Princess Insurance Platinum Charged more than our cruise $

[mellon1]

When did you book the cruise? prior to the diagnosis and treatment or recently? If you booked it recently the pre existing would come into play. But if you booked before diagnosis and treatment t is not pre existing as you signed up for insurance with booking.

 

Hope his recovery is improving daily

 

We went on a cruise as soon as I finished radiation treatment for Breast cancer , trip was just what the patient and care giver (husband) needed. Everything went smoothly.

 

Hope that will be the case for both of you as well.

 

continued wishes for a blessed recovery.........

 

We booked as soon as it came out, but did not get the insurance until recently...never had problems before...never thought we would get cancer. Thank you for the kind words. I hope you are doing well and cancer free. It is a long road...we don't say a journey, that is too nice. This is the end of this chapter of our life and we are ready for the next. Recovery after 10/22. It will be a long road due to head and neck. Hubby never smoked, drank or HPV, doctors say he is one of the 15% who get it who shouldn't. cancer is a terrible disease. I will not capitalize the word...I hope you have seen, as we have, the good in the world, the good people. cancer is the black dot on a white page, with white being all the good. I wish you the very best and hope and faith for the future.

[ar1950]

We booked as soon as it came out, but did not get the insurance until recently...never had problems before...never thought we would get cancer. Thank you for the kind words. I hope you are doing well and cancer free. It is a long road...we don't say a journey, that is too nice. This is the end of this chapter of our life and we are ready for the next. Recovery after 10/22. It will be a long road due to head and neck. Hubby never smoked, drank or HPV, doctors say he is one of the 15% who get it who shouldn't. cancer is a terrible disease. I will not capitalize the word...I hope you have seen, as we have, the good in the world, the good people. cancer is the black dot on a white page, with white being all the good. I wish you the very best and hope and faith for the future.

 

I definitely understand your concern about costs. We have always just let our TA (when we have booked with her) give us the insurance price. It always seems to be pretty close to what we figured it would be when pricing out our cruise before turning it over to her. We have always gotten the insurance and so far it has been a blessing having needed it twice. Because of an ongoing health issue I spent time contacting the insurance underwriter about the "60 days of stability" clause and found that I was covered (60 days before the purchase of the insurance and my issue was stable and controlled by medication). It may not be the best for everyone's situation, however, based on cost and coverage it has worked well for us (so far).

 

Good wishes for your husband. We know the anxiety that a cancer diagnosis can cause after having 4 immediate family members get it and 3 did not make it. Happy to hear that your husband's was caught fairly early. Seems that if it has transitioned from stage 3 to stage 4 that is where things don't go so well. Again, wishing your husband a full and permanent recovery and have a great cruise! :)

[cruiser113]

We booked as soon as it came out, but did not get the insurance until recently...never had problems before...never thought we would get cancer. Thank you for the kind words. I hope you are doing well and cancer free. It is a long road...we don't say a journey, that is too nice. This is the end of this chapter of our life and we are ready for the next. Recovery after 10/22. It will be a long road due to head and neck. Hubby never smoked, drank or HPV, doctors say he is one of the 15% who get it who shouldn't. cancer is a terrible disease. I will not capitalize the word...I hope you have seen, as we have, the good in the world, the good people. cancer is the black dot on a white page, with white being all the good. I wish you the very best and hope and faith for the future.

 

Thank you also for your kind words and positive spirit. It will get you trough the tough days ahead.

 

On a side note I am a recently retired Oncology nurse........I have seen your pain and traveled this road with many of my patients.

 

There is a rainbow on the other side of the pain, sometimes we have to create it our self! Many the future bring you many rainbows.

[bob brown]

I have considered getting outside travel insurance, until I found out what they charge for my 95 year old mother....way more than the cruiselines, who do not charge based on age.

[Kamloops50]

From what I have been told by a TA. They are not allowed to discount the Princess insurance.

[cactusrose]

Really, I wish people who have cruised with Princess multiple times via travel agent have experienced what I have or NOT. Final payment is due this week.

 

With Princess Insurance you will pay between 7% and 12% of the cruise fare (excluding taxes and port charges). If you turn it over to a TA that discounts you still pay for the insurance based on the princess fare. If you do cancel you will be refunded the full amount you paid and the TA will get their full commission. So in effect you are also covering the TAs commission with the insurance. Since Princess pays the TAs commission at time of full payment they would be the ones to received the insurance payment for the commission. No this doesn't seem right because Princess would be out that commission whether you sail or not but that's how they do it. I too think that you should be paying on the discounted fare because that's the amount you will get if you have to cancel.

