Former Goalie

I have used TIS probably a couple dozen times over the course of almost 20 years, and made two claims which were paid in full.  Highly recommend Steve and his crew!

I'll reply to Scubaaah, and I'm sure Steve will, as well.

When we first started to cruise, we purchased cruise line insurance, didn't read the terms and paid up for the easiest and most convenient product.  I remembered my Dad didn't take out insurance for a once in a lifetime voyage, couldn't make it because of his wife's illness, and the very substantial fare was a total loss.

After our first or second cruise, I started researching third party insurance, such as Steve offers.  Typically, less expensive, and offers much better and comprehensive terms - with some hoops one must be careful to jump through.  I remember my first discussion with Steve, "Why can't I just insure cost of the cruise, why must I insure everything prepaid and nonrefundable, when the cruise is all I want to insure?"  Steve's response, "If you want cancel for any reason, those are the terms," (secondarily pre-existing conditions).

I've never purchased cruise line insurance since. 

To your question, you probably don't have any recourse.  The insurance provider probably required you pay for the insurance at final payment or, less likely, at the time you made your deposit.

You would have good reason to be unhappy if the agent that sold you the cruise, also sold you the insurance when you made the relatively small up front deposit, unless the insurance underwriter required full payment at initial deposit.

When we have purchased from Steve, I believe we have always purchased from an underwriter who allows us to "pay as we go."  If the initial deposit is $1,000, we write for that amount initially, then pay the additional premium as we add more prepaid and nonrefundable expenses.  Not every underwriter offers this option, Steve would be able to guide you to one that will.

We are booked on 3/6/22 Rotterdam.  We are hoping Captain Timmers will be Master.  We renewed our vows with him on Eurodam, would like to do same on Rotterdam.  We are attempting to find out if he is Master for that sailing.  How would I find that out?  Having a little knowledge about cruise contracts, we're hoping he won't be on vacation for this sailing.

Do you know how those are priced?

Is there a dedicated sun deck area for suite passengers on the Reflection?  I seem to recall there may be/have been an extra fee area with cabanas, etc.  Reflection won't get "Re-imagined" until 2023, we sail before that time (obviously, that schedule is not even open yet).

On 12/14/2018 at 1:49 PM, rafinmd said:

Has the internet and/or Cruise Critic performance gotten better in the last few days?

 

Roy

We are going on 10 day on NS this winter.  How much do the internet plans cost?

Does anyone have an idea who will be the launch Captain on Nieuw Statendam?

My wife has wanted to do a Galapagos cruise for a long time. We saw the Celebrity Flora new build, and decided to book on her. Of course, in the Galapagos the itinerary is the main focus, but it will be very nice to have a new ship with many amenities to spend down time on.

We hope we'll hear from others on their opinions of Flora.

I always buy insurance but have never had the need to use it . I always read everything about the carrier prior to paying .However,on my most recent cruise I did not read all the fine print because it was the 3rd.consecutive time I purchased the insurance.

On my most recent cruise ,last month I needed to see the ships doctor solely as a precaution ,paid the bill and received the necessary paperwork to file with the insurance company.However,the company is an excess necessitating that I file with my primary carrier.

Although I have and offered to submit a copy of the policy stating that they do not pay any claims for an accident or illness outside the US the travel insurance company will not accept this.

I stress to everyone the necessity to read all policies before purchasing.

Unfortunately, I'm guessing what you'll need to do is file w/ your home based health insurance company (the "primary provider"). That insurance company will deny the claim. Then, you will submit proof of the denial, and file with your cruise insurance provider, being the secondary provider. You should get paid, obviously this is more of a hassle, and you won't get your money back as promptly. That's why it can be advantageous to have the medical component of cruise insurance be primary (and sometimes more expensive for this feature).

Yes, TI only here.

 

I'm trying to reach my new BFF at TI (lol) about this.

 

Is it really any different than just insuring an air ticket for, say, only the penalty/cancel/change fee, rather than the full amount *paid* for the ticket? My understanding has been that's what's required.

With the cruise "final payment", one is paying a higher amount that needs to be paid "now", but only a small portion of it is at risk/non-refundable/etc. Yet the full amount needs to be insured at the same time. With the air tix, one is only insuring what would actually be lost.

 

I'm more concerned about paying for insurance for portions that might get refunded, rather than paying "sooner" for the same amount.

Think about paying insurance for, say, $10 or 20k that might end up being refunded.

It's not especially likely, but it *could* happen...

(And we know people who insure far more expensive trips. But what matters is the amount that is relevant to one's self, etc., of course.)

