Am I The Only Dummy To Buy DCL Trip Insurance?

[mellers]

Is there a 3rd party insurance you can recommend?

A lot of people have recommended http://www.insuremytrip.com/ , http://www.tripinsurancestore.com/ , and http://www.squaremouth.com/ , as well as CSA specifically if you need pre-existing conditions coverage (IMHO, this is always important) and are purchasing more than 14-21 days after your first payment.

I used insuremytrip and bought TravelInsured insurance--the coverage looked appropriate for my family's needs; however, I can't honestly say I "recommend" it, as I've never needed to file a claim and don't know how that would go. Strong recommendations? Whatever insurance you get, make sure it includes pre-existing conditions and medical evacuation. These are your biggest financial exposures on a cruise.

One other strong recommendation, if you are in the military or military reserves, don't buy Disney--check out CSA. It has some deployment coverage; most insurance doesn't. You also may want to check on-base for trip insurance that caters to servicepeople.

Since using insuremytrip, I've seen the TripInsuranceStore website, and I really like their "Advantages/Quibbles" listings for each of the insurances--I think it makes it easier to see the advantages and disadvantages of each policy, and compare accurately and quickly.

 

[ntmec]

Whatever company you decide to go with just be sure to BUY THE INSURANCE!!
Last March (a year ago today, actually) we were on a 7-day East Carrib on the Magic and my son broke his arm (rogue wave- watch out for the Northern Swell this time of year!) at Trunk Bay, St. John. It was a complete break & displacement and the Drs at the ER in St. Thomas told us to get home ASAP. DH & DS8 stayed at ER while me, my mom, my dad and DS5 had to quickly get back to Magic, pack our stuff, sign a bunch of debarking papers and get off the boat before it had to depart the port. So Sad!! Anyway, then we had to scramble to get new plane tickets home from St. Thomas, get a hotel room for that evening (not cheap in high season!), and get transportation to/from hospital, hotel, airport. A mess! DCL helped with logistics as much as they could, but we DID NOT have insurance and it ended up costing a bundle- as well as losing the remaining 3 days of our vacation.
From here on out I will ALWAYS purchase the insurance!
BTW, the Magic horn is still music to my ears, but the memory of standing on the dock in St Thomas as the horn blew and the Magic pulled away and left us there still brings tears to me and my mom... Thankfully I've just booked a 7-day western carrib for next March - a year from today and the 2 year anniversary of "the break"! And our son healed well with no lasting effects - God gave us amazing bodies!!

 

[latinqt]

wow I really need to do some research on this one.

 

[luv2boys]

what about policies, companies that refund when purchasing cruises with DVC points? anyone have experience with that?

 

[cruella4me64]

Oh, my DIS friends,

I have a pad of paper and have taken notes over the oodles of pages of posts ... and put a dunce cap on me--probably put two.

I plan to book a May 2012 cruise with some kind of insurance. Who knows what could happen. We are in our 40s but also on high cholesterol meds. God forbid, something happens.

Unless we're dead, I would be happy to have any monies paid be 100% credited for a future DCL cruise.

So, is DCL insurance a poor choice? Do travel agents add third party insurance or only DCL insurance?

End of day, 100% DCL credit is perfect. I don't care if it is refunded cash.

 

[Never to old]

We are in our forties and had never bothered with insurance. We are young and healthy. In 2008, we planned a grand gathering trip with my elder parents, brother and his family. Due to my parents age, we purchased trip insurance. Wow was I glad, as medical issues for my father did arise. They were able to get there money back and we could have too had we canceled the entire trip. I now buy insurance all on all trips. I am no longer willing to take a chance in these economic times and with vacations being so expensive. We compare insurance companies and go with the best rate and the best coverage for our needs. For our Dream trip, we went with Disney's insurance.

 

[David9]

Has anyone ever had to use the DCL insurance? Wondering what the experience was when the claim was submitted? Were you satisfied?

