Family group cruise insurance

[fiftyeight]

Looking for advice about how best to insure a Carnival cruise this summer for our family of fifteen, in seven cabins. Does any insurance agency handle this as one booking (all payed for by one person) so that everyone could cancel if one person had an emergency? Everything I'm reading seems to cover only cabin mates.

[cruiseco]

Looking for advice about how best to insure a Carnival cruise this summer for our family of fifteen, in seven cabins. Does any insurance agency handle this as one booking (all payed for by one person) so that everyone could cancel if one person had an emergency? Everything I'm reading seems to cover only cabin mates.

 

It really depends on the plan and their definition of a "traveling companion". Here's one:

 

"Traveling companion A person traveling with you whose name appears with yours on the same trip arrangement and who will accompany you on your trip."

 

In this case the traveling companion has to be on the same booking which in the case of a cruise is going to usually mean sharing the same cabin.

 

Here's another:

 

""Traveling Companion" means a person or persons with whom the Insured has coordinated travel arrangements and intend to travel with during the Trip."

 

With this plan, as long as the bookings are cross-referenced you're probably OK.

 

But before you get too involved with that I think you'll find that if everyone in your group is a family member under the plan's definitions, then there won't be any problem anyway. Say the group consists of Grandparents, three of their children with spouses, and a bunch of grandkids. If Grandma breaks a hip before you leave and has to cancel then anyone meeting the "family member" definition should be able to cancel also.

 

Here's from one plan:

 

"TRIP CANCELLATION and/or INTERRUPTION

The Insurer will pay a benefit, up to the Maximum Limit shown on the Schedule, if an Insured cancels his/her Trip or is unable to continue on his/her Trip due to the following Unforeseen events:

 

a) Sickness, Injury or death of an Insured, Family Member, Traveling Companion, or Business Partner. "

 

So you look at the definition of "family member" and you find this:

 

""Family Member" means the Insured's or Traveling Companion's spouse, Domestic Partner, child, daughter-in-law, son-in-law, brother, sister, mother, father, grandparents, grandchild, step-child, step-brother, step-sister, step-parents, parents-in-law, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, aunt, uncle, niece, nephew, legal guardian, Caregiver, foster child, ward or legal ward, or spouse or Domestic Partner of any of the above."

 

You'll notice that under this definition there's no mumble-jumble about "on the same trip arrangements" or "coordinated trip arrangements" or "sharing accommodations". With this plan the only determining factor as to whether or not you can cancel also is if you fall under the "family member" definition.

 

As always, before you buy call or email the insurer directly and ask.