Testing for a 4-year old

[ewoodall79]

We booked a last minute (well, to us) cruise this morning - March 14 on the Dream.

We have a 4-year old, so I know that I need to get him tested (PCR) 3 days prior. I was keeping up with turn around times before we cancelled our October cruise, but I've not paid any attention to it lately.

For those cruising with littles - where are you getting them tested? We live in Nashville and will be driving to the port. We plan to leave Friday night and just take our time, arriving in Cocoa Beach Sunday afternoon/evening. He has to be tested on Friday, but with the weekend, will we get results in time? His pediatrician is only testing if there are symptoms, so that option is out. I thought about having him tested at MCO, but we won't be in the area until Saturday night and I just don't know that that's enough time. Disney's option of tests through Inspire - the test has to be done on Friday - mailed same day. Will I have results by Monday morning because of the mail time? I'd honestly like to do this at Walgreens, but is their results turnaround time still as bad as it was in the Fall?

I know I'm full of questions, but I was all excited until I paid for the cruise and now I'm freaking out about making sure he's tested in the right amount of time.

Thanks for your help!

 

[Frozencleo]

We sailed in November and I remember a bunch of people saying that the Walgreen’s NAAT test (ID Now, I think it’s called?) worked great, and the turn around at the time was guaranteed less than 24 hours. Not sure if that’s still true, but might be worth looking into.

We personally tested at an Inspire site. I think there’s one in MCO (we sailed out of Miami, so I don’t know for sure). You could call Inspire and see if testing Saturday night would get your results back in time.

 

[soniam]

Trying looking for a place that is doing rapid PCR. They say that usually comes back within 2 hours. It probably costs more, if there is a charge.

 

[SyracuseWolvrine]

If you buy the "At Home" test kit from Inspire, it comes with a UPS next day return label. Take the test, stop by a UPS store on your way to drop it off, and you're good. Inspire knows what the deadlines are, and you'll have results in time.

Inspire also had a test location at Orlando International or at one of the hotels in the Cocoa area, but that doesn't help if you're not going to be there on Friday or Saturday.

Advent Health has a test location at Orlando International, offering PCR tests with a ~1 hr turnaround time. Not cheap, but it's an option.

 

[Lillebelle]

We did not have a good experience with the mail order Inspire kits. They were shipping delayed and still hadn't arrived by the 3 day mark (and in fact didn't arrive until after we would have already flown out for our cruise) even though I ordered when the window opened up. I was able to get a refund from Inspire but it meant that we had to scramble to find a local place with rapid testing availability. We ended up using onsite testing at a local airport - we did have to pay for it but we were able to get the results same-day so it was worth it.