Royal Caribbean trip insurance

[JIA2000]

Hello. I think it's important to buy trip insurance in case you have to cancel the cruise due to illness or if you get sick on the cruise. Has anyone had any experience buying the insurance through Royal Caribbean? How does their insurance compare to third party companies like Travel Guard (which I have always used in the past) or Generali Global? Thanks in advance.

 

Justin

 

 

[Clarea]

The good parts about Royal's insurance:

Premium is not based on age, so it can be significantly less expensive for older people.

It includes a cancel for any reason provision giving you a 75% credit on another cruise if you cancel for a non-covered reason.

 

Bad parts:

Inadequate (my opinion) medical  evacuation coverage.

No coverage for independently booked air.

 

[Loonbeam]

As a rule of thumb, unless the pricing difference is huge, I never by a travel providers insurance.

 

The base reason is, even though its a third party, I am never 100 percent sure of their loyalty since they are getting paid on both ends, by the pax and the line (or they are paying the line a commission, depends on the deal), but that means they have to keep both sides happy, which could theoretically affect a claim.

 

[katiel53]

We do not buy insurance through the cruise line.  We purchase from Insuremytrip.  I don't think there is enough coverage for medical evacuation and it doesn't cover everything I want to be covered if using the cruise line insurance.

 

We usually fly for our cruises and go a few days early so I want my coverage to start when I leave home and not just the cruise.  I also want my insurance to be primary so I don't have to send a claim to my insurance and get it rejected and then re-submit to the insurance company as my regular insurance does not cover me outside the US.

 

Using insuremytrip, I am able to compare coverage and prices and if I have a question, I am able to call before purchasing.  I have used different insurance companies for my different cruises depending upon my needs.  I have had claims and that's what has me having the insurance be primary.  

[JohninDC]

We used to buy through insightful and other sites, but then found travel insurance through the company that covers our home and auto at a better rate. Check with your insurance provider and shop around.

[bobmacliberty]

We use insuremytrip also.  For clarity, they do not actually provide insurance (at least I don't think so) but rather provide plan and cost info for several 3rd party insurance providers.  You are actually getting a plan from a provider like Nationwide, AIG, Travelex, etc.

[linkerbink]

We have used it twice. The first time our mother/cruising partner was hospitalized and we all had to cancel, and the second time when one of our party passed away. We took the cruise anyway but was reimbursed for the person who had passed. Both times the experience was easy. 

[ATSEAMYLIFE]

7 hours ago, JohninDC said:

We used to buy through insightful and other sites, but then found travel insurance through the company that covers our home and auto at a better rate. Check with your insurance provider and shop around.

Same here, use to buy what our TA recommended.  Then found USAA offers better coverage for less money.  We have filed two claims in the past both with the TA recommended company.  First time was for a death in the family.  That one went easy and I got a full cash refund.  Second was a cancel for any reason (none covered event) when our son lost his job and they couldn't go.  That one took longer with more hoops to jump through.  I had to deal with both the cruise lines to get some back and then with the insurance company to get what they would cover.  All said and done I got 25% back in cash from RCCL and a 75% certificate for future cruise.  Bottom line is read the fine print and if you're OK with that then go for it.  

[SRF]

Realize, the cruise line is not underwriting the insurance.  They are acting as a broker for an insurance company to provide the insurance.

 

You have to shop around.  As has been said, for older people, 3rd party insurance can be VERY expensive.  For my parents on our first cruise, at 87, 3rd party insurance was going cost THOUSANDS of dollars.  Cruise line was hundreds.  So we covered them with the RCI sold insurance.

 

But yes, the coverage levels are lower.  Mec evac was $25,000, and for my Mother to be med evaced from Halifax to DC was $29,000.  But the company accepted the $25,000 from the insurance as payment in full.  AND, the insurance company got involved and worked with us and the med evac company to provide the service at the covered rate.

 

Overall, VERY happy with the insurance through RCI.

 

But nowdays, I found I can buy insurance to cover everything EXCEPT the cruise cost, and do so for $32 per trip.  This covers delays, trip interruption, luggage, medical, med evac, non-medical evacuation, and a bunch of other things.

[lcat02143]

I usually purchase an insurance policy found through insure my trip.  However If I am leaving on a cruise from my home port and no flying is necessary I will sometimes take the cruise insurance.  I recently had two trips planned  October and December of 2018.  October was out of Boston my home port and December I was flying to Orlando a few days early for a cruise our of Port Canaveral.  I purchased RCCL insurance for Oct and Allianz for December. 

 

In September I was diagnosed with breast cancer and needed surgery.  I developed some post op infections and the Doctor advised against both trips.  I had to submit the exact same paperwork to both insurance companies.  Both processes were identical.  I received the check from Allianz two days after submission,  it took two months to receive the check from AON (the RCCL insurance. )  The timing was the only difference between the two processes. 

[Sunny AZ Girl]

I have RCI insurance for our next 2 trips. Both are based in the US/Canada. For our 2020 trip we have Allianz through our TA. I did check on insure my trip first and the price was competitive, even better than most.  However, since we are getting close to 70 the RCI insurance is much better. My concern is that we often spend pre or post cruise time when we travel overseas and I am not sure if we would be covered for the land portion even if we purchase air through Air2Sea? 

[papaflamingo]

You need to be sure you cover the "most likely" reason for cancelling.  A few examples... we sailed with my Military son and his wife.  The "most likely" reason for cancellation was his F/A18 squadron being sent to sea.  Nearly happened when Syria suddenly popped up.   Fortunately we found a 3rd party company that would allow us to cancel if Military Leave was cancelled.  Even more fortunately he didn't have his Leave cancelled.

