Brits Embarking QM-2 In New York

[Kristal Blade]

37 minutes ago, Se1lad said:

My experience from the recent 1st May eastbound TA may help you.  Obviously requirements for Cunard are subject to change at short notice.  
 

I booked a Fit To Fly Antigen Test With Observation from Medicspot for £19.99.  With a coupon code I found by searching the internet this came down to £16.50.  
 

Cunard were happy with the test being performed any time in the previous 2 days, so for a Sunday departure I was ok to do it anytime on Friday.  If I recall, test appointments were available any time between 9am and 6pm UK time.

 

Test was done over zoom, both myself and my travelling companion were able to do the test on the same zoom session -  I did this on my iPad with no problem.  They told me the certificate could take up to 2 hours, but it arrived within 5 minutes.

 

Now that sounds like an ideal solution! I will need to do a bit of counting on my fingers to work out the timings so that we aren’t testing in the early hours of the morning.

Big thanks, Se1lad. 
Did you have to print out the certificate or could you just show it on your iPad?

[RJChatsworth]

Bloom Labs walk-in, mid-town looks good at cost of $75pp.  This wasn’t, I don’t think, on the Cunard useless list for Brits.  
 

ace2542 you need the observed test if boarding QM-2 in NY to return to UK if you had flown out to USA.

[Se1lad]

5 hours ago, Kristal Blade said:

Now that sounds like an ideal solution! I will need to do a bit of counting on my fingers to work out the timings so that we aren’t testing in the early hours of the morning.

Big thanks, Se1lad. 
Did you have to print out the certificate or could you just show it on your iPad?

I printed it out - I expect that showing it on an iPad would be fine as other people were doing this at the terminal.  The certificates come through as a pdf attachment to the email, I would recommend installing Acrobat Reader on your iPad and making sure the files are downloaded to your iPad before getting to the terminal.  Alternatively, your hotel reception will probably print them for free if you ask them nicely!

[Kristal Blade]

1 hour ago, Se1lad said:

I printed it out - I expect that showing it on an iPad would be fine as other people were doing this at the terminal.  The certificates come through as a pdf attachment to the email, I would recommend installing Acrobat Reader on your iPad and making sure the files are downloaded to your iPad before getting to the terminal.  Alternatively, your hotel reception will probably print them for free if you ask them nicely!

I could also do a screen shot of the forms. That way I won’t need wifi at the terminal to access them.

Thanks to all the suggestions on this thread I am feeling less anxious now, but this is the first holiday I have had when am not looking forward to going. I wouldn’t have booked if I had known what a hassle this was going to be. 

[RJChatsworth]

Just looked at Medicspot fit-to-fly observed test and that looks a goer too.  With Blooms I now have two different ways of meeting the Cunard requirement.  Thanks to everyone who responded to my first post in this matter.  I hope more appropriate tests come to light in time.

 

Thanks Krystal for your input.  Your predicament seemed as bad as it could get!  I hope you post how you get on.  I grew up and went to school in Tavistock so interested in how the neighbours succeed.

[Kristal Blade]

13 minutes ago, RJChatsworth said:

Just looked at Medicspot fit-to-fly observed test and that looks a goer too.  With Blooms I now have two different ways of meeting the Cunard requirement.  Thanks to everyone who responded to my first post in this matter.  I hope more appropriate tests come to light in time.

 

Thanks Krystal for your input.  Your predicament seemed as bad as it could get!  I hope you post how you get on.  I grew up and went to school in Tavistock so interested in how the neighbours succeed.

Thanks RJ,

We are going to try Medicspot. I emailed them and they responded really quickly to let me know they will post out our tests as soon as we order them so we will get them well in advance of our departure to Vegas. That will be in a couple of weeks!

 

I will definitely comment on the process and hopefully success!

 

Tavistock is our favourite place to go clothes shopping. Way better than Plymouth. I’ve visited the school lots of times professionally, but now I just pass by when we walk the canal. 
 

Good luck with your tests. I really hope Cunard gets a whiff of this post and realises how upset passengers are with their pathetic pre boarding test info. 

[RJChatsworth]

Thanks Kristal.  I was there when it changed from grammar to comprehensive giving my age away!  A once student prank was to throw the rugby posts into the canal.

[frankp01]

2 hours ago, Kristal Blade said:

we will get them well in advance of our departure to Vegas

If you're heading to Vegas, keep in mind the tests have to stay relatively cool. Make sure they're not in your luggage sitting out in the sun!