 

GC

I imagine there is an entire department at an insurance company which does nothing but run the numbers for a given policy. And, that department (at TI specifically) has determined that a policy is profitable if the company allows pre-payment in increments up to final payment, but requires 100% coverage at final payment. Insuring in increments after final payment probably would tip the scale to the policy being unprofitable....or, premiums would need to be raised, given paying in increments after final payment.

Your scenario makes complete sense in terms of one's recovery potential at any given time, I agree.

Sounds like this is what we do.

... start the coverage with the deposit (rounded to the next highest $500 or $1k, depending upon level), and then increase coverage as we make additional payments. Usually that's not until final payment, but it could be sooner if we get special low cost hotel rates that are non-refundable, but we usually don't do that until we are close to final payment, when we could always cancel, ahem...

 

But here is the question: Shouldn't we (and you?) be paying insurance for, say, the 25% cancel fee at first, then add the next 25% (when the cancel fee would be 50%), etc., rather than pay the insurance for the full amount - that "final/full payment" - if only part of it is not refundable at that time? It can take months for that full amount to change to 100% penalty.

Point is.., SURE, we'd get the money back from the vendor (e.g., cruise line), but we wouldn't get the insurance premium back for that extra "half" (or whatever %) was refunded.

 

And for some cruises or tours, if they are expensive, that can be really significant insurance costs.

For an expensive tour that we took (not cruise related), it was paid over time, such that each, say, 25% was paid at several months intervals and was non-refundable once paid. But the total 100% wasn't paid until towards the end, when none was refundable. Cruises don't tend to be like that.

 

I hope that's more clear?

Thanks!

 

ETA: Or what about a deposit of $3500 pp, a year in advance, but only a few hundred is non-refundable. Should we just insure the "few hundred"? The rest of it is refundable until final payment, when the rest of it (a lot!) and that entire deposit, becomes non-refundable.

 

GC

Again, we're just talking TI here. My understanding is that one must insure 100% of, for example, final payment amount plus deposit for the cruise, even though, for example, the penalty, just a guess, might be 10% of that ten days after the final payment (first segment of penalty phase).

The wording would IMHO support that, and mentions nothing about amounts which might be recovered at different times of penalty phase:

You insure all Prepaid Trip costs that are subject tocancellation penalties or restrictions

Hmmmm....

 

I'm going to go back into our archives (not on this computer) and check the exact wording on our older policies.

This could get, er, "interesting", but I sure hope it doesn't...

 

In general, most of what we pay in advance would have some sort of penalty, but not always.

But whether we paid more than we should have (which would NOT be okay!) is somewhat different from whether incorrect information had generally been given out.

 

This is getting more interesting.

How have you insured your cruise costs, when there is an increasing penalty schedule?

It wouldn't matter if one takes the trip, except that some of the premiums might have been paid a bit too early.

But theoretically... if someone paid to insure the "full/final payment"... and then cancelled when, say, the penalty was maybe still only 50%... did one get back the premium for that 50% that was refundable/refunded?

 

Am I now over-thinking this?

 

GC

This is how I pay premiums, I'll use an example for a policy taken out very recently with TI, the policy is WTP +:

We paid a $300 pp (two of us) deposit with the cruise line, for which we paid the premium for $500 pp. within two days of payment w/ cruise line. We probably will not pay any additional premium for months, as we most likely will not pre-pay anything additional until final payment to the cruise line. At final payment, I will increase the premium (substantially) from $500 pp, paying the premium for 100% of the cruise costs within a day or so after final payment.

The one time we filed a claim was, as I mentioned, for the entire cruise costs, as we were in 100% penalty. If we were to cancel for a covered reason in 50% penalty, I would expect to recover only 50% of cruise fare, the cruise line would pay the other 50%.

UPDATE: RE: "PRE-PAID COSTS" - Refundable vs. Non-refundable costs to insure

 

Thanks, Former Goalie (and others), for getting us to check this yet again.

 

THE TERMS RECENTLY CHANGED, ALONG WITH BETTER COVERAGE :)

 

Effective relatively recently, ONLY NON-REFUNDABLE COSTS NEED BE INSURED for Travel Insured's Worldwide Trip Protector Plus.

(I have no information about any other policy types.)

 

The rep who spoke with us yesterday is "new"

And the information was NOT CORRECT. :mad: :mad: :mad:

 

However... for our PAST policies, it absolutely WAS a requirement to include BOTH non-refundable and refundable pre-paid costs.

