P&O Cruisers - What are things like where YOU are?

[Purdey16]

Graham I’m very happy for your all clear from your skin cancer op last year 🎉 so maybe it’s time to book another 🛳️⚓️

[Megabear2]

There has been a huge increase in the cost of travel insurance across the board, in fact in any insurance related product.  Presently insurance underwriters are changing how they offer third party cover which is also resulting in withdrawal from the market and reducing the available pool.  Three of the biggest have gone since 2021.

 

Basically individuals will now need to weigh up how much they value their cruise/holidays and if paying for something they may not need (such as a packaged bank account) is a good use of their money or not.  In our case it was a no brainer for many years via Lloyd's /Halifax and then the underwriters changed, much the same as is happening with Nationwide and the cover deteriorated.  At that point moving into the open market was a massive financial shock, what had been costing a hundred pounds or so suddenly multiplied by five.  In 2021/2 with all the covid requirements still in  place lots of offers were going on to encourage people back.  Once the pandemic became a distant memory the prices rose in 2022/3, for instance my husband's policy nearly doubled from £600 to £1,100, my own staying at around £350 so a total of around £1,450  As a result we dropped back into the Halifax packaged banking world in January 2023 where his medical add ons were a lump sum payment of £223, no extra for me and £18 a month for the bank account. Grand total £439 for the year, worldwide annual travel insurance covering winter sports and cruising, not the missed ports stuff but good solid cover for the vital stuff.  This year because I'm rapidly approaching 70 and the cut off for many insurers, I've shopped the market and found that the package bank account still wins hands down both for cost and level of cover.  Nationwide under UK insurance actually means a price reduction in our case for fuller cover so a bit of juggling and opening another account has been necessary but overall the £13 per month plus the  £216 add ons for my husband's 5 major illnesses means its still worth the £156 a year for the bank account as we are now at a third of the cost for his policy alone, never mind me.  

 

We have cruises booked well into 2026 including trips to the US and Caribbean and a QM2 world cruise for me.  We are budgeting that if we re--enter the open market we need to look at around £2,000 minimum for my OH alone on insurance, Staysure and Avanti quoting £1,500 for him alone in January this year.

 

I guess what I'm saying is every single one of us will need to work a lot harder on finding a suitable cover, may find ourselves buying something we only want to use a part of and sadly some of us may decide it's just not worth the difficulty and extra expense.

Edited April 10 by Megabear2

[grapau27]

8 hours ago, AndyMichelle said:

Don't trust em Julie, they are a bunch of charlatans who draw you in with tales of Stoke on Trent, terrible jokes and pictures of food...😢

I'm joking of course, they really are a fantastic bunch who I will be forever grateful to for their support and laughs during difficult times. 

I only check in occasionally these days as cannot keep up with the thread, but still like to see how they are all doing. 

Welcome to the madhouse... 😂

Andy 

 

Nice to hear from you Andy.

I hope you are both well.

We stayed in Premier inn West quay pre-cruise on the first floor on March 29th and they had new carpets and I was thinking had you fitted them.

We had dinner in Carluccios and Breakfast there on March 30th.

It is 4°C and sunny here at the moment.

Best wishes  to you Andy and Michelle too.

Edited April 10 by grapau27

[grapau27]

6 hours ago, Purdey16 said:

Graham I’m very happy for your all clear from your skin cancer op last year 🎉 so maybe it’s time to book another 🛳️⚓️

Thank you Sandra 😊 

[kalos]

Morning ,we have a nice sunny morning but only 4.c at the moment .

As Mega advises ,we all need to check our travel insurance and buy what

covers our needs .

I've just checked my travel insurance policy and apparently if my bed blankets

are stolen in the middle of the night, l'm not covered.🙃

Looking at the prices for luggage add ons ,I've come to the conclusion ,it would

work out cheaper to be robbed 😉

 

Hope everyone has a good day -Take Care 🙂

[Josy1953]

8 hours ago, AndyMichelle said:

Don't trust em Julie, they are a bunch of charlatans who draw you in with tales of Stoke on Trent, terrible jokes and pictures of food...😢

I'm joking of course, they really are a fantastic bunch who I will be forever grateful to for their support and laughs during difficult times. 

