cruise insurance

[az20101]

Suggestions on buying or not buying travel insurance for an Alaskan cruise in June, 2014.

[PatriciaF]

I thought it was silly to spend the money but did back in 2011 for Feb 2012 cruise as I worried about having to cancel because my dad was in his early 90's. Well--we did have to cancel as I fell two days before we were to fly to FLL and shattered my wrist. My dad was fine. We got our $4400 back in less than two weeks from the insurance company used by Princess.

 

Since then we have bought it usually from the cruise line--but our upcoming trip on the Eurodam we bought it through the online huge box store travel agency -- for $300 or so, it brings a lot of peace of mind.

 

I have friends that cruise two or three times a year--they don't buy it, they would rather gamble. They think they are ahead of the game as they have never had to cancel a trip or have another incident that would have been covered by the insurance.

[sail7seas]

Hi and Welcome to CruiseCritic. Happy you found us.

 

There is a forum for Travel/cruise Insurance and some very knowledgable posters are very helpful on that forum.

 

Here is a link if you wish to check it out.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=&f=635

 

We do not travel without knowing with have medical coverage that will pay outside U.S. and emergency evacuation/repatriation coverage. That is where you can run up big bills. We choose to not insure the actual cruise for cancellation or interruption.

[mollyanne]

I would never leave home without it - even to Alaska. You never know what could happen either leading up to a trip or once onboard. The cost is minimal in the scheme of things.

[RJ2002]

Suggestions on buying or not buying travel insurance for an Alaskan cruise in June, 2014.

 

Welcome to Cruise Critic!

 

There is a separate forum for Travel Insurance that you might want to review, and possibly repost your question.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=635

 

What is your primary motive for getting the insurance? Ability to cancel in case of illness?

[sail7seas]

I thought it was silly to spend the money but did back in 2011 for Feb 2012 cruise as I worried about having to cancel because my dad was in his early 90's. Well--we did have to cancel as I fell two days before we were to fly to FLL and shattered my wrist. My dad was fine. We got our $4400 back in less than two weeks from the insurance company used by Princess.

 

Since then we have bought it usually from the cruise line--but our upcoming trip on the Eurodam we bought it through the online huge box store travel agency -- for $300 or so, it brings a lot of peace of mind.

 

I have friends that cruise two or three times a year--they don't buy it, they would rather gamble. They think they are ahead of the game as they have never had to cancel a trip or have another incident that would have been covered by the insurance.

 

 

Of course, it is personal choice and risk assessment but a great many cruises ago (probably more than 60), we decided to not insure the price of our cruises but only be sure we had medical and evacuation coverage. We were at risk of loss for about the first 5 or so cruises and after that, luckily without having to cancel, we started saving a great deal on premiums we didn't pay. We have been very fortunate that through the years, the few cruises we had to cancel were prior to final payment and we suffered no loss.

 

I strongly believe no one should travel anywhere that their medical insurance would not pay if they become ill or injured and emergency evacuation coverage.

 

Price of the cruise/hotel/whatever other expenses presumably they can afford.

 

[Krazy Kruizers]

Welcome to Cruise Critic.

Over the years we have had to use insurance -- when MIL died, when I fell and broke my wrist in 2 places and most recently because of massive snow storms that cancelled thousands of flights.

[Randyk47]

I don't know that there is a right or wrong answer. We went years and years without getting insurance and as mentioned above probably saved enough to pay for a cruise or two. But, and it is a big BUT, our circumstances are or were different. Fast forward to our cruises today and now we're insuring them. The reality is that we've gotten older and while in good health we're much more aware that stuff happens. We have virtually no family and, in fact, we're the senior members which is weird enough as it is. Secondly, our focus has moved from Caribbean cruises to cruises in more distant locations and with that has come a significant increase in cost and that means more at risk. For those itineraries it reached the point where the risk was not comfortable. I imagine if we went back to Caribbean cruises, sorry we have no interest in Alaskan cruises, we'd probably have to rethink whether or not we'd insure them.