Iceland from UK - Insurance?

[Dave W 10]

Iceland cruise booked 24th July from UK.

UK govt currently advise against international cruising in which case travel insurance is invalid. Any thoughts? Is this due to change on 19th July.

I know Iceland is on the green list but international cruising is still not advised.

I will ask Viking but that is not easy at present so wondering whether anyone had an answer already.

[Staffordshirecruiser]

Hi, by coincidence we have booked Malta for the same day, 24 July.  I was going to  do an internet trawl today.  I am aware there is a travel insurance you can buy to travel to areas against UK gov advice,  but not sure if this also covers travelling in a manner against uk gov advice. 

[arlowood]

9 hours ago, Dave W 10 said:

Iceland cruise booked 24th July from UK.

UK govt currently advise against international cruising in which case travel insurance is invalid. Any thoughts? Is this due to change on 19th July.

I know Iceland is on the green list but international cruising is still not advised.

I will ask Viking but that is not easy at present so wondering whether anyone had an answer already.

Yes - there appears to be a major disconnect between the Government Traffic Light System and the FCO advice. When the traffic light system was introduced there were some significant anomalies where countries appeared on the Amber list - so effectively you could travel there but would have to quarantine on return - but several of these countries were still on the FCO list advising against any travel. I'm still not sure whether there has been any change to align the FCO list and the traffic light list of countries as far as general holiday travel is concerned.

Where things stand vis-a-vis cruising just adds another complicating layer to the whole picture.

 

Viking have cancelled the repositioning cruise of the VIking Venus planned for 3rd July. This was supposed to sail from Portsmouth to Malta (Valetta) via Porto, Lisbon and Gibraltar. One reason suggested for the cancellation was that a significant tranche of USA based passengers cancelled en masse when they discovered that they could not transit the UK without the need to quarantine. Other suggestions point to entry restrictions for the 2 Portuguese ports. Whatever the reason it just emphasises the fact the cruise travel will be a constantly evolving entity while we navigate our way out of this pandemic.

 

However I do think that the |Government should get a grip of the FCO/ Health Guidance disconnect to remove at least one source of confusion.

[Staffordshirecruiser]

Hi Again, just spent an hour on the internet, no info on travel insurance for international cruises against FCDO advice as yet, but I’m hoping this will emerge as UK residents start taking the step beyond uk cruising.  I intend to keep a watching brief as plenty could happen, the FCDO could declare international cruises as ok, the travel insurance industry could promote a suitable product or the cruise could be cancelled by Viking as has happened with the repositioning cruise. If I can’t get insurance by 10 July,, we will have to move onto a later cruise before the risk free guarantee expires. In the meantime I shall just have happy dreams of getting back on Viking Venus.

[NeilP57]

How ironic. 
 

My own travel insurance through Barclays Bank (Premier Travel Plan Plus) does cover me for travelling to countries which the FCO advise against. 
 

I had a letter yesterday telling me that they are withdrawing the policy from the end of August 2021. Fortunately we will be back from Iceland by then. 
 

The replacement policy does not offer such cover but if you agree to take out the replacement they will extend the cover for pre-existing holidays booked. 
 

We have a 2 overseas cruises booked already for next year so will probably roll over into their new policy despite the price hike and then likely review after the second cruise. 
 

Interestingly, I think the FCO advise is only against International cruising but visiting Iceland is okay. Not sure how all the policy wordings out there would cope with such subtleties. 
 

 

[Queenie1603]

On 6/26/2021 at 12:25 AM, Dave W 10 said:

UK govt currently advise against international cruising in which case travel insurance is invalid. Any thoughts? Is this due to change on 19th July.

Thanks for this information. We are sailing on 7/8 so hope this is clarified by 23/7. I will check with our insurer as I did stipulate the protection was for a cruise. I had assumed that, as this was a single country cruise to a green area, this would be covered but not taken into account the FCO guidance. 

[robinhood1]

We have our insurance with Nationwide - as has already been said the subtleties of the policy wordings are interesting. It is clear that the policy does not cover Inadvised countries but no mention if I advised methods of travel! The Global Travel Task force report is interesting - it says that international cruising should restart in line with the traffic light policy - it is also due to report tomorrow ( 28/6). We shall have to see what they say. Viking must have a lot of bookings hanging on this - they have been selling Malta, Iceland and River Cruises from around the 20th July so. They must be expecting things to change.

[arlowood]

21 minutes ago, robinhood1 said:

We have our insurance with Nationwide - as has already been said the subtleties of the policy wordings are interesting. It is clear that the policy does not cover Inadvised countries but no mention if I advised methods of travel! The Global Travel Task force report is interesting - it says that international cruising should restart in line with the traffic light policy - it is also due to report tomorrow ( 28/6). We shall have to see what they say. Viking must have a lot of bookings hanging on this - they have been selling Malta, Iceland and River Cruises from around the 20th July so. They must be expecting things to change.

