Megabear2

Thanks. The deluxe balcony cabins on Britannia have a shower over a bath, hence my bath comment!

We called Marseille on Regal Princess earlier in the month. Very limited coach service to town - 30 minutes between them - and an hour break midday for lunchtime. The ship was in a container area a 20 minute ride from the centre, not particularly nice for those staying onboard. Once in the centre we took the little train to the top where the church offers great views. This service was again at half and there was a midday break of 1 1/2 hours. With temperatures approaching 40 degrees we took a taxi back to port (metered cost €35). With all the reduced services when there was only one ship in i can well imagine why things are being changed.

So to be clear - the large dispensers in the shower/bath area (one shampoo, one soap) are still there but nothing else including the bar of facial soap is? My last Britannia cruise we had the two large dispensers plus 2 bars of soap at the sink area. You seem to be suggesting the latter no longer given? As a possible useful tip on toiletries my last four cruises and land based trips I have taken bars of solid shampoo and conditioner from Lush, together with solid 'coins' of their charity pot body moisturiser. These are very lightweight and can be popped in hand luggage (useful for flying) rather than heavy bottles in main bags with possible leakage problems. At first glance they might look expensive at £7.50 each and £1 a coin but my current supply has been on two 14 night cruises, one 10 night cruise, one 12 night fly cruise, one 7 day beach holiday and numerous overnight stays in the UK and there's still plenty left for the rest of the year. I'm pretty sure other companies make these products as they are designed to be ecologically sound.

Arcadia 21 December and per person? Single passenger at the moment is showing from £4349 single balcony or £4126 for single occupancy. Double occupancy from £5,158 or £6,518 on select with £810 OBC! Your Aurora one is currently at around £2,200 so looks like you have a bargain all round.

I love a discussion and always prepared to debate anything - remember dear old Interestedcruisefan anyone? However there's general discussion and then theirs baiting and personal attacks which have no place here or anywhere else.

We did one of those in December. I haven't even thought about looking for our Christmas cruise this year as I assumed new protocols would be issued for the Caribbean sailings from October. Have I miss3d something while I've been preoccupied elsewhere, pleas3?

Thank you. I must say I was finding it ironic that a mere 6 hours ago Mr Fountain posted and told us all he wasn't going to spend any more time on the subject of insurance ... perhaps amnesia might be occurring after all those bricks flew round.

Totally agree. Having experienced the Princess one I hope a stop comes to all the aggressive baiting soon. I thought the boards were for useful advice and suggestions not personal attacks on individuals.

Assuming you are a solo traveller then. Ironically so am I a lot of the time and as a result I am vert, very careful about health declarations even before this. You clearly just want to start another fight with anyone who isn't in your camp. It is entirely up to you how you insure, if at all. As you quite rightly pointed out you have to be insured to sail on a cruise ship from the UK so its rather fruitless continuing your diatribe against insurance. If you aren't a solo cruiser then I hope you are well prepared to look after any loved ones taken seriously ill as I can assure you it is highly distressing and very taxing.

"We" are her family who have powers of attorney and have had to sign personal individual authorities to allow her to have medical aid. I was not allowed to leave the port without paying (me not her) Princess medical bill in the sum of $4,700. Of course we could have refused to sign and accept liability but strangely we rather wanted to keep her alive!!

You aren't kidding. Take a look at these ... with these sorts of prices is it really difficult to see why people just might be cross about things like closed restaurants? R214 - USA & Canada Cruise - 18 Sep 2022 _ P&O Cruises.pdf J217 - USA & Canada Cruise - 6 Sep 2022 _ P&O Cruises.pdf

I am one!!!!!!!

As I said earlier Iona seems pretty much booked up from September. I also looked at the "reduced" Arcadia and Aurora September cruises, quoted £6,000 for an inside for single use on the former and £4900 for the latter. Clearly someone is booking these cruises.

Much as I hate to say it, both Celebrity and Princess served up a near normal experience with everything open, full menus and even turn down at night. Perhaps it is a P&O problem at present rather than a cruise line one but I'm intrigued as to why.

Even with all the problems most of Iona's cruises are selling well it seems. The Canaries ones later in the year seem to have little availability. As we had to cancel 8 October I have been looking at her three subsequent cruises for a single and the prices are high for anything select even allowing for the OBC promotion. I'm now considering the 22 October Spain/Portugal sailing - there seems to be good availability and better pricing. However if she's got a problem I think I might wait to see what is broken!

