Would you cruise to the US in the next 6 months?

[aussielozzie18]

We have a cruise booked to Alaska + 7 day land tour in August.

 

I am seriously considering cancelling which will incur a cost.  My main concern is that in the event we were to fall ill with the virus. travel insurance would not cover us, there is no reciprocal medical between our countries and  US medical costs are horrific.  I am also concerned about being stuck in the US airports due to shut downs. 

 

Whilst I know no-one can predict what is going to happen on a week to week basis right now, let alone 6 months time.  If you were me, would you keep the booking or cancel?

[MicCanberra]

That is a hard one as everyone has differing risk thresholds. However, I wouldn't want to be in the US without Medical being covered.

[jennyct]

I like to reduce unnecessary risk. So I will not be cruising this year- I was planning on Italy in the fall, and of course, that might not be a good idea either. Too much to worry about. And the prices are still high, even with the chances of limited itinerary. 

[Elorac123]

4 hours ago, aussielozzie18 said:

We have a cruise booked to Alaska + 7 day land tour in August.

 

I am seriously considering cancelling which will incur a cost.  My main concern is that in the event we were to fall ill with the virus. travel insurance would not cover us, there is no reciprocal medical between our countries and  US medical costs are horrific.  I am also concerned about being stuck in the US airports due to shut downs. 

 

Whilst I know no-one can predict what is going to happen on a week to week basis right now, let alone 6 months time.  If you were me, would you keep the booking or cancel?

There is always another time and if I were you I would cancel and think about May for another year when the weather is more favourable 

Cheers Carole

[kaseyoz]

I wonder what happened to medical costs of the Diamond Princess cruisers? Hope they were covered.

we are still booked for Hawaii to Vancouver and then Hawaii land for may. Also have three weeks booked for Japan in October, but hanging in there for the time being.

[LittleFish1976]

6 hours ago, aussielozzie18 said:

We have a cruise booked to Alaska + 7 day land tour in August.

 

I am seriously considering cancelling which will incur a cost.  My main concern is that in the event we were to fall ill with the virus. travel insurance would not cover us, there is no reciprocal medical between our countries and  US medical costs are horrific.  I am also concerned about being stuck in the US airports due to shut downs. 

 

Whilst I know no-one can predict what is going to happen on a week to week basis right now, let alone 6 months time.  If you were me, would you keep the booking or cancel?

 

I recently had to confront this sort of decision. I think your answer lies partly in the fact you're already feeling uncertain and reluctant to go on your booked trip. The earlier you cancel, the more you can salvage financially from it. My thinking is that we're nowhere near the peak of this yet and even after we do reach the peak, it will take a similar length of time to re-establish something like normality after the infections slowly diminish. I think I'll stick to local-ish cruises (Australia/ NZ) and road trips until it's all over. And if your travel insurance doesn't cover the coronavirus, what happens if you get caught up in it? It could be hundreds of thousands of dollars, couldn't it? evacuation from a ship and hospitalisation, at worst.

 

 

[aussielozzie18]

5 minutes ago, LittleFish1976 said:

 

I recently had to confront this sort of decision. I think your answer lies partly in the fact you're already feeling uncertain and reluctant to go on your booked trip. The earlier you cancel, the more you can salvage financially from it. My thinking is that we're nowhere near the peak of this yet and even after we do reach the peak, it will take a similar length of time to re-establish something like normality after the infections slowly diminish. I think I'll stick to local-ish cruises (Australia/ NZ) and road trips until it's all over. And if your travel insurance doesn't cover the coronavirus, what happens if you get caught up in it? It could be hundreds of thousands of dollars, couldn't it? evacuation from a ship and hospitalisation, at worst.

 

 

You have said exactly what I am thinking.  Have just informed my two young adult children who were travelling with me. They are extremely disappointed not to be traveling to Alaska but understand that we simply cannot afford to travel to the US without travel insurance. 

 

 

[aussielozzie18]

39 minutes ago, kaseyoz said:

I wonder what happened to medical costs of the Diamond Princess cruisers? Hope they were covered.

we are still booked for Hawaii to Vancouver and then Hawaii land for may. Also have three weeks booked for Japan in October, but hanging in there for the time being.

I would imagine their costs were covered by Princess given the circumstances.  If I had travel insurance before the cut off date I would be hanging in there too.  Such a shame we had a great rate for our cruise.  Oh well.