If I remember correctly, I think river cruises were exempted from the international cruising ban or at least released from the ban some time ago. This link suggests the exemption was given as far back as July 2020

 

https://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/news/5464/

[Staffordshirecruiser]

All sorted.  I rang one of the specialist insurance companies today, and they arranged cruise insurance for travel against FCO advice, so we are good to go!  I took an annual policy to give lots of flexibility.

[Alan2504]

4 minutes ago, Staffordshirecruiser said:

All sorted.  I rang one of the specialist insurance companies today, and they arranged cruise insurance for travel against FCO advice, so we are good to go!  I took an annual policy to give lots of flexibility.

We were in the same situation but in the fine print our policy only references

 

"FCO travel advice: Foreign & Commonwealth Office advice against ‘All travel’ or ‘All but essential travel’ to your intended destination "

 

So it appears simply "advice against" would still be covered?

[Dave W 10]

19 minutes ago, Staffordshirecruiser said:

All sorted.  I rang one of the specialist insurance companies today, and they arranged cruise insurance for travel against FCO advice, so we are good to go!  I took an annual policy to give lots of flexibility.

Could you let me know what company. I think we're sorted but an alternative would be handy.

Thanks Dave

[Staffordshirecruiser]

 

3 hours ago, Dave W 10 said:

Could you let me know what company. I think we're sorted but an alternative would be handy.

Thanks Dave

Hi Dave, I’m not sure if I’m allowed?  The administrator on the book of faces gave me permission, but not sure how to get it for here?

 

[JessM66]

29 minutes ago, Staffordshirecruiser said:

 

Hi Dave, I’m not sure if I’m allowed?  The administrator on the book of faces gave me permission, but not sure how to get it for here?

 

If you STAY around, I’m SURE it will be ok won’t it??

 

[Dave W 10]

28 minutes ago, Staffordshirecruiser said:

 

Hi Dave, I’m not sure if I’m allowed?  The administrator on the book of faces gave me permission, but not sure how to get it for here?

 

Assuming you're Heather, I've found your information on the book of faces. It's actually who I had already looked at. I'm awaiting an answer to an email I sent to confirm they cover international cruising which you already have covered.

If anyone is wondering the extra cost for the FCDO extension was £5 for a couple so far from prohibitive.

[Dave W 10]

5 minutes ago, JessM66 said:

If you STAY around, I’m SURE it will be ok won’t it??

Very good. I could have saved my time searching if I had waited!

[Staffordshirecruiser]

Hi Dave, yep, that’s me.  We were on Venus third uk cruise, and I really didn’t want to get off!  We’ve booked Malta even though it’s only a few weeks later - a little more complicated than Iceland because it involves amber ports.  Pictures from Iceland looking great.

 

[Dave W 10]

We were on the second Venus UK cruise and enjoyed it so much we booked the last minute fourth cruise while we were on board.

We chose Iceland to avoid the amber countries not realising that the cruise itself would be an issue.

The joys of being retired!

 

[Staffordshirecruiser]

I’m half thinking of changing to Iceland having seen the pictures  and booking a Malta based one later in the year.  

[Queenie1603]

Thanks for raising FCO advise. . I contacted our insurers and found out that the policy is invalid if the FCO guidance remains the same. only U.K. only cruising is considered OK. I could wait and see what happens but decided to find another insurer. There are insurers out there.   

Edited June 30, 2021 by Queenie1603
Removed name of Insurer

[Dave W 10]

20 hours ago, Queenie1603 said:

Thanks for raising FCO advise. . I contacted our insurers and found out that the policy is invalid if the FCO guidance remains the same. only U.K. only cruising is considered OK. I could wait and see what happens but decided to find another insurer. There are insurers out there.   

Is it the SURE insurance company referred to above?

[Staffordshirecruiser]

I double checked today, I used the term international cruises because that is the FCO term, the advisor initially said we weren’t covered, but on clarifying we were actually talking about European Cruises she said she needed to check, I’m waiting for confirmation but this shows how much of a niche issue it is, and how a single word can create such confusion.

[Queenie1603]

2 hours ago, Dave W 10 said:

Is it the SURE insurance company referred to above?

 

[Queenie1603]

Yes. I think what is important that others like me thought they were covered because we were travelling to Iceland. 

[Staffordshirecruiser]

Hi, we have just transferred our Malta booking to a UK Scenic Shores sailing that has just become available on 7 August.  So I will be contacting the insurance company about downgrading my insurance.  I was finding I was getting more stressed re the insurance and changing Covid rules and less excited about how great a Viking Cruise is.