Canadian Land Border crossing on return

[Canadian Mom Cruiser]

We are driving to and from Buffalo for our flight to Florida.

 

Does anyone  have recent experience on crossing the land border after a cruise? We are getting our PCR test onboard Royal.  We are curious how many are getting a “random” additional test crossing back into Canada?

 

Thanks in advance 

[flyingandcruising]

Ive also been wondering. They are discussing this here as well, check the last few pages.

 

 

[nickiford]

I haven't heard of anyone crossing the land border yet that has had to take a test and quarantine. It is definitely a possibility that it will start happening soon.

 

This thread listed above has lots of info,  we are waiting for more people to return.  I'm doing the same as you in February.  The other big concern now is that there have been reports of people getting the test on cruise ships and running into issues at the border because to cross back the land border it specifically states that you need to have been tested within the last 72 hours in the US.  It appears to be a few isolated incidents, other people have crossed with ship tests no problem.  

 

I'm waiting to hear on more reports before I make a decision on whether I will do the Royal test on board or wait until I get back to Buffalo and test there.

[rodndonna]

Not quite the same scenario, but I was taking to the woman who operates the boarding kennel this morning picking up our dog.

 

It wasn't after a cruise, but she and her husband were in Florida on holiday. She came back a week earlier. She had her test returning and no issues. A week later (last week) she drove back to Buffalo (short drive from here) to pick up her husband. She was now in the 'under 72 hour' case that does not require a test. She was a 'lucky' random winner for another test requirement. 

 

[DHLuCruise]

1 hour ago, rodndonna said:

Not quite the same scenario, but I was taking to the woman who operates the boarding kennel this morning picking up our dog.

 

It wasn't after a cruise, but she and her husband were in Florida on holiday. She came back a week earlier. She had her test returning and no issues. A week later (last week) she drove back to Buffalo (short drive from here) to pick up her husband. She was now in the 'under 72 hour' case that does not require a test. She was a 'lucky' random winner for another test requirement. 

 

Out of curiosity for that lucky test, did she have to quarantine until the results came back ?

[rodndonna]

13 hours ago, DHLuCruise said:

Out of curiosity for that lucky test, did she have to quarantine until the results came back ?

 

I didn't ask but I assume so. It would have been the day or 2 to get results, so she would have been done the quarantine when we met yesterday as this happened the week prior.

[jandjcruisers]

2 hours ago, rodndonna said:

 

I didn't ask but I assume so. It would have been the day or 2 to get results, so she would have been done the quarantine when we met yesterday as this happened the week prior.

I posted in another post that we returned from a cruise Monday night, Dec 13th, in Montreal.  We had been tested Saturday on the ship (negative).   When we arrived in Montreal I was pulled over and had to have a test even though my vaccinations showed I had the booster at the end of November.  I have to be fair though because I had trouble getting my test result into the ArriveCAN app so maybe that is why I was called over.   We were allowed to continue on to Ottawa and did not have to quarantine.  On Tuesday morning at home I was able to go to the website and see that my test from YUL was negative.  I hope in the future they won't start to quarantine people just because they had to have a test!  My paperwork was all in order and I had printouts of everything that I showed to them.  We are looking forward to cruising again in March.

[rodndonna]

19 minutes ago, jandjcruisers said:

I posted in another post that we returned from a cruise Monday night, Dec 13th, in Montreal.  We had been tested Saturday on the ship (negative).   When we arrived in Montreal I was pulled over and had to have a test even though my vaccinations showed I had the booster at the end of November.  I have to be fair though because I had trouble getting my test result into the ArriveCAN app so maybe that is why I was called over.   We were allowed to continue on to Ottawa and did not have to quarantine.  On Tuesday morning at home I was able to go to the website and see that my test from YUL was negative.  I hope in the future they won't start to quarantine people just because they had to have a test!  My paperwork was all in order and I had printouts of everything that I showed to them.  We are looking forward to cruising again in March.

 

I expect this may have been why as well. We were pleasantly surprised how easy the process was after landing for us since everything was in the ArriveCan app. We didn't have to show anything, just scan our passport !

 

Our test and vaccine documents were very closely examined in Florida twice before allowing us to check in and our boarding passes had a large red "DOCS OK' stamp on it as well.

Edited December 17, 2021 by rodndonna

[tottenhamfc]

I just went over the border last Monday for three hours in BC to Washington. Randomly selected for at home test by video link. Absolute nightmare. They use Microsoft teams and it has glitch issues with Mac for the camera. The whole exercise  took me four hours of my time to get tested. Very unhelpful Lifelabs, poor paperwork communication in abundance. The test itself is easy and the results took 21 hours to get back. It would be so much simpler to test at the border. The minute Govt gets involved, confusion is rampant. I understand the reasons why but the process is awful.

[Airbear232]

We've made two trips to US in last 3 months.  On each trip, my wife won the "random" lottery and had to have an additional test upon return.

[millybess]

On 12/16/2021 at 6:24 PM, DHLuCruise said:

Out of curiosity for that lucky test, did she have to quarantine until the results came back ?

We were randomly selected to do a Switch Health test when we reached the border after driving from Florida last month. We had a negative test from Walgreens 48 hours before. The Switch Health test is easy. It has to be completed within 24 hours of your arrival. It was done online with a nurse. Purolator picked it up off the front porch the next morning and we had the results 2 days later. No quarantine necessary. 

[tottenhamfc]

On 12/18/2021 at 1:05 PM, millybess said:

We were randomly selected to do a Switch Health test when we reached the border after driving from Florida last month. We had a negative test from Walgreens 48 hours before. The Switch Health test is easy. It has to be completed within 24 hours of your arrival. It was done online with a nurse. Purolator picked it up off the front porch the next morning and we had the results 2 days later. No quarantine necessary. 

You were lucky. BC Life Labs is a monopoly and an incompetent company. The testing is good but the admin and instructions are awful and complicated.

[millybess]

We also have Lifelabs here. They recently “upgraded” their website and it is abysmal at best. 

[GeriatricNurse]

10 hours ago, millybess said:

We also have Lifelabs here. They recently “upgraded” their website and it is abysmal at best. 

Yes, it now known as 'MyCareCompass' By LifeLabs.

 

It has been *upgraded* for quite some time and I have never experienced any 'issues' using the site!

 

Why, specifically, do you state that "it is abysmal at best"?

[snoope]

Unless you are sailing before January 5th, you wont be getting tested onboard to come home. Royal has cancelled that program.