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Did cvs just quit testing?


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36 minutes ago, HoosierCruiser said:

Did cvs just stop offering rapid tests?

ours were just canceled and now it says there are no appointments available at the closest 25 cvs locations for the next two weeks….when there were plenty just 3 days ago

I don't think our CVSs ever offered COVID testing, in the Oxford/Anniston, AL.  I can only hope that your local CVSs know something we don't, yet. Wouldn't that be great!

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I believe that as the virus slips away, it's going to be harder and harder to find COVID/rapid COVID testing locations, most businesses can see the handwriting on the wall and start using up their stock and shutting down.  If Royal, or the cruise industry realize that it's getting tough out here to find rapid tests with electronically produced negative test results, they'd change some of the strict verification processes.  We just received 8 rapid COVID test from the U.S. Government, they are sealed.  It would be great if we could bring the sealed test kits to the terminal and perform the test in front of an official.  Especially if you are prone to errors dropping things, hard of hearing and screw up the Royal suggested telehealth test kit at the last moment before you fly to, in my case, Seattle from Atlanta.  There's little time to correct errors, get new telehealth test kits delivered again.   

BTW, we probably will never use the U.S. Government provided COVID test kits otherwise.  

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Maybe, the CVS I've gone to in the past, can not book 14 days out like you used to. Now its only day of.  My problem is the wording if states that the rapid test is not 'Not accepted for travel'. But we're still going, Did purchase the at home tests offered by Emed.

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I just tried to book an Antigen test at my local CVS…the one I’ve been using since I restarted cruising back in September. Now, they only have drive thru PCR test appointments. No more Antigen. The nearest Antigen test for me now is at a CVS twenty minutes away. I last used the local CVS seven days ago. At that time I found there was a different procedure. The outdoor ‘pod’ was closed and I had to go into the Minute Clinic to get the test. That visit was treated as a full clinic visit, with medical history and vitals…and it was charged as a full doctor’s visit. Fortunately, my insurance covers it. I’ll try finding a Walgreens or a clinic close by for the Antigen, and if not, I’ll use my eMed tests. Hopefully, these are all signs that the pre-cruise testing requirement is fading away.

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13 hours ago, cdixon22 said:

The Facebook group for our cruise next week has people who’s test were cancelled by CVS today for Friday. Most have been able to get new appointments at Walgreens. They were in Ohio and North Carolina. 

The two most likely states for me to be in when testing for a cruise is needed. 🙄

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59 minutes ago, Psycho and Barb said:

Unless you want to spend $20 bucks to have the tests supervised online and they are acceptable by Royal

https://ihealthlabs.com/products/ihealth-verified-covid-test-service

Wish I had known that before I purchased the RCCL suggested test kits.  Thanks.  That's a great back-up plan.  I just checked and the Government's free test kits are "IHEALTH" type kits.  WOW, something going right.

Once again, thanks for bringing this up to my/our attention. Didn't know such a thing existed.  

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9 minutes ago, jay1021 said:

Wish I had known that before I purchased the RCCL suggested test kits.  Thanks.  That's a great back-up plan.  I just checked and the Government's free test kits are "IHEALTH" type kits.  WOW, something going right.

Once again, thanks for bringing this up to my/our attention. Didn't know such a thing existed.  

SOME of the government-provided kits are iHealth. Not so for the ones we received.

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38 minutes ago, HeWhoWaits said:

SOME of the government-provided kits are iHealth. Not so for the ones we received.

Have you just got the first 4 (or whatever the first order for your situation) or all 8?  If you only ordered and got the first iteration, maybe you can order the second group and they will be the "IHEALTH, maybe!  Hope this works out for you.

The best scenario - they do away with pre-anything before our next cruise/travel, whenever that is.  

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2 hours ago, jay1021 said:

Have you just got the first 4 (or whatever the first order for your situation) or all 8?  If you only ordered and got the first iteration, maybe you can order the second group and they will be the "IHEALTH, maybe!  Hope this works out for you.

The best scenario - they do away with pre-anything before our next cruise/travel, whenever that is.  

Our second set arrived last week and are the Abbott tests, just like the first. I have seen the IHEALTH tests at our grocery store pharmacy.

