question on insurance and booking

[amd1234]

Hello need some questions answered. We are ready to book Uniworld for next year 6/2013 Burgandy to Provance. In order to get the best discount you have to pay in full. Also pay the insurance up front. (We are going buy the travel insurance also with Uniworld.) Any cruisers done this before? Its giving them your money for a year.:confused: We haven't done this before. Need feedback.. Thanks again..

[YoungDubFan]

Before you buy your insurance through Uniworld, go to insuremytrip.com and compare some prices. More than likely you will find a much better package at a more affordable rate. Normally you have to buy your insurance within 15 days of putting down your deposit or if you're paying in full, make any payment. This will normally waive any pre-existing coverage. Insurance is a big money maker for both the cruise lines and travel agents. Whenever I travel, I always purchase my insurance policy on my own.

[Fairfield Nana]

I agree and we also purchase insurance on our own. We get it thru Travel Insured International (via my membership with USAA insurance company--but assume TII will sell to anyone). We tend to go a bit overboard and buy the optional "cancel for any reason" and insured both full value of our airfare and cruise. We are on same itenerary, only sail on May 13--one more week!!.

 

Also paid in full early to take advantage of the huge discount from U'World. We have a hefty airfare from San Francisco to Paris-Marseille. I recall a large number of firms offering travel insurance, so the advice to shop around is quite sound. I think there are some reputable websites that allow you to compare price and coverage. Good Luck! Just be careful that they don't try sell you insurance against TTT--terrible taliban terrorists. Just kidding but one thread on this site seems to have gotten a bit out of reality on this matter.;)

[amd1234]

Thanks for all the info. Its so confusing:eek:you almost have to do a spreadsheet to figure it out..

[Paulinda]

There are a number of travel insurance companies. We used travel guard and feel it was a good value. there's also insure my trip, AAA and a host of others. Just do an online search for travel insurance. You can even do a search on cruise critic and get some information.

 

There may be some benefits by taking the cruise line insurance. I think I remember reading something about that here on cruise critic.

[webfoot]

We foolishly took the Globus trip insurance for our land trip to New Zealand and Australia. When we had an issue that we wanted to submit a claim for, the paperwork just about did us in .... now we book through insuremytrip.com or squaremouth.com.

[amd1234]

AAA insurance and Uniworld only a difference of $50.00 With Uniworld they have a "Any Reason" cancellation waiver. They will provide you with a future travel voucher should you cancel for any reason that is not eligiable for cash reimbursement under the trip cancellation section of the travel protection. I appreciate all the info that everyone has contributed to this thread..:) Its difficult planning a year in advance and we only hope everyone remains healthy..

[PCruzer]

We also purchase our own travel insurance. We mostly have used Travel Guard. Had one occasion where we missed our trip due to an airline strike. They paid every cent of the trip and then some, and we had the check within 3 weeks. We never buy the insurance offered by the cruise line/tour operator because we have heard too many horror stories about problems with claims.

[Wingtips56]

We've also purchased our trip insurance separately. The website referred to above doesn't include all of them. One I looked at didn't include Allianz (which I understand took over Access America, which we've used several times), along with Travel Guard and Travel Insured. We've not had to make any claims (knock wood), so I can't speak to service. But there are at least 31 Flavors, so read carefully. "Cancel for Any Reason" is limited to a list of acceptable reasons, not just because you chicken-out. It may or may not include your airline or cruiseline going belly-up, so read it thoroughly.

 

Important is Trip Interruption, so you're covered for rerouting and/or overnight expenses for problems getting to/from the cruise.

 

The insurance programs with the cruise lines cover just the cruise and perhaps the actual to/from travel. But if you are extending your trip, including adding additional tours, cities, booking your own air travel, etc., you'd want a custom package that covers the whole trip, baggage, drive to the airport and all from when you pull out of your driveway until your return. You calculate the entire trip cost, with the insurance calculated as a percentage of that.

 

Buying early, within the window that covers pre-existing conditions is important, as the list of what they consider pre-existing and not covered after the fact is quite long.

[amd1234]

That was some great information. I will do my homework and you brought up some very important points.. Thanks..:)

[Riviera bound]

That was some great information. I will do my homework and you brought up some very important points.. Thanks..:)

 

Just one more comment. We used Travel Guard for a trip fo 13. We had a health incident mid trip and they paid for everything with no questions. Trip interruption (everyone got off the cruise ship), hotels food and taxis for 5 days for 12 people while one was in the hospital, etc. etc. Just submitted all our receipts and no questions. Plus they talked us through it by phone when the incident happened. Hopefully you never have to collect, but if you do this is a great company to work with.

[amd1234]

What would we do without the internet? I have :)been on Insuremytrip.com what a wealth of information. Leaning towards Travel Guard Gold package. We had a river cruise booked 2007 and my son was taken very ill and we cancelled the trip including air. Well after a few weeks and he recovered and we decided to rebook. The cancellation fees for the air was unbelievable(booked through the cruise co.) I would not not book through a cruise co again. We will do our own air arrangements. Long story short it took awhile medical letters from son's Dr's etc but we were reimbursed for all the cancellation fees. So Travel Insurance is a must...

[CtWolfpacker]

Before buying travel insurance from your cruise ship company be sure to check that coverage is provided in case the cruise ship company goes out of business. We've found that many times the policy being sold by the cruise ship company does not cover this sort of loss, but the policy being sold by the travel insurance company does.

[Fairfield Nana]

Dear AMD1234---forgot to mention that prior to this trip and our use of the TII company (via USAA) we always used Travel Guard Gold. They were great and offered very afordable coverage. Thank goodness we never needed to use it!:o

[Train Riders]

It may be worth checking your Credit card/bank as most have a insurance clause on their cards, some even free. We have just paid for our 2 trips later this year thru master card & realised that that company covers travel for various costs depending on what level of credit card we had, we use a MC Platinum card & we have no cost for international insurance travel at all.

 

For memory most worldwide credit cards have this facility. A few years ago we had to claim for hospital expenses when we were in Europe & had no difficulity with the claim.

 

Train Riders in Oz

[stretchcruz]

We also buy through insuremytrip. I am in the midst of filing my claim withTravelguard for the trip we were to be on right now...emergency surgery for me. I don't anticipate any problems. We had booked our airfare and hotels and tours separately and the insurance is even going to reimburse us what the airline charged us to redeposit our FF miles into our account and for our Priceline nonrefundable hotels.

 

I seem to remember that when Renaissance went under that folks that bought insurance through the cruise line were left high and dry.

[MURPHY27]

I like Travel Guard and other private companies bec they always offer cash instead of a vouchers However, Viking did include, no extra change, if booked early a voucher for "cancel any reason" which othe plans made you pay dearly for the coverage, so this was an extra plus. but, the fact is, after doing my research and booing a trip, I dont cancel for any reason. As long as health and business are covered I'm good to go. Credit cards generally also cover a cruise cancelled by provider for any reason..