Insurance

[sierrasmom]

Is the insurance really worth it .I have medical insurance I do not know if I need to take this insurance out or not .

[Coral]

Does your medical insurance cover you on a ship or out of the country? How about for ship evacuation?

 

Do you have siblings, parents, children that may become ill that you may have to cancel the cruise for. Or yourself, what if something happens to you (bronchitis, car accident, etc..) - medical insurance will not cover the loss of money of the trip if you have to cancel.

 

What happens if Georgia has terrible weather and your flight doesn't take off. Or your connecting flight coming from another area has bad weather and the plane you were supposed to be on is delayed several hours and you miss the ship? If you are driving, what about car problems, closed interstates, weather delays?

[Lionesss]

We always take travel insurance.

As you see from our travel history, we do a lot of big vacations.

We were envolved with Hurricaine Charlie once in Disney.

Orlando airport was closed for 3 days.

We were not hurt, but travel plans interupted.

 

The insurance re-imbursed us for all hardship, lost day, and it is well worth it.

This year once again we took travel insurance and our cost is about 9% of the cost of our cruise. We took it from a travel company where we booked our cruise. We know it works for us.

Good luck and have a safe journey.

later

[fllady]

As you have read there are so many things that can happen, and the cost is not that much for the insurnace. We always take it, and only used it this last cruise, waiting for our money from the insurnace company as I write.:D

 

When we were young we didn't think we needed it, but realized that we were taking a big chance. Yes, we do have our own insurance, but make sure you know if you are completely covered. Even the co-pay of your own insurnace is covered.

[blindrid]

Is the insurance really worth it .I have medical insurance I do not know if I need to take this insurance out or not .

 

My med insurance covers when I'm out of country for up to 30 days (I think). Problem with mine is that I will be "out of network" and my deducts and co-pays would casue me a lot of $'s for out of pocket. I do buy insurance and other than medical, it covers trip delay, baggage protection and cancellation provisions in the event something happens prior to the cruise.

 

As we are 50, our cost for our upcoming cruise was something like $130 for the both us. I'm guessing you may be younger so it would be even less. If you have kids, a lot of them cover them as well under your policy (definitely read the policy - don't take my word for it). We also buy "primary", which means they will pay first, not messing around with getting a claim denied by your insurance, then submitting.

 

Do what you think is right, but we buy it for peace of mind as I feel the overall cost is minimal for what can potentially happen.

[Whimsy]

I wouldn't travel without the insurance. One injury or illness requiring a medical evacuation could haunt us financially for years to come. It's just not just a financial risk we are willing to take. I worry mainly about the medical since our insurance doesn't cover us out of the country. The rest of the coverage is a pleasant bonus.

 

I wouldn't want to face those huge bills someday and be thinking for a few extra dollars I could of avoided all this!

[BJS]

Is the insurance really worth it .I have medical insurance I do not know if I need to take this insurance out or not .

No doubt it is "really worth it"

Had to cancel cruises for medical reasons twice after final payment and if we had not had insurance it would have cost us thousands and thousands of dollars in penalities. The money we have paid for all the polices we have ever taken out is nothing in comparison to the money we've received back.

 

We always get travel insurance and have recently taken out a Medjet policy to fly us home should we have a medial emergency.

 

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[Lynda90]

A few years ago, the person I was traveling with became very ill a week before we were to sail. We both got 100% of our money back through the insurance. I don't cruise without it. I also have an aging parent with medical problems. I would not take the chance of leaving without insurance in place.

[Coral]

 

We always get travel insurance and have recently taken out a Medjet policy to fly us home should we have a medial emergency.

 

This year is going to be a light travel year for me but next year, I am taking MedJet out also. What an incredible policy. I would have taken it last year when I went to Russia if I had known about it. That was one of my largest fears was being in a hospital in Russia.

[cruisePRN]

I've traveled all over the world and never took insurance. What I have saved will easily cover the cost of losing a trip or a trip to the doctor abroad or on the ship. It all depends on your comfort level. last year we were robbed in Buenas Aires of my husbands jewelery and our homeowners insurance kicked in, less the deductable of course. We are mid and late 50's ..hope this helps answer your question.

[Pam in CA]

The first few times I cruised, I was naive and thought, "Well, my medical insurance will cover me if anything goes wrong" and then I had a situation where a 2" snowstorm at Logan (BOS) turned into an ice storm which closed the airport for over 24 hours and I wound up flying through the Caribbean for two days trying to catch up to the ship. Fortunately, I'd bought my air through Princess since it was an open-jaw flight so I didn't have to pay for anything (they covered my extra hotel costs, food, etc.) but it could have been financially disastrous for me. Since then, I have always bought the insurance.

 

We frequently see people post here that they didn't take out the insurance and either they missed their flight or a girl/boy friend's mother got ill or whatever and they wanted their money back. That's what the insurance is for. Particularly if you're flying anywhere. You might have perfect weather where you are but if there are winds in Dallas and/or snow in Chicago, there'll be significant delays from LAX to JFK.

 

If you don't get insurance, you are taking a gamble and self-insuring yourself. Consider whether you really want to do that.

