Traveling to Greece During Crisis

What to Know

The State Department alerts U.S. citizens residing in or traveling to Greece of the possibility of disruptions to banking services – including credit-card processing and servicing of ATMs – throughout Greece in light of developments within the local economy.

U.S. citizens are encouraged to carry more than one means of payment (cash, debit cards, credit cards), and make sure to have enough cash on hand to cover emergencies and any unexpected delays.   Greece US Embassy

 Demonstrations & Other Risks

The alert also cautions about being aware of your surroundings at all times.   There might be scheduled and unscheduled political demonstrations as well.  Whenever you are traveling, you should follow this guideline anyway.

It is common knowledge that travelers are being advised to keep extra money with them, which increases the chance of being a target of unsavory individuals or groups looking to take advantage of the situation.    There are various safety methods that you can put in place to keep you and your money safe.

• Divide the funds among members in your group
• Only carry enough with you that you will need that day
• Leave extra money in safe of cruise ship or hotel room
• Use money belts to hide money on your person

Travel Insurance

Hopefully you purchased travel insurance when you booked your cruise or land vacation to Greece.   In our recent blog post, Insurance Awareness Day 2015, we talked about the value of travel insurance protecting against the unexpected.   You might be tempted to cancel your trip, but be aware that unless you purchased a "cancel for any reason" policy, this would most likely NOT be a covered event.   Even so, there are other benefits of the insurance policy which could come into play during your trip, if you were to lose valuables or be injured for example.

Potential Itinerary Changes

As of this writing, cruise lines with upcoming cruises have not altered their plans but we are certain they are keeping a close watch on developments.   The cruise lines number one priority is the safety of ships, passengers, and crew, so should there be any escalation in the wake of the bank closings, plans could be altered.     In similar situations like this, sea days or alternate ports were substituted, often with very little notice.   Be sure that you have provided contact information to your travel professional or cruise line as appropriate.   Should there be cancellations or changes that we become aware of, we'll share that information with you.

Additional Resources

One of the more important ways that U.S. Citizens can keep informed while traveling abroad is by  enrolling in the U.S. Department of State's STEP service.

The Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) is a free service provided by the U.S. Government to U.S. citizens who are traveling to, or living in, a foreign country.

STEP allows you to enter information about your upcoming trip abroad so that the Department of State can better assist you in an emergency.

Additional travel information can be found on International Travel (static tab on blog) and Travel Tools (on our website). Topics include: Tips for Traveling Abroad, Travel Warnings, Country Specific Information & Travel Alerts 

We encourage all cruise passengers to be familiar with travel alerts, warnings, tips, and country specific requirements before leaving home.  Make sure that you leave your itinerary with someone at home and that you are adequately protected by travel insurance.

Enjoy Your Cruise to Greece

We were fortunate to travel to Greece a few years ago during our 12-night Mediterranean voyage.   For information about the ports we visited see our blog post:  Diary of Cruise with Chris to Greek Isles

Safe Travels

We highly suggest that you monitor the situation in Greece before and during your visit there.  We wish you safe travels, and for the wonderful people of Greece, we hope that this current financial situation can be resolved quickly.

Insurance Awareness Day 2015

Insurance Awareness Day exists to remind you that things go wrong, and that generally, it’s a good idea to have a backup plan.  If you are like most people, you have health insurance, life insurance, and house or apartment insurance.  We'll talk about Travel Insurance in this post and suggest why it is a good idea to consider it before traveling.

Expect the Unexpected

I'd like to make a few suggestions to anyone planning a cruise vacation.   Similar considerations go for other (land) vacations as well.   As the title suggests, one should plan for the unexpected in advance so that the situations I describe, should they occur to you, would not ruin your vacation or at the very least you would have assistance before, during, and after the vacation.

Situation 1 - Weather Impacting Departure for Cruise

If you've been watching the news lately, I'm sure you've watched in horror as flood waters washed homes away, houses were destroyed in minutes by tornados, and various other disasters that are going on across the world. We always like to think that this can't happen to us and hopefully that is the case. Unfortunately situations like these do occur and no one is exempt from the possibility.

What does this have to do with cruising you might ask? Well, if that were your home, or if you lived in that neighborhood, odds are that you wouldn't be able to depart on schedule for your cruise. Several possibile situations come to mind from roads being blocked, airports being closed, flights delayed, family members injured during the storms. All of these would most likely prevent you from arriving in the cruise departure city prior to the ship sailing.

Suggestion 1 - Leave Early

I've said this many times before, but it bears repeating: Plan to arrive in the embarkation port the day before your cruise (domestic cruises) and at least the day before your cruise (overseas cruises).

Assuming that you are flying to the embarkation city, you can either book airfare with the cruise line or on your own. In most cases, I suggest that my clients book on their own since they have full flexibility and can often save money (perhaps using frequent flier miles, or finding special pricing). I'm more than happy to assist them either way.

That's not to say that you can't use frequent flier miles or get good prices through the cruise line, but you will have to make arrangements through the cruise line's "custom air" department. In some cases, there may be extra fees to tailor your flights to your schedule. The "non-custom" air arrangements typically arrive the day of the cruise which doesn't provide any room for delays.

We've personally had many occasions where we arrived the day before the cruise, so we didn't have any issues. However, our return trip was delayed as many as 4 hours due to weather. Had that been the day of the cruise, we could have missed the ship (assuming it was on the same day as ship departure).

