Insurance Questions?

[jjgreg113]

I booked my cruise about 7 days ago. Final payment is not due until August sometime. And I won't be booking airfare or anything else until closer to the date.

 

Since we always cruise last minute this is new to us. Due to the fact of a per-excisitng condition, we usually buy insurance the day we purchase the cruise.

 

So here is my question. Do i buy a policy now just for the cruise, then get another when I get airfare? Also, what if for some reason, we cancel and then rebook either a different cruise or at a new price or something like that? Then am I out the money of that trip insurance?

 

Thanks in advance for any information.

[H2Oregon]

Not sure about the cruise line insurance, but many of the private travel insurance companies will cover preexisting conditions as long as you purchase your travel insurance before final payment.

[Colo Cruiser]

Why don't you get the air through Princess?

At least you would be covered if you are delayed to/from the ship.

[likeadisguise]

Princess's requirement for a pre-existing condition is that it has to have been "stable" in the 60 days before the insurance becoming effective (no changes in medication, etc). The effective date is the day you pay for it.

 

As Colo Cruiser noted, it covers your air at no extra cost if air is booked through Princess.

 

And it's completely refundable up until final payment for your cruise, if you choose to pay for it at the time of booking (or any time before final payment).

[Coral]

Check with who you booked your cruise through. My TA has a policy through Alianz that covers pre-existing conditions when bought at final payment date.

 

Otherwise, I would buy insurance for the cruise and then when you buy air, just call the company up and increase the coverage. Before my TA had this policy, this is what I did.

[jjgreg113]

Thank you all for the answers. For some reason, I always thought for pre-exisiting, it had to be purchased when deposit is paid.

 

I will check with the TA I bought the cruise though. Having had to use insurance, before, I have always tried to get a good policy. And it was my understanding to always get your insurance though somewhere other then the cruise company. But that is great information about the airfare. I didn't realize that.

 

As always, cruise critic is the best.

[piglet55cc]

For the last 4 years, I have purchased my insurance though insuremytrip.com. This company deals with several companies. I tell what I need and then they find a company that provides that. I heard about them through AARP. AARP travel consultant said you should never buy insurance through the company you are travelling with. The reason being is that the travel companies would have insurance benefit them.

[weberman]

Princess's requirement for a pre-existing condition is that it has to have been "stable" in the 60 days before the insurance becoming effective (no changes in medication, etc). The effective date is the day you pay for it.

 

And it's completely refundable up until final payment for your cruise, if you choose to pay for it at the time of booking (or any time before final payment).

 

I had horrible experience with Princess and their insurance. I booked the Royal about a year and a half before the cruise. I booked through Princess and was told I had to take the insurance at the time of booking if I wanted preexisting conditions ( with a sixty day look back window) to be covered. I was told by the Princess Rep that my deposit covered the insurance. i even double checked with my doctors to see if I had any medical tratement in the prior sixty days.

 

This turned out to be a lie. I had some medical problems that resulted in a treatment (cortisone shot in the knee) within sixty days of the Final Payment and stupid me thinking I was covered based on what the Princess Rep had told me went ahead and made the final payment.

 

I had to cancel the cruise due to medical conditions related to that cortisone shot and Princess then told me that the insurance only went into effect when the final payment was made, so my claim was denied so I lost a lot of money. :mad:

 

I am not stupid and would never have made the final payment if Princess had been truthful with me. They basically called me a liar and said NO PRINCESS REP would have told me that.

 

Bottom line for me is don't trust what Princess tells you as they never seem to accept responsibility for their mistakes. Further proof of that is Princess cancelled my Princess Air tickets ( for unknown reasons) which were paid for in full about six months after i bought them and never notified me. I found by accident. Princess said I had cancelled them and again basically called me a liar when I said I did not. I would have found out when I tried to airplane boarding passes and would have been SOL. Princess wanted me to pay $500 more airfare which I would not do. I had to escalate the problem to get the situation resolved. :mad:

 

So the bottom line IMHO is Princess Reps can't be trusted, nor can Princess as they will call you a LIAR and not admit they screwed up.

 

I have been a loyal Princess cruiser, but, I now done with them by using up a small credit they gave me on a Panama Canal cruise.

