Cancelling Cruise Insurance

[irishgal432]

I normally book cruises 4-6 months out when I know my schedules, but I am looking at the Brilliance in Sept 2014 since it just came out and I was able to hold a coveted cabin. If I put in a deposit, I can only buy insurance for 14days.

If I cancel the cruise prior to final payment, do you get any travel insurance money returned?

[Clarea]

[quote name='irishgal432']I normally book cruises 4-6 months out when I know my schedules, but I am looking at the Brilliance in Sept 2014 since it just came out and I was able to hold a coveted cabin. If I put in a deposit, I can only buy insurance for 14days.

If I cancel the cruise prior to final payment, do you get any travel insurance money returned?[/quote]
If you purchase Royal's CruiseCare insurance, then this is not paid until cruise final payment. If you use other insurance, they are generally not refundable, but you would have to check with them to be sure.

[BLAMBKY]

I have no used RC insurance but another company, Travel Guard. I buy it, when I make final payment. It seems like I had 30 days from final payment to purchase.

[Paul65]

Agree with the others. There is no need to purchase insurance at the time of initial booking. Almost all insurance plans allow you to purchase at the time of final payment or shortly thereafter. There are even plans that you can purchase well past final payment, but they may not allow a pre-existing condition coverage.

[Clarea]

One also needs to consider if the insurance is to cover non-refundable airfare. If airfare is to be covered from the time of it's purchase, then insurance should be purchased at the same time as the airfare.

[irishgal432]

Thanks for your replies. I normally book around final payment day so that is why I always have to pay right away.

[Deatsch]

Irishgal,

I canceled our travel insurance 2 weeks after booking because I found out that my credit card automatically covers our cruise.

Hope that helps,

Jim

[Debinnova]

Well I'm confused because my Avoya TA told me that the insurance (Assurance? can't remember the name of it) had to be purchased within so many days of the booking or deposit? If this is not correct, then I'm annoyed because my final payment is not due until mid July and what if I decided to cancel the cruise before that? I would get my deposit back from RCI but lose the insurance payment that I had to pay in full.

I will have to ask my TA about it.

Debinnova

[cruisinfanatic]

You can buy outside insurance anytime you want, but if it's not within a few days (varies) of your deposit, you will not be covered for preexisting conditions

[orville99]

We always book directly through RCL, and always take their insurance. On the rare occasions when we've had to cancel prior to final payment, we always got 100% of what we paid. I remember reading a thread a while ago that RCL doesn't actually activate the insurance until final payment. Not sure about airline insurance, however. One of the reasons we moved to Florida is so we wouldn't have to fly anywhere to get to a cruise:)

[Clarea]

[quote name='orville99']We always book directly through RCL, and always take their insurance. On the rare occasions when we've had to cancel prior to final payment, we always got 100% of what we paid. I remember reading a thread a while ago that RCL doesn't actually activate the insurance until final payment. Not sure about airline insurance, however. One of the reasons we moved to Florida is so we wouldn't have to fly anywhere to get to a cruise:)[/quote]
This is an important point. The reason it seems that you can cancel Royal's insurance before final payment is because you have not actually purchased it. It may be on your invoice, but unless you contact them and specifically request to pay for their insurance, and pay for it over and above the cruise deposit amount, then you're not covered until final payment.

[Paul65]

[quote name='SeaUs']You can buy outside insurance anytime you want, but if it's not within a few days (varies) of your deposit, you will not be covered for preexisting conditions[/quote]

Depends upon the policy. Some allow pre-existing condition waiver as long as you purchase before final payment. Prepaid airfare may be an exception, but if you're talking about all the other coverages, they're not on the hook for anything, if you haven't passed the final payment date. You can cancel and get a full refund before that date.

Once that is past, and they would be on the hook, they don't usually allow coverage for pre-existing conditions, because they don't want people to wait until something is wrong with them, then buy insurance. That messes with the process and makes it very hard to be profitable.

[brillohead]

All the insurance I looked into had to be purchased within a two weeks of Final Payment, not booking.

[mikedw]

If you have pre existing conditions, some insurances, you have to purchase within a week or so of initial booking or they won't cover that particular problem. Due to wife's disability, I always purchase insurance the same day that I do my deposit.

[big_j]

[quote name='Paul65']There is no need to purchase insurance at the time of initial booking.[/quote]

A word of caution, though, from personal experience. If you don't buy insurance at the time of booking, then pre-existing medical conditions aren't covered. So, if you make final payment and then have to miss the cruise due to a medical procedure related in any way to an existing condition, the insurance company won't pay up.

Having been burned in the past, we now always buy insurance at the time of booking, just in case.

[Paul65]

[quote name='brillohead']All the insurance I looked into had to be purchased within a two weeks of Final Payment, not booking.[/quote]

There are some that require within a short period from initial payment, in order to have pre-existing conditions coverage. But you can find insurance that does not have this requirement. Some even have "cancel for any reason" coverage, but that, of course, increases the cost.