Suggestion 2 - Purchase Trip Insurance

In the above example, depending on the length of the delay and other factors, had you missed the ship your insurance may have provided assistance in rejoining the cruise or reimbursement for unused portion of the trip.

If your house had been damaged or if a family member had ended up in the hospital, due to the storm as described above, the trip cancellation clause of the insurance policy may have come into play providing some financial relief.

Insurance policies vary, so you need to read the policy and compare them to your needs.

Situation 2 - Injury During Cruise

The following situation DID occur to one of the passengers on one of our cruises and we have been on many other cruises where similar situations occured.

The ship sailed on time, we had dinner and had gone to the welcome aboard show. The captain came on the loud speaker system and made an announcement. The ship was turning around and returning to New York because there was a medical emergency onboard. It was necessary to get closer to New York so that the passenger could be transferred to a hospital onshore.

From what we can gather, the injury wasn't life threatening but it required medical attention that could best be provided in a hospital. The passenger was transferred from the ship to a hospital by the U.S. Coast Guard.

A medical evacuation is a very expensive procedure - often costing tens of thousands of dollars. These costs are typically not covered by your personal health insurance policies and could have a very negative impact if you had to bear the cost yourself.

I'm not trying to scare you out of booking a cruise. In fact, these situations I describe could happen any day and on any vacation. I hope that the cruise specialist, or other travel consultant that you work with, recommends insurance to you and that you seriously consider purchasing a policy. Besides the financial protection, there is the intangible benefit of having someone to turn to in the time of crisis. The majority of the policies available offer a 24 hour assistance line.

Top Ten Reasons to travel with the LeisureCare Travel Protection Plan

1. You have to cancel your trip due to an unexpected event such as bad weather, an illness in the family or the financial default of your airline, cruise line or tour operator.
2. You have to return home early due to an unexpected emergency such as an illness or death in the family.
3. Your luggage is lost or delayed, forcing you to purchase necessary essentials, or prescription medications.
4. Your luggage or personal effects are damaged or stolen.
5. You become ill or injured and learn that your health care plan doesn't cover you outside the U.S.
6. You need an emergency medical evacuation due to an accident or sudden illness.
7. You run into flight delays and miss a portion of your trip or cruise.
8. Your trip is interrupted due to an unexpected hurricane or storm.
9. You lose your passport, leaving you stranded abroad.
10. You need assistance with replacing a prescription or an emergency cash transfer.

Plan for Unexpected - Leave Early, Purchase Travel Insurance, Enjoy Your Cruise

Travel With Protection Against Unexpected

Purchase Travel Insurance 

for Peace of Mind

Since mid-April the volcanic eruption in Iceland has dominated the travel news as passengers became stranded across the globe.   For those with travel plans within or to Europe, all they could do was wait and see if they would be able to fly to their destination.  Many travelers were stranded for days. 

Unlike some other natural disasters, there was no advance warning that an ash cloud would develop and blow over the UK.   Because of that, travelers were caught off guard and unable to make alternate plans.  This is the perfect example of "the unexpected".

Along with unexpected events, come unexpected expenses.   In the case of the flight groundings due to the ash cloud, passengers were forced to stay at their current location and in many cases incur expenses for lodging, meals, local transportation, phone calls, and other unanticipated expenses.  We heard stories of passengers running out of money because they had already exhausted their vacation budgets.

For those that were just beginning their vacation, it would be cut short at the very least.  In other cases, they were able to join the vacation in progress if alternate transportation could be obtained at a premium price.   In still other cases, the vacation wouldn't occur at all.  All of these situations have a financial impact.   For the uninsured traveler, they had to bear the burden of costs completely alone.

The flight groundings had a ripple affect.  Cruise passengers were unable to get to the embarkation ports and those returning from cruises were unable to return home.   The cruise lines and airlines worked hard to try to assist travelers.    Their hands were tied by regulations that prevented flights from departing.

A logistical nightmare had unfolded on a scale not seen since the grounding of flights after the 911 attacks. The unsung heroes were customer service agents who were working with affected travelers providing assistance.  These included the agents manning the phones of the various travel insurance providers.

If you were to ask one of the stranded passengers that had travel insurance if they felt the premium was worth paying, I'd bet they would say that just the ability to get assistance during this crisis was worth the cost alone.   Of course, the real benefit is reimbursement for the unexpected expenses up to and including the trip cost.

For the uninsured traveler, they not only have a lost vacation, but they very well might not be able to reschedule the trip since they no longer have the funds that they had saved for the trip (due to the extra unplanned expenses).

Those that read my blog on a regular basis know that I always encourage the purchase of travel insurance.   I have had personal experience with needing to interrupt a cruise and fortunately had travel insurance.   We've also been on many cruises where passengers were evacuated to obtain additional medical attention.   The cost of medical transportation can be thousands of dollars. 

Read more about Travel Insurance and the coverages provided.

I'll leave you with these parting thoughts ....  Always purchase Travel Insurance and Purchase the Insurance Policy at the Same Time as Booking Your Trip.

The reason for the last statement is that effective dates of the policy determine if an event is covered.    Once an event has been declared,  policies purchased after that date are not covered until a new event were to occur.    Again, the ash cloud is the perfect example of how this clause could impact your coverage.

For peace of mind and so that you can truly relax and enjoy your vacation, budget for travel insurance when saving for your vacation.