Which is the best travel insurance company for a holiday including flights and cruise from Melbourne to South Pacific Islands with P.O. cruises for 10 nights please
Travel Insurance
caro on 22/03/2013 - 17:37
Comments
TID or southern cross
I'd be ringing TID or Southern and asking questions about cruising. It's a little different to a plane trip and hotel holiday.
Use a CC for the free insurance, but back it up with specific coverage for cruising. Some may not cover P&OMake sure you bring your own sea sick medication. The over the counter pill I got cost around $8 at Chemist Warehouse and I saw them sell this for $20 on the ship. We used the voucher from the Entertainment book for % off. The best deal for us.
Go with the credit card insurance, but if you want more cover go to canstar.com.au. I always use their site when trying to find the best Insurance, Banks, Supers, Loans etc. They don't sell the products, they just review them and rate them in order from best to worst.
Lucky you; I would love to do something like this.
I have booked a week in May for the Gold Coast. Paid $59 for us (was told covers self and my teen) with a Travelsure policy with "Cover-More." Booked through Flight Centre, travelling with Jetstar. Apparently a $50 excess. Perhaps worth looking into; I am not sure if this is good value or not though. Any comments appreciated.
Although I have never taken a cruise I have had a variety of opinions expressed by my friends; some complained about noise etc, made by unruly passengers, whereas others really enjoyed the activities etc available on the cruises. Trouble with being on a cruise is it is not so easy to move out and find yourself alternative accommodation if you need it. Just something to consider; good luck.
Not sure why you would want insurance for a domestic holiday. You would need to incur more than $109 in costs before you came out ahead (premium + excess) with a claim. I suppose it would be worth it if you were renting a car as you could decline the car insurance, but with the low costs of delays or lost baggage its the kind of thing that is not too costly to cover out of pocket.
That is the only reason I take domestic travel insurance.
Last trip insurance was $90 and covered $4000 vehicle excess. To drop the excess with budget from $3500 to $350 was just over $200.
Seeing a doctor on a cruise ship once costs a small fortune, no Medicare on board and having to be evacuated for a medical emergency is like been overseas, scary costs.
Edit. Reread above. Read it wrong the first time.
I really appreciate all your comments and information thankyou. Thanks also for the tip regarding travel sickness tables. My granddaughter is turning 18 and we are going on the cruise as a family holiday, including Nanna. We got very good prices - under $800 each
Great price - post a link if you can.
Have a great trip! Also, if drinks are not included, remember you can buy duty free liquor on your outbound leg as well as inbound.Yes, but you are not allowed to drink your duty free on board. They take it from you and duty free you purchase on board is not given to you until you are leaving. You can bring and consume soft drink cans. There is a facebook page on the Pacific ships with a very knowledgeable man who has maps, diaries, hints etc. I used this and it was invaluable for a first time cruiser.
thanks very much
TID coupon coode TID2013 got me $147 —> $137
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=1045446 might help, particularly http://whrl.pl/Rdot0M :)
thanks again for all your help I really appreciate it, it is fantastic to have a site like this where there are so many helpful people
My sister had insurance with 1cover it was the cheapest and they paid her $800 of cruise dr bills within days.
Tips for the cruise- take a highlighter for the daily program we have a different colour for each person and if you want to play bingo use these, buy your snorkel gear (preferably when aldi has their sale) I dont take flippers only the mask etc and I wear reef shoes much more practical.
ship tours are so overpriced - check trip advisor or face book for all the cruise lines and see what people have done. at noumea all the tours are available for about half the price at the passenger terminal where you get off. Most other ports are the same. Great site is www.gdbucko1.magix.net/ so much info from a p&o and cruising fan.
Put some bread in your rash vest when you go snorkelling it makes the fish swarm you, all the kids were amazed.
you can take soft drink - there is a fridge in your cabin -we did (and rum runners filled with booze- definately not allowed) but found as we don't drink much we just bought a cocktail or two each night. Walkie talkies are great if there is a group and you have younger -but wanting to be independent- kids. also buy your hula dress up on eBay it's fun to get involved.
Best tip - be nice to the staff - works well in every situation but sometimes you see people acting like proper idiots on holidays. I have always found that a friendly smile gets you free stuff , extra help or at very least a smile back
I found the salt restaurant worth every cent of the upgrade fee and I will be going again in 22 days 5 hours and 22 minutes (but who's counting). Have a great time.wow, thanks so very very much, you have given me so much information. What are rum runners? Did you need travel sickness tablets. It would have been fantastic if you had been going on our cruise, we could have met each other. Did you change your money over there to spend in Noumea etc?
I changed money before we left last time but this
time I am going to do it on the ship. The exchange rate was better on board. You get better prices in port with their currency but you can use Australian dollars in most cases.
Rum runners are non detectable containers that you can smuggle alcohol on board without it setting off the scanners. I took one with my husbands tipple on board but he only has a couple of drinks in the cabin so I am not going to bother this time the drinks are reasonable. You can buy similar things at big w for $2 collapsible water bottles ( I can't see on the website).
