To insure or not to insure... that is the question? (merged)

[dino76]

My wife and I are 50 and 51 and healthy. We are signed up for a 4 day cruise in February on SOS. What do you advise... insurance or no insurance??? And if so, what kind and why?

 

Your advice will be greatly appreciated as I am clueless! We have cruised twice before - 2 years ago and 20 years ago and have never gotten any.

[BiteMEagain]

Insurance is always a gamble. One must think if you can afford to loose the money then no insurance is necessary. If you can't then it would be. For big trips such as a cruise I always buy the insurance. I have used Travel Guard in the past. Just do an internet seach for travel insurance and you'll find all that you need and more.

[cb at sea]

If, for some reason, your trip gets cancelled (by you) and you can't go, can you absorb the loss of the money? If you can, then insurance is redundant! If it would put a "hurtin'" on you, then get insurance!

Prior to my hubby's heart problem, we never insured our trips, since the deposits we had paid out would not make or break us!

It's a purely financial decision.

[Mark_K]

My wife and I are 50 and 51 and healthy. We are signed up for a 4 day cruise in February on SOS. What do you advise... insurance or no insurance??? And if so, what kind and why?

 

Your advice will be greatly appreciated as I am clueless! We have cruised twice before - 2 years ago and 20 years ago and have never gotten any.

First, make sure your health insurance covers you out of the US. If not, or it seems inadequate, get insurance. You might also want to check your credit cards, some of them offer some coverage if you use them to pay for travel.

 

Otherwise, it depends on your financial situation and your tolerance for assuming risk.

[Lynnees]

What about the health insurance? Are you willing to chance the cost of a health issue while you are away? What if (heaven forbid) one of you had an accident and had to return sooner by plane or had to be medivaced?

 

I "never leave home without it" for possible medical reasons rather than cancel cruise reasons. But again, everyone has to decide for themselves what they can tolerate.

 

M

[firefly333]

We have a cruise the end of January, so we are close to final payment and Im going to have to probably cancel because we did not get the insurance.

 

When I booked it everyone was healthy, but my Dad has now been having quite a few problems and going downhill and not eating. I was worried enough I went to the Cemetary and preplanned a funeral last Sunday (gulp). We are about your age, but have older relatives, including our parents.

 

I can say I wish Id paid the small insurance that *** offered. Because I was cheap, now I will probably cancel rather than risk it. You might evaluate if you have older relatives you are worried about their health before you decide.

[Lisichka]

I would never, ever travel without insurance. Insurance is cheap, and gives peace of mind. Travelguard can give you a good overview of what is available out there and for what cost.

[kingsgirl]

My wife and I are 50 and 51 and healthy. We are signed up for a 4 day cruise in February on SOS. What do you advise... insurance or no insurance??? And if so, what kind and why?

 

Your advice will be greatly appreciated as I am clueless! We have cruised twice before - 2 years ago and 20 years ago and have never gotten any.

 

 

Buy insurance. Don't take the chance, it's not worth it. My friend go sick while on board and he got 3 bags of IV and it was over $1000 US alone.

 

I suggest buying it through someone else though- not the cruiseline. We buy ours through our bank (Royal Bank of Canada) which is the best insurance we have here in Canada and is pretty cheap.

[Apoggi]

Buy the insurance unless you can afford to lose thousands of dollars if anything would happen to you onboard ship and you had to be air vaced from the ship. Cost lots of money and the insurance is small for the peace of mind.

[leoandhugh]

In deciding whether or not to buy insurance, you should not consider just your age and health, but the same for your parents or even grandparents. Most people we know with elderly parents take insurance, even though they themselves are healthy. And as someone has already stated, you should be aware of whether or not your own insurance will cover you out of the country - Medicare does not pay for illness treatment or hospitalization outside of the US and its territories such as Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.:)

[critterchick]

For a 4-night cruise I wouldn't buy the insurance so long as you have adequate medical coverage for yourselves and can comfortably absorb the loss of some or all of your cruise fare if you cancel after final payment.

