cargo13

1. Medical and evacuation is your main coverage needed this close to departure and for your baby. Generali Travel Insurance website http://www.generalitravelinsurance.com has the highest coverages for these categories (they used to be CSA) and are on the aggregator websites mentioned but buy direct because you will be submitting a claim directly.

2. Generali ‘s medical network is extensive 100,000s facilities around the world and their 24/7 assistance service will send you to their medical locations so you do not have to pay out of pocket and submit a claim for reimbursement later.

3. Re: trip cost, I suggest you cover $500 for interruption while in trip. If you cover $0 trip cost then you will have no interruption coverages. The pricing does not seem to vary anyway.

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Have found GENERALI Travel Insurance (used to be CSA) to have the most flexible pre existing coverage option--up to final payment. We had situation with cruise cert/credit and they covered, more here: https://www.generalitravelinsurance.com/faqs/insurance-for-pre-existing-medical-conditions.html

Their customer service was very helpful and knows the cruiselines policies.

Pre existing conditions coverages:

Generali Travel Insurance (used to be CSA) has the most liberal plan on pre existing conditions--you can buy their plans https://www.generalitravelinsurance.com/view-travel-insurance-plans.html w/ pre existing conditions coverage at final deposit of your river cruise.

Cancellations coverage:

However, you are booking far out so the cancellation coverage might be warranted depending on cost of your deposit v. cost of travel insurance.

We do not buy the river cruise company travel insurance because its very limited and only covers what you buy w/ the river cruise company---not air fare or pre post cruise hotel that we buy directly. GENERALI will cover all.

Generali Travel Insurance (used to be CSA) has a plan with pre existing coverages until final payment. https://www.generalitravelinsurance.com/view-travel-insurance-plans.html

When is your final payment for your August cruise due? You can get coverages for pre existing up until then, but of course, if you want the cancellation coverages you should book within 48hrs of making your 1st cruise payment.

Your travel insurance should cover the dental treatment. Generali sent us to their dentist in St Thomas and they paid up front. Check their website http://www.generalitravelinsurance.com

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We found GENERALI Travel Insurance on the comparison site Insure My Trip. Their website https://www.generalitravelinsurance.com/view-travel-insurance-plans.html has plans with the highest medical coverages. But they pay your medical claims at their hospital so we did not have to submit a claim. Their assistance hotline directed us to their hospital and we never paid anything.

RE: cruise line insurance--I would not buy. Its limited to trip components that you buy from Celebrity--so if you buy your air or pre post cruise hotel, rental car, etc not from Celebrity, its not covered. Its usually more expensive. Its usually lower coverage amounts.

Ya,Viking is not the insurance provider—they are just the seller of insurance. That’s why we always buy direct from the insurance provider, not thru a TA, not thru a comparison site, not thru the supplier —-because when you need to use the assistance or have a claim, we have the relationship with Generali —-that’s who we buy. Generali used to be called CSA. More plans now, better coverages.

Also, Viking can only cover insurance for its segments of your trip so if you book your own air or have a pre or post trip with hotels, car, tours, Viking cannot insure.

Hope it ends well for you.

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Travel insurance coverages can be bucketed into 2 main concerns:

1. Trip investment coverage:

If you want to cover your $$ in the cruise because there is risk that you could cancel /not go.

Definitely buy if you are booking far out, have an expense cruise that would be a financially impactful if you lost it. You need to buy @ same time as your cruise.

2. IN TRIP coverages

Medical (a must for foreign destinations--Medicare wont work abraod), evacuation, trip interruption, etc. are the main. You can buy any time.

The best we have found for our needs is GENERALI Travel Insurance (used to be CSA) because, their high end plan covers pre existing conditions right up to final payment of your cruise--this was ideal for my Father.

Their website http://www.generalitravelinsurance.com has plans with the highest medical coverages. For interruption/cancellation, they cover family members that are not traveling--meaning our Grandmother passed away (she was not traveling) and Generali covered our cancellation. We found on Insure My Trip.

Here's a travel insurance comparison /evaluation: http://www.toptenreviews.com/services/insurance/best-travel-insurance/

I dont see AMEX listed. Its also not on the travel insurance aggregators Squaremouth or Insure My Trip. Maybe you bought Amex travel insurance through your credit card?

Great story. We had similar situation in Dublin (pre trip to cruise) and stolen purse from a restaurant occurred with passport in it, cash, etc. Our travel insurance GENERALI Travel Insuarnce https://www.generalitravelinsurance.com/why-generali.html (used to be CSA) collect emergency line in the US connected us with their Irish travel assistance operation and they facilitated the replacement of our passport the same day. I would definitely buy them again for European trips because they have call centers all around Europe.

We like St Thomas—it’s easy travel and you don’t need to buy a shore excursion. You can get a cab at the port to local beach or take the ferry to St Johns which National Park has great snorkeling. St Thomas downtown area is small so you could get off, walk around and reboard. Of the USVI, there is more on st Thomas than st Croix.