Pleased it was reasonable. Paying toomuch are not an insurer, they are the price comparison site. They will have allocated you to one of their panel of insurers, do you know which one as a matter of interest? The paperwork from Payingtoomuch is confusing as it makes it look as if they are your insurer, it's what confused my aunt as she thought they were her insurer when it was actually Good to Go. https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/payingtoomuch

A most sensible course of action. Interestingly the call record of Paying Too Much shows my aunt discussing the event and explaining nothing found to be wrong. They obviously relay the information to their chosen insurer, in this case Good to Go. Lesson here is that the intermediary didn't add it to the declarations and my aunt at 83 assumed they were the same company, she didn't realise Paying Too Much wasn't the insurer as all the paperwork is emblazoned with their name. Fingers crossed she is flying back into UK tomorrow after several false alarms with no companion carer being available. The flight company are now prepared to take her with only one nurse. She is now awake, albeit not really communicating, but certainly stable.

If you have had any investigations of any type you should put your insurer on notice you are awaiting tests but currently have nothing to declare. Your policy should certainly cover cancellation if you are found to be unwell.

Actually that is not what happened. My aunt had what was described as a funny turn and her neighour called the paramedics who came and checked her out. For peace of mind when they couldn't find anything wrong they sent her to hospital to be checked out thoroughly. All tests including an ECG came back with nothing shown as wrong. After the tests she had a face to face appointment with her GP who informed her there was nothing wrong and the tests were all normal. He was aware she had three holidays booked and as requested completed the wellness certificate suggested by Princess and P&O. As the results showed nothing wrong there was technically nothing to declare but Good to Go are refusing payment based on a possible existing heart problem which the ECG did not show up. Very complicated but under discussion with medical and insurance experts - the bill is pretty big!

Not necessarily. You cannot cruise with P&O without insurance so assumedly if you called them and explained the situation they may well offer a solution. Or as I'm not aware of anyone who has been placed in the situation under discussion, but assuming it is a medical problem the traveller could cancel the cruise and claim on the insurance rather than just let the insurer know of the change in health. The insurer will only cancel your policy if the underwriter won't offer cover. Most people presumably wouldn't want to travel if they'd been diagnosed as unwell with something that dramatic. Otherwise as Zap said there are specialist insurers who will cover you if you are on a waiting list, normally for something non serious.

Most annual policies require you to notify them of any changes in circumstances. This includes new medical conditions, doctor visits, change of medication etc. You are obliged during the life of your annual policy to notify the company otherwise your policy becomes invalid - my aunt's policy is currently refusing to pay out medical bills as a result of non notification of an ECG a month after the policy was purchased. If at the point of notification of change the company or its underwriters do not wish to continue your cover they will lapse it and refund you pro rata. If they do accept the medical change there is often an additional charge. Some of the specialist insurers of older/medically impaired people ask after 6 months for you to confirm no change in conditions - Staysure used to send an email asking for confirmation of no change but I'm not sure if they still do. One of two high end (national general insurers) accept your health declarations for a year without the need to amend declarations but most low to mid range insurers insist on "new conditions" being notified to them. If you find yourself on a list for further investigation or awaiting surgery the insurance companies will cancel your policy and you become uninsured. There are as Zap said one or two companies who will cover you if you are on a waiting list but not for cancellation.

Depends where you are I think. Certainly people on other lines are being quarantined ashore. I believe Cunard have had quite a few, but could be different now. Assumedly you are going US, Canada, Caribbean? Italy seems to be the dodgy one for back to back testing but you won't be going there so no problem!

Good. I can't bear the waste of all those stock piled tests no one needed or takes.

The original thread quoted also had opposing opinions that CCL will be fine. To hell with the doomsayers, looking for more opportunities to book as I write!

Totally agree. Problem is quality of staff at the claims companies. I'm sure it will be sorted soon, it's just stupid, time consuming and annoying at this point. Apparently took 40 minutes to get through to find out what proof was needed to submit claim. Understand my sister is going to submit online now, hopefully will be easier but apparently the claims team have a 6 week backlog to answer. What a world we live in!