Hurricanes and insurance

[Guym20]

I booked a cruise to the caribbeans on September, and I'm aware of the hurricanes risks.

I read that it's recommended to buy an insurance for that, but I've been told by my insurance company that they don't cover weather disasters!

 

But I'm wondering - what do I actually need to cover?

If the cruise gets cancelled - the cruise line refunds the money.

If the cruise gets delayed - I MIGHT miss my flight, but I took 2 days post-cruise just in case anyway.

 

What other scenario should I be worry about, and what kind of an insurance cover should I look for?

[Herfnerd]

Check Insuremytrip.com or squaremouth.com - travel insurance does cover weather related issues

 

As for cruises getting cancelled - that's a lot more rare than you think

[sverigecruiser]

I booked a cruise to the caribbeans on September, and I'm aware of the hurricanes risks.

I read that it's recommended to buy an insurance for that, but I've been told by my insurance company that they don't cover weather disasters!

 

But I'm wondering - what do I actually need to cover?

If the cruise gets cancelled - the cruise line refunds the money.

If the cruise gets delayed - I MIGHT miss my flight, but I took 2 days post-cruise just in case anyway.

 

What other scenario should I be worry about, and what kind of an insurance cover should I look for?

 

If the flight to the cruise is late or cancelled you might miss the cruise and don't get a refund.

[Guym20]

I'm not a US citizen and I prefer to do it using an insurance company on my country.

I just want to know what scenarios should I worry about and search for covers about them

[Markanddonna]

There were people who were put in very bad situations last year. The flights and or the cruise line had not cancelled, yet the forecasters were telling people near port to evacuate or issued severe weather alerts. Many passengers suspected that the cruise lines were hoping passengers would cancel so they didn't have to compensate.

 

You have to consider the cost of a cruise and the cost of insurance. It may not be worth it for a very inexpensive cruise.

 

We always get travel insurance for cruises longer than a week.

[Guym20]

There were people who were put in very bad situations last year. The flights and or the cruise line had not cancelled, yet the forecasters were telling people near port to evacuate or issued severe weather alerts. Many passengers suspected that the cruise lines were hoping passengers would cancel so they didn't have to compensate.

 

You have to consider the cost of a cruise and the cost of insurance. It may not be worth it for a very inexpensive cruise.

 

We always get travel insurance for cruises longer than a week.

 

Sounds like no insurance would cover such case.

If the cruise still goes as planned and they "have the option" to go on the cruise, the insurance wouldn't help anyway..

Not sure what kind of scenario I should ask my insurance to cover then, it sounds like there are a lot of different scenarios and they don't go under one category

[mjkacmom]

In the case of weather issues, sometimes itineraries get changed, or cruises get shortened or lengthened. Some policies will compensate for changed itineraries. I think the biggest issue is a canceled or delayed flight.

[bUU]

Sounds like no insurance would cover such case.

If the cruise still goes as planned and they "have the option" to go on the cruise, the insurance wouldn't help anyway..

Not sure what kind of scenario I should ask my insurance to cover then, it sounds like there are a lot of different scenarios and they don't go under one category

Except, "cruise insurance." However, I can believe that some other countries won't offer such coverage.

 

Keep in mind that whatever you don't have insurance for you are effectively "self insuring". In other words, you will pay the costs associated with that circumstance, should it occur, from your own resources, ie pulling out your credit card and paying the last minute price for whatever. However, also keep in mind that in the long run, self insuring is going to cost you the least, assuming you actually have the ready cash or credit necessary (and even with insurance, you need to, since some of it you have to pay for yourself and then get reimbursed). So don't feel that you "need" to have insurance for any circumstance you can afford to pay for yourself.

 

Generally speaking, the circumstance that stresses the finances of passengers the most are medical evacuation and repatriation. Get coverage for that somehow. For the rest, if you won't call Insure My Trip, I regrettably don't have any other suggestions given your situation.

 

With regard to what could go wrong, these are the things I worried about: missing flight to embarkation port, luggage lost or damaged by airline, hotel at embarkation port lost reservation, missing embarkation, luggage lost or damaged at port, sickness, injury, having to cut trip short (or not go) due to grave illness in family.

 

This message may have been entered via voice recognition. Please excuse any typos.

[Markanddonna]

Sounds like no insurance would cover such case.

If the cruise still goes as planned and they "have the option" to go on the cruise, the insurance wouldn't help anyway..

Not sure what kind of scenario I should ask my insurance to cover then, it sounds like there are a lot of different scenarios and they don't go under one category

 

There is very costly "cancel for any reason travel insurance."

[LHT28]

Since you do not mention what Country you are in it is hard to advise

 

I would call a travel insurance agent where you live & tell them what you want & see if Hurricanes are a covered event

 

 

 

Trip delay or cancellation may work you have to read the fine print

If flights are delayed getting you to the cruise port it may be covered

 

 

 

In any event flying in a day or more early might help if there are delays that are weather related

The ship will usually go as planned but the itinerary can be altered

 

JMO

[Heidi13]

When dealing with weather and insurance you have way too many variables, especially as we all have different risk tolerances.

 

Best advice it to meet with 1 or more insurance brokers to find a policy that meets your risk tolerance.

 

Personally, for a short cruise we would only have coverage through our Visa cards, but longer cruise such as our upcoming World Cruise we have full interruption/cancellation insurance + medical/evacuation. We review options from local brokers, the online options (mentioned in earlier posts) and also what the cruise line/TA offers.

[lbjen]

Some passengers were left stranded in Houston when Harvey rolled through, their expenses included hotel stays for several days, food costs (where it was available) and eventual car rentals to get home once the roads were opened back up. It is not wise to rely on the cruise line’s insurance for this scenario, if the cruise gets canceled then the insurance does too.

 

 

It’s also possible to be in the situation where your flight to port is canceled, but the cruise is not. You get a refund of your flight fare but it’s going to cost you an arm and a leg to still get there, and you won’t get your cruise fare refunded if you aren’t on board. Again, if you had cruise line insurance, and the cruise is eventually canceled, your policy also gets canceled too, and you will be on the hook for those very expensive last minute flights.

[simplelife]

I got a very reasonably priced policy through insuremytrip that covers for trip cancellation and trip delay.

[sail7seas]

I'm not a US citizen and I prefer to do it using an insurance company on my country.

I just want to know what scenarios should I worry about and search for covers about them

 

wE DO NOT KNOW which is your country.

[sanger727]

What scenarios have occurred in the past that you may want to be insured for?

 

1. A hurricane is predicted to hit your departure port when you are supposed to be departing but the cruise line doesn’t cancel

 

2. Same scenario except the cruise line doesn’t cancel and simply moves the ship to a different port and tells you right before the cruise to change flights and plans to the new port

 

3. The cruise line does cancel and now you have a flight to a place you don’t want to go that doesn’t get refunded

 

4. The cruise line opts to keep the same departure port but wants to start a day early or a day later so you have to rush to change your flights and plans to match

 

5. The cruise leaves as scheduled but the itinerary completely changes due to the storms trajectory and you lose money for any non-cruise line prepaid excursions

 

6. The hurricane hits a week before your cruise and there’s major damage. The cruise line may or may not make itinerary adjustments so you may ended up in ports with only essential services and not the vacation you wanted to have

 

 

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