Buy the trip insurance or not?

[lucas]

Just wondering, do you guys purchase the DCL insurance or not? Reasons?

 

[Justacruiser]

No, just the two of us and have good health insurance and passports. Also we drive to the port so not a chance of missing flights. Always get there the day before.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Just wondering, do you guys purchase the DCL insurance or not? Reasons?

We don't buy DCL insurance (or any other cruise line's insurance). You can typically find better, cheaper coverage from a 3rd party insurance company, than you can from one tied to the cruiseline.

BUT, except for our first cruse (when we were stupid), and our 2 Mexican Riviera cruises, we've always gotten insurance. Primarily for the medical/evacuation coverage. Most US health plans do not cover "out of country", and evacuation costs can run upwards of $30,000 per event. Just seems worth it to us.

Reason for not on the MR cruises - we live in southern California. If we were medically removed from the ship, we have family that could come and get us quite easily.

 

[ludari]

I have never purchased insurance for any of my completed nine cruises. I have great medical insurance and I also have supplemental insurance that will cover out of the country and evacuation expenses. Nevertheless earlier this year my friend who was on a DCL was not feeling well and decided to cut the cruise short and depart midway through. She told me that she was glad she had purchased the insurance.

 

[Autumnslight]

We didn't buy it for our first cruise, but we WILL buy it for any and all future cruises! Two days before our cruise, our four year old daughter spent the better part of the day throwing up, and we were terrified that she was actually sick and we'd end up losing out on our whole cruise, and all the money we had paid for it. I spent that day desperately wishing I'd bought the insurance. Thankfully she was fine by the next day (turned out not to have been an actual virus/sickness), and our cruise was great, but there's no way I'm going to go through that panic again.

 

[MelSpees]

We buy trip insurance through USAA. You never know what might happen prior to, or on a cruise.

 

[cheermom2four]

I did just because coming from Colorado and the chance of snow in February and us not getting out even the day before, I'd rather not risk it. As for sept 2016 cruise we added it since it is hurricane season at that time. I can always change it at a later date to outside source insurance once I get time to research it since our two cruises arent till 2016.

 

[jdb in AZ]

We've had to use insurance twice. Once was for canceling a cruise due to DH's health. The doctor didn't want him to fly across the "pond" a month after knee surgery -- too much risk of getting a blood clot from sitting on the plane for a long period. We have great health insurance, but only trip insurance would have covered trip cancellation, to the tune of $8000.

 

[bumbershoot]

I can't buy the DCL insurance because they can't sell it in WA. So if we get insurance, it's through outside companies. And even if they could sell here I think I'd use an outside company, because you get better options. So look into the options, think about what you NEED (for instance, do you or anyone you might be leaving at home have any already-diagnosed health conditions that could flare up and cause a cancellation or interruption? if not, getting the pre-existing condition waiver isn't important for you and there's no need to pay for it), talk with the insurance people, have them send the info to you, read it, etc.

 

[Karlzmom]

I just factor it in like its part of the total price of the cruise...just like tips. You buy car insurance whether you had an accident yesterday or not, right? You might be the best driver in the world but there are still other people involved that might just bring you into their problem. You have house insurance even if you haven't ever had a fire? Why? Because even if you think you can manage a small fire you really can't control how far it will burn or what it will damage before its put out. In short, insurance is there because your financial exposure is too high *IF* something goes wrong.

That said, I buy my trip insurance through Costco as it find it has better coverage for less money.

 

[redsonja76]

ALWAYS buy the trip insurance.

Our cruise back into the port of Venice was delayed due to fog. We missed our flights. We had to buy train tickets home from Venice to Frankfurt to the tune of around $1000. Trip insurance paid for it. I ALWAYS buy it.

 

[MinnesotaMouseketeers]

We do not purchase trip insurance through DCL but WE DO PURCHASE trip insurance. We go on-line to Insure My Trip and pick what works best for us. Being in good health (you and relatives) is not a good reason to not purchase insurance. Weather, mechanical issues, accidents, an unexpected death. All of these things have happened to us or others we know during an upcoming trip on on the way home from one. A cruise is way too expensive of a vacation for me to feel comfortable to not purchase trip insurance. We have also been on a cruise that had to divert to a port during our sea day to transfer a passenger to another boat to get them to a hospital in the Bahamas.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Being in good health (you and relatives) is not a good reason to not purchase insurance.

Exactly. There have been people who have over-done things on an excursion and injured themselves (young people). Also, I read a thread here not too long ago, on one of the Mexican Riviera cruises a young child had an appendicitis attack and had to be medically removed in Cabo San Lucas, I believe it was. That family had insurance, and it covered medical costs, evacuation back to the US.

You just don't know. It's worth the small price (compared to whole trip cost) for peace of mind.

 

[Maggie'sMom]

I have never bought the DCL insurance, but I have purchased trip insurance from outside companies for my cruises.

 

[bumbershoot]

Being in good health (you and relatives) is not a good reason to not purchase insurance.

Just in case that was coming from what I wrote, I said that if you don't have any pre-existing conditions (and have no one at home with them), there's no need to get the PEC waiver. That's not the same as saying not to get insurance. But if no one has PECs when you're buying the insurance, getting that waived isn't important.

We would want PEC waived because my MIL has a thousand PECs that could flare up and cause us to cancel or have to leave mid-trip (which we've actually ALL sat down and decided we wouldn't do, because she doesn't want that and there are other grown kids who can follow her well-stated wishes), so we would pay extra for that. If you don't have anyone with pre-diagnosed conditions, you don't need it and it's a waste of money to pay for it.

 

[cheribelle]

Accidents happen and they don't care if you are in a foreign country or not.
We buy insurance, also through USAA, just to be secure. With 3 small children, anything can happen. From unexpected illness to accidents on a beach or excursions. I don't like to think the worst but anything can happen. What if our tour bus got into an accident? Small chance but that's why it's an accident. No one can guarantee safety or health anywhere.

 

[insureman]

We always buy it 3rd party. More concerned about medical and medical evacuation which can be extremely costly.

 

[DLgal]

We buy it from TravelGuard. It is only about $100 for our family of four and TOTALLY worth the peace of mind. Anything can happen and I am NOT taking the chance at having to pay for something crazy like a medical evacuation expense.

 

[lucas]

Thanks for your input. Decided to get it.

 

[MarineFam]

We don't buy DCL insurance (or any other cruise line's insurance). You can typically find better, cheaper coverage from a 3rd party insurance company, than you can from one tied to the cruiseline.

BUT, except for our first cruse (when we were stupid), and our 2 Mexican Riviera cruises, we've always gotten insurance. Primarily for the medical/evacuation coverage. Most US health plans do not cover "out of country", and evacuation costs can run upwards of $30,000 per event. Just seems worth it to us.

Reason for not on the MR cruises - we live in southern California. If we were medically removed from the ship, we have family that could come and get us quite easily.

I will tell you I have said the same thing all along. " there wouldn't be any reason I wouldn't be going" then a couple weeks ago my sister had to have emergency surgery 3 days before the cruise to take out part of her small intestine and her and her family missed the cruise. If that had happened while on the cruise then she would have had to be evacuated and the money would have been unbelievable. I will always have trip insurance now. There are a couple places like "insure my trip" and others that aren't expensive that serve the purpose.