Do you all buy travel insurance??

[tulsacubfan]

I've said it before but it bears repeating, when you get your homeowners renewal do you think that since your house didn't burn down last year maybe you should skip it?

 

It all depends on what you are willing to/able to "self insure." I would be willing to self insure the cost of a vacation. Not willing to/able to risk self insuring the cost of my home.

[Mom2JJandJ]

I've always purchased travel insurance when cruising, just because of the "what if's" involved. I've only had to file a claim one time, and it was on my Fascination cruise this past April. There was a bomb scare at the terminal we were flying out of at MSP the morning we were driving to the airport. We didn't know until we got to the off-site parking and they told us nobody was allowed to go to that particular terminal until it was cleared. We had a 7:50am flight (Southwest). After many, MANY cluster **** moments, we ended up getting an evening flight to Denver, having to stay overnight then flying to Jacksonville the next morning. Insurance covered all our meals, incidentals and the hotel in Denver. Granted, it probably wouldn't have caused me to go broke in this instance, but it was nice to be able to know I was covered and was able to get everything back. I use the travel insurance offered to USAA members and from the date I sent the paperwork in until I received my check, 12 days (calendar, not business). I was pleased and will continue to purchase insurance when I travel, you just never know what can/will happen.

 

CYA is what I say! :D Enjoy your cruise!

 

ETA: What I spent those 18 hours was more than half of what I spent on insurance. No brainer.......

Edited June 13, 2012 by Mom2JJandJ

[Sailfish]

We base our decision to purchase travel insurance on the cost of our trip. When we drive to the port of embarkation and spend only a cople of hundred dollars on the cruise, we never purchase insurance. However, for our cruise to Tahiti in 2014 or our trip to Thailand this November (which includes a scuba liveaboard) we do plan to get travel interruption insurance. But check what your credit card offers you, and make sure you buy only what you need.

 

I think many people get travel insurance they do not need, or get a policy that will not cover what is most important to them. So it pays to shop around and to know what you are getting. Our rule of thumb is NEVER to purchase travel insurance through the cruise line - they tend to charge more and give you less. I think the more complex your trip becomes, the more you need insurance. But make sure you know what your health care plan will cover (ours will reimburse us for all medically necessary charges).

Edited June 13, 2012 by Sailfish

[DDFla]

This is the first cruise I have purchased the insurance and right now it is causing a little trouble. My daughter is having a conflict with college, last year we had a girl cancel as just did a $50 name change for another girl to go. Well, with the insurance, no name change, and if my daughter doesn't go it causes a whole pile of issues for me. You do get something back, but, It would be nice if they were a little more flexible with the policy.

[CRUISE4JANE]

Always. :)

[rednose83]

We do. We are young (<30), healthy, and eat healthy.

 

We've used it in our 11 cruises. Once when DH got food poisoning (or Norovirus) on a cruise. And once when I had horrible abdomen pain in the middle of the night.

 

The ship's medical center (for the fp/noro) wasn't that expensive ($120 or so) if I remember correctly but it was more than we paid for insurance.

 

My abdomen pain was over $6,000 in care from hospitals and the ships center. So, we're in the positive for quite awhile as far as insurance goes.

[richkinkade]

I never buy it. we've been on at least 25 cruises, (18 with Carnival) and we've saved enough not buying travel insurance to pay for at least 2 cruises by now. Insuring the cost of the cruise makes no sense at all, because you were plannig to spend that money anyway. The insurance is way overpriced for the risk.

Think about it this way. If you were flying to the Bahamas for 5 days or so, would you be willing to pay that much for a few days' medical insurance? If so, buy the cruise insurance. If not, don't.

[GAMOM4]

I have travel cancellation/interruption/delay insurance through my Bank of Montreal Mastercard. I pay an extra $60 a year for the travel insurance, and I have found that it has the most complete trip cancellation coverage in that price range.

 

However, I just found a situation that it didn't cover:

 

I was on the Dream a few weeks ago that was 7 hours late arriving in port due to the medical emergency. My flight out of MCO was at 1:30pm, which was impossible to catch by the time we reached Port Canaveral, so Air Canada rescheduled us for the next day.

 

I submitted the expenses for the flight change and the night's hotel to the insurance company underwriting the coverage (Allianz), but they rejected the claim, since the delay of the cruise ship was not a covered under the insurance. (Had I missed the BEGINNING of the trip due to a delay of a "common carrier" then they would have been covered the costs to catch up to the trip, but a common carrier delay is not covered once the trip has commenced).

