Inspire at home testing

[acct1975]

When ordering the at-home proctored COVID tests through Inspire, how far in advance did you order them? I don't want to do it too early on the (very unlikely) chance that the requirement changes or to late and they don't' get delivered in time to take the tests. I'm know I sound a little crazy but I'm trying to have my 1st post-COVID cruise be as stress free as possible.

 

TIA

[dolphin1313]

16 minutes ago, acct1975 said:

When ordering the at-home proctored COVID tests through Inspire, how far in advance did you order them? I don't want to do it too early on the (very unlikely) chance that the requirement changes or to late and they don't' get delivered in time to take the tests. I'm know I sound a little crazy but I'm trying to have my 1st post-COVID cruise be as stress free as possible.

 

TIA

I ordered my test 8 business days before the day that I'm planning on taking the test.  If I'm not mistaken, their website says allow up to 5-7 business days for shipping.  That being said, I ordered my test on Monday 4/11 and received it today......so it took 2 days to ship it to me.

[acct1975]

4 minutes ago, dolphin1313 said:

I ordered my test 8 business days before the day that I'm planning on taking the test.  If I'm not mistaken, their website says allow up to 5-7 business days for shipping.  That being said, I ordered my test on Monday 4/11 and received it today......so it took 2 days to ship it to me.

Thanks, that helps give me a good range for timing 🙂 

[jimsig]

I ordered mine on Mon April 4 after the daily cutoff for shipping and still had them on Wed the 6th.

[styles27]

I had mine in 3 days. Ordered Monday received on Thursday. 

[dolphin1313]

2 hours ago, acct1975 said:

Thanks, that helps give me a good range for timing 🙂 

You're welcome.

[DaisyGoldberg]

There's an option to pay more for overnight but our two kits came via UPS 2-day service.

[JGmf]

I ordered a full 4 weeks prior so that when I registered I could get the best shot at the earliest time for proctored testing two days prior to sailing.  They don't have unlimited number of early slots.  Later in the day not as good.

 

Why try for early in the day for testing?

 

(1) So you can go with Plan B (panic appointment w/CVS, find a nearby testing center, etc.) just in case there's a snag with the test process or results; and (2) more importantly for us folks going to Bermuda, so you can upload your results to Bermuda officials as early as possible, providing greater assurance for the official Bermuda Authorization response and ultimately more tranquil peace of mind in the day or two prior to your cruise.

[screenname2004]

7 hours ago, dolphin1313 said:

I ordered my test 8 business days before the day that I'm planning on taking the test.  If I'm not mistaken, their website says allow up to 5-7 business days for shipping.  That being said, I ordered my test on Monday 4/11 and received it today......so it took 2 days to ship it to me.

What is the exp date for the kit? 

[dolphin1313]

6 hours ago, screenname2004 said:

What is the exp date for the kit? 

The expiration is April 2022 with an extended expiration until July 2022.

[styles27]

9 hours ago, JGmf said:

I ordered a full 4 weeks prior so that when I registered I could get the best shot at the earliest time for proctored testing two days prior to sailing.  They don't have unlimited number of early slots.  Later in the day not as good.

 

Why try for early in the day for testing?

 

(1) So you can go with Plan B (panic appointment w/CVS, find a nearby testing center, etc.) just in case there's a snag with the test process or results; and (2) more importantly for us folks going to Bermuda, so you can upload your results to Bermuda officials as early as possible, providing greater assurance for the official Bermuda Authorization response and ultimately more tranquil peace of mind in the day or two prior to your cruise.

I agree about the testing appt time.

An early testing appt is very important,  especially for those of us cruising to Bermuda (since we need to upload those results to the travel authorization website for approval.)
 

We booked our cruise 3 weeks ago for tomorrow on Pearl. 
First thing I did after booking the cruise was to order the tests from Inspire and make our test appt for yesterday at 8:30 am

(Second thing I did was register for our  TA on the Bermuda site, uploaded our vaccine cards and paid the $40)both things were done by 03/24/2022

We had our Inspire test results by 8:50 am yesterday and I had them uploaded to the Bermuda site by 9:00am

Bermuda sent our approval emails by 9:32am. So easy and quick and I know it’s because we did it early in the morning. 

Last week folks were reporting here that they were waiting on the phone for hours with the Bermuda health officials to get their approval. 
 

