Can someone please enlighten me regarding insurance

[Ofinn]

You pay triple through DCL. I can usually insure my family of four on 7 day cruise for less than 100.00 dollars. I make sure I have coverage for cancellation(emergencies only not "the for any reason") and medical. Those are the only things I care about.

 

[DISNEY FANTASY]

My family and I are going on the Wonder for Thanksgiving this year. I am in the process of researching travel insurance. I spoke to a cast member at Disney yesterday, and she said the cost of their insurance will be 8 percent of our trip cost. So, if you do airline, and cruise through them, it would be 8 percent of the cost. But, if you do airline tickets outside of Disney, it would not be covered by the Disney insurance. Also, I went to look at some popular vendors online, and found them to charge about 1/2 of Disney's price for trip insurance. It is a big difference. The next step is to compare the travel insurance coverage offered by Disney and outside vendors. I want to get good trip insurance, but I don't want to pay a fortune for it either. It appears, it pays to do a little research.

When you do not buy Trip insurance ensure you get everyone in your family to agree and sign that you felt it's not worth it, so when something does go wrong there isn't a family fight that you choose to skip it.

Insurance is something we buy and hope not to use, " fate" occurs when you do not buy it.

You will insure your home your car but isn't the family more important on holiday?

 

[marivigi]

We are not located in the US, we actually live in Mexico, so all your replies have been super helpful. I really need to read ALL of the DCL websitre regarding insurance and if they would cover us.
It it does, then I will book it since we are travelling to Alaska with 2 minors and 2 seniors. With all those excursions, it will be best if we have it. Just not sure we will be covered by the DCL one.

 

[DISNEY FANTASY]

We are not located in the US, we actually live in Mexico, so all your replies have been super helpful. I really need to read ALL of the DCL websitre regarding insurance and if they would cover us.
It it does, then I will book it since we are travelling to Alaska with 2 minors and 2 seniors. With all those excursions, it will be best if we have it. Just not sure we will be covered by the DCL one.

We are in the UK we use local insurance companies with cruise insurance.

 

[marivigi]

Cruise insurance is interesting as not a "no brainier" at all.

Say for example you take a similar priced cruise annually, or more frequently than that. If the Insurance is around 5%, and you take it every time, after 20 cruises you have paid for 21. If the insurance never kicks in, you are paying for 21 cruises and going on 20. Even if insurance kicks in once you are paying for 20 cruises and going on 19.

Say you chose not to take insurance, and you missed 1 out of 20 just as above, you still paid for 20 cruises and went on 19, so you didn't loose anything by not taking it.

If you cruise often, and take insurance every time, you can say you like the protection, but eventually you are still paying for a cruise you don't sail.

Remember the insurance companies are selling the insurance for one reason; they believe the premiums will be greater than the claims.


If the cruise is not a frequent thing, or one in particular is more costly then you normally spend, that may be different, you may say you don't want to take the risk and can justify the insurance.

For every poster who has made a claim on their trip insurance, there are many more who have purchased trip insurance 5, 10 or more times and never made a claim. That money could have gone to upgrades, excursions or even another cruise, and is just as "lost" as money you spend on a cruise you miss with no insurance.

excellent advice!

Thanks!

 

[eskimoinparadise]

Purchasing insurance is an intensely personal decision. For every post you read that argues against purchase (usually because of accrued cost over time if it isn't used), you'll find another from someone who followed that advice and then had fate intervene with disastrous financial and personal consequences. Medical evacuation from a foreign port back to your home country can easily run into the high 5 to low 6 figures. Even an extraction by helicopter from a ship can run $20-$30K. The medical emergency that caused us to miss a cruise has already racked up more than $30K in bills. The ambulance ride alone (about a two mile trip from home to the ER) was over $600.

We cruise 5-6 times a year and always purchase insurance. In over 50 cruises, we've used it exactly once. Some posters would call that a foolish waste of money. For us it's a prudent allocation of a few $$ for invaluable peace of mind.

