Using the Abbott tests before cruise

[Taclin01]

Hi, we set sail on 1/3 we are going to test on 1/1. Our flights are at 6:30 on Saturday morning to Florida. We were going to stay up late on Friday to take our tests around 12:15 in case there was a wait for someone to proctor it. What time zone are the proctors in? I don’t want to take the test at 12:15 am eastern time but have them

but in central time or pacific time zone. I know this is a weird question we just wanted to have everything completed before we went to bed that night! Thanks! 

[helen haywood]

Time zones don’t matter.  All they look at is the date.  The earliest you could take the test would be 12:01 am on the 1st.

[Turtles06]

17 minutes ago, Taclin01 said:

What time zone are the proctors in? I don’t want to take the test at 12:15 am eastern time but have them

but in central time or pacific time zone.

 

Apart from the good advice you received above, please don't expect the proctors to be in the United States.  It will likely already be well into the New Year for them.  🙂

[Jim_Iain]

Proctors are available 24 hours a day.   I've taken 6 tests so far and never had to wait more than 5 minutes.   As others stated most of the call centers are located off-shore and some of the agents are a little difficult to understand.    I found wearing headphones helped me hear them better.

[TomTN]

Just now, Turtles06 said:

 

Apart from the good advice you received above, please don't expect the proctors to be in the United States.  It will likely already be well into the New Year for them.  🙂

Yep, and  the same is likely true if you break your leg after midnight in the US and go to the emergency room. If a radiologist is needed they might be in Australia. If you live in Australia, and need a radiologist in the middle of the night that person could be in the US.

[TomTN]

2 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

Proctors are available 24 hours a day.   I've taken 6 tests so far and never had to wait more than 5 minutes.   As others stated most of the call centers are located off-shore and some of the agents are a little difficult to understand.    I found wearing headphones helped me hear them better.

It's amazing what hearing aids can do.  They can be professionally adjusted to help you hear where your ears fail.  Most men have trouble hearing high sounds.

If your headphones are adjustable  you can get some of the same effect by adjusting bass, treble, volume, etc.

[misslab]

We are on that same cruise and have to take our tests on Jan. 1 as well.  I read several places yesterday that there was a huge back up with proctors and people were trying for 2-3 hours to get online and get a proctor.  Apparently every individual has to do a separate test session, one family needed to test four people and spent the entire day trying to get it done.  I started following EMed on Twitter (they provide the proctors) and they did acknowledge the problem ("due to unprecedented demand...).  I really hope they get this fixed by next week.  I have been trying to find a back up plan for us locally and have come up with nothing so far, I think because it's a holiday.

[Jim_Iain]

8 minutes ago, misslab said:

We are on that same cruise and have to take our tests on Jan. 1 as well.  I read several places yesterday that there was a huge back up with proctors and people were trying for 2-3 hours to get online and get a proctor.  Apparently every individual has to do a separate test session, one family needed to test four people and spent the entire day trying to get it done.  I started following EMed on Twitter (they provide the proctors) and they did acknowledge the problem ("due to unprecedented demand...).  I really hope they get this fixed by next week.  I have been trying to find a back up plan for us locally and have come up with nothing so far, I think because it's a holiday.

Interesting indeed.   I haven't read about that but again I also was not trying to get tested with the rush of Holiday travelers.   Hopefully it will be back to normal when you test on Jan 1.

 

You can do a test call and see if you connect.   When you first connect it gives you an estimated time of when a protector will be available.   Mine said less than 1 minute.

[fsr44]

15 minutes ago, misslab said:

We are on that same cruise and have to take our tests on Jan. 1 as well.  I read several places yesterday that there was a huge back up with proctors and people were trying for 2-3 hours to get online and get a proctor.  Apparently every individual has to do a separate test session, one family needed to test four people and spent the entire day trying to get it done.  I started following EMed on Twitter (they provide the proctors) and they did acknowledge the problem ("due to unprecedented demand...).  I really hope they get this fixed by next week.  I have been trying to find a back up plan for us locally and have come up with nothing so far, I think because it's a holiday.

Hi.  We tested this morning (12/25) and neither of us had more than a five minute wait.  You do need to log in separately for each person but the whole process was smoother than expected.

[Jim_Iain]

13 minutes ago, TomBeckCruise said:

It's amazing what hearing aids can do.  They can be professionally adjusted to help you hear where your ears fail.  Most men have trouble hearing high sounds.

If your headphones are adjustable  you can get some of the same effect by adjusting bass, treble, volume, etc.

I agree that hearing aids that are properly tuned could be of assistance but in my case it as Indian gentleman that had an extremely strong Indian accent and would also talk in bursts.    When I said I can't understand you, he slowed down and corrected his pronunciation which really helped.

[helen haywood]

44 minutes ago, fsr44 said:

Hi.  We tested this morning (12/25) and neither of us had more than a five minute wait.  You do need to log in separately for each person but the whole process was smoother than expected.

