RetiredChipmunk
DISBride
- Joined
- Oct 16, 2021
Just came back from a trip down to California for a few days and wanted to throw in our experience re: testing requirements and every step of the way since we were trying to find others who'd done it recently and were anxious about the whole thing, when it was really super easygoing in the end.
In case it helps, DH and I are mixed-vaccinated Moderna + Pfizer so we were nervous about whether this mattered.
Pre-Departure Testing:
-We originally tried to book a Rapid Antigen at Shoppers Drug Mart in the GTA but after calling 6 different locations their pharmacies never picked up the phone. Online folks say they managed to just walk in for one but when we gave up and finally just walked in they said, phone appointments only. We watched them literally ignoring the phones for 35 minutes while waiting in line to speak with a Shoppers pharmacy staff member.
- Found a slightly cheaper $35 Rapid-Antigen Covid Travel Test - the location seemed sketchy and no one else was there (went on a weekday afternoon) but we were in and out so quickly. No need to show health card or anything, and it was good at the airport.
Test-Checking at the Airport
-Speaking of airport, the only time anyone ever checked our Pre-Departure test was in line (Pearson, Terminal 1) to get to security by an Air Canada staff member. We checked in online, and on entry to security we had our printed Negative test results in our hand and they barely read it and said show the security team. We showed it to a gentleman from security who just glanced at our names and moved us through - we think the rest of the paper could've really said anything or been taken anywhere, but we figured they see so many of these they know what to look for.
Customs/Immigration
"Where are you headed? Disneyland
When are you coming back? Friday
Have a nice day."
A breeze.
Flight YYZ - LAX
The flight was fine, about 6+ hours in total since we had to wait while they tracked down someone who had left a phone on a seat ( a woman denied it was hers when asked about it by a flight attendant, as they went row to row and then only after a second pass through the entire cabin did she realize it was hers ). A lot of folks finding out for the first time they don't serve free snacks anymore on this AC Toronto - LAX direct flight, so poor flight attendants had to field a lot of complaints while trying to sell from the menu. Definitely pack a lunch!
Test-Checking / Vaccination Status at the Airport
Nothing. Literally just get off the plane and - welcome to California! No one checked the attestation we were told to fill out by Air Canada or anything.
Masking in Public in Los Angeles / Disneyland
It's just indoors and maybe 1/20 people wearing their masks around outside walking from attraction to attraction. Maybe 1/4 Cast Members not wearing masks, must be optional - but they're constantly reminding Guests to wear them, and we saw a quite few people arguing back about it, the poor Cast Members trying their best. A lot of folks surprisingly speaking out against masks or getting vaccines while in ride queues. Also, we forgot how tight and cramped ride queues are in Disneyland, it's the closest we've been to another stranger's unmasked open mouth in a long time. But for the most part everyone was respectful Distancing is not at all a thing, even if you tried, people were all in each other's spaces for the entire trip.
(FREE) PCR Testing for the way back near Disneyland
We didn't rent a car and had already overspent on an Uber to get us from the airport to our Hotel (Hotel Lulu on S Harbor Blvd -a pretty good deal and no complaints - didn't see any families, mostly people in the 20-30s!) So we decided to try to avoid paying for $199 PCR testing for the flight home and give this method a shot that we read online
We were due to fly out Friday morning so booked it for Tuesday afternoon at 3:00pm Anaheim City Hall - , There were plenty of slots available for the: "No cost to patient – Diagnostic COVID-19 PCR Test (result generally in 2+ Days, not for travel) "
Now they specifically state online that this is not intended for travel and don't guarantee a turnaround time. We figured if it didn't work out or if the results didn't get back in time, that we would just swallow the cost to take a more expensive rapid 1-hour test, which they also had lots of slot available for. IT was a bit of a roll of the dice that paid off!
Two key things on your booking you have to fill out an address, but it indicates:
"Attention international travelers, USA address required, you may use the address of the home, hotel, inn, etc. that you used during your stay." - So we just put the Address of the Hotel Lulu
Under the History section:
"Is it suspected that the patient has been exposed to COVID-19 in the past 14 days? *"
We selected YES, with the intention that we were going to explain how we've been at Disneyland surrounded by people without masks and are concerned about exposure.
Testing at Anaheim City Hall
-Getting to City Hall was easy - requested an Uber from the Denny's parking lot across the street from Disneyland on Harbor, driver was speedy and got us there in just over 5 minutes.
-The testing took place outdoors, with a few tents set up for registration on the lawn of City Hall under some trees.
-When we arrived there was another couple (from the looks of it, were also on a Disney trip) who didn't book an appointment and just walked up. We were processed at the same time, but they looked up our appointment booking, confirmed our contact information details and then had to speak to a doctor via Zoom on a tablet they had propped up on a table in a tent.
