Jump to content

Pre-boarding Covid test - 48 hours or two days?


Recommended Posts

So I just got off the phone with RC about another issue I am having.  While I had them on the phone, I asked about Pre-Cruise Covid testing.  She stated the test must be done no more than 48 prior to my boarding time.  I was under the impression the time didn't matter, just the two days.  So I thought I could do the testing anytime Saturday (tomorrow) and be good.  My intention is/was to do the at home eMed test very early Saturday morning, and I have a backup appointment with Walgreens that I was going to cancel if/when the eMed at home test went well.

Do I really have to wait until 48 hours prior to boarding, or did get a little bad advice?  Do they look at the time on the documents at the port, or just the day?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, OrlandoDad said:

So I just got off the phone with RC about another issue I am having.  While I had them on the phone, I asked about Pre-Cruise Covid testing.  She stated the test must be done no more than 48 prior to my boarding time.  I was under the impression the time didn't matter, just the two days.  So I thought I could do the testing anytime Saturday (tomorrow) and be good.  My intention is/was to do the at home eMed test very early Saturday morning, and I have a backup appointment with Walgreens that I was going to cancel if/when the eMed at home test went well.

Do I really have to wait until 48 hours prior to boarding, or did get a little bad advice?  Do they look at the time on the documents at the port, or just the day?

I think you got bad advice.  it has been 2 days for over a year, I am sure that it is still 2 days. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 minutes ago, OrlandoDad said:

So I just got off the phone with RC about another issue I am having.  While I had them on the phone, I asked about Pre-Cruise Covid testing.  She stated the test must be done no more than 48 prior to my boarding time.  I was under the impression the time didn't matter, just the two days.  So I thought I could do the testing anytime Saturday (tomorrow) and be good.  My intention is/was to do the at home eMed test very early Saturday morning, and I have a backup appointment with Walgreens that I was going to cancel if/when the eMed at home test went well.

Do I really have to wait until 48 hours prior to boarding, or did get a little bad advice?  Do they look at the time on the documents at the port, or just the day?

Just another "Phone Answerer".  

If you cruise on Saturday, you can test as early as Thursday!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wondering!  If you take the COVID test on Thursday for your cruise on Saturday and for some reason the ship doesn't depart, because of weather or wherever, until Sunday or Monday, what happens with testing?  Do they go ahead and use the original test or require everyone to get a newer test?  Inquiring minds want to know!  Is there anyone with some experience with this?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

31 minutes ago, OrlandoDad said:

Thanks....We sail, maybe, this Monday.  So I can test anytime of the day or night after midnight on Saturday (tomorrow), right?

You can test any time after midnight TONIGHT. At 12:01 a.m. it will be Saturday which is two calendar days prior to your sail date.

For our Alaska cruise in May, we did our test for 9:00 a.m. EDT on Wednesday for an 11:00 a.m. PDT boarding on Friday. That's 53 hours before boarding.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is what I am going by from a 'Royal Caribbean Blog".....post dated Feb 18 of this year....

"The amount of hours that have passed since your test do not matter. If you take your test at 8AM on a Thursday and your cruise doesn’t leave until 5PM on Saturday, the test will still be accepted. Royal Caribbean counts tests by days, not hours, so there is no need to worry if it has been ~50 hours instead of 48 hours since your test by the time you board the ship."

Based on this, and the fact that I sail Monday, I can start on the tests tonight at midnight, as far as I can tell.  I really don't think the folks at the port would check each test document to see if it was within 48 hours of your arrival time.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, OrlandoDad said:

I really don't think the folks at the port would check each test document to see if it was within 48 hours.  

At most they will check the date. Not sure the date was checked when we sailed Ovation in May, just that the name matched and it said negative.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

28 minutes ago, Suite Snob said:

Wondering!  If you take the COVID test on Thursday for your cruise on Saturday and for some reason the ship doesn't depart, because of weather or wherever, until Sunday or Monday, what happens with testing?  Do they go ahead and use the original test or require everyone to get a newer test?  Inquiring minds want to know!  Is there anyone with some experience with this?

