Is the insurance worth it?

We normally do not buy the trip insurance but this time we are going on a Mediterranean cruise and with so many countries is the Platinum travel insurance a good choice?

It was sure worth it to me the time I fell and broke a hip the week before my cruise. One phone call and all was taken care of.

It was definitely worth it to us.

One time I fell at our airport hotel before we were to fly out the next morning and fractured my left wrist.

Another time we had a major snow storm hit along the east coast -- flights cancelled for the better part of 5 days -- and we were scheduled to fly out 3 days early which didn't help us. We had this happen 2 times.

And we also buy health insurance as Medicare and Security Blue do not cover us out of the states.

We normally do not buy the trip insurance but this time we are going on a Mediterranean cruise and with so many countries is the Platinum travel insurance a good choice?

We cancelled the day before a 22 day cruise last year due to emergency surgery. Refund of every charge with exception of insurance cost. Would highly recommend.

Absolutely agree. I just had to cancel my Oosterdam crossing a week before sailing due to a family member falling and breaking a hip.

HAL processed the 90% credit while I was sitting in my TA’s office.

I just submitted the insurance claim form for medical to cover the rest.

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YES. Any travel insurance policy is better than no insurance. Do it.

Definitely yes. Do a search on Cruise Critic and read posts from cruisers who don't get insurance and then complain that the cruise line (doesn't matter which one) won't make an exception for them.

Yes! I have had to cancel two cruises while within the cancellation penalty time frames. Both were cancelled due to unexpected, and in one case, a sudden medical situation. I do not use the cruise line insurance because I have found other providers have better coverage in my opinion.

Will buy the insurance! The geopolitical world can change at any moment and we want some protection. If this was Alaska we probably would not buy the policy. Next time I will check for non cruise line policies.

It's worth it if you need it. And when you need it you will not be able to get it.

If you don't care about losing the cost of the cruise or paying for evacuation flights, don't buy it. Even 4 day cruises add up. The one time we had to collect on insurance more than paid for all the times that we didn't.

Depending on your age, you might want to check insurance prices online before buying HAL's. You can often get more medical coverage (as well as cancellation insurance) for less money than HAL will charge.

We decided to "self-insure" the cost of the cruise and the flights on our upcoming cruise, but we bought medical through insuremytrip. It was really reasonable.

My brother-in-law and his wife, her parents, and my in-laws were doing a southbound Alaska on HAL a couple of years ago. They did not buy insurance. Her dad became very ill and was hospitalized in Ketchikan for three weeks. Then, when he was stable enough, my brother-in-law had to pay for the medical evacuation flight to their home state. It was VERY COSTLY. Lesson learned for us. We will ALWAYS buy a medical policy even if we don't buy cancellation.

~Robin

Absolutely! Our family was scheduled to take a cruise over the Christmas holiday in 2016- my parents, their combined 5 children, and 9 grandchildren. My step- father unexpectedly passed away a few weeks before the cruise. While it was stressful and highly emotional, we went on the cruise as my step-dad would have wanted us to. Fortunately my parents has purchased insurance on the trip. My mom was refunded my stepdad’s portion of the Pinnacle Suite fare they had booked.

Yes it is worth it. Touch wood we have not had to use. Our motto is "if you can't afford insurance you can't afford the cruise"

Friends of ours had to cancel their 8 week trip to Europe from Australia due to DH heart attack. Insurance refunded $50G.

:cool:

Be sure and check your credit card benefits. Some provide trip cancellation and interruption along with luggage loss. Then you'll only need to buy medical as Robin7 mentioned.

We always purchase the Platinum insurance. One year, we had to cancel our Alaskan cruise and everything was refunded. You just never know if something is going to happen. Better safe than sorry.

Yes it is worth it. Touch wood we have not had to use. Our motto is "if you can't afford insurance you can't afford the cruise"

Friends of ours had to cancel their 8 week trip to Europe from Australia due to DH heart attack. Insurance refunded $50G.