 

 

In your situation Princess insurance will only pay for medical for your husband, while on board the ship, that isn't related to your husbands cancer. Princess does have a cancel for any reason clause but that will only be in the form of a credit for another cruise. If you cancel for a covered reason, other than related to your husbands cancer, you will receive a cash refund. The same applies to trip interruption.

Edited October 19, 2015 by cactusrose

[Coral]

I have considered getting outside travel insurance, until I found out what they charge for my 95 year old mother....way more than the cruiselines, who do not charge based on age.

 

Ironically - that is all the more reason to buy private insurance that includes higher coverage. Someone who is 95 is more likely to need medical care than someone younger and the coverage on Princess's insurance is minimal ($20K) and Medicare doesn't cover outside of the US.

[Kamloops50]

I have to pay about 10% of the value of the trip for insurance (I'm over 60). At 70 the rate goes up to about 15%. This is in Canada. At 85 I won't be able to afford the private insurance.

Edited October 19, 2015 by Kamloops50

[San Diego Ellie]

The Princess insurance is not age banded, and is approximately 8% of the total fare. I suggest that the OP do a "dummy booking" through the insurance step (then abort it) and see what the insurance price would be.

[mellon1]

Mellon1, What they told you and what is in writing in the contract are different. Just be aware of that. The good news is your husband's doctors sound very confident that he won't have any complications or need any further treatment. If that holds true, there is no problem.

 

Here is the text:

 

Insurance sure is scary...they always get out of something because of all the wording. It takes an attorney to look at it!

[mellon1]

I definitely understand your concern about costs. We have always just let our TA (when we have booked with her) give us the insurance price. It always seems to be pretty close to what we figured it would be when pricing out our cruise before turning it over to her. We have always gotten the insurance and so far it has been a blessing having needed it twice. Because of an ongoing health issue I spent time contacting the insurance underwriter about the "60 days of stability" clause and found that I was covered (60 days before the purchase of the insurance and my issue was stable and controlled by medication). It may not be the best for everyone's situation, however, based on cost and coverage it has worked well for us (so far).

 

Good wishes for your husband. We know the anxiety that a cancer diagnosis can cause after having 4 immediate family members get it and 3 did not make it. Happy to hear that your husband's was caught fairly early. Seems that if it has transitioned from stage 3 to stage 4 that is where things don't go so well. Again, wishing your husband a full and permanent recovery and have a great cruise! :)

 

Thank you for your kind words. He has three days left and is done. Doc said today, prognosis looks great.

[mellon1]

Thank you also for your kind words and positive spirit. It will get you trough the tough days ahead.

 

On a side note I am a recently retired Oncology nurse........I have seen your pain and traveled this road with many of my patients.

 

There is a rainbow on the other side of the pain, sometimes we have to create it our self! Many the future bring you many rainbows.

 

Well then, you are an angel. We don't know what we would have done without all the wonderful nurses. This disease really makes you NOT complain about anything...it puts things in perspective.

[mellon1]

Thank you everyone for all your help. I appreciate all of you taking the time to help me.

[DebJ14]

it is not based on the date of booking or the date you sign up for insurance; it is based on the date you PAY for the insurance. And the lookback is 60 days from the date of payment.

 

That is correct, and even those policies with pre-existing illness coverage require the insured to be stable for that 60 day period and be fit to cruise at the time they buy that insurance.

 

It is best to pay for insurance when you book the cruise instead of waiting until final payment. We just ran into that problem. 2 days before a final payment was due on a January 2016 cruise DH was in the emergency room with excruciating back pain. They thought he had a kidney stone and did the work up for that. Turned out to be an orthopedic problem. Unfortunately, we had to cancel the cruise because we could not get an appointment with the orthopedic surgeon in time to get a diagnosis and realistic prognosis. The insurance would not have covered DH if his back acted up either just before the cruise or while sailing. If only I had paid that cruise the week before we would have been home free and had insurance coverage. I was waiting til the last minute because I didn't think it fair that NCL makes the Haven pay in full 120 days out rather than the normal 75 days.

 

We still can't book anything because we still don't have a diagnosis a month later. The doctor ordered an MRI, but the insurance refused to authorize it. Our policy requires you to wait 6 weeks before having an MRI of the spine for back pain. I guess they hope it goes away so they don't have to pay. But, it isn't going away.

Edited October 20, 2015 by DebJ14