If you have more than one device you can both take the test simultaneously.  We each did ours on our separate laptops (iPads and phones work too) at the same time to save time before hitting the road.

[chamima]

Does anyone know if the tests are for one adult and 2 small children can the tests all be done on one log in?

[cbfb]

1 hour ago, fsr44 said:

Hi.  We tested this morning (12/25) and neither of us had more than a five minute wait.  You do need to log in separately for each person but the whole process was smoother than expected.

Does that mean that my husband can do the test with the same proctor as soon as mine is complete? 

[TomTN]

1 hour ago, Jim_Iain said:

I agree that hearing aids that are properly tuned could be of assistance but in my case it as Indian gentleman that had an extremely strong Indian accent and would also talk in bursts.    When I said I can't understand you, he slowed down and corrected his pronunciation which really helped.

I wear hearing aids to watch movies made in Scotland, my heritage.  I can't follow their speech. England isn't a problem. Ireland is a small problem.

I have a business partner from India. After 24 years both of us have improved, his speech and my understanding.

[cbfb]

2 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

Proctors are available 24 hours a day.   I've taken 6 tests so far and never had to wait more than 5 minutes.   As others stated most of the call centers are located off-shore and some of the agents are a little difficult to understand.    I found wearing headphones helped me hear them better.

Do you know if the proctored tests are the same as the Abbott home tests without the proctor? I’m a little nervous about doing it correctly so may practice with the non proctored tests if they are the same, 

[helen haywood]

4 minutes ago, cbfb said:

Does that mean that my husband can do the test with the same proctor as soon as mine is complete? 

No.  You must log off and your husband will log in with a different account.  Or you can take them simultaneously on separate devices.

[Turtles06]

5 minutes ago, cbfb said:

Do you know if the proctored tests are the same as the Abbott home tests without the proctor? I’m a little nervous about doing it correctly so may practice with the non proctored tests if they are the same, 

They are the same except the reagent in the proctored kit is in a little eye dropper bottle, and I’ve read that it’s in a pipette in the non-proctored kit. 

[Turtles06]

8 minutes ago, TomBeckCruise said:

I wear hearing aids to watch movies made in Scotland, my heritage.  I can't follow their speech. England isn't a problem. Ireland is a small problem.

Hi Tom, happy holidays!

 

We watch movies and TV shows from Scotland, England, and Ireland with subtitles on!  🤣

[TomTN]

Just now, Turtles06 said:

Hi Tom, happy holidays!

 

We watch movies and TV shows from Scotland, England, and Ireland with subtitles on!  🤣

Same here.  More than using the aids.  Subtitles are pretty much correct. More than I can say about my hearing.

Happy holidays to you.  Glad to see you are traveling again.

[RichYak]

2 hours ago, Taclin01 said:

Hi, we set sail on 1/3 we are going to test on 1/1. Our flights are at 6:30 on Saturday morning to Florida. We were going to stay up late on Friday to take our tests around 12:15 in case there was a wait for someone to proctor it. What time zone are the proctors in? I don’t want to take the test at 12:15 am eastern time but have them

but in central time or pacific time zone. I know this is a weird question we just wanted to have everything completed before we went to bed that night! Thanks! 

My test results were provided in UTC time zone or Universal Coordinated Time.  Right now, that would be 5 hours ahead of EST,  6 hours ahead of CST, and 8 hours ahead of PST. Adjust accordingly during daylight savings time.

[cbfb]

14 minutes ago, Turtles06 said:

They are the same except the reagent in the proctored kit is in a little eye dropper bottle, and I’ve read that it’s in a pipette in the non-proctored kit. 

Thank you!!!

[cbfb]

19 minutes ago, helen haywood said:

No.  You must log off and your husband will log in with a different account.  Or you can take them simultaneously on separate devices.

Thank you!!!

[helen haywood]

10 minutes ago, RichYak said:

My test results were provided in UTC time zone or Universal Coordinated Time.  Right now, that would be 5 hours ahead of EST,  6 hours ahead of CST, and 8 hours ahead of PST. Adjust accordingly during daylight savings time.

You do not need to adjust time zones.  Your test result will have the time in the zone you are taking the test in.  They are not checking hours.  If a Friday is the earliest you could take the test you could take it at 12:01 am your time that Friday.

[RichYak]

1 hour ago, helen haywood said:

Your test result will have the time in the zone you are taking the test in.

Not true for me as my result was in UTC time zone. I guess my post wasn't clear enough.

 

I took my test around 8:40 am EDT. I received my result at 8:55 am via email and the time on the result said 12:55pm UTC. I could have taken the test at 8:01pm on the Wednesday before my Saturday cruise and the result would have come back with an after midnight Thursday morning date, which would have been accepted by X.

 

That said, would I intentionally try this in practice? No, I wouldn't unless I had enough crowd sourced confidence that they always use UTC time.

[wrk2cruise]

Here is the report from my test as viewed on the Navica app.   It's in the timezone I took the test.