Updated cdc recommends testing 2 days prior, not 3 days

[ontheweb]

10 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

 

I'm not forgetting the appeals court hasn't ruled on the appeal in any way. Or any future appeals. The case continues to be moot, because the cruise lines are following the CDC and science.

 

Just a matter of dominoes.

Correct me if I am wrong, but aren't you the one in post #71 in this thread that said there will be at least one ship classified as a gray ship, i.e. a ship not following the CSO? That would be a ship not following the rules because the rules are no longer the rules, but only requirements.🤦‍♂️

[BlerkOne]

3 minutes ago, kdr69 said:

havent heard of any cruise lines sailing out of florida that will be ignoring the CSO as of yet.

I recall some high dollar cruise line notified the CDC that one of their ships will make a port stop in the US and not following the quarantine cruise ships are supposed to do when they first port in the US. The CDC will flag the ship as grey. Otherwise they are following the CDC guidelines.

[BlerkOne]

Just now, ontheweb said:

Correct me if I am wrong, but aren't you the one in post #71 in this thread that said there will be at least one ship classified as a gray ship, i.e. a ship not following the CSO? That would be a ship not following the rules because the rules are no longer the rules, but only requirements.🤦‍♂️

I don't believe the cruise originates in the US, so is a different animal.

[BroadwayGirl]

37 minutes ago, BoozinCroozin said:

Do you have to buy the eMed BinaxNow for them to do the online video or just purchase any BinaxNow and you can use eMed? We only need 3 tests and would prefer buying them locally since they have to remain in a temperature range. 

You have to buy them from emed or I believe Optum rx sells them too. The test is packaged differently, licensed differently, and is not the one you can pick up at your local Walgreens etc for 23.99.  Emed needs to get paid somehow for their services…which is why you have to buy the one with proctoring included from them. 

[BlerkOne]

6 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

Correct me if I am wrong, but aren't you the one in post #71 in this thread that said there will be at least one ship classified as a gray ship, i.e. a ship not following the CSO? That would be a ship not following the rules because the rules are no longer the rules, but only requirements.🤦‍♂️

I was somewhat mistaken if the article is correct, and the ship should already be grey.

https://www.travelweekly.com/Cruise-Travel/Crystal-Cruises-breaks-with-CDC-order-on-Miami-cruises

 

As for CDC recommendations, common sense still mostly prevails. There is still a glimmer of hope for mankind.

[ontheweb]

14 hours ago, BlerkOne said:

The danger I see is letting some hack politician overrule science. It is moot because the cruise lines are operating as if it doesn't exist.

Yes and no as to it being moot. Yes, they are following the requirements as if they were recommendations; no there is still that precedent out there that they do not have to follow them. This could apply to more than just CDC regulations. It could apply to any regulatory agency when a judge decides he or she knows more than those who have made a career in their decision making field.

[jimbo5544]

On 8/28/2021 at 9:44 PM, Fredric22 said:

Seems like the CDC is now doing everything they can to stop cruising again without actually doing so. What an absolutely vile organization.  I truly hope the cruise lines fight back.  There is so much risk of COVID-19 exposure everywhere and the CDC decides to single out the one place where almost everyone is vaccinated AND tested!? There are no words.... 

Your assessment is correct.  It has been their mission since they started, hence the modifications to the cso.  And on ships that are omnly vaxed.

[jimbo5544]

1 hour ago, ontheweb said:

Yes and no as to it being moot. Yes, they are following the requirements as if they were recommendations; no there is still that precedent out there that they do not have to follow them. This could apply to more than just CDC regulations. It could apply to any regulatory agency when a judge decides he or she knows more than those who have made a career in their decision making field.

And probably do a better job.

[topaz123]

On 8/28/2021 at 11:29 PM, crzndeb said:

Yes, the future of Cruising.......

[jimbo5544]

Just now, topaz123 said:

Yes, the future of Cruising.......

Cruising is in a much better place now than 6 months ago, despite the CDC

[tm_aw_love]

The thing that doesn't make any sense to me is that the guidelines are more strict for Vaccinated individuals. Unvaccinated can be tested 3 days out, but vaccinated have to be 2 days out... WTH?

[sushitex]

I'm not making excuses for the CDC, but I read in another forum that the unvaccinated are allowed 3 days because they must take the PCR (NAAT) test, which takes longer to process. However, because the vaccinated are allowed to take the same test, should not they also be allowed 3 days, instead of 2?!