I only check in occasionally these days as cannot keep up with the thread, but still like to see how they are all doing. 

Welcome to the madhouse... 😂

Andy 

 

You know that you love us Andy.  How is Michelle ?

[Peanut006]

Nice to have a new member posting, welcome from me too. What could be better than cruises and dogs? as well as everyone on here too of course

 

Michelle

[Josy1953]

Back to normal this morning with the school run, I'm just glad that the weather has improved, I hate driving g in the rain.

We are going out to look for a new car today because we both dislike the Toyota, we also want a manual car because DH dislikes the automatic. I'm not particularly bothered about whether we get a manual or an automatic but I agree with him about not liking the Toyota.  We are thinking of going back to either VW or Mazda though I quite like the Mini that one of my friends has so we are also looking at those.

[mrsgoggins]

10 hours ago, delgirl said:

When we had travel insurance with our bank - barclays - they wouldn't cover us for our cancer. Aviva are their underwriters. We were thinking about changing our bank as our local branch has closed and were looking at nationwide. When we heard aviva would be their underwriters we didn't bother. We are now with all-clear. £1800 for the both of us for 12 months. Only includes europe but it was cheaper than keep paying individually. 

 

We are with Barclays for annual insurance and they excluded my husband's cancer initially. However, after one year they would cover this and with no increase in the premium, just the regular travel pack price. 

[Megabear2]

Just now, mrsgoggins said:

 

We are with Barclays for annual insurance and they excluded my husband's cancer initially. However, after one year they would cover this and with no increase in the premium, just the regular travel pack price. 

You are underwritten by Aviva too.  I believe it used to be Cigna but they left the market so your problem may have been under them.

 

Cancer is a strange one, obviously it's a critical illness at the start of treatment but insurers are aware that proper treatment actually reduces the risk.  Basically not many holidaymakers are going to have major issues or die on their holiday as a result of their cancer whereas those with other more common issues such as high cholesterol and blood pressure are.  Underwriting looks at risk not causation and anyone with cancer reduces in risk quite rapidly for them.

 

As a recovered cancer patient I find it odd that some insurers insist on a declaration of any cancer in a lifetime yet others only collate medical conditions for 5 years, 3 years, 2 years or in the case of Allianz and Nationwide policies only 12 months.

[Snow Hill]

The Dark Arts of the travel insurance industry are a mystery to me. 
 

I recently has a stay of 24hr in hospital due to a swelling in my cheek due to a sinus infection, which was drained, plus my wife had an alteration in in her medication. As they needed to be declared I went online to notify the insurer as a result there was an increase in premium of £15 for me and £1.93 for my wife. Why I was charged £15 additional premium for an infection which has cleared and no follow up needed is beyond me. 

[Splice the mainbrace]

8c, cloudy but dry at the moment but rain not far off according to the rain radar. Our lawn treatment service was postponed yesterday due to the deluge and storm yesterday, now coming tomorrow.

 

Following the travel insurance chat, with the Nationwide I get free cover for one prescription statin drug, I wonder how the new arrangement with Aviva will view this. However my wife’s charge is £63 for statin plus one other. I am classed as high cholesterol because I had a total cholesterol of over 6 nearly 20 years ago in my mid forties and have been on statins ever since. However my bad cholesterol since has always been below the 4mmol max but I have higher good at around 2 when the minimum target is 1 so still around a total of 5 overall. 

[mrsgoggins]

22 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

You are underwritten by Aviva too.  I believe it used to be Cigna but they left the market so your problem may have been under them.

 

Cancer is a strange one, obviously it's a critical illness at the start of treatment but insurers are aware that proper treatment actually reduces the risk. Basically not many holidaymakers are going to have major issues or die on their holiday as a result of their cancer whereas those with other more common issues such as high cholesterol and blood pressure are.  Underwriting looks at risk not causation and anyone with cancer reduces in risk quite rapidly for them.

