erdoran

On 1/13/2020 at 4:11 PM, Saltyseadog57 said:

I agree, but must add the following. We have not taken a cruise because we cannot figure out, without a PhD in cruiseology, how to select insurance and the actual benefits we can access if we need them. In a word it is trust. I cannot trust that the policy we buy will do what we expect even after we have read the fine print. It is so confusing and filled with exceptions that we simply have given up. I'd like to see the cruise ships offer there own "complete care" insurance that cavers you for everything. I'd pay more for peace of mind and a clean understanding of what I can expect.  Furthermore, the paper work is a logistical nightmare if there is a claim. So we will just go to Disney World!

That’s where an honest, well-informed cruise insurance agent can help.  Steve from tripinsurancestore.com is highly thought of on the boards and he even has his own sub-board above.  If you read through the threads there are some other trip insurance agencies that are consistently recommended.  You should consider calling one or more of these agents to get your questions answered and a clear explanation of what you are buying.

BTW this topic is fantastic-for me I hadn’t even thought that Medicare wouldn’t cover me out of the country - learning that and getting the Geoblue recommendation has been so helpful.  I haven’t had to use it, but am glad to have it in case I do, and another poster who HAS used Geoblue (medical/evac coverage only) speaks very highly of their coverage and claims process.

The concierge didn’t mention it to us at all as an option when he walked us down.  Also, for the snorkelers - be aware that at least for me the water was rather chilly, I’d guess mid 70’s or a little higher.  I think the snorkeling area is around a rock formation a bit offshore, looks like a 5 -10 minute swim.  I love snorkeling but wasn’t in the mood that day and the cold water was a turnoff, plus like the post upthread I’ve primarily snorkeled uncrowded, unspoiled areas so I assumed that there wasn’t decent coral and although there would potentially be fish around the rock formation, with the crowds and noise not sure what there would be....but will wait for someone who has snorkeled there to reply.

BTW Harvest Cay the water was so murky I wouldn’t bother trying, at least in the main area.  We didn’t explore much because it was chilly and windy with intermittent showers, until we gave up and went back to Bliss, which is when the sun came out 😆

9 hours ago, fasmustang said:

FIrst, we had Princess Platinum insurance. We were disembarked in Dominica Dec. 2019 for my hubbys severe back pain, because they said he needed a CT scan, which the Princess ship didn't have in the medical unit. Had to pay the $4k ship medical bill (overnight in sick bay, no tests) before we got off the ship & were transported to what they called a hospital. Got hold of AON & got evac'd to FLL the next day by AirEvac at a cost of 23K. Insurance covered that. After 8 weeks in 3 different hospitals in FL we were medically evac'd (he was intubated) to a hospital in OKC, our home state. Had to argue with AON because they tried to tell me we only had $25k coverage - but I had read policy that said $50K. They finally agreed that we had coverage for a second flight. ($23k to fly to Oklahoma hospital) Still fighting with them to receive any reimbursement for the medical bills. They keep sending letters asking for something new. Have sent BCBS EOB's, hospital/dr bills, medicare secondary EOB's, cc statements showing payments, etc. Their latest request is for charts & dr's notes, and proof that he was treated by licensed MD's. Since when are major FL hospitals not using MD's? I'll never use a company underwritten by AON again if I can help it. I've sent over $100k worth of unpaid bills to them, & can't even seem to receive the $10k reimbursement in coverage we had.

First and foremost, is hubby OK?

And a question - I’m assuming the $100k in bills are from FL - why wouldn’t Medicare & secondary pay them?  I think a lot of us on Medicare would want to know that.  My (naive?) assumption is if we are in the US then Medicare and secondary cover everything legit.

Ours was ready around 1 pm this week

I’m Haven and was just at GSC two days ago.  Nothing was said about special area.  Having said that, I’m not sure where the villas are but when we got to GSC, we walked straight in from the tenders and found a big,crowded beach.  We walked to our left (facing the crowded beach, that left) towards the lighthouse and past it and came to an area with villas at the top of a nicer beach that also seemed public access, with several rows of loungers, and we settled down there.  It’s a bit away from everything - bathrooms, bar, food- but just a couple of minutes away, and much less crowded.  I know this doesn’t answer your question other than “I don’t think there is a Haven area” but hope it helps.

Thank you sultan for sharing your experience.  This had been an excellent education for me, and I’d think for other cruisers reading this thread.  I guess I always assumed that medevac coverage was ship to first shore hospital, and it would then be dubious whether the standard trip insurance would cover a flight from the shore hospital to your preferrred home hospital, unless there was something massively wrong or the shore hospital was totally inadequate.  My takeaway is that I was wrong and that the primary trip insurance or trip medical plan will most likely cover both, up to policy limits, and the 500k-$1 million evac limits are really unnecessary; a $250k medevac is more than sufficient for most ordinary cruising.