I am seeing a dearth of appointments for the antigen test every day online at my local CVS (non-existent, actually) and Walgreen pharmacies. It looks like our options for testing for our upcoming cruise on September 19th will be : 1. keep checking online in the hope that Walgreens or CVS will actually have availability for the day(s) we need to take the tests; 2. give up and order the 6-pack of home tests through eMed; or 3. do both. 

 

Option 3 it is! I just placed an order for the eMed test kits. We will still try to get appointments for the rapid tests, but I'm afraid that they may cancel any appointments we manage to snag. 

Edited August 30, 2021 by sushitex

[ProgRockCruiser]

25 minutes ago, tm_aw_love said:

The thing that doesn't make any sense to me is that the guidelines are more strict for Vaccinated individuals. Unvaccinated can be tested 3 days out, but vaccinated have to be 2 days out... WTH?

Because the unvaxxed get tested again, at the pier, and the unvaxxed have to get the (more accurate but longer turnaround) PCR test, whereas the vaxxed need only a single (rapid) antigen test.  They shortened the period to help weed out that one extra day of possibly testing positive.

 

There are rapid PCR / NAAT tests out there, but not as common as the 3-day turnaround version.

Edited August 30, 2021 by ProgRockCruiser
clarity

[firefly333]

3 minutes ago, sushitex said:

I'm not making excuses for the CDC, but I read in another forum that the unvaccinated are allowed 3 days because they must take the PCR (NAAT) test, which takes longer to process. However, because the vaccinated are allowed to take the same test, should not they also be allowed 3 days, instead of 2?!

I am seeing a dearth of appointments of the antigen test every day online at my local CVS (non-existent, actually) and Walgreen pharmacies. It looks like our options for testing for our upcoming cruise on September 19th will be : 1. keep checking online in the hope that Walgreens or CVS will actually have availability for the day(s) we need to take the tests; 2. give up and order the 6-pack of home tests through eMed; or 3. do both. 

 

Option 3 it is! I just placed an order for the eMed test kits. We will still try to get appointments for the rapid tests, but I'm afraid that they may cancel any appointments we manage to snag. 

I'm north of dallas and every appointment at my CVS was open. I'm surprised to hear corpus Christi has such a problem booking tests. Interesting to know. But I booked 3 days before. I sure hope they dont change it until after I get off vista. If I need to change it to 2 days, they do need to tell us soon.

[tm_aw_love]

2 minutes ago, ProgRockCruiser said:

Because the unvaxxed get tested again, at the pier, and the unvaxxed have to get the (more accurate but loner turnaround) PCR test, whereas the vaxxed need only a single (rapid) antigen test.  They shortened the period to help weed out that one extra day of possibly testing positive.

Vaccinated can take a PCR or Antigen... if they take a PCR the 3 days should still be reasonable. 

[sushitex]

1 minute ago, firefly333 said:

I'm north of dallas and every appointment at my CVS was open. I'm surprised to hear corpus Christi has such a problem booking tests. Interesting to know. But I booked 3 days before. I sure hope they dont change it until after I get off vista. If I need to change it to 2 days, they do need to tell us soon.

We are in a terrible surge of the Delta COVID-19 variant down here in Corpus Christi. Hospitals and the county drive-through testing clinics are swamped. Sure, we can pay up to $190 for each test if we want to go through a drive-through (and not lie about being symptomatic) but we don't want to do any of those things. Our consciences won't let us tell fibs, so we are choosing to pay for the eMed tests. Waiting for approval right now from eMed.  (I think they are writing up the necessary prescriptions.)

 

We still will try to get the free antigen tests at Walgreen's or CVS, as long as they allow us. We have other cruises booked in late October and in the winter, so those eMed home tests will be used eventually. 

[firefly333]

1 minute ago, sushitex said:

We are in a terrible surge of the Delta COVID-19 variant down here in Corpus Christi. Hospitals and the county drive-through testing clinics are swamped. Sure, we can pay up to $190 for each test if we want to go through a drive-through (and not lie about being symptomatic) but we don't want to do any of those things. Our consciences won't let us tell fibs, so we are choosing to pay for the eMed tests. Waiting for approval right now from eMed.  (I think they are writing up the necessary prescriptions.)

 

We still will try to get the free antigen tests at Walgreen's or CVS, as long as they allow us. We have other cruises booked in late October and in the winter, so those eMed home tests will be used eventually. 

I too have other cruises past vista, which is why I'm interested lol. We are swamped too as far as hospital beds, just havent heard of problems getting a CVS appointment.  Until I have my negative test, it's hard not to worry. 

