follow up, I was able to book with my Primary Care Physician for tomorrow afternoon, this is so stressful I really need a cruise

 

[Ampurp85]

I have been reading lots of reports of CVS cancelling, I wonder what the issue is?

[Matt]

12 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

I have been reading lots of reports of CVS cancelling, I wonder what the issue is?

It happened to me once. More of an outlier than a common occurrence. 

I scheduled appointments for my kids for our cruise last week exactly 2 weeks in advance. No issues with them getting cancelled.

[AshleyDillo]

13 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

I have been reading lots of reports of CVS cancelling, I wonder what the issue is?

They book far in advance so they're subject to scheduling issues with staff and potentially supply issues. If someone calls out and they don't have a backup who can do the testing they would have to cancel.

[twangster]

13 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

I have been reading lots of reports of CVS cancelling, I wonder what the issue is?

From what I've heard the CVS test that get cancelled are antigen and they claim shortages of antigen supplies.

The Walgreens rapid tests are NAAT and so far not impacted by shortages of supplies.

[Ampurp85]

@Matt If I was speculating/assuming, this is a non-Florida issue. Lots of my roll calls on FB have people upset at CVS cancellation and it was in places like Michigan, Minnesota, etc. I think maybe these CVS aren't allowing test for travel purposes.

[twangster]

The scheduling differences between CVS and Walgreens may be a factor. 

CVS is scheduling appointments two weeks in advance but can't get the tests to the stores in time.

Walgreens here only schedules 48 hours in advance so their stock is much closer to real time and they can fulfil the order.

Walgreen warns me it isn't confirmed until they notify me.   Later I get an email to confirm the appointment.  

CVS takes appointments hoping to be able to distribute tests in time while Walgreens only confirms appoints once they know they can deliver.

[Doak]

Royal put out as a last resort they will test at the port for $99.  Anyone know how to schedule that?  

[AshleyDillo]

3 minutes ago, Doak said:

Royal put out as a last resort they will test at the port for $99.  Anyone know how to schedule that?  

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/what-if-i-dont-find-a-pre-cruise-test-or-get-test-results-in-time

Links for each port are at the bottom.

[Doak]

23 minutes ago, AshleyDillo said:

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/what-if-i-dont-find-a-pre-cruise-test-or-get-test-results-in-time

Links for each port are at the bottom.

thank you!

[twangster]

The Walgreen ID NOW test now includes a QR code option I haven't seen before.

Results in under 2 hours today.

 

[PG Cruiser]

I thought scheduling three COVID test appointments was overkill.  Turns out it was a wise thing to do based on recent posts to this thread.

[twangster]

5 minutes ago, PG Cruiser said:

I thought scheduling three COVID test appointments was overkill.  Turns out it was a wise thing to do based on recent posts to this thread.

So that's why all the appointments are gone 

I'm only booking Walgreens now, once.  I do have the Abbott proctored tests in my possession as a backup.  They expire in January so I've already decided which cruises i will use them for.   

[AshleyDillo]

21 minutes ago, PG Cruiser said:

I thought scheduling three COVID test appointments was overkill.  Turns out it was a wise thing to do based on recent posts to this thread.

Nah. I usually do the same spread out between Walgreens, CVS and a local community site around the corner on the first available day. Then I book backups for the 2nd day just in case. I also know where I can go for last minute pay to play testing sites if needed.  As soon as I have the negative test in hand I cancel everything outstanding.

My next cruise (on a full ship charter through a different line) is a little trickier as it requires a PCR test to be covered for refunds in case of testing positive at the port, so while PCR is most readily available, I am still taking tests multiple days in a row as a backup in case the first results don't come in time. Fortunately the window is 96 hours for me on that.

[twangster]

Looks like Walgreens is doing 4 days out now.  

Plenty of appt's from tomorrow through Tuesday near me.

 

[PG Cruiser]

23 minutes ago, twangster said:

Looks like Walgreens is doing 4 days out now.  

Plenty of appt's from tomorrow through Tuesday near me.

 

In a way, this scares me as a cruiser.  When the demand for these tests goes so low,  the pharmacies will phase them out.  I'm afraid this will limit our options for pre-cruise testing.  I hope the testing requirements for cruising will have been relaxed or even totally eliminated by that time.