Buy the trip insurance or not?

Just wondering, do you guys purchase the DCL insurance or not? Reasons?

I purchase trip insurance because my health insurance specifically excludes any care outside of the US. Thus, the reason I am purchasing it is for the health coverage. While I could afford to lose the cost of a cruise (wouldn't be happy, but could afford it), the cost of a hospital bill outside the US could be a major issue.

In fairness, the only time I used it was when my daughter developed a sinus infection on a 28 day cruise. Basically the cost of the doc visit and meds on the ship about equalled the cost of the insurance.

In straight dollars sense it is not a "good deal," but if you are the one who needs care on the ship, it can be.

IF my medical insurance would cover us, I would likely not purchase it.

FYI, the coverage thru DCL stinks. You can buy better coverage at a lower price privately. Cost depends on age though, so for elderly grandparents, the cost of the DCL coverage may be less. MANY private companies provide a free child policy with purchase of an adult policy.

In addition to possible medical or evacuation expenses , we have elderly parents @ home .

Use to never purchase insurance when we were younger but now it is every cruise.

Yes, elderly parents are another consideration. If you need to cancel a cruise due to hospitalization or death of a first degree relative, this is covered by many insurance plans.

Thanks for your input. Excellent points! Decided to get it.

For the possible medical emergency or evacuation and the trip canalization option. You never know when something might go wrong. If something did and on top of what ever happened I lost $$$$$ it would be very painful. 2 huge reasons to me.

I don't buy the insurance that the cruise line offers, but I do buy insurance through a third party provider (Travelex) for the same reasons people have stated above.

The reason I go with a third party provider is twofold. First, my experience has been that Travelex is often less expensive. More importantly, Travelex gives options for three different levels of coverage, as opposed to the cruise line's one-policy-fits-all plan, so I can pick the one that is best suited to my needs.

Medical insurance is the only thing I buy... I also ask for the highest deductible for savings as I don't plan to use the insurance for frivious stuff.

I skip on interruption/cancellation insurance because...

• my trips are booked last minute due to work commitments.... cancelllations are less like 2 weeks out.
  
• I choose cruise excursions if there is a significant distance from the ship when I'm in port.
  

I buy every time. On my Hawaiian cruise I fell and broke my foot - 10 minutes after sail away. Needed surgery and had to fly back once I got to next port. Travel Guard took care of getting my flights and reimbursed everything for me and my husband. I'm sure if I had been a few days on the ship, it would have been prorated.

We've bought travel insurance a couple of times. We don't buy it for every trip. We buy it if we're traveling at a time of the year that weather might prevent us from traveling or if we're traveling with small kids or elderly adults with health issues.

I buy every time. On my Hawaiian cruise I fell and broke my foot - 10 minutes after sail away. Needed surgery and had to fly back once I got to next port. Travel Guard took care of getting my flights and reimbursed everything for me and my husband. I'm sure if I had been a few days on the ship, it would have been prorated.

Yes, they likely would have pro-rated the cost of the cruise, but they still would have covered the medical costs, flight home for care, etc. And that was probably a lot more than the cruise. Even if your travel insurance provided secondary medical coverage, that can be a huge amount.

Sorry for your injury. Unfortunately, you are an example of how bad things can happen even to hypothetically young, healthy people.

I would never even consider buying trip insurance until I worked MS for DVC for a few years, a long time ago. I cannot tell you the times I heard awful stories of one kind or another, and of course my first question was always, "Did you buy travel insurance?". Nine times out of 10 they had not. Now when I have a pricey trip, or any sort of extenuating circumstances, and always when I will be out of the country, I buy trip insurance.