Buy Insurance!

[clarku]

Hi all - Just a reminder to those that wing it and don’t bother to get insurance, I’m a 57 y/o and thought I was in great health, walking 3+ miles/day, hiking on weekends with wife, eating nutrient dense foods, & try to keep my weight in a good range, I just had a surprise diagnosis requiring 7 weeks chemoradio therapy starting next week, which would end a little too close to our planned Feb ‘24 embarkation on the Vista.  While my expected post therapy result is very promising, the process will leave me wiped out for awhile.  Very glad that we decided to get insurance and hopefully will get reimbursed.  We also have a Jul ‘24 Marina sailing booked and will use that as motivation for the next 2 months.  Live for now, but get insurance just in case.  🫤

[ORV]

30 minutes ago, clarku said:

Hi all - Just a reminder to those that wing it and don’t bother to get insurance, I’m a 57 y/o and thought I was in great health, walking 3+ miles/day, hiking on weekends with wife, eating nutrient dense foods, & try to keep my weight in a good range, I just had a surprise diagnosis requiring 7 weeks chemoradio therapy starting next week, which would end a little too close to our planned Feb ‘24 embarkation on the Vista.  While my expected post therapy result is very promising, the process will leave me wiped out for awhile.  Very glad that we decided to get insurance and hopefully will get reimbursed.  We also have a Jul ‘24 Marina sailing booked and will use that as motivation for the next 2 months.  Live for now, but get insurance just in case.  🫤

I can sure empathize with what you are saying, been going through this myself in the last year or so. It's a balancing act trying to schedule cruises between future treatments. Best of luck to you. 

[Harters]

Good travel insurance is vital and we wouldnt consider taking an overseas holiday without it. Which meant that, in the last 12 months or so, we had to cancel one cruise and one land based holiday because we couldnt get insurance (due to having undiagnosed medical issues).

 

But it's not just illness which can be a problem. We had to claim for a cancellation because a close family member died, literally, on the day of travel. Yes, the insurance company put us through the hoops about providing evidence that, for example,  the death was not expected but it paid out in  the end. 

 

On the other hand, on our cruise this autumn, I was chatting with an elderly man who mentioned he had no travel insurance. He'd had a terminal cancer diagnosis which had given him 2 or 3 years so impossible to get insurance. As he said, it was either travel without insurance or not travel at all and he'd decided to make the best of the time he had left. 

 

Best wishes to the two preceding posters for their therapy. 

[MarkWiltonM]

Best wishes to you for a speedy recovery from your therapy.

[zalusky]

We had a cruise on Viking to Italy this summer and about 3 days before we got a move over offer from Viking that said they would refund us all our moneys and give us a free equivalent cruise sometime in the next two years with an upgraded cabin and drink package included.

 

We took it of course but had we booked independent travel in addition to the cruise line it would have gotten messy.  3rd party insurance looks at your stuff and is moveable to some extent.  Cruise line insurance tends to only look at what you booked through them.  So airfare, hotels, excursions, etc if you book them separately for what ever reasons you need 3rd party insurance.

[chloemonkey]

On 11/29/2023 at 5:41 PM, clarku said:

Hi all - Just a reminder to those that wing it and don’t bother to get insurance, I’m a 57 y/o and thought I was in great health, walking 3+ miles/day, hiking on weekends with wife, eating nutrient dense foods, & try to keep my weight in a good range, I just had a surprise diagnosis requiring 7 weeks chemoradio therapy starting next week, which would end a little too close to our planned Feb ‘24 embarkation on the Vista.  While my expected post therapy result is very promising, the process will leave me wiped out for awhile.  Very glad that we decided to get insurance and hopefully will get reimbursed.  We also have a Jul ‘24 Marina sailing booked and will use that as motivation for the next 2 months.  Live for now, but get insurance just in case.  🫤

I can relate....and we always take out the trip insurance.  Also - as a side note, we too had to cancel a cruise due to my diagnosis of inoperable Stage IV cancer.....this was five years ago!  And after treatment and major surgery....I remain "NED" or "no evidence of disease".....and we have taken 5 cruises since then.  So wishing you similar results! Hang in there....

[GeezerCouple]

11 minutes ago, chloemonkey said:

I can relate....and we always take out the trip insurance.  Also - as a side note, we too had to cancel a cruise due to my diagnosis of inoperable Stage IV cancer.....this was five years ago!  And after treatment and major surgery....I remain "NED" or "no evidence of disease".....and we have taken 5 cruises since then.  So wishing you similar results! Hang in there....

