Trip Cancellation Insurance?

[Nator72]

the first cruise we took was on the Escape in 2016. My father-in-law's health wasn't stable, so I purchased the trip cancellation insurance. Luckily we didn't need it.

 

He has since passed away and we're cruising on the Bliss in June. We made the reservation over the phone and the agent automatically added trip cancellation insurance without asking me.

 

My question is. . . . For those of you who cruise often, do you purchase the insurance? I'm thinking about cancelling it before we make our final payment.

[easyboy]

We don't get travel insurance from the cruiseline. We always get it from a 3rd party insurance company within the prescribed period to be covered by the pre-existing medical condition.

 

 

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[HowardK]

I always add it- it is a small % of the total cost of the trip

[TrumpyNor]

We NEVER purchase a vacation without purchasing a travel insurance. Not only to "protect" our "investment" in the cruise in case we couldn't go because of unexpected medical reasons, but also to be covered for any unexpected problems during the cruise, or when travelling to/from the cruise port. Something as "minor" as tripping and breaking an arm or a leg could end up costing you a fortune, it doesn't have to be something "life threatening" for the bill to run in to thousands of dollars. Or your luggage might get lost, or someone in your close family might get seriously ill without any "pre-warning", or...... Travel insurance is mainly to cover any extra expenses because of UNEXPECTED incidents, and not only something that is mainly for people with a poor health....

[Peachypooh]

I always add it. Our health insurance does not cover anything out of the country. One time I became ill and had to cancel and was glad to have it, Finally we have elderly relatives in their 90's that we are responsible for and would have to cancel if something happened to them.

[hsmcruise]

We always purchase insurance although for upcoming trip my chase sapphire card includes it if I use to purchase cruise. After 20 plus cruises we were about to leave for airport when I asked hubby to take his temperature . It was 102, went to dr and they said flu.

It was 9/30! He was sick as a dog for 8 days. We pretty

Much got back all our $.

[fshagan]

We always buy insurance if we are out of the country. We are in our 60s now and are actually buying the medical portion more than the trip cancellation. Some people who travel 2 or more times per year out of the country will buy an annual medical policy that is less money, and consider the trip cancellation portion just an acceptable risk.

 

Whether you buy or not is based on your tolerance for risk and how you would feel if you lost the money you have spent. The cruise line won't refund your money. Period. They don't care if you suddenly have a life threatening disease, were attacked and your home robbed, found out your child has cancer, were assigned to federal jury duty, etc. Unless it's their fault, you lose the money. If you are in an accident and show up at the pier 2 hours after sailing, you lose (but you can pay to go to the first port and join the ship there). The insurance is usually from 5 to 8% of the cost of the vacation so you have to decide if the insurance is a good value for you. This is kind of a toss up for us, because we can afford to lose a single vacation's cost. It's the medical portion that always tips it in favor of purchasing for us.

 

For the medical portion, you have to decide if the anticipated costs you might incur present too much of a risk.

 

The ship does have an infirmary, but their prices are just as high as the ER at home, and almost certainly not covered by your health insurance if you are from the US, Canada, the UK or Australia (I don't know about other countries). So if you get sick, and visit them on board, is the $500 to $1,000 (or more) bill going to ruin your time? If you are REALLY sick they will arrange for medical care for you at the next port stop and that might be a foreign country. You are compelled to leave the ship. As far as I know, none of the countries consider you part of their nationalized health care, and you have to pay cash before they let you go from the hospital. This can be many thousands of dollars. If you are too sick to fly home on a commercial plane you'll have to arrange medical transport, and that can be very expensive. In short, life can throw you a curve ball and you can end up with a bill of $50,000 or more for an accident or severe illness, all due in cash before they let you go home - habeas corpus does not apply.

 

All of that makes the $3,000 to $5,000 we spend on a cruise seem like a small amount of money. But for us, adding trip cancellation to medical coverage through the third party is only about $20 extra. So we almost always end up buying both trip cancellation and medical insurance. Most of the medical insurance plans cover several things, like medical costs, evacuation costs, repatriation (getting back home) and repatriation of remains (if a loved one dies on board they put the body in a morgue, and it can cost several thousand to get the body off the ship at the end of the cruise).

 

After that risk decision is made you have to decide if buying from the cruise line is better than buying from a third party. We always go with a third party because we can get more insurance for the same money, and tailor it to our specific needs. For instance, some policies cover pre-existing conditions, and some don't. Some will fly you back to the "nearest" US city for treatment after you are stabilized, while others will fly you back to your home city. That sort of thing.

 

We usually buy from tripinsurancestore.com ... a travel insurance business that has actual people who will answer your questions. We have also used the online-only agency insuremytrip.com (it has more options, but almost too many).

 

If you're young and healthy, and don't mind the very small risk of either getting sick at your age, and can afford to lose the money on the cruise cost, you might choose to save the 5 - 8% of the cost of the vacation. Or, you might budget for it to have the assurance. There's no "right" or "wrong" answer.

[garycarla]

We usually do not. If we do, we buy only the serious health insurance.

 

If you are going to buy it, buy it from third parties... check out insuremytrip.com

 

Agents that automatically add it should be.... well....

