UK...... A question on Insurance and non UK only cruises.

[brimary]

12 hours ago, Philandher said:

They are happy to insure me for international cruises within the EU, even when the specific question was asked, the note has been placed on file and the call recording stored.

Presumably it does not cover UK included cruises as we are no longer in EU.Must check our insurance as we favour uK round trip cruises in the present circumstances.Thanks for the warning!

[Philandher]

4 hours ago, Cruiser6270 said:

That's good. So, you have written confirmation they will NOT insure you and now being asked to rely on an agent's word (and their recording) that a "note" has been placed on your file saying that you ARE covered. Under those circs, might want to think about getting that in writing.

Written confirmation has now come through from Staysure that the Greek/Cyprus cuises are covered by their insurance.

[Philandher]

1 hour ago, brimary said:

Presumably it does not cover UK included cruises as we are no longer in EU.Must check our insurance as we favour uK round trip cruises in the present circumstances.Thanks for the warning!

The issue with international cruise regards the FCDO advice, Coronavirus (COVID-19): domestic cruise ship travel - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

[les37b]

29 minutes ago, Philandher said:

Written confirmation has now come through from Staysure that the Greek/Cyprus cuises are covered by their insurance.

 

Pleased for you.... Enjoy your trip. They wouldn't budge for me. 😭

[Philandher]

Just now, les37b said:

 

Pleased for you.... Enjoy your trip. They wouldn't budge for me. 😭

Have you spoken to them this week?

[les37b]

Just now, Philandher said:

Have you spoken to them this week?

 

No Friday... but will now! Is there a name it was signed by?

[Philandher]

1 minute ago, les37b said:

 

No Friday... but will now! Is there a name it was signed by?

They told me yesterday that they had changed their policy in the last couple of days, the confirmation came from their customer services dept. Phone for a quote and stress the point re FCDO advisory note on international cruising in EU waters and request written confirmation.

[les37b]

2 hours ago, Philandher said:

They told me yesterday that they had changed their policy in the last couple of days, the confirmation came from their customer services dept. Phone for a quote and stress the point re FCDO advisory note on international cruising in EU waters and request written confirmation.

 

What a palaver!!!

 

So I ring and get Pardip..... He runs through that cruises and covid are covered and reads out the policy details which I challenge for the international waters advisory. I even get him to look up government website and he insists because he is giving me cover for cruises I am covered. When I point out you can go on domestic cruises and this advisory is for international, he says, OK, I will double check and he then cut me off!

 

I waited for an hour in case it was an accident and was just finding out the details and would call back. He didnt.

 

So I called again, explained what had happened and what I was specifically calling about. The lady I spoke to was aware of the advisory and said they do not offer insurance for international cruises. She said "we've been made aware in the last couple of days"..... and went on to say their CS are contacting people they've sold policies, to inform them so they dont travel on cruises thinking they are covered when they are not. The fact you have it in writing, gives you cover - so fingers crossed they don't contact you before you sail. Once on the ship, that's it! Keep a low profile until then! lol

 

I find it crazy they can give polar opposite advise for such an important thing - or that they are saying they only just new about the advisory, which has been there since April.

 

I guess I should have just let Pardip finish! lol

 

Fingers crossed Phil.

 

 

Edited July 21, 2021 by les37b

[Philandher]

44 minutes ago, les37b said:

 

What a palaver!!!

 

So I ring and get Pardip..... He runs through that cruises and covid are covered and reads out the policy details which I challenge for the international waters advisory. I even get him to look up government website and he insists because he is giving me cover for cruises I am covered. When I point out you can go on domestic cruises and this advisory is for international, he says, OK, I will double check and he then cut me off!

 

I waited for an hour in case it was an accident and was just finding out the details and would call back. He didnt.

 

So I called again, explained what had happened and what I was specifically calling about. The lady I spoke to was aware of the advisory and said they do not offer insurance for international cruises. She said "we've been made aware in the last couple of days"..... and went on to say their CS are contacting people they've sold policies, to inform them so they dont travel on cruises thinking they are covered when they are not. The fact you have it in writing, gives you cover - so fingers crossed they don't contact you before you sail. Once on the ship, that's it! Keep a low profile until then! lol

 

I find it crazy they can give polar opposite advise for such an important thing - or that they are saying they only just new about the advisory, which has been there since April.

 

I guess I should have just let Pardip finish! lol

 

Fingers crossed Phil.

 

 

I can't believe this, the next thing to check is that the meeting was due to take place today to review the FCDO's advice on international cruising, hopefully the advisory note will be removed.

