Bermuda Escape Cruises - insights, information, and more just on Bermuda

[MRGACRUZR]

9 minutes ago, Still traveling said:

It is is 9:00a.am. Monday morning. We leave for Bermuda in exactly 17 hrs. and 

HAVE HAD NO REPLY FROM OUR BERMUDA APPLICATION FORM??

They say it is pending. Now what do we do?

Wife having hysteria/husband cursing---

You may want to check your clocks. Boston is in the same time zone as Georgia and it's just after 8:00AM here.

Edited June 14, 2021 by MRGACRUZR

[bluesea777]

10 AM here now (Bermuda). We are on ADT.

 

[Triptkr]

Saturday: Applied for Authorization on @ 10am right after we got our test results. 

Sunday: Husband got his approval at 6pm.

Monday: ...and nothing for me.  Called and waited on hold for about 10 min, once the line was answered it was done and completed in less than a minute.

 

Lots of babysitting going on around here...Verifly, Viking, Bermuda Authorization.   

[Respbj]

I applied on Saturday for my Bermuda travel authorization but call them Sunday night at 6:30 PM EST. The woman said the had a new system put in but they were back up. I gave her my Bermuda authorization # and she said I should receive a response in 10 minutes but I got my approval before the 10 minutes was up. You need to print out 2 copies and sign/ date them and have them ready to present to the authorities when we land. I would say if you haven’t got your yet you better call!

[cadburysmom]

18 minutes ago, Triptkr said:

Saturday: Applied for Authorization on @ 10am right after we got our test results. 

Sunday: Husband got his approval at 6pm.

Monday: ...and nothing for me.  Called and waited on hold for about 10 min, once the line was answered it was done and completed in less than a minute.

 

Lots of babysitting going on around here...Verifly, Viking, Bermuda Authorization.   

Congrats on your approval!

 

Interesting your husband heard back yesterday but not you.  Glad your call worked...a nail-biter for sure

[Clay Clayton]

Pardon this interruption from an Iceland cruiser. 
 

When did Viking notify you of the need to use the Verifly app to upload your vaccine information?  How did you receive this request?

 

Thanks!

[Triptkr]

1 minute ago, Clay Clayton said:

Pardon this interruption from an Iceland cruiser. 
 

When did Viking notify you of the need to use the Verifly app to upload your vaccine information?  How did you receive this request?

 

Thanks!

We got notification via email from Viking about the Verifly app and detailed instructions on how to download.  The download process went smoothly for us, the 'hearing back within 24 hours'...not as smooth.  We got this email June 7 for our June 15 cruise.

[Azulann]

4 minutes ago, Triptkr said:

We got notification via email from Viking about the Verifly app and detailed instructions on how to download.  The download process went smoothly for us, the 'hearing back within 24 hours'...not as smooth.  We got this email June 7 for our June 15 cruise.

Good to know I did not miss it. So I will look for  Viking email about a week before my sail date of July 13

[angelhelly]

For those who did their Covid testing and got it in the Saturday, can you give some insight of what you did?

I am in Southwest Suburbs of Chicago, and all I can see is CVS with a PCR/NAAT test.. But I have a feeling it would be the NAAT About Now test, which would not be approved.

 

Any insight would be appreciated. 

[Triptkr]

11 minutes ago, angelhelly said:

For those who did their Covid testing and got it in the Saturday, can you give some insight of what you did?

I am in Southwest Suburbs of Chicago, and all I can see is CVS with a PCR/NAAT test.. But I have a feeling it would be the NAAT About Now test, which would not be approved.

 

Any insight would be appreciated. 

We used CVS Minute Clinic...it was a PCR, they send it to a lab.  I included a screenshot of the specific test type.

 

We also used Quest Diagnostics through Walmart.  We heard back from both within 24 hrs and heard back from Quest quicker than CVS.  (They were within an hour of each other.)

Edited June 14, 2021 by Triptkr

[WanderingBrit]

10 minutes ago, angelhelly said:

For those who did their Covid testing and got it in the Saturday, can you give some insight of what you did?

