Princess Travel Care

[sharonmae]

I know this has been addressed before but I wasn't paying attention at the time. We are thinking of taking the Princess Travel Care insurance for our October Med TA cruise. Is it a decent plan or should we look into something else? Since we will be traveling non-revenue (retired airline person) we can't insure our airfare, but we will be investing in a Eurail pass, which would be a loss of about $800.00 if we coildn't use it. We are both in good health, but only the Good Lord knows if something will happen to us or family members to change our plans. Any comments?

[Rob & Beckys mom]

Talk this over with your TA & read the contract very carefully as so many insurance plans vary. My husband is an attorney so I just leave that to him, lucky me! Also, try calling Princess with your concerns & questions, can't hurt to ask.

 

Jan

[Toto2Kansas]

I know this has been addressed before but I wasn't paying attention at the time. We are thinking of taking the Princess Travel Care insurance for our October Med TA cruise. Is it a decent plan or should we look into something else? Since we will be traveling non-revenue (retired airline person) we can't insure our airfare, but we will be investing in a Eurail pass, which would be a loss of about $800.00 if we coildn't use it. We are both in good health, but only the Good Lord knows if something will happen to us or family members to change our plans. Any comments?

 

If I am understanding your question correctly, you are asking about purchasing Princess insurance? If you do, and the Eurail pass is not purchased through Princess, then the travel care will not cover this. Princess insurance will cover what you have actually booked through them, but not other things independently. You would have to purchase outside insurance to cover privately covered transportation or any type of privately purchased tours.

[Coral]

This is a tough one. I would be tempted to call some of the 3rd party companies. You may still have airline issues even though it is a free trip such as missing the ship, losing your luggage, etc...

 

Do you have to pay anything for your flight? I booked my trip to Russia with FF miles and had to pay $50 or something like that. I figured that was the cost of the flight and insured that - that way, if I missed the ship, my expenses to catch up to the ship would be covered, etc...

 

There is a guy name Steve who works at: http://www.tripinsurancestore.com/

He posts to CC under the name <iamtrustworthy> and he really seems to know his stuff. It would be worth calling him and explaining your situation and see what he has to say. Also, medical coverage through Princess is minimal. Not sure if your health insurance covers you outside the US but if I was traveling outside the US, I would want better coverage then Princess offers.

[sharonmae]

Thanks to all who have offered input. As a first time cruiser I'm just not sure if Princess TC is good or bad.

 

My health insurance is good outside the U.S.. I checked on that last week and got a printed pamphlet with all the particulars, including numbers to call and international forms to be filled out by doctors if need be. I'm glad they had something actually in writing because just taking one person's word for it can often end up problematic when you discover they gave the wrong info.

 

Coral, Domestically we pay nothing, internationally we pay a small service charge for coach, a little more for business class and a little more for first. Of course travel is standby, and goes by seniority, so it does depend on loads, and years of service whether or not you get on, and this also dictates what class of service you end up in. We are allowing ourselves 10 days to get on the San Francisco to Frankfurt nonstop. There are 2 daily flights, and we like that it's nonstop. We'll be catching the train there and will eventually arrive in Venice to catch our cruise. We have hotels reserved that have 24hr. no cancellation fees, and will stay in Geneva with a friend for a couple of days if we arrive on time.

 

I may check into other insurance plans since we still have a few months before we have final payment. I was just wondering if Princess TC was decent to at least recover cruise costs if something were to happen.

[RaeVynn]

We decided that we wanted to get the Princess Travel Care Gold... it's our first cruise, and the Gold level has a clause for canceling for any reason, and still getting 90% of the cruise cost saved (cruise credit), rather than losing it. Also, it has the 50K medical coverage.

 

The underwriting company that does the Princess Travel insurance is the same company that some of the luxury lines use (Berkley care)... you can purchase your very own third-party insurance, or get whatever your TA sells. The important thing is GET INSURANCE! You don't know what could happen on the way to the dock... and, if you get sick or injured, the medical coverage can get you extricated from whatever foreign port you are at, and flown to a medical center.

 

This was important to us... next time, we may use a lower cost plan, when we get a better idea of how the various plans work out... but for our first cruise, we just wanted to get the one that Princess has.

[Solara]

I agree with Coral, Steve at tripinsurancestore.com really knows what he is talking about. After talking to him you will know you have the right answer. For a long time we always bought Princess Travel Care (luckily we didn't have to use it because if we had I didn't realize our medical coverage wasn't enough). Just call Steve and talk to him, you will be glad you did. I always buy my trip insurance thru him now, he's the best.

[Stevesan]

Judge for yourself. The princess Travel Care plan is avaiable here (pdf format):

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=14607593

 

Most travel plan premiums escalate with your age group. As a senior citizen I use PTC. However, I also have an inclusive health care plan w/world wide coverage. It is, of course, primary.

I also supplement with Medjet Assist annual coverage. Emergency evacs cost ungodly amounts of money, and most travel plans are inadequate for that contingency.

 

http://www.medjetassist.com/

[travelnnana]

We have used Princess travel care in the past and are using it for our trip to Alaska next month - DH did not have enough meds on our Hawaii Cruise and it took care of it - we get a free upgrade to Gold because of our Princess Captain's Circle status - last year we went to Italy on our own and got some sort of insurance that covered us in case of a medical problem - I forget the details - but it's Health coverage for Americans traveling out of the US - I don't know if Princess would cover Eurrail pass

[pmcrusta]

If you or a family member not traveling with you (elderly parent example) has a pre-existing condition you may want to check out your options. Pre-existing conditions sometimes require the insurance be purchased 14 or 21

days after deposit for trip with some types of travel insurance. Just a FYI...