 

I sure dont want to go the emed way. I'm not tech enough I'm comfortable with doing it that way. If getting tested gets that bad .. people will just quit booking. 

[BroadwayGirl]

18 minutes ago, sushitex said:

I'm not making excuses for the CDC, but I read in another forum that the unvaccinated are allowed 3 days because they must take the PCR (NAAT) test, which takes longer to process. However, because the vaccinated are allowed to take the same test, should not they also be allowed 3 days, instead of 2?!

I am seeing a dearth of appointments for the antigen test every day online at my local CVS (non-existent, actually) and Walgreen pharmacies. It looks like our options for testing for our upcoming cruise on September 19th will be : 1. keep checking online in the hope that Walgreens or CVS will actually have availability for the day(s) we need to take the tests; 2. give up and order the 6-pack of home tests through eMed; or 3. do both. 

 

Option 3 it is! I just placed an order for the eMed test kits. We will still try to get appointments for the rapid tests, but I'm afraid that they may cancel any appointments we manage to snag. 

 

Testing is a point in time...no tests at the pier for the vaccinated so they are tightening the window and cutting out a day where one could be negative and board the ship 3 days later positive. Stressful but I get it. 

 

We ended up ordering the emed kits last night. We have an Oct cruise and a Nov cruise. We'll be covered for both and have 2 extras just in case.  We found it worth it to just have the kits and not stress over a CVS rapid appt getting cancelled and scrambling which we went through this weekend for a work exposure. That's what really drove us to the emed route.   And emed was cheaper than if we both had to get tested at some of the urgent cares or rapid results places that are charging for guaranteed quick travel results around here.  Just that much less stress. We can now test on Friday night and know our results for our Saturday travel day before Sunday boarding. 

[sushitex]

I guess that I am relying on the guy who blogs for Royal Caribbean - he posted an article about how easy and stress-free it was to take the monitored test through eMed. I also have been reading a lot of the posts concerning the monitored tests here and in the Royal Caribbean blog forums (hope they don't kick me off CC for mentioning them, lol.) So far, the reviews have been mostly positive. 

[BroadwayGirl]

3 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

I too have other cruises past vista, which is why I'm interested lol. We are swamped too as far as hospital beds, just havent heard of problems getting a CVS appointment.  Until I have my negative test, it's hard not to worry. 

 

I sure dont want to go the emed way. I'm not tech enough I'm comfortable with doing it that way. If getting tested gets that bad .. people will just quit booking. 

We've got no issues of getting appointments here in the Northeast either. I can go on CVS right now and book one...but actually having the appointment happen and not get cancelled has been the issue. CVS and Walgreens have been canceling rapids left and right due to no supplies. We had that problem over the weekend and scrambled.  Just because you can make an appointment doesn't mean they have the supplies. That's what I don't want to run into for the cruise. 

[GTO-Girl]

14 minutes ago, sushitex said:

 

We still will try to get the free antigen tests at Walgreen's or CVS, as long as they allow us. We have other cruises booked in late October and in the winter, so those eMed home tests will be used eventually. 

I am reading these kits have an expiration date so I am worried about that also.  Would love to use them for our sailings in Nov, Jan., and March

[sammee]

5 minutes ago, BroadwayGirl said:

We've got no issues of getting appointments here in the Northeast either. I can go on CVS right now and book one...but actually having the appointment happen and not get cancelled has been the issue. CVS and Walgreens have been canceling rapids left and right due to no supplies. We had that problem over the weekend and scrambled.  Just because you can make an appointment doesn't mean they have the supplies. That's what I don't want to run into for the cruise. 

I'm in NJ to and hearing the same. I'm going to try for an appt at Hackensack Meridian.

[sushitex]

If you go to the eMed website, there's a little blurb in there somewhere which states that the FDA has extended the expiration date, and even a link to the actual letter from the FDA to the company. People are posting that there is a sticker on or in the shipping box that states the same information about the extension.

[BroadwayGirl]

2 minutes ago, sammee said:

I'm in NJ to and hearing the same. I'm going to try for an appt at Hackensack Meridian.

We ended up in Whiting and Jackson after scrambling for PCRs yesterday after our CVS rapids were cancelled. I'm not too far from you.  I just don't want the stress before the cruise.

[sammee]

2 minutes ago, BroadwayGirl said:

We ended up in Whiting and Jackson after scrambling for PCRs yesterday after our CVS rapids were cancelled. I'm not too far from you.  I just don't want the stress before the cruise.

Where are you from? I'm in Whiting. Where did you end up getting one?