 

[David9]

Thought I would post this - MSNBC posted this on their website - "10 things travel insurance does not cover" thought it should be something we should be aware of - it case some of these issues may impact a traveler - Wonder if DCL insurance covers any of these issues - and if they do, are their any "small print" exclusions.

Here is what the article said to looking into for non coverage areas that some travel insurance companies will not cover - some of these items bring up interesting issues for us to consider:

1. Your tour operator cancels on you: We're not talking about when you cancel your trip; this is when your trip cancels on you. For example, if you're signed up for a Canadian rail tour, you might buy trip cancellation insurance in case you can't go. But what if the rail tour itself gets canceled? Most insurance policies won't cover that scenario, so for example your non-refundable airfare isn't covered.

2. Acts of war/local protests: Although terrorism is covered by most policies, acts of war or civil unrest are common policy exclusions. So even if ongoing protests or sporadic outbreaks in international locations might force you to change your plans, most policies won't help.

3. Pre-existing medical conditions: This is a common exclusion in many insurance policies — but what does it mean? It refers to any medical condition that has required attention prior to travel or initiation of the policy. So while traveling, if you suffer a health problem related to that condition, your treatment may not be covered.

4. Baggage delayed for less than 24 hours (outbound flights only): Most policies will not reimburse necessary expenditures for baggage delayed less than 24 hours. So it would be a good idea to carry on what you need for at least a day after you arrive at your destination. Note that this applies to outbound flights only, which means the coverage does not apply to baggage delays for your trip home.

5. Death or illness of a pet: Bet you hadn't thought of this one. Many of us have beloved animals in our homes, and you'd certainly not want to go on that family trip if your pet was terribly sick. But don't expect insurance policies to be sympathetic. Even service animals, such as seeing-eye dogs, aren't covered, although that may change as the industry wakes up to the need for such coverage.

6. Loss or damage to keys, money, documents, tickets, or credit cards: These items are commonly listed under the exclusions to Baggage and Personal Items Coverage. Be sure to keep these and other valuables with you at all times.

7. Sports injuries: Many insurance policies don't cover injuries from certain adventure sports like bungee jumping, paragliding, mountain climbing, or white water rafting.

8. Pregnancy and childbirth: Insurance policies specify the conditions under which pregnancy complications or childbirth is covered (if at all). This is a common exclusion, so if you plan on traveling while pregnant, be sure to read the fine print.

9. Psychological illness or self-inflicted injuries: Coverage for emotional and mental illnesses or emergencies is often excluded. If you suffer a nervous breakdown, your insurance won't let you cancel your trip without penalty.

10. Your spouse files for divorce before the trip: Increasingly, insurance companies are adding coverage for this situation. However, some policies do not include divorce or legal separation as valid reasons for cancelling or interrupting a trip.

 

[cmwade77]

As near as I can tell Travelex does cover you if the tour operator cancels on you, I.e. If Disney canceled your cruise for some reason, there are certain conditions that must be met in order for this to be covered. they also do cover baggage delays less than 24 hours (I believe their minimum delay was 4 hours)

You can also add a cancel for any reason clause and get reimbursed for up to 75% of nonrefundable costs for reasons that would not normally be covered.

As for the poster on high cholesterol mess, I would not recommend Disney's insurance, I would go with one that will cover preexisting conditions. High cholesterol could be considered a preexisting condition for many problems that might potentially prevent you from cruising. Most travel agents will help you find a third party insurance that works for you. (Note: they will get some commission, so make sure to use their link or enter their TA number when purchasing the insurance, if they helped you find it). DW has similar problems and I would suggest that Travelex is the best under that situation.

One other note about Travel Insurance: Make sure that the insurance you buy is Primary Coverage and not Secondary. Wit Primary, it means they will pay out before any other coverage pays. With secondary, you have to first submit requests for payment to any other coverage you may have (through medical insurance, credit card that you paid with, etc.) and then they will pay anything that the others won't, this also delays you getting your money. In most cases with primary insurance you won't have to pay anything out of pockets (except any applicable deductibles) if you have a medical or other emergency. There have been a few reports on these boards of Travelex taking care of even having to see the ship's doctor, so you aren't out the money at the time.