Thanks.  Quite helpful!

Been in an interesting discussion on the NCL boards about Geoblue Trekker and Medicare coverage of medical bills & emergencies in US waters - e.g. sailing from NYC to Port Canaveral and there’s a medical emergency during that trip.  Turns out Medicare would probably cover the medical portion (depending on the individual’s plan of course).  However, it’s unclear about medical evacuation coverage, since my understanding Geoblue would only cover outside the US.

Anyway, one of the posters who has worked in the cruise industry 40 years or so said that air/boat evacuation from a cruise ship is done by US Coast Guard or equivalent in US, Mexico, and Caribbean and at no charge...

So that got me thinking...there is common wisdom that older cruisers need a substantial amount of medical evacuation coverage, over and above medical bill coverage, and costs are thrown around about $50k, $100k, etc, etc...but...this must be a wildly profitable product for insurance companies, along the lines of collision damage waivers & other insurances for rental car industry.

Does anyone have any first-hand knowledge of someone who has been medically evacuated from a cruise ship, and a ballpark of cost, if any, JUST for the evacuation from the ship to land or a hospital?  Steve @iamtrustworthy your insight is especially welcome if you have helped customers with claims for this.  

My instinct is that these high numbers are legit, but based on what was said I’m wondering where these high medevac costs are incurred.

TIA

When I started researching trip insurance for cruising, I naively thought I only needed to worry about losing my fare in case of post final payment medical issues preventing us from cruising.  Reading these boards has really opened my eyes!  Having said that, probably the most frequently-stated point about trip insurance is that the cost of evacuation from a cruise ship/medical evacuation is staggering.  Numbers like $50k, $100k, ++ have been tossed out.  

I get that I can’t call 911 and request an air ambulance, that it would be done by a medical professional based on their judgment as to the medical necessity.  In a scenario where there is a medical emergency and the ship’s doctor believes evacuation is imperative, it still sounds to me like the cost of the helicopter/boat from ship to land is “free” and whatever cost is incurred is ambulance from dock to hospital, and then medical bills thereafter.  And of course the cost to get home.

We’ve been ultra cautious and have bought the Geoblue international medical coverage (I hadn’t even mentioned the cost of medical care since my question is about evacuation) which does have an evacuation benefit - home if medically necessary; otherwise to closest suitable hospital.  We also bought Medijet which pays to fly from local hospital to hospital at home, so we are really double covered.   I would never ever suggest anyone NOT buy whatever coverage they need for peace of mind but...

it is beginning to sound like medical evacuation coverage (if local hospital is acceptable) may really be a huge moneymaker for insurance companies, potentially without a valid existing risk.  Or do I misunderstand this discussion?

Butler and concierge are not DSC and should be tipped separately. I believe all others are DSC. 

5 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

Helicopter, or even boat, evacuation from the cruise ship is done by national agencies, and is done at no cost to the patient.  Medical evacuation insurance covers your expenses from the hospital you are admitted to to the hospital of your choice at home.

people talk about how expensive medical evacuations from cruise ships are.  If the helicopter ride is free where is the cost incurred?  Most medevac coverage I’ve seen seems to be to the closest appropriate hospital, rather than home.  

1 hour ago, ziggyuk said:

 

That's one thing it's not, the DSC pays salary up until the maritime minimum wage and then any additional is a bonus above the salary.

 

If the DSC does not meet the maritime minimum NCL have to top it up, I thought most in the US were happy with this situation as it similar to a restaurant servers setup but at least at sea there is a minimum wage.

Restaurant servers get paid their minimum wage directly from the restaurant, and tips are theirs to keep or tip out to others.  Their tips do NOT go to pay the $2.13/hr or whatever the ridiculously low figure is.  

As an American, if I give a tip I expect it to go to the person I’ve handed it to, and that person has control over what happens with it - whether it’s pooled (they are aware of pooling), tipping others internally, or ??

3 minutes ago, ready2cruzagain said:

Even though our supplemental insurance covers us on a cruise or out of the country we still purchase trip insurance through insuremytrip dot com.  I worry about medical evacuation and needing to be air lifted off of the ship.  That is expensive and costs start at around $30,000.  We just came back from a 21 day cruise and our trip insurance cost us $140.  Worth the peace of mind having it.  Look into it.

 

When getting estimates just make sure and cover the things that are not reimbursable, if you insure everything you are wasting a lot of money.  Such as do not include the prices of things that are refundable such as, taxes, port fees, refundable motels, etc.