 

We generally don't buy insurance for our cruises anymore (we did for several years and were fortunate not to have to use it). We have medical insurance that will reimburse us for most of the cost of a medical emergency or even medical evacuation from the ship, and we would be able to absorb the cost of any deductibles or uncovered expenses without undue hardship.

 

Our most likely reason for cancelling would be for an uncovered reason- death of an elderly parent, work emergency or critically ill pet (we think of them as kids but the insurers disagree). Actually, we had a critically ill dog and boarded her at the vet while we were gone, which was probably healthier for her. But I digress. The RCI insurance will cover "cancel for any reason" events, while most of the independent companies will not. RCI will pay 100% for covered reasons and give you a 75% credit toward a future cruise for uncovered.

 

Also, we are in our mid-50s, so not much older than you. RCI does not take your age into account - the premium is only dependent on the price you pay for the cruise. When we have looked at other carriers the price has been comparable and did not include cancel for any reason.

[tinkerme1]

Firefly: You may wish to contact CSA insurance BEFORE final payment. They may insure you even at this time!

 

As for buying insurance, I consider it a cost of cruising. I had an ear infection on our Hawaii cruise, and had to visit the Doctor onboard several times. The total cost for both visits: $241.00 . Not a big deal, but my regular medical insurance will only cover part of the cost. The rest will be paid by my "cruise insurance". It is a comfort to know that you "can" go to the medical facility if you have a problem onboard without the loss of big bucks. Mine was small; other folks had to have xrays and other treatments that were very expensive.

 

Insurance isn't just about how old you are, but rather if something should happen, you'd be covered.

[cruisePRN]

In over 25 cruises I've never taken insurance. With the money I've saved I could pay for a missed cruise or taken an extra one. I have a high tolerance for risk :D

[kidless]

Let me tell you our experience. We have been on 6 cruises and had never gotten insurance. We had a 8 day cruise to Panama last October....no insurance. My Mom got sick right before we boarded we opted to go anyway as that is what she wanted and we would have lost all our money. Needless to say I could not enjoy myself on the cruise and spent a ton of time in the cabin. She ended up passing away and we flew home from Belize it was not a happy time and cost a lot of money. This past September we had a 5 day cruise. A couple of weeks before the cruise I went out to help my MIL who was feeling under the weather while there it was determined she could not live alone and until the time she could move out here with us she was to stay at a SIL home....who got sick two days before I was to leave.............again we had no insurance. Luckily it all worked out and I got back in time to cruise. So now we get insurance......I guess what I am saying is you just never know what can come up that will interrupt your cruise.

[Gonzo70]

Health care costs are the biggest possible expense you would incur. If you already have medical insurance and they cover any emergencies you may have on the cruise, then travel insurance is probably not necessary. The small chance of needing to cancel the cruise or leave the cruise early because of a loved one being ill are not likely to justify the cost of the inusrance policy if you are already adequately covered for any medical emergencies.

[birdylady]

Personally I would much rather save the money, but since I hate the risk factor, I buy it. First cruise was with family (7 of us total) to celebrate my parents 50th Anniversary so it really mattered. As it turned out mom had to have her kidney removed about a month before. Luckily it turned out fine and she made the trip.

Other possible issues I've heard are job related, house related (one person had a house fire), as others have stated medical (have you priced a helicopter evac lately?).

 

All in all, I'll risk the few extra bucks for the insurance.

 

FYI - I've gotten it through the TA and its fairly reasonable.

 

Erika

[nancy315]

On our last cruise, a passenger was hit by a car on land. She had to be airlifted to a hospital. The first thing I thought when I heard was I hoped she had insurance.

 

Being healthy has nothing to do with anything - if the above happens to you, can you afford to forfeit your money for the rest of your cruise and also pay for a hospital, airlift costs and doctors costs in a foreign port?

 

Or how aboout if you have a car accident on the way to the airport or cruise ship terminal before your cruise? Could you afford to lose your air and cruise money if that happens?

 

Do you have elderly parents who's health might cause you to cancel the cruise before you leave if somethig serious happens?

