Insurance

Booking a cruise for September. We are looking at options for trip insurance. Our main concerns would be hurricane, death in our family right before trip, or one of us is in the hospital when we should be on the cruise. We have read many people say to use insure my trip but they are much higher than the Disney insurance during a brief look at options. Would Disney insurance cover our top three concerns? Anything we should look for in a private policy?

Booking a cruise for September. We are looking at options for trip insurance. Our main concerns would be hurricane, death in our family right before trip, or one of us is in the hospital when we should be on the cruise. We have read many people say to use insure my trip but they are much higher than the Disney insurance during a brief look at options. Would Disney insurance cover our top three concerns? Anything we should look for in a private policy?

Are you sure what you're looking at? Typically using a 3rd party insurance is less cost, for better coverage than purchasing through a cruise line.

Insure my trip, as well as the other travel insurance comparison sites, is not the insurance company. They will take the parameters of what you want covered and show you many companies policies that would fit the bill.

Also, sometimes it's possible that you may need to get a policy that actually covers more than you want (a general coverage policy), but the cost is lower than doing, basically, "a la carte" coverage (specific coverages only).

No I am not sure that's why I posted on here! Haha I am clueless as we always have just got insurance offered from whoever we booked with!!

I need any advice or tips!!

We have always found private coverage to cost a lot less than thru DCL. Hurricane--check the specific parameters of the coverage and what you are looking for. Do you care if you go to different ports? We've been on a couple of cruises with hurricane "alterations." When we visited different ports, the cruise lines made no adjustments (nor did we expect them to). When the cruise was shortened, the cruise line gave us compensation based on the time missed; Princess also covered our hotel for the night. In each case we were also given the option of canceling the cruise and getting a full refund from the line. That was before any insurance. Some insurance policies require at least a 24 hour delay before their coverage kicks in; others less.

DCL insurance will only cover those things you buy thru DCL (like air). So if you do air on your own, you insurance thru DCL will not cover it AND DCL will not help you with alternate air arrangements. Most private insurances give a complimentary child's policy with each adult policy; DCL does not. Many private policies cover pre-existing conditions if the policy is purchased within 14 or 21 days of booking the cruise. DCL does not cover pre-existing conditions.

The one thing that DCL offers you that no one else does is that IF the insurance company rejects your claim, a portion of the cruise cost will be offered to you as partial payment toward a future cruise. There are time restrictions and it is only good for the same person.

My suggestion--ask your TA about insurances that they may recommend. That's how I got to the two that we use. In addition, if going privately, most companies offer a "bare bones" coverage and one or two higher. We always go one notch up--it offers a lot more coverage with very little premium increase. We use Travel Guard International or Worldwide Trip Protector. Be sure when you enter the cost of the trip to get a quote, you are correctly noting whether that is "per person" or total cost of the trip.

Your specific concerns--hurricane, I addressed above. Hospitalization of one of the cruisers right before the cruise--they will look to see if this is a pre-existing condition. Death in the family will depend on who died--the policy will specify "First degree relative" or something else. A first degree relative is basically a parent, child, or sibling of one of the cruisers. You won't be covered for the death of a second cousin!

I don't know what to say other than to try it on line again and see what you get. I've never seen DCL insurance to be less costly than private unless all cruisers are elderly. In that case, DCL coverage does not consider age of anyone over 17 while private coverage does.

Thoughts when buying insurance...

• ask them what the deductible his.... get a second quote for a higher or the highest deductible. If you don't have plans for claims.... getting a higher deductible offers savings.
  
• how many trips do you make outside of the country.... consider an annual plan for additional savings.
  
• are you paying with a premium credit card? What does it cover?
  

Watch out for bad pixie dust.

We have a credit card that includes "travel insurance," but the fine print and rules quickly show that it isn't really sufficient in most situations AND a claim needs to be started within 7 days of the event. We've never had a major disaster but have had a couple of small claims (one trip to the medical center, one fog delay of cruise for 24 hours). Both of those would have required us to have filed the claim while we were still on the vacation. Private coverage gave us 90 days to file.

We have always found private coverage to cost a lot less than thru DCL. Hurricane--check the specific parameters of the coverage and what you are looking for. Do you care if you go to different ports? We've been on a couple of cruises with hurricane "alterations." When we visited different ports' date=' the cruise lines made no adjustments (nor did we expect them to). When the cruise was shortened, the cruise line gave us compensation based on the time missed; Princess also covered our hotel for the night. In each case we were also given the option of canceling the cruise and getting a full refund from the line. That was before any insurance. Some insurance policies require at least a 24 hour delay before their coverage kicks in; others less.

 

DCL insurance will only cover those things you buy thru DCL (like air). So if you do air on your own, you insurance thru DCL will not cover it AND DCL will not help you with alternate air arrangements. Most private insurances give a complimentary child's policy with each adult policy; DCL does not. Many private policies cover pre-existing conditions if the policy is purchased within 14 or 21 days of booking the cruise. DCL does not cover pre-existing conditions.

 

The one thing that DCL offers you that no one else does is that IF the insurance company rejects your claim, a portion of the cruise cost will be offered to you as partial payment toward a future cruise. There are time restrictions and it is only good for the same person.

 

My suggestion--ask your TA about insurances that they may recommend. That's how I got to the two that we use. In addition, if going privately, most companies offer a "bare bones" coverage and one or two higher. We always go one notch up--it offers a lot more coverage with very little premium increase. We use Travel Guard International or Worldwide Trip Protector. Be sure when you enter the cost of the trip to get a quote, you are correctly noting whether that is "per person" or total cost of the trip.

 

Your specific concerns--hurricane, I addressed above. Hospitalization of one of the cruisers right before the cruise--they will look to see if this is a pre-existing condition. Death in the family will depend on who died--the policy will specify "First degree relative" or something else. A first degree relative is basically a parent, child, or sibling of one of the cruisers. You won't be covered for the death of a second cousin!

 

I don't know what to say other than to try it on line again and see what you get. I've never seen DCL insurance to be less costly than private unless all cruisers are elderly. In that case, DCL coverage does not consider age of anyone over 17 while private coverage does.[/quote']

 

Thanks this is helpful! Yes we would not need to cancel for a second cousin! Just thinking parents as they are getting older!

We (33 and 38) are traveling with 2 kids 10 and under so I will have to see about the child policy. We don't use travel agents because we like the control! But will have to make sure trip cost was total not per person! Maybe that was the difference!

I recommend checking out the Cruise Critic Cruise/Travel Insurance thread. There is a lot of valuable information and several recommendations for two websites to check out. http://Www.tripinsurancestore.com (call Steve and he has a very informative website) and http://www.insuremytrip.com. I called Steve and company and felt so much better after talking with him. His company knows their business.

Why are you concerned about a hurricane? The ships are almost guaranteed to sail while a hurricane is nearby. They do make changes to the itinerary to avoid bad weather as getting you to enjoy your vacation is their second most important concern.

Your only concern should be getting to the port during a storm. For that, the advice is usually arrive the day before and get a hotel room.