Bermuda Authorizarion

[princessajoanna]

Husband and I submitted our Covid test results and vaccine info last night just as the Bermuda Covid folks were closing but still haven’t heard anything as of 11am (12pm) their time. Should I be concerned? My last name on my passport is different than the last name on my cruise booking/Covid documents and I’m worried that will be a problem. Also my vaccine list is a print out from the department of health, not the normal card- so I’m doubly paranoid. 

[bluesea777]

36 minutes ago, princessajoanna said:

Husband and I submitted our Covid test results and vaccine info last night just as the Bermuda Covid folks were closing but still haven’t heard anything as of 11am (12pm) their time. Should I be concerned? My last name on my passport is different than the last name on my cruise booking/Covid documents and I’m worried that will be a problem. Also my vaccine list is a print out from the department of health, not the normal card- so I’m doubly paranoid. 

oh dear! Your last name on cruise booking has to be the same as the one on your passport!

Call NCL to have it changed. Then call/email BTA and have the last name changed.

If you can. Best of luck to you.

 

P.S. The print out from dept of health is good, better than handwritten card.

 

[styles27]

Definitely call the folks at the Bermuda tourism agency now. Someone on another thread reported that she had to call and the woman that helped her approved her application while on the phone. 
Your name definitely has to match your passport. Not sure how you can rectify that at this late hour. Hopefully someone at NCL can help you today but usually this late in the game everything has to be completed correctly. 
Good luck!

[styles27]

Just a thought. We don’t need passports for some itineraries so if your birth certificate matches your current name maybe use that  

Edited April 9, 2022 by styles27

[princessajoanna]

My birth certificate is my passport name. I got married and changed my name last year. I asked my NCL consultant if I could change it back in January and he told me it would be fine and just to bring my marriage certificate. 

[kjpn44]

2 hours ago, styles27 said:

Definitely call the folks at the Bermuda tourism agency now. Someone on another thread reported that she had to call and the woman that helped her approved her application while on the phone. 
Your name definitely has to match your passport. Not sure how you can rectify that at this late hour. Hopefully someone at NCL can help you today but usually this late in the game everything has to be completed correctly. 
Good luck!

Good luck with that. We submitted all our info. yesterday for a cruise tomorrow. Still no approval and my wife has been on hold for over two hours and just got disconnected. 

[njhorseman]

24 minutes ago, kjpn44 said:

Good luck with that. We submitted all our info. yesterday for a cruise tomorrow. Still no approval and my wife has been on hold for over two hours and just got disconnected. 

 Doubtless that is due to NCL's idiotic instructions to not submit your application until you have your negative COVID test in hand, which forces Bermuda's health officials to have to process large numbers of applications in the two days leading up to the cruise.

Bermuda permits, and in fact encourages you to submit the application up to 30 days in advance of embarkation. That gives them time to process all the information and in the two days leading up to embarkation they will only have to process the COVID test results. When you submit the application prior to having your test results Bermuda will send you a reminder email a few days before your cruise, with a link that allows you to upload the test results.

Someone needs to light a fire under the right person at NCL and get them to change the instructions on NCL.com .

[styles27]

28 minutes ago, kjpn44 said:

Good luck with that. We submitted all our info. yesterday for a cruise tomorrow. Still no approval and my wife has been on hold for over two hours and just got disconnected. 

I feel bad for people who leave on a Sunday cruise.
From what I’m hearing they are the ones having a hard time getting through to the Bermuda agency which probably has less employees working on these on the weekend. 

We cruise this Friday so our Covid test is with Inspire Diagnostics (the company NCL recommended) @ 8:30am on Wednesday.
I plan to upload the results by 9am and call them by mid afternoon if I don’t hear back before. But at least we have two weekdays for them to approve it. Wouldn’t want to deal with that on a Saturday that’s for sure. 
Good luck!  Let us know how your wife makes out. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you guys. 🤞

[styles27]

2 minutes ago, njhorseman said:

 Doubtless that is due to NCL's idiotic instructions to not submit your application until you have your negative COVID test in hand, which forces Bermuda's health officials to have to process large numbers of applications in the two days leading up to the cruise.

