Do you purchase vacation insurance with Disney package?

[EnchantedPrincess]

just curious if most of you purchase vacation insurance with disney package? We are going in August in the middle of hurricane season, and can't decide if I should add vacation insurance.

 

[wdwmom0f3]

We never have for Disney. I am just taking a chance I guess.

 

[CarlisleMom]

I always purchase the insurance, via travel agent, for all vacations. We have had family member admitted to the hospital while on vacation, and have had the unhappy experience of having a BIL die while we were away. We were lucky that is was only a small vacation to a local beach (motel gave us a credit to use the next year - at the time we stayed at the same place every year). If it had been Disney, we would have been out of a lot $. For us, its worth the $100 or so for piece of mind.

 

[daleswife]

Nah, I never get it. Im a risk taker too. As far as going in hurricane season....We were there last august for Faye and went to the parks anyways and they were nearly EMPTY!!! Best time to go is in a rain storm cause everyone leaves. OH and get you a good rain JACKET....not one of those sorry poncho things.

 

[kristinw3girls]

We always do, but I also book my trip a year and a half out. We have had seriously ill MIL and just this year my husband was injured at work in June and our trip was in December. It was too close this time. It was really 50% we would have to cx the whole thing, but luckily it worked out, but we spend $5000+ on these vacations, and wouldn't want to risk it.

 

[trennr]

I usually plan my trips on shorter notice...