Fortunately, we have not included the now unnecessary refundable costs on any of our policies that were taken out since the change. (But based upon that new service reps incorrect statement, we may have done so shortly... Ouch.)

 

I spoke with a supervisor there, after searching through our most recent policy wording, and not seeing the bit about the "refundable" costs... but... the rep had been *very* clear about it being necessary...

 

Importantly, when we had been told that in the past, it was correct information.

(I did suggest that they do some additional training, to make sure ALL of the reps get it right, including older reps who may not, er, remember the change, etc....)

 

For those who care, among the new, "improved" (in our minds) coverage terms, in addition to the CFAR, which is for *cancelling", there is now an "Interrupt For Any Reason", which is especially useful for us, for the same reason(s) we tend to select CFAR.

 

Thanks again.

 

We've learned a LOT here, and we want to do our best to pass along the assistance.

 

GC

Well, I looked at an old Worldwide Travel Protector + (policy document dated 5/29/14) we used, and the wording is the same for CFAR, very slightly different (below) for pre-ex, but generally IMHO, to put it simply: pre-paid and non-refundable. Are you talking about policies written before then, because, in our history with TI, prepaid and non-refundable is all we've ever insured for?

You insure all Prepaid Trip costs that are subject tocancellation penalties or restrictions

Well, now I am worried about the information I received from TI.

 

I'm going to call them again, and ask for them to send me something in writing about what they've told me.

I can't find language in our policies that precisely enough matches what they've said...

I do know that there were some changes within the past year or so to the type of policy we get, but... I'm not relying upon conversations I had with them way in the past...

 

There isn't recently much of a difference in the totals of "all payments" and "only non-refundable payments", given that we aren't paying cash for air tix and we try to guarantee hotels (not pay in advance), but I do want to make sure I understand it properly - AND that they are giving us correct information, obviously!

 

Thanks very much.We need this in writing, and clearly, from TI :mad:

 

GC

And JMHO your broker @ tripinsurancestore.

REFUNDABLE vs. NON-REFUNDABLE PRE-PAID COSTS:

 

It is CRITICAL to understand the requirements of the specific policy that *you* are purchasing, and not rely upon anonymous internet posts.

 

I have just reconfirmed (for about the fifth time, due to challenges here) with Travel Insured directly, that for our specific type of policies, we DO need to include "ALL PAID COSTS, refundable AND non-refundable".

It is definitely NOT a "gray area".

It has nothing to do with frequent flyer points, for example.

 

Travel Insured has a variety of policies, as do other insurers.

For the specific coverages that we want to include, we do indeed need to cover ALL costs that we have paid, upping the coverage within 20 days of each payment that would bump us into a higher $500 or $1k grouping.

 

Note that Former Goalie's comment was clear, about applying to "most" policies not needing to include refundable costs.

Unfortunately, others have made that claim more universally, that "refundable costs do *not* need to be included", without clarifying that this is for the types of policies that the person posting has, or is for "some" or "most" policies, but does NOT apply to all policies.

 

It is definitely the case that SOME other coverages do not have the same requirement as our Travel Insured policies, and only require that "pre-paid and NON-refundable" costs be included in the coverage. And I think that for some policies that are only needed for medical coverage, the paid travel costs might not matter (but I am NOT that familiar with these policies, as we always want the trip costs included).

 

Hotel costs are often refundable (a few are not), but we try to make those "guaranteed by credit card" so that we don't have any pre-departure payments for as many hotel costs as possible.

The place where this really matters is for the airfares, except when we are using awards. So we do indeed need to insure the full cost of any paid tickets, not just any cancel/change fees.

(Now that we typically use awards for expensive international premium travel, we can obviously save not only on the cash costs of those tickets, but also by not needing to insure any such cash costs.)

 

So please be sure that you understand exactly what your own policy covers, and also what needs to be included in the "insured costs".

That is why it is SO important not to rely upon online "summaries" of policies. That "fine print" can really matter...!

What is "quoted' here may or may not apply to the policy *you* have purchased.

It won't matter if "you read it on the internet"... if... "it's wrong" :mad:

 

Happy New Year to all!

 

GC

We get Travel Insured Worldwide Protector Plus,

I will copy the wording as it pertains to cancel for any reason and pre-ex. As I mentioned, we pre-pay air fare many months in advance, for a fully refundable fare without restrictions. Thus, we don't insure for that amount.

We had a claim with TI for thousands of dollars, we were paid in full for that claim, with the aforementioned airfare. Of course, as the air fare was refunded in full, no penalties whatsoever, there was no recovery there.

