Princess Vacation Protection

[philv]

We may need to cancel cruise scheduled for March 6 due to spouse's unexpected surgery last week. We wanted to wait to see if surgery was going to happen and how wife felt after surgery before cancelling cruise. We have Platinum Princess Vacation Protection. Question for anyone who has done this: How much notice does Princess need before sailing date?

Edited February 28, 2016 by philv

[patrickmoran]

According to my policy, up to time of departure.

[venicecruiser]

I've had to use this insurance twice. Worth every penny!

 

 

Claudia

[Pia1913]

We may need to cancel cruise scheduled for March 6 due to spouse's unexpected surgery last week. We wanted to wait to see if surgery was going to happen and how wife felt after surgery before cancelling cruise. We have Platinum Princess Vacation Protection. Question for anyone who has done this: How much notice does Princess need before sailing date?

 

We had to cancel 2 days prior to departure on a trip that cost $27,000. Got back every penny. There is no time frame.

[NavyVeteran]

Please note the following from the Princess Vacation Protection Cancellation Fee Waiver Program Passage Contract Addendum:

 

IMPORTANT:

Please advise your travel agent, Princess Cruises and/or Princess Tours and the Program Administrator as soon as possible in the event of cancellation. Refunds will not be provided for additional chanrges incurred that would have not been charged had you notified these parties as soon as reasonably possible.

 

If you know you won't be able to cruise during the 75% penalty period but don't tell them until the 100% penalty period, they could refuse to pay you the 25% that you would not have owed if you notified them earlier. I have not had any personal experience with this, but it appears to be what the contract says.

 

I believe you are already in the 100% penalty period for a March 6th departure(two weeks before departure - check your Booking Confirmation to be sure). As long as you did not know you had to cancel before the two-week 100% penalty period began, you shouldn't have a problem.

[philv]

Just thought I'd update my progress on this thread FYI. I cancelled cruise 6 days before cruise departure. Everybody says because I have Platinum vacation protection plan, I'll get everything reimbursed, except of course cost of insurance. Princess credited back to my credit card the taxes and port fees, and a transfer we paid. The rest of cruise cost is claimed with Aon Affinity insurance company. I contacted them and they e-mailed claim forms. Our reason for cancellation is medical so part of claim form is attending physician statement. Aon also wants payment invoice for cruise so save your confirmation e-mails. Aon says once they have required documents it takes approximately 3 weeks to pay claim, if approved. I'll be faxing my final package to them today and will report back at end of process. Bummer to miss cruise but we shall cruise again in the future.

[RetiredNTraveling]

Yes Princess Vacation Insurance is worth every penny! We cancelled 3 hours prior to boarding and received back 100% of the cost of the 28 Day Cruise. While that was the first time we had purchased the Ins. it definitely won't be the last! Really saved our bacon.

Just Mike

Edited March 2, 2016 by RetiredNTraveling

[Friscoonetwo]

I was one of those who was a cheap skate and did not buy insurance when DW and I went on a cruise. That attitude changed last year when I broke my leg only 2 weeks from cruise date. What did we get back from Princess...nothing since we was to close to cruise date. I am not blaming Princess since the refund policy is clearly stated. So I chalk it up to an expensive experience. The cost of the insurance is a small part of the total cruise cost and well worthy it when emergency happens and cruise needs to be canceled.

[AF-1]

My wife and I were at airport waiting on our flight to cruise port when we received notice of death in family. We called our travel agent. She filed all the forms for us. We were reimbursed 100%

Edited March 2, 2016 by AF-1

[Treven]

I was one of those who was a cheap skate and did not buy insurance when DW and I went on a cruise. That attitude changed last year when I broke my leg only 2 weeks from cruise date. What did we get back from Princess...nothing since we was to close to cruise date. I am not blaming Princess since the refund policy is clearly stated. So I chalk it up to an expensive experience. The cost of the insurance is a small part of the total cruise cost and well worthy it when emergency happens and cruise needs to be canceled.

I, too, broke my leg a couple weeks before departure a few years ago; no insurance - lost about $4k. Live and learn. I now have ins. for every cruise.

Edited March 2, 2016 by Treven

[Pia1913]

Just thought I'd update my progress on this thread FYI. I cancelled cruise 6 days before cruise departure. Everybody says because I have Platinum vacation protection plan, I'll get everything reimbursed, except of course cost of insurance. Princess credited back to my credit card the taxes and port fees, and a transfer we paid. The rest of cruise cost is claimed with Aon Affinity insurance company. I contacted them and they e-mailed claim forms. Our reason for cancellation is medical so part of claim form is attending physician statement. Aon also wants payment invoice for cruise so save your confirmation e-mails. Aon says once they have required documents it takes approximately 3 weeks to pay claim, if approved. I'll be faxing my final package to them today and will report back at end of process. Bummer to miss cruise but we shall cruise again in the future.

 

Follow their simple check sheet and be sure everything is included. You will get your check within 30 days.

[TM]

We too had to cancel a cruise hours before boarding because my Mom took ill and was hospitalized. I did need a letter from her doctor stating that because of my mothers age and the fact I had POA for her for medical decisions, I needed to be there. Funny thing is this was just a 7 day cruise to Alaska and we typically didn't get the insurance for shorter cruises, however our TA always built in the cost and when final payment came I just paid it all. Lesson learned and now we never travel without the insurance. Got every dime back minus the cost of the insurance. Hope your wife is doing well.

