E-med testing question

[cruisetorelax44]

We live in Boston and are sailing out of Vancouver for an Alaska cruise this month. We have two days in Vancouver before we board (fly Wed,  board Friday), and we wanted to take our covid tests before we leave for the airport. Do we need to wait until 3am to take the tests, because the ship sails Pacific time? Do they teach time zones at the port, or just look at the date? Is the time of the test based on the result or when the appointment starts? Just want to make sure we don't screw anything up. Thanks!

[Anton]

The hour of the day doesn't matter.  As long as the test has the correct date on it, it's good.

[cruisetorelax44]

1 hour ago, Anton said:

The hour of the day doesn't matter.  As long as the test has the correct date on it, it's good.

Even if it's a different time zone?

[Sunshine3601]

You board Friday so you can do the test as early as Wednesday.   You could do it at 12:01 am as long as it shows the date for Wednesday or after

[Biker19]

11 hours ago, cruisetorelax44 said:

Even if it's a different time zone?

Only the date on the result document matters. 

[Ben Nicholls]

If changing time zones changes the test day make sure you print the results out while at home so the day is correct. 

[BirdTravels]

2 minutes ago, Ben Nicholls said:

If changing time zones changes the test day make sure you print the results out while at home so the day is correct. 

Huh? eMed sends you a PDF file with the date "printed" in the test results. There is no dynamic date that changes.

 

If there were a date that changes, I could take the test 2 weeks in advance and wait to print it the day before cruise,,, not the way it works. 

[Ben Nicholls]

True for PDFs. I was commenting on pulling up the results on a web page or app. They would have a time stamp on them that may display in the local timezone not the original timezone. 

[martincath]

Edit - whoops, you did actually specify an eMed test so it's opbviously Antigen - deleted the redundant info about the 72hr timeline for Molecular testing!

 

For Antigen tests our Federal Canadian Cruise-specific testing rules seem to align with most US cruiseline rules - any time of day as long as it's not more than 2 calendar days earlier - so as long as your test is some time on Wed (or Thu or even Friday if results come back before than you board), it's valid.

 

Arguably a test taken at 2am local time was taken at 11pm the day before here in PST land though, so although for Antigen I strongly doubt that anyone at the pier will check anything other than the date you could either play it safe and do it before you head to the airport or even just bring the tests with you to Vancouver and remote test in your hotel room during your pre-cruise time.

Edited July 10, 2022 by martincath

[lovesthebeach2]

Only the date matters.  We took a test in our hotel room in Italy the day before we flew home to Florida in May with a 6 hour time difference 

[njkruzer]

The first time we tested it was shortly after midnight cst for a Miami departure (est) 2 days later as we were leaving early that morning.  No problem.  As others have said, it's the date that matters.