 

[sayhello]

Oh, my DIS friends,

I have a pad of paper and have taken notes over the oodles of pages of posts ... and put a dunce cap on me--probably put two.

I plan to book a May 2012 cruise with some kind of insurance. Who knows what could happen. We are in our 40s but also on high cholesterol meds. God forbid, something happens.

Unless we're dead, I would be happy to have any monies paid be 100% credited for a future DCL cruise.

So, is DCL insurance a poor choice? Do travel agents add third party insurance or only DCL insurance?

End of day, 100% DCL credit is perfect. I don't care if it is refunded cash.

If you are happy with 100% of your non-refundable cruise being credited for a future cruise, then DCL is a fine choice. It may be more expensive than what you could get otherwise, but you'll be covered for the cost of your cruise if you have to cancel. Airfare will only be covered if you purchase it through DCL.

As was mentioned earlier, however, you won't get a pre-existing condition waiver with DCL's insurance, and that *could* have consequences if you have some sort of medical emergency *during* the cruise that is tied to a pre-existing medical condition. In that case, you would not be covered.

I would compare other policies at http://www.insuremytrip.com/ or http://www.tripinsurancestore.com/. If you still like the DCL insurance best, buy it. But you might find something you like better.

Travel Agents will sometimes offer 3rd party insurance, but it's my experience that if they do, they only offer insurance from one company, which they have an agreement with. So they are not going to shop around for the best coverage for you, between multiple companies. They are generally going to offer you a good policy, but you won't have choices.

Sayhello

 

[mellers]

Oh, my DIS friends,

I have a pad of paper and have taken notes over the oodles of pages of posts ... and put a dunce cap on me--probably put two.

I plan to book a May 2012 cruise with some kind of insurance. Who knows what could happen. We are in our 40s but also on high cholesterol meds. God forbid, something happens.

Unless we're dead, I would be happy to have any monies paid be 100% credited for a future DCL cruise.

So, is DCL insurance a poor choice? Do travel agents add third party insurance or only DCL insurance?

End of day, 100% DCL credit is perfect. I don't care if it is refunded cash.

I would still go with non-Disney insurance were I you. If something happens to the person on cholesterol meds while he or she is on the cruise, Disney could deny his or her medical claim as a pre-existing condition--if this involves an evacuation, this could potentially cost you many thousands of dollars--much more than the cost of your cruise.

There are a fair number of companies that will cover pre-existing conditions within 14-21 days of the initial payment. There are only a few which will do so afterwards--one of them is CSA. There are more details available here: http://tripinsurancestore.com/csa.shtml. I have also heard that HTH will as well.

 

[cmwade77]

If you are happy with 100% of your non-refundable cruise being credited for a future cruise, then DCL is a fine choice. It may be more expensive than what you could get otherwise, but you'll be covered for the cost of your cruise if you have to cancel. Airfare will only be covered if you purchase it through DCL.

As was mentioned earlier, however, you won't get a pre-existing condition waiver with DCL's insurance, and that *could* have consequences if you have some sort of medical emergency *during* the cruise that is tied to a pre-existing medical condition. In that case, you would not be covered.

I would compare other policies at http://www.insuremytrip.com/ or http://www.tripinsurancestore.com/. If you still like the DCL insurance best, buy it. But you might find something you like better.

Travel Agents will sometimes offer 3rd party insurance, but it's my experience that if they do, they only offer insurance from one company, which they have an agreement with. So they are not going to shop around for the best coverage for you, between multiple companies. They are generally going to offer you a good policy, but you won't have choices.

