Hurricane + Trip Insurance question

[amellors]

My fiance + I are going on the Western 7 Day in early October, and with all the hurricane news popping up she's getting worried about not having trip insurance. Since we got our cruise with DVC points and we are within the 75 day window so we can't purchase Trip Insurance from DCL.

The question I have is can we just get trip insurance to cover our flights (Esp back home if the boat is delayed), out of US medical (God forbid we need it), and possibly rooms in FL if our departure date is delayed?

Since I'm hoping that DVC/DCL would reimburse the cost if they cancel the trip for weather reasons.

Also I've seen a few recommendations for trip insurance places here, and one have any others?

Thanks!

 

[jnadelman]

Did you book your flights on your own or through DCL?
I would imagine if you booked via DCL even without insurance they are responsible for getting you to the ship and will do everything possible to do so. If you booked on your own, you might still be able to get this, but it probably depends on the insurance company you use and the airline you booked with.

I could be 100% wrong on this.

 

[amellors]

We booked the flights on our own, as we are actually heading down to FL a day early to just relax a bit before the cruise.

 

[Selket]

There are some travel insurances that I think you can get close to the day you depart although it might be more costly and/or cover less. I really like the Trip Insurance Store (http://www.tripinsurancestore.com) - they are a broker for all the major companies but the difference is how knowledgeable they are. It is great to tell the person on the phone your problem/concern and have them recommend some options for you. There is no obligation to buy it from them.

My son has a pre-existing medical condition and I found them wonderful to deal with as that adds some complexity to travel insurance.

 

[NancyIL]

I know of a few insurance companies that will cover pre-existing conditions, provided the insurance is purchased within 24 hours of making the final trip payment. Since you are beyond that date - read the fine print of the trip cancellation/trip interruption coverage of several policies regarding air travel delays. Some require there to be a complete cessation of all services for at least 24 hours - so I'd look for a less restrictive policy. You won't be covering the cost of the cruise, so the amount of coverage should be relatively small. I think $500/pp in coverage should cover your air. The price will be the same if you buy a lower amount of coverage, and the price usually increases in $500 increments. I have always gotten my trip insurance from www.insuremytrip.com.

 

[Anal Annie]

I don't know about the flights but you would've had to use the DVC insurance to insure the value of your points. Standard insurance thru DCL won't cover the points. I would never book an expensive vacation like a cruise w/o insurance.....

 

[kcashner]

You can buy insurance privately. Insuremytrip is a good place to start to compare policies.....

We were on the Hurricane Jeane cruise that went from a 7 day cruise to a 4 day cruise out of Ft. Lauderdale. Not complaining--DCL did all they could for us. We got a 40% refund on the cruise fare portion of our ticket (mailed to home after cruise) and a $200 per stateroom onboard credit. Unfortunately no upgrades because many Wonder guests were moved to the Magic. We were also given free bus transportation from WDW or MCO to Port. Lauderdale and from Port Canaveral to either WDW or MCO.

We were at WDW the week before....it cost me every penny of that refund to book the additional days at WDW and spend them locked in our resort with instructions not to open the door. We had gotten a discount on our original WDW package--no discounts on emergency storm bookings! Again, WDW did all they could do. All the TV channels that normally run "company clips" and other ads were changed to movie channels--one ran a loop of 6 "little kid" movies, another ran "big kid" movies and a third ran adult type Disney affiliate movies. We had periodic updates on our phones.

OK, so what did insurance cover? Actual cost of the room and food at WDW or 1/7 of the cruise cost for each day spent at WDW...whichever was greater. I guess they figured they had to go with the "greater" because locked in a resort room wasn't exactly the vacation we'd booked. It didn't matter that DCL had given a partial refund--that wasn't taken into account on the insurance calculations. Another lady I met on the cruise said that her insurance was paying $1000 per day for the missed days. Of course, what they will cover is up to the maximum you put on the policy. It would also cover canceled/change fees, etc. for flights provided you bought a high enough dollar level on the policy to include the flights.

What I mean is....hypothetically you could have 2 people in a cat 12 each paying about $1000 for the cruise (I'm using round figures to make this an easy example). You could buy a policy that would cover up to $2000 in which case this is the maximum you could get back. OR you could pay for a $3000 policy that would cover the cruise plus airfare. With some private insurances, they will cover the cost of the cruise as if you had paid with cash despite the fact that you booked with points.

The other reason to think about insurance is the fact that many health insurance plans exclude anything outside of the US! Your trip insurance includes coverage for medical issue that occur on the trip, lost luggage, etc.

DCL also gave us to choice of canceling the cruise and getting a full refund or rescheduling. If you purchased air thru DCL, they helped with new air arrangements, but if you bought air on your own you were responsible for getting to one of the airports (either MCO or Ft. Lauderdale).

All this said, we have sailed many (I think 6 or 7) times during hurricane season and only had one cruise negatively impacted by a storm. We did sail a modified route on another cruise as the captain was taking us away from a hurricane.....but it was a great cruise.

 

[amellors]

kcashner - WOW.. thanks for all of that info.

Yeah the medical thing I think is the one that scares me the most, because you never know.

As for the hurricane thing I really only worried about having the cruise be delayed + having to come up with the cost of an extra few nights or having to move our airfare.

As for the cruise being canceled on our end.. If it came to that at this point I think that is the least of our worries.