Precruise Covid Testing

[tennislvr8]

Sailing on Oasis 7/8 was having difficulty scheduling a test with Walgreens and CVS. I now understand they are times only show 3 days at a time. Before that, I asked a question in our FB group and a few have suggested using the free Covid tests from the government and a virtual monitoring company other than emed. Does anyone have any experience with this, will Royal accept this? TIA

[seapad]

You should review RCL's website: health protocol. It states that proctored tests are accepted, and provided guidance how to purchase or proceed. 

[seapad]

Also the free at home Covid test that you can schedule AND PAY separately....so it's really not free after all. It's only the Covid kit itself is free, but you do have to pay for the proctored portion. However, there have been numerous reports that it's really difficult to get an appointment, You can look into onpoint.com for this. 

Your best bet and most reliable is the Emed test, which does not require appointments, and available 24/7

[OCSC Mike]

22 minutes ago, tennislvr8 said:

Sailing on Oasis 7/8 was having difficulty scheduling a test with Walgreens and CVS. I now understand they are times only show 3 days at a time. Before that, I asked a question in our FB group and a few have suggested using the free Covid tests from the government and a virtual monitoring company other than emed. Does anyone have any experience with this, will Royal accept this? TIA

 

What is the difficulty scheduling a test with Walgreens or CVS? If you have them in your area and they offer rapid tests, you just have to wait a bit longer to schedule them.

[deliver42]

I live in S.C., but Walgreens has a 7 day schedule. On our last cruise, last month, almost every day and time were open.

[molly361]

Our Walgreens is only 3 days but last Sunday I looked and could have gotten tested that same afternoon.  They are not filling up like they used to

[OCSC Mike]

1 minute ago, deliver42 said:

I live in S.C., but Walgreens has a 7 day schedule. On our last cruise, last month, almost every day and time were open.

 

It's currently 7 days? It was 7 days out everywhere until a couple days ago when they switched to 3 days out in multiple states. Last time they did this (right before my last cruise), it was nationwide, though it didn't last long before they went back to 7 days.

[rjrpar]

We live in Eastern Pa. And our local CVS is scheduling only 3 days out but have many appointments available each day.  Seems like an easy option. 

[OCSC Mike]

6 minutes ago, rjrpar said:

We live in Eastern Pa. And our local CVS is scheduling only 3 days out but have many appointments available each day.  Seems like an easy option. 

 

Allentown... my wife is a Mule. 😁

[tennislvr8]

I realized the 3 day thing after asking. I am going to do walgeens or cvs. I was really asking to see if what was shared was true. 

[OCSC Mike]

13 minutes ago, tennislvr8 said:

I realized the 3 day thing after asking. I am going to do walgeens or cvs. I was really asking to see if what was shared was true. 

Yes, it is true that you can use tests you got for free proctored online from 3rd party sites.

[wallyj]

3 hours ago, tennislvr8 said:

Sailing on Oasis 7/8 was having difficulty scheduling a test with Walgreens and CVS. I now understand they are times only show 3 days at a time. Before that, I asked a question in our FB group and a few have suggested using the free Covid tests from the government and a virtual monitoring company other than emed. Does anyone have any experience with this, will Royal accept this? TIA

I believe trying to add ‘ proctoring’ to the ‘free government test specifically the iHealth tests is no longer available. I remember reading something like they said this option is discontinued with no timeframe for it to resume. If you try the link to try and add proctoring it says ‘sold out’ as you had to book an appointment.

 

Here in So California, Walgreens does not seem to be offering ‘rapid’ tests (I checked for availability within 3 or 7 days), but do offer PCR, same with CVS, I found only one CVS about 15 miles away saying they still did rapid, all others say no appointments but PCR testing readily available. 
 

I asked in April at one of my local CVS minute clinics and was told because the Govt funding was not renewed was the reason the ‘rapid’ testing was being dropped.

 

So Walgreens and CVS rapid testing seems to depend on your States funding in addition to the Government as it appears it is still available in some States and not others.

[taymiss2]

We are have appointments  scheduled to use the government tests in two days, our cruise is this Friday.  I had to go back to the website a few times because they were sold out.  I think I was trying to book to far in advance was the problem.   I think the website is rapid text and trace or something like that.

I did a random test this morning just to relieve my anxiety that I might randomly be positive.  Gotta make it through one more day with out catching Covid from any patients at work.  Made it two and a half years so I think my chances are good that I will be fine. Just my luck though. Fingers crossed.  I should have just taken this whole week off. Ha

[BirdTravels]

5 hours ago, seapad said:

Also the free at home Covid test that you can schedule AND PAY separately....so it's really not free after all. It's only the Covid kit itself is free, but you do have to pay for the proctored portion. However, there have been numerous reports that it's really difficult to get an appointment, You can look into onpoint.com for this. 

Your best bet and most reliable is the Emed test, which does not require appointments, and available 24/7

 

5 hours ago, tennislvr8 said:

Sailing on Oasis 7/8 was having difficulty scheduling a test with Walgreens and CVS. I now understand they are times only show 3 days at a time. Before that, I asked a question in our FB group and a few have suggested using the free Covid tests from the government and a virtual monitoring company other than emed. Does anyone have any experience with this, will Royal accept this? TIA

We have used eMed for all of our cruises. Fast. Easy. Efficient. Results in your email inbox within a few seconds of showing the proctor the negative result. And yes, when we submit the receipt to our insurance company, they pay 100% of the test cost, so eMed (test plus bundled proctoring) is free to us. 

