cruise insurance advice for seniors with medical history, advice please

My parents aged 74 and 71 are joining us on a 4 night cruise to bruge and gurnsey, it's their first cruise, can anyone recommend a travel insurance provider, my father has some medical history inc high blood pressure and a pacemaker fitted but has been given the all clear by his doctor to travel, I'm sure plenty of people cruise with this sort of history or unfortunately worse. Many thanks

Hello,

See https://www.justtravelcover.com/

The full T&Cs with P&O require that all medical conditions are covered by insurance as a condition of travel. How policed I do not know.

Regards,

Cublet

I use Staysure.

I don't have any medical conditions but have read on here they are reasonable for those who do.

They have cover designed for cruising, certainly worth getting a quote.

http://www.staysure.co.uk/travel-insurance/cruise?gclid=CLrkvfmP7s8CFRATGwodBYwLLg

If it helps: They have a promotional code for 15% off till the end of October, from an e-mail they sent me earlier this month.

Try puffin insurance, my husband needs cover for pre- existing medical problems, and we find this company fits the bill without being too expensive

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We have an annual policy and both my husband and I have medical conditions - non serious. We were with Saga for several years. Then my husband suggested we get a quote from Direct Line as we already had a policy for other insurance with them. I also got a quote from Staysure - who would have willingly covered us. I was amazed to find that Direct Line was a lot cheaper than Saga, and certainly cheaper than Staysure. We took a policy in June and then in September we had to cancel a holiday - not a cruise - as I had developed knee problems. Direct Line paid out our claim fully with no problem - once we had submitted the usual Doctor's form etc.

We are both in our mid 70's and it can be difficult to get cover. You could try a local broker, both my wife and I have notifiable conditions, the mainstream like Saga, Boots, Post Office and my bank that we have used in the past won't touch us now. We have been quoted as far as £2400 for a 14 day cruise! The local broker was able to get us cover for £124 single trip, or £480 for a year.

My partner and I both have pre existing conditions. To find the most suitable cover at the right price you need to ring around.

We have a worldwide insurance which includes cruising for around £300 for the two of us. It is with Staysure.

LV have a very good online quote system which takes into account health issues.

It can get to the stage where no company will insure you due to age, though mid seventies should not normally be a problem, and medical reasons. Some conditions will make it impossible.

I would be wary of local agents who sell all kinds of insurances. Ideally go to a company specialising in travel and specifically in cruises. If you get a quote that is way below others be careful. And read the full schedule before you buy: never accept what you are told over the phone or face to face.

And make sure you don't miss anything out re your medical record. One small omission can invalidate the cover.

David.

Balf

Fortunately the broker I use is a long established company within the shipping industry. That company also handles my personal insurance and my companies business insurance.

Getting travel insurance is problematical for us, I have 2 notifiable conditions, but my wife has a multitude from the result of 2 cancer operations and the after effects. I am well aware of the terms and conditions, when my wife had cancer, we were insured by Saga.

We had to cancel a cruise we had booked at that time, and Saga took 3 months and many letters and phone calls to sort it out, something i did not need when my wife was very ill.

The treatment we received from P&O was not much better, resulting in us leaving them after 27 cruises, their loss, Celebrtiy's gain.

I use Staysure.

I don't have any medical conditions but have read on here they are reasonable for those who do.

They have cover designed for cruising, certainly worth getting a quote.

 

http://www.staysure.co.uk/travel-insurance/cruise?gclid=CLrkvfmP7s8CFRATGwodBYwLLg

 

 

If it helps: They have a promotional code for 15% off till the end of October, from an e-mail they sent me earlier this month.

We've had a bad experience with Staysure. Booked for my Mum a year ahead of the cruise and declared everything including COPD and chest infections. Mum had a minor chest infection the week before the cruise, her doctor said she was fine to travel but on advising Staysure they said she would not be covered for any COPD related issue plus said she wouldn't be covered for cancellation due to the chest infection as the doctor said she was ok to travel (catch 22). So they took the inflated premium but then removed cover for a declared condition the week before travel. We are now litigating against them.

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You could try Covered2go :)

One of Which's recommendations.

http://www.covered2go.co.uk/travel-insurance/?gclid=CM-Zpov57s8CFTMo0wodrVAE3g

Think on P & O website they have list of insurers specialising in medical conditions.

