Should you buy insurance?

[belkast]

The flight insurance is just in addition to other life insurance. Hopefully, it is a waste of money and certainly no replacement for a life.

I always get the medical insurance when traveling and DH has a great policy through work also for home.

 

Hi, angeljt,

Do you mean you purchase separate medical insurance and not the travel insurance discussed in this tread? Is it much more expensive? And if yes, is the extra coverage (what exactly is included) is worth is?

This is my third cruise, I never bought insurance before, but after reading this conversation I went online shopping for cruise insurance and got one for $124 for 3 people. This is step ahead for me and the price is not bad for 7 days. But now you got me worried - is this enough?

[garycarla]

There seems to be (at least) three kinds of insurance. Some of 1 and 2 below are combined.

 

1 - Extended health/medical insurance. This takes care of medical issues above and beyond what you own health insurance would cover. Some normal health plans do not cover international, or evacuation, medilift, etc.

 

2 - Trip cancellation. This covers a wide range but is used if you can not go because of various reasons, or sometimes if the trip gets cancelled or messed up because of hurricanes, etc. Usually interruption insurance is included if you are unable to catch the ship, lost luggage, etc.

 

3 - Extra life insurance. This is what you can still find sometimes in airports. You can get a large policy that pays if the plane crashes. This one makes no sense. If you decided you want your family to get $1,000,000 if you died on the plane, then you should also want your family to get $1m if you get hit by a car, or in a car accident, or fall off the ship, or get shot or die from anything else. Therefore, you should ALWAYS carry $1m in life insurance. Otherwise, you are saying your life or family does not matter for this other stuff, just an airplane crash. I just don't get it.

[angeljt]

Hi Belkast,

Sorry about the confusion. I was talking about flight insurance in one of the posts because someone had asked about it and I told them about life insurance instead of flight insurance. Sorry, my mistake.

 

I purchase our cruise insurance through either my TA or NCL. Only you can decide how much you need or want. I believe they have different plans and they charge you based on the cost of your cruise. I'm not positive about this, but I believe that is what I read. You can also upgrade to a higher price plan which pays more.

As someone said before, it is gambling, but I prefer to be insured when we are away just 'in case'. You can get the primary insurance or the premium. It is up to you with the amounts you feel comfortable.

Jackie

[gistry]

Another thing to watch is pre-existing conditions. The policy that is normally offered did not cover pre-existing conditions, so we got Travel Guard. Good thing, as we had two visits to the medical bay. Also, on Pride of Aloha, try to see the woman nurse, who seems to be quite good. The doctor and male nurse, based on what they said and attitude, did not want to be there and probably were in the bottom of their classes.

[sweetpea-2]

we just used it on our last cruise and I wouldn't book one without it....we book thru our TA and have always gotten our cruise and insurance much cheaper than thru the cruise lines directly...

[mitsguy2001]

Another thing to watch is pre-existing conditions. The policy that is normally offered did not cover pre-existing conditions, so we got Travel Guard. Good thing, as we had two visits to the medical bay. Also, on Pride of Aloha, try to see the woman nurse, who seems to be quite good. The doctor and male nurse, based on what they said and attitude, did not want to be there and probably were in the bottom of their classes.

 

About pre-existing conditions: What happens if I have to cancel in order to attend the funeral of a family member who is currently ill? Would that be considered a pre-existing condition and not be covered because he is currently ill? Or, would it be covered because he is currently alive?

[swoosh2005]

Get it!

That's why they call it insurance....

my DH got real sick one year right before our cruise and we were reimbursed-I would never take the chance.

I also had a bag of luggage stolen one year on the way to the cruise-ALL of our shoes!!! Good to have it--you never know what could happen

[mitsguy2001]

About pre-existing conditions: What happens if I have to cancel in order to attend the funeral of a family member who is currently ill? Would that be considered a pre-existing condition and not be covered because he is currently ill? Or, would it be covered because he is currently alive?

 

Anyone have an answer?

[smeyer418]

Anyone have an answer?

 

It depends on the policy, and what the person died from. It also depends on whether the family member is covered under the policy at all.

[mitsguy2001]

It depends on the policy, and what the person died from. It also depends on whether the family member is covered under the policy at all.

 

Sounds like I'd need to call the insurance company to ask before purchasing. When I was on my previous cruise, the terms had absolutely no mention as to what family members were covered and how it dealt with pre-existing conditions.

[smeyer418]

The actual policy has it. You can normal preview most of the language at www.insuremytrip.com it also may depend on when you purchased the cruise and the policy...Most of the cruise lines give you a linl to the actual policy language

[gistry]

I really don't know about refunds due to the death of a family member not going on the cruise, although I think with our coverage, if we had a last minute cancellation, we would get 90 percent back. My concern was if we needed medical evacuation, we'd have a financial disaster. The policy that we were first offered did not cover our pre-existing conditions and we would have been liable for medical evacuation and everything else associated with their disease... and of course, everything would be associated with their disease!

[mitsguy2001]

The actual policy has it. You can normal preview most of the language at www.insuremytrip.com it also may depend on when you purchased the cruise and the policy...Most of the cruise lines give you a linl to the actual policy language

 

The insurance policy for my previous cruise did not specify. Thankfully, I did not need the insurance! On my next cruise, I will be sure to choose a policy that explains in more detail what it covers and what it does not cover.