Sayhello

I agree with the fact that you should do your own research, our TA uses only Travelex, but recommends that you look at both of these site before buying trip insurance. We mainly looked at tripinsurancestore, as I liked the side by side comparisons that they have available, made it very easy to determine which coverage was best for us.

It turned out that for us Travelex was the best option, so we went with our TA's setup, but your situation may vary.

 

[sdhines00]

My family went on our first Disney cruise last June and we also purchased the DCL insurance. I too was pondering if we really needed it. I am so thankful that we did purchase it. My mother passed away 6 months before we set sail. I called up Disney and they were nothing but nice about the whole situation. They took my mother off our reservation and did not ask any questions. They didn't even ask for a death certificate. I personally did not have any problems with our claim. She did pass away from a prior condition but we had no problems with our claim.

 

[SA53]

Thank you all for this great information on a subject I have never really thought about...

My question is, I am about to hit my 14 day mark from booking my July 2012 cruise. When I am looking at insurance how much information about our trip do they need? I have not yet booked air (we may drive) and still haven't decided it we are going to include some WDW after the cruise. The only concrete information I have is the cruise. If I want the air and hotel covered plus the cruise but don't have this information or total cost yet, how do I figure out what I need for insurance?

K in SA

 

[denas]

Thank you all for this great information on a subject I have never really thought about...

My question is, I am about to hit my 14 day mark from booking my July 2012 cruise. When I am looking at insurance how much information about our trip do they need? I have not yet booked air (we may drive) and still haven't decided it we are going to include some WDW after the cruise. The only concrete information I have is the cruise. If I want the air and hotel covered plus the cruise but don't have this information or total cost yet, how do I figure out what I need for insurance?

K in SA

In general, insurance is sold in blocks. So I would estimate the total amount of insurance you think you might need including the cost of airfare and non-refundable deposits on hotels. Total this amount with your cruse fare. I usually split up some costs among everyone (rental car, etc). You can do this for your driving option also and see what the difference is. In general, the amount for insurance of 2100 is probably the same as the amount for 2500. You can either buy the amount for the lowest value and check with the company about increasing at a later date, or see how much it would actually cost you for the highest value including airfare and decide if the extra $10-15 pp is really worth worrying about - you have the insurance and you know you will be covered and if you end up not flying you just paid for a little extra. For us, flights add about $250pp which actually didn't change the price of the insurance at all since the higher total trip price was still within whatever bracket we were being quoted for insurance for the cruise and other costs.

 

[mellers]

Thought I would post this - MSNBC posted this on their website - "10 things travel insurance does not cover" thought it should be something we should be aware of - it case some of these issues may impact a traveler - Wonder if DCL insurance covers any of these issues - and if they do, are their any "small print" exclusions.

I would add one more thing to this excellent list--if you have a family member in the military who could potentially be redeployed, this is generally not covered, and is not covered by Disney insurance. CSA has some coverage for this, but you would be wise to check with the base to see if there is better coverage.

 

[sayhello]

Thank you all for this great information on a subject I have never really thought about...

My question is, I am about to hit my 14 day mark from booking my July 2012 cruise. When I am looking at insurance how much information about our trip do they need? I have not yet booked air (we may drive) and still haven't decided it we are going to include some WDW after the cruise. The only concrete information I have is the cruise. If I want the air and hotel covered plus the cruise but don't have this information or total cost yet, how do I figure out what I need for insurance?

K in SA

I agree with denas. Estimate. Figure out what you *think* it will cost and insure for that amount. You *CAN* get a refund of the difference if you over-estimate (I have done this more than once). I'd check with the specific company you purchase from, but all the companies I've dealt with so far have said they'd refund the difference. Or you can underestimate & pay more when you find out the total. Remember to only insure costs that are unreimburseable. If you can cancel and get all your money back (say, for a pre-cruise hotel room) then insurance won't cover it.

Again, if you over-estimate, they'll refund the difference. If you under-estimate, they'll allow you to increase the value covered by paying an additional amount. They know that people buy airfare and book hotel rooms, etc, long after putting a deposit down on a cruise, and they are very accommodating for that.