Thank goodness for modern medicine/surgery.

SO glad things went well for you.

🙂 

 

GC

[mauibabes]

I will take it a step farther, you don’t have to be 60+ to be a traveler who buys trip insurance. Our son was booked on a Vista Inaugural cruise with us. His fiancé who is 43 had driven his daughter to Oregon for the start of college and he ate some bad food enroute and got food poisoning. Not only sick in his digestive tract, but also developed a viral blood infection and spent three weeks in the hospital just two months prior to sailing. He had 30 days of home administered IV treatments and a myriad of other treatments to regain his strength but it left him too week to travel. They made every effort to be able to sail but on Friday prior to a Monday embarkation, they had to Cancel their cruise. So happy they were covered by insurance or else it was $14,000 down the drain. 
We are all healthy until we are not. To add insult to injury on our recent Vista trip, 4 of our traveling companions got sick and Medical Center fees ranged from $1,000 to $2,000 to over $9,000. We were out of the country and therefore Medicare does not pay so Insurance saved them too. 
Yes, I buy insurance 😇👍🙏, you roll the dice. 

Mauibabes

[Sthrngary]

This post is SO important.  Not just for everyone to consider Travel Insurance, I personally and completely agree.  Also, the fact all of us, regardless of our life style, are open to becoming sick.  It is part of the aging process.  HOWEVER, the author showed great positivity in his descriptions and wanted to express concern to ALL about the need to protect ones self from a controllable financial loss.  This brave person shared a difficult situation and did it with class and concern for others.  

 

@clarku You inspired me with your post and I thank you taking the time to write it.  Get well soon.

 

Cruise well and enjoy every moment.

[AMHuntFerry]

So...I hesitate to post a different opinion, but just in case it helps someone...here goes...

I completely understand that many people are more risk-averse than I am; I get it and am not saying that travel insurance is wrong. However, I have a relatively high risk tolerance so in most situations (not just travel) I self-insure or minimally insure (e.g., high deductibles, no comp/collision on older cars), and I don't mind paying out of pocket when expenses occur. My regular BCBS medical (high-deductible) insurance covers overseas medical (similar to GeoBlu), so I don't need that. I usually just use my credit card's trip insurance. Why do I do this? The risk of a trip being cancelled/interrupted is very low for us. Paying for insurance means the premium money is gone/spent; I'd rather invest the premium-money to have handy for the unexpected (or another vacation!). This assumes that our costs for cancelled trips or, for example, emergency flights home will be less than what we would have paid for travel insurance over the years (so far, so good). Plus I don't have to fill out insurance paperwork if I have a claim-worthy incident...avoiding paperwork is always a plus 😉

Do your research to see what is and is not covered; and most importantly make sure the policy you choose fits your risk tolerance.

[clarku]

2 hours ago, AMHuntFerry said:

So...I hesitate to post a different opinion, but just in case it helps someone...here goes...

I completely understand that many people are more risk-averse than I am; I get it and am not saying that travel insurance is wrong. However, I have a relatively high risk tolerance so in most situations (not just travel) I self-insure or minimally insure (e.g., high deductibles, no comp/collision on older cars), and I don't mind paying out of pocket when expenses occur. My regular BCBS medical (high-deductible) insurance covers overseas medical (similar to GeoBlu), so I don't need that. I usually just use my credit card's trip insurance. Why do I do this? The risk of a trip being cancelled/interrupted is very low for us. Paying for insurance means the premium money is gone/spent; I'd rather invest the premium-money to have handy for the unexpected (or another vacation!). This assumes that our costs for cancelled trips or, for example, emergency flights home will be less than what we would have paid for travel insurance over the years (so far, so good). Plus I don't have to fill out insurance paperwork if I have a claim-worthy incident...avoiding paperwork is always a plus 😉

Do your research to see what is and is not covered; and most importantly make sure the policy you choose fits your risk tolerance.

I get it, you’re right, many of us are just more risk tolerant than others and are more willing to take the hit if a cause for cancellation arises.  I would’ve put myself in that category in recent times, but as we do get older, unfortunately you do begin to notice that some surprising things do happen to the people around you, making you think taking these pricey trips is a bit of a “game” of Russian roulette.  We’re fortunate enough that it wouldn’t have broken us to forfeit the prepaid cruise funds, but it does lessen the sting of why we’re having to cancel, somewhat. I suppose I should have titled this thread, “carefully consider insurance”.  I echo the sentiments of support to all of my fellow Oceania cruisers who are facing your own health journeys. 

