Confused about trip insurance

[sandydk]

I definitely want to get trip insurance, but I'm a little confused. Do I have to sign up for a third-party insurance within the first 14/21-days after initial cruise deposit, or can I wait until closer to the trip to get insurance? Would love to roll my flights in and get one policy to cover my whole trip, and we won't have that information until a couple months from now. Do I have to get separate policies for my cruise versus land/park time? Mostly concerned about the cruise and hospital/evacuation that my normal medical doesn't cover, but would prefer to cover whole trip if possible... Thank you!

 

[jtba]

I definitely want to get trip insurance, but I'm a little confused. Do I have to sign up for a third-party insurance within the first 14/21-days after initial cruise deposit, or can I wait until closer to the trip to get insurance? Would love to roll my flights in and get one policy to cover my whole trip, and we won't have that information until a couple months from now. Do I have to get separate policies for my cruise versus land/park time? Mostly concerned about the cruise and hospital/evacuation that my normal medical doesn't cover, but would prefer to cover whole trip if possible... Thank you!

if you have a pre-existing medical condition (food allergies, diabetes, etc.), yes, you'll want to purchase the third-party insurance within the first 14-21 days. this is so you can get the medical waiver. but read the fine print--different companies have different policies on how many days it is. some companies also allow you to purchase the medical waiver for an additional fee after the initial 21 days, for example.

if you want to cover your flight, you can add the $ from the flight onto your policy afterwards and still use the same policy. at least that's what we've done with travelguard, the company we use.

and yes, you can roll all the expenses into the same policy as they occur. you'll just pay more each time the overall amount meets the new threshold. let's use a hypothetical policy that charges $100 to cover a trip of $0-$5000, and $125 for $5,001-$10,000. in this case, say your cruise is $5,000, so you'll pay $100 initially. months later you book the flights, which brings the total to $6,000. because the original policy only covers up to $5k, your premium will now increase from $100 to $125, so you'll need to fork over an additional $25. then you decide to add the park tickets, which brings the total to $7,000. you will not need to pay more, but i would give the company a call to make sure the policy reflects the new total.

hope that makes sense.

 

[Aby]

Unfortunately it all depends on the insurance company you want to go with. Some do require that you book within X number of days of placing the initial deposit in order to qualify for coverage for pre-existing conditions, others just say that in order to be covered a pre-existing medical condition must be stable for X number of days before the purchase date to be covered. Sometimes the rules depend on what kind of insurance you're buying - medical only or trip cancellation/interruption as well.

Personally, we are low risk and have no major medical issues, so we don't like to book too early - usually we wait until we know 100% that we aren't going to change our plans, but at least a month or two prior to any of our penalties would kick in if we had to cancel. If anything happened before we bought the insurance then we could still cancel and not lose any money, so I don't see much point in booking earlier.

I've never been asked to provide any documentation showing what expenses I am exactly covering with my trip insurance (ex. flight booking), so if you did want to book now, but didn't have your flight booked yet, you can probably still buy the insurance. You'd just need to know the inclusive dates you are travelling, and the full cost of anything that would be non-refundable - you could probably estimate flight costs from historical pricing.

Hope this helps,

Aby

 

[sandydk]

Thank you both so much! That helps a lot!

 

[NancyIL]

Insurance companies generally price coverage in $500 increments per person. I estimate my prepaid, non-refundable trip expenses, then round up to the next $500 pp level. (Example: with a $1250 pp cost, I purchase $1500 pp coverage at no additional cost. At $1501 - the price increases.) Although theme park tickets are non-refundable, unused tickets never expire. I wouldn't insure them unless they were part of a package where you never actually took possession of them.

If there are more than two people in the cabin, those additional passengers usually have a lower cruise cost. Therefore, don't just insure the total trip cost, as each person will get the same amount of coverage - which may leave the first two people underinsured. You should be able to purchase different amounts of coverage for each traveler. If the company you choose doesn't - I'd buy enough per person coverage for everyone so that the first two cruisers are fully covered.

I buy my trip insurance from the Trip Insurance Store: www.tripinsurancestore.com

 

[NancyIL]

Unfortunately it all depends on the insurance company you want to go with. Some do require that you book within X number of days of placing the initial deposit in order to qualify for coverage for pre-existing conditions, others just say that in order to be covered a pre-existing medical condition must be stable for X number of days before the purchase date to be covered. Sometimes the rules depend on what kind of insurance you're buying - medical only or trip cancellation/interruption as well.

Personally, we are low risk and have no major medical issues, so we don't like to book too early - usually we wait until we know 100% that we aren't going to change our plans, but at least a month or two prior to any of our penalties would kick in if we had to cancel. If anything happened before we bought the insurance then we could still cancel and not lose any money, so I don't see much point in booking earlier.

I've never been asked to provide any documentation showing what expenses I am exactly covering with my trip insurance (ex. flight booking), so if you did want to book now, but didn't have your flight booked yet, you can probably still buy the insurance. You'd just need to know the inclusive dates you are travelling, and the full cost of anything that would be non-refundable - you could probably estimate flight costs from historical pricing.

Hope this helps,

Aby

I have modified travel dates and increased coverage on my insurance plans multiple times, so you don't need to wait until all plans are 100% certain to buy insurance.

Regarding pre-existing conditions - some companies consider the health of only the travelers, whereas others also consider the health of your non-traveling family members. Read the fine print of any policy you intend to purchase. If the policy you intend to buy also looks at the health of your non-traveling family members, buy the insurance within the timeframe specified by the company for the waiver of pre-existing conditions if your relatives have pre-existing conditions. Otherwise, your claim for reimbursement could be rejected if the reason for your cruise cancellation or interruption was due to the illness or death of a close relative with a pre-existing condition!