-Doctor asked us why we wanted the test, and we said we were worried we had been exposed at Disneyland this week, and so we're testing just in case. She just confirmed our names and said results will be back in about 1-2 days and that was it! No charge, nothing else.
-We were sent to wait by a tree near the other walk-up couple, and one by one a Nurse swapped both of our nostrils rotating the swab around for about 10 seconds, not going nearly as deep as we're used to with the tests at home.
The whole thing lasted maybe 15-20 minutes and we were off again on another swift Uber back to the Hotel.
Getting the test results:
We were checking our phones on Wednesday to see if the results came in, but ours took just under 48 hours as we were getting ready for Oogie Boogie. Negative! No printer in the hotel in service, but we managed to ask nicely at front desk and we emailed it to her and she printed the results off for us.
The flight back to Canada LAX-YYZ:
So heads up they no longer take boarding passes on your phone, the staff said this was a new thing. They kept calling passengers at the gate to remind them that they needed a printed boarding pass, not one off their phone. This is when they took a look at our negative PCR tests and reminded us about the ArriveCAN app to have ready on arrival. We uploaded our documents into the ArriveCAN app while waiting at the gate.
Flight was fine, food only available for purchase, but we had bags and bags of Oogie Boogie candy to keep us hyper and just on the edge of being sick of candy - the flight felt really quick!
Arrival into Pearson Airport:
We had to wait to deplane as the Captain announced on arrival that we were being held for a while under we were given clearance. We asked a flight attendant and this is a VERY common thing as she recommended that no one stand and wait because it could be a "whiiiiile". Some flights on the weekend we waiting over an hour to get off, we waited just under that so it wasn't too bad, but of course you've got all kinds of complaining passengers whenever this happens. They let off anyone with connective flights first and announced row by row that could get off - but no one was actually following that.
Customs / Immigration
We went straight there - no lineups in the corridors or anything, and there were a lot of staff members helping out at the Kiosks and a lot of agents. We left the plane with another couple who had Nexus but they for some reason had a much slower line and got out after us. A lot of folks with Nexus seemed pretty upset about that because they kept moving their line around and the agents kept leaving.
Agent just asked for our passports and Arrive CAN App when we got up (wait was about 25 minutes). and said:
"When did you leave?" "Anything to declare?" "Have a good weekend".
No need to pull anything else out to show- and we were good to go!
All in all, not as bad as we thought!
In case it helps, DH and I are mixed-vaccinated Moderna + Pfizer so we were nervous about whether this mattered.
Pre-Departure Testing:
-We originally tried to book a Rapid Antigen at Shoppers Drug Mart in the GTA but after calling 6 different locations their pharmacies never picked up the phone. Online folks say they managed to just walk in for one but when we gave up and finally just walked in they said, phone appointments only. We watched them literally ignoring the phones for 35 minutes while waiting in line to speak with a Shoppers pharmacy staff member.
- Found a slightly cheaper $35 Rapid-Antigen Covid Travel Test - the location seemed sketchy and no one else was there (went on a weekday afternoon) but we were in and out so quickly. No need to show health card or anything, and it was good at the airport.
Test-Checking at the Airport
-Speaking of airport, the only time anyone ever checked our Pre-Departure test was in line (Pearson, Terminal 1) to get to security by an Air Canada staff member. We checked in online, and on entry to security we had our printed Negative test results in our hand and they barely read it and said show the security team. We showed it to a gentleman from security who just glanced at our names and moved us through - we think the rest of the paper could've really said anything or been taken anywhere, but we figured they see so many of these they know what to look for.
Customs/Immigration
"Where are you headed? Disneyland
When are you coming back? Friday
Have a nice day."
A breeze.
Flight YYZ - LAX
The flight was fine, about 6+ hours in total since we had to wait while they tracked down someone who had left a phone on a seat ( a woman denied it was hers when asked about it by a flight attendant, as they went row to row and then only after a second pass through the entire cabin did she realize it was hers ). A lot of folks finding out for the first time they don't serve free snacks anymore on this AC Toronto - LAX direct flight, so poor flight attendants had to field a lot of complaints while trying to sell from the menu. Definitely pack a lunch!
Test-Checking / Vaccination Status at the Airport
Nothing. Literally just get off the plane and - welcome to California! No one checked the attestation we were told to fill out by Air Canada or anything.
