Would you buy travel insurance for a world cruise?

[kjbacon]

We have never purchased travel insurance before but we’ve just recently booked the 2022 world cruise and aren’t feeling sure. While the cost is very high, we realize that we have a lot to lose and that a lot can happen in 4 months. Would you or wouldn’t you purchase the insurance?

[elmwood]

It would not occur to me not to do so! We had to cancel a Baltic cruise with Regent when my husband was taken ill, and were so glad that we had taken out insurance. 

 

[liptastic]

Yes we have always had travel insurance. I know the costs vary with each individual health status and medications, but personally I feel reassured we have the policy in place.

We have only had one claim while visiting family in Canada, a medical claim but we paid the costs at time and claimed back when home. As with any insurance policy there is a non refundable excess fee.

I dread to think how much the cost will be for your world cruise though? 
Hopefully someone from the world cruise guests will give their advice to help your decisions.

Exciting to plan ahead for your world cruise,  Jean.

[DaveFr]

31 minutes ago, kjbacon said:

We have never purchased travel insurance before but we’ve just recently booked the 2022 world cruise and aren’t feeling sure. While the cost is very high, we realize that we have a lot to lose and that a lot can happen in 4 months. Would you or wouldn’t you purchase the insurance?

Steve Dasseos of tripinsurancestore.com is on Cruise Critic until November 30 to answer insurance questions.  It’s the featured CC forum.  I suggest asking your question on that forum.

 

Dave

[Sharle]

It's an awfully expensive cruise to self insure the cancellation cost at a minimum.  I know medical on the ship is covered but if you have to go to a hospital  it can add up if your own medical insurance doesn't cover the cost

[travelwell]

We are on 2021 WC.  We are healthy in our 60’s but things can happen to your health unexpectedly. I would only consider not insuring if you would not lose sleep losing the money on  the cruise and you could handle the cost of hospitalization in say Vietnam and air ambulance home. Take into your decision that you must insure the first week or so after booking to get pre existing disease coverage. For us we would rather sleep at night and pay the money for insurance.

 

 

 

 

 

[HotRoot]

Our point of view for the 2019 World Cruise - We did not buy trip cancellation insurance.  I even cancelled my health insurance in the US.  We did buy medical "stabilization and medevac" insurance.  Had we needed more care than the ship could provide, the insurance would have paid the medical bills until me/he could safely be returned to the US and would pay for the transport.  I would have been in trouble when I hit US soil because all coverage would end.  My husband still had his Medicare so he would have been OK.  We made this choice because I am healthy.  I have only been in the hospital for child birth.  I visit the doctor once a year and take no medicine.  My husband has never been in the hospital, visits the doctor once a year, and has a couple of prescriptions.  While onboard he made one visit to the doctor for some antibiotics for a rash that would not go away.  The office visit and pills were free. It worked for us.  I am not making any recommendations for anybody else.

 

As for trip cancellation/interruption - We never buy it.  We travel a lot.  Had we not been able to go, we would have sold the trip or given it away.  You can make name changes (I believe there is a fee).  Had we had a medical emergency and had to return home, the cost of the cruise would be the least of our worries.  Over the last 40 years we have saved more money not buying insurance than the cost of the cruise.  So we would have broke even.  That is/was our personal feeling.  Again, not making any recommendations.

 

We have had to cancel a couple of cruises with other cruise lines.  They gave us a credit for a future cruise since we had no insurance.  Once we had to change an airline flight due to a family death.  We paid the fee but followed the instructions to send a copy of the obituary with our names included.  Upon receipt, they refunded the fee we had paid.  They actually refunded more than we paid since the fee was made in a foreign currency and the dollar had gone up. 

 

We did paid for all of our travels by selling insurance for 40 plus years..

[Wendy The Wanderer]

I would be seriously surprised if you can "sell" a Regent cruise, or transfer it to someone else after final payment.  If it's true I'd be happy, believe me.