• 
  
• You insure 100% of the Prepaid Trip costs that are subject to cancellation penalties or
  restrictions
  

This ^^^

 

We also use TripInsuranceStore, and get policies from Travel Insured.

And we've had some claims, including 2 large ones, and we got paid in full with no nonsense.

 

We also need to insure ALL pre-paid costs, even if refundable, and we only pay as we add more costs.

But there are lots of different policies.

DON'T rely upon what you read here. Posters could be trying to be as helpful as possible, but if it isn't YOUR *specific* policy, in YOUR state, with whatever extras (riders) that YOU include, it won't help you a bit if your claim is later denied.

 

For one of our claims, for a totally cancelled trip at the last minute (medical emergency), we had to provide a lot of charge receipts *proving* we had insured everything we paid for.

(It was tedious to cut and paste charge statements. We figure "the web" has pretty much everything about our spending and browsing patterns already, so we just sent a stack of statements, and let them find everything that we had highlighted. They may have checked dates of payment additions to make sure that we upped the coverage within the window. If so, we had done it all quite properly. They processed it all, called us to say a check was being sent, and the next week that [large] check arrived.)

 

Listen to what Steve and crew at TripInsuranceStore.com tell you, and get one of the policies they recommend for what you need.

 

Also, our policies allow us to *transfer* the premiums already paid for one trip, to another trip (within a time limit, maybe a year??). We've done that a couple of times, too, so the premiums were not, in fact, "lost".

 

GC

This is a cut and paste from TI website: "and you insure all Prepaid Trip costs that are subject to cancellation penalties or restrictions." It is in reference to coverage for pre-ex. There may be some grey area there with using FF points and any cancellation penalty. I absolutely agree with you that it's extremely important to talk with Steve, or anyone else at Trip insurance Store, or whatever broker you choose.

I have had two claims from TI. The first was two weeks ago, for a small medical claim from the ship's doctor. TI was primary payer (we prefer med to be primary), we were paid within three days, after filling out paper work.

The other was a couple years ago for the full cost of the trip (substantial) two days prior to sailing. Quite a bit more involved, our Doc had to fill out some paperwork, more receipts, etc., we were paid in full. It took longer, about a month.

It is my belief (again I'M NOT A BROKER) that, with most policies, one does not need to insure any prepaid costs that are FULLY REFUNDABLE.

For our TI claim of the full trip cost, we had purchased air travel which was fully refundable. We did not insure that amount, and we were paid in full on that claim.

We are adding up our prepaid and non-refundable expenses for purchasing insurance with pre-existing condition waiver at final payment. This policy stipulates that you need to include all of your expenses.

 

I have been told different things by agents on the following and wonder if anyone knows:

 

1. Do we need to include taxes and fees charged by the ship as I understand these are refundable. If we had to interrupt our cruise are they still refundable?

 

2. We are using FF miles for air. One agent told us we need to include the fee that the airline would charge to redeposit the miles if we had to cancel. Anyone else been told that? I had never thought of it but I guess it makes sense.

 

 

We usually book our cruises over a year out. At that point I do not want to pay hundreds of dollars for insurance (which would include pre-existing waiver ) as if we had to cancel we would loose the insurance money. So we get a policy with pre-existing waiver at final payment. I am not totally sure we need the waiver but like to be on the safe side.

 

This cruise is from Japan to Alaska so we will be overseas with Medicare only.

 

Thanks for any help.

 

 

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We use Trip Insurance store, have purchased over a dozen policies. We almost always get a policy written by Travel Insured Intl. A big reason I purchase from TI is I can "pay as I go". I make initial payment (deposit) and I insure for that amount, rounded up to the closest $500 increment (doesn't cost any more to round up within that increment). I think you have twenty days to make the first payment to get pre-ex and some other time sensitive elements, but I usually purchase within a day or so. Any subsequent travel payments, prepaid and non-refundable, for air, cruise, etc. I pay additional for the increased premium within a day or so of payment for the additional travel expense.

As to question 1, I would call the cruise line direct to find out what fees/taxes etc. are fully refundable. I believe govt. taxes are refundable, I don't know about fees.

As to question 2, I would probably insure based on what you were told. However, I will give you my two cents (that's about all it's worth, I'm not an insurance broker). If you haven't paid any money up front for airfare, and used only FF miles, then there is nothing that is prepaid. So, that wouldn't be prepaid and non-refundable, even though you would be hit up for that fee later. I have also been told that (by an agent) that I might want to insure in an amount for an event such as yours, as I could claim that amount, and probably recover that amount, in the event of a claim. Best to call the company that writes your policy.