 

 

The emboldened part was always our view, especially DH's, so we even travelled to the USA with the cancer cover excluded since he said if there were any problems (very highly unlikely; we had taken advice from the consultant on that) we would return home self-funded.  I was still happier when it went back as being covered, but DH was totally disinterested!

 

You are quite correct, it was Cigna and is now Aviva.

 

[Megabear2]

7 minutes ago, mrsgoggins said:

 

The emboldened part was always our view, especially DH's, so we even travelled to the USA with the cancer cover excluded since he said if there were any problems (very highly unlikely; we had taken advice from the consultant on that) we would return home self-funded.  I was still happier when it went back as being covered, but DH was totally disinterested!

 

You are quite correct, it was Cigna and is now Aviva.

 

Cigna once refused to pay for an ambulance to hospital for me in Canada after I passed out at Montreal airport and Air Canada insisted I need to be checked before rebooking.  They discussed in depth my cancer treatment from 20 years previously which had been declared and actually stated my overheating mentioned by the Canadian doctor may have been caused by that treatment!

[mrsgoggins]

2 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

Cigna once refused to pay for an ambulance to hospital for me in Canada after I passed out at Montreal airport and Air Canada insisted I need to be checked before rebooking.  They discussed in depth my cancer treatment from 20 years previously which had been declared and actually stated my overheating mentioned by the Canadian doctor may have been caused by that treatment!

 

I bet you challenged that forcefully!  Did they relent?

[Megabear2]

4 minutes ago, mrsgoggins said:

 

I bet you challenged that forcefully!  Did they relent?

I did but got nowhere.  Eventually the Canadians were threatening me with collection agencies so I paid it myself and went down the complaint route.  Ironically my complaint was upheld and I was awarded compensation which came to more than the C$400 for the ambulance.  They even went so far as to defend themselves by saying the Canadians had inflated the ambulance costs - they had because Canada charges tourists 4 times the normal cost for medical services including ambulances - but the Ombudsman told them you can't tell a foreign government how to charge!

[Adawn47]

3 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

I guess what I'm saying is every single one of us will need to work a lot harder on finding a suitable cover, may find ourselves buying something we only want to use a part of and sadly some of us may decide it's just not worth the difficulty and extra expense.

I'm afraid I may falling into that category.

I've been spending  a little time each day with a cup of coffee and my laptop searching through this minefield only to end up with cold coffee and a frayed temper. 

I've been sorting out our travel insurance for over 50 years and it has never been this complicated. I'm begining to feel like an old uneducated numpty🤪

I know our ages, illnesses and now Frank's HF increases the cost of travel insurance, but the whole thing is so complicated now, and while I could always read between the lines and understand the small print, it now seems to be written in Sanskrit. 

As Dad always said that if something looks too good to be true, it usually is.

Frustrated Avril

[Megabear2]

Just now, Adawn47 said:

I'm afraid I may falling into that category.

I've been spending  a little time each day with a cup of coffee and my laptop searching through this minefield only to end up with cold coffee and a frayed temper. 

I've been sorting out our travel insurance for over 50 years and it has never been this complicated. I'm begining to feel like an old uneducated numpty🤪

I know our ages, illnesses and now Frank's HF increases the cost of travel insurance, but the whole thing is so complicated now, and while I could always read between the lines and understand the small print, it now seems to be written in Sanskrit. 

As Dad always said that if something looks too good to be true, it usually is.

Frustrated Avril

You may well be better making telephone calls as (a) these are recorded and (b) you can go into more detail than just ticking the boxes to get computer says no.  As I said my aunt got cover with All Clear with her recently diagnosed heart failure and I know that Nationwide also offered cover because her now partner wanted to add her on his policy but she wanted to stay independent.

 

I have to call every year for husband - he has quite major problems including a myocardial Bridge (missing two heart valves since birth), fibromyalgia, ME, IBS and chronic depression.  Yes, the cost is high but the benefits to him of his holidays are so much worth the stress to me!