:cool:

My brother who lives in Colorado was in Germany over the Christmas holiday. Did not have any travel insurance. Took a fall over the railing to a spiral staircase breaking 7 ribs, right leg, right hip and left shoulder. Was in a local hospital for four weeks then to a rehab before they would let him fly. As it was cost them over $65000 in medical bills. Had they had med evacuation insurance would of covered the $120,000 it would cost for an air ambulance.

We always buy insurance, even for a seven day Caribbean cruise. Especially for the Caribbean. Hate to be laid up in Cozumel with a broken leg.

You say 'the' trip insurance, as if the insurance offered by the particular cruise line or air line is 'the' insurance.

Unless you have booked all flights, hotels, etc. thru the cruise line, and they will cover all of these things, I would suggest a good third party trip insurance policy that will cover you, for the whole trip, door-to-door, from the day you leave home until you have returned.

One major carrier offers specialized Cruise Insurance Policies, and has a policy available that you can get up until Final Payment Date.

Trip insurance, and pre-existing condition exclusions, usually have to be purchased when you first put a deposit on a cruise/trip, or during a short window afterwards.

We had to cancel a cruise earlier this year because my husband had a medical situation.

We had moved up the date on that cruise, from our original dates for later this year.

So, now we are still booked on this cruise for the later date, the original booking which we had let stand... and will be booking this policy to cover this cruise, as we had originally put down a deposit quite some time ago. Being able to book up until Final Payment provides and option to those who do not decide that they need to go ahead and book insurance right away when putting a deposit down.

Happy Sailing!

Medical. Yes. Trip insurance-depends on your credit card coverage (if any), you tolerance for risk, and the cost of the insurance.

We never purchase the travel supplier's insurance product. Nor do we buy through a TA or some on line offering from the bank. We prefer to deal with the carrier.

We normally do not buy the trip insurance but this time we are going on a Mediterranean cruise and with so many countries is the Platinum travel insurance a good choice?

INSURANCE, whether booked through the cruise line or through a travel insurance company is ALWAYS a good deal. You never know what can happen, and it is nice to have piece of mind while traveling, for health care reasons, airline mishaps, missed sailings and so on. Google "Travel Insurance", there are many companies such as Allianz and others.

And as I said, piece of mind is priceless.

Always have bought HAL's Platinum insurance and have had to use it several times. When you are to ill or injured to travel is an obvious need. Maybe no so obvious is if you have to leave the cruise early because of a family problems. ie: medical catastrophe or death of a family member not cruising with you.

Two questions here. One should you have insurance, absolutely for medical coverage including evac insurance. Trip cancellation depends on your risk tolerance, we get up to $10,000 a piece via our credit card (it’s not cancel for any reason) for no charge.

Second question is where to buy the above. I would never buy it through the cruise line, waaaaay more expensive and almost always has too little medical coverage. The one time we did buy through the cruise line and had to collect it took four months and multiple interventions by the cruise line (the line intervened on our behave with their third party provider, note it was not HAL).

Be sure and check your credit card benefits. Some provide trip cancellation and interruption along with luggage loss. Then you'll only need to buy medical as Robin7 mentioned.

Chase Sapphire Reserve in particular offers extensive insurance coverage, including medical, evacuation, cancellation for a medical reason.

Most credit cards offer some type of trip insurance.

The trip insurance offered through some credit cards is limited to the first 60 days of travel so if you're on a long trip, you need a policy that covers the entire trip. We recently did 63 days of the Amsterdam world cruise and my wife became ill while on board and managed to rack up about $3100 in on board medical fees. Travel Insured International paid us in full within less than 2 weeks of the claim information being submitted to them.

One thing I'd recommend on the medical coverage is to pay the extra rider fee to make the travel policy the primary policy for the medical expenses. It cost $25 each for that rider on our policies and saved me a ton of time for the claim. If you don't have that, you first have to file with your regular health insurance and have the claim denied or paid, usually partially if at all, and then file that with the travel insurance. Some insurers, such as BCBS, may actually pay some trip medical expenses. I found out by accident that our BCBS Medicare supplement plan actually has a $50,000 lifetime allowance for medical expenses incurred outside the US.