footlooseFF

For those who are curious about whether cruise cancellation insurance is worthwhile - here's our experience. We booked a 5 day Princess cruise and chose the Princess Platinum insurance for the first time (previously we have used TravelGuard, but it was just simpler to do it all at the same time through Princess this time). We wanted to be able to cancel at any time because of some business deals that were closing with uncertain dates.

The cruise was to depart December 4th. On December 3rd, my daughter (who was traveling with me) had emergency gall bladder surgery. I called Princess and cancelled the cruise. They immediately cancelled all taxes & port fees and refunded them to my credit card. They also put me in touch with the insurance company who handles their claims. December 15th I submitted the appropriate paperwork and today (January 2nd) I received notification that they have issued checks in the amount of the claim. We did not have any flights costs because we had booked using frequent flyer points. We did have one excursion booked privately but the company was gracious enough to refund our deposit which was an unexpected surprise.

It was a relatively painless procedure and my daughter is recuperating nicely. We will definitely consider this insurance again in the future.

Sharon

The last cruise I was on hit some really rough water and the acupuncture therapist on board told me that if you eat a piece of ginger every day for 4-6 weeks before your cruise, you'll never get seasick. I'm trying this for our December cruise but will bring Bonine along as well. Careful with when you take the ginger though - it's a stimulant and if you take it in the evenings, you may have problems getting to sleep.