 

It comes down to a strict reading of the insurance policy language. And while at the end of the day I do agree that their interpretation does follow the strict reading of the policy and I don't have any legal recourse, it is a bit upsetting since I think under the "spirit" of what the insurance is meant to cover, it should have been covered.

 

(All that said, you get what you pay for. It's the consumers responsibility to know what insurance they are buying. If I wanted 100% security, I should have paid extra to get the flights and insurance through Carnival. But I decided it wasn't worth that extra cost. Some times you win, sometimes you lose!)

 

 

We were on the May 19th sailing of the Dream ... We had driven our car to the port so the delay didn't cause us any problems...bit we heard so many people talking about how much the flight changes were costing (I was shocked at Tyhe cost) but we thought that the ones with insurance would get reimbursed . We always have insurance when we cruise...what does the policy need to say to cover something like this happening?

[bythehex]

We always, always, always get trip insurance and always will.

 

Things happen - we were on a cruise when I got the call that my Mom had died suddenly. My brother in law was on a cruise, at a port and stepped on a sea urchin. Had a bad allergic reaction and had to fly home for medical treatment - he had trip insurance.

 

Our friend's husband was on a cruise when he had a bad gall bladder attack and ended up in the hospital in Bermuda. The ship sailed, and he stayed in the hospital in Bermuda recuperating from having his gall bladder removed. He had trip insurance.

 

These were the lucky ones. Why chance it? It gives us peace of mind, and we hope we never have to use it but if we need to, we have it.

[GTO-Girl]

ALWAYS buy it and pray we never need it.......;)

[cmsjmu]

Just an FYI. Some credit cards offer free travel insurance. I have one in particular I use just to book travel, as it has free up-to $1500 (per traveler) insurance. Sure beats blowing $100 -$300 on travel insurance when I cruise.

 

This is kind of like the warranty extender program they have, as credit cards extend them an extra year beyond the manufacturers warranty. Read your credit card "Guide to benefits". Sometimes it pays to read the fine print!

[GTO-Girl]

Just an FYI. Some credit cards offer free travel insurance. I have one in particular I use just to book travel, as it has free up-to $1500 (per traveler) insurance. Sure beats blowing $100 -$300 on travel insurance when I cruise.

 

This is kind of like the warranty extender program they have, as credit cards extend them an extra year beyond the manufacturers warranty. Read your credit card "Guide to benefits". Sometimes it pays to read the fine print!

 

$1500 might cover the cost of your cruise, but it wouldn't touch a $25,000 plus cost for a Medivac unit........or cost to purchase one way tickets back home.

 

Just something to think about........;)

[Musky Ike]

The cost of insurance is minimal. There are a lot of better ways to save money on a cruise:) IMO.

[rickcop44]

OK...it sounds like I should just get one this time as well.....

 

Yeah...its always better to be safe than sorry for sure!

 

We've been on 20 cruises with 21 coming up in February 2013. We have always gotten travel insurance even though we, too, consider ourselves healthy for the most part. Someone, however, mentioned Murphy's Law. Well, ML has bitten us twice in the last three years with weather related airport closures, forcing us to make other arrangements to get to our port city. Were it not for travel insurance, we'd be out about $2900 in additional air fare purchases. Get the travel insurance, if, for any other reason, peace of mind.

[Herfnerd]

We base our decision to purchase travel insurance on the cost of our trip. When we drive to the port of embarkation and spend only a cople of hundred dollars on the cruise, we never purchase insurance. However, for our cruise to Tahiti in 2014 or our trip to Thailand this November (which includes a scuba liveaboard) we do plan to get travel interruption insurance. But check what your credit card offers you, and make sure you buy only what you need.

 

I think many people get travel insurance they do not need, or get a policy that will not cover what is most important to them. So it pays to shop around and to know what you are getting. Our rule of thumb is NEVER to purchase travel insurance through the cruise line - they tend to charge more and give you less. I think the more complex your trip becomes, the more you need insurance. But make sure you know what your health care plan will cover (ours will reimburse us for all medically necessary charges).

 

 

You run just as much of a risk of getting hurt and needing hospitalization or emergency medevac on inexpensive cruises as you would on pricey ones.

[PAPERBKWRITER]

It all depends on what you are willing to/able to "self insure." I would be willing to self insure the cost of a vacation. Not willing to/able to risk self insuring the cost of my home.

 

I agree. I can eat the vacation but evacution at sea, is another thing. Since my neighbor (in his 40's) was evacuated off the coast of Alaska the medical flights to the nearest hospital and the medical flight to Seattle cost over 40k, since that I always buy insurance. BTW if you are really in bad shape you won't be flying home on SW or AA you'll need special transportation. He was lucky it wasn't a hospital in Jamacia or some other 3rd world place.