 

[dragonlord24601]

I wouldn't go there anytime soon at all or at all period. Their country is falling apart. On the one side you have KFC dude vying for the top job against another complete and utter madman who are just turning their country into a basket case. Have you seen the news how much their hospitals charge just for a swab test to check for the presence of this new virus? I am sorry but that country is not what it used to be. 20 years ago and longer in the past it used to be great, you could trust you would have a good time there and things would not get out of hand. These days their politics and country is so extremely divided against each other that one day that country will fall not from enemy forces but from division within. America is a lost cause not worth visiting.

[kiwichick62]

We are highly likely to cancel our April Baltic’s cruise and our land tour Holland to Switzerland.  Airports, planes and ships are high risk for infections.  I think the spread of Coronavirus will get worse in the next few months and the situation changes daily.  Ports that are open now could close during your cruise.  I don’t want to risk being isolated for weeks in a foreign port or hotel or on a ship.  Cruise lines can take precautions but all it takes is one person to develop symptoms during a cruise for the ship to be locked down and refused entry to ports.  It will be a financial hit for us as we don’t have cancel for any reason insurance.  We all need to makes decisions based on personal circumstances.

[MicCanberra]

People should do what they think is best for them, everyone has a different level of risk aversion and their health should be considered more important than a cruise/travel.

[NSWP]

I would cruise anywhere if we could, well perhaps not to China.

 

My son just last week came back from a ski holiday to Japan, he says he was not tested at Japanese Airports or Sydney Airport for corona virus including temperature.  🤒  That is concerning given the virus state in Japan.

Edited February 29, 2020 by NSWP

[sewgood]

We are booked on the Honolulu to Vancouver cruise on the Nordam in May.

Last night we looked at our cancel for any reason insurance we took out with the cruise line and found out we only get back 80% back of the fare.

Hard to lose that amount of money but we can not afford a two week hospital bill from North America.

[NSWP]

17 minutes ago, sewgood said:

We are booked on the Honolulu to Vancouver cruise on the Nordam in May.

Last night we looked at our cancel for any reason insurance we took out with the cruise line and found out we only get back 80% back of the fare.

Hard to lose that amount of money but we can not afford a two week hospital bill from North America.

80% back from cruise line insurance, that is not good.  Insurance companies should pay out 100%. 

 

We were on Noordam in June/July, Sydney to Honolulu, we insured with NRMA Covermore as we had prexisting medical issues and ANZ Black Card CC insurance - Allianz would not cover us.  No claims anyway, but premiums were high as soon you as you mention age, prexisting and USA !! 

 

We were insured again with NRMA - Covermore for our now cancelled Majestic Princess, Arcadia, Hotels in Singapore and UK, travel in UK, business class flights back, a 3 month trip, Feb-May.  $40,000 claim, they paid the lot within 2 weeks after submission of thick medical report(s) re my wife. 

 

Yes stay away from overseas travel if you don't have good travel insurance.  Good luck with it all sewgood, hope it works out for you.

Edited February 29, 2020 by NSWP

[sewgood]

Thanks NSWP.

After looking at the Australian government web site we found that Australia only has reciprocal health cover with:

 

• Belgium
• Finland
• Italy
• Malta
• the Netherlands
• New Zealand
• Norway
• the Republic of Ireland
• Slovenia
• Sweden
• the United Kingdom.

Page last updated: 5 September 2019

Canada is not included as we thought so we have no choice but to cancel the cruise.

I notice that with Holland America you have to submit your cancellation in writing but no address is given. At least I did evently  find an Australian phone number on the site. Looks like a phone call on Tuesday.

At least we will have some money to put towards our Sapphire cruise this year.

[lyndarra]

3 hours ago, MicCanberra said:

People should do what they think is best for them, everyone has a different level of risk aversion and their health should be considered more important than a cruise/travel.

You're spot on Mic.

I'll be taking my already booked  May/June Alaska cruise with pre and post cruise tours of Canada and Alaska. I not long ago lost my wife due to a sudden illness. I have beat bowel cancer 18 years ago. I'm now into my seventies and in good health but the clock is ticking and I'm not going to go all hysterical as some appear to be doing by cancelling out. There are many things that can strike any one of us down in an instant, even commons colds and flu, or the old proverbial "hit by a bus". I also have tours of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia coming up in April. Nothing will stop me from going short of official bans or travel restrictions.