 

[mikehn]

I always buy insurance for our cruises and its always cheaper through an online travel insurance broker. Insuremytrip is a popular one that many on the disboard use. The chances of you filing a claim is remote. What you pay for is peace of mind and the ability to sleep well at night from now until the end of your cruise. The premium is cheap. To tell you the truth, I'd skimp somewhere else than on insurance.

 

[CherylA]

I agree that the travel insurance is a must for a cruise. It is worth noting that you need to fly in the day before if you use regular travel insurance as opposed to Disney. I think you have to be delayed at least 12 hours or something like that before your coverage kicks in. So if you were flying in that morning and a 4 hour delay was enough to make you miss the ship, it wouldn't be enough time to make your travel insurance kick in and you'd still be screwed. Not sure if the delay time varies by policy or not but I was told by a travel insurance company that its actually 24 hours. So we always plan to arrive by 2pm the day before the cruise

 

[MunFam]

I agree that the travel insurance is a must for a cruise. It is worth noting that you need to fly in the day before if you use regular travel insurance as opposed to Disney. I think you have to be delayed at least 12 hours or something like that before your coverage kicks in. So if you were flying in that morning and a 4 hour delay was enough to make you miss the ship, it wouldn't be enough time to make your travel insurance kick in and you'd still be screwed. Not sure if the delay time varies by policy or not but I was told by a travel insurance company that its actually 24 hours. So we always plan to arrive by 2pm the day before the cruise

I think its a per policy basis because I know for a fact that our policy requires a 2 hour or more delay and then it kicks in (edit to add: that is for the flight delay payout and for the food and beverage compensation to start). It also kicks in if we miss the boat under any circumstances.

 

[GatorWayne]

I always buy insurance so in the event one of us is evacuated off the ship we have coverage. So far in 20+ cruises it has been a complete waste of money. I hope we never have to make a claim.

 

[Rogillio]

Travel insurance helps some people sleep better at night not worring about everything that could possibly go wrong. The insurance provides some compensation for IF something goes wrong.

We've taken 15 cruises and have NEVER had travel insurance and have NEVER had an incident where we could have used it, never. In addition to cruises, we have travel extensively in the US and abroad and have never purchased travel insurance nor had the need of it.

If you are firm believer in Murphy's Law, then for peace of mind, buy the insurance. I choose to believe everything will go right on our vacations. So far, I have been right. If something should go wrong in the future and it costs me money, then I will remind myself I saved thousand over the years not paying for insurance that I didn't need.

BTW, I'm not anti-insurance. We have life insurance, health insurance, home insurance and auto insurance. But I'm not gonna insure a $5k to $10k vacation.

 

[GatorMomInNC]

We have always bought insurance when traveling with my mom (now 82 y.0.). We had to use it for the first time on our last cruise (WBTA 09/2014) when my mom became very ill. She was almost put off the ship in the Canary Islands. She is still waiting to get reimbursed from Allianz (the insurance we purchased from DCL), but that is because she had to first submit to Medicare and her regular insurance and be denied. I am waiting to see if/when she gets reimbursed and then I plan on writing a quick review in case others want to know if it was worth it. So far her expenses have been about $3k. If she gets reimbursed it will make up for all those times we bought insurance, but if she doesn't, why bother??

 

[ptcbass]

I am a firm believer in Murphy's Law. I am one that will also NEVER say it won't happen to me. If you google cruise ship medical emergencies or you tube you will see that it happens more than we know. So very sad for those families and I hate to think that if they didn't have insurance they could also be responsible for big money paying for medevac and treatment. Then if you need to find your way home that will cost too. It can cover way more than just the cost of the cruise. I will always buy it and hope I never have to use it. That will be perfectly fine with me.