 

Perhaps call Nationwide, you can do the medical questionnaire and get a quote before you open an account.  You would at least have a whole year of cover with UK Insurance if you do it before end of April and hopefully the market will get calmer by next year.

[Peppers mum]

Apologies for not replying to everyone individually but a massive THANK YOU to each and every one of you for welcoming me so warmly, it really is appreciated.

 

Yesterday saw our recycling bins emptied as normal (green-garden & food, brown- glass, plastic, paper, cardboard etc) however the lid off our green bin completely disappeared too! I duly reported it to our local council and the lady I spoke to said they must be collecting them as she'd had lots of phone calls! She took all the relevant details including my date of birth!! 

This morning I received an email from Alliance (the Waste team) asking for a photo of the damage and also the age of the bin. The date of manufacture can be found .   . . wait for it . . . . In or under the bin lid!!!!! 🤔 

Have a good day everyone, how many of you will now be checking your bin lids for dates,! Ha ha!!

[Paddypuss]

Good morning everyone. I am one of the "lurkers", love reading everyone's posts. How about cruises and cats I am a cat fan. Dogs are Ok, wouldn't have one though.  We have  similar family problem to graham's and it is very upsetting, but have to cope with it.  I love cruises holidays days away love staying g in hotels

[Adawn47]

25 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

Perhaps call Nationwide, you can do the medical questionnaire and get a quote before you open an account.  You would at least have a whole year of cover with UK Insurance if you do it before end of April and hopefully the market will get calmer by next year.

We bank with Virgin now, who took over/merged with our bank Yorkshire. Virgin are now in the process of being taken over/merging with Nationwide by the end of this year, and will become our bank. Maybe I should wait until then🤫

Avril

Edited April 10 by Adawn47

[P&O SUE]

On 4/7/2024 at 8:52 AM, Beckett said:

Good luck to Liverpool today Sue. If Arsenal can't win the title I'd love it to be Liverpool for Klopp to finish on a real high. You're going to miss him so much. Have a good day and fingers crossed! Jane xx

Yes I’ve no idea who can replace Klopp, he’s such a big character and has done loads like completely changing all the training facilities.

I’d rather Arsenal won than those cheating Saudis! 😏

Less said about the game the better! 😞

[terrierjohn]

46 minutes ago, Snow Hill said:

The Dark Arts of the travel insurance industry are a mystery to me. 
 

I recently has a stay of 24hr in hospital due to a swelling in my cheek due to a sinus infection, which was drained, plus my wife had an alteration in in her medication. As they needed to be declared I went online to notify the insurer as a result there was an increase in premium of £15 for me and £1.93 for my wife. Why I was charged £15 additional premium for an infection which has cleared and no follow up needed is beyond me. 

I think we have always known that insurance underwriting is a dark art, but since having the correct cover and declaring everything is essential, it is something we have to put up with.

However shopping around to find an acceptable product can be very time consuming, and as the underwriting pool becomes smaller insurance is going to become ever more expensive.

[Adawn47]

4 minutes ago, Paddypuss said:

Good morning everyone. I am one of the "lurkers", love reading everyone's posts. How about cruises and cats I am a cat fan. Dogs are Ok, wouldn't have one though.  We have  similar family problem to graham's and it is very upsetting, but have to cope with it.  I love cruises holidays days away love staying g in hotels

Good morning and welcome. I'm tempted to say welcome back, because I think you may have posted before. I seem to recognise the name or maybe I'm imagining it.

I'm easily confused😊

Avril

[Snow Hill]

10 minutes ago, P&O SUE said:

Yes I’ve no idea who can replace Klopp, he’s such a big character and has done loads like completely changing all the training facilities.

I’d rather Arsenal won than those cheating Saudis! 😏

Less said about the game the better! 😞

It’s UAE that own Man City, not Saudi, they own Newcastle Utd.

 

If I was a Forest or Everton fan I would be angry that the accusations against City and Chelsea have not been dealt with as fast as the accusations against their individual clubs, it seem extremely unfair and the EPL seem to be favouring the clubs with money and influential ownership against the smaller clubs.