Bermuda permits, and in fact encourages you to submit the application up to 30 days in advance of embarkation. That gives them time to process all the information and in the two days leading up to embarkation they will only have to process the COVID test results. When you submit the application prior to having your test results Bermuda will send you a reminder email a few days before your cruise, with a link that allows you to upload the test results.

Someone needs to light a fire under the right person at NCL and get them to change the instructions on NCL.com .

Yes that’s what we did.
We booked this cruise two weeks ago and the first thing I did was register us on the Bermuda travel authorization site so we have accounts/application numbers and I’ve already received the confirmation email from them that our applications are on record and a reminder email will come 4 days before we need to take the Covid test (I received that email this morning). 
 

NCL really needs to change their instructions about that because it conflicts with what Bermuda is instructing us to do. 

I followed the Bermuda instructions since the fate of us going on this cruise is in their hands.
I’ll trust what they say to do over NCL. 

[kjpn44]

10 hours ago, styles27 said:

Yes that’s what we did.
We booked this cruise two weeks ago and the first thing I did was register us on the Bermuda travel authorization site so we have accounts/application numbers and I’ve already received the confirmation email from them that our applications are on record and a reminder email will come 4 days before we need to take the Covid test (I received that email this morning). 
 

NCL really needs to change their instructions about that because it conflicts with what Bermuda is instructing us to do. 

I followed the Bermuda instructions since the fate of us going on this cruise is in their hands.
I’ll trust what they say to do over NCL. 

 

Curious If you received your travel authorization?  Nervous waiting for approval, like you said “fate of us going on this cruise is in their hands”.  On hold with Bermuda again 😞

 

[styles27]

53 minutes ago, kjpn44 said:

Curious If you received your travel authorization?  Nervous waiting for approval, like you said “fate of us going on this cruise is in their hands”.  On hold with Bermuda again 😞

We cruise this coming Friday so we will upload our Covid results Wednesday morning and hopefully get the approval before Friday. 
 

Did you guys start the application process first and then upload your test results yesterday or did you do the entire process yesterday?

Edited April 9, 2022 by styles27

[1025cruise]

I'm on the pearl right now to Bermuda. I submitted my results around 10 on Wednesday and for my approval at 9.

[princessajoanna]

58 minutes ago, kjpn44 said:

Curious If you received your travel authorization?  Nervous waiting for approval, like you said “fate of us going on this cruise is in their hands”.  On hold with Bermuda again :(

Been on hold for 3 hours, 19th in the queue now, No authorizations yet for us or the couple were traveling with.

[kjpn44]

24 minutes ago, styles27 said:

We cruise this coming Friday so we will upload our Covid results Wednesday morning and hopefully get the approval before Friday. 
 

Did you guys start the application process first and then upload your test results yesterday or did you do the entire process yesterday?

Did everything yesterday.   Obviously that was a mistake lol.  

[kjpn44]

Down to #38 in queue!  Probably be #1 when they close at 8 pm!

[RunBikeCruiseDC]

Wishing you all the best!  Thanks for posting about this - I was wondering if we should hold off until closer to day but just applied for my travel authorization for 4/26 sailing.  Need to get my husbands vaccine info so I can register him!

[Nclgetawaymenhoney]

On another thread for celebrity and a couple of threads from ncl for last fall they said that there were people at the cruise terminal from Bermuda authority day of sailing helping with these issues. I’m sailing first week of May on ncl, so if you’ve already done the first partial, paid the 40, uploaded your vaccine certification, so then all you have to do 48 hours prior is upload the negative test I’m hoping it will work out fine, and if necessary as get help at the terminal Bermuda pocs for the rest, will be interesting to see for sailings tomorrow how things work out

[styles27]

1 hour ago, princessajoanna said:

Been on hold for 3 hours, 19th in the queue now, No authorizations yet for us or the couple were traveling with.