I love a cruise. We like to go once a year i am an overplanner and find a cruise is much more relaxing than my other holidays. I have never been sea sick but my son is a bit on the way out of sydney heads so he has a travel calm tablet and he is all good.
We went on a cruise with my sister two years ago and last month when she was on a different ship one of the waiters asked her how my sons were by name. Sometimes I even forget their names and this man remembered her and the boys from two years ago that's service.What tours did u do in Noumea and the other ports and was it difficult organizing them at the ports
Noumea we just did the tchou tchou train. we paid I think $15 or $20 compared to the ships price of $45 . It is a bit of a nothing port we did the train ride and then got off at lemon tree bay for a swim. we were there on monday when everything is closed.
The amadee island tour is good but my son is freaked by snakes (yes, we have a fantastic time in SE Asia avoiding snake photo opportunities which are more common than you would think) so he refused due to the sea snake warning. When you get off the ship in the terminal there are all tour operators just waiting for your business .
What are your other ports?Maree, Lifou and Isle of Pines. I was wondering if the secret grotto in Lifou would be worth doing and maybe a village tour there - you have been such a wonderful help
On Lifou we went to jinek bay to snorkel. If you go to David's page (in my first post) he has a map how to walk there - about 10 minutes walk. Great snorkelling plenty of fish. Then we took a tour to a church and a big chiefs hut and just around the local village from the markets when you get off the boat. It was much cheaper in local currency. We had 5 of us so we bargained to the equivalent of $10 each non air conditioned van, but I think that is the case with the p&o o ones . At the pier where the tenders come in not so great snorkelling but there were big turtles to see. This time I am going to take someone's advice from trip advisor and follow a local for $5 to a cave with a sinkhole pitch black, you rope swing in and its up to 50m deep. Sounds crazy but it is meant to be AMAZING.
Isle of pines is beautiful, we went to the natural aquarium. We got a local to drive us, he ripped us off - got us out there and then threatened to leave us if we didn't pay more , watch out for a slimy white French man in a green car with horse pictures on it. ( he may or may not have the flat tire that karma - better known as my husband - left him with just before we left the island). That being said it still cost 1/3 of what the cruise tour was even after we paid him to bring us back.The natural aquarium was ok but there were blue bottles to watch out for in the creek that you walked up to get there, when we came back the snorkelling at the sacred rock just around the corner from the jetty was just as nice but without the blue bottles. This time we are just going straight to the sacred rock.
We haven't been to mare but it looks beautiful.
wow thanks again - getting really excited now with all the help you have given us :)
is it a good idea to take some Australian gold coins to the islands, and are we better waiting to convert our Aust $ when we get over there, or on the ship itself, or even in Aust before we go please?
Convert on the ship at the pursers desk. As they are open all the time I used to do it on my way home after the shows etc as it was a lot quieter. Gold coins are ok but the locals have a hard time converting them so local money gets you a better deal.
great thanks, I am starting to get nervous, thinking I might forget something. I really appreciate your help
Relax, it really can't go wrong. That's why I love a cruise - no chance of missing flights etc. you unpack just one time and if you forget something you need you can buy it on board it just might cost a bit more but you are on holiday so it's ok. Have fun !!
thanks very much
Southern Cross Travel Insurance worked out cheap and CANSTAR 5 star for 7 days family policy to Fiji for $73
Just reporting in - thanks to everyone for their wonderful advice - we had a fantastic time, Pacific Pearl was a great ship, plenty to do for the whole family. The mattresses in the bunks needed replacing as they sank in the middle. The mini bar fridges in the cabins, were only 'coolers', which was quite disappointing as nothing got cold in it - it was a total waste of time. No tea/coffee facilities, but I took an element drink warmer, so I used that. It allowed me to boil my water in the cup, add a t bag etc. My granddaughter got sea sick and the stemetil tablets didn't work so we took her to the Triage Nurse who said that Avomine tablets were the only ones that were suitable for motion sickness, even though doctors seem to prescribe Stemetil. We bought Avomine on board for $19 packet. You do not need a script for them and only cost approx $10 packet at Pharmacists in Melbourne. My granddaughter stopped vomiting after taking them.
When we swam and snorkelled at the islands, we took bread into the water and all the coloured fish swam up to us - it was wonderful. We organized our own tours, it was so easy and much cheaper. We were pleased we took our own lanyards - they were charging $8 each for them. Luke Mangan's 'top class' restaurant was certainly worth dining in. A la carte lunch was $30 per head including a glass of champagne. The food was equivalent to a 5 star restaurant. Dinner was $40 per head. The Waterfront Restaurant - a la carte, was free and was great to have dinner there most nights whilst for breakfast and lunch we headed to the Buffet or the free Grill Bar where you could get hamburgers
Purchase tickets with a gold or platinum credit card usually gives free travel insurance.