Carnival Insurance

[HawkIVette]

Have a few questions about Carnival's Insurance, or how they put it, Vacation Protection, bought when you book a new cruise.

 

First, exacty what is covered  as far as medical, lost baggage or trip interuption when you are on the cruise.

 

Second, what is covered if for some reson you can't make the trip in the first place? Also what do you get back?  Al of your money or cruise credit for a future cruise?

 

Of all the Carnival cruises I have been on, I have hardly used it because their was no need and didn't know what was covered anyway.

Edited March 16, 2019 by HawkIVette

[tallnthensome]

https://affinitytravelcert.com/document/pdfs/CCL_Landing.html

[HawkIVette]

31 minutes ago, tallnthensome said:

https://affinitytravelcert.com/document/pdfs/CCL_Landing.html

Thanks.  That explains the benefit.  The question that this explanation brings up is this statement.

 

Trip Cancellation for independently-booked airfare

Reimbursement of airline tickets you (or your travel agent) may book to adjoin your cruise if you cancel your trip for a covered reason

Cash refund up to total
original airfare cost

 

So, does that means it will cover the Airfare I buy to get to the cruise if I have to cancel before the cruise starts?

Edited March 16, 2019 by HawkIVette

[glrounds]

5 minutes ago, HawkIVette said:

Thanks.  That explains the benefit.  The question that this explanation brings up is this statement.

 

Trip Cancellation for independently-booked airfare

Reimbursement of airline tickets you (or your travel agent) may book to adjoin your cruise if you cancel your trip for a covered reason

Cash refund up to total
original airfare cost

 

So, does that means it will cover the Airfare I buy to get to the cruise if I have to cancel before the cruise starts?

 

Pay attention to the conditions. Pay particular attention to the phrase, "for a covered reason". Says something by telling us nothing.

[HawkIVette]

20 minutes ago, glrounds said:

 

Pay attention to the conditions. Pay particular attention to the phrase, "for a covered reason". Says something by telling us nothing.

That's the easy part.  It states the covered reasons fairly well.

Carnival Cruise Cancellation Fee Waiver (For Specified Reasons) .................................................Cash Refund Up to Total Cruise Vacation Cost This Cancellation Fee Waiver Program is an addendum to your cruise Ticket Contract. Through the Cancellation Fee Waiver Program, Carnival Cruise Line will waive their standard cancellation provision and refund to you IN CASH the otherwise non-refundable value of your prepaid cruise vacation, should you or your traveling companion need to cancel your cruise vacation for any one of the following reasons (subject to the restrictions noted below**):

1. sickness, injury or death to yourself, a traveling companion, or members of either of your immediate families which is diagnosed and treated by a physician at the time your cruise vacation is terminated;

2. you are involuntarily terminated or laid off by your employer (of one continuous year or greater);

3. involvement in a traffic accident en route to departure that causes you to miss your cruise;

4. your home is made uninhabitable by a natural disaster such as flood, earthquake, hurricane, volcano, tornado, wildfires or blizzard;

5. being called to serve jury duty or subpoena;

6. you are called into active military service to provide aid or relief in response to a national disaster;

7. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issues a Severe Weather Warning or Watch en route to, or at, the port of embarkation within 48 hours of your scheduled departure; or

8. the airline, bus, train or cruise ship is delayed due to inclement weather which prevents you from reaching your port of embarkation and this delay causes you to miss more than 50% of your cruise vacation.

[HawkIVette]

My problem I have right now, is the cruise I have put money down on is for September 2020.  I can't even buy Airline tickets for almost 9 months from now.

It being  a Mediterrainean cruise, airline tickets could be a much as $1200 each, more than the cost of the cruise.

 

But if the CCL Vacation Protection will cover the Airline cost in its policy, then it will be covered no matter what the cost is later if I should have to cancel for, most specifically reason #1 (illness or death).

Edited March 16, 2019 by HawkIVette

[klfrodo]

Regarding the "illness" portion.

YOU are going to have to provide documentation from a licensed medical physician of said illness. YOU will also have to provide documentation the a person travelling was so ill that the Dr. advises against travel. Regarding a non traveling family member, the insurance company is going to require documentation that YOU MUST stay home to care for the non traveling member.

