Live in CAL/fly to NY/bday party/fly to CAL/drive to Long Beach for Cruise in winter!

[trekie69]

Ok, here's the situation:

We are planning on attending father-in-laws 90th birthday.

 

We fly from San Diego to Buffalo NY on Jan 12th.

 

Celebrate birthday on 13th and then return home to San Diego on the 14th.

 

Then, we drive on the 15th to Long Beach to board the Carnival Imagination for a three day cruise.

 

Should we insure this as a inclusive vacation start to finish? Or will the insurance companies treat it as two separate vacations (because we returned home)?

 

Our concern is what happens if bad weather hits while in Buffalo and we can't get out of town in time for the second vacation - the cruise?

 

Any thoughts or has anyone else had back to back vacations that were taken care of?

 

Thanks for anyone's help/suggestions..

[klfrodo]

two separate trips.

You are walking out your front door, fly to NY, then returning back home, walking back into your front door, and going to sleep.... Trip 1

 

Walking out the front door, driving to San Diego, boarding a cruise ship, returning to San Diego, driving back home, walking back into your front door... Trip 2

 

 

Then again,,, I could be mistaken

Edited November 12, 2014 by klfrodo

[cherylandtk]

I cannot specifically answer the one vs. two trips question, but I do know if you call the Trip Insurance Store they will know the answer. They will also know if there are coverage limits for delay that could impact your choices.

[GeezerCouple]

I cannot specifically answer the one vs. two trips question, but I do know if you call the Trip Insurance Store they will know the answer. They will also know if there are coverage limits for delay that could impact your choices.

 

Yes, call Steve & crew there (CALL them, don't just rely upon the summary charts on websites).

 

Explain your situation in detail, and ask them what is the best way to deal with the potential problem.

 

It would be interesting to hear the answer, by the way :)

 

GeezerCouple

[sail7seas]

By all means, call and ask. My guess is two separate trips UNLESS you don't return to your home. What about staying that one night away from your house?

 

Leave your cruise luggage at a friend or relative's place. :)

Please ask your insurer if that would make a difference and let us know?

 

Edited November 13, 2014 by sail7seas

[trekie69]

Well, basically everyone is correct, the answer is "No can do, Charlie!" The insurance companies determine the end of and/or beginning of vacations by leaving/arriving at home. This makes sense for the most part BUT an event like a snow storm taking place during the first part of our vacation directly affects the cruise in the second part of the vacation. According to Steve (I assume that everyone knows who "Steve" is), the only alternative is to skip going home and go direct to LA from Buffalo. That means no break in the vacation and you're still covered. The problem is the expense! This was supposed to be a cheap three day cruise, but if you have to add airport to hotel ($50), then hotel to port($50), hotel $100, food $30, port to Amtrak $50, Amtrak to San Diego $120, cab home from Amtrak to home $25, (AND the insurance!$200??) all of sudden the cheap cruise for a lark ain't so cheap!!!!! Now I'm thinkin' maybe wait til the day of sailing, fly from Buffalo to LAX, and if a weather related problem arises, insurance at least will cover some portion of our loss....I think... :)

And thank you for everyone's suggestions!

Whew!

[GeezerCouple]

Well, basically everyone is correct, the answer is "No can do, Charlie!" The insurance companies determine the end of and/or beginning of vacations by leaving/arriving at home. This makes sense for the most part BUT an event like a snow storm taking place during the first part of our vacation directly affects the cruise in the second part of the vacation. According to Steve (I assume that everyone knows who "Steve" is), the only alternative is to skip going home and go direct to LA from Buffalo. That means no break in the vacation and you're still covered. The problem is the expense! This was supposed to be a cheap three day cruise, but if you have to add airport to hotel ($50), then hotel to port($50), hotel $100, food $30, port to Amtrak $50, Amtrak to San Diego $120, cab home from Amtrak to home $25, (AND the insurance!$200??) all of sudden the cheap cruise for a lark ain't so cheap!!!!! Now I'm thinkin' maybe wait til the day of sailing, fly from Buffalo to LAX, and if a weather related problem arises, insurance at least will cover some portion of our loss....I think... :)

And thank you for everyone's suggestions!

Whew!

 

Yes, most of us know who Steve is :)

[For those who don't, he's head of TripInsuranceStore.com - and aside from their general good service, he'll contact various insurers directly about specific problems, this probably being a good example. And we've had a few other questions where he had to take some time to double check answers and find the best coverage for the situation.]

 

Anyway, this is a disappointing answer, trekie69 :(

We can easily see ourselves in similar situations, with trips back to back WITH a stop back home (business trip, home to switch to vacation clothing, and then off for vacation, much like your situation).

 

For you, you've mentioned the cruise was supposed to be a "cheap cruise for a lark" - HOW "cheap"?

Is it possible that the best "solution" (not a good one, but the best of several bad options?) is to risk losing the cruise money if it is "cheap enough".

Given all of the costs of "avoiding going home" - maybe this is the "least bad" choice?

 

You could figure that the costs you "saved" by NOT going through all the gyrations of "avoiding home" could be applied to replace the cruise IF you were delayed after all?