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4 hours ago, jay1021 said:

Once again, thanks for bringing this up to my/our attention. Didn't know such a thing existed.  

You are more then welcomed.  We didn’t know till a couple weeks ago but as you said…Our Government test are the same IHEALTH test and we will keep them for an emergency backup

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5 hours ago, jay1021 said:

Wish I had known that before I purchased the RCCL suggested test kits.  Thanks.  That's a great back-up plan.  I just checked and the Government's free test kits are "IHEALTH" type kits.  WOW, something going right.

Once again, thanks for bringing this up to my/our attention. Didn't know such a thing existed.  

This is a great option, but have not yet heard of anyone successfully using one to board. The kit does however tick all the boxes listed on Royal's website for an approved at home monitored test.

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15 minutes ago, TXcruzer said:

This is a great option, but have not yet heard of anyone successfully using one to board. The kit does however tick all the boxes listed on Royal's website for an approved at home monitored test.

What do you mean by, "not yet heard of anyone successfully using one to board"?  Is there a doubt or you actually mean you just haven't heard, read, talked to, or otherwise observed anybody using the system successfully?  

I just don't like to leave anything to chance (if at all possible).  Inquiring minds want to know.

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27 minutes ago, jay1021 said:

What do you mean by, "not yet heard of anyone successfully using one to board"?  Is there a doubt or you actually mean you just haven't heard, read, talked to, or otherwise observed anybody using the system successfully?  

I just don't like to leave anything to chance (if at all possible).  Inquiring minds want to know.

I completely agree, I don't like to leave anything to chance.

 

The proctored option with I-Health is relatively new, they aren't listed by name on the Royal website, but as I said, they seem to tick all the boxes.  I have not called Royal to inquire about this company as my next cruise isn't for 6 weeks or so. I would just like to see someone post "Hey i used the I-Health proctored test and everything went well" 

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16 minutes ago, TXcruzer said:

I completely agree, I don't like to leave anything to chance.

I would just like to see someone post "Hey i used the I-Health proctored test and everything went well" 

Meeeeeeee tooooooo!  

I just happen to think that if you use a system that meets all of their own protocol/requirements/verifications, regardless of where you purchase it from or utilize the service, they wouldn't have any choice but to accept it or come up with a damn good reason why not.  

We'll see!

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32 minutes ago, TXcruzer said:

I completely agree, I don't like to leave anything to chance.

 

 "Hey i used the I-Health proctored test and everything went well" 

I have them as my back up plan every cruise that we've done since cruising resumed we've always tested at Walgreens or CVS and have always tested negative and had our test results in less than 24 hours.  We are on Wonder sailing out on April 8th I have the free government test kit our backup plan my hope is to never have to use it but to have it just in case. If I do use it I'll post something but I'm hoping to not have to.

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On 3/24/2022 at 10:44 AM, HeWhoWaits said:

SOME of the government-provided kits are iHealth. Not so for the ones we received.

Same here the pack of four I received is from Roche. I will order another pack and see what arrives. In the meantime I have already ordered two three packs of the official approved Royal Caribbean ones through Optum that should be delivered later this week while I only need one for myself I am part of a group of about 30 several of whom will be traveling in from out of the country and will have to retest between their flight out of England and boarding the ship because the Gap will be greater than 2 days. Any of them that I don't use Ike presumably can keep for my next personal Cruise coming up in August. 

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On 3/23/2022 at 8:53 PM, HoosierCruiser said:

Did cvs just stop offering rapid tests?

ours were just canceled and now it says there are no appointments available at the closest 25 cvs locations for the next two weeks….when there were plenty just 3 days ago

I am in MA and could not find any CVS rapid tests or Walgreens rapid tests for our Anthem cruise next Sunday.  I am seeing and wondering the same thing as @HoosierCruiser.  So the best we could do is sign up for the CVS PCR test instead.  The 48 hour window ends a few hours before the cruise departs.  Not sure what are back-up plan will be or how RCCL will handle us showing up in our time slot w/o test results.  Not sure how much longer tests will be required since testing is becoming more difficult to find.

