insurance

[Canigo]

I m debating on not buying insurance for my cruise.Im going in Oct. so I have time Is this a bad choice
thanks

[prymsu]

because this is considered part of the hurricane season...

[4nana]

A lot of cruisers do not purchase insurance, but we have 17 going and would prefer peace of mind knowing we would get some kind of reimbursement in case of emergency. Better safe than sorry ;)

[Tay N Evie's Mom]

If you have small children or family members with illnesses you may want to consider insurance also. I've taken it for our 2 cruises and purchased it for our upcoming May 11 cruise. We booked our 1st cruise 6 months in advance-during that time DD was hospitalized for severe vomiting that came out of nowhere and DH grandmother had several strokes. Our 2nd cruise we flew back from Orlando the Saturday before the terrorist attacks. Within weeks of coming home DS had croup, DH lost both his grandmother and uncle within 4 days of each other. DD was hospitalized again this Feb for that pesky vomiting and almost was in again Sat for the same thing-viruses hit her hard but now we know what to look for. I also have to consider my mom who has a heart condition. I've never had to use the insurance and hope I never do. You just never know what's going to happen with your immediate and extended family. DH aunt knows of someone who had to be airlifted from an Alaskan cruise and their insurance didn't pay and now they owe thousands.

[cruisnfamily]

I don't believe the insurance would do anyone any good regarding a huricane. I think it is only medical. Am I right?

[Señor Ferrari]

I'd have to actually look at the policy, but I don't know that insurance would be any more effective during hurricane season than not. It does cover trip delay, so if a hurricane made your flight late so that you missed the ship, it would probably cover
that.

Hurricane season will affect the cruise itself in that the ship may be going to alternate ports, or it may have to skip a port. In that case, I don't think insurance would do anything for you. The cruise line may or may not give you some kind of reimbursement.

We were re-routed to Key West (instead of St. Maarten) on our Sept. 2000 cruise, but got no compensation (nor did we feel we deserved any).

I think that insurance is most effective for medical care needed during the trip. Since the ships are technically part of the Bahamas, many domestic insurance companies don't cover treatment received onboard.

We've always bought trip insurance for our cruises. We've never had to use it, but you never know....

[Dave_from_Marietta]

Trip interruption/cancellation insurance should provide for hurricanes. I guess there's some confusion about what kind of insurance we might be talking about.

[DreamsDoComeTrue]

I feel that anytime you can put 'peace of mind' on a charge card... Just do it! LOL
I sprung for the insurance and I'm not exactly loose with my money. My health insurance does cover ship and international urgent medical needs as out -of-network, but only 70% of the amount that they deem appropriate -read- not even 50%. So even the medical portion of the insurance could be handy. The biggest value would be for a 'qualified' trip cancellation. If we don't make it onto that ship ... believe me, it will be for a very qualified reason. Maybe once we become seasoned pro's, I'll feel more comfortable forgoing the insurance. But for now, I'm very relaxed about the cruise purchase, and that's worth a lot.