[sanger727]

Personally, I don't purchase trip insurance. My health insurance does cover me outside of the country. I have purchased medical only policies when traveling to higher risk destinations; if you are young medical only policies cost a fraction of comprehensive trip insurance.

 

It's all based on risk tolerance. By never insuring against cancellation I've saved enough to be self insured if I do have to cancel or deal with interruption in the future. Im union; so have a job that is secure and contractually guaranteed vacations so having to cancel due to work is a non-issue. My bf and I r young and healthy so the risk of missing a trip over a medical issue is very low. We also have a small family and wouldn't be inclined to cancel if a family member got very sick or died (they wouldn't want us to) so the risk of something like that being an issue is also low.

 

You have to evaluate your risk for your situation. But I would recommend canceling the cruise line insurance either way. Unless you are elderly you can get a better deal through third party coverage.

 

 

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[POA1]

We always add it. Most often through a third party insurer, but occasionally through the cruise line. Our TA is very good at comparing prices and benefits.

 

Ironically, my 80 year old father-in-law is like, "Nah. I don't need it."

[Seminole1975]

Yes we buy it for peace of mind.

 

 

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[Goldconnection]

My hubby and I have been on over 20 cruises and have purchased travel insurance for every single one of them. Sometimes we purchase from the cruise line and other times from a third party. We have only had two use it twice but it more than paid for itself both times. We would not leave home without it.(y)(y)

[NMLady]

We don't get travel insurance from the cruiseline. We always get it from a 3rd party insurance company within the prescribed period to be covered by the pre-existing medical condition.

 

 

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That is what we also do.

 

This time we went to TripInsuranceStore.com to choose our insurance. Last time we'd used TravelGuard but this time our premium is less through TravelSafe with better coverage for us.

[lecohen]

We did for our transatlantic, it was only $120 (I'm pretty sure) and

 

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[Blue Eyes]

Always purchase the insurance. We had to use it on one cruise where my husband contracted C. Diff bacterial infection relapse from a prior infection 4 months before our cruise 2 days before we were leaving on a 10 day cruise. Had our money refunded 3 weeks after filing the claim...

[PelicanBill]

Two words: Medical evacuation. Thousands of dollars your home health insurance won't cover. Flying home from a foreign port on short notice is thousands. Hospitals and doctors often demand payment in cash (Mexico story in news recently) and forget about being airlifted off the ship. Ever seen a medical helicopter bill? tens of thousands of dollars!

 

Always get good insurance.

[BirdTravels]

Yes, insurance is automatically added to all reservations unless you ask them to not add it.

 

Yes, we always have insurance since we have cancelled for covered and non-covered reason (getting back the 75%).

[Dehart]

We ALWAYS DO! Never worth he risk.

 

 

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[Tiggertastic]

We always travel with insurance but not through the cruise line. Shop around and compare prices and tell them to remove it if you want it from elsewhere

 

 

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[crayola1932]

t

My question is. . . . For those of you who cruise often, do you purchase the insurance? I'm thinking about cancelling it before we make our final payment.

We always buy trip insurance for these big trips. We buy it from a 3rd party company. It's not the cheapest on the market but I've had excellent customer and claim service from them so I always go back.

Although the plans always come with generous medical coverage, we buy it more for the trip cancellation risk rather than the medical risks (What if I break my leg just before the cruise, for example). To keep the costs down, we usually insure for only part of the cost--kind of like giving ourselves a big deductible.

[tel2]

When we were younger, we never purchased trip insurance. As we have gotten older, we now always purchase trip insurance -- we are not so much concerned about cancellation as that is a finite amount of risk -- but we are concerned with medical, evacuation, etc. A friend of ours had his appendix burst while on a cruise. He was airlifted to a US hospital from the caribbean. The bills were staggering but fortunately, his trip insurance covered almost all of it. After that, we started routinely getting it.

 

Terry

[Giorgi-one]

Two words: Medical evacuation. Thousands of dollars your home health insurance won't cover. Flying home from a foreign port on short notice is thousands. Hospitals and doctors often demand payment in cash (Mexico story in news recently) and forget about being airlifted off the ship. Ever seen a medical helicopter bill? tens of thousands of dollars!

 

Always get good insurance.

 

Totally agree but I believe evacuation costs are much higher. Many policies cover medical evacuation up to $1 million dollars.

[PelicanBill]

http://cruisesafely.com/medical-evacuation-from-a-cruise-ship/

 

$10-30,000 for transportation from the Caribbean to the US, plus medical treatment, so I said tens of thousands. From Europe or Asia it gets over $100K quickly. Sure there can be really unusual cases that can be more.

[garycarla]

Interesting discussion.

 

the title talks about "Trip Cancellation" insurance but the thread has moved towards medical insurance.

 

Personally, the medical side is the biggest exposure folks have. If you can not cruise, you will forfeit lots of money. Money you can apparently afford since it has already been paid for. When people say they can not afford it, they actually mean they do not want to pay for a vacation they do not get to take. Wasted money. If you do not go on the trip, it actually costs less than what you already budgeted since all those extra costs will not come into play for most people

 

Still, getting insurance is a good idea, especially the emergency medical side.