New safety measures for cruise holidays and the importance of cruise insurance

Cruise Lines International and the European Cruise Council have announced that new safety measure will be introduced on to cruise ships with immediate effect.

The new cruise safety measures will apply to cruise ships across the world and include:

A requirement to carry extra lifejackets. Every cruise ship will now have to carry more than one life jacket per customer.

Restricting access to the bridge. Passengers will no longer be allowed onto the bridge whilst complicated manoeuvres are being carried out. Bridge tours will still be allowed to go ahead at other times.

More careful planning of a ship's passage. Every ship's passage plan will now need to be drafted by a designated officer, approved by a master and briefed to every member of the bridge in advance.

Any improvement in cruise ship safety is always good news for passengers, but it's not the only thing you need to consider before heading off on a cruise holiday.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office advise you to have travel insurance in place every time you travel abroad to cover the cost of any unexpected medical treatment. Most cruise ships have medical centres on board, so emergency medical treatment is on hand, however you should ensure that you have cruise travel insurance in place to cover the cost.

If you fall seriously ill whilst the ship is at sea and it is deemed medically necessary the ship's doctor or captain will change course, or arrange an emergency disembarkation at sea to get you to a hospital on shore. This does not come cheap, so having cruise travel insurance in place before you travel is vital.

Read your travel insurance policy terms and conditions carefully to ensure that cruise holidays are covered.

Insurewithease.com can add cruise insurance cover to any of our single trip or annual travel insurance policies, simply select cruise cover on our policy option page.

When you are buying cruise insurance, another important thing is to make sure that you have travel insurance cover for all of the countries you are visiting.

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