New safety measures on board cruise ships are great news for British travellers who enjoy cruise holidays. However, in addition to safety on board cruise ships, British travellers should think about cruise insurance to ensure that they have adequate travel insurance cover in place in the event of illness or an accident on board.

It was announced yesterday by the European Cruise Council and Cruise Lines International Association that new safety measures are to be introduced on cruise ships with immediate effect.

The new safety measures apply to cruise ships worldwide 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.

These measures are part of an on-going Operational Safety Review and have been introduced following the sinking of the Costa Concordia earlier this year. We should see more results from this review over the coming months.

The importance of cruise insurance

If you are going on a cruise holiday, as with any other holiday, it’s important to have travel insurance in place before you leave the UK.

When you are buying travel insurance for a cruise, check the terms and conditions of the policy to make sure that cruise holidays are covered. Some travel insurance policies exclude cover for cruises, or require you to pay an additional premium to have cruise insurance added to your policy.

Goodtogoinsurance.com covers cruise insurance as standard on all our travel insurance policies.

It is vital to have appropriate travel insurance in place for a cruise holiday, because in the event that you fall ill or have an accident on board and need medical treatment, you are likely to be airlifted to the nearest hospital on land. This could prove very expensive if you don’t have cruise insurance in place.

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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