Masking in Public in Los Angeles / Disneyland
It's just indoors and maybe 1/20 people wearing their masks around outside walking from attraction to attraction. Maybe 1/4 Cast Members not wearing masks, must be optional - but they're constantly reminding Guests to wear them, and we saw a quite few people arguing back about it, the poor Cast Members trying their best. A lot of folks surprisingly speaking out against masks or getting vaccines while in ride queues. Also, we forgot how tight and cramped ride queues are in Disneyland, it's the closest we've been to another stranger's unmasked open mouth in a long time. But for the most part everyone was respectful Distancing is not at all a thing, even if you tried, people were all in each other's spaces for the entire trip.
(FREE) PCR Testing for the way back near Disneyland
We didn't rent a car and had already overspent on an Uber to get us from the airport to our Hotel (Hotel Lulu on S Harbor Blvd -a pretty good deal and no complaints - didn't see any families, mostly people in the 20-30s!) So we decided to try to avoid paying for $199 PCR testing for the flight home and give this method a shot that we read online
We were due to fly out Friday morning so booked it for Tuesday afternoon at 3:00pm Anaheim City Hall - , There were plenty of slots available for the: "No cost to patient – Diagnostic COVID-19 PCR Test (result generally in 2+ Days, not for travel) "
Now they specifically state online that this is not intended for travel and don't guarantee a turnaround time. We figured if it didn't work out or if the results didn't get back in time, that we would just swallow the cost to take a more expensive rapid 1-hour test, which they also had lots of slot available for. IT was a bit of a roll of the dice that paid off!
Two key things on your booking you have to fill out an address, but it indicates:
"Attention international travelers, USA address required, you may use the address of the home, hotel, inn, etc. that you used during your stay." - So we just put the Address of the Hotel Lulu
Under the History section:
"Is it suspected that the patient has been exposed to COVID-19 in the past 14 days? *"
We selected YES, with the intention that we were going to explain how we've been at Disneyland surrounded by people without masks and are concerned about exposure.
Testing at Anaheim City Hall
-Getting to City Hall was easy - requested an Uber from the Denny's parking lot across the street from Disneyland on Harbor, driver was speedy and got us there in just over 5 minutes.
-The testing took place outdoors, with a few tents set up for registration on the lawn of City Hall under some trees.
-When we arrived there was another couple (from the looks of it, were also on a Disney trip) who didn't book an appointment and just walked up. We were processed at the same time, but they looked up our appointment booking, confirmed our contact information details and then had to speak to a doctor via Zoom on a tablet they had propped up on a table in a tent.
-Doctor asked us why we wanted the test, and we said we were worried we had been exposed at Disneyland this week, and so we're testing just in case. She just confirmed our names and said results will be back in about 1-2 days and that was it! No charge, nothing else.
-We were sent to wait by a tree near the other walk-up couple, and one by one a Nurse swapped both of our nostrils rotating the swab around for about 10 seconds, not going nearly as deep as we're used to with the tests at home.
The whole thing lasted maybe 15-20 minutes and we were off again on another swift Uber back to the Hotel.
Getting the test results:
We were checking our phones on Wednesday to see if the results came in, but ours took just under 48 hours as we were getting ready for Oogie Boogie. Negative! No printer in the hotel in service, but we managed to ask nicely at front desk and we emailed it to her and she printed the results off for us.
The flight back to Canada LAX-YYZ:
So heads up they no longer take boarding passes on your phone, the staff said this was a new thing. They kept calling passengers at the gate to remind them that they needed a printed boarding pass, not one off their phone. This is when they took a look at our negative PCR tests and reminded us about the ArriveCAN app to have ready on arrival. We uploaded our documents into the ArriveCAN app while waiting at the gate.
Flight was fine, food only available for purchase, but we had bags and bags of Oogie Boogie candy to keep us hyper and just on the edge of being sick of candy - the flight felt really quick!
Arrival into Pearson Airport:
We had to wait to deplane as the Captain announced on arrival that we were being held for a while under we were given clearance. We asked a flight attendant and this is a VERY common thing as she recommended that no one stand and wait because it could be a "whiiiiile". Some flights on the weekend we waiting over an hour to get off, we waited just under that so it wasn't too bad, but of course you've got all kinds of complaining passengers whenever this happens. They let off anyone with connective flights first and announced row by row that could get off - but no one was actually following that.
Customs / Immigration
We went straight there - no lineups in the corridors or anything, and there were a lot of staff members helping out at the Kiosks and a lot of agents. We left the plane with another couple who had Nexus but they for some reason had a much slower line and got out after us. A lot of folks with Nexus seemed pretty upset about that because they kept moving their line around and the agents kept leaving.
Agent just asked for our passports and Arrive CAN App when we got up (wait was about 25 minutes). and said:
"When did you leave?" "Anything to declare?" "Have a good weekend".
No need to pull anything else out to show- and we were good to go!
All in all, not as bad as we thought!
