Is everyone getting trip insurance for your upcoming cruises?

[Linsuesue]

 I have gone on a dozen cruises and never purchased the trip insurance. I am well aware that the insurance could cover costly medical evacuations or out of left field incidents that might occur on the vacation. Obviously, we have been lucky and never needed it. What I am wondering now is if the insurance would cover any unexpected quarantine conditions or Covid related issues to the cruiser. I have seen many posts that suggest the NCL insurance is not the best coverage, but I am not sure where to look for different coverage- or how much coverage is necessary. 

[DCGuy64]

14 minutes ago, Linsuesue said:

 I have gone on a dozen cruises and never purchased the trip insurance. I am well aware that the insurance could cover costly medical evacuations or out of left field incidents that might occur on the vacation. Obviously, we have been lucky and never needed it. What I am wondering now is if the insurance would cover any unexpected quarantine conditions or Covid related issues to the cruiser. I have seen many posts that suggest the NCL insurance is not the best coverage, but I am not sure where to look for different coverage- or how much coverage is necessary. 

Yes, although I have a question: does anyone know what qualifies as the booking date on a new reservation for a cancelled cruise?

The reason I ask is that while we have an upcoming cruise in August, although it was booked at the end of February, it was for a cancelled cruise from last May, and the confirmation still shows last year's date as the date of the reservation. I don't know if we could even GET travel insurance at this point.

[MeHeartCruising]

26 minutes ago, Linsuesue said:

 I have gone on a dozen cruises and never purchased the trip insurance. I am well aware that the insurance could cover costly medical evacuations or out of left field incidents that might occur on the vacation. Obviously, we have been lucky and never needed it. What I am wondering now is if the insurance would cover any unexpected quarantine conditions or Covid related issues to the cruiser. I have seen many posts that suggest the NCL insurance is not the best coverage, but I am not sure where to look for different coverage- or how much coverage is necessary. 

 

I think if you read policies currently being issued, you'll find that they have been modified to specifically address coverage (and coverage limitations) for Covid-19 and other epidemic/pandemic situations.  You'll have to read the fine print and I'm sure it will vary from vendor to vendor.

 

To answer your question from another perspective, I had cruised and done international travel for years and years without purchasing travel insurance.  Now, being 58 years old and with some medical issues that are well under control, I feel it is prudent for me to start investing in travel insurance for all my trips.  This decision was made in the year prior to Covid hitting us.  It just seems prudent at my point in life to pay for the insurance just in case it is needed.

Edited March 5, 2021 by MeHeartCruising

[roger001]

I always get the trip insurance.  Peace of mind.  And of course, as with all insurance, you hope you will not ever use it....and never have.    But at this moment and  all the uncertainty, who knows what insurance will look like and what it will cover when cruises ever happen again.  I would wait until we are hopefully closer to cruising someday and then look into it.  

[ColeThornton]

Cruise Critic actually has a Cruise/Travel insurance forum that has a lot of good info to research.   Here is the link:

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/499-cruisetravel-insurance/

[milolii]

I just purchased insurance for a trip.   Not a cruise.  CoVID coverage was included and it was noted this was a temporary situation.  Read the fine print on the policy. Most give you a time lie to review it.  

Cruise critic has A cruise insurance board, with exp

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/499-cruisetravel-insurance/

 

DC guy ask your question there as well. 

[ColeThornton]

2 minutes ago, milolii said:

I just purchased insurance for a trip.   Not a cruise.  CoVID coverage was included and it was noted this was a temporary situation.  Read the fine print on the policy. Most give you a time lie to review it.  

Cruise critic has A cruise insurance board, with exp

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/499-cruisetravel-insurance/

 

DC guy ask your question there as well. 

 

 

Kind of slow with that link!        🙂

[milolii]

Yes, phone rang. LOL  

[cruisinmeme]

Out of 23 cruises i only had to use the insurance once. I was very glad i had it and received every penny back.  My grown son had a brain bleed and was of coarse in hospital. It was fast and simple.  Doctor signed a form and money came to me in a flash.  Actually i received a check and my husband received a check.

So bottom line many things can mess up a cruise.

[Linsuesue]

20 minutes ago, cruisinmeme said:

Out of 23 cruises i only had to use the insurance once. I was very glad i had it and received every penny back.  My grown son had a brain bleed and was of coarse in hospital. It was fast and simple.  Doctor signed a form and money came to me in a flash.  Actually i received a check and my husband received a check.

So bottom line many things can mess up a cruise.

Did you use the insurance offered by the cruise line, or did you get it elsewhere?

[HowardK]

I have always used for simplicity the coverage offered by NCL even though I know it is not as good as 3rd party ones- but will change in the future once I cruise again. However, its still better than nothing.

[SouthLyonCruiser]

We always get travel insurance and never through the cruise lines. The cruise line insurance is 'secondary insurance' and requires that the policy owners first make claims with their credit card company, home owners insurance and health insurance companies before they will consider a claim.