[Kristal Blade]

2 minutes ago, frankp01 said:

If you're heading to Vegas, keep in mind the tests have to stay relatively cool. Make sure they're not in your luggage sitting out in the sun!

Yikes! I hadn’t even thought of that.

2 steps forward, 1 step back…

[RJChatsworth]

Hi Kristal.  Anymore news about a test in New York before embarking QM-2?  I read that there are free observable lateral flow test stalls or places on street corners near Times Square.  That makes me nervous as nothing comes free these days.  Someone must be paying for them?!  
 

I still favour Bloom Labs even though the cost is $75 pp.

[Kristal Blade]

3 hours ago, RJChatsworth said:

Hi Kristal.  Anymore news about a test in New York before embarking QM-2?  I read that there are free observable lateral flow test stalls or places on street corners near Times Square.  That makes me nervous as nothing comes free these days.  Someone must be paying for them?!  
 

I still favour Bloom Labs even though the cost is $75 pp.

Hi RJ,

We have bought the Medicspot tests and are going to take them with us. That is a bit of a pain because we need to test in Denver on Saturday morning. However, we needed to pick a U.K. time to match that. I hope my calculations are right. Apparently we do the test by Zoom. I will post to let everyone know how that goes. Assuming they haven’t baked in our cases!! See Frankp 01  comment above for that new worry.

 

I read about the on street free tests. Seems a bit too good to be true. We arrive in New York about 8pm on the Saturday and leave about noon to head to the “ferry” on Sunday morning. I’m not sure the turnaround time on these tests would be fast enough. 

I’m still not sleeping properly, my head just buzzes with “what ifs” at night. So annoying. We used to be so blasé about hopping on planes and cruise ships.

 

We are flying BA so had to download the VeriFLY app. It’s just one form after another with the same questions. 
 

Good luck with your tests.

 

oh, another annoyance, involving Tavistock. We ordered $$ from Tesco, click and collect. The website said our nearest pick up was Tavistock. Not the big Tesco store at Roborough. So, we duly turned up at the designated time on Friday to be told they hadn’t arrived!! Still not in and we leave on Thursday this week. Any pennies we saved by getting them from Tesco is now wasted on petrol going to and from Tavistock!! 
 

Hope your planning is going better than mine.

[RJChatsworth]

Thanks for the update Kristal and look forward to more.  Sorry to learn about the abortive trip to Tavistock.  Just been staying at Crowne Plaza (hope I’m able to say that) with a great meal at the Village down the Barbican.  
 

[Kristal Blade]

7 minutes ago, RJChatsworth said:

Thanks for the update Kristal and look forward to more.  Sorry to learn about the abortive trip to Tavistock.  Just been staying at Crowne Plaza (hope I’m able to say that) with a great meal at the Village down the Barbican.  
 

The Village always delivers a great meal! When I was teaching we would go there and get free wine cos we taught the kids of the owners. Happy days.

[Kristal Blade]

A little update on our journey to USA.

We had a doctor carry out the nose swab on us the day before our flight. This was at a special clinic in a shopping mall. The swab was done really gently. Afterwards I said to my husband that when I do a test to myself I jab the swab up higher and swoosh it round much more vigorously!

Anyway, we had negative results within half an hour. I added the info to my VeriFLY app by printing out the result info from the clinic then taking a photo of it in the VeriFLY app. That was all acceptable to BA when we checked in at LHR.

 

Nobody asked to see our Covid paperwork when we landed in Vegas. 
 

More news when we have to do our pre boarding Covid test in Denver.

[RJChatsworth]

Thanks for update Kristal and look forward to how you get on with QM-2 pre-embarkation test in Denver before flying to New York and boarding.

[Kristal Blade]

Tomorrow is the big day on our Covid test by Zoom.

I will let you know how it goes in 12 hours….

[cpc3639]

29 minutes ago, Kristal Blade said:

Tomorrow is the big day on our Covid test by Zoom.

I will let you know how it goes in 12 hours….

Thank you. I’ll be interested. We have booked a zoom for boarding in Vancouver 

[Kristal Blade]

Okay, we have done our tests and both negative.

Medicspot did us a great service. So long as you work out your timings re U.K. time to your location it is fine. We had to do our test at 8am Denver time, which is 3pm in U.K. We were able to stand together so the observer could see both of us testing simultaneously.