Some ship (I forget which) departed a day late due to the storm that crossed South Florida in early June (I was on my way back to PC aboard Harmony at the time). Those passengers were allowed to use their tests even if they wound up being 3 days out due to the delay.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, OCSC Mike said:

Some ship (I forget which) departed a day late due to the storm that crossed South Florida in early June (I was on my way back to PC aboard Harmony at the time). Those passengers were allowed to use their tests even if they wound up being 3 days out due to the delay.

That's good to know.  I doubt that the local pharmacies would be capable of handling 3,000, 4,000, 5,000 or more people needing at home proctored or in store (drive thru) tests all at once.  And I doubt that the ship carries enough to handle it too.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Suite Snob said:

Wondering!  If you take the COVID test on Thursday for your cruise on Saturday and for some reason the ship doesn't depart, because of weather or wherever, until Sunday or Monday, what happens with testing?  Do they go ahead and use the original test or require everyone to get a newer test?  Inquiring minds want to know!  Is there anyone with some experience with this?

Cruise lines can accept the "old" test.  Cdc actually came out formally with that guidance this week.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ok, I have a question regarding clarification on the 12:01 am start time for the 2 calendar days.  Is it anytime at 12:01 am or after based upon the local time of where you are taking the test or 12:01 am based upon the time zone of the ship?  We're sailing from Barcelona on the WOtS on a Sunday but flying out from Texas on Friday early am to give us a day buffer in case of some sort of travel delay.  I was planning to have all our tests taken on Friday prior to us stepping foot on the plane to avoid having the potential for positive tests somewhere away from home and being stuck in limbo.  What I'm not looking forward to is waking up just that much earlier to run the tests (I have little faith in my in-laws or mom being able to run the eMed tests on their own which will mean running everyone's in series instead of in parallel).  If the 2 day period started on the ship's local time then I could start administering them to the family anytime between 5pm and before bedtime on Thursday which would be awesome.  Otherwise, I'm picturing a horrendously long day where we wake up around 2 am on Friday and then get little to no sleep on the red eye on the overseas leg of our flight 🤪.  FWIW, airport testing at our airport doesn't open up before our flight leaves so Newark during the layover would have been our only domestic option.

TXCruiser

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It appears to be local time.  At the beginning of the test, they ask you where you are (Country, State).  The results were reported using that time.  They did not ask where I was going (other than which cruise line). I  can't be 100% sure because I am in the same time zone as the Port.

Hope this helps.  We did our four tests in series, as I had to assist everyone, even my wife 🤪   Plan for about 30 minutes per test, provided there is little wait time for a proctor, which was the case for us.  If assisting minors, you will be asked for your ID as well as theirs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks @OrlandoDad.  At 30 min per test I think it's worth the extra sleep to burn a test the day before making sure that my mother in law knows how to login and perform all the steps via a dry run so that she can run hers, my father in law's and my mom's while I do the same for my wife, son and myself.  Prepping for a 3 am wake up next month lol.  The things we do for cruising...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I did a dry run so every one would be familiar with what to expect, especially myself.  I purchased the Over-the-Counter Binax Now test at the local drugstore (I'm assuming you are using eMed).  This was reimbursed by insurance, and worth the hassle to be familiar with that particular test (the popsicle stick type).  For purposes of planning your wake-up time, I'd like to revise the testing time estimate I gave above.

Roughly 45 minutes each consisting of:

  • 5 minutes to get 'patient' set up in front of camera and gather ID's, test, etc.
  • 5 minutes to login to website, let eMed check your system, fill out information and wait for proctor
  • 10 minutes for proctor to give spiel, check ID(s), scan test kit info and run test
  • 15 minute waiting period
  • 5 minutes for proctor to get back on line once you indicate you are ready, and for them to interpret results and finalize session
  • 5 minutes to clean up/organize 'testing zone'...discarding materials/packaging for old test, etc.

You can also log in to eMed ahead of the testing date site and perform all the steps of getting to a proctor (answering questions, system check, etc.) then just disconnect prior to the proctor joining your session so you and your mother in law will be familiar with the steps involved in that process.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

To many people, "2 days before X" and "48 hours before X" mean exactly the same thing.  They are right when X is measured in days (the bigger unit of measure).  They are wrong when X is measured in hours (the smaller unit of measure).  The problem is Royal is not consistent is defining X as "day of departure", "boarding time", or "departure time".