 

You can't just say Granny got a cold, so can't go.

 

Other reasons I like cruise line insurance is that for that 1 cost, there is no age limit. It does provide "Cancel For Any Reason". CFAR is a 75% future cruise credit. However, this CFAR coverage allows you to cancel up to scheduled trip departure time. 3rd party policies require you to cancel at least 48 hours to scheduled departure time..

 

Things I don't like about the cruise line insurance

It does not cover pre-existing medical conditions. So, if granny has BP issues and her meds have been adjusted during the look back period, then she strokes out and it requires you to cancel, you wouldn't be covered.

Medical coverages are very low ($10K) I believe and so is evacuation coverage ($25K) I believe. That's not going to cover a life flight back to the States.

 

With all that being said, I still go with www.tripinsurancestore.com

 

I self insure the comprehensive part (Trip Cancellation, Trip Delay, etc) but still put a Trip Cost of $500. This way, with the right policy, I still get Pre-Existing condition waiver, $250K Primary medical, and $500K Evac. For $70 total.

YMMV based on your State of residence. I also still have some comprehensive coverage through my credit card. I would still take a loss if I had to cancel, but, I can absorb a couple of G. A medical catastrophe while abroad could be devastating though.

Edited March 16, 2019 by klfrodo

[scpirate]

All this is good to know.i chose the carnival plan this go around mostly because I have an ill parent that's in bad shape.b it it doesn't seem to cover much.i had bought it when we went on celebrity also but we got reimbursed from them for not using it.im not expecting carnival to do that though.i will have to look at third party next go around.good information.thanks to all and the original poster.

[HawkIVette]

13 minutes ago, klfrodo said:

Regarding the "illness" portion.

YOU are going to have to provide documentation from a licensed medical physician of said illness. YOU will also have to provide documentation the a person travelling was so ill that the Dr. advises against travel. 

 

With all that being said, I still go with www.tripinsurancestore.com

 

I self insure the comprehensive part (Trip Cancellation, Trip Delay, etc) but still put a Trip Cost of $500. This way, with the right policy, I still get Pre-Existing condition waiver, $250K Primary medical, and $500K Evac. For $70 total.

YMMV based on your State of residence.

Welll, here is my situation.  I am more concered about me making the cruise.  I have had cancer in the past few years and am fine now, but don't plan expensive trips that are far out in the future without coverage.  I am talking about cruise cost of $2100, Airline cost of $2400 and hotels and excursions that may be non refundable at around $2500.  So coverage of around $7,000 is what we are talking about.

 

Now the pre exsisting condition may apply here, so that may answer my question about wheather to buy from CCL.  But as stated above, I can't buy airine tickets or excursions and hotels yet, as they are not available while I have already put money (just deposit- $400) for the cruise. 

 

Best I just wait and go with a company (insuremytrip of berkshire) when I get finalizing plans later this year?

Edited March 16, 2019 by HawkIVette

[klfrodo]

10 minutes ago, HawkIVette said:

 

 

.  But as stated above, I can't buy airine tickets or excursions and hotels yet, as they are not available while I have already put money (just deposit- $400) for the cruise. 

 

Best I just wait and go with a company (insuremytrip of berkshire) when I get finalizing plans later this year?

To get pre-existing coverage, most policies require you to make insurance payment within 10 - to 24 days of initial deposit. I'm only aware of CSA who allows you to buy at final payment to still receive the medical waiver.

With 3rd party companies, most of them will allow you to buy the insurance within the time limit required to cover pre-existing conditions and only pay for what you have purchased right now. Then as you add flights, hotels, and all other non refundable costs, you just call them up, tell them what you did, and pay for any additional coverage costs required.

I usually have waited until the cruise final payment date. By then, I know what all my costs are. But I started immediately upon making my deposit.

Edited March 16, 2019 by klfrodo

[klfrodo]

17 minutes ago, HawkIVette said:

 

 

Best I just wait and go with a company (insuremytrip of berkshire) when I get finalizing plans later this year?