Yes, thanks for the reminder about evacuation.  I really was strictly thinking medical bills out of the US; wasn’t thinking about cancellation/delay type of things.  So the hole in my logic is the evacuation (which for us is covered by our Chase Sapphire Reserve card).

I was actually concerned about my upcoming cruise, where we leave Sunday, are in Port Canaveral Tuesday, and GSC Wednesday—so was concerned about the first two or three days in case of some sort of disaster.  Hmmm.....interesting question whether our Geoblue would cover medevac then, but I’m hoping never to have to find out!

Thanks, guys!  That’s great info.  I’m new to Medicare and wasn’t sure about this specific scenario.  That says to me that Alaska cruises are also covered with Medicare - no idea about Advantage plans, but the regular Medicare.

55 minutes ago, KateQ22003 said:

Yea, as a finance assistant this stuff fascinates me. I know my way around a P&L and a balance sheet; I also know that employee wages, accrued wages or whatever they want to call it would be very visible. As you said, it would be a huge amount. It isn't there.

I’m also the school that NCL needs to be more transparent about the DSC, AND since I’m paying it, I want to be sure it is going to employees over and above their salaries...

Having said that, if the theory that NCL is passing DSC through to wages, the absence of wages on the balance sheet is inconsistent with that theory, because there ARE employees, lots of them, who by no stretch of the imagination are covered by DSC - everything from the ship’s captains through corporate employees and officers.  Even if they outsource their call center, they must still have corporate infrastructure to manage their business as well.

Was wondering - we have Geoblue Trekker in case of medical issues on our cruise, but that’s only for outside the US.  If we are cruising in the US, say Alaska, or the cruise we are about to take - leaving from NYC and stopping at Port Canaveral - if we were to get sick or have a medical problem, do we have a coverage gap or would Medicare pick it up?  Or if we were off the US coast between NYC and Port Canaveral, or something like that, would that be considered “outside the US” and covered by Geoblue?  TIA

7 hours ago, Jersey42 said:

I am about to renew my GeoBlue Trekker policy, so when I saw this, I took a look.  Unfortunately it is not available in Florida.  For curiosity, I took a look at the policy for another state.  A couple of things I noticed:

• GeoBlue is cheaper for me for the coverage I need. For a few other options I tried, GeoBlue was always a little cheaper.
• Pre existing conditions are covered with GeoBlue.  UHC appears to have a 180 day look back period for medical.
• UHC adds some lost and delayed baggage coverage 
• UHC can have a little more accidental death and dismemberment coverage
• GeoBlue requires that you are also covered by a health care plan at home, UHC does not appear to have that stipulation.
• GeoBlue will act as first (primary) payer, so you do not need to submit first to your home insurance company. It appears that UHC is also.

Please correct, if I am mistaken.

That pre-existing thing is a deal breaker for me, even if I hadn’t already purchased Geoblue.  Hubby has had a medical problem within that time period, he’s fine now and was fine when we purchased this cruise, but he’d fall within that lookback.  That’s a big deal for a lot of folks, the preexisting coverage.

I just got Geoblue Trekker this morning for hubs and me, about $400 for the two of us (we’re in our 60’s).  With a minimum of 3 trips planned, possibly 4, I think this type of policy is a no-brainer.  We combined it with Medjet which I think is really unnecessary but it’s important to hubby so we sprung for it.  Didn’t know about that UHC but the GeoBlue seems well regarded and hlitner’s experience supports that.

My Star summer solstice is way up; my Dec TA is up about $250 after two price drops beginning with Black Friday.  No deals on mine, not sure about others.

3 hours ago, NLH Arizona said:

I've got no problem with the so called Haven Police.  Folks pay a lot more to be in the Haven and enjoy areas without crowds and if one passenger lets their friends in, pretty soon others will do the same and then you have an overly crowded Haven and devalue the Haven experience.

Like what happened over the summer when NCL sold access to the Haven restaurant?

M&G’s are great fun.  I’m a super introvert but even I enjoy them.  The trick is to get active on your roll call in advance so you get to know people, then you end up being curious about who the different screen name people really are.  You might find you have something in common with some (or not) before the cruise, and then meet up during the M&G.  The ship officers stop in to introduce themselves and they leave cards as well, so if you need to know who to contact and how, there’s that.  You will learn about activities (if you don’t already know!) so you can see if you are interested.  Often there is a gift exchange or some such as a ice breaker.

Give it a try - as someone else said, you can always leave.

6 minutes ago, mjkacmom said:

But then they switched to no set dining, different servers every night. I prefer the DSC, at the salon I go to, I have a colorist, then another person takes out the foils and puts on the glaze, then yet another washes it out, then yet another cuts and dries (and if she gets backed up yet another dries). I wish they just would allow me to add 20%, but no, I fill up several little envelopes. I dread it. We always tip our steward, dietary manager (food allergy) and bartenders extra, and kids club counselors when the kids were younger.