 

[Rogillio]

As someone previously state, travel insurance is a personal decision and people that always buy it feel justified because they read about someone having to be helicopter medi-vac'd from Nowheresville and had huge medical bill.
Do you have a below ground storm shelter in your house? You can find stories about people who didn't have one and their house was destroy and everyone was kill in a tornado. Does that mean you need to run out and drop 10 grand for a storm shelter? It's up to you.

The bottom line is, the reason travel insurance companies make money is the odds are greatly in their favor. If they pay an claim for someone's $10,000 vacation, that means with there were 100 people who paid $100 insurance costs and they got nothing! So 100 people paid for insurance and 1 person befitted from it.
Of course this is true of ANY insurance, right?!
Do you buy extended warranties on electronics, cars, tools, etc? If you do, you are wasting your money! Yes, you can always find a story about some guy whose car blew up the day after his warranty expired. But those are the horror stories they use to sell their produce. If you graph reliability vs time with 'failures' on the y-axis and time on the x-axis you will end up with a curve that looks like a bathtub. You will find most of the failures happened during the first year - this is called infant mortality. But this is the period that is already covered with the manufactures' warranty. After the first year the failures are very low until you move out the time axis a ways until you read end of life failures. So the 'extended warranty' period covers the MOST RELIABLE portion of the failure/reliability curve!

I'm not trying to equate extended warranty to travel insurance just trying to show that people selling insurance play on your fears. Some people worry all the time so paying a few hundred is the price they pay to so worry. Personally, I refuse to worry and live my life expecting calamity. If good fortune befalls anyone, it will be me. I am the lucky one! God looks after me too so I've got that going for me.

 

[marivigi]

We have always bought insurance when traveling with my mom (now 82 y.0.). We had to use it for the first time on our last cruise (WBTA 09/2014) when my mom became very ill. She was almost put off the ship in the Canary Islands. She is still waiting to get reimbursed from Allianz (the insurance we purchased from DCL), but that is because she had to first submit to Medicare and her regular insurance and be denied. I am waiting to see if/when she gets reimbursed and then I plan on writing a quick review in case others want to know if it was worth it. So far her expenses have been about $3k. If she gets reimbursed it will make up for all those times we bought insurance, but if she doesn't, why bother??

Do keep us posted!

 

[turtle27]

My take, and I will say I always purchase a separate travel insurance policy (sorry Disney), is that it is up to you if you need it or not. If you can afford to lose the trip and shrug it off as an oh well, then don't buy it. If you can handle emergency costs, i.e., delayed flights, cancelled flights, extra nights of hotel rooms, etc., then you don't need travel insurance. If your medical insurance already covers you internationally (most should domestically), and/or for worst case scenario, the medivac costs, then you may not need trip insurance. For me, my pocket book, and peace of mind, I want that trip insurance.

For 2 ppl (mom and daughter, so mom's policy is more) it is costing about 400 in total to insure a several thousand dollar trip. This covers all pre-existing conditions since we purchased within the 21 days as well. Basically, one missed flight, one late arrival, etc., and we have the insurance there. Lost luggage, insurance will cover more than the airline. Also, granny is in her 90's, still healthy, but you never know, so if something happens, our last thought will be, well, what about the cost of the trip?

Please do some research on different travel policies and pick one that is a good fit for you and has a good reputation.

The cruise lines, Disney is not the only one, are getting less forgiving for missing a cruise since they offer fairly inexpensive insurance policies. It makes customer service seem mean, but especially on Disney where they do sell out, they may not be able to re-sell your room and then they lose out on on-board purchases, etc. Also, beware that some cruise line policies will only give you future credit instead of actual cash back in your pocket, which is also why I purchase independent insurance.