 

Travel medical insurance is pretty well mandatory, whatever suits your situation.  We're fortunate to have this as a retirement benefit of my husband.  If we didn't have it we would buy something like it every year when we go to Florida from Canada.

 

And at our ages (70's), we always buy cancellation insurance for cruises (and in fact did when we were in our 50's).  Unfortunately in Canada this is currently difficult for expensive cruises, so our 2021 WC is only going to be half-insured.  It's a big risk for us, but one we've decided to take.  This caused me sleepless nights at first, but I've come to terms with it.  That's what it gives you, peace of mind.

[SWFLAOK]

No chance that we would ever book a World Cruise and not book insurance. We don't have a high risk of something bad happening in our mid 60's with very few relatives, no kids, and no serious illnesses. We rarely dive anymore, but we maintain our Diver's Alert Network membership since they will provide medical evacuation for any emergency away from home if you arrange transport through them.

If the cost of your cruise would not cause you to have financial difficulty if you were to lose it, and you can afford medical and evacuation coverage on your own, then insurance may not be a problem.

[HotRoot]

I am not looking up the Regent policy but we do know people who have done a name change on a paid cruise.  

[Caroldoll]

OMG, we are 79 and 83, and never been to a doctor for anything but a regular once a year check-up.  Every time we cruise now, other then when we can cover it under Chase Sapphire, we buy insurance.  It is necessary.  One never knows what is lurking below--whatever.  Chase covers up to $10,000 each--but if we have an expensive cruise, we really need to get it.  We have seen so many sad things happen.  Just factor it in!  Do not buy the ship's insurance.  I am sure others will weigh in.

[papaflamingo]

You really have to ask yourself if you are willing to lose the cost of the cruise if something happens before you sail.  For me, I always buy insurance. Is it expensive? Sure.  I just figure it's part of the cost of the cruise.   We did 44 nights last year on Regent. I found the best policy and the best price was Berkshire Hathaway Travel Insurance. If you are going to buy insurance, run the numbers with them.  They offer very good Evacuation as well as medical. And they were cheaper than any other policy.

[BuddyP]

6 hours ago, kjbacon said:

We have never purchased travel insurance before but we’ve just recently booked the 2022 world cruise and aren’t feeling sure. While the cost is very high, we realize that we have a lot to lose and that a lot can happen in 4 months. Would you or wouldn’t you purchase the insurance?

 

We are on the same cruise and I would not have booked it unless we could insure the entire cost. It was very expensive but the expense will be magnitudes worse if something happens. We have used travel insurance once in the past and I was very glad we had it. I encourage you to buy it before you pass the date where pre-existing conditions will not be covered. 

[rcandkc]

43 minutes ago, BuddyP said:

 

We are on the same cruise and I would not have booked it unless we could insure the entire cost. It was very expensive but the expense will be magnitudes worse if something happens. We have used travel insurance once in the past and I was very glad we had it. I encourage you to buy it before you pass the date where pre-existing conditions will not be covered. 

We buy it because we have preexisting conditions, But also so if we need to cancel due to my father which would be preexisting condition.  Insurance companies can fight claims so easily so we try to cover that situation. 

[sassyw]

You can buy insurance according to how much money you have actually paid. For example when you make your initial payment you insure only that much. Then at the next installment you insure that much. This way if you have to cancel you have only paid part of the insurance and not all of it. This covers pre existing because you have taken out the insurance as soon as you booked the cruise.

 

 

[kjbacon]

All if this helpful information is much appreciated, thank you. 

[kjbacon]

9 hours ago, BuddyP said:

 

We are on the same cruise and I would not have booked it unless we could insure the entire cost. It was very expensive but the expense will be magnitudes worse if something happens. We have used travel insurance once in the past and I was very glad we had it. I encourage you to buy it before you pass the date where pre-existing conditions will not be covered. 

We will probably get to know each other rather well over the next few years. Is this your first world cruise?

