Travel Insurance

[WayneFougere]

Does anyone bother with travel insurance for their cruises?

[jaybird from SC]

Does anyone bother with travel insurance for their cruises?

We would never cruise without travel insurance....

[startwin]

Does anyone bother with travel insurance for their cruises?

 

Oh gosh yes!! Never travel without it. Especially with my DH who is accident-prone.:eek: I factor in another cruise fare - or more - to cover insurance for our cruises.

[alwaysfrantic]

I always get it for cruises; mostly incase something happens to my elderly parents and I need to fly home.

[RuthC]

Yes, of course.

It would be bad enough to miss the cruise and lose the money if taken ill before leaving home. Even worse would be to get sick or be injured while on the cruise and need medical attention overseas, or need to be brought home.

 

Even if only as far away as the Caribbean it costs 10s of thousands of dollars to be brought home for treatment. More distant itineraries cost considerably more.

[Shmoo here]

Does anyone bother with travel insurance for their cruises?

 

Yes, we always do. For all the reasons cited.

[Randyk47]

Up until a couple of years ago I would have said no. Two basic things changed. One, we changed our focus from the Caribbean to the Med and cruises got more expensive as airfare, pre and post cruise hotels, and naturally cruise fares increased considerably. Second.....well....good and bad.....we simply got older. Stuff happens and we decided that insurance now made sense where cruises and years ago it didn't but today my answer is yes, we get insurance for our cruises.

[alwaysfrantic]

We did have a hurricane issue with the Zuiderdam maybe about 10 years ago. We couldn't fly into FL. The ship kept shortening the trip. Eventually we just flew to Scottsdale and enjoyed Sun there. HAL gave us our money because they canceled or significantly altered the trip. Insurance covered flight changes. 2 days of meals and airport hotels while we waited.

 

Another time a camera was stolen in the airport. That got refunded.

[g&gtravel]

We always have bought insurance and had three medical claims. Last year, we booked trip to Europe, including non-refundable upgraded air, which we had to cancel due to learning about cancer. All out-of-pocket expenses were covered. Now working on the $435K of medical, but booked for Caribbean (with insurance).

[VermeulT]

I never considered it... until 3 days before I was to leave on my bucket list Panama Cruise and I fell and broke my elbow. I was in the ER and the orthopedic doctor says "did you get travel insurance?" I said, "why, I'm a healthy 30-something year old. Why would I need trip insurance?" (I was able to go in a cast on the trip and postponed surgery until I returned).

Between that sort of thing, bad weather, and having parents over 80 - we don't take vacations without it now.

[Davidson Duo]

In Canada, insurance is usually 2 separate policies - one for medical, another for travel costs.

 

We always travel with out of country medical insurance, but not trip cancellation or interruption insurance. We have seen and heard too many stories of how quickly and easily a medical issue can become a BIG deal when you are traveling. We would never travel without full coverage, including air evacuation..

 

Trip cancellation or interruption insurance is another issue. We have compared our costs and comfort level of self insuring, and as we do not book suites or verandas, we do not purchase additional coverage as we are willing to cover our losses if something happens. We have calculated that what we have saved over the years in insurance costs has more than covered the price of another cruise.

 

That said, we do have limited coverage through my husband's pension extended health program that would cover some costs if we are on a trip of less than 30 days. But if we are gone longer than that (which we usually are), we do not purchase extra that would cover the extra days.

 

If we were booking a trip where our costs were over $10,000, we would then take out the extra coverage. But for anything under that, we self insure.

[AlohaPride]

Does anyone bother with travel insurance for their cruises?

 

Never cruise with it! !

 

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[AlohaPride]

Never cruise with it! !

 

Sent from my SGH-T779 using Tapatalk

 

Oh my gosh!! I meant without it!!

 

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[Loreto]

When your international flight is cancelled, you miss the ship and your luggage arrives 4 days later you will, in the end, be very glad you had travel insurance!

 

It happened to us and it CAN happen to you!