I have this problem with software requirements all the time.  Client gives a non-specific requirement and gets annoyed when I try to pin them down on what they mean.  I'm sorry there are 10 different ways to interpret your requirement, but the computer is going to do exactly what I write, not what you mean!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 minutes ago, Atlantix2000 said:

To many people, "2 days before X" and "48 hours before X" mean exactly the same thing.  They are right when X is measured in days (the bigger unit of measure).  They are wrong when X is measured in hours (the smaller unit of measure).  The problem is Royal is not consistent is defining X as "day of departure", "boarding time", or "departure time".

I have this problem with software requirements all the time.  Client gives a non-specific requirement and gets annoyed when I try to pin them down on what they mean.  I'm sorry there are 10 different ways to interpret your requirement, but the computer is going to do exactly what I write, not what you mean!

I'm not an apologist for Royal's Landside Operations, not one bit.  And I totally agree with your premise.  However, I just don't know how much clearer Royal can be, I just don't get the confusion:

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/how-do-i-figure-out-when-to-get-pre-cruise-covid-19-test

How to calculate which days to take your test:

  • Vaccinated guests: If you are setting sail on a Saturday, and you need to take the test no more than 2 days before, you can take your test on Thursday or Friday. You could also take it on Saturday morning if necessary — of course, we don't recommend waiting until the last minute.
  • Unvaccinated kids: If you are setting sail on a Saturday, and you need to take the test no more than 3 days before, you can take your test on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday — but not Saturday. Unvaccinated guests cannot take their test on boarding day.

    pre-cruise-test-days.jpg

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 minutes ago, Suite Snob said:

I'm not an apologist for Royal's Landside Operations, not one bit.  And I totally agree with your premise.  However, I just don't know how much clearer Royal can be, I just don't get the confusion:

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/how-do-i-figure-out-when-to-get-pre-cruise-covid-19-test

That website is very clear, but the thread was started due to a phone call which gave a different answer.  Therefore, Royal is being inconsistent.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 minutes ago, Atlantix2000 said:

That website is very clear, but the thread was started due to a phone call which gave a different answer.  Therefore, Royal is being inconsistent.

And that's why I stated that I'm not a big fan of Royal's Landside Operations.  Their training of the "Phone Answerers" really sucks, too many <wrong> opinions and not enough facts.  Yes, the Phone Answerer is a representative of Royal's and therefore Royal is inconsistent, to say the least.  My opinion is based upon people's unwillingness to go into Royal's FAQ to get documented evidence of their policies and their FAQ seems to be fairly robust, although far from perfect.  I've not been able to find some things when others have and visa versa.  It really depends on how you word your question/query.  

To me, it wasn't clear that you were talking about a phone call, the original post.  Your post was basically about people's own definition of 48 hours vs. 2 days and then software.    I'm sorry if I misunderstood you!

When I have what I think is a very important question to me about a policy of Royal's, I do a search of their FAQ and IF I find the answer, I'll do a Snip of that page and save it to my cloud.  It came in handy in Seattle last May when the security person in the Terminal wanted to confiscate my Drone because he said it was not allowed on Roya's ships.  I had the FAQ in my phone to show to him because what I thought was going to happen, DID.  I was given the Drone back by the guy's supervisor.  But, I took it upon myself to find an answer.  I usually don't ask a question, in here, about Royal's policies without trying to fine it in Royal's FAQ first.  

Someone in here once said that they don't understand why the "Phone Answerers" just don't refer people or themselves to the FAQ portion of Royal's site.   I totally agree!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

54 minutes ago, Suite Snob said:

To me, it wasn't clear that you were talking about a phone call, the original post.  Your post was basically about people's own definition of 48 hours vs. 2 days and then software.    I'm sorry if I misunderstood you!

I guess the part I left out was the idea that the phone representative could be looking directly at Royal's FAQ, see the words "two days" clearly written, and then still say "48 hours" because they truly believe it means the same thing.  I don't know how to fix that problem.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes.  I was the original poster here.  I was on a call dealing with another issue, and while she was waiting on someone she mentioned it to me. I told her I knew about the requirements, and she said, unsolicited, that with my 10:30 arrival time I should not test before noon on Saturday “to be safe”.  During our arrival each person that looked at our forms said the date, Jun 25, aloud as they inspected the test results paper.  Pretty sure they are trained to do so; as it was consistent.  They never once said Jun 25 12:30 am. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...