[kjbacon]

Here is an updated question after a phone call to our medical insurance carrier. Seems that we are covered for medical care all over the world, which is great. Is there a policy that offers just cancellation insurance that you would recommend? The cancellation only policy offered by Regent is absurdly expensive, not worth considering.

[Carol From California]

Not sure the cost of a world cruise but The Chase Sapphire Reserve and the Chase Sapphire Preferred credit cards both provide coverage of $10,000 per person, so you would each get $20,000 per person in coverage if you pay "some portion" of the cruise on the two cards. That would give you $40,000 in coverage.  There are other credit cards that also offer trip insurance. Pre-existing conditions are NOT covered. Depending on when your final payment is due you could spread the payments on these two cards and other cards that offer trip insurance and the insurance won't really cost you anything.

 

I just checked and it looks like the WC is $64,000+ per person.  So doing it this way would only cover 1/3 of your cost.  Maybe you could get private insurance for the rest that is not covered under the credit cards. Just remember that pre-existing conditions are not covered.

Edited October 31, 2019 by Carol From California

[Wendy The Wanderer]

26 minutes ago, kjbacon said:

Here is an updated question after a phone call to our medical insurance carrier. Seems that we are covered for medical care all over the world, which is great. Is there a policy that offers just cancellation insurance that you would recommend? The cancellation only policy offered by Regent is absurdly expensive, not worth considering.

 

There should be if you're in the States.  That was our situation but in Canada we just couldn't get that much coverage for cancellation only.  In the past when we could use U.S. carriers, both was included by default.

[BuddyP]

15 hours ago, kjbacon said:

We will probably get to know each other rather well over the next few years. Is this your first world cruise?

Yes. While it is a long time away we are already very excited. 

[kjbacon]

20 hours ago, Wendy The Wanderer said:

 

There should be if you're in the States.  That was our situation but in Canada we just couldn't get that much coverage for cancellation only.  In the past when we could use U.S. carriers, both was included by default.

We have not been able to find a cancellation only policy that is less than 50% of the cost of the cruise (which we would not consider). Can you help point us in the right direction to find this? Thanks so much!

[Wendy The Wanderer]

50 minutes ago, kjbacon said:

We have not been able to find a cancellation only policy that is less than 50% of the cost of the cruise (which we would not consider). Can you help point us in the right direction to find this? Thanks so much!

 

Morning.  I'm presuming that you meant "more than 50%" of the cost of the cruise.Exactly our problem, although I think we've managed around 60%.

 

We've used CSA and Travelguard in the past, before the stopped covering Canadians, but for lesser trips of around $20K.  I've also heard people using Allianz. I've read about some people who  have gotten insurance for the full price of a WC in Cruise Critic roll-call threads.  I'll check out our roll-call and see if anybody can give advice. Have you tried insuremytrip.com?

 

(BTW, there's a Q&A going on here at CC on this subject right now, here:  https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/2441-qa-cruise-insurance-w-steve-dasseos-of-the-tripinsurancestorecom/

 

I just posed the question there about very expensive cruises and cancellation insurance.)

 

Goodness knows what people do who book the named suites--our WC is in a mere standard balcony, but for even a PH the damage would be much greater, but perhaps if you're at that level you can afford to 'self-insure'.

Edited November 1, 2019 by Wendy The Wanderer

[Jamietravelstheworld]

Absolutely buy trip insurance and beyond what the cruise line offers. I was injured on a Princess New England/Canada cruise in 2016. I didn't have trip insurance and thankfully my health insurance covered a lot, but trip insurance would have made my life a lot easier and would have saved me money on rebooking plane tickets, the part my health insurance didn't cover, and possibly would have paid for medical airflight. Now I always buy it, and go to either www.insuremytrip.com or www.squaremouth.com to compare plans. Go for the highest medical coverage you can afford.

[Turn 8A]

Have always used Allianz. Cost is about 10% of the vacation cost for us at 71 and 72 years old living in California. This was for a vacation last month to Central Asia.