I just went to insuremytrip and checked out Berkshire.

That policy requires you to make your initial purchase within 15 days of making your initial deposit to waive pre-existing coverage

[luv2trvlnow]

Don't wait until everything is finalized before purchasing if you want waiver of preexisting conditions.  You can purchase an independent policy for the amount you have paid now.  When you purchase your airfare you can add that to the existing policy and they will charge you the increase in the premium.  So each time you add an expense you can add it on.  Just be sure to add it to the policy in the required days after adding something like the airfare so you keep the pre-existing waiver coverage.  I have done this on several of my cruises through insuremytrip using different plans.  

[Organized Chaos]

2 hours ago, HawkIVette said:

My problem I have right now, is the cruise I have put money down on is for September 2020.  I can't even buy Airline tickets for almost 9 months from now.

It being  a Mediterrainean cruise, airline tickets could be a much as $1200 each, more than the cost of the cruise.

 

But if the CCL Vacation Protection will cover the Airline cost in its policy, then it will be covered no matter what the cost is later if I should have to cancel for, most specifically reason #1 (illness or death).

 

In the link posted by tallnthensome, did you scroll down and choose your state from the drop-down menu? Doing so opens a PDF file with more info. specific to your state, including airline info.

 

You can also check out this site for third-party insurance plans. I think it's popular around these forums. https://www.insuremytrip.com/

 

In case you'd like to cover yourself for cancellation reasons outside of what Carnival lists as qualified reasons, you'll need a plan with "cancel for any reason." Carnival's Protection Plan defaults to a future cruise credit for their cancel for any reason policy. There are third-party policies with a cancel for any reason provision and will pay in cash. Just be aware, you will pay a little more for this, but you can still often find one cheaper than Carnival's.

[HawkIVette]

10 hours ago, Organized Chaos said:

 

In the link posted by tallnthensome, did you scroll down and choose your state from the drop-down menu? Doing so opens a PDF file with more info. specific to your state, including airline info.

 

You can also check out this site for third-party insurance plans. I think it's popular around these forums. https://www.insuremytrip.com/

 

In case you'd like to cover yourself for cancellation reasons outside of what Carnival lists as qualified reasons, you'll need a plan with "cancel for any reason." Carnival's Protection Plan defaults to a future cruise credit for their cancel for any reason policy. There are third-party policies with a cancel for any reason provision and will pay in cash. Just be aware, you will pay a little more for this, but you can still often find one cheaper than Carnival's.

 

Yes, I did.  Thats what I posted in post #5.  

[HawkIVette]

11 hours ago, klfrodo said:

I just went to insuremytrip and checked out Berkshire.

That policy requires you to make your initial purchase within 15 days of making your initial deposit to waive pre-existing coverage

 

Yes, that all makes sence to me.  Thank you.

 

[Organized Chaos]

4 hours ago, HawkIVette said:

Yes, I did.  Thats what I posted in post #5.  

 

Right, that's their list of qualifying cancellation reasons, but you were asking about airline coverage. That's what I was referring to. For example, when I enter my state, it shows:

 

Listing of Benefits                                                                                       Maximum Benefit

Trip Cancellation for Independently-Booked Airfare                              Up to Total Original Airfare Cost

 

Does that help you at all? It may be different for your state.

[HawkIVette]

3 hours ago, Organized Chaos said:

 

Right, that's their list of qualifying cancellation reasons, but you were asking about airline coverage. That's what I was referring to. For example, when I enter my state, it shows:

 

Listing of Benefits                                                                                       Maximum Benefit

Trip Cancellation for Independently-Booked Airfare                              Up to Total Original Airfare Cost

 

Does that help you at all? It may be different for your state.

 

Yes, actually my state has something very similar, as I posted in post #3.  I just didn't know if the CCL insurance would cover the added cost of Airline fare and Hotels for no more premium added.  I was suspecting they would not. 

 

But it is a mute point now.  After the Pre-existing waiver NOT being part of CCL Vacation Protection, I just decided to go with Insuremytrip.com and have one policy that covers all costs together. 

 

Thanks for al the info to all posters.

Edited March 17, 2019 by HawkIVette