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Interruptions: For cruises --travel insurance is a must--too many moving parts/logistics that can set you back $$ if missed/delayed.

Medical + evacuation: is our biggest concern for international trips.

Cancellation: If you book your cruise close to departure and /or know you are going without risk of any cancellation, then buy travel insurance close to departure and the insurance premium will drop/be much less/affordable--at least on our travel insurance provider --GENERALI Travel Insurance (used to be CSA).

We rarely book far in advance where we would need cancellation coverages.

2 main reasons to buy travel insurance. Whether you need depends on your family, work, and trip details (investment, how from departure, cruise cost, # passengers, etc).

1. Trip cancellation:

If your investment is low /wont cause hardship if you have to cancel, family/work has low risk of causing a cancellation, then consider going without it. Some credit cards cover trip cancellation if you bought on the card.

You are rather close to departure time and if you know your family is going without any risk of cancellation then reason 2 is your main need.

2. Medical & evacuation

. Never travel without it. You can be financially wiped out with 1 medical incident and worse stranded somewhere foreign. Buy closer to departure to get just medical & evac coverages as the price will be less close to departure. Particularly with kids, accidents happen.

We shop on the comparison sites mentioned but buy directly from the insurance provider, never the cruise line (too expensive, poor coverage, wont include air if booked by yourself, etc).

Generali Travel Insurance (used to be CSA) is our preferred bec the evac coverages are the highest in the marketplace and their pre existing conditions cover you until final deposit. Generali travel insurance website is excellent and has more plans than insuremytrip.com and Sqauremouth

Celebrity insurance:

1. Could be limited in coverages for trip segments /costs not booked with Celebrity (like air, pre/ post hotel)

2. Generally, cruise line insurance is more expensive but depends on various factors (but the cruise line wont deny insurance to anyone, particularly the very aged)

3. Cruise line insurance coverages are usually lower than going stand alone travel insurance company

We shop on the comparison websites mentioned but buy directly from the travel insurance provider because if you have a claim you will be working directly with the provider. Our experience with GENERALI Travel Insurance (used to be CSA http://www.generalitravelinsurance.com) is good. THeir medical & evac coverages are the highest we found. The pre-existing conditions are covered up to final deposit. They paid our claim and worked with our health insurance provider directly to figure out who was primary/secondary--we did not have to get involved.

We have always used CSA & they pay their claims. CSA re-named to GENERALI which is its underwriter and they offer more plans with better coverages on their website http://www.generalitravelinsurance.com than on the comparison sites mentioned.

The Premium has the Cancel For Any Reason option but we only buy that if our cruise is far out into the future and there is a higher risk of not going/cancelling. In general, we buy travel insurance at final deposit--pre existing conditions are covered that late by GENERALI.

True, except you are not covered until you pay. The pay date may affect coverage for pre-existing conditions.

1. Pre existing conditions are covered @ final payment on Generali plans (used to be CSA), too. Its the most liberal I have seen.

Royal Insurance CONS:

1. Interesting that is not priced based on age, because I have always found Royal's insurance more expensive.

2. Wont cover any travel not booked via Royal--air , pre/post hotels, excursions, etc.

3. Interruption coverage does not include broad definition of non travelers. My Mother passed away and we left mid cruise and GENERALI covered it. She was not traveling with us. Generali covers just about every type of relative.

4. Conflict of interest, Royal is insuring if you have an issue on their cruise. (Would you get car insurance from Ford)

I never use the Carnival sponsored insurance. I say sponsored because its not insurance provided by Carnival. Should you need to use it you will still need to file a claim and deal an insurance company(currently it Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company).

 

There is a big misconception that if you buy insurance thought Carnival everything will automagicly be paid should you have a medical emergency on board. The truth is it is no different from any other insurance(other than it being overpriced), Carnival will still bill you and then you file an insurance claim.

 

As for me, being a Diver and seeing that I am almost always diving a cruise I always book buy my travel insurance thought DAN(Divers Alert Network). For our Alaska cruise I used AIG since that trip didn't involve diving. The point is shop around, almost anything will have better prices than carnival. Coevan's post it actually a good starting place so I will not rehash what he said.

 

Also keep in mind most companies will require you to buy insurance with in 15-30days of your finial paying to be covered for things like canceled trip coverage.

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REGARDING when to buy travel insurance, GENERALI Travel Insurance (used to be CSA) will cover pre existing conditions right up to final payment of your cruise. Its on their website: https://www.generalitravelinsurance.com/view-travel-insurance-plans.html

For cancellation coverages, buy right away. They have a 10 day guaranteed refund if you change your mind/shop around.

We dont like to buy via the comparison sites because when we had a change (travel dates) it was a real hassle to find the right party to own the change.