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11 hours ago, YOLO said:

I am in MA and could not find any CVS rapid tests or Walgreens rapid tests for our Anthem cruise next Sunday.  I am seeing and wondering the same thing as @HoosierCruiser.  So the best we could do is sign up for the CVS PCR test instead.  The 48 hour window ends a few hours before the cruise departs.  Not sure what are back-up plan will be or how RCCL will handle us showing up in our time slot w/o test results.  Not sure how much longer tests will be required since testing is becoming more difficult to find.

yeah, In my search, Allston CVS has a drive thru, about an hour away. So I bought the emed ones.  Then found out a local CVS minutecllinic will do it, but does say not for travel. am going there Thursday and will ask if this is the same one that they did out in the little building earlier this year. if so good to go. if not i'll have my proctored ones,

Saw some Walgreens in RI does them.

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8 minutes ago, barjpoe said:

yeah, In my search, Allston CVS has a drive thru, about an hour away. So I bought the emed ones.  Then found out a local CVS minutecllinic will do it, but does say not for travel. am going there Thursday and will ask if this is the same one that they did out in the little building earlier this year. if so good to go. if not i'll have my proctored ones,

Saw some Walgreens in RI does them.

Before I purchased the eMed tests I tried looking into testing at CVS...cost is $139!!  and very difficult to grab an appointment.  Yes there are a couple of Walgreens I checked out in RI but again no appointments available and didn't even get to find out the cost.

There are 7 of us leaving this Sunday to fly to Miami for our Monday cruise and we are getting together at my house Saturday to do the online testing.  I have 2 laptops ready to go so now all we need is to receive 7 Negative results!!!!   Will be praying everyday this week until completed!

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12 minutes ago, PPPJJ-GCVAB said:

Before I purchased the eMed tests I tried looking into testing at CVS...cost is $139!!  and very difficult to grab an appointment.  Yes there are a couple of Walgreens I checked out in RI but again no appointments available and didn't even get to find out the cost.

There are 7 of us leaving this Sunday to fly to Miami for our Monday cruise and we are getting together at my house Saturday to do the online testing.  I have 2 laptops ready to go so now all we need is to receive 7 Negative results!!!!   Will be praying everyday this week until completed!

Where is Covid testing $139 at CVS? I've only seen no cost covid testing there...

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On 3/23/2022 at 6:39 PM, jay1021 said:

I believe that as the virus slips away, it's going to be harder and harder to find COVID/rapid COVID testing locations, most businesses can see the handwriting on the wall and start using up their stock and shutting down.  If Royal, or the cruise industry realize that it's getting tough out here to find rapid tests with electronically produced negative test results, they'd change some of the strict verification processes.  We just received 8 rapid COVID test from the U.S. Government, they are sealed.  It would be great if we could bring the sealed test kits to the terminal and perform the test in front of an official.  Especially if you are prone to errors dropping things, hard of hearing and screw up the Royal suggested telehealth test kit at the last moment before you fly to, in my case, Seattle from Atlanta.  There's little time to correct errors, get new telehealth test kits delivered again.   

BTW, we probably will never use the U.S. Government provided COVID test kits otherwise.  

I was thinking the same thing. It's not hard to get a rapid at home test, but it can be really difficult to get an appointment for one somewhere.

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1 hour ago, barjpoe said:

I don't like the wording "Not accepted for travel" , but cruising??? 

Will it be accepted by Royal??

Agreed, I have the same concern.  FYI, we signed up for a CVS PCR test, but I am worried about getting the results in time.

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1 hour ago, PPPJJ-GCVAB said:

I am in RI.  They have a few questions to answer and when done a message comes up with the cost.

Ah, I grew up in West Warwick - I'm a Wizard!  Answer yes to the first question (think of it as it not easy to social distance on a cruise ship), then no to the next three and then check the accept.  Your insurance should cover it then and it should be free.

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On 3/24/2022 at 1:38 PM, TXcruzer said:

I completely agree, I don't like to leave anything to chance.

 

The proctored option with I-Health is relatively new, they aren't listed by name on the Royal website, but as I said, they seem to tick all the boxes.  I have not called Royal to inquire about this company as my next cruise isn't for 6 weeks or so. I would just like to see someone post "Hey i used the I-Health proctored test and everything went well" 

I called Royal twice and got 2 different answers, one person said they weren't sure and the other said it "should" be ok. not sure yet I want to take the chance until someone does it.

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