Tell me I'm crazy - no travel insurance

[bug_dan]

January 2010, my wife fell and broke her hip on the first day at sea of a 12 day Caribbean sailing on Celebrity's Mercury. She had to stay in the ship's infirmary until we reached St Thomas where she was transferred to Schneider Regional Hospital and operated on. We had Celebrity's cruise insurance. Actually just received a balance due bill from Schneider today since we have an HMO and they would not accept our HMO's payment as payment in full. Anyway, one of the biggest benefits we got from the insurance was the handling our our transportation home to Lancaster as well as providing a nurse to accompany my wife(first class no less). They handled all arrangements even contacting the surgeon to see what her requirements would be. The nurse met us the day before our flying home and accompanied her all the way to a Lancaster Rehab center. The only cost I had was a 3 day hotel stay in St Thomas, I was able to stay at the hospital the other 3 days, but they made the hotel arrangements for me. The trip interruption insurance also reimbursed us for the missed portion of our cruise with my wife being reimbursed beginning the day she was injured and mine began when we disembarked in St Thomas. My only complaint was the $10,000 medical limit, although we were fortunate that she didn't have to be removed from the ship, I'm sure the $25,000 emergency evacuation would not have been enough.

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

We have collect 3 times

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

But what happens if you do need it

[sail7seas]

We stopped insuring our cruises for cancellation or interruption about 55 cruises ago and have saved tens of thousands of dollars in premiums we didn't pay. Early in our cruising, we stopped insuring except to be sure we were covered for medical outside the country and for emergency evacuation. We don't care about baggage coverage as our homeowner's would kick in.

 

The first 5 or so cruises, we were at risk if we cancelled of losing a lot of money. Premiums are predicated on price of your trip and we were booking pricy cabins. In those days, our air tickets were fully refundable so if we cancelled air, we would get our money back.

 

After about the first 5 or so cruises, all those unpaid premiums started to accumlate to A LOT of money and we were blessed to have never had to cancel a cruise during cancellation period. We came close but just missed penalty. (We were booked for a hugely expensive European cruise with first class air, hotels, cars and drivers etc and I learned I needed very serious surgery....ASAP. We missed cancellation penalty by about 4 days.)

 

Now even if we (hopefully not) have to cancel a cruise and are in full penalty period, we would still be so far aheads. ONLY if we were booking a ridiculously pricey cruise such as a HAL Grand Voyage (60+ days or so), would we insure. For a normal 14 or fewer day cruise, we only make sure to have medical and evacuation coverage.

 

This has worked very well for us as we were and are willing to take the loss. Not everyone can or is willing to but do the arithmetic. It gets interesting.

 

[Host Caroline]

I have never NOT insured a cruise out of 40-some with exception of one ridiculously low priced 3-nighter. I get good coverage for what I see as a fair price (i.e. $150 to insure $3200 is a win situation for me). I was a divorced mom with son in college when I began cruising in the '80s and then single till just 5 yrs ago.. I never had the luxury of being able to afford to lose the cost of a cruise or to not worry about medivac costs etc. And I love not losing money!:) I am fiscally conservative I guess... don't have money in stocks and insure all my cruises.. you might say I want all my "ducks" aka dollars where I can see 'em...

Everyone has their own circumstances and tolerance for risk. I will say that as a former TA I always counseled my clients very carefully on risks and benefits and strongly encouraged for anyone with preexisting conditions...

[4275princess]

We did a cruise last year with Princess for 2 adults & 3rd person in cabin. The 3rd person had to cancel 1 wk prior to departure. Princess refunded the full amount to our credit card. The rep indicated that if passenger (1) and (2) travel, there is NO CANCELLATION fee for the 3rd party. We didn't know this & could have avoided paying insurance on 3rd party.

[Lou33]

Princess,

 

That's interesting and I wonder if this is the industry standard. Maybe, as long as the cruiseline has the room fully booked (at least two people), then they don't care.

 

As far as insurance goes, it may be a good idea to still get insurance for the 3rd person. Especially if they need medical coverage. Also, if all three of you were to cancel the whole trip, then you would probably need all three passengers covered by insurance to get a full refund. I doubt that the cruiseline would give a refund for the 3rd person if you left the cabin empty.