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Trip insurance?

Gumbo4Life

By Gumbo4Life,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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Gumbo4Life

Gumbo4Life

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We enjoyed our first cruise so much we are looking at booking our next cruise (yes, I see all of those grins out there :) ). The first cruise we booked through a travel agent and used their "trip insurance" which I was assured was "better" than the Carnival insurance. Now, I'm not sure what using a travel agent really got us, no discounts, no on board cash, no discounted deposit, etc. Just wondering if it is worth using a TA for their trip insurance? Anyone use the Carnival insurance? I read it (fairly quickly I have to honestly say, not being a lawyer) and while I'm sure I'd have to provide a truck load of documentation to show someone was sick, and kept us away from our vacation we booked 10 months in advance, and we will not be flying to the port, I'm more concerned with my work or schedule commitments getting in the way of the cruise than anything else and from what I've read that is NOT covered. But would get a 75% credit on a future cruise at best (which is ok w/me). Thoughts, opinions?

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CanWeGoYet?

CanWeGoYet?

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I always buy my trip insurance on my own, shopping rates & features. While I'd hate to lose the cost of the cruise or airfare, the main reason I buy it is in case of serious illness / injury. I don't think Carnival insurance is that good, I haven't used it in years but to my knowledge it doesn't cover pre-existing condition. If there was something serious at sea, you wouldn't have the option to stay on board. Cheapest would be the ship diverts to a nearby port & you are hospitalized there - most expensive would be an evacuation at sea where you'd need a medevac. Plus a hospital in a foreign country won't bill your insurance - you must put funds down in advance for treatment.

It's worth it to me to have good insurance I don't need to worry about. I got primary coverage, which means for a covered event they pay - I don't need to first submit everything to my health insurance & have them deny it.

I'd be willing to shop a travel agent for perks like gratuities or OBC, but you have to know what their policies are. On some cruises there are a lot of price drops, for me to be willing to lose control over my booking it would need to be a good perk from the TA. Some charge a fee for any change, as in you found a price drop & want them to get it for you.

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lizardhowson

lizardhowson

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I always buy my trip insurance on my own, shopping rates & features. While I'd hate to lose the cost of the cruise or airfare, the main reason I buy it is in case of serious illness / injury. I don't think Carnival insurance is that good, I haven't used it in years but to my knowledge it doesn't cover pre-existing condition. If there was something serious at sea, you wouldn't have the option to stay on board. Cheapest would be the ship diverts to a nearby port & you are hospitalized there - most expensive would be an evacuation at sea where you'd need a medevac. Plus a hospital in a foreign country won't bill your insurance - you must put funds down in advance for treatment.

It's worth it to me to have good insurance I don't need to worry about. I got primary coverage, which means for a covered event they pay - I don't need to first submit everything to my health insurance & have them deny it.

I'd be willing to shop a travel agent for perks like gratuities or OBC, but you have to know what their policies are. On some cruises there are a lot of price drops, for me to be willing to lose control over my booking it would need to be a good perk from the TA. Some charge a fee for any change, as in you found a price drop & want them to get it for you.

 

Agree, the emergency evacuation and medical coverage abroad (where most people's home health insurance won't pay a dime) are the primary reason to buy trip insurance. I meet a father in Aruba whose son needed an emergency appendectomy while the family was on vacation there. The hospital left him lying in agony (at risk of lethal complications) until the father was able to deposit the required deposit for the emergency operation. Only then did they operate.

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AdGuyMG

AdGuyMG

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I meet a father in Aruba whose son needed an emergency appendectomy while the family was on vacation there. The hospital left him lying in agony (at risk of lethal complications) until the father was able to deposit the required deposit for the emergency operation. Only then did they operate.

 

 

Do you know whether this family had purchased some kind of trip insurance?

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Herfnerd

Herfnerd

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We purchase Trip Insurance for all our vacations, not just cruise - because life sometimes just gets in the way.

 

We never buy from who we book our trips with but always on our own - just my own pet peeve as I am worried that the people who sell me a trip AND travel insurance will find some way to deny coverage. We use InsureMyTrip.com and Squaremouth.com - they are aggregators and we can look up thousands of policies of all types and prices, compare their coverage, get reviews from users as well as Moody ratings.

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GradUT

GradUT

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We never buy from who we book our trips with but always on our own - just my own pet peeve as I am worried that the people who sell me a trip AND travel insurance will find some way to deny coverage.

 

 

Exactly! (And for me, it's not a "pet peeve", but a wise business decision.)

 

As others have recommended, look at InsureMyTrip.com and Squaremouth.com. You'll have to do some work on your own as opposed to just taking whatever a TA or Carnival offers you, but you'll come out with a policy that covers you for what YOU need and not just some cookie-cutter policy.

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Herfnerd

Herfnerd

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Exactly! (And for me, it's not a "pet peeve", but a wise business decision.)As others have recommended, look at InsureMyTrip.com and Squaremouth.com. You'll have to do some work on your own as opposed to just taking whatever a TA or Carnival offers you, but you'll come out with a policy that covers you for what YOU need and not just some cookie-cutter policy.