We had insurance on our 2020 Alaska cruise that was cancelled and our travel insurance company allowed us the transfer that policy to the rebooked Alaska cruise, even though they didn't have to.

[SouthLyonCruiser]

17 hours ago, DCGuy64 said:

Yes, although I have a question: does anyone know what qualifies as the booking date on a new reservation for a cancelled cruise?

The reason I ask is that while we have an upcoming cruise in August, although it was booked at the end of February, it was for a cancelled cruise from last May, and the confirmation still shows last year's date as the date of the reservation. I don't know if we could even GET travel insurance at this point.

Our travel insurance requires that we get the policy within 15 days of final payment for the cruise or within 15 days of booking a flight. Other carriers may have different policies but that is the policy of our carrier.

I wont name the carrier as I believe that that is agins CC policy.

[ziggyuk]

I just maintain a family annual insurance which covers me for all trips even trips & stays in my own county, never need to think about it unless extreme sports are involved 😱.
Also between us we have 2 bank accounts that give "free" travel insurance so if we did claim we can also consider which has the best cover and least excess.

[HuliHuli]

19 hours ago, DCGuy64 said:

Yes, although I have a question: does anyone know what qualifies as the booking date on a new reservation for a cancelled cruise?

Of course ask your insurer, but mine has always attributed the booking date as the date you make your first payment on the current booking, regardless of the form of payment. I too have replaced cancelled cruises and it was the first payment date that applied.

[tumblew467]

Steve from the tripinsurance store has a blog that is very informative on his site.  I always purchase ins. I also believe he has posted on cc as well regarding ins. 

[KeithJenner]

3 hours ago, ziggyuk said:

I just maintain a family annual insurance which covers me for all trips even trips & stays in my own county, never need to think about it unless extreme sports are involved 😱.
Also between us we have 2 bank accounts that give "free" travel insurance so if we did claim we can also consider which has the best cover and least excess.

Just as an aside, if you have a claim then you don't necessarily have that choice.

 

You have to declare all policies you have to whoever you claim from, and whilst it is likely that you can choose which one the claim goes through, they may dictate this to you. Behind the scenes they will probably share the payout.

 

I had this situation a few years ago when it looked as though we would have to claim on a booked holiday. We had annual policies with our bank and also through work. We spoke to both, and were pushed towards claiming through the bank (which had the best coverage, so fine by us). The bank had all the details of the work policy to split the claim. Luckily we didn't actually need to claim, so I didn't follow the whole process through, and I don't know what would have happened if we had insisted on claiming through the other policy, but it looked as though it would have caused problems if I had wanted to dictate which policy was used. Maybe they automatically push you towards the one with the best coverage.

[cruisinmeme]

22 hours ago, Linsuesue said:

Did you use the insurance offered by the cruise line, or did you get it elsewhere?

In this case it was from the cruise line. Someone said cruise line insurance was secondary. Not so! I called, was emailed the form, printed it up and had it filled out and signed, emailed it back and had my money in less than 2 weeks.  I will say in the pass i have gotten insurance thru other companies. Aloft of those clearly says it is secondary. I will stay with cruise line insurance because this was way way easy.

funny thing i never even dreamed a case like mine was even payable.  When i called to cancel the cruise ( this happen just days before sailing) the agent said they would email me the insurance form.

[Linsuesue]

Cruiseinmeme-That is helpful news to hear! Some people have commented that the cruise line insurance wasn’t great. It would be easier for me to just get the insurance through them. Thank you for sharing your experience!

[BoozinCroozin]

Yes, simply for the medical part of it. I know filing claims and being approved can be a pain, but medical could be the most important part of it.

[MoCruiseFan]

NO, not EVERYONE is getting insurance.

[lepidoptera]

My first cruise I didn’t think about getting cruise insurance. All cruises since then I have gotten cruise insurance. I am young and healthy but you never know. I know young people who have had very, very serious claims while on vacation. An accident can be very expensive. Especially if you must have medical transport to your home country for treatment or if your remains need to be repatriated. 

 

Sometimes I book the cruise line insurance, but generally I go though a third party website to obtain insurance. 

[roger001]

I just get it through my TA when she books the cruise.  Big company with excellent coverage and good reputation.  Easier than shopping around and competitively priced.  
 

[pe4all]

We always get travel insurance.  Have never gotten it through cruise line as they do not cover pre-existing medical conditions, which my family has.  Have had to use it 2x - once on a cruise (off-loaded in Belize for 3 days when dd got ill on ship) and once to cancel a cruise the day before. (noro-virus). Got every penny back except $5.  We always use Travelguard , and they have pretty reasonable prices.

[Diver2014]

If you can afford to lose all the money you've paid towards your cruise and pay for medical care and evacuation, then you can skip the insurance.