When to buy insurance, does the normal rule of straight away still hold

[Windsurfboy]

I've  a cruise , Cape town  to UK in April 2022,  which I think is 90% likely to be cancelled , for two reasons, world cruise won't go to Australia, also   S africa could well still on red or amber list. So far resisted buying insurance. What are others thoughts about insurance for cruises in near future , have you bought it , or waiting till full payment. 

Edited May 27, 2021 by Windsurfboy

[majortom10]

41 minutes ago, Windsurfboy said:

I've  a cruise , Cape town  to UK in April 2022,  which I think is 90% likely to be cancelled , for two reasons, world cruise won't go to Australia, also   S africa could well still on red or amber list. So far resisted buying insurance. What are others thoughts about insurance for cruises in near future , have you bought it , or waiting till full payment. 

If the cruise is cancelled by the cruise line then there is nothing to worry about as you would either get a full cash refund of all monies paid or FCC. It all depends on how much deposit you have paid and whether you can afford to lose that amount of money if you cancel the cruise prior to full payment for any other reason. If you cannot then you would be wise to take out insurance for cruise to cover for loss of deposit.

[tring]

1 hour ago, Windsurfboy said:

I've  a cruise , Cape town  to UK in April 2022,  which I think is 90% likely to be cancelled , for two reasons, world cruise won't go to Australia, also   S africa could well still on red or amber list. So far resisted buying insurance. What are others thoughts about insurance for cruises in near future , have you bought it , or waiting till full payment. 

 

Must admit we have got somewhat carefree about insurance if only a deposit at risk.  Partly because we have some health issues that would be better identified and treatment finished before a cost assessment is made by our insurance company.  We are conscious thought that any further health issues would not be covered by our annual insurance at zero extra cost, though they would have been if the assessment was in place and paid for on booking.

 

A calculated gamble as we look at it.

 

Edited May 27, 2021 by tring

[wowzz]

We currently have 4  cruises booked, the first being October this year, and currently have no insurance in place ( we normally have an annual policy, which we have let lapse).

Our current "exposure" for all 4 cruises is less than £1500,  so we will wait until final payment is due for the October cruise, and then take out an annual policy - by delaying the purchase date we will be able to cover 3 of the 4 cruises with one annual policy.     

[Windsurfboy]

Money at stake is full cost in FCC, it won't be covered by annual policy as together with land holiday before is over 35days. However I understand if I take out policy when country is on red list , we're not insured even if I can't go because of anything that happens  in UK. I can afford the loss but insurance would be money down drain . If the cruise is not happening,  Emirates are offering insurance policies which cover red countries so would use them and fly both ways

[John Bull]

17 hours ago, tring said:

 

Must admit we have got somewhat carefree about insurance if only a deposit at risk. 

 

 Do check the cruise line's cancellation terms. Whilst the only money already paid is just the deposit, the cancellation penalty in some contracts is larger than the deposit - ie the cruise line may chase you for more money. 

We too have allowed our travel insurance to lapse (haven't been out of the country for over a year and don't expect to until next Spring at the earliest), but would renew it or take out one-off insurance at the same time as booking or committing other expenses. One-off insurance costs no more if you insure early.

 

JB 🙂

[tring]

3 hours ago, John Bull said:

 Do check the cruise line's cancellation terms. Whilst the only money already paid is just the deposit, the cancellation penalty in some contracts is larger than the deposit - ie the cruise line may chase you for more money. 

We too have allowed our travel insurance to lapse (haven't been out of the country for over a year and don't expect to until next Spring at the earliest), but would renew it or take out one-off insurance at the same time as booking or committing other expenses. One-off insurance costs no more if you insure early.

 

JB 🙂

 

I know that applies with Tui land hols, for instance, but our cruises for this year are covered by flexible change of cruise etc.  Having said that, since I made my previous comment, we have on spec just booked a four night cruise for July and paid the full cost, so currently looking at insurance/hotels/train travel to the port (it is a one way cruise Greenock - Liverpool).

[silversurf]

We have 3 cruises booked in the next 18 months. Two are with Saga, so that’s no problem as insurance included.

The other one is P and O in August, cruise to nowhere.

As we have a couple of medical conditions which makes our insurance premium far more than the deposit we shall wait until a few days before cruise balance is due.

[wowzz]

4 hours ago, silversurf said:

We have 3 cruises booked in the next 18 months. Two are with Saga, so that’s no problem as insurance included.

The other one is P and O in August, cruise to nowhere.

As we have a couple of medical conditions which makes our insurance premium far more than the deposit we shall wait until a few days before cruise balance is due.

