Disney cruise injury

[smadath]

We just are not accident prone. People have traveled the world for thousands of years without accident insurance. Did Walt Disney have travel insurance? No. We are not guided by fear. We accept that there are risks in life. We have no health issues. We are also pretty self reliant. I’m not going to worry about trying to collect 10k from a crappy insurance company in the off chance one of my kids gets hurt. People shell out much more than that in extra insurance costs over the years. And I am definitely not going to blame Disney or whatever company if my kid gets hurt while they happen to be on a ship.

A friend of mine went on a European cruise with her parents. Her DF had a heart attack. They had to stabilize him before they could evacuate him, and their family of 5, back to the US. Not being accident prone doesn't stop things like that from happening.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

A friend of mine went on a European cruise with her parents. Her DF had a heart attack. They had to stabilize him before they could evacuate him, and their family of 5, back to the US. Not being accident prone doesn't stop things like that from happening.

I agree. Being "accident prone" or not has nothing to do with it. A few years ago, a young boy (I think around 10, or so) had an appendicitis attack. Had to be medically evacuated from a DCL Mexican riviera cruise. Happily, the family had insurance. It covered the hospitalization in Cabo San Lucas, mom's stay while there, and getting them back home.

It doesn't have to do with "blaming" anyone for the injury/illness. It has to do with not bankrupting your family because you think "life happens".

 

[kiford]

We just are not accident prone. People have traveled the world for thousands of years without accident insurance.

So only accident prone people get into accidents or unexpectedly sick? My father got a lung infection while on vacation in Spain. Nine days in hospital, EMT had to accompany him home with oxygen tank. $40K total expenses. Fortunately he had travel and health insurance. Didn't take long to file, didn't take long to get his money, no issues.

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

I don’t expect the majority of people to agree with me! No problem. Most people today like to be reimbursed for every possible minute thing that happens to them. I don’t want to live like that. Our health insurance does cover out of country, but as I said it is very high deductible, so catastrophic. But we just have a different mentality. If I loose my $250 pair of prescription sunglasses from Costco, I am going to be a bit annoyed with myself but I am not interested in getting trip insurance so that I can hopefully break even with little filings. Just not the way we think. We like to live on the “edge” so to speak and take it as it comes. If the wheel on my luggage falls off I’m not interested in trying to get $100 from Disney or some insurance company. A lot of people want to be reimbursed for that. Not interested in getting reimbursed for the weather, etc. For us that’s just how life goes sometimes. My point to the OP is to let the $3000 or whatever it is go. Not worth a year of your life stressing yourself out about that stuff. Sometimes life doesn’t go your way. Just part of the game.

 

[insureman]

To clarify - many health insurance plans in the US do not cover "out of country". And, once you board the ship, you are "out of country".

Added to that, it's a good idea to have a high credit card limit on at least one card, as many medical facilities will require pre-payment for services.

And, unlike insurance plans "at home", you'll have to pay up front and submit for reimbursement once back home.

Also a claim out of country would be considered out of network which reimbursement from their medical insurer would be considerably less.

 

[insureman]

Did Walt Disney have travel insurance? .

He did have life insurance for sure and helped finance some projects by borrowing against the cash value. Most likely The Disney Company had some type of travel insurance since that type of policy has been around since mid 1800s.

 

[Sparkly]

Travelling from the UK, under no circumstances would I travel without having insurance in place. All it takes is one injury or serious illness and I could be in deep, deep trouble. Sunglasses, you can replace those. My health, not so much. I also wouldn't go without a credit card for an emergency situation, but that's another thing entirely.

 

[smadath]

I don’t expect the majority of people to agree with me! No problem. Most people today like to be reimbursed for every possible minute thing that happens to them. I don’t want to live like that. Our health insurance does cover out of country, but as I said it is very high deductible, so catastrophic. But we just have a different mentality. If I loose my $250 pair of prescription sunglasses from Costco, I am going to be a bit annoyed with myself but I am not interested in getting trip insurance so that I can hopefully break even with little filings. Just not the way we think. We like to live on the “edge” so to speak and take it as it comes. If the wheel on my luggage falls off I’m not interested in trying to get $100 from Disney or some insurance company. A lot of people want to be reimbursed for that. Not interested in getting reimbursed for the weather, etc. For us that’s just how life goes sometimes. My point to the OP is to let the $3000 or whatever it is go. Not worth a year of your life stressing yourself out about that stuff. Sometimes life doesn’t go your way. Just part of the game.

You're missing the point. It's not so you can collect on a bunch of little filings. It so you are covered for that one enormous filing in the event that catastrophic event does occur. I could care less about something that two or three thousand. $50,000 plus, I care about. Costs add up fast when you need evacuated, hospital care, rerouted flights home... I don't have that much money to live on the "edge."

 

[tinkerone]

Well, putting everything said aside, I think, as someone mentioned earlier, that this person is a troll. We have done our bickering back and forth. Some think insurance is important, some not so much. Lets not continue on and make the (possible) troll happy.
Happy sailing everyone!

 

[Adventurelawyer]

I'd like to thank everyone who has weighed in on this post. It nagged at me until I, finally, made time to do my trip insurance purchase. Done and Done with a $500K medevac and repatriation. I too like to live on the edge. We play very hard and have been to some places where the threat of being murdered at a checkpoint is very real. Not that I expect that in the Bahamas. I'm more concerned with rolling an ATV or being thrown from a jet boat or, or exploring indigenous foods locally sourced in a alleyway, or even missing the drop on a skydive and ending up with a palm tree in the keister. Ways I don't like to live on the edge: needing to pay cash for that crap. Nope.

