JeanneJudson

Wondering if we should get travel insurance for our cruise, taking our family of 12 people.
And then, is a separate policy for flights advisable? Some flights (Priceline) offer quite cheap policies ($under $20 pp) while Travel Guard is a lot more. And for the cruise,
our travel advisor says Allianz is better than what the ships offer. Anyone have experience/advice about this?

abram

Only you can decide how much risk you want to assume and whether you want to purchase insurance to share that risk.

If you had to cancel the cruise, would you be comfortable losing the cost of it? Are you prepared to incur the costs of medical care on the cruise ship and/or in a foreign port? The answer isn't the same for everyone.

I like www.insuremytrip.com to compare policies.

mowmow

Second the insuremytrip recommendation.
The problem with getting separate flight insurance is it will only insure that flight, not the missed connection to your cruise if something goes wrong.
With a group of 12 I'd definitely recommend insurance.
Younger people will find independent insurance reasonably priced. Older folks may do better with the cruise line. Check them all out and compare.
On a family trip including my 87 yo grandma, insuring her was expensive, so we insured her cruise with HAL, took the chance with her airfare, and insured everyone else on a comprehensive Travelex policy. We were only exposed for the one airfare LAX to SEA so we didn't care about that.

You have to explore your options and decide how much risk you are willing to take. Remember a serious flight delay can make you miss your cruise. If one family member was hurt or sick, would others still go on the cruise, or would everyone want to stay home?

jacketwatch

I agree. Go with the above and select a plan that suits you. I picked a plan from American Express for our cruise last fall and it paid, literally as we had to purchase airfare back home after UA delayed our return well beyond the time we needed. AE reimbursed us 100% for the cost of the new booking.

doug_stallings

Each family group should buy its own insurance that covers both the cruise and flight. No question about that, particularly if you are booking your cruise and flights separately. Buy it within a week to 10 days of booking, and you can probably get insurance that allows you to cancel for any reason, but that's expensive.

patandhank

I agree with checking insuremytrip.com Get a comprehensive policy. You've already heard some of the reasons why from others here. Several things to remember re travel insurance:

1. Don't buy from the cruise line. While it's highly unlikely the cruise line will go out of business, it has happened and if for some reason it does - you lose because not only is your cruise gone so is the insurance that was supposed to reimburse you. Always get travel insurance from an independent company. Advice I was given by a cruise travel expert years ago and I agree.

2. Remember that a lot of policies have pre-existing medical condition clauses that in reading the fine print you will see apply to the insured and ALL family members - regardless if they are on the cruise or not. As a result, if you have any doubt buy within the waiver period which is usually anywhere from a week, to 14 days or to 21 days of the date you placed your deposit for the trip - depending on the company.

3. Remember you only buy insurance for expenses you have prepaid and stand to lose. Most cruise lines have a time line on what is subject to forfeiture if you cancel. So let's say you placed a deposit on your cruise and bought your airline tickets (non-refundable) on the same day and your cruise is a year away. You decide to cancel your cruise next week. You'll get your deposit back in most instances but not the airfare so the initial amount of coverage should be for the airfare. Then as you get within the various forfeiture periods of monies you increase your insurance coverage on the policy. I've done this several times on various trips I've taken. Why pay for insurance before it's needed?

mowmow

Also remember,
The best insurance you can get is to plan to arrive in your departure port city at least one day ahead. This simple act can prevent most missed cruise connection issues.

cary999

Agree with mowmow.

What is insurance for? To cover you for a loss that you can not afford to lose. In a sense you have "lost" your cruise money when you take the cruise. That money, cruise cost, was a "loss" you could afford. But what if you had a serious medical problem and the hospital at the port you were at took you then billed you later for $20,000. Is that a loss you can afford? Short answer is, make sure you have medical coverage of some kind. Skip the rest of the insurance.

However, if it feels good to have insurance, then sure why not have something that makes you feel better. Go ahead and get it all, coverage that will replace a lost sock by the ships laundry.
regards - tom