[bren61]

I just ordered the free tests from USPS for our upcoming cruise in September, they just came in & I was really disappointed that they have an expiration date of August. I was trying to order them ahead of time in case they took awhile to come, well now they aren't going to work for our cruise. I may have to have a neighbor place an order at the end of August since there is a limit per household. Geez, I just wish they would just drop the whole testing thing, it's really become a hassle to cruising. I didn't mind before, but with mostly everyone being vaccinated now, it shouldn't be made mandatory unless you are unvaccinated (just my opinion).

[Sunshine3601]

22 hours ago, wallyj said:

I believe trying to add ‘ proctoring’ to the ‘free government test specifically the iHealth tests is no longer available. I remember reading something like they said this option is discontinued with no timeframe for it to resume. If you try the link to try and add proctoring it says ‘sold out’ as you had to book an appointment.

 

Here in So California, Walgreens does not seem to be offering ‘rapid’ tests (I checked for availability within 3 or 7 days), but do offer PCR, same with CVS, I found only one CVS about 15 miles away saying they still did rapid, all others say no appointments but PCR testing readily available. 
 

I asked in April at one of my local CVS minute clinics and was told because the Govt funding was not renewed was the reason the ‘rapid’ testing was being dropped.

 

So Walgreens and CVS rapid testing seems to depend on your States funding in addition to the Government as it appears it is still available in some States and not others.

Does walgreens in so cal have the rapid naat test?  If yes, that works.  That is what we have been using for cruises.  Get results in less 1 hr.

[OCSC Mike]

12 minutes ago, bren61 said:

I just ordered the free tests from USPS for our upcoming cruise in September, they just came in & I was really disappointed that they have an expiration date of August. I was trying to order them ahead of time in case they took awhile to come, well now they aren't going to work for our cruise. I may have to have a neighbor place an order at the end of August since there is a limit per household. Geez, I just wish they would just drop the whole testing thing, it's really become a hassle to cruising. I didn't mind before, but with mostly everyone being vaccinated now, it shouldn't be made mandatory unless you are unvaccinated (just my opinion).

Many tests were granted an additional 3 months beyond the expiration date printed on the package. Google it. Your tests may actually be good until November.

 

That said, my preference is also the Walgreens NAAT test mentioned above if available to you.

Edited June 29, 2022 by OCSC Mike

[bren61]

1 minute ago, OCSC Mike said:

Many tests were granted an additional 3 months beyond the expiration date printed on the package. Google it. Your tests may actually be good until November.

Thank you Mike, I will check it out. I know they did that before with the Emed tests, but didn't know if that still applied to all tests.

[OCSC Mike]

4 minutes ago, bren61 said:

Thank you Mike, I will check it out. I know they did that before with the Emed tests, but didn't know if that still applied to all tests.

I don’t know either. I did recently check on some iHealth (orange & white box) tests we had lying around that were dated June-something & those were granted the additional 3 months.

 

Glad to help.

[bren61]

9 minutes ago, OCSC Mike said:

Many tests were granted an additional 3 months beyond the expiration date printed on the package. Google it. Your tests may actually be good until November.

Just googled it Mike and you were right, thank you! The tests I got were iHealth Covid-19 Antigen Rapid Test and here is what they say:

 

ROCHESTER N.Y. (WHEC) — The expiration date for some iHEALTH brand COVID-19 antigen testing kits has been extended.

If the kit has an expiration date on or before Sept. 29, 2022, the new expiration date is extended by three months. For example. If you have kit that expires on October 1, the new expiration date is January 1. 

 

[bren61]

2 minutes ago, bren61 said:

Just googled it Mike and you were right, thank you! The tests I got were iHealth Covid-19 Antigen Rapid Test and here is what they say:

 

ROCHESTER N.Y. (WHEC) — The expiration date for some iHEALTH brand COVID-19 antigen testing kits has been extended.

If the kit has an expiration date on or before Sept. 29, 2022, the new expiration date is extended by three months. For example. If you have kit that expires on October 1, the new expiration date is January 1. 

 

So now I just have to make an appt with onpoint testing to have it proctored (I think it's $10). I hope it's easy, this stuff stresses me out when I'm not familiar with it.

[bren61]

Walgreens is also my 1st choice, but have these as a back up. Rumors are that our local Walgreens may stop doing them & CVS already did.

[OCSC Mike]

17 minutes ago, bren61 said:

Walgreens is also my 1st choice, but have these as a back up. Rumors are that our local Walgreens may stop doing them & CVS already did.

 

Glad to hear the tests are still good if you need them.
 

Those tests are our backup backup. Both Walgreens & CVS still offer rapid tests here & we need to test in about 2 weeks.

 

 

[wallyj]

1 hour ago, Sunshine3601 said:

Does walgreens in so cal have the rapid naat test?  If yes, that works.  That is what we have been using for cruises.  Get results in less 1 hr.

Unfortunately, in So Cal, Walgreens is NOT offering rapid antigen or rapid NAAT. Both CVS and Walgreens in So Cal offer the PCR tests but we know results can take days, not hours. 
 

I see On Point is a third party site that will add ‘proctoring’  to any approved ‘at home’ test, so the ‘free’ tests from the Govt would qualify. The price to add proctoring on their website said it was $14.99. 
 

Many of the ‘free’ Govt tests were from iHealth and I do not think you can get proctoring from them anymore, but it seems you can use On Point.
 

I am not familiar with this company but think I saw a few threads regarding if their tests were accepted as they also sell a bundle of the tests and proctoring, in case you do not already have your own.