I'm trying to remember, but I think I read somewhere that if you under-estimate, the amount you underestimate by won't be covered for a pre-existing condition (since you will probably pay the extra premium after the 14-21 day period). So it's safer to over-estimate. I'm going to look & see if I can find that again.

ETA: Here it is:

http://www.tripinsurancestore.com/faqs.shtml#f

Q. If I buy my insurance now, will the plane tickets that I purchase later for those parts of the trip be covered?

A. Yes, you can cover your plane tickets you purchase later. You can either estimate your total trip cost now and insure that much or cover your known costs today and increase the insurance later (when you incur higher trip costs).

If you want / need coverage for pre-existing medical conditions:
You need to cover your full prepaid non-refundable trip cost when you get your insurance. It's unlikely you'll know today what this trip cost is, so you're best option is to guess high on the cost and then, later when you find out exactly what the cost is, you can lower your insurance coverage. If you end up going to a lower trip cost bracket, you'll get a partial refund of the insurance premium.

In general, insurance is sold in blocks. So I would estimate the total amount of insurance you think you might need including the cost of airfare and non-refundable deposits on hotels. Total this amount with your cruse fare. I usually split up some costs among everyone (rental car, etc). You can do this for your driving option also and see what the difference is. In general, the amount for insurance of 2100 is probably the same as the amount for 2500. You can either buy the amount for the lowest value and check with the company about increasing at a later date, or see how much it would actually cost you for the highest value including airfare and decide if the extra $10-15 pp is really worth worrying about - you have the insurance and you know you will be covered and if you end up not flying you just paid for a little extra. For us, flights add about $250pp which actually didn't change the price of the insurance at all since the higher total trip price was still within whatever bracket we were being quoted for insurance for the cruise and other costs.

Just thought I'd mention here again that you can actually usually get a refund of that "extra $10-15 pp". So it's really not worth worrying about.

Sayhello

 

[sayhello]

I agree with the fact that you should do your own research, our TA uses only Travelex, but recommends that you look at both of these site before buying trip insurance. We mainly looked at tripinsurancestore, as I liked the side by side comparisons that they have available, made it very easy to determine which coverage was best for us.

It turned out that for us Travelex was the best option, so we went with our TA's setup, but your situation may vary.

Just thought I'd mention that www.insuremytrip.com does side-by-side comparisons, also. I use it all the time to compare the coverages.

Sayhello

 

[denas]

I would add one more thing to this excellent list--if you have a family member in the military who could potentially be redeployed, this is generally not covered, and is not covered by Disney insurance. CSA has some coverage for this, but you would be wise to check with the base to see if there is better coverage.

USAA (which is a military insurance company) offers a travel insurance policy through their site. While the policy is actually provided by an outside company, it is endorsed by USAA and USAA members get a discount and extra protection specifically designed for all of the various reasons military members may not make it to the cruise. The policy will come with a specific "USAA member additional coverage". It covers everything pertaining to military leave revocation including mobilization, not making it home due to various issues for mid-tour leaves, etc. And it is cheaper if you buy it through their site then if you buy from the same company through insure my trip. The only problem with their insurance is that there is no way to purchase pre-existing condition coverage if you don't purchase within 14 days of your initial deposit.

 

[mellers]

USAA (which is a military insurance company) offers a travel insurance policy through their site. While the policy is actually provided by an outside company, it is endorsed by USAA and USAA members get a discount and extra protection specifically designed for all of the various reasons military members may not make it to the cruise. The policy will come with a specific "USAA member additional coverage". It covers everything pertaining to military leave revocation including mobilization, not making it home due to various issues for mid-tour leaves, etc. And it is cheaper if you buy it through their site then if you buy from the same company through insure my trip. The only problem with their insurance is that there is no way to purchase pre-existing condition coverage if you don't purchase within 14 days of your initial deposit.

Thanks! That's great information.