[philv]

Hi Folks, Just thought I'd update everybody on the progress of my claim. After I sent my claim package to Aon, they sent me an e-mail acknowledging receipt and saying they would contact me if they required anything else. Last Friday I received checks, one for each of us, for full amount claimed. So we are done with their part of the process. :) Last thing is to see if Princess properly credited our credit card for taxes, port fees, and transfers. I'll know that in a couple of weeks and report back.

 

p.s. DW is fine after health crisis and we have booked next year's cruise on Princess. :D Happy cruising!

Edited March 21, 2016 by philv

[bigenna]

Thanks for posting. Good to know the steps in the process and that it all went as it should. And glad your wife is doing well and looking forward to your next cruise.

[RetiredNTraveling]

Hi Folks, Just thought I'd update everybody on the progress of my claim. After I sent my claim package to Aon, they sent me an e-mail acknowledging receipt and saying they would contact me if they required anything else. Last Friday I received checks, one for each of us, for full amount claimed. So we are done with their part of the process. :) Last thing is to see if Princess properly credited our credit card for taxes, port fees, and transfers. I'll know that in a couple of weeks and report back.

 

p.s. DW is fine after health crisis and we have booked next year's cruise on Princess. :D Happy cruising!

 

Had the same issue with my DW and 3 hrs prior to boarding she had a serious heart issue. After the TA cancelled, we immediately started getting credits on the card for fees and etc from all sources. Then we filed with Princess and followed the steps as they laid out and within 3 weeks we received the checks for the insurance.

 

ps Glad the wife is doing ok, as what would we do without them.

 

Just Mike

[philv]

 

ps Glad the wife is doing ok, as what would we do without them.

 

Just Mike

 

Indeed!

[victory2020]

Regarding having to cancel a cruise due to health, death in family, etc - check with your credit card company. The card I use reimburses you if you have to cancel cruise, air, etc. for these reasons as well as a few more.

[AF-1]

Good news; you were reimbursed, and your wife is doing well.

[freetocruise]

Regarding having to cancel a cruise due to health, death in family, etc - check with your credit card company. The card I use reimburses you if you have to cancel cruise, air, etc. for these reasons as well as a few more.

 

That is a good idea. However, most of the cards have a reimbursement limit that is often less than the cost of the cruise, airfare, etc. It shouldn't be considered as a substitute for actual travel insurance.

[soprano]

I'm curious as to the cost of cruise insurance. We have never purchased it before, mostly because we were young when we started cruising and figured that the odds were in our favor (we've been lucky on 20+ cruises...knock on wood!). But now that we're getting older, it is something I might start considering.

[chloe45]

Does Princess Platinum insurance cover airfare?

[travel_nuts]

I'm curious as to the cost of cruise insurance. We have never purchased it before, mostly because we were young when we started cruising and figured that the odds were in our favor (we've been lucky on 20+ cruises...knock on wood!). But now that we're getting older, it is something I might start considering.

 

Generally speaking, travel insurance will cost between 4% and 12% of total trip cost. There is a lot of info available on the internet. Just Google "travel insurance". We use and recommend "insuremytrip.com, although many other good companies exist. If you travel a lot, annual coverage is available also.

[NavyVeteran]

Does Princess Platinum insurance cover airfare?

 

Princess Cruise Vacation Cancellation & Interruption Fee Waiver is not actually insurance. It provides for a refund of the otherwise non-refundable portion of the prepaid cruise vacation. It only covers expenses purchased from Princess. It does not cover any other expenses, such as airfare purchased directly or non-Princess shore excursions.

 

I recommend you read the complete details on the Princess website before purchasing it.

[philv]

Hi Folks, this is my final report on my experience with Princess vacation protection plan. On our recent credit card statement we received the refund from Princess for taxes, port fees, and transfers. So we are fully reimbursed for our last minute cancellation of cruise, except of course the cost of the vacation protection insurance. Overall it wasn't too bad, we cancelled on February 29 and by today are fully reimbursed. We ran naked without insurance for a few years when we first started cruising and finally relented after some close calls and started buying insurance. If you don't like the Princess's plan, there are plenty of other travel insurance deals out there. But my advice is DON'T LEAVE HOME WITHOUT IT!

 

Happy cruising! :)

[Roatanfans]

I'm curious as to the cost of cruise insurance. We have never purchased it before, mostly because we were young when we started cruising and figured that the odds were in our favor (we've been lucky on 20+ cruises...knock on wood!). But now that we're getting older, it is something I might start considering.

 

We used to think like that too- we learned better on our very first cruise. For our honeymoon my grandmother bought us a cruise (with her group of senior at the senior center- she liked to plan trips with!)- we did not even think about insurance (we were in our early 20's and it seemed like a lot of money for something we knew we wouldn't use). Just a few days before we were supposed to board our ship we learned that the travel agent had held the payments from the cruiseline and his wife embezzled all the fund (over 3 million) and ran off to South America with her new boyfriend! Everyone with insurance got a refund- we just got a good story instead of a honeymoon cruise- and a lesson about buying insurance!