 

OK, princess Fanboys, pile on! :(

[GradUT]

I agree that buying insurance from the provider of your travel is not the best idea because it is in not their best financial interest to issue a policy that benefits the insured (you) and opposed to the insurer (them).

 

I also buy my travel insurance through InsureMyTrip.com so that I can compare policies to find the best one for me and my circumstances. Most policies require that you purchase them within 10 - 15 days of making the deposit on your trip if you want pre-existing condition coverage. They also base the price of the policy on the entire cost of the trip, so I am not sure that you can come back later to adjust the price once you purchase your airfare. InsureMyTrip has options to call a representative or to do a "live chat" with a representative. I would recommend you ask them about whether you can come back later to adjust the price of your trip once you buy airfare and whether this will affect the pre-existing condition coverage.

[GeezerCouple]

We've purchased travel insurance (cruise plus air, plus other travel) through TripInsuranceStore.com

 

We had 21 days to get the insurance, from the FIRST payment (of ANY sort) for the trip, in order to have full coverage for any pre-existing conditions (for us or family members).

 

We were able to pay the minimum insurance, to cover ONLY the deposit, until such a time as we increased the payments. We kept upping the coverage (and thus insurance costs) SLOWLY, as we paid more (adding air, paying in full for cruise), etc.

 

We ended up with a lower airfare through the cruise line, so we had our fully refundable air tickets refunded.

 

NOTE: I seriously doubt we'd have received any insurance refund for reducing the costs. However, in this case, we lowered the airfare at the same time we paid in full for the cruise, so the *total* cost of the trip still went up. But we never paid for insurance for more of the trip cost than what we had already paid. That was very nice when booking far in advance.

 

We've got 2 more cruises booked far in advance (and a few more in the planning stages), and in each case, we "started the clock" by getting insurance for just the Deposit totals.

We won't have to pay more for the trips OR for insurance until a few months before the actual travel dates.

 

GeezerCouple

[klfrodo]

I had horrible experience with Princess and their insurance. I booked the Royal about a year and a half before the cruise. I booked through Princess and was told I had to take the insurance at the time of booking if I wanted preexisting conditions ( with a sixty day look back window) to be covered. I was told by the Princess Rep that my deposit covered the insurance. i even double checked with my doctors to see if I had any medical tratement in the prior sixty days.

 

This turned out to be a lie. I had some medical problems that resulted in a treatment (cortisone shot in the knee) within sixty days of the Final Payment and stupid me thinking I was covered based on what the Princess Rep had told me went ahead and made the final payment.

 

I had to cancel the cruise due to medical conditions related to that cortisone shot and Princess then told me that the insurance only went into effect when the final payment was made, so my claim was denied so I lost a lot of money. :mad:

 

I am not stupid and would never have made the final payment if Princess had been truthful with me. They basically called me a liar and said NO PRINCESS REP would have told me that.

 

Bottom line for me is don't trust what Princess tells you as they never seem to accept responsibility for their mistakes. Further proof of that is Princess cancelled my Princess Air tickets ( for unknown reasons) which were paid for in full about six months after i bought them and never notified me. I found by accident. Princess said I had cancelled them and again basically called me a liar when I said I did not. I would have found out when I tried to airplane boarding passes and would have been SOL. Princess wanted me to pay $500 more airfare which I would not do. I had to escalate the problem to get the situation resolved. :mad:

 

So the bottom line IMHO is Princess Reps can't be trusted, nor can Princess as they will call you a LIAR and not admit they screwed up.

 

I have been a loyal Princess cruiser, but, I now done with them by using up a small credit they gave me on a Panama Canal cruise.

 

OK, princess Fanboys, pile on! :(

 

Never have sailed on Princess.

Having said that, when you received the insurance policy, what did the policy say in writing?

Not really concerned with what someone may or may not have said over the phone. Only concerned with what's in writing.

 

A phone rep for a travel insurance company, even Steve's company, is going to be vague in their answers. Sure, they'll try to help in any way they can, but cannot and will not answer specific yes/no questions. That final determination can only be made by the claims adjusters after they receive a claim.

[likeadisguise]

I had to cancel the cruise due to medical conditions related to that cortisone shot and Princess then told me that the insurance only went into effect when the final payment was made, so my claim was denied so I lost a lot of money.

 

Didn't you receive 75% as a credit for a future cruise? Princess should have given you that even if your claim with the insurance company was denied.