 

There is a bit of faffing around after the test, but take it slow, make sure you have your 6 digit code to hand before the test and have your passport ready to show on the Zoom screen. After the test wait 15 minutes, take a photo of your result thing then just follow the instructions on your screen. 
 

They say you will get the result within 2 hours. Ours were with us in less than 10 mins. 
 

So a big thank you to everyone here for tips and hints for our testing. We definitely recommend Medicspot and will use them again for our next trip. In our dreams testing will be over soon!

 

Good luck to those of you who need to test soon. 

[Host Hattie]

I'm glad to hear it went well, Bon Voyage

[Kristal Blade]

21 minutes ago, Host Hattie said:

I'm glad to hear it went well, Bon Voyage

Thank you, we are with some other people joining the cruise.

They are having to pay $250 each for a rapid test at Denver airport. So glad we braved the zoom test!

[RJChatsworth]

Many congratulations Kristal on successful tests.  You can finally relax!  And not having to pay $250.  Enjoy QM-2.  If you have a moment for comments from the voyage I am sure we’d all be pleased to receive them.

[cpc3639]

8 hours ago, Kristal Blade said:

Okay, we have done our tests and both negative.

Medicspot did us a great service. So long as you work out your timings re U.K. time to your location it is fine. We had to do our test at 8am Denver time, which is 3pm in U.K. We were able to stand together so the observer could see both of us testing simultaneously.

 

There is a bit of faffing around after the test, but take it slow, make sure you have your 6 digit code to hand before the test and have your passport ready to show on the Zoom screen. After the test wait 15 minutes, take a photo of your result thing then just follow the instructions on your screen. 
 

They say you will get the result within 2 hours. Ours were with us in less than 10 mins. 
 

So a big thank you to everyone here for tips and hints for our testing. We definitely recommend Medicspot and will use them again for our next trip. In our dreams testing will be over soon!

 

Good luck to those of you who need to test soon. 

That’s great to hear and very reassuring as we too have used this company for our 11th July boarding in Vancouver. 

[Kristal Blade]

Off to the port soon! 
looking forward to relaxing now that all the Covid hassle is over.

I will try to add some comments if my iPad will let me access Cunard wifi.

 

[oatbagg1]

We're flying in from the Midwest 2 days prior to boarding For the July1-8 Queen Mary 4th of July cruise.

We have Binax tests we can bring but I'm confused. I thought it was 72 hours prior to sailing you need a negative test, so technically we could get one at home????

Thanks all.

[bluemarble]

1 hour ago, oatbagg1 said:

We're flying in from the Midwest 2 days prior to boarding For the July1-8 Queen Mary 4th of July cruise.

We have Binax tests we can bring but I'm confused. I thought it was 72 hours prior to sailing you need a negative test, so technically we could get one at home????

Thanks all.

 

No, the requirement has been for the test to be taken two days prior to embarkation at US ports for quite a while now. At least since October 2021 when I first learned about that more stringent testing requirement from the US CDC.

 

I think part of the confusion may come from the CDC regulations that state if you are "up to date" with your COVID-19 vaccinations, you must test no more than 3 days before boarding your cruise ship. Then they go on to say if you are "fully vaccinated", you must test no more than 2 days before boarding your cruise ship.

 

As I understand it, "fully vaccinated" means you have completed your initial doses of an approved vaccine. Booster shots don't figure into being "fully vaccinated".

 

On the other hand, being "up to date" with you vaccinations means "you have received all doses in the primary series and all boosters recommended for you, when eligible." Note this wording is different from Cunard's criteria only requiring a booster if more than 270 days have elapsed since your initial vaccine doses. And Cunard's criteria does not require a second booster at this time.

 

For those reasons, I don't think Cunard is in the position to allow the "up to date" (3 day) testing window and instead must require the more stringent "fully vaccinated" (2 day) testing window.

 

Along those lines, those of us who study the CDC Cruise Ship Status Dashboard will note only 2 of the 92 ships currently operating under the CDC guidelines qualify as "Vaccination Status of Excellence Ships" meaning they can certify at least 90% of their passengers are "up to date" with their COVID-19 vaccines. The other 90 ships (including the two Cunard ships under CDC guidelines, QM2 an QE) qualify as "Highly Vaccinated Ships" meaning they can certify at least 90% of their passengers are "fully vaccinated".

 

Whew! I hope I got that right and it wasn't too much CDC terminology overload.