Inspire online tests

[Artcricket]

Looking for information on how early to order my Inspire online test kits to be able to reserve early test times 2 days before embarkation. We are sailing out of Boston on June 24th and will test on Wednesday. Also to those who have done the TA for Bermuda there are conflicting views. When uploading the TA form early - I think you can do it 30 days in advance - do you upload it with your vaccine cards or wait until 2 days before so you can upload Covid results and vaccine cards at the same time. Thanks in advance to Bermuda travelers who have already gone through this process. 

[JGmf]

There's about 100 threads on this.

 

Did this in December and just last month in April.

 

In short: order from Inspire no later than 21 days out to ensure an early morning, 2 days prior, testing time....just in case something goes wrong.  (You get to sign up for a testing time when you pay for your test).  On that same day, go ahead and pay your $40 to Bermuda and upload your vax card.  Finally, start your dining and show bookings on NCL.

[ChiefMateJRK]

I chose the eMed option in part because it doesn't require an appointment and there are multiple reports of little or no wait time.  They're also cheaper.

[cfelbab]

I have to say that the Inspire test process (recommended by NCL in the letter they sent a month or so before the cruise) was a complete CLUSTER. It seemed like it would be easy. You sign up for a time slot and enter all the info about you and in my case my spouse ahead of time. Well I signed in for the time slot I was scheduled for and after sitting in an empty zoom room for an hour I started to figure something was wrong. I tried to call them for help and they would not answer the phone. The phone line literally kept saying press 1 to talk to an agent and if you pressed on it would simply repeat the request to press 1 for an agent. If you pressed anything else it hung up. After about 30 minutes of that with the zoom window open and still nobody getting in the call, I was getting pretty frustrated as we were leaving for the airport early the next AM for the cruise and I did not want to fly to MIA without a negative result and try to get rested at the pier. Finally, I did some google searches and found a number for the parent company of Inspire and they did ANSWER that phone. That "helpful" person offered me the same number to try to call. I told him I was not falling for that and asked her to conference me in with that number. She tried the number multiple times and got the same infinite loop.  She said, "that's odd they are like right downstairs form me". At that point, I suggested she go downstairs and find me a human to talk to. Eventually she agreed to do that and after about three hours of back and forth I finally got a human to witness the test. A complete customer service disaster. So be careful if you use them.

[DaisyGoldberg]

They ship them 2-day UPS (even though they offer you an expensive "rush" option).

 

As suggested, open that account and the Bermuda Travel Auth account at the same time (you'll need the passport info for both). Upload the vaccination stuff to BTA, then when you finally get the results you can quickly upload them.

 

I got into the port line with my vaccination card and printouts of the inspire test result and the Bermuda Authorization document tucked into my passport and clutched in my hand. That way, anybody who needed to see any of them could do so quickly, no fumbling with phones. Phones may be easier for some things, but when screening thousands of people, paper is faster for screeners. If you're the organized type, do it for everybody in your party and hand each their packet in line. 

 

Smooth sailing!

[Artcricket]

Thank you all for the information. My daughter told me I had to wait to upload my vaccination card after I got the - hopefully - negative Covid test results. I had read others posting that they uploaded the vaccine cards when they applied for the TA to Bermuda. 

[DaisyGoldberg]

Bermuda appears to want you to do them separately, opening up the file in advance so that two days before all you need is the test result. NCL keeps contradicting them saying "do it at the same time!"

 

I did mine a week ahead of time, got the confirmation and case #, and multiple reminders to be sure to upload the results when they came in. Contrary to NCL's "it might be rejected if you submit separately" scare letters, the Bermuda folks seemed extremely organized and not the least bit discouraging about uploading the items separately. Each communication reminded me that I needed to upload the test results on that specific date, and provided the link to do so. It was all automated, so this is clearly the way they expect it done (or one way they expect it done)

 

My sister waited and did it all same day. Her covid test was 7 am. Mine was noon. I had my complete documents within a couple of hours and she got hers much later in the day even though her test was 5 hrs earlier than mine. I think they probably go in order of case number, since they can "move" cases faster if the only thing they're looking at is one item (the covid test result) as opposed to everything else.

[DaisyGoldberg]

Here's the language from BDA after I submitted the initial information:

 

Bermuda Travel Authorisation (By Sea) (Cruise Passenger) Note

Dear Traveller,

You have successfully submitted your travel authorisation application.

If you have applied within 4 days of departure and uploaded your pre-travel test/vaccine certificate, your application will be reviewed between 9am and 8pm to ensure that the pre-arrival test/vaccine certificate you have uploaded meets Bermuda's valid test requirements as outlined here.

• If you have applied MORE than 4 days prior to depature - you will receive an REMINDER email 4 days prior to depature with a link to upload your documents - Pre-Test and Vaccine Certificate.
• Once your application is approved, you will receive an email with a link to your Travel Authorisation document.
• If your application is rejected, you will be notified as to why it was denied.

 There will be a link in the  reminder email allowing you to return to your application to complete the document uploads.

[Artcricket]

Thank you again. Daisy which (if you did this) online Covid test did you do? There are eight of us and we are flying to Boston on Tuesday and will test on Wednesday morning. I guess, since we have 3 different rooms in the hotel I’m going to tell each group to order their tests so we don’t have a group of 8 waiting to test one at a time in 1 room. 

[Artcricket]

Daisy you are also the great writer who answered my questions about GV on another thread. Thank you again!