So for anyone cruising to Bermuda make your testing appointment as early in the morning as you can and get those results uploaded fast.

 

Our tests also showed an exp date of 04/2022 honestly the girl on the tele monitored call didn’t even ask us to show her the test, didn’t ask for our identification and didn’t stick around during the 10 min wait time for the results. She left and told us she would be back in 10 min. Anyone could switch out those tests and she would never have known. 
She was clearly working from home because her little kids kept coming up to her. The entire process was less than professional compared to when we used Emed (NAVICA) for our November cruise last year. 

 

[Sexydva74]

You can also order them from Optum (same test) and they arrive faster, I think.  We received ours two days after ordering.  

[PartOfYourWorld]

This may be a silly question but you can order tests all at once for your entire group even though we aren't all staying in the same room correct? There's 4 of us travelling together. Just easier to order them all at once. Then everyone would schedule individually.

 

Unfortunately no walgreens or cvs near us do the rapid tests or else I would have gone there. 

[styles27]

2 hours ago, PartOfYourWorld said:

This may be a silly question but you can order tests all at once for your entire group even though we aren't all staying in the same room correct? There's 4 of us travelling together. Just easier to order them all at once. Then everyone would schedule individually.

 

Unfortunately no walgreens or cvs near us do the rapid tests or else I would have gone there. 

You can order more than 1 test but you book your test appointment at the same time so you would have to know when everyone wants to test. 
For example I ordered the tests for my husband and me and we tested together during the same tele monitored session. The link was sent to my email. 
 

When you buy the test you register the names of the people taking the tests and then schedule the appts. 

[PartOfYourWorld]

25 minutes ago, styles27 said:

You can order more than 1 test but you book your test appointment at the same time so you would have to know when everyone wants to test. 
For example I ordered the tests for my husband and me and we tested together during the same tele monitored session. The link was sent to my email. 
 

When you buy the test you register the names of the people taking the tests and then schedule the appts. 

Thank you! So if I understood right if I buy them together we all have to test together at the same time? 

[styles27]

11 minutes ago, PartOfYourWorld said:

Thank you! So if I understood right if I buy them together we all have to test together at the same time? 

That’s how it was for us.

 

I’m not sure if you can go back in and create different profiles. I would ask them that first especially if you guys don’t live together. 

 

My experience was I had to register the names of the people that were taking the tests and then schedule the time. 

[PartOfYourWorld]

5 minutes ago, styles27 said:

That’s how it was for us.

 

I’m not sure if you can go back in and create different profiles. I would ask them that first especially if you guys don’t live together. 

 

My experience was I had to register the names of the people that were taking the tests and then schedule the time. 

Makes sense! 

 

Thanks again! I'll reach out and ask. Either that the one person who won't take the test with us I will just send him the link to have him get the test. 

[styles27]

3 hours ago, PartOfYourWorld said:

This may be a silly question but you can order tests all at once for your entire group even though we aren't all staying in the same room correct? There's 4 of us travelling together. Just easier to order them all at once. Then everyone would schedule individually.

 

Unfortunately no walgreens or cvs near us do the rapid tests or else I would have gone there. 

I just had another thought lol

Our health insurance reimbursed us for the cost of the tests. 
So the people you’re traveling with may want to order their own so they can submit that to their health insurance and you can do the same. 

[PartOfYourWorld]

13 minutes ago, styles27 said:

I just had another thought lol

Our health insurance reimbursed us for the cost of the tests. 
So the people you’re traveling with may want to order their own so they can submit that to their health insurance and you can do the same. 

That's awesome! I did not know that! Thank you! 

[JGmf]

I'm just reporting back for the general good...

 

I'm very happy with Inspire.

 

I ordered the Inspire test 4 weeks prior to the cruise to assure early sign-up and lock into a very early morning time slot.

 

I did the test this morning at 8:30 using my phone (having to follow prompts to download Zoom).  The proctor was great.  It took all of 13 minutes from start to finish.  Ten of those minutes were waiting while the proctor stepped away to handle another person. 

 

Thirteen minutes later I had my negative test result sent to me via a PDF form via text and also email.  Thereafter, I quickly uploaded the results as an attachment to Bermuda for their Travel Authorization process.  I'll also print the results for ease of boarding on Tuesday.

 

Anyway, I had no issues and am happy with Inspire.

 

That said, like you, I'm looking forward to the day when we don't have to do these *&(!@ tests anymore.