 

Glad I'm not the only one that thinks that way, lol! Funny thing is that of all the years we have bought travel insurance from both of those sites, we usually go with a different insurer and plan

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firemanbobswife

firemanbobswife

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I, like others, use InsureMyTrip and have found that Nationwide Cruise Choice is the best fit for me. They have great benefits and depending on what state you are in, will even give you money if the ship changes ports around before your sailing. Has nothing to do with excursions booked, although they do offer a refund on non refundable shore excursions if the ship doesn't make it there.

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LucyB.

LucyB.

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I originally chose insurance through Carnival when I booked directly through them. I ended up cancelling it & purchased through Allianz. It saved us $120 for pretty much the same coverage.

Idk about Nationwide, thanks for that info. If we cruise again, I'll get a quote. We're lifelong car insurance among other things customers.

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DebJ14

DebJ14

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I originally chose insurance through Carnival when I booked directly through them. I ended up cancelling it & purchased through Allianz. It saved us $120 for pretty much the same coverage.

Idk about Nationwide, thanks for that info. If we cruise again, I'll get a quote. We're lifelong car insurance among other things customers.

 

 

Our TA offers Travel Safe and Allianz as well as the cruise line insurance. Travel Safe ended up being $168.00 for 3 of us in an Ocean Suite. Allianz was more expensive at $224.00. The coverage was the same. Carnival wanted $119.00 for each of the first 2 in the cabin and $79.00 for the 3rd person.putting it at $317.00 to insure all of us. Needlessto say we took the Travel Safe.

 

In the past Allianz was often the cheapest but now that we are 64 the rates are much higher. We have had good experiences with claims on both Travel Safe and Allianz.

 

The best part is with Allianz and Travel Safe we can adjust the policy if we change dates or decide to upgrade or downgrade accommodations We have gotten refunds to what we paid for the travel insurance when we have had the fare adjusted. Or, if we cancel a cruise we can move the insurance to another trip. The best part of using Allianz or Travel Safe is if you buy it right after the initial deposit it covers pre-existing conditions. Carnival's does not and in that case would only provide a 75% credit for a future cruise whereas if we filed a claim because of a pre-existing illness, we would get the money back in cash.

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firemanbobswife

firemanbobswife

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Our TA offers Travel Safe and Allianz as well as the cruise line insurance. Travel Safe ended up being $168.00 for 3 of us in an Ocean Suite. Allianz was more expensive at $224.00. The coverage was the same. Carnival wanted $119.00 for each of the first 2 in the cabin and $79.00 for the 3rd person.putting it at $317.00 to insure all of us. Needlessto say we took the Travel Safe.

 

In the past Allianz was often the cheapest but now that we are 64 the rates are much higher. We have had good experiences with claims on both Travel Safe and Allianz.

 

The best part is with Allianz and Travel Safe we can adjust the policy if we change dates or decide to upgrade or downgrade accommodations We have gotten refunds to what we paid for the travel insurance when we have had the fare adjusted. Or, if we cancel a cruise we can move the insurance to another trip. The best part of using Allianz or Travel Safe is if you buy it right after the initial deposit it covers pre-existing conditions. Carnival's does not and in that case would only provide a 75% credit for a future cruise whereas if we filed a claim because of a pre-existing illness, we would get the money back in cash.

 

 

That has been my experience when purchasing travel insurance through InsureMyTrip as well. They were able to move it to a different sailing no charge.

 

One of the major advantages of the Nationwide plan is that it covers preexisting conditions as long as you buy it before FINAL PAYMENT regardless of when the deposit was made. I find that very convenient especially since I travel solo a lot and don't want to come out of pocket for a $500 deposit plus the cost of insurance all at once.

 

It pays to shop around and InsureMyTrip is an excellent resource to find which policy is best. There's no one size fits all plan that I can see. I'm just glad people are smart in protecting themselves and their money by getting whichever one works best for them.

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GradUT

GradUT

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Medical insurance as well as evacuation too?

 

 

Good point. My credit card covers only up to $1500 per person. That's great if I have to cancel a cruise before it leaves. It's useless if I have a medical emergency and have to be medevac'd to the States.

 

That's why I get additional travel insurance on InsureMyTrip.com.

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firemanbobswife

firemanbobswife

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Good point. My credit card covers only up to $1500 per person. That's great if I have to cancel a cruise before it leaves. It's useless if I have a medical emergency and have to be medevac'd to the States.

 

That's why I get additional travel insurance on InsureMyTrip.com.

 

 

I pay for my cruises with the discounted Carnival gift cards so using cc insurance for my cruise isn't an option for me. While I am glad the cruise itself will be covered in case something happens, my main concern as well is medical and med evac. I am young, but accidents can and do happen. My regular health insurance (as sad and pathetic as it has become :( ) does not cover me out of the country and I am not willing to risk my financial well being for usually around $35-$70 per cruise. So that's the main reason for me getting it.

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Droop

Droop

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Like others have stated you have to shop around for a good TA that gives you more "perks". I found that you need to get someone who specializes in cruises.

 

As for the insurance....I think it would be very wise to book it separate from the TA...actually I've had a TA say that you need to purchase it separate from them. We usually get our insurance through Travel Guard. There are different levels that you can book. My main concern would be if you had to be air lifted from the ship. That in itself could cost you $50.000 to $100.000 depending on where you are. You need to check the medical aspect as well. We also check our personal insurance as well as credit cards also. Every little bit helps. Good luck with what ever you decide. :)

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