As I am sure you are aware, you need to ensure your insurance meets P&O's requirements for Seacation cruises.  

[watsonbeau]

Uk FCDO advice remains to avoid cruises (other than the round UK ones ).
 

If you want to take out insurance at point of booking or indeed after booking - what insurance could you actually take out ?

would it need to include travel against FCDO advice - which is not same as red/Amber/green - which is a further complication- though I assume Cunard would cancel or rearrange ports to avoid any red/Amber/any against FCDO ? 

 

am booked on first sector QM2 world cruise. Currently Spain/Greece/Jordan/Oman/Dubai all Amber/red - only Israel green but then recent issues in Israel may negate there as well. 

Thoughts?  Thank you 

[Harters]

We have similar issues here. We've just gone to renew our annual travel policy. It's basically "free" through our NatWest account but we have about a £300 excess to pay for pre-existing conditions. This year "computer says no" and they've declined to cover me for anything connected to my various conditions which. broadly speaking, makes it a pointless policy.

 

We're now searching round for a new policy which will cover the conditions. Any recommendations, please?  Our planned (but not yet booked) cruise is literally 12 months away - departing 3/6/22 - although we have another holiday planned for 1/22.

 

Subject to any advice you have to offer, our plan is to book the cruise in the next day or so but leave the insurance for a couple of weeks, so that the duration of the cruise is fully within the annual period of the insurance. Does that make sense or is there a fatal flaw in our plan?

TIA

[wowzz]

23 hours ago, Harters said:

Does that make sense or is there a fatal flaw in our plan?

Cant really see a flaw. In fact, unless you have another holiday booked,  or will be paying 

a massive deposit, why not wait until nearer the final payment date before taking out the policy?

As regards who to use, we have always found  Insure and Go to be competitive. 

[tring]

On 5/31/2021 at 11:41 AM, watsonbeau said:

 

Uk FCDO advice remains to avoid cruises (other than the round UK ones ).
 

If you want to take out insurance at point of booking or indeed after booking - what insurance could you actually take out ?

would it need to include travel against FCDO advice - which is not same as red/Amber/green - which is a further complication- though I assume Cunard would cancel or rearrange ports to avoid any red/Amber/any against FCDO ? 

 

am booked on first sector QM2 world cruise. Currently Spain/Greece/Jordan/Oman/Dubai all Amber/red - only Israel green but then recent issues in Israel may negate there as well. 

Thoughts?  Thank you 

 

My immediate thoughts are that if your world cruise is early next year, it will be cancelled by the cruise company.  Fred has, in the last few days, cancelled his world cruise as well as an around South America cruise which were due out in the first couple of months of next year.  Other cruise lines may take longer (perhaps a lot longer), but they will not be visiting iffy locations or ones that may not be prepared to accept cruise ships.  However I can add some details regards our insurance company.

 

We have added our health conditions to our bank (AXA) insurance policy today.  During the conversation we were asked where we had planned to visit (it is just a number of European countries for this year as yet). 

 

We were advised that their policy has now changed, so they will not now cover cancellation for holidays due to the FCDO advising against travel because of covid, (or indeed any other pandemic that may subsequently arise).  We would still be covered if the FCDO advice is because of another reason (e.g. war or terrorist attack).  We are quite happy with that as we only intend to book package holidays (or cruises, which are a package) at present, so we will have protection as the company will cancel the holiday and we would therefore be entitled to a refund. 

 

It will, however, mean we can no longer book a fly cruise without taking a flight inclusive package from either the cruse line or an agent, or arrange flights and hotels separately for a land holiday, without taking on that cancellation risk ourselves.  We are covered for all other aspects of cancellation regards covid, including testing positive or the need to self isolate as we may have been in contact with someone who has the disease.  All medical insurance for covid is also covered.

 

I can well understand why our insurance company has made that change, and expect all standard insurance companies (non specialist ones) will likely take on the same policy, (if they have not done so already).  We are thankful of our package travel protections though. 

 

Of course if the FCDO advice was against travel to those countries when we booked and remained so, we would not have been covered for cancellation anyway, but we would not forsee that advice remaining for the areas we have booked to travel at present, by the time our holidays takes place.

 

Happy days - just one more hurdle to consider when booking a holiday now. 

 

 

Edited June 4, 2021 by tring

[Harters]

On 6/3/2021 at 3:06 PM, wowzz said:

Cant really see a flaw.

Thanks for the confirmation. We've googled a bit a decided on Staysure which, apart from seeming a reasonable deal, offers 15 month cover for 12 months payment, so our next years cruise is covered (and now booked)