(Covid Testing) When EXACTLY does "2 days before" start

[Jim_Iain]

8 minutes ago, D C said:

I'm really not, Rick. 

I just have DW wanting to take the test ASAP so she knows whether or not to pack on Thursday.  I've yet to risk throwing out the "You're not REALLY going to wake me up at midnight to shove a q-tip in my nose, are you?" question, because I know the answer. 🤣

 

Another option would be like us on our first cruise.    I bought a 2 pack on non-monitored tests and we tested 2 day before the proctored test.   It also helped us understand the process so we didn't screw it up on the monitored test. 

[PTC DAWG]

29 minutes ago, D C said:

I'm really not, Rick. 

I just have DW wanting to take the test ASAP so she knows whether or not to pack on Thursday.  I've yet to risk throwing out the "You're not REALLY going to wake me up at midnight to shove a q-tip in my nose, are you?" question, because I know the answer. 🤣

Just do the testing early in the morning 2 days before the cruise...

[PTC DAWG]

29 minutes ago, D C said:

I'm really not, Rick. 

I just have DW wanting to take the test ASAP so she knows whether or not to pack on Thursday.  I've yet to risk throwing out the "You're not REALLY going to wake me up at midnight to shove a q-tip in my nose, are you?" question, because I know the answer. 🤣

Just do the testing early in the morning 2 days before the cruise..I'm assuming that's Thursday...problem solved.  

[jwlane]

Trying to make rocket science out of something its not....

[RichYak]

1 hour ago, D C said:

So they process in UTC and translate to your provided location.  So if neither the port time zone nor my time zone comes into play, I could presumably change my location to London and take the test before going to bed on Wednesday...

Based on my one experience that I mentioned upthread, you wouldn't need to change your location to London. I didn't. I just took the test and the pdf result returned UTC which is 4-5 hours later than Eastern time. However, the result in the Navica app would showed my local time.

 

See my Navica screenshot and pdf from email below:

 

Edited January 26, 2022 by RichYak
Added screenshots

[PTC DAWG]

57 minutes ago, jwlane said:

Trying to make rocket science out of something its not....

No joke.  

[LGW59]

18 hours ago, D C said:

So if you and I both took our tests at 12:01 am Eastern time, mine would be valid and yours not? 

Jeez it's 2 days already, how many ways can you be answered!  12:01 am on Thursday is considered 2 days before Saturday.

[deliver42]

The hours mean nothing, just the days.

[Arizona Wildcat]

Thursday,  Friday,  Saturday. 

[kenb]

6 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

Another option would be like us on our first cruise.    I bought a 2 pack on non-monitored tests and we tested 2 day before the proctored test.   It also helped us understand the process so we didn't screw it up on the monitored test. 

That is exactly what we plan to do. We are flying into FLL 2 days before our Saturday cruise. We will do an unmonitored test the day before we get on our flight. If it is positive, we stay home. If it is negative we fly to FLL and take the test at FLL airport.

[RichYak]

23 minutes ago, deliver42 said:

The hours mean nothing, just the days.

The hours mean something if you take the test at 12:01am on Thursday Eastern Time for a Saturday sailing but the result says you took it at 9:01pm on Wednesday because the email comes from west coast. That's the point of this thread.

[RichYak]

1 hour ago, LGW59 said:

12:01 am on Thursday is considered 2 days before Saturday.

But 12:01am on Thursday where I live is considered 3 days before Saturday where @Jim_Iain lives 😇

[kenb]

1 minute ago, RichYak said:

But 12:01am on Thursday where I live is considered 3 days before Saturday where @Jim_Iain lives 😇

This whole discussion is making my head ready to explode!!!!   LOL!!!!!

 

[RichYak]

5 minutes ago, kenb said:

This whole discussion is making my head ready to explode!!!!   LOL!!!!!

 

Listen, this video explains it perfectly. 🤣

 

 

[markeb]

This is why UTC exists...

 

😆

[Denny01]

Early on in this thread, I responded with what was called out as being more than a bit snarky…….yup, my post was. No help at all. 

