Lines for Norwegian Encore Covid testing Ugly!

[Tradewinds4u]

Just watched a YouTube video of today's pre boarding Covid testing being held at the Marriott across the street. Lines a quarter of a mile long and then a wait for results and then wait again to embark. Uhghh!!

[Tradewinds4u]

This was for NCL Encore August 7th

[OCruisers]

Thanks for the warning!

[The Traveling Man]

18 hours ago, Tradewinds4u said:

Just watched a YouTube video of today's pre boarding Covid testing being held at the Marriott across the street. Lines a quarter of a mile long and then a wait for results and then wait again to embark. Uhghh!!

Could you provide a link to that video?

[Tradewinds4u]

14 hours ago, The Traveling Man said:

Could you provide a link to that video?

 

[The Traveling Man]

7 hours ago, Tradewinds4u said:

 

WOW !!!  Thanks for posting, but let's hope that NCL and Eurofins get their act together before next Saturday's departure.

[Tradewinds4u]

I have high hopes for smoother sailing. Sailing Aug 28th see you there!

[Brian V]

Saw the same video yesterday - wonder if people were showing up early and overwhelming the system, or was the system just not up to the task?

 

Sure hope they get their stuff together by our sailing on September 4th!

 

 

[NCLer57]

I haven't heard or seen anything about the 8/14 cruise testing.  Did it go without a hitch?

[www3traveler]

3 minutes ago, NCLer57 said:

I haven't heard or seen anything about the 8/14 cruise testing.  Did it go without a hitch?

From what was reported<yes it did.  Move to the Convention Center side of the Bell Street Terminal.  No issues were reported.

 

[wacruiselover]

There is another video - this one from the 8/14 sailing. Looks like NCL has learned a lot from the first sailing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta1gICULB2M

Edited August 17, 2021 by wacruiselover

[Shellbelle28]

Reports are that the following sailing had testing done in the conference center in Bell Street pier and was much, much better.

[davencl]

That's an "old" video from Aug. 7th.  Procedures changed and Aug. 14 had no issues.  Hope my process to board this Saturday is smooth.

[Brian V]

1 hour ago, Shellbelle28 said:

Reports are that the following sailing had testing done in the conference center in Bell Street pier and was much, much better.

Good news indeed 🙂 One less thing to stress about for the next 16 days!

[Cruiseaholic07]

We were the test dummies for testing. Hopefully the Ketchikan and Wards Cove situation is better than ot was for is as well

[BirdTravels]

1 hour ago, wacruiselover said:

There is another video - this one from the 8/14 sailing. Looks like NCL has learned a lot from the first sailing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta1gICULB2M

 

1 hour ago, Shellbelle28 said:

Reports are that the following sailing had testing done in the conference center in Bell Street pier and was much, much better.

 

48 minutes ago, davencl said:

That's an "old" video from Aug. 7th.  Procedures changed and Aug. 14 had no issues.  Hope my process to board this Saturday is smooth.

While NCL has ultimate responsibility for the testing debacle on 8/7, they hired Eurofins to do their testing. That is the same company that does onboard testing for Royal Caribbean.

 

Eurofins should have been fired for the total screw up on 8/7. 

 

Eurofins was told to be prepared to test 2700 embarking passengers. They set up 12 test station and 2 special testing stations. Do the math. 2700 / 12 stations / 5 hours = 45 tests an hour per station. That equates to each station needing to administer a test every 1.3 minutes. And assumes a steady flow of passengers over the 5 hour period. Total fantasy on the part of the testing vendor. 
 

To compiicate things, the Eurofins server kept crashing, so they could not register passengers, could not record results, and could not check results to clear passengers on to the ship. 

[PattyWinters503]

Since aug 7 they have since updated the experience

 

honestly

I was tested and on board within a hour. So not everyone had this experience  

[Cruiseaholic07]

48 minutes ago, minnievanmommie said:

Since aug 7 they have since updated the experience

 

honestly

I was tested and on board within a hour. So not everyone had this experience  

I'm with you there. We had our appointment at 10. And we were onboard by noon. I spent more time in line then waiting for results.

[Seattle_Guy]

On 8/9/2021 at 1:15 AM, Tradewinds4u said:

 

Haha - happy to see my video getting some exposure lol. I heard the same thing that 8/14 was a TON better. Headed to the port again Saturday, this time to GET ON!! woo hoo

[Tradewinds4u]

Did not know you took this video but I'm told it made it back to NCL and may have contributed to the improvements. Bravo my friend!!!😊

[Cruiser021421]

24 minutes ago, Tradewinds4u said:

Did not know you took this video but I'm told it made it back to NCL and may have contributed to the improvements. Bravo my friend!!!😊

it’s not like NCL didn’t see what happened first hand.

[maggieq]

Question, can’t you test prior to boarding elsewhere and show proof at check in?

[Old & Retired]

6 hours ago, jcu1210 said:

We were the test dummies for testing. Hopefully the Ketchikan and Wards Cove situation is better than ot was for is as well

Doubtful.  Ward Cove is a poorly planned money grab by NCL.  No matter what 'improvements' are made, the average passenger is losing hours standing in line, bus rides, etc while sailing to 'Ketchikan'.

[davencl]

40 minutes ago, maggieq said:

Question, can’t you test prior to boarding elsewhere and show proof at check in?

No

[OBSESSIVEWORLDTRAVELER]

I wonder how well this will go at Manhattan Cruise Terminal. Manhattan is a zoo on normal cruise days.