Never use the cruise line--conflict of interest if a claim, may not cover pre & post travel not booked with Carnival, and often more expensive.

We have found the most extensive medical and evacuation coverages with GENERALI Travel Insurance (used to be CSA). https://www.generalitravelinsurance.com/view-travel-insurance-plans.html

Pricing gets more expensive the further you buy from departure/sail date, so if you book your cruise well in advance the insurance will cost more because the probability of cancellation. Given we are not concerned with trip cancellation, we purchase closer to departure date because its the medical & evac that we want.

I would not recommend using Viking's insurance because its generally more expensive than going directly to the insurance company. Likewise, if you need service or have a claim, you will be going directly to the insurance provider.

The intermediary websites mentioned (Insure My Trip, Squaremouth) are helpful for shopping but we buy direct for the reasons to have a direct record/relationship for service & claims. We found GENERALI Travel Insurance (used to be CSA) on these sites. Their website http://www.generalitravelinsurance.com has the most liberal policy for pre existing conditions. And the highest coverage for medical and evac.

Viking's insurance may not cover pre and post river cruise travel like hotel, rental car, or day trip/excursion.

Squaremouth is an intermediary for travel insurance providers. Squaremouth does not offer its own travel insurance.

I have found Squaremouth website helpful to compare insurance plans & providers but always book directly with the insurance provider because if you have a claim (like MJT states), you go directly to the insurance company.

We found Generali (used to be CSA) on Squaremouth and their website coverages http://www.generalitravelinsurance.com are the highest and plans are affordable. GENERALI paid our claim online.

If pre existing conditions is your concern, Generali Travel Insurance has a plan https://www.generalitravelinsurance.com/view-travel-insurance-plans which covers your PEC up until final cruise payment.

If its cancellation coverages that is your concern, you usually have to buy within 48 hours of your cruise deposit (in order to cover it) but you can add additional trip segments (air, hotel, excursions, etc) to your insurance coverage afterwards/as you buy.

If its medical + evacuation coverages or other IN TRIP coverages, you can buy travel insurance up to the day prior to departure. (of course, no cancellation coverages would apply then).

For the trip cancellation coverages in Bonaire, would recommend GENERALI Travel Insurance (used to be CSA which covers the Divers Alert Network) as they will cover all non refundable trip costs, if you have to cancel. You'll want the medical coverages offered for diving in general, but GENERALI paid our claim for cancelled dive trip due to weather.

Your Carnival PVP will inform but in general the cruise line insurance is inferior to comprehensive travel insurance you get when you go direct to the provider.

CONS w/ cruise line insurancce:

-Cruise line usually only covers the travel items that they sold you, not additional pre /post travel items.

-Cruise line insurance is conflict of interest --they are insuring their asset.

-Generally, cruise line insurance is more expensive than direct options

-Cruise line insurance is usually 'postpone' insurance for the cruise, meaning you cannot get your $$ back if you cancel.

Direct travel insurance:

-the comparison sites like insuremytrip and tripinsurancezone help to identify the provider but best to book directly bec if you have a claim, you will be working directly with the travel insurance provider.

-We found GENERALI Travel Insurance (used to be CSA) on the comparison sites; GENERALI has the best pre existing conditions clause (covered until final payment) and the best medical coverages --with no out of pocket up to $1000--meaning you wont need to submit a claim. Generali/CSA works directly with the medical facility. Their website http://www.generalitravelinsurance.com has the details but we found their Customer Service agents offered the best advice of which plan to buy and what to insure.

Aviva and many other insurance companies have declined to cover us. There are very few companies who will cover cancer that has spread and those who do offer cover, charge extortionate premiums.

 

It is annoying because we only travel when we know things are stable. On one occasion one of the questions is ‘how many times have you seen your consultant in the last 12 months’. We answered two but realised afterwards that it was actually three times because we brought routine scans forward by a month to make sure all was well before taking insurance and paying the full balance. When I called to explain this, we were charged an additional £300. I argued that we were trying to prevent a claim to be told that we should not have bothered bringing the scan forward. Just make a claim if necessary.

 

Very frustrating and expensive

 

al

We have found GENERALI Travel Insurance to have the most liberal pre existing conditions coverage which allows for purchase at final cruise deposit. https://www.generalitravelinsurance.com/travel-resources/timing-when-to-buy-travel-insurance.html GENERALI was recommended to us by our diabetes doctor.

Hotel: If your pre /post hotel is refundable there is no need to insure it. If you are buying refundable hotel, most allow you to cancel 24 -72 hours prior. Of course, if you are buying a prepaid hotel, it must be insured.

Flights: Most air tickets are non refundable & must be insured for pre /post cruise. Assume you did not buy Royal's air.

We buy from GENERALI Travel Insurance (used to be CSA) which has best pre existing conditions coverage--allows you to buy @ cruise final payment.