I am in Southwest Suburbs of Chicago, and all I can see is CVS with a PCR/NAAT test.. But I have a feeling it would be the NAAT About Now test, which would not be approved.

 

Any insight would be appreciated. 

This is where I plan to get our PCR tests done, in Downers Grove

https://covidtestingdownersgrove.com/schedule-appointment-today/

 

[Ragnar Danneskjold]

Here’s how Celebrity handled the two pax that tested positive on-board, first I’ve heard of how any line planes to handle this situation:

 

“Celebrity will be paying for the two guests to be taken home on a private plane, according to a representative for Royal Caribbean Group.“

[Jim Avery]

27 minutes ago, Ragnar Danneskjold said:

Here’s how Celebrity handled the two pax that tested positive on-board, first I’ve heard of how any line planes to handle this situation:

 

“Celebrity will be paying for the two guests to be taken home on a private plane, according to a representative for Royal Caribbean Group.“

Wow!  Hope I test positive in the last test onboard.  Private jet,  Woo-Hoo!!  Might even let Ragnar fly with us....  If the plane has enough lifting capacity as well as enough drink onboard....🍸

[Ragnar Danneskjold]

I’m not sure how Celebrity is pulling this off, because you cannot enter the US by plane, commercial or private, without a negative covid test.  The only exception is a hospital to hospital transfer.

 

I looked into this when researching medical evacuation insurance.

[molymoo]

49 minutes ago, angelhelly said:

For those who did their Covid testing and got it in the Saturday, can you give some insight of what you did?

I am in Southwest Suburbs of Chicago, and all I can see is CVS with a PCR/NAAT test.. But I have a feeling it would be the NAAT About Now test, which would not be approved.

 

Any insight would be appreciated. 

 

When we booked all information pointed to a three day limit on the testing prior to arrival in Bermuda.  With an abundance of caution we booked appointments for July 3 (Saturday) with Urgent Care Vitality which has several sites in the Chicago area.  We will go to the Naperville site and pay $300 for a PCR test that will yield results in 8 hours.  

 

https://www.vitalityurgentcare.com/covid-19-pre-travel-testing/?testing=Pre-Travel

 

It was expensive but at the time we were concerned about getting an appointment on a Saturday that was essentially on a "holiday weekend".  Worth the cost ... we'll be good to go.

 

[oakridger]

Port of Bermuda right now!  Isn't she lovely?!!!

 

[CCWineLover]

4 hours ago, Triptkr said:

We used CVS Minute Clinic...it was a PCR, they send it to a lab.  I included a screenshot of the specific test type.

 

We also used Quest Diagnostics through Walmart.  We heard back from both within 24 hrs and heard back from Quest quicker than CVS.  (They were within an hour of each other.)

Triptkr -  Where are you located?

What was the cost for Walmart and for CVS?  Did they originally say 1-4 days?  (like ours).

 

And now we have the mess that is Bermuda authorization using a brand new system and having to babysit that.  One more stress level.  !!

[Triptkr]

24 minutes ago, CCWineLover said:

Triptkr -  Where are you located?

What was the cost for Walmart and for CVS?  Did they originally say 1-4 days?  (like ours).

 

And now we have the mess that is Bermuda authorization using a brand new system and having to babysit that.  One more stress level.  !!

Cost was covered by our insurance for both...as far as I know.  If I get billed later I'll be happy to pay it as we don't have any rapid pcr same day testing options available to us so this was our only choice unless we wanted to drive 2.5 hours away and for sure pay several hundred dollars.

 

CVS - https://www.cvs.com/minuteclinic/covid-19-testing/

On that website for CVS it says '1-2 days' and that has held true for us.  I would recommend doing a dry-run if you can.  I know this is a gamble but we did get tested about 3 or so weeks ago and scheduled the test as if we had 3 days to test (because at that time, that's what we were being told by Viking and of course the government site was 5 days so we went with the worst case scenerio).  So we got tested on Saturday morning and my husband got his results within 12 hours, I got mine within 24.   When we tested on Friday (4 days out) we both got our results within 24 hours from CVS.