[Staffordshirecruiser]

Hi, I’m looking at Silversea cruises as an alternative to Viking.  Many Viking passengers have been having the same issue with European cruises and Staysure giving inconsistent messages, sometimes in the same call?  The complaints handler called last week and unequivocally said we would not be insured whilst the FCDO advice was in place. 

[Silver Spectre]

UK Gov has just changed their international cruising advice, so that’s fixed the insurance issue. 😀

[NeilP57]

8 minutes ago, Silver Spectre said:

UK Gov has just changed their international cruising advice, so that’s fixed the insurance issue. 😀

This has just been reported in Travel Weekly. 
 

A statement from the Department for Transport confirmed: “Following the close monitoring of epidemiological evidence, gained through the restart of the domestic cruise industry earlier this year, the UK government has also confirmed the go ahead for international cruise sailings to restart from England in line with Public Health England guidance.

“International cruise travel advice will be amended to encourage travellers to understand the risks associated with cruise travel and take personal responsibility for their own safety abroad.”

It added: “To further support the safe restart of international cruise travel, the Government and cruise industry have signed a breakthrough Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to help the industry build back from Covid-19 while protecting British nationals from future pandemic-related disruption.”

 

Elsewhere it reports it is from 2nd August.
 

Interestingly the quote says that it relates to cruises from England. So it hard to know whether they will remove the advisory notice completely or amend it further to allow international cruising from England but not fly cruises elsewhere. So it is currently unclear whether this bring the Iceland and Malta cruises under normal insurance. 
 

We will need to await the updating of the relevant pages on the FCO website. 

Edited July 28, 2021 by NeilP57

[Silver Spectre]

I believe the reason it specifically mentions England is because there is different advice from Scotland.

Edited July 28, 2021 by Silver Spectre

[les37b]

19 minutes ago, Silver Spectre said:

I believe the reason it specifically mentions England is because there is different advice from Scotland.

 

Indeed. I think she has just lifted the ban on UK only cruise ships, though I may be wrong.

 

I just heard the news and about to post. If only they had done this a week ago. I'd be in Dubrovnik right now on Viking Venus - with the other 136 passengers (oh and Croatia lifted the bubble for Viking also)

 

All good news as long as the country doesnt go amber plus or red. Panama is still a complete no go for us still for Jan on Silver Dawn, so I expect we may hear those changes in the next couple of weeks.

 

 

[les37b]

28 minutes ago, NeilP57 said:

It added: “To further support the safe restart of international cruise travel, the Government and cruise industry have signed a breakthrough Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to help the industry build back from Covid-19 while protecting British nationals from future pandemic-related disruption.”

 

Elsewhere it reports it is from 2nd August.
 

Interestingly the quote says that it relates to cruises from England. So it hard to know whether they will remove the advisory notice completely or amend it further to allow international cruising from England but not fly cruises elsewhere. So it is currently unclear whether this bring the Iceland and Malta cruises under normal insurance. 
 

We will need to await the updating of the relevant pages on the FCO website. 

 

I certainly read that as Cruises in general. There was no advisory of domestic UK only cruises - but I agree they could be saying UK to somewhere rather than Malta to Malta - but that would then make no sense..... but lets be fair, much of it hasn't.

[les37b]

And it's gone.......................

 

 

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/cruise-ship-travel

 

 

Happy days.

[Cruiser6270]

1 hour ago, Silver Spectre said:

I believe the reason it specifically mentions England is because there is different advice from Scotland.

FCDO advice applies to the whole of the UK. Scotland does not have its own equivalent of the FCDO - so insurance should now be valid for int cruises wherever you live in the UK. 

Edited July 28, 2021 by Cruiser6270

[NeilP57]

7 minutes ago, les37b said:

And it's gone.......................

 

 

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/cruise-ship-travel

 

 

Happy days.

Not even “going, going……”

 

But as you say.  “Gone”

[Whaleofatime]

Well that's good as a significant number of Brits joined the Moon with us yesterday so either they were unaware of any insurance issues or like us, prepared to risk it 😉. 

The fireworks were a nice send off last night. 

[Mr Luxury]

Fireworks were great

It's a lovely ship although I wouldn't want to be on anything larger

[Whaleofatime]

10 hours ago, Mr Luxury said:

Fireworks were great

It's a lovely ship although I wouldn't want to be on anything larger

Larger can be fun, the itinerary is important to us. We weren't sure about Greece but today has been wonderful. Dinner in La Dame was beyond expectations