[cruisinkid]

I bought it for this cruise b/c I had surgery last week and if there were any complications which would cause me to have to cancel I'd be covered...Thankfully everything turned out ok. I like to err on the side of caution, so I like to have insurance just in case.

[SadieN]

The only time we don't buy travel insurance is when the ports are 2 hours from home.

 

(The 3 & 4 day out of Long Beach.)

[dreaminofcrusin]

I bought it but not through Carnival. Cost $94 for three people.

[mike2000]

Wife and I always get travel Insurance, only had to use it one time when my Father became sick 3 days before a cruise and passed a way on what would have been the 4th day of the cruise. One of the things I have not seen said on here is most medical insurances do not cover you out of the USA, changes are if you company you work for does not have employes traveling out of the USA then you are not covered out of the USA. Also any one on medicare is not covered out side of USA.

Edited June 18, 2012 by mike2000

[luckybecky]

I have been on three cruises so far and I always bought the travel insurance. It was anywhere between 140(for DH and I, 7 day long cruise)~ 200 range. (They charge certain percentage of the total cruise cost).

 

We are in our early 30's, very healthy and eat healthy, we are like the work out 6 times a week type people. Both DH and I never had any issues with our health, maybe catch cold once a year??

 

But I still bought the travel insurance just in case something goes wrong and if we get hurt, it can cost a lot.

 

The sum of insurance cost added up to more than 500 for just last 3 cruises...and I am starting to wonder if I should skip this time.

 

I wanted to hear from all of you what you do with travel insurances, if you all get it or not..... If you think it is worth it....

 

Please share your thoughts with me! Many thanks in advance for your replies!

 

I have not read all the replies here, so I hope I am not being redundant.

 

Yes, I absolutely think you should buy trip insurance!! For me, the biggest concern is not losing the cost of the cruise. I'm much more worried about being hospitalized in a foreign port.

 

Even if you are in excellent health, you can never predict what the future holds. You could have anything from a broken arm to a stroke (and yes, it does happen even to young healthy people).

 

Not trying to be a downer here, but really, if you have an accident, where do you want to be? Dealing with a serious accident in a hospital in Mexico, or do you want to have funds (insurance) to airlift you back to the US?

 

We have purchased insurance for the medical benefit (and particularly the medical evacuation to the US). We found that Global Alert was much less expensive than the cruise line insurance, and offered a higher rate of benefits.

 

We don't go into our cruise obsessing about something terrible happening, but it is a little added peace of mind to know that if something went wrong, we have a policy to help us deal with it.

[ricthemic]

Does cruise insurance cover you in full if you have to cancel your fully paid cruise with in months of departure date if there is a serious health, accident, death of a family member, parent, children, grandchildren? None of which are going on the cruise. How about the basic ones the cruise line offers about $70.00 per person for a seven day caribbean cruise?

[LuckyZ]

We've been on 12 cruises but only got travel insurance on the last 2.

 

Now that we and our parents are getting older, seems like the possible need for insurance grows and makes it worth it to mitigate any risks.

Edited December 16, 2012 by LuckyZ

[katiel53]

We always get insurance and it's not just because we are older. We started getting it because of agin parents and we wanted to have coverage in the event something happened. We also want the medivac coverage, so it's worth it to us.

 

I do think though that you are overpaying for your insurance. My husband and I pay about the low end of what you mentioned. I would do some shopping around as many others have suggested. No sense paying that amount if you don't need to.

[pamurchu]

We always buy the travel insurance. We too were healthy, in our mid thirties, and off on a two week "drive as you please trip around Ireland." We left a healthy, (or so we thought), set of parents home. We were gone three days, called home (which was a rare thing for us, but somehow I had a feeling), and were told that my father had died suddenly, and my mother was a basket case and would not make any decisions until we arrived back home. We did make it home within 48 hours, and thank goodness we did get reimbursed for most of our shortened trip. Now that we are older, we never travel without it--just gives us peace of mind...paid off for us again last summer when US Airways could not get us to Barcelona in time to board the Magic for our cruise. We met up with the ship at its next stop two days later (Livorno) and the insurance covered all of the incidentals that we incurred with the delay, extra travel, and two nights in a hotel, missed days on the ship, meals, cab and train fare, etc.

 

Everyone must make the decision whether it is worth the extra $$ or not, what you are willing to lose and how much you are willing to risk. But our opinion is that it is definitely worth it.