 

41 minutes ago, kjpn44 said:

Down to #38 in queue!  Probably be #1 when they close at 8 pm!

Someone who just returned from the first cruise 04/04 from Boston stated on their role call that many people arrived at the terminal without prior knowledge of the Bermuda travel authorization and Covid test requirement.
Hard to believe but there are those people out there. 
Anyway, he said that they had an area at the terminal where you could complete the Bermuda authorization and testing for a fee. 

Not ideal but if you can’t get this accomplished today hopefully they will have the same services at the terminal you’re departing from.
Maybe you can reach out to someone at the terminal today to confirm?
 

I wish everyone the best and I’m still keeping my fingers crossed for you all!

[styles27]

When you do get a person maybe mention that NCL has the wrong advisory  on their website concerning the application process.
The Bermuda health dept really needs to reach out to NCL and ask them to change their instructions to match what their website says. 
 

If it’s this bad now with the ships only having 1000 or so passengers imagine how horrible it will be as the passenger numbers increase. Bermuda is such a small country it’s not like they have hundreds of employees working on these applications. 

[princessajoanna]

OKAY I DID IT! 4 hours later i am off of the phone- here's my brief update: NCL told me that i was actually booked under the same name thats on my passport and that i should just bring my marriage certificate to match up with my covid test/vaccine info. The 4 hour part was waiting for Bermuda. When i finally got in, she asked for my application number and told me i was fine. Basically said they didn't care about the two names but said i should bring marriage certificate just in case. They approved me on the phone and they approved my husband for me as well. I did ask them to approve the couple were traveling with and they would not look them up but said they are working on tomorrows cruise approvals today and that they should be fine and not to bother calling because it would be a waste of their time. I'm just relieved to be approved. After the stress of today, this vacation feels well earned!!

[kjpn44]

2 minutes ago, princessajoanna said:

OKAY I DID IT! 4 hours later i am off of the phone- here's my brief update: NCL told me that i was actually booked under the same name thats on my passport and that i should just bring my marriage certificate to match up with my covid test/vaccine info. The 4 hour part was waiting for Bermuda. When i finally got in, she asked for my application number and told me i was fine. Basically said they didn't care about the two names but said i should bring marriage certificate just in case. They approved me on the phone and they approved my husband for me as well. I did ask them to approve the couple were traveling with and they would not look them up but said they are working on tomorrows cruise approvals today and that they should be fine and not to bother calling because it would be a waste of their time. I'm just relieved to be approved. After the stress of today, this vacation feels well earned!!

Thanks for the update.  I’m not hanging up now after 3&1/2 hours though lol.

[princessajoanna]

Just now, kjpn44 said:

Thanks for the update.  I’m not hanging up now after 3&1/2 hours though lol.

Yea, i def wouldnt. Even though they said people shouldnt call know- she did immediately approve me so if you've already started the process, see it through! Good luck!

[jimsig]

11 hours ago, princessajoanna said:

My birth certificate is my passport name. I got married and changed my name last year. I asked my NCL consultant if I could change it back in January and he told me it would be fine and just to bring my marriage certificate. 

As an FYI, not just for you but anybody in your situation,  In the end you are responsible for making sure your travel documents are correct and up to date for travel regardless of what an NCL rep or travel agent says.  Always check on the US State Department website and even the State Dept of the country/countries you are traveling to.  At the dock or airport telling them that your NCL rep or TA said it was fine won't work if the country you are traveling to doesn't accept a marriage certificate as proof as a name change.  One of the biggest things that gets people is not having enough time left on the validity of there passport.  Some countries won't let you in if you don't have at least 6 month left before your passport expires so the airline to avoid a fine won't allow you to fly.   NCL reps and TA deal with people going to a lot of different countries and may not be up on all requirements, though good TA's will check.  Always be safe. 

[Laurab23]

OK,so when they say upload your Covid negative test how do you do that? Not very computer literate so I don't understand a lot of this. 

 

Laura

[1025cruise]

You'll receive an email with a link to upload digital copies of your vaccination card and test.