I'm interested in hearing from people who have used Steve and Team and who actually had to make a claim. I understand that their service is very good helping people find the right insurance; that's not what I need to hear about. Just how things went if people had to make a claim.

 

Thanks very much.

 

 

(Also am wondering whether all members of the team are equally experienced and equally good.)

Two claims, both policies purchased through trip insurance store. First was about 3 years ago, a few days before sailing, for the full amount of the cruise. That took about a month, but we were paid in full.

Last claim was two weeks ago, a medical claim of less than $200. I submitted the paperwork (some prepopulated), checked off the option for direct pay to my bank account. The full amount hit my account in about three days.

I know the everyday price for Chops is $49 pp. I also know that this price occasionally is less once onboard, when they offer reduced price specials. Any recent cruisers who have gone to Chops, and gotten one of these deals? Honestly $49 pp seems a little heavy, especially considering the up charge was considered "nominal" ($10-$12 pp) when Chops was first rolled out.

We took the shuttle to town and then took the ferry to Suomenlinna. We bought a combo ticket to see everything on the island, museum, small submarine, fort and a house (maybe something else but can't remember exactly everything we saw). We spent most the day there. After taking the ferry back to town we walked back to the ship along the water. Where we had docked wasn't too far from town.

I have been to Finland twice, land based, both for a couple weeks. Beautiful country, friendly people. The Finnish friend I traveled with from North America is a Lutheran minister. He has preached at the Church of the Rock, and it's worth a look see:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temppeliaukio_Church

If you book Early Saver on Carnival, you get price drops as OBC after final payment, up to 48hrs of cruise. However, there are some cancellation penalties with Early Saver.

 

When I sailed the Spirit to Sydney for its repo in 2012, I ended up with $600 OBC on a balcony, plus a $400 drop right before final payment.

 

OP, It's a good idea not to look after you make final payment ;)

The final outcome: We were in penalty phase, but only for the deposit ($250/cabin). This is a family outing, we rebooked our three cabins and saved thousands of dollars, even factoring in the $750 penalty total for three cabins.

A little late to the thread and will be in Labadee in 9 months. Anyone remember the cost of the zip line?

Every so often (it seems like every month), RCCL runs an online sale. I booked the zipline for around $76 pp in the sale last month.

I'm almost 100% certain the answer is a resounding "no", but thought I'd ask anyway. Our cruise fare has dropped more than 5% since final payment, can we get a price adjustment? I think I know the response will be "yes, you can rebook, but you would need to cancel and pay the cancellation penalty, THEN re-book at the lower rate."

In the event a hurricane or some other event renders a port unusable, the port I have paid for us to fly into to, and they were to switch the embarkation port, am I required either by insurance or the cruise line to make arrangements to get to that port or can I request a refund if it is too difficult to change plans?

 

Past the point where we have made good faith arrangements to arrive at agreed port, I don't feel I should be required to change plans if the travel is too difficult. However, the insurance company has no idea, possibly because it has never happened. I ask because were a 180 mph monster hurricane to hit or affect Ft. Lauderdale it is not unreasonable to project a period where the port is unusable.

 

Oh look, a 180 mph monster hurricane projected to hit or affect Ft. Lauderdale..:o

 

• 
  

 

 

And yes I know our cruise is insignificant compared to human suffering. But I have to consider business aspects all the same.

The best I can suggest is first, read the insurance contract, then to contact the insurance provider. My policy has this wording, under other covered reasons for trip cancellation and interruption, for example:

• Mandatory evacuation ordered by local government authorities at Your Trip destination (or
  official public evacuation notices or recommendations without a mandatory evacuation order
  issued) due to adverse weather or Natural Disaster;
  

That is what I did. From what I understand the TA no longer gets a commission for the booking.

It is MUCH easier to do it with Princess though. I found the flights I wanted on their "Find Flights for this Cruise" link and then called them. With Cunard there is no such link. I am sure that the customer service reps would be able to take a lot less time if the passenger had access to the same screens as they.

Correct, TA does not get commission on air portion. I called Cunard directly, got 1st class fare on BA at 25% of "rack" rate. Called again a month or so later when I was outside of penalty, trimmed a little more off that price (because of fluctuation in pound sterling). Cunard was very helpful both times.

Sorry, but Southampton is the last place I would stay after a cruise compared to London and I would also not stay at some Heathrow airport hotel, either. Why would you do that?

This is a fairly tight connection. I'm guessing at least 2 hours Southampton-LHR.

Sofitel has a VERY nice airport hotel, directly connecting to terminal 5 at LHR. That perhaps is an option.