 

So I went back and looked at the email eMed set me after we did our tests to see the specific dates and times utilized. Our cruise on the Apex departed 20 Nov ‘21. I took the test on Thursday, 18 Nov ‘21 2 days prior to our departure and took it at 8:00pm Central Time US, being in the Florida Panhandle. 

 

My test email came to me dated Thursday, 20:21 (8:21pm) 18 Nov ‘21. On the attached PDF form, the test results date was in UTC, Universal Time and was noted as 02:21 19 Nov ‘21 which would be very early Friday morning Universal Time. 

 

So I assume the date the Terminal check-in teams are looking for is the time on the PDF test result report and that was set in UTC time, and in my case, 6hrs later than my local time. 

 

Hope that helps beyond my snark réponse. 

 

Den 

[D C]

1 hour ago, markeb said:

This is why UTC exists...

 

😆

In which case, Thursday would begin on Wednesday evening. 

 

It's 5:00 somewhere! 

[Denny01]

The Form:

 

 

 

 

[papaflamingo]

12 hours ago, RichYak said:

The hours mean something if you take the test at 12:01am on Thursday Eastern Time for a Saturday sailing but the result says you took it at 9:01pm on Wednesday because the email comes from west coast. That's the point of this thread.

The test uses UTC time and it's time stamped on the results.  Where the email comes from is irrelevant. 

[jwlane]

16 hours ago, RichYak said:

The hours mean something 

Wrong.  ZeroDay is cruise day.  1Day.  2Day= Test Day.  Nothing to do with hours.

[PTC DAWG]

The date is all they are going to look at.  Is it two days before?  

 

I don't get all the consternation...who wants to take a test at midnight anyways?  Just take it in the morning 2 days before cruise.  

Edited January 27, 2022 by PTC DAWG

[Denny01]

Some of us feel the need to defend some post that has been trashed, but I held off because the back-and-forths are usually useless and quickly go South. But……hehehe. 

 

My #11/12 posts about ‘absolutely’ was in response to a requirement made that is impossible to meet. And the question of what is 2 days and the earliest time to test had been answered 3 or 4 times. 2 days prior to departure date.

 

I believe early on, Celebrity had stated ‘48hrs’ which then legitimately begged the question ‘within 48hrs from when?’. From departure or from check-in, or whatever and departure times were changing. They clarified it by stating within 2 days, not counting departure day.

 

We now see the date/time on the forms shown the personnel has the UTC date/time which means you can test anytime Thursday, Friday, Saturday just as is obvious…..or if you are Really into testing as ‘absolutely’ as early as possible, maybe you think you can subtract your local time difference between UTC and local, which for Michigan, is 5 hrs for this season, or anytime after 7pm Wednesday local and it will show up Thursday, 2 days prior to a Saturday cruise. So there is an ‘absolute’?

 

Nope, that really isn’t an ‘absolutely’ earliest time. If you check in and that one person wants to be a real pain (could have used lots of other ‘words’) and can do MIP (Math In Public) they may say ‘Oh this shows 0100 Thursday UTC which is really Wednesday for your location, so this was taken Wednesday and is too early. Sorry. No Cruise for you!!’. Is that going to happen? Of Course not, but so much for ‘Absolutes’. 

 

Den

Edited January 27, 2022 by Denny01

[RichYak]

2 hours ago, jwlane said:

Wrong.  ZeroDay is cruise day.  1Day.  2Day= Test Day.  Nothing to do with hours.

I'll say this again. You're answering a question that wasn't asked. We all understand Celebrity's date math, that the test date needs to say Thursday (any time on Thursday) for a Saturday sailing. There's no need to regurgitate it.

 

Just because you don't understand the question doesn't mean I'm wrong. Plenty of others in this thread have figured out what was asked.

[RichYak]

6 hours ago, papaflamingo said:

The test uses UTC time and it's time stamped on the results.  Where the email comes from is irrelevant. 

Agreed.

[LGW59]

20 hours ago, Arizona Wildcat said:

Thursday,  Friday,  Saturday. 

2 days before Saturday is Thursday, no matter what calendar or time zone