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Insurance for a world cruise and excursions


travelbug615
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I am looking into what insurance costs will be for a world cruise (our first WC). We will be sailing on HAL. I am curious about whether people add an estimated cost of excursions to their cruise price in getting insurance quotes for cancellation insurance.

 

It looks like HAL won't refund some excursions. I have read that people often have 10K worth of excursions on a world cruise. I know we want to do an at least one overland that will be very pricey. I am not sure how many excursions we will do through HAL and how many we will do independently.

 

Any thoughts? We normally just have a medical/evacuation rider and self insure the cruise portion. However for the world cruise we do want to price what "any reason" cancellation insurance will cost from sources other than HAL.

 

Anyone with experience with a canceled world cruise and a big excursion bill?

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I did not insure any excursions on my first World Voyage but I did not take any overland ones. I know these often do not give refunds after a certain date (sometimes this date is before the cruise starts).

 

The only insurances (other than HALs) that I have found that offered cancel for any reason were....

 

Travel Insured International that wanted $6251.07 for 75% back cancel for any reason (without the cancel clause the policy was $4412.31).

 

Nationwide Luxury Cruise wanted $6221.60 for 70% back on cancel for any reason ($4444 without).

 

Both of these were based on a trip cost of $39000.

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For World Cruises (we've taken several) we have used Travelexinsurance.

 

Not all companies will insure the length of a typical world cruise.

 

We have never insured excursions that do not have penalties if cancelled within the required time frames.

 

For those with a cancellation fee say 30 days or prior we have not taken insurance for them either even though it was an option.

 

Keith

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I agree that finding insurance is one of the less enjoyable parts of planning! Because there are so many plans that cover things in different amounts, I look for what is most important to me - medical insurance and evacuation or repatriation. That, and the fact (as Keith mentioned) that many policies will not cover the length and/or cost of a world cruise, definitely narrows the field. I purchased my insurance yesterday and it really came down to two policies that fit my criteria and were not outrageously expensive. I purchased the one that gave me more medical coverage of the two.

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  • 2 weeks later...
For World Cruises (we've taken several) we have used Travelexinsurance.

 

Not all companies will insure the length of a typical world cruise.

 

We have never insured excursions that do not have penalties if cancelled within the required time frames.

 

For those with a cancellation fee say 30 days or prior we have not taken insurance for them either even though it was an option.

 

Keith

 

May I ask what was the cost as a % of the amount you insured thanks Marty

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May I ask what was the cost as a % of the amount you insured thanks Marty

 

Its going to vary some based on the age of the cruiser. My understanding is expect to pay somewhere between 5-10% of the cruise cost. You might checkout Pete's blog (Inside Cabin) as he recently talked about this topic in some detail.

 

We continue to self insure even on our upcoming world cruise. We have medical insurance including evac coverage but no insurance for the cost of the cruise. We have always self-insured but we are not yet 60 and in good health. As we get older that might change.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Kirk:

I am interested in your comment.

We are in excellent health. We are both under the age of 70 and will be so when we take our world cruise.

Are you relying on your current health insurance (which I am certain covers you anywhere in the world, as does ours) and some med evac insurance, such as the one that you can get from AARP?

As we live in Florida, some of the plans only cover you for 60 days.

I looked into American Express insurance as well. I am more confused than ever. ;-) We have AMEX Platinum. Does anyone have experience with their travel policies?

Many thanks

Evana

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Thank you, We're sailing away.

We are taking a World cruise on Cunard, so the credit card coverage is not going to be enough.

For shorter cruises though, that would be terrific coverage.

I just reread your cruise schedule. As you are in Florida, did you have any issues getting insurance for your Amsterdam world cruise for next year?

My TA sent me a link to Allianz coverage but the length of time it covers for Floridians is capped at 60 days.

Edited by bananavan
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Thank you, We're sailing away.

We are taking a World cruise on Cunard, so the credit card coverage is not going to be enough.

For shorter cruises though, that would be terrific coverage.

I just reread your cruise schedule. As you are in Florida, did you have any issues getting insurance for your Amsterdam world cruise for next year?

My TA sent me a link to Allianz coverage but the length of time it covers for Floridians is capped at 60 days.

 

Hi: Last year I was looking for coverage for the 2016 Amsterdam world cruise and also noted the coverage limitation for Floridians. So I emailed Allianz to verify that they could not provide coverage. After some delays, here is the response I got:

 

Dear Susan Howard,

Thank you for choosing Allianz Global Assistance. We sincerely apologize for the delay in responding to your email.

We are delighted to assist you with your question.

 

While the State of Florida requires marketing materials to include the following disclosure: “Emergency Evacuation benefits are limited to coverage for travel or use of accommodations for a period of no longer than 60 days, beginning on your date of departure.” Florida does not require for this language to be in the official filed forms for the AGA travel insurance plans.

We will continue to provide emergency evacuation benefits to Florida residents for the length of their travel.

If you have additional questions, please contact us at ... blah blah blah.

I ended up using another company.

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Thank you for that Sue.

I am definitely keeping my eyes and options open.

My TA has sold a gazillion cruises and is one of the top ones out there.

She had never noticed that 60 day clause. I saw it immediately because a) this is MY responsibility to check, b) I am the mother of a partner in a law firm and she would disown me if I failed to read things to the bottom. ;-) .

