A cruise on the high seas – whether it’s around the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, crossing the Atlantic or the ultimate world cruise – is the stuff dreams are made of and the trip of a lifetime. Making your preparations should be enjoyable and exciting, but whatever you do don’t neglect to invest in the single trip insurance that could save you worry and expense if things don’t go exactly to plan.

Cruising used to be the domain of the rich and famous, but these days more and more of us are saving our pennies and taking to the ocean for a break. There is no doubt that on most cruise lines you are looked after from the minute you arrive at the port until you return, however, unfortunately this doesn’t mean that accidents and mishaps don’t happen. Making sure you’re insured can safeguard in case any unforeseen circumstances befall you.

Preparations

Preparing for a cruise is can be more complicated than preparing for a regular holiday. Generally, cruise lines have a dress code that must be adhered to and choosing appropriate clothing can be a stressful business.
Let’s just imagine that you’ve carefully planned your wardrobe so you have exactly the right evening wear for the formal evenings, suitable attire for the smart casual evenings, and sophisticated wear for other times you’ve followed that up with poolside fashion, sports clothes for on board activities, and clothes for the excursions.

What a disaster it would be if, arriving at your cabin, you wait patiently for your friendly steward to bring your luggage and it doesn’t arrive. The ship sails before you realise and you are left only with the clothes you have embarked in and whatever freebies they’ve provided in the bathroom for toiletries. Disaster!

Your only shopping options are now the on board boutiques which are often prohibitively expensive. Apart from eating in the self-service restaurant for the whole trip and sitting by the pool in your travelling clothes, you are left with no option but to put a huge dent in your holiday money and replace what you can of your lost luggage. However, if you’d thought to take out single trip insurance it’s a completely different scenario. You’d have the comfort of knowing your purchases will be covered and your lost luggage will be a mere inconvenience – and an excuse to go shopping!

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Excursions

One of the beauties of cruising is that you get to visit many new places but whether you like to take the guided tours or go it alone there can be hazards in most of them. While wandering around some of the most beautiful destinations it’s very easy to be distracted by the sheer magnificence of what you are seeing and not notice that somebody is helping themselves to your wallet, camera or whatever else you have loosely attached to your body.

On board you are lulled into a sense of wellbeing and safety as carrying money is not necessary, and it can be difficult to switch back into reality. A trip to the local police station will only help you if you’ve taken out single trip insurance in advance.

On most of your vacations, it’s very likely that none of the above will happen to you and your cruise will indeed be a trip of a lifetime but as we all know, these things can and do happen and it pays to plan in advance for every eventuality.