We Made It! We arrived yesterday afternoon, staying at Marazul Dive resort.
There has been quite a bit of discussion regarding which test are accepted, will people be stranded at a lay over if tests don’t come back in time, etc. Here is a recap of what we did that worked.
There are 6 of us total from the Portsmouth, RI. area. We flew out of Providence on Saturday at 5:25 am with a connecting flight in Charlotte leaving at 9:10 AM. We all did multiple tests. 3 tested through a local (based in Providence) site that did drive through PCRs approximately 48 hours before our trip, 5 of us did drive through PCR tests at CVS approximately 48 hours before our trip, 3 did ID Now tests through Walgreens approximately 24 hours before our trip and 1 did an antigen test through the state 24 hours before our trip, simply because he had tested positive within the last month.
We all tested negative on all the tests. The 3 ID now tests were back within 4 hours, so 3 of us used those. The Antigen test also came back with in 4 hours. The 3 from the local site came back Friday afternoon, 30 hours after testing, 2 were used. The 5 CVS tests were back at the 38 hour mark, 1 person (antigen guy) used it. Tests were downloaded into the dicardcuracao.com site. Once you have this done, and I would recommend printing the cards, you are good to go at the airport. One thing I didn’t like is that Curaçao requires testing within 48 hours of the arriving flight, in this case out of Charlotte, but the airlines won’t let you on your originating flight without it, in this case Providence, 3 hours and 48 minutes before the flight that Curaçao cares about.
Now, the real test...Curaçao customes. The info on curacao.com says that if your test doesn’t meet certain criteria then you will be retested at your expense. I was fine with that possibility, as was everyone else in the group. No one had to retest, which, honestly, surprised me. The CVS tests meet all of the criteria but the paperwork is missing half of the required information. The ID Now is listed on the paperwork as a rapid test with no mention of PCR. Turns out that the custom agent that checked my wife and me, 2 of the ID Nows, was the only agent who looked at the test paperwork. He had no issue with it and gladly passed us through.
A quick side note. One of our group did not have her dicard information uploaded and completed when she arrived at the Providence airport. She did not make it on the plane. By her own admission, completely her fault. However, American Airlines worked with her to rebook in order for her to arrive this afternoon. Don’t know what the fee for that was, but she wasn’t completely shut out. And, one day late, she’s swimming in the beautiful waters of Curaçao!
There has been quite a bit of discussion regarding which test are accepted, will people be stranded at a lay over if tests don’t come back in time, etc. Here is a recap of what we did that worked.
There are 6 of us total from the Portsmouth, RI. area. We flew out of Providence on Saturday at 5:25 am with a connecting flight in Charlotte leaving at 9:10 AM. We all did multiple tests. 3 tested through a local (based in Providence) site that did drive through PCRs approximately 48 hours before our trip, 5 of us did drive through PCR tests at CVS approximately 48 hours before our trip, 3 did ID Now tests through Walgreens approximately 24 hours before our trip and 1 did an antigen test through the state 24 hours before our trip, simply because he had tested positive within the last month.
We all tested negative on all the tests. The 3 ID now tests were back within 4 hours, so 3 of us used those. The Antigen test also came back with in 4 hours. The 3 from the local site came back Friday afternoon, 30 hours after testing, 2 were used. The 5 CVS tests were back at the 38 hour mark, 1 person (antigen guy) used it. Tests were downloaded into the dicardcuracao.com site. Once you have this done, and I would recommend printing the cards, you are good to go at the airport. One thing I didn’t like is that Curaçao requires testing within 48 hours of the arriving flight, in this case out of Charlotte, but the airlines won’t let you on your originating flight without it, in this case Providence, 3 hours and 48 minutes before the flight that Curaçao cares about.
Now, the real test...Curaçao customes. The info on curacao.com says that if your test doesn’t meet certain criteria then you will be retested at your expense. I was fine with that possibility, as was everyone else in the group. No one had to retest, which, honestly, surprised me. The CVS tests meet all of the criteria but the paperwork is missing half of the required information. The ID Now is listed on the paperwork as a rapid test with no mention of PCR. Turns out that the custom agent that checked my wife and me, 2 of the ID Nows, was the only agent who looked at the test paperwork. He had no issue with it and gladly passed us through.
A quick side note. One of our group did not have her dicard information uploaded and completed when she arrived at the Providence airport. She did not make it on the plane. By her own admission, completely her fault. However, American Airlines worked with her to rebook in order for her to arrive this afternoon. Don’t know what the fee for that was, but she wasn’t completely shut out. And, one day late, she’s swimming in the beautiful waters of Curaçao!