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I got a policy through Travel Guard for my WC earlier this year, thanks to my TA. I don't know if it has that Florida limitation.

 

For medical evacuation, I joined MedJet. Note that the mid-priced option has a 90-day limit on the amount of time you can spend out of the U.S. at one stretch. Fortunately, our cruise's longest stretch outside the U.S. was 88 days :)

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One of the most challenging parts of my 113 day world cruise on the Amsterdam in 2008 was finding travel insurance that would cover my costs. My preferred Company, was Travel Guard. At that time, maybe it has changed, they were unable to cover the complete cost of the cruise.

 

I purchased my Travel Agent's preferred Company's plan which did cover the entire cost of my cruise. I did not insure any pre-booked shore excursions' costs. But, now, at the stage of life I am, I think that would not be a bad idea.)

 

I had a medical claim due to an injury suffered during a HAL shore excursion. HAL covered all] of my on-board medical expenses. I required additional medical aid upon returning home, including surgery, and Access America denied all claims that I submitted.

 

Reading the fine print, if Travel Guard could have insured me, my medical bills would have been re-imbursed by them.

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I used Travel Guard for my 2014 WV which was 118 days. I liked the fact that they worked with me and increased the area (medical) that I felt was the most important. My TA at that time recommended Allianz but they were $1500 more for $25,000 worth of medical insurance where the Travel Guard policy had $100,000. (Allianz would not customize the policy.)

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Kirk:

I am interested in your comment.

We are in excellent health. We are both under the age of 70 and will be so when we take our world cruise.

Are you relying on your current health insurance (which I am certain covers you anywhere in the world, as does ours) and some med evac insurance, such as the one that you can get from AARP?

As we live in Florida, some of the plans only cover you for 60 days.

I looked into American Express insurance as well. I am more confused than ever. ;-) We have AMEX Platinum. Does anyone have experience with their travel policies?

Many thanks

Evana

 

Sorry, I missed this. We do get evac insurance.

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Thank you all for the medical evacuation insurance information.

I checked with med jet assist and as my trip is in excess of 90 days, I will take the expat option. Through AARp that comes in at around $450 for both of us.

One thing I noticed is the clause regarding transport from cruise ships.

I will take that into account when I purchase insurance for the possibility that we need to be taken off a ship. :eek:

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  • 2 weeks later...
Thank you all for the medical evacuation insurance information.

I checked with med jet assist and as my trip is in excess of 90 days, I will take the expat option. Through AARp that comes in at around $450 for both of us.

One thing I noticed is the clause regarding transport from cruise ships.

I will take that into account when I purchase insurance for the possibility that we need to be taken off a ship. :eek:

 

I did not know that was an option, thanks!

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Thank you all for the medical evacuation insurance information.

I checked with med jet assist and as my trip is in excess of 90 days, I will take the expat option. Through AARp that comes in at around $450 for both of us.

One thing I noticed is the clause regarding transport from cruise ships.

I will take that into account when I purchase insurance for the possibility that we need to be taken off a ship. :eek:

I will get the option as well

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  • 2 weeks later...

The cruise line insurance is always more expensive and there is a conflict of interest with claims for in trip coverages. Granted, the cruise line will insure your trip cancellation or give credit to another cruise right up to last minute.

 

1. Trip cancellations

Include only the non refundable shore excursions in your trip cost when calculating your insurance cost. The Cancel For Any Reason coverages will add expense to the insurance coverage, particularly if you are booking the cruise far from departure.

 

2. In trip coverages--medical, evacuation, interruption, do not take for granted. We are healthy and have US health insurance but an accident can happen/did and caused us $1000s of evacuation from Europe unexpected. CSA Travel Insurance facilitated the entire evacuation, paid our claim promptly, and had follow up service. CSA's plans vary: http://www.csatravelprotection.com/plan-details

 

We were recommended to CSA by friends who have pre existing health issues and apparently has the most flexible policy.

 

We have used Mondial a long time ago on a world cruise too.

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I just returned from a world cruise 120 days QM2 Be careful with medical coverage since many health insurance policies do not cover you out of the USA and certainly not medicare. So I got additional coverage and also medjet and Cunard care

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Thank you Faye

We will have Medicare (useless for out of the country), our health care plan which is ludicrously expensive BUT covers us for world travel, and will have medjet assist. Were you satisfied with the Cunard Care? Of course, the only way to know that would be if you had to make a claim.

I appreciate your post.

Edited by bananavan
auto correct was WRONG.:-)
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Cunard care is similiar to many of the cruise lines travel protection coverage since it offers a 75% credit if you cancel for any reason. I fortunately did not use any of the insurance we purchased since we were lucky to only get colds Make sure your coverage covers more than 60 days. That is what I discovered even with the supplement with medicare. I used to sell Travel Guard as an agent but at this point since I only book cruises, I use the cruise line insurance. Insurance for a world cruise is complicated and often expensive but so are the visas

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  • 4 months later...

I have found that the "Squaremouth" website provides helpful information for comparing a variety of travel insurance plans. In fact, it helped me find an annual insurance plan, so that I can have the same emergency medical and evacuation coverage on all trips abroad during a 12 month period.

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