Trip insurance

[barbaraj]

Who do you use? Does anyone use the Celebrity insurance? Please e mail me at bjacobs360@optonline.net since i can never find the threads after i pose the question...thanks.

[6rugrats]

Travelguard. No, I never book cruiseline insurance. There is not much "action" on this board, and you should easily be able to find your thread. Do you know if you just sign in, click on your name and then go to "statistics", you can see all the threads to which you've posted (that's just one way to find them).

[Host Caroline]

Who do you use? Does anyone use the Celebrity insurance? Please e mail me at bjacobs360@optonline.net since i can never find the threads after i pose the question...thanks.

 

Yes, this board isn't very busy and you can get lots of feedback from posts here on the board.. You can also make this thread a "favorite" on your internet explorer and come to it instantly.

[walterharris]

Can you still purchase trip insurance after paying off your trip if you use a company thats not DCL? Pre-Existing Conditions is not a concern. TIA

[cruiseco]

Can you still purchase trip insurance after paying off your trip if you use a company thats not DCL? Pre-Existing Conditions is not a concern. TIA

 

Yes, you can.

[Semi Retired]

After my last experience, I will ALWAYS purchase insurance offered through the cruiseline. I have insurance that covers me, whether on ship or land, but on my last cruise trip in Mexico I had an emergency onboard and when I went to pay (through my insurance company) at purser desk, they told me they couldn't accept direct payment from my IC (I had called them to verify the procedure and they had no problem with paying the cruiseline directly) and the purser asked which CC I will be using. Well, I started crying because I knew I didn't have enough on my card for full payment. I asked what would happen if I didn't pay and I was told I would be held by the port-police until its paid. :eek: I called my CC to ask for extension of my limit so I may pay this bill. The ship said that if I had insurance through them, then all would have been covered....well, a small fee for a 2300 bill would have been worth it!...so ship insurance is a must from now on.

[cruiseco]

I asked what would happen if I didn't pay and I was told I would be held by the port-police until its paid. :eek:

 

It's actually fairly common for a cruiser to not be able to pay the bill at the end of the cruise, for medical or other reasons. You will be asked to sign a promissory note for the amount and sent on your way. The situation you describe is illegal -- debtor's prisons went out of fashion years ago.

 

I called my CC to ask for extension of my limit so I may pay this bill. The ship said that if I had insurance through them, then all would have been covered....well, a small fee for a 2300 bill would have been worth it!...so ship insurance is a must from now on.

 

Just be sure you check with the cruise line's insurer before you buy. I don't know of any of them who routinely provide direct payment to a shipboard doctor.

[Giorgi-one]

I assume the poster was referring to her own medical insurer. I believe if she had travel insurance, the travel company would guarantee payment to the cruiseline until this was all straightened out.

[Semi Retired]

No, I really mean...I have a longtime relationship with an insurance company that, when I called them from the pursers desk (in front of the purser) said they would be happy to pay my bill directly to the cruiseline. BUT, the purser said it was not their policy to accept payment this way...that if I had purchased insurance through Royal Caribbean when I booked my cruise, then the bill would have been totally covered. The purser had, previously to my run-in with the front desk, slipped a note under our cabin door saying my CC wouldn't cover my medical bill. That is the whole reason why I had approached the purser desk. This was 3 days into the cruise, so this whole ordeal made for a depressing last 4 days of the cruise. Luckily I has a CC that accepted an emergency extension so the bill could be paid.

AND....hey, you mean I really could have left the ship without paying? I mean, really, they new I had an insurance company that could pay them and all I needed to do was submit the bill to them when I got home, got a check from them, then forward it to Royal Caribbean.

Its been 2 yrs, but maybe I still should do a written concern to RC and see what head office says about the whole thing. Get the facts before sailing with them again.

[cruiseco]

I believe if she had travel insurance, the travel company would guarantee payment to the cruiseline until this was all straightened out.

 

There are many travel insurers that won't do that at all, and others that will only do it under very specific circumstances. All will help you contact family/friends to scrape up the money.

[cruiseco]

BUT, the purser said it was not their policy to accept payment this way...that if I had purchased insurance through Royal Caribbean when I booked my cruise, then the bill would have been totally covered.

 

Again, before you buy a cruise line policy issued by BerkleyCare you really need to contact them to verify that. Has it happened? Maybe sometime it has under unusual circumstances but it is certainly not the normal procedure.

 

The reason is this: A passenger gets treated for something and the travel insurer pays the bill directly -- let's say it's $1000. When the passenger gets home the travel insurer gets authorization to look at his medical records and, oops, it's a pre-existing condition and not covered. They have to go to the cruise line and beg for their money back. The cruise line is mad because they already paid the doctor (an independent contractor, not an employee) who has moved on to another cruise line. The cruise line now has to try to collect from the passenger. It's a mess and absolutely no one in the whole process is going to be happy except for the doctor that can thumb his nose at everyone.

 

 

AND....hey, you mean I really could have left the ship without paying?

 

Yes, it happens all the time. Absent some sort of fraud, the police won't get involved. And a cruise line can't detain/imprison you over an unpaid debt any more than Visa or American Express can. They rely on a very good set of debt collectors and the note you'll have to sign. Of course, that may not stop some assistant purser from making up stories because he doesn't want to mess

with all the paperwork.

 

One thing they may be able to do is hold any of your valuables as security. I'm not sure about RCI but the Carnival passenger contract automatically places a lien on all of your personal property if you can't pay your bill. So if you can't pay your bar bill because you bought a $3000 Rolex in Cozumel you may be going home without the watch.