 

Karen

[VISLAND]

Does anyone bother with travel insurance for their cruises?

 

We sure do, ...would Never dream of travelling without insurance!!

:)

[SpokaneDan]

I am always confused about what exactly a travel insurance cover? I assume there are different types, and most would cover emergency health issue. It seems postesr mentioned lost camera, luggages are covered?? Would appreciate if someone can enlightened me on what a "generic" travel insurance offered by HAL or TA entails?

[WayneFougere]

Wow, lots of responses! To clarify, I was asking about "trip cancellation or interruption insurance". I assume no one leaves home without health travel insurance.

 

I asked the question because of the cost differences of insurance options I've looked at. HAL offered insurance that seems to cost about 10.5% of the cost of the cruise (taxes in). I called my insurance agent and she found me a plan that's about 5.6% of the cost of the cruise. I don't see an obvious difference in benefits (but I haven't given HAL a real chance to sell the plan to me).

 

Are my observations typical with what others see? Does anyone buy insurance from HAL or does everyone use a 3rd party?

 

 

Regards,

Wayne

[AlohaPride]

We use insuremytrip dot com.

 

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[WayneFougere]

That's interesting. Thank you.

 

The details were a bit tough to enter (repositioning Florida to Vancouver via Panama Canal wasn't an option) but I suspect picking Bahamas was close enough. The price was higher than (but close to) the quote from my insurance agent.

[motherchic]

Always. The first time I needed it was...... I was traveling with my aunt, as she was older I thought insurance would be a good thing. Go figure, it ended up being me that needed it :(

The day of our cruise, instead of sailing out to the Panama canal I was having spinal surgery.

Two months later we got to enjoy the cruise. If we would have passed on insurance we would have lost all that money.

On a trip to Europe my luggage never showed for 6 days!! Thank goodness for insurance. buying clothes in Europe was expensive and all was comped.

I remember reading on the Celebrity Forum, someone complaining that they spent the money for insurance and never needed it. AND THEY WERE COMPLAINING !!! That has been years and I can still think about that comment and shake my head wondering about the intelligence of some people.

[donaldsc]

We carry a yearly policy for medical and evacuation. My opinion only but I do not think that any of the other stuff that you can insure for such as cancellation, delay, theft, etc is worth the money.

 

I only insure for the potential big losses and are willing to absorb the small losses.

 

What do you think it would do for your financial situation if you were injured overseas and had to be treated in hospital and then be medically evacuated home You can't be serious about your question.

 

DON

[Krazy Kruizers]

Does anyone bother with travel insurance for their cruises?

 

 

We always get insurance.

And have had to use it a couple of times.

[mollyanne]

After purchasing trip insurance for every cruise we've been on I just submitted my first claim! Our flight home was cancelled back in December and we had to be re-routed through another city - which included an overnight stay. While the cost of the hotel wouldn't have broken us if we had no insurance it's great that we will get it back. The cost of the hotel was 2/3 of what we paid for the insurance.

[smoothsailors]

We ALWAYS are well-insured! Unfortunately had to collect once when medically necessary to cancel a very expensive cruise/air shortly before sailing...but just look at this winter's weather already and imagine how many pax could not fly in to meet their ships!:(

 

Our insurance is now running almost 15% of our trip cost, as my husband's rate is much higher than mine. Two ways we've found to hold down the premiums: if possible to use miles for one award ticket (and we fly Business or First internationally), I'll put the award ticket in my husband's name. Since you can't insure award tickets (just the change/cancellation fee) that significantly cuts down his premium.) Also, all of our pre and post cruise hotel stays are always just reserved by CC, not pre-paid...that way they don't need to be insured either.:)

[Irish Eyes Are Sailing]

I don't take any trip.....land, sea, or air.....without travel insurance. Too many things can happen which may force you to cancel. Of course, if you are "financially blessed" and would not mind losing the deposit, or full fare if something happens and you can't go, then I would say it would be okay to do without travel insurance. JMO.