Welcome to Jackson Marine Sales! Here are some tips for cruising before you travel…
Find out what is included in your rate
It is important that you know if it includes insurance of any kind, what drinks are included, excursions, tips …
Warns of any special diet
The cooking service of the big companies is really excellent. They won’t have any difficulty in preparing special diets according to your needs, but don’t forget to notify your travel agency and check, on boarding, that the orders have arrived correctly to the ship’s personnel.
In case of pregnancy, find out
Some companies have special conditions in the case of pregnant women, for safety reasons. For example, in some cases they do not admit women with gestation status from 24 weeks. It is therefore very important to make this clear at the time of hiring.
Don’t forget the time and place of embarkation
Although shipments are usually quite fast, I recommend that you keep in mind the time and address of the shipment. The directions to the cruise terminal are not always clear, so a tip to go on a cruise, especially if it is the first time, is to go with time and all accessible information.
Book in advance
There are several reasons why this advice is important. In the first place because several months before the start of the cruise season there are usually very interesting offers with which you can get significant discounts.
In the second place you have to take into account that if the average of anticipation to reserve a trip in Spain is of 31 days, in the case of cruises this average happens to 71 days. For this reason you may find yourself with more limited places if you are not farsighted, or with cabins of lower category and not so well located.
Take out travel insurance
I already told you in this article about the importance of traveling well covered. This, which is important for any trip, becomes fundamental in the case of cruises. For several reasons: If you book in advance, as I said in the previous recommendation, depending on the causes of a cancellation you can recover much of the money paid. Think that the expenses for cancellation can be up to 100%.
On the other hand, medical services on board are good but very expensive.
However, check with your travel agent, as some cruise company rates include assistance insurance.
Documentation
Passports
Controls the validity of passports, as well as the entry requirements of the countries to visit, as some require a few months of validity from the date of entry into the country. Look at it ahead of time in case you need to renew it.
Travel permits for minors
If I have included this advice to go on a cruise it is because it is not strange that people other than parents go on a cruise with the children. For example, grandparents who decide to leave with their grandchildren for a few days. It is necessary to fill in some documents with the police beforehand to prove that the children are travelling with the permission of their parents.
Visas
Cruise ships usually stop in several different countries. Make sure you know the entry conditions for each one of them, and if one requires a visa in order to be able to process it in advance. Even so, when travelling on a cruise ship the companies have special facilities with the processing of visas for the cruise stopovers and sometimes it is not necessary to do so. Your travel agent will inform you about this.
International Driving Permit
It may be the case that when mooring in a port you decide to hire a rental car to go to a specific place. In this case, and depending on the agreements between your country and the country of arrival, an international driving licence may be required.