 

[Rogillio]

I have a go-back....
I posted previously I have never purchased travel insurance but after reading the last post I recalled that was not true. Last year my son and I went trekking in Nepal to Everest Base Camp. We contracted with a local outfitter for a guide and porter to carry our 'stuff'. As part of the contract with them, we had to show proof of travel insurance. The reason was the risk of injury is very high and so is the cost of a helicopter evac in the Himalayans. When I went shopping for trip insurance I specified we only needed insurance to cover the time we were in Nepal. So the expensive international flights were not covered nor was our hotels...it basically covered the cost of medical emergencies. The cost for this limited insurance was really cheap - like maybe $15 or so.
So when you shop for travel insurance ask yourself what is your concern? If you have time to 'catch the next flight' the airlines will put you on the next flight. I've traveled millions of miles by plane and only if I miss a very late flight do I have to overnight and catch a flight the next day...and the airlines always pay for the hotel. I also checked with BC/BS to make sure our health insurance covered us if we were out of the country and they did. Very unlikely we'd ever need medical care while traveling......closes we ever came was when my son ran his ATV off the road in Cozumel on a jungle excursion and caught a barbed wire fence across the chest. The ATV outfitters gave first aid and cleaned the cuts and when we got back to the ship we went to the doctor and he gave my son a tetnus shot. I think that cost us $20.
I am not trying to sell anything or convince anyone they should or should not buy travel insurance. Just think about why you want to buy it and then get one that covers your concerns.

 

[eskimoinparadise]

As someone previously state, travel insurance is a personal decision and people that always buy it feel justified because they read about someone having to be helicopter medi-vac'd from Nowheresville and had huge medical bill.
Do you have a below ground storm shelter in your house? You can find stories about people who didn't have one and their house was destroy and everyone was kill in a tornado. Does that mean you need to run out and drop 10 grand for a storm shelter? It's up to you.

The bottom line is, the reason travel insurance companies make money is the odds are greatly in their favor. If they pay an claim for someone's $10,000 vacation, that means with there were 100 people who paid $100 insurance costs and they got nothing! So 100 people paid for insurance and 1 person befitted from it.
Of course this is true of ANY insurance, right?!
Do you buy extended warranties on electronics, cars, tools, etc? If you do, you are wasting your money! Yes, you can always find a story about some guy whose car blew up the day after his warranty expired. But those are the horror stories they use to sell their produce. If you graph reliability vs time with 'failures' on the y-axis and time on the x-axis you will end up with a curve that looks like a bathtub. You will find most of the failures happened during the first year - this is called infant mortality. But this is the period that is already covered with the manufactures' warranty. After the first year the failures are very low until you move out the time axis a ways until you read end of life failures. So the 'extended warranty' period covers the MOST RELIABLE portion of the failure/reliability curve!

I'm not trying to equate extended warranty to travel insurance just trying to show that people selling insurance play on your fears. Some people worry all the time so paying a few hundred is the price they pay to so worry. Personally, I refuse to worry and live my life expecting calamity. If good fortune befalls anyone, it will be me. I am the lucky one! God looks after me too so I've got that going for me.

Since you brought up statistics and probability, the laws of probability and chance state that the longer you go without an event happening the higher the probability that it will happen. Borrowed time is just that - borrowed. It comes down to the question of when (not if) your luck will run out. I prefer not to roll that particular pair of dice.

 

[icesk8abc]

Another thing that makes this a different issue for different people is budgetary concerns. If you are a frequent cruiser/traveler, your ability to cover the cost should something happen is probably different than someone who has saved years for a once in a lifetime trip. Each person must decide what level of financial risk is comfortable for them.

 

[DCL4LIFE]

I rely on the trip insurance I receive from my Chase Sapphire Preferred card.

http://milecards.com/2063/chase-sapphire-preferred-full-benefits-guide/

In addition to that, I absolutely love when I go to rent a car, and decline all their marked-up insurance. When they ask why, and I tell them my card includes it, they again try to tell me that it's secondary insurance, blah blah. As soon as I say "It's primary insurance" they put their head down and finish the contract.

I love that card. For travelers I think it's a must-have.

That being said, knock on wood, in nearly 25 cruises I've never filed any sort of claim.