[lyndarra]

A thought occurred to me a moment ago. If one is twin sharing a cabin and the other cancels would you then have to pay the single supplement? Under normal circumstances I'm guessing yes but with what's happening at the moment the cruise lines may be wanting to keep people on their ships and possibly waive the surcharge. Yes? No?

[Kiwi_cruiser]

We are hopefully doing Golden Princess last cruise in Aug 2020 from Los Angeles, California to Singapore via Alaska and Japan.

 

It will be interesting to see what happens over the next 4 months!

[SinbadThePorter]

59 minutes ago, lyndarra said:

A thought occurred to me a moment ago. If one is twin sharing a cabin and the other cancels would you then have to pay the single supplement? Under normal circumstances I'm guessing yes but with what's happening at the moment the cruise lines may be wanting to keep people on their ships and possibly waive the surcharge. Yes? No?

 

If after final payment then surely the cost is borne by the person bailing out?

 

I'd be amazed if a cruise line waived the surcharge in such a circumstance. I think their response to encourage cruising will just be to lower the initial fare.

Edited March 1, 2020 by SinbadThePorter

[kiwichick62]

19 hours ago, lyndarra said:

You're spot on Mic.

I'll be taking my already booked  May/June Alaska cruise with pre and post cruise tours of Canada and Alaska. I not long ago lost my wife due to a sudden illness. I have beat bowel cancer 18 years ago. I'm now into my seventies and in good health but the clock is ticking and I'm not going to go all hysterical as some appear to be doing by cancelling out. There are many things that can strike any one of us down in an instant, even commons colds and flu, or the old proverbial "hit by a bus". I also have tours of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia coming up in April. Nothing will stop me from going short of official bans or travel restrictions.

Making a reasoned decision to cancel a cruise is hardly "going all hysterical by cancelling out"  I don't particularly fear catching the virus, I just don't want to risk being locked down on a ship or in a foreign port as happened to the Diamond Princess.  That concern over rides our desire to travel at this time, hence our cancellation.  We had a fantastic month long trip planned and our decision wasn't made lightly or out of hysteria.  Enjoy your cruise lydarra, good health to you. 🙂

[sewgood]

My concern is financial as insurance will not cover us if we have to go to hospital due to Covid-19 in North America.

I don't want to come home with a large debt. North American hospitals are too expensive for our family situation.

It could mean we could not afford to cruise next year if we were both hospitalised over there.

I'm not worried about catching Corona as I think it is pretty likely I will end up with it in the next year or so but I would rather catch it on home soil or a country where we have reciprocal health agreements with.

To each their own and we all know what we can and can't afford at this stage in our lives.

Everyone has their own unique situation with differering health, financial and stress levels and it is a personal decision on whether to go or not.

I'm glad for people to keep travelling overseas it is a wonderful and enriching experience but it is not for everyone at the moment.

Due to our budget we will have to stick to those overseas countries closer to home.

 

[MicCanberra]

I can understand your reticence as medical overseas without insurance can be bank busting.

[lissie]

3 hours ago, sewgood said:

My concern is financial as insurance will not cover us if we have to go to hospital due to Covid-19 in North America.

I don't want to come home with a large debt. North American hospitals are too expensive for our family situation.

It could mean we could not afford to cruise next year if we were both hospitalised over there.

I'm not worried about catching Corona as I think it is pretty likely I will end up with it in the next year or so but I would rather catch it on home soil or a country where we have reciprocal health agreements with.

To each their own and we all know what we can and can't afford at this stage in our lives.

Everyone has their own unique situation with differering health, financial and stress levels and it is a personal decision on whether to go or not.

I'm glad for people to keep travelling overseas it is a wonderful and enriching experience but it is not for everyone at the moment.

Due to our budget we will have to stick to those overseas countries closer to home.

 

 

I don't think that's right - you won't be covered for cruise cancelled or rescheduled - but  the cruise company will cover that. If you get  sick travel insurance will pay so long as you have declared al lpre-existing etc 

[lissie]

We just got off the Queen Elizabeth and because the price for the  new trans-pacific re-positioning cruise was so reasonable we booked on board. Really looking forward to it. 

[icat2000]

If if meant being uninsured for the US. No. Unless you got deep pockets, but not going to ruin my life financially to see a Country that can be visited another time. And still even if it was my last chance, I still wouldn't want to ruin my life financially and have a miserable retirement cause I had blown all my money on US medical care.