insurance?
 

This is our first cruise. What is your opinion about trip insurance? Our trip is in 4 weeks.

With most insurers, you need to purchase the insurance when you make the full payment for the cruise. If your cruise is only 4 weeks away, presumably you've made that payment already,

If Medicare is your primary insurance, you need medical insurance, as Medicare does not cover you outside US (nor do most Medicare supplements)

It is still possible to purchase insurance as some providers sell it even 24 hours before the trip. Whether or not to buy it, is a very personal and complicated matter. It depends on many factors: how likely are you to miss your trip, have you booked air with cruise line or on your own, are you traveling with kids or elderly which may increase the risk, are your flights allowing enough layover time etc.

There is really nothing "complicated" about buying insurance for a cruise.Or any trip for that matter.Personal, yes.Complicated, no.Just do it.Or, dont do it.There used to be a regular poster on the cruise forum, "Peter".He would argue until he passed out: DONT!! I havent always bought insurance.I just happened to be in my TA's office one day.One of his associates had a client who didnt buy the insurance.They had to cancel and lost almost everything.Since then, I just include the cost of insurance as a component of the trip.Just like say a shore excursion.Nothing complicated.But my personal choice.I have a friend whose m other had a very unfortunate incident in Cancun.She was entering a restaurant.For dinner.In Cancun!! Not deepest darkest third world anywhere! As they were walking up the steps to the entrance, a party of four were leaving.These people were drunk.Flat out bombed.One of the guys missed a step and fell into my friend's mom.She fell down the steps.Didnt kill her but the hospital costs almost have.She required treatment and her medical insurance did not cover it.Now, would she have been better off paying say $100 for insurance, or the $20K it has cost her.We dont need Judge Judy here.My TA will not sell any package, cruise, etc, without insurance.Period.Has he lost business to the guy across the street? Yes indeed.Like many other things in life, it's the principle.

I assume you are talking medical insurace and not cancellation insurance. You can buy very reasonbly priced travel medical from AAA. You don't have to be a member. There are other companies that sell coverage where you can take a high deductible and have a small premium if you just want to cover yourself for the extreme cases. You should never ever travel without medical insurance. You can take this out anytime you don't have to get it through the cruise line (in most cases they are more expensive because they include cancellation and you have to get it when you book the cruise.)

How much can you afford to lose if you have to cancel the cruise?

What if you get sick in a foreign port - are you covered?

Go to insuremytrip.com and put in your particulars (adding all non refundable costs including non refundable airfare) and then compare policies.

I have found that it's always cheaper to purchase trip insurance independently rather than through the cruiseline or tour provider.

Also, the sooner after booking you purchase, the more coverage and the cheaper the premium. Four weeks out, you may be looking at a steep premium.

I got insurance from AIG once very close to the departure date, I think pre-existing conditions were excluded. Not to worry if you have a medical worldwide coverage, at least emergency.

I think it can look complicated, but if you take your time it's not overwhelming.

Too many people think "I'll buy insurance" not understanding that you must make be sure you buy insurance to cover the specific risks you want covered. For example, you cannot buy insurance and then simply cancel your trip for any reason. Most have very specific situations that must take place before they will pay you, such as medical necessity (as determined and verified by a physician), hospitalization, etc.

An old friend of mine said it this way "never ask what a policy covers...ask what it does NOT cover, because that is what you'll have to pay for later".

I too agree that a site like insuremytrip.com is an excellent source to compare different policies, options, coverages, etc.

Don't let it overwhelm you and you'll be fine.

"For example, you cannot buy insurance and then simply cancel your trip for any reason." - this is not correct. The last time I bought insurance, there were addition to the main part, one of them "cancel for any reason" for additional $122. It was TravelGuard.

Faina, you are exactly right, but it's good for the OP to note that all policies don't cover "cancelling for any reason whatsoever". I only sail Princess and buy their insurance (which I get at a better price because I've sailed numerous times with them) - and you can cancel up till the last minute and still get something like 90% of your cruise fare back in the form of a credit toward another cruise. I have used Travelguard in the past which I found through insuremytrip.com It's a very good website.

My next cruise is with Princess insured by TravelGuard so maybe some day along the road I'll qualify for Princess' discounted insurance :)

Sorry FaninaAgain, but my answer was correct. You cannot buy insurance and then cancel your trip for any reason.

As your response later reveals, you had to pay an additional $122 for such coverage.

What I was trying to let the poster know was that people sometimes think that they can cancel for any reason if they have insurance and get their money back. Unless you have this in your policy (which very few do unless you pay more) you must cancel for a covered reason, or no refund.

Since you have made your final payment, you are no longer able to purchase cancellation insurance, but medical you can purchase up to the day before you depart. I would not recommend going anywhere without it. I live in Canada, with great medical insurance, but I would not go without it. Not sure how US medical insurance works...

We always take out insurance and have never had to use it. In July we had a one day Baltic cruise. My husband and I were walking in Aehaus, Denmark when I stumbled on some cobblestones and broke my shoulder when I crashed into a pole. While I was at the hospital, deciding through the pain that I had to go home for the major surjury involved, Crystal Cruises was sending someone to pick us up and was packing up all of our things. They rearranged all of our flights, packed us a late lunch, took us to the airport, and they still made it out of port by 5PM. It was our 7th cruise with them. The hospital in Denmark was wonderful and would not accept a penny for all their work. Crystal was wonderful as always and I was not insured with them. HTH was bought within a week of buying our cruise and we compared it with many others on insuremytrip.com and it had everything we required. It paid well and promptly.
One day in the Baltic was not enough. I missed our 3 day St. Petersburgh adventure. But we hope to go back soon.
As someone said, I think it is necessary to consider the price of the insurance into the price of the cruise - especially the more expensive ones.

IMHO, never never never travel without cancellation, luggage, travel insurance. I've taken both private insurance through Insure My Trip (found it to be more expensive than insurance offered by cruise line) and have also taken cruise line insurance and then added to it through Insure My Trip offerings.

On our cruise this past May on the Brilliance, within the first three days an elderly woman fell down stairs and was helicoptered off the ship because we weren't that far from shore...and by the third day another woman fell down and broke her hip...poor woman had to wait til we got to the Azores to be taken off the ship and to a hospital where she was operated.

There's no question that travel insurance is a must - and usually insured you from the moment you leave the door of your house until you return to it. Just in case of an accident on the way to the ship.

YES, always take the travel insurance.

mahya --- regarding your observation that cruiseline insurance was less expensive than what was available thru Insuremytrip --- I suspect that is because cruiseline insurance is based on the price of the cruise and not the age of the travelers. When I price-checked thru Insuremytrip, the age of the traveler was a factor in determining the price. As far as medical coverage, I'd assume that would drive the price up significantly for an older traveler over a younger traveler. Just one more thought to add into the mix.

If by chance you are over age 65 and rely on Medicare, you are not covered outside of US - so you need some sort of health coverage anyway.

If you are talking about the pricing on internet sites it is not for a senior traveler. I found this out when I talked directly to the agent when booking a cruise.
We always have trip insurance and buy it when we make our deposit so we will have coverage for pre-existing conditions.