Travel Insurance

[Shortycruiser]

Hello everyone.   Looking for opinions on travel insurance.  I have always purchased Celebrity's cruise care travel insurance.   It does not cover pre-existing conditions so I'm wondering if anyone has a good travel insurance you use for cruising.   Thanks in advance for your feedback.   shortycruiser!

[George C]

That’s interesting I know I heard rccl did and they are more or less the same

[Shorex]

There is a discussion board here dedicated to travel insurance https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/499-cruisetravel-insurance/

 

The are also two recommended travel insurance brokers who will answer questions and help you find the right insurance with the right coverage for you. The one that we use is https://tripinsurancestore.com/

and I don't offhand recall the other.

 

With these resources you can find the best policy with the best coverage for you.

 

And we never, ever buy insurance from a cruise line.

Edited July 27, 2019 by Shorex
Additional information

[Underwatr]

Insuemytrip will have a couple of insurers who  cover pre-existing conditions if the policy is bought before or coincident with final payment.

 

If you're within 10-14 days of initial down payment there are more options. I don't use the same insurer every time but I look for price and the AM Best rating.

[Flatbush Flyer]

46 minutes ago, Underwatr said:

Insuemytrip will have a couple of insurers who  cover pre-existing conditions if the policy is bought before or coincident with final payment.

 

If you're within 10-14 days of initial down payment there are more options. I don't use the same insurer every time but I look for price and the AM Best rating.

One of the very few insurers who will waive PECs as late as purchasing the policy just prior to final cruise payment (vs the normal 2+\- weeks after initial deposit) is Nationwide  (Cruise). We use InsureMyTrip.com as broker. 

 

OP: One important item is to fully understand what PreExistingCondition means in insurance lingo. It is not exactly the same as in healthcare terminology. Specifically, an insurance PEC is any new diagnosis within a lookback period of X months prior to insurance purchase OR a change in treatment, medication, etc for a chronic issue that was present prior to the lookback period.

 

BTW, for those folks who skip the travel interruption/cancel insurance because their credit card "covers" it for cruises/air tix/etc purchased with the card, note that this coverage most often does not waive PECs as causes of any interrupt/delay/cancelation. Also, the payout limits are generally far less than the total cost of all but the shortest cruises on mass market lines.

 

Finally, check your medical insurance to make sure it is adequate (or works at all) for international travel emergencies. For example, Medicare is useless abroad and make sure that your Medicare supplement automatically converts to a regular policy (with coverage abroad) the minute you leave the US. Even then, while many of the convertible (or regular) medical insurance policies will accept claims for approved treatment/care internationally, few cover "medical evacuation" - another misunderstood item. In short MedEvac is NOT emergency transport from a ship-at-sea, which, in/near most developed countries, provided at no cost to the patient. Rather, it is transport from the emergency/acute care facility ashore to home or a follow-up facility for continuing care.

 

Bottom line is to look at comprehensive policies and, at least, talk to the insurance brokers about which policies may best fit your particular circumstances.

 

[Underwatr]

35 minutes ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

BTW, for those folks who skip the travel interruption/cancel insurance because their credit card "covers" it for cruises/air tix/etc purchased with the card, note that this coverage most often does not waive PECs as causes of any interrupt/delay/cancelation. Also, the payout limits are generally far less than the total cost of all but the shortest cruises on mass market lines.

Citibank cards have no such exclusion. The only similar exclusions are if the traveler had been advised not to travel before booking the trip, or if the traveler decides to cancel or shorten the trip due to illness, but the decision was not at the direction of a licensed medical practitioner.

 

But it's all a little moot, because Citi is discontinuing the travel insurance benefit on their cards this fall. They'll still cover payments made up until the date of discontinuation (some time in September, I believe) regardless of the date of travel.

 

I'm sad because the Citi Costco Visa covered $3500 or so per traveler, and the Citi Double Cash card covered $1500 per trip. We each have our own Double Cash accounts, and they all cover up to the limit for expenses charged to the card - so theoretically with some careful management of charges we'd have been covered up to about $10,000 on those cards.

 

Edit: More thoughts on travel insurance alternatives. I've briefly played with a mix of credit card cancellation, overseas emergency coverage via Medigap or Pre-Medicare health insurance, and an annual evacuation policy (e.g., MedJet Assist). Things to watch are a $50,000 lifetime benefit cap on Medigap overseas coverage, and different exclusions on the MedJet policy than elsewhere (if you're injured because you had too much to drink and fell you're out of luck - but who decides that the cause was alcohol use?).

Edited July 27, 2019 by Underwatr

[Ashland]

2 hours ago, Shorex said:

There is a discussion board here dedicated to travel insurance https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/499-cruisetravel-insurance/

 

The are also two recommended travel insurance brokers who will answer questions and help you find the right insurance with the right coverage for you. The one that we use is https://tripinsurancestore.com/

and I don't offhand recall the other.

 

With these resources you can find the best policy with the best coverage for you.

 

And we never, ever buy insurance from a cruise line.

Agree with the Trip Insurance Store...we've been using them for many years...amazing personal service based on each trip we've taken. Call Steve or one of his associates...much easier to hear the options than trying to decipher which plan works personally best for you on a website.

(888) 407-3854  toll free.

Edited July 27, 2019 by Ashland

[GeezerCouple]

1 hour ago, Ashland said:

Agree with the Trip Insurance Store...we've been using them for many years...amazing personal service based on each trip we've taken. Call Steve or one of his associates...much easier to hear the options than trying to decipher which plan works personally best for you on a website.

(888) 407-3854  toll free.

 

Yes, they are *very* helpful.

We learned about them here on CC mid-2013, and thank goodness!

They helped us find a suitable policy for our needs, from  Travel Insured.

We had a large claim just a few months later, and they paid very promptly after we had sent in all of the claims docs.  (We did not consider any of them to be burdensome or inappropriate.)

 

GC

[Shortycruiser]

Thank you everyone for taking time and providing us some guidance.  It is greatly appreciated.

 

 

[LoriPhil]

Flatbush flyer - thanks so much for the heads-up re Medicare.  I’m recently retired and while DH has Cobra coverage, I’m now on Medicare with a Plan F supplemental (and Medjet Assist), and never thought about overseas healthcare gaps.   I’ll follow-up to verify coverage for our Alaska cruise since we’ll be sailing out of Vancouver, with a Caribbean sailing later in the year.  I have Princess Protection but want to make sure I have insurance for those pre-cruise days.