Make sure you have cruise insurance, not all insurance companies cover cruises. Our last two cruises have been with Holiday Extras. We have quite a number of medical problems and it frightens me to death when doing the declarations in case I miss something insignificant. Paid high premiums for the last 35 years and, touch wood, never had to make a claim.

Staysure didn't want to know and the sales person was quite dismissive of us.

We use our homeowners insurance for our travel insurance also. USAA insures military members and their family. We use it each time we cruise. I am a heart, double lung and kidney transplant recipient, so we get really good coverage for a great price. They cover out home, auto, etc.

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We have an annual policy and both my husband and I have medical conditions - non serious. We were with Saga for several years. Then my husband suggested we get a quote from Direct Line as we already had a policy for other insurance with them. I also got a quote from Staysure - who would have willingly covered us. I was amazed to find that Direct Line was a lot cheaper than Saga, and certainly cheaper than Staysure. We took a policy in June and then in September we had to cancel a holiday - not a cruise Direct Line paid out our claim fully with no problem - once we had submitted the usual Doctor's form etc.

Can I just say that when I tried to use direct line as few years ago. They did not cover cruising. Since that revelation I a,ways ask that question!

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We've had a bad experience with Staysure. Booked for my Mum a year ahead of the cruise and declared everything including COPD and chest infections. Mum had a minor chest infection the week before the cruise, her doctor said she was fine to travel but on advising Staysure they said she would not be covered for any COPD related issue plus said she wouldn't be covered for cancellation due to the chest infection as the doctor said she was ok to travel (catch 22). So they took the inflated premium but then removed cover for a declared condition the week before travel. We are now litigating against them.

 

 

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That's the problem with insurance companies, you don't know how good they are till you need to make a claim.

Hope you get it sorted out.

Jackieo, can I just say that when we took out our insurance with Direct Line I did check that they covered Cruises and was told yes they did. The only thing they wouldn't cover was that we have booked on the Aurora South American cruise 65 nights in Jan 2018. They would only issue cover a year from the date of return - ie the cruise returns on 18th March, so could only take out cover from 19th March 2017 - and in any case they would not cover a cruise for as long as 65 nights - so we still have to find cover for that which we need to do before we pay the balance - so at the moment our deposit is not covered.

Insure and Go cover medical conditions, which my OH has but I don't to my knowledge. They offer additional Cruise Cover, for which I think I was charged about !15 on top of my annual policy charge; worth it as I cruise about 3 times a year.

Hello,

I have just renewed my annual cover this morning - see my first post.

Whilst 'on hold' I heard the message say "We have no upper age limit for single trip policies".

Beware of 'Cruise Cover'. I found out that a policy with so-called Cruise Cover only covered you (health incident/baggage) whilst on a cruise and not for the type of incident one could experience whilst on, and only on, a cruise (eg confinement to cabin, missed port etc).

So single person, over 60 (I'm not saying how far!), three medical conditions with medication and full cruise cover = £67.

Merry Christmas to all my readers.:)

Regards,

Cublet

Hello,

 

 

Beware of 'Cruise Cover'. I found out that a policy with so-called Cruise Cover only covered you (health incident/baggage) whilst on a cruise and not for the type of incident one could experience whilst on, and only on, a cruise (eg confinement to cabin, missed port etc).

 

So single person, over 60 (I'm not saying how far!), three medical conditions with medication and full cruise cover = £67

Hmmmmmm. Our cruise cover includes missed ports, cabin confinement, etc. as did the previous provider. Our recent Altantic Islands cruise cost over £250 for a couple in their 60s for 2 weeks, only 1 of which needs to declare pre-existing. The cruise cover excess itself was £90.

Just when travel insurers cotton onto cruise cover. Only seems to have happened fairly recently.

One of the factors insurers take into account when you are on a cruise is that you do not necessarily have access to the same level and speed of care that you would have at a land based hospital, and so the risk of complications is higher. In serious cases, you could need to be medivacced from the ship....cost is thousands. So your insurer needs to know that you are going on a cruise....if you haven't told them, any claim for treatment could be rejected....as could getting you home.

The additional cover for things like cabin confinement, missed ports etc is in effect a bonus which some people do not consider worth the extra, and that is fine.....but you still need basic cruise cover.