Yeah, you make a good point about the no set dining, and also about the salon!  WHO do you tip?

I really hate that part of US culture, for your salon I agree, they should add 20% to the bill automatically and increase salaries accordingly.

9 minutes ago, mjkacmom said:

Back in the day, passengers were given envelopes to tip out, then the cruise lines substituted the DSC so passengers didn’t have to worry about it, made it as simple as possible. Whether passengers pay through the DSC or higher fares, the amount would be the same. However, they want to advertise the lowest prices possible. Personally, it makes zero difference to me if I’m paying $1000 pp, or $800 + $200 pp, because it’s exactly the same.

This applies across the industry, not JUST NCL!

The problem with the $1k vs the $800 + $200 is that in the envelope days, as @KateQ22003 says, we knew the envelope contents got to the folks they were intended for and there was no "back of the house" reliance on an optional "service charge" for a fair wage.  I found it uncomfortable and a bit of a pain to have to have exact change to stuff envelopes, and on my first cruise the TA didn't even warn me ahead of time so that was a bit of a shock!!  Pre-internet days of course.  

A lot of folks, including me, hated the envelopes, but at least there was the confidence that the GRATUITY that I was paying (and frankly, expected to pay thanks to US culture, but whatever) wasn't used to subsidize NCL's payroll, staff parties, morale boosting events, uniforms, etc - it went into crew pockets, or at least was more likely to end up there.  There was no thought given to the kitchen, laundry, etc because in  no other industry that I know of is the customer expected to tip them - they are paid whatever the proper wage is for that classification, 100% from their employer, and if customers choose not to tip, they still get the proper wage.  

if NCL adds DSC to cruise fare and at that point there is no tipping expectation, then I would hope that all crew salaries are raised to reflect 100% collection of DSC, but the reality is that even if that happens we won't know, AND more likely we'll get hit for tips, won't realize we have already tipped fairly, and the envelopes will make a return on top of having fully paid DSC as part of fare.  As far as getting hit/sob storied for tips, there are multiple stories across these boards of that scenario, right down to what I think is the most outrageous one of all, a steward(ess) (female steward) telling guests that crew see almost nothing from DSC so they should remove their DSC and give her 100% of it directly in cash as a tip!  

3 minutes ago, mking8288 said:

 

Bliss made it to PC earlier, watching it on live shipcam - sitting pretty for the overnight stay.  I am not sure if you read/saw it on the Gem's semi live, discovered that with the ship's iCafe PC terminal, access to read/browse the CC website is freely available, at no charge - just click - it's slow WiFi over satellite at sea, graphics blocked (no pretty pictures - easier/faster to load/refresh ... webpage formatting still messed up) ... but, past that on to the rest of the Roll Call gang, including Charlie running the gong show (LOL) - in case, things get boring and/or interesting, that some of the CC addicts get restless on those long sea days - to read the gossips.  Hence, I will follow, post & comment, etc. - anyone planning to blog, post & keep us entertained, since it doesn't look like we can go.  

 

Ha ha ... RJ and you are done packing, I trust.  Doing the one-handed count down sequence ... looks like weather is just as pretty or better compared to this January's Caribbean Escape we're on.  Susan refused to book/sail an Inside on longer sailings and not seeing anything available last minute, regardless.  Seemed like NCL is pulling funny stuff on how they are awarding upgrade bids, as well as timing.  You know we don't like booking things far in advance but out of curiosity, peek at 2021 (yeah, crazy ... ) and the prices are absurd, even for steerage class.  Well, going to hold the trigger on future cruises now.  

 

Best wishes for 2020 and happy sailing, bon voyage for the Bliss this Sunday !! 

And bon voyage to ME because I’ll be sailing on her, waving bye-bye to all the rest of you as you wait for your cruise moment....

Oh and addressing the Lysol wipes - here’s another commercial for IF YOU WANT TO CRUISE IN WINTER, GET YOUR FLU SHOT!  Do your part for herd immunity!

8 minutes ago, FLAHAM said:

It's fair provided that the total cost of the cabin is also split four ways, as the cost of the drinks packages is built into the cabin fare of the first two occupants. 

You are right - and even fairer is they total the entire cost of cabin, DSC, drinks, tips on UBP and divide 4 ways.  And if they want specialty dining, same thing - the second two buy the package for the same # of nights and add that to the bill to divide 4 ways.

I spent a lot of time thinking about this as we were daydreaming about doing a GV and bringing along adult children—then realized the UBP was going to be a problem, so we had to come up with a way that all could drink as they chose, but the cost would be fair to everyone, not just the two who got the “free” UBP.