 

The problem is whether you'd still want travel insurance for either part of the trip, with the main concern probably (?) being medical/etc. if you DID make the cruise?

 

I guess we'll need to be careful in the future about leaving "lots" of time between trips "if we return home in between", especially during what could be any winter travel during any part of the first trip, including just getting home in time.

 

And you are dealing with BUFFALO in winter, where several feet of snow could get dumped!

 

But here is a question: Are you allowing enough time to GET to the birthday celebration? What if there is bad weather when you are hoping to *arrive* in Buffalo?

You don't seem to have trouble with getting insurance for the "first trip", but you also probably don't want your money back and miss the celebration gathering, right?

 

Well, I guess it's good that you raised the question, for a lot of us, and for yourself in the future.

 

Let's hope that the weather forces are favorable, and you can get home (if you decide not to do the weird "avoid home at all costs" - well, not "all" costs, but quite a few!!).

 

If you do have the option to stay inexpensively in Buffalo, and go directly to LAX before the cruise, that would probably work, and if it's "one trip", yes, you should be covered for the costs associated with not getting to the port in time.

Just double check how much time you'd need to allow for the coverage to be valid.

 

So sorry there wasn't a better solution.

It seems like this is a travel insurance product waiting to be offered...

Maybe Steve could try to suggest to some vendors that they consider offering a "combo" product for sequential trips. (It might cost extra, of course, but it's probably less expensive than the weird combo of hotels and meals away from home, and would certainly be much easier, too.)

All it needs to add is the coverage "if trip A interferes with trip B". Someone would be paying for insurance for both trips anyway already.

 

GeezerCouple

Edited November 14, 2014 by GeezerCouple

[Keith1010]

Figure out which insurance company you want to use and then call them.

 

Keith

[trekie69]

:) For those wondering what finally happened, we decided to stay in Buffalo the extra night and then flew direct to LAX and transferred via Carnival transfer (really effortless and almost fun!:D).

 

The weather gods smiled upon us and no delays or problems occurred during the entire trip. So everything worked out in the end!

 

Thanks everyone!

 

PS: I have to say, it really was pleasant to see the Carnival representative at the baggage pickup area waiting for us. It was funny to have this huge tour bus taking us to the port for three couples - six people plus driver!

 

Would we do this again? Absolutely! We're already booked for transfers for our upcoming Holland America Alaska cruise in September!

 

And we are now figuring out which insurance package to purchase for this upcoming cruise...

[GeezerCouple]

:) For those wondering what finally happened, we decided to stay in Buffalo the extra night and then flew direct to LAX and transferred via Carnival transfer (really effortless and almost fun!:D).

 

The weather gods smiled upon us and no delays or problems occurred during the entire trip. So everything worked out in the end!

 

Thanks everyone!

 

PS: I have to say, it really was pleasant to see the Carnival representative at the baggage pickup area waiting for us. It was funny to have this huge tour bus taking us to the port for three couples - six people plus driver!

 

Would we do this again? Absolutely! We're already booked for transfers for our upcoming Holland America Alaska cruise in September!

 

And we are now figuring out which insurance package to purchase for this upcoming cruise...

 

Thanks very much for the update, and so glad it worked out.

 

And thanks for asking your question here.

 

We hadn't thought of this particular little potential glitch.

(No doubt, there are lots of other little "glitches" we haven't thought about, either, but hopefully we'll think about them as they occur, and NOT "after it's too late"!)

 

We have planned some back-to-back trips (business/conference, and then vacation", etc.), but that wouldn't have been a problem... unless... we returned home to change clothing or to do laundry, etc.

 

And we have considered doing that!

Now... we'll have to leave more time, or else have the laundry done elsewhere, etc.

 

CruiseCritic is great for sharing these concerns/questions as well as solutions.

 

Again, glad it all went well!

 

And as usual, we'd suggest calling Steve at

TripInsuranceStore.com

 

about the next trips.

 

No, we really don't work for him:eek:

But we have relied up him, and all of his advice has worked out.

Mostly, he/they will take a lot of time to figure out what it is that we need, and they also answer questions so that we have more background info for the future!

 

And our first "big" vacation was the one that got cancelled at the last minute, and thank goodness we took the insurance he had recommended.

It was all paid without any funny business. That's what matters, after all!

 

GeezerCouple

[Hlitner]

Since everyone is speaking so highly of Steve I would just add a caveat. They have a clear disclaimer on their web site that says :

 

"PPS - Even though TripInsuranceStore.com is the world's most informative travel insurance website, you are still responsible to know the coverage terms, conditions, limitations, and exclusions of your plan. No comments or explanations confirm or deny coverage. You need to refer to each plan's policy wording"

 

This is very nice CYA language (kind of reminds me the Internal Revenue Service's advice policy). It means that anything Steve (or anyone else at that company) telsl you on the phone is not binding. If they make a mistake in their advice (honest or otherwise) the liability is all yours. So our usual advice stands, which is that anyone buying insurance needs to carefully read the policy (including the so-called fine print). Ignorance is no defense in the insurance industry. So if you ask them a question and they give you an answer it is wise to ask where to find that information in the actual policy.

 

Hank

Edited February 26, 2015 by Hlitner