 

Quest Diagnostics - https://www.cvs.com/minuteclinic/covid-19-testing/

We didn't do a dry-run with Quest.  Good experience, you'll notice that they say on their website that results are typically available the next day...which is what we experienced.

 

I hope this helps you.  I agree, planning this trip has been one thing after another.  I'm really hoping that once we get there that we'll all be able to relax and it will be a good experience. 

[CCWineLover]

2 hours ago, Triptkr said:

I hope this helps you.  I agree, planning this trip has been one thing after another.  I'm really hoping that once we get there that we'll all be able to relax and it will be a good experience. 

Thank you so much.  This whole timing thing has put a real stress level.

And now, hearing from the June 15 people, about Bermuda not getting back to them on the authorizations - people having to call them just to find out what's happening?   It all seems to be working out, but there seems to be nothing but new roadblocks, oddities, and lack of urgency on items out of our control, which affect whether we make the ship or not.  Never seen anything like it - and certainly not what we anticipated!

[CCWineLover]

3 hours ago, Triptkr said:

CVS - https://www.cvs.com/minuteclinic/covid-19-testing/

On that website for CVS it says '1-2 days' and that has held true for us.  I would recommend doing a dry-run if you can.  I know this is a gamble but we did get tested about 3 or so weeks ago and scheduled the test as if we had 3 days to test (because at that time, that's what we were being told by Viking and of course the government site was 5 days so we went with the worst case scenerio).  So we got tested on Saturday morning and my husband got his results within 12 hours, I got mine within 24.   When we tested on Friday (4 days out) we both got our results within 24 hours from CVS.

 

Quest Diagnostics - https://www.cvs.com/minuteclinic/covid-19-testing/

We didn't do a dry-run with Quest.  Good experience, you'll notice that they say on their website that results are typically available the next day...which is what we experienced.

 

 

Triptkr:   The CVS site says it does the PCR/NAAT test.  Is this the kind accepted by Bermuda?  I seem to remember someone on a forum saying NAAT wouldn't be accepted.  Or is NAAT just a form of PCR Test?  From the Bermuda site is says eactly:  "Test type must be a PCR test. (Note: The COVID-19 PCR test cannot be an antigen or antibody test. It must be a PCR test.) "

So confusing!

We do have 1 CVS clinic 40 miles away and some slots available so I might try that if we knew Bermuda accepted the results.

 

The Quest URL you stated is the CVS URL (sorry!)

[What was that?]

20 minutes ago, CCWineLover said:

Triptkr:   The CVS site says it does the PCR/NAAT test.  Is this the kind accepted by Bermuda?  I seem to remember someone on a forum saying NAAT wouldn't be accepted.  Or is NAAT just a form of PCR Test?  From the Bermuda site is says eactly:  "Test type must be a PCR test. (Note: The COVID-19 PCR test cannot be an antigen or antibody test. It must be a PCR test.) "

So confusing!

We do have 1 CVS clinic 40 miles away and some slots available so I might try that if we knew Bermuda accepted the results.

 

The Quest URL you stated is the CVS URL (sorry!)

PCR is a NAAT test but not all NAAT tests are PCR tests. 

[CCWineLover]

2 minutes ago, What was that? said:

PCR is a NAAT test but not all NAAT tests are PCR tests. 

Thanks!  I just googled that and found it.  So confusing!!

[bafinegan]

A person on the June 15 cruise just posted this on another social media site.  Looking like we will be able to self explore!

[MarkBearSF]

Interesting that St Georges is a tender port. I recall, when we visited in 1998 on the Zenith, we docked there. And a NCL ship docked there with us, lined up along the pier (Norwegian Destiny or Majesty)

Edited June 15, 2021 by MarkBearSF

[What was that?]

13 minutes ago, bafinegan said:

A person on the June 15 cruise just posted this on another social media site.  Looking like we will be able to self explore!

I have already sent an inquiry to Viking via my TA for confirmation.