[CurlerRob]

4 hours ago, AMHuntFerry said:

So...I hesitate to post a different opinion, but just in case it helps someone...here goes...

I completely understand that many people are more risk-averse than I am; I get it and am not saying that travel insurance is wrong. However, I have a relatively high risk tolerance so in most situations (not just travel) I self-insure or minimally insure (e.g., high deductibles, no comp/collision on older cars), and I don't mind paying out of pocket when expenses occur. My regular BCBS medical (high-deductible) insurance covers overseas medical (similar to GeoBlu), so I don't need that. I usually just use my credit card's trip insurance. Why do I do this? The risk of a trip being cancelled/interrupted is very low for us. Paying for insurance means the premium money is gone/spent; I'd rather invest the premium-money to have handy for the unexpected (or another vacation!). This assumes that our costs for cancelled trips or, for example, emergency flights home will be less than what we would have paid for travel insurance over the years (so far, so good). Plus I don't have to fill out insurance paperwork if I have a claim-worthy incident...avoiding paperwork is always a plus 😉

Do your research to see what is and is not covered; and most importantly make sure the policy you choose fits your risk tolerance.

 

Glad you didn't hesitate, as a different opinion, backed up by logical reasoning (as you provided) is always useful.

 

My analysis has always been the following. Cancellation/interruption insurance has typically cost me about 7% of the trip cost. The math says that if I can complete 14 (similarly sized) trips without insurance and without a claim, I have saved the cost of one new trip by self-insuring. If one of the 14 blows up, I'm ahead by having paid for insurance.

 

In my case, my risk assessment and risk tolerance does not extend to believing that I will be fortunate enough to take that many trips without a hiccup, so I pay the premiums. Congrats to those with better nerves than I, and who successfully navigate the odds! 🍺🥌

[curmudgeon98]

We've never bothered with purchased trip insurance.  We do make sure of our medical coverage. 

 

There are several factors involved for us that might not apply to other people.  First, the cost of our cruises/trips is not such that writing one off would really move the needle in our retirement finances/spending.  Second, we do take advantage of any "free" coverage that may be available from credit cards and such (recognizing that this is probably "worth what you pay for it").  Third, we don't book far in advance; one week to three months is typical for us.  Fourth, we don't normally do just a cruise; there is usually extended additional travel, where the cost is often not committed in advance.

 

I might take a different view of something like a round-the-world cruise, especially if it was on a line like Viking with their very early final payment deadline.  Or not; the question may come up in the next year or two and we'll see then.  

  

[AMHuntFerry]

Thanks for not calling me crazy 🙂 I should have also noted that our trips are in the less expensive range (i.e., we can't buy a new car with the same $$). If we were taking a super spendy cruise I would probably insure at least part of it. I've have the bad(?) influence of lucky parents who traveled extensively and never cancelled a trip or had a major interruption (just slight delays/reroutes), but they are/were a bit nutty. For example, my mom broke a bone in her foot and they were on a plane the next day for Fiji. Crutches and sand do not play well together but they had a great time...so in addition to inheriting high risk tolerance, I definitely inherited a little craziness.

[vai]

What about the repatriation of your remains if you die while on the cruise or land trip? Very pricey.

[AMHuntFerry]

Just now, vai said:

What about the repatriation of your remains if you die while on the cruise or land trip? Very pricey.

That is definitely the worst scenario! We had to do that with my uncle who died right after getting off the plane in Spain a few years ago; the costs were paid by his estate with the rest of the necessary expenses. It's part of the risk calculation, and if it's a worry, insurance is the answer.

[CurlerRob]

8 hours ago, curmudgeon98 said:

I might take a different view of something like a round-the-world cruise, especially if it was on a line like Viking with their very early final payment deadline.  Or not; the question may come up in the next year or two and we'll see then.  

  

 

Just as an FYI, while Viking does have a much earlier PIF than other lines, their cancellation dates and penalties are in line with other carriers.

 

So, the early PIF should not affect your thinking regarding trip insurance, but it's reasonable to figure the additional cost of money from the earlier PIF into the total price for your analysis. 🍺🥌