On Caribbean cruises, when it's just us, and I'm retired, we use Royal Caribbean's Insurance.  It's generally cheaper, has 75% cancel for any reason clause, and you don't pay the premium until final payment.  On cruises to Europe, etc. I shop around.  We did a B2B on HAL and RCCL.  I would have had to insure through both cruise lines for each cruise.  I found a company through insuremytrip that covered the trip from start to finish.  We went over 4 days early, had 2 cruises on separate cruise lines, and then 6 days in Paris.  It covered the plane fares, cruise fare, hotels, plus all the other coverages (medical was a big one).  

So consider your needs and compare price and coverage.  

[Clarea]

7 minutes ago, papaflamingo said:

 ... you don't pay the premium until final payment.  ...

 

Good point and this can be significant.  This means that you really don't have insurance until final payment.  So if you want to cover other expenses that occur before final payment and/or you want to start the timer on pre-existing conditions,  you must contact Royal (or travel agent as appropriate) and request to pay the insurance if you want the insurance to be in force before final payment.

[GTO-Girl]

I purchase my trip insurance through Insure My Trip.  I make sure it is purchased within 14 days of booking the cruise so my pre-existing conditions are covered, that it has a large medical/medical evac coverage and it is a policy that will serve as “primary” instead of secondary.  

 

Yes I pay more...but it is worth it to me for the peace of mind.

 

 

Edited December 28, 2018 by GTO-Girl

[TTraub1250]

Cruise company insurance says " up to 75%"  We had a problem in early 2018 that was covered in the "fine print" .  We got 58% of the cost of the cruise credit applied to the next cruise,  after many phone calls to their 3rd party insurance handling agency, which is somewhere around New York City.  Yes we got back all of the excursions, all of the port fees, all of the taxes, yet only 58% of the cruise cost itself, applied to the next cruise.  The next cruise we used two of the sites to compare plan cost, and get ratings.  Highly suggest that you use one of the top rated plans and not the cruise company, no matter who the cruise company is and I own stock in two of them. 

Edited December 29, 2018 by TTraub1250

[scott2165]

My only experience is buying through the cruise line and it was really cheap.  We are late 30's/early 40's with a 12 year old so not sure if that was the reason for low rate.  

 

I was unaware of third party providers until I read this thread and will certainly check them out for our upcoming cruise/flight.  

[BND]

We always buy through RCI.  Financially it wouldn't break us if we had to pay something out of pocket for medical evacuation so that's not an issue.  And, we don't fly.  We either drive or take Amtrak and leave enough time that if had to drive we could.  

[SRF]

19 hours ago, scott2165 said:

My only experience is buying through the cruise line and it was really cheap.  We are late 30's/early 40's with a 12 year old so not sure if that was the reason for low rate.  

 

I was unaware of third party providers until I read this thread and will certainly check them out for our upcoming cruise/flight.  

 

Nope, insurance through the cruise line is not priced on basis of age.  It is cheap, because they sell a lot of insurance.  And the coverage is not as high as some other polices.

 

But the good news is, it is much cheaper for older people.  When we cruised the first time, 3rd party insurance for my parents (87 at the time) was going to cost thousands.  Through the cruise line, it cost hundreds.  BIG savings.

[boscobeans]

Royal Caribbean Insurance handled by AON.

 

We booked a cruise with a certain big box agency for a cruise more that a year in the future and purchased the Royal Caribbean insurance with the booking.

 

Less than a month later we saw that there was a much better price for the SAME CRUISE on the SAME DATE and were told the price from the agency was the best they could do.  So we cancelled the cruise with the agency and rebooked the same EXACT cruise through Royal Caribbean changing NOTHING but the reservation number.  This is considered to be a TRANSFER by AON and therefore the policy cannot be used on the rebooked cruise.  No refund since the change was made 20 some odd days after the booking (10 day limit by AON) and the policy is useless even though it is for the same cruise with just a reservation number change??

 

We have used other insurance companies in the past and have always been able to alter the policies, within certain time limits.

 

Just seems like a poor way of doing business, and I am wondering if this is common with other insurers???

 

 

 

 

[dcgrumpy]

I always buy through a 3rd party. My main concern with insurance is  medical evacuation.  I think the RC policy only covers up to $25,000.  The policy I bought for the last few cruises I went on covered up to $1,000,000 for medical evacuation and it only cost $100 for my family of 5 (kids were free). 

[davisrnr]

So, I'm beginning to question decision to buy through RC. I didn't really even think about other options. My son is in military, and I guess I assumed the RC insurance would cover this if he gets deployed. Does anyone know if this is covered? Also, if I wanted to change, can I cancel this and purchase elsewhere? 

[SRF]

https://www.archinsurancesolutions.com/coverage/Royal

 

• Trip Cancellation*: up to 100% back if you cancel your cruise for one of the program’s specific reasons
• Cancel for Any Reason^*: 75% future cruise credit if you cancel for any reason (and we mean ANY reason!)

To know exactly, you have to tell them your state of residence and download the terms and conditions.

 

But typically, military leave cancellation is a covered reason for cancellation with 100% refund.  But with Royal's coverage, you would at least get 75% back as Cancel for Any Reason.

 

One advantage with coverage through Royal is that is it not underwritten, so the price is the same no matter what your age.  Our first trip, 3rd party insurance for my parents was going to run well into the thousands.  But through Royal it was hundreds.