[Guest maddycat]

We always buy third party travel insurance with in 14 days of booking a cruise. That way we are covered for pre-existing medical conditions. If you book the cruise and buy insurance at the time of booking and then later cancel the cruise, you might be able to transfer the insurance to another cruise. You'd have to contact the travel insurance company and ask them.

[irishgal432]

I ended up booking with a big box travel agency and they are affiliated with a travel insurer who I called and both the TA and Travel Insurer told me that I do not have to purchase the insurance until Final Payment and have 24 hours after final payment to be have a pre-exsiting medical condition waiver.

Thank you for all of your help.

[luvscruising2007]

The way it has been explained to me is this.
If you pay for the insurance at time of booking, in addition to your deposit, it kicks in immediately, and you are covered for pre-existing conditions. If you don't pay until final payment, pre-existing conditions are not covered. There is a time frame before and after when you purchase the insurance that if you cancel because you are diagnosed within that time frame you will not be covered.
It is important to understand that just because you say you want insurance
does not mean you are covered. When you pay for the insurance is when you are covered. Makes sense.
Went through this with our TA just this morning. She said she had to make it clear to RC that one payment was for our deposit and the other payment was for our insurance.
We use RC's insurance.
I hope this is clear and helps.

[Ken076]

There's a miscommunication here -

The [B]RCI Berkely Policy[/B] does NOT have "[I]Waiver of Pre-Existing Condition[/I]" coverage, no matter when you purchase it - the RCI Policy has a 60-day lookback window for pre-existing conditions, which will not be covered if deemed "pre-existing" during claims processing. You can/should confirm this by calling Berkely directly.

So-called 3rd party policies like TravelEx, TravelInsured.....require that you purchase (pay for) their Policy within 14-21 days of booking your cruise in order to get "[I]Waiver of Pre-Existing Conditions[/I]" and to be able to additionally purchase their optional "[I]Cancel for Any Reason[/I]" coverage (CSA allows you to purchase up to Final payment to get the Waiver). If you don't purchase the policy within the 2 or 3 week initial window, you are then subject to their lookback window for pre-existing conditions, which can vary from 60 to 180 days.

Ken

[travelbug11]

[quote name='maddycat']We always buy third party travel insurance with in 14 days of booking a cruise. That way we are covered for pre-existing medical conditions. If you book the cruise and buy insurance at the time of booking and then later cancel the cruise, you might be able to transfer the insurance to another cruise. You'd have to contact the travel insurance company and ask them.[/quote]

I've never had a problem transferring a third party insurance policy that I purchased within 14 days to another cruise. Just called them and changed the dates.

[Ken076]

[quote name='irishgal432']I ended up booking with a big box travel agency and they are affiliated with a travel insurer who I called and both the TA and Travel Insurer told me that I do not have to purchase the insurance until Final Payment and have 24 hours after final payment to be have a pre-exsiting medical condition waiver.

Thank you for all of your help.[/quote]

If you don't mind...which Insurer/Policy did you end-up with? thanks, Ken

[irishgal432]

[quote name='Ken076']If you don't mind...which Insurer/Policy did you end-up with? thanks, Ken[/QUOTE]

I haven't bought the insurance yet but the company will be Travelguard. They have a deal with a big box retailer that sell large quantities of items. They have a special number to call to get through to Travelguard. When I googled travelguard and tried that number and talked to the rep she had to transfer me to the rep that handles the big box retailer. I was assured that I would get the pre existing waiver as long as I bought it before or within 24 hours of final payment.

[texasnana]

The company i use lets you transfer coverage to other books if you have to cancel. I book one cruise then changed my mind and book with another company. They even let me change the coverage too. I do not trust my body or conditions. what i might think is new but could be an old injury etc. If you can afford to cruise you can afford to buy insurance to cover yourself.

[Ken076]

[quote name='irishgal432']I haven't bought the insurance yet but the company will be Travelguard. They have a deal with a big box retailer that sell large quantities of items. They have a special number to call to get through to Travelguard. When I googled travelguard and tried that number and talked to the rep she had to transfer me to the rep that handles the big box retailer. I was assured that I would get the pre existing waiver as long as I bought it before or within 24 hours of final payment.[/quote]

[I]Irishgal[/I] -- TravelGuard IMO is good Insurance. TravelGuard has a 180 day lookback window for pre-existing conditions.

The normal policy that you would get direct from TravelGuard or via on-line Brokers, requires that you purchase the Policy w/in 15 days of initial trip deposit (you can check this out at the TravelGuard or InsureMyTrip sites) to get "Waiver of Pre-Existing conditions", so I would check this out closely with the Big Box. Maybe they can give you a link to the Policy(s) they offer, or a link to where this is documented in writing. It's possible they offer slightly [I]modified[/I] Policies, as does USAA with TravelInsured.

ken