 

If you can, then you don't need insurance. Being healthy has nothing to do with it - it is whether you can afford what happens while ont he cruise that you need to determine. It is totally a risk call.

[billyelliot]

Thank goodness I had travel insurance when we were in the carribean 4 yrs ago. it cost us $1,800 for our medical bill. Over here we dont have private medical care so we would have had to foot the bill ourselfs. When we got back it was very stright foward to claim our money back.

[firefly333]

Firefly: You may wish to contact CSA insurance BEFORE final payment. They may insure you even at this time!

 

I still have about 2 weeks to decide. My 6 2 dad is down to 137 lbs now, from 182 lbs when this all started. My mom had to sign a waiver for them to give him real liquids to drink, liquids are going into his lungs not his stomach and he cant make himself eat. We have discussed a feeding tube if things dont improve. Im the only one driving and so I might cancel rather than go and worry if if a miracle happens, but each time he improves a little he then takes a worse step down. Never been thru this before, so I dont know how long he will live or not, but Im getting very worried. Hes 89, so things just seem to be piling up wrong, not one thing that by itself couldnt be cured, but together they impinge on each other.

 

I really hate to cancel, my cruise price has jumped so much, I love a bargain, but I know I need to and be here for my family. I admit Im waiting until the last minute and hoping for a miracle.

 

On the subject of insurance, Im the one whose friend's parents in law went on a Carnival cruise to Europe and her FIL got up during the night and had a heart attack and died. Carnival insurance paid for him to be embalmed and to fly the body home. I hear Carnival treated the family wonderfully because they bought insurance thru the cruiseline. The FIL had no warning signs and seemed to be in perfect health. Supposedly its not that uncommon because folks do more exertion on excursions than regular life.

[JTJ]

I would only get it if I had some known health issues or there were family that might die and I would want to be at the funeral, potentially during a cruise. I dive on every cruise many times and I have special insurance for that activity, I try not to do anything else risky (like climb the rock wall, horseback riding, parasailing, balcony crawling etc.) But if I did do risky things I would get the health part. Also there's the missing the ship because of airline delays. That would depend on circumstances. I cut a SJU flight from MCO close once. I worried me until I found out that there is a direct flight about every hr to SJU.

[EggDropErin]

We always buy insurance on cruises. We buy what the cruise line sells. We just don't have the kind of money to gamble on such things as our health. You never know what might happen. To us, it is money well spent regardless of whether or not we would use it. Thankfully we haven't had to so far, but there have been some close calls!

[kruz]

We have a cruise the end of January, so we are close to final payment and Im going to have to probably cancel because we did not get the insurance.

 

When I booked it everyone was healthy, but my Dad has now been having quite a few problems and going downhill and not eating. I was worried enough I went to the Cemetary and preplanned a funeral last Sunday (gulp). We are about your age, but have older relatives, including our parents.

 

I can say I wish Id paid the small insurance that Costco offered. Because I was cheap, now I will probably cancel rather than risk it. You might evaluate if you have older relatives you are worried about their health before you decide.

 

I bough insurance after final payment with no problem

[willysgrandma]

I bough insurance after final payment with no problem

 

 

But you wouldn't be covered for a pre-existing condition.

[nrdsb4]

I bough insurance after final payment with no problem

 

In her case, however, once her relative is sick, she cannot then buy insurance to cover her in the event he gets worse and she has to cancel her cruise. This would be a pre-existing condition.

[cruiseguy1016]

Everybody always talks about only the health issues. There are so many other reasons you may need it. I see you are cruising in February. Are you flying to the port? What happens if your flight gets canceled because of bad weather? What if your luggage doesn't make it on the ship for some reason? Insurance covers a whole lot more than just medical bills. We dropped and destroyed our camera while on a zip-line tour in Belize. The insurance covered it and we were reimbursed. Several years ago we had a cruise booked with another couple. The husband died in an accident 6 days before our departure. We couldn't/wouldn't go without them. The insurance refunded our money. To me, it's such a small percentage of the overall cost that I would not go without it. You never know what may happen.