DOCUMENTATION REQUIRED TO CRUISE

[Megabear2]

8 minutes ago, tring said:

 

Must admit I tend to delve into detailed information regards any medical treatments/precautions, but I would still discus my individual position with a medical professional who has been trained to make such assessments and give advice accordingly.  As I said in my earlier post, it depends on your medical background and in our case we were only just over the age range, so risk of the disease may have been more problematic than  any risk from the jab.  Nothing could be given ethically if it was not considered an advantage to some extent. 

 

There is so much care taken these days regards any possible effects from any sort of treatment and even use of various drugs of household chemicals, that there are all sorts of warnings being given, (e.g. pre-operatively, drug safety leaflets and even on the side of bottles of household chemicals.  Those warnings are needed for legal reasons as well as safety as we all know.  There has been various scares with covid vaccines, but overall the risk of the disease has to be compared to any effect from the vaccine, so advice is given accordingly for each individual personal situation.  With a background in lab work, I was well used to writing and taking note of risk assessments, but it is not a good idea to get too bothered about them to an extent that you would not want to touch anything.

 

You run the risk of being run over every time you cross the road, but have to make up your own mind regards relative risks and what you want to do with your life.  Travel certainly has a lot of risks, (apart from travel accidents), and some people do prefer not to go to anywhere that has any health risk over  what they may encounter at home, but that is an individual decision.  If I had health issues that put me at high risk, and even as we get older, I would be thinking twice before arranging any travel.  Travel by ship, especially across oceans when there would be limits on medical assistance available for a number of days, is something that we are beginning to think carefully about as as we are getting older, though with all the NHS issues at present we are also thinking we may well be better looked after on a ship, than if we were hoping to get an ambulance at home and get from that ambulance into a hospital.  Just my opinion, but something we had been discussing recently regards our future travel plans, which is why I have mentioned it here.

  

 

As you say a very personal choice.  I take necessary precautions and follow advice as given.  Age isn't such a concern to me personally and I'm lucky in that I have no specific health conditions to take into effect.

 

My main problem would appear to be I had hepatitis aged 11 very severely having caught it in Belgium of all places whilst on a school trip.  Following a year in hospital and even today as a result anything blood related is examined extremely carefully by my doctors. My only other problem was a cancer from 28 years ago so I guess I'm lucky.

[annieuk]

My husband and I went on the South America cruise back in 2018 and we were required to have a Yellow Fever vaccination.  We went to see our GP who luckily was one of the registered centres who administer the Yellow Fever jab.  We were both over 70 but our GP said he could see no reason why we couldn't have the vaccination.  So we both had it and neither of us had any side effects at all.  When we arrived at Southampton the first thing we were asked for was our Yellow Fever Certificate and this was taken from us and returned at the end of the cruise.  We had been told by P&O that the Yellow Fever jab or a Certificate from our GP stating that it wasn't safe for us to have it was a necessary requisite.  We also had a letter from our Travel Agent reminding us about the Yellow Fever a couple of months before we were due to go.   I believe the Yellow Fever vaccination now lasts for life, but that may not be correct.   

[yorkshirephil]

20 minutes ago, annieuk said:

   I believe the Yellow Fever vaccination now lasts for life, but that may not be correct.   

Generally that is correct, however you must still have your certificate or you need another jab/exemption, not sure whether you could get a replacement cert from the original jab. This is the bit that seems to be catching people out, they know they have had the jab but got rid of the certificate when it expired under the old rules.

[tring]

1 hour ago, yorkshirephil said:

Generally that is correct, however you must still have your certificate or you need another jab/exemption, not sure whether you could get a replacement cert from the original jab. This is the bit that seems to be catching people out, they know they have had the jab but got rid of the certificate when it expired under the old rules.

 

Yes, that makes sense as the certificate is needed and that is what the charge is made for, yet could easily have been thrown away if the ten years had expired, though that ten year requirement was replaced with lifelong in 2016.  As I understood it, the certificate was made out by the person who administered the jab to certify they had just administered it, so yes, could be a problem having a replacement made just from a record of that.  I remember it being stressed that we need to keep hold of the certificate.  As you say a certificate of a jab should now last for life, but exemption certificates will need to be replaced for each holiday as only last a short time (or that was the case for exemptions about 8-9 years back).

  

Edited January 8, 2023 by tring

[amajaa]

Hi all, I’m sure I have seen talk of this before on here but need to confirm.

 

On the P & O documentation for our cruise in a few weeks it says all first names ( or similar wording ) but it only has our first names and nor any middle names and there doesn’t seem to be any way to add. I’m sure I have read on here that is okay but can anyone confirm please? I did just try ringing travel agent , had a bit of a wait, asked a question about another cruise then she said okay bye before I had a chance to query this. 

[Bill Y]

Please do not let the complications of vaccines etc put you off going to Brazil if that appeals to you Megabear. it's certainly different.

 

Having visited Brazil four times each time was different.

2000, company made me have every injection going.

 

2014, local surgery said as I was over 60 Yellow Fever vaccination was no longer recommended and the 2000 one would probably still give protection. If it was a requirement they would issue a “contraindication” (exemption) certificate. As it was only a recommendation we did not discuss any charge for a certificate. They seemed more interested in persuading me to take a mosquito net, I told them I was staying in a first world international hotel.

 

2015, going on cruise with DW, went to local surgery for certificate, this time a yellow fever vaccination was recommended especially for DW who had not had one previously. Malaria tablets were recommended as we were going up the Amazon, we would have to pay them for a private prescription, the nurse let it slip that these could be obtained cheaper at a cut price pharmacist (Asda) We found that we did not have to have or pay for a prescription. All that was required was to book a consultation with the local Asda pharmacist after which he sold us the tablets, considerably cheaper than what the nurse said the village pharmacist charged.

 

2018 as we did not go anywhere considered medically exotic we did not need to take any extra precautions.

 

Suggest if you are concerned about precautions and suitability ask your surgery for advice tailored to you before you book. Ours offers a free travel consultation, you fill in a form detailing where you are going and when, they check current recommendations and regulations and your records and advise you or call you in for consultation/vaccination.

Technically despite what P&O said in 2015 Yellow fever vaccinations were only recommended by the Brazilian and UK authorities, but it was mandatory for then visiting most Caribbean Islands as they deemed Amazonia as being a high risk yellow fever area. We were just required to show P&O the certificates or exemption certificates on boarding ship in Barbados never to be asked again.