[willysgrandma]

I've traveled all over the world and never took insurance. What I have saved will easily cover the cost of losing a trip or a trip to the doctor abroad or on the ship. It all depends on your comfort level. last year we were robbed in Buenas Aires of my husbands jewelery and our homeowners insurance kicked in, less the deductable of course. We are mid and late 50's ..hope this helps answer your question.

 

 

What if you have need a medical evacuation? That is very expensive and I am sure your medical insurance wouldn't cover that.

 

How about if you have a car accident on the way to the airport or cruise ship pier? Travel insurance would cover that.

 

It does all depend on how much of a gamble you are willing to risk - on our last cruise a woman had to be helicoptered off the ship while we were at sea that had a stroke. The first thing out of my mouh was I hoped they had travel insurance.

[Unca Pete]

The ship's doctor may order you off of the ship if a medical emergency is beyond the scope of routine care. (Sea sickness, small sprain, etc.) Cruise ships are not floating hospitals, and have limited facilities, and don't want the legal liability.:(

 

Pete

[paul929207]

The choice is simple, you can pay about 6 or 8 percent of the cost of your trip, or risk significant possible expenses. These include:

 

Flight delays cause you to miss the ship. Without insurance, you are on your own. You have to pay for flights to catch up with the ship and any other expenses like hotels and meals.

 

What happens if you get sick or injured while on the cruise? My mother fell on a Med cruise a couple of years ago and spent over a month in a Rome hospital. Would your insurance cover that? How about the cost of a nurse to fly home with her? How about the cost of an upgrade to First Class, which was needed for her condition?

 

Do you have any family members at home who might get sick, have an accident or die? Without insurance the cost of getting home is yours.

[trooper 1]

We also buy "primary", which means they will pay first, not messing around with getting a claim denied by your insurance, then submitting.

 

Primary insurance? I did not know we had an option to purchase primary or secondary insurance. In our case, we have Medicare, which, of course, do not pay for "foreign" claims. We also have secondary insurance with our retirement program. We always buy the Princess insurance with its added benefits because of Elite status. In the past we have had to submit three separate claims to the three insurance companies and wait months for a determination and reimbursement. Could we have avoided this by purchasing "primary" insurance originally? Thank you.

[BJS]

The choice is simple, you can pay about 6 or 8 percent of the cost of your trip, or risk significant possible expenses.

I don't think the percent is that high. I just checked ours for May cruise and it is 2.8%.

 

I've traveled all over the world and never took insurance. What I have saved will easily cover the cost of losing a trip or a trip to the doctor abroad or on the ship. It all depends on your comfort level.

What about evacuation? That can easily run $50,000 and doubt you have saved that much by not buying insurance unless you have cruised a great deal for many years. Even for $23,000 worth of cruises per year it would take over 83 years of savings. :eek:

 

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[Coral]

Could we have avoided this by purchasing "primary" insurance originally? Thank you.

 

Yes.

[cruisePRN]

.

 

If you don't get insurance, you are taking a gamble and self-insuring yourself. Consider whether you really want to do that.

 

That's exactly as i look it, I'm self insuring. It's within my comfort zone and we cruise 3 times a year.

[wrecks]

You get rewarded if something bad happens to you :confused: But we would never travel without it. Our DD, SIL and GD were scheduled to join us Dec '05 on the Dawn out of SF. Still don't know why they didn't buy insurance: their 3rd cruise and 2nd with us and even used the same TA as last time (Dec '04 - Star). Had a death in his family four days before sailing. We all wrote letters and tried, but did not receive any compensation - they lost over $3,000.00 (no airfare, they live nearby.) Can not blame Princess, their choice not to buy. We had friends that needed to have their DM/MIL airlifted from Skagway; insurance covered the $40,000.00 bill.

I would buy and we do.

Rex

[wannabe21]

Hi, I purchased travel medical insurance through sevencorners.com also known as Liaison International. They have other types of travel insurance. Has anyone ever used them or heard of them? Their rates are quite cheap.

[willysgrandma]

I have never heard of this company (we are travel agents). Hopefully someone who has used them can share their experiences.

[debi56]

Hope this isn't a stupid question but:

The travel care insurance that princess offers does that not cover medical and also if you have to cancell?

That is how I understand, if not then what do they cover?

thanks:o

[wannabe21]

If you purchase TravelGuard through Princess, I"m sure they cover almost everything. Medical, cancellation, etc. I didn't purchase insurance this time though, so I was looking for an alternative.

[Kaye from Chicagoland]

I'm trying to decide which of their (Travel Guard) policies to chose - Gold or Platinum. I will not be using Princess insurance - due to our ages and we need to insure flights and hotel stay as well. Does anyone think getting the Platinum is worth it for the extra money or do most of you get the Gold policy?

[Coral]

If you purchase TravelGuard through Princess, I"m sure they cover almost everything. Medical, cancellation, etc. I didn't purchase insurance this time though, so I was looking for an alternative.

 

Princess doesn't sell TravelGuard. They sell their own insurance called Princess Travel Care.