Thanks everybody for the good notes and the push!

 

[Lisa F]

A friend of mine went on a European cruise with her parents. Her DF had a heart attack. They had to stabilize him before they could evacuate him, and their family of 5, back to the US. Not being accident prone doesn't stop things like that from happening.

and I bet it cost a hell of a lot more than $10k. like I said, a simple shattered ankle medical evac from bermuda 15 years ago was $35k.

 

[DisneyPiPhi]

This thread is 3 pages long and it just hit me that apparently the only reason to have travel insurance is for illness/accidents that occur during the trip - yes? So how come people don't just use their regular health insurance? We always take our cards with us even though we know it's covered on a reimbursement basis. Is the reimbursement basis the reason people get travel insurance?

My other major reason for purchasing travel insurance is so that if the trip is cancelled, we won't be out the cost of the trip.

 

[DisneyPiPhi]

I don’t expect the majority of people to agree with me! No problem. Most people today like to be reimbursed for every possible minute thing that happens to them. I don’t want to live like that. Our health insurance does cover out of country, but as I said it is very high deductible, so catastrophic. But we just have a different mentality. If I loose my $250 pair of prescription sunglasses from Costco, I am going to be a bit annoyed with myself but I am not interested in getting trip insurance so that I can hopefully break even with little filings. Just not the way we think. We like to live on the “edge” so to speak and take it as it comes. If the wheel on my luggage falls off I’m not interested in trying to get $100 from Disney or some insurance company. A lot of people want to be reimbursed for that. Not interested in getting reimbursed for the weather, etc. For us that’s just how life goes sometimes. My point to the OP is to let the $3000 or whatever it is go. Not worth a year of your life stressing yourself out about that stuff. Sometimes life doesn’t go your way. Just part of the game.

Yeah, I'm not going to live on the edge of a six-figure medical event bankrupting my family. There is a huge difference between not needing your suitcase wheel replaced and not wanting to shell out $50,000 cash in a foreign country if you have a heart attack.

 

[mevelandry]

I was injured by a faulty door on Disney Magic. Incident reported immediately and I did seek medical. Btw I paid Disney $500 for trip insurance
They now refuse to pay any of my medical. Happened on first day trip ruined. Couldn’t do any excursions. ( because they say I didn’t send in bills in time but I was still treating. ) Wasn’t aware of any deadlines They were notified in timely fashion. I have kept them appraised throughout. Not ONCE did they ever say. We are governed by Maritime laws. It’s a year. Too bad. We are not honoring your bills. Wow. Buyer beware. Shame on you Disney

Have you checked if your credit card had a travel insurance at the time of your trip?

 

[ironz]

This thread is 3 pages long and it just hit me that apparently the only reason to have travel insurance is for illness/accidents that occur during the trip - yes? So how come people don't just use their regular health insurance? We always take our cards with us even though we know it's covered on a reimbursement basis. Is the reimbursement basis the reason people get travel insurance?

We get it for 2 reasons: a bad accident/illness/medical condition ON the trip, and secondarily, if we have to cancel the trip due to an unexpected illness of DH or I or one of our family members that would cause us to not go on the cruise.

We can absorb the cost of missing a cruise or a piece of misdirected luggage, but many people do not have health insurance that would cover evacuation costs.
And to people going to Alaska on a cruise, don't think that every one of those little port towns has everything needed for all medical emergencies. I used to work in one of the port towns. Bad trauma and other conditions needed to be flown down to Seattle for definitive treatment. So don't just assume that you only need evacuation coverage for being out of the country.

Sadly-- a case in point is that volcano eruption down in New Zealand last week. The survivors that were burned are going to have massive medical bills (hopefully the NZ system is more forgiving that the USA's), not to mention their family members who would undoubtedly have to extend their stay and incur further lodging costs, re-booking flights whenever they do go home, etc. And the ones who didn't survive-- bringing their remains home would be costly. Don't know if most US health insurance covers that.

 

[bakerworld]

We do have an insurance policy that cover body retrieval.

 

[ebockelman]

We can absorb the cost of missing a cruise or a piece of misdirected luggage, but many people do not have health insurance that would cover evacuation costs.
And to people going to Alaska on a cruise, don't think that every one of those little port towns has everything needed for all medical emergencies. I used to work in one of the port towns. Bad trauma and other conditions needed to be flown down to Seattle for definitive treatment. So don't just assume that you only need evacuation coverage for being out of the country.

If you do have a US health plan that covers international care, it might not make sense to buy trip insurance just to get medical evacuation. You can get annual medevac/repatriation plans with million dollar coverages for less than $200 per year. If you take multiple cruises a year, this can be a huge cost savings.

The calculus will be different for everyone, so it makes sense to research your options and plan accordingly.

 

[Adventurelawyer]

We do have an insurance policy that cover body retrieval.

But why bother retrieving (or recovering) a body. Life happens. Play it as it lies, right?

 

[DynamicDisneyDuo]

But why bother retrieving (or recovering) a body. Life happens. Play it as it lies, right?

I'd be perfectly fine with a burial at sea if I were to go while on a cruise.

 

[Chuck S]

We are governed by Maritime laws.

Aren't all cruise lines governed by maritime law? Since DCL ships aren't registered in the USA (I don't think any cruise ship is)