NCL Essentials Travel Protection vs. Third Party Insurance

[greatestvalue]

3 hours ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

Thanks.  I just checked and the cheapest of four quotes was $384.

Holy Moly...thats steep 

[greatestvalue]

@ChiefMateJRK- Im sorry I dont remember and didnt look back. Are you looking for trip cancellation/interruption etc or are you just looking for international medical & medical evacuation?

 

If medical & evacuation Ive been told to just put in $500 for total trip cost and you will get those benefits.  So you could try that, but if you havent called Steve @iamtrustworthy (his name on cc) or emailed him and spoke to him/his team about your specific situation vs just using the online site, I would encourage that.  You never know there just may be something that can decrease that cost for you. 

 

Hope that helps...

[ChiefMateJRK]

4 hours ago, greatestvalue said:

@ChiefMateJRK- Im sorry I dont remember and didnt look back. Are you looking for trip cancellation/interruption etc or are you just looking for international medical & medical evacuation?

It's right there in my OP.  Just possible help with medical, quarantine and possible travel.  I guess Canada is "technically" international.

[sanger727]

5 hours ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

It's right there in my OP.  Just possible help with medical, quarantine and possible travel.  I guess Canada is "technically" international.

 

$400 is a lot of medical and evacuation only. There may be some cancellation/interruption coverage in there. Yes, you definitely need international coverage. Not sure if you have private health insurance at home, but I believe that the health care costs between the US and Canada are extremely different. It's virtually impossible to pay for treatment in the US without private insurance. 

[ChiefMateJRK]

4 hours ago, sanger727 said:

 

$400 is a lot of medical and evacuation only. There may be some cancellation/interruption coverage in there. Yes, you definitely need international coverage. Not sure if you have private health insurance at home, but I believe that the health care costs between the US and Canada are extremely different. It's virtually impossible to pay for treatment in the US without private insurance. 

Sorry.  I must not have been clear.  I'm in US and taking AK cruise.  Not scheduled to stop in Canada, but that would be the only possible foreign evac.  Highly unlikely.  I have no doubt that there is trip interruption in there.  As I shared in the OP, my normal inclination is to skip all add-on insurance, but I may buy the insurance NCL is selling simply because it is a) cheap and b) probably low risk of problems with any potential claims.

[sanger727]

7 minutes ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

Sorry.  I must not have been clear.  I'm in US and taking AK cruise.  Not scheduled to stop in Canada, but that would be the only possible foreign evac.  Highly unlikely.  I have no doubt that there is trip interruption in there.  As I shared in the OP, my normal inclination is to skip all add-on insurance, but I may buy the insurance NCL is selling simply because it is a) cheap and b) probably low risk of problems with any potential claims.

 

Oh. Yeah, if you are in the US and just doing Alaska I would either not worry about insurance or get the cheapest one you can get. Your medical insurance may cover you anyway. You should be able to get access to reasonable medical care in Alaska. Worst case scenario is having to stay in a hotel in your departure port or Alaska for an extra week if you test positive. 

[phillygwm]

On 9/1/2021 at 11:21 AM, victory2020 said:

It's under summary, travel protection. Click on it & it says you can purchase it 120 days before sailing but in reality you can only book it the day after final payment is due(I know this because I kept trying to pay for it earlier & it wouldn't let me)

Really?  My CAS consultant added it on to my cruise package.  For $35, I didn't question it. 

 

To OP's point:  The way I read the FAQ, if you got turned away at the port, you'd get a FCC or refund for yourself and your party with or without the insurance PROVIDED you followed the rules (i.e. got a  negative test on your own within 72 hours before the cruise then positive tested at the pier.)   Obviously, if you had a negative test 72 hours before, the chances of you becoming positive at the pier is rather remote but non-zero.

[ChiefMateJRK]

4 minutes ago, phillygwm said:

Really?  My CAS consultant added it on to my cruise package.  For $35, I didn't question it. 

They generally try to sell it to me every time I call them about anything.  I did just buy it for our upcoming cruise.  We're weeks past final payment date.  Thanks to everybody for their inputs in this thread. 😎

[eileeshb]

On 9/2/2021 at 5:45 PM, cmecruise1962 said:

NCL made me buy insurance for $260 per person...maybe it's my mother's age, but they said it was mandatory.

That definitely sounds dodgy, they did bring in a  requirement that everyone over 65 and with underlying conditions must have travel insurance back when covid first started but it was never required that you bought that insurance from them. 
I would suggest that anyone looking at a policy purchase ensure it has at least $500k in medical coverage for US sailings. In Europe you’d barely need it or you can get away with a much lower coverage figure as most Western European countries have free (for EU citizens) or extremely cheap healthcare compared to USA. 
My parents health insurance covered a medical evac for my father, his healthcare until he died, accommodation for my mother and getting his body home when he had an aneurysm while on vacation in Greece. We could have put a claim in on their travel insurance but it wasn’t worth the hassle to try and reclaim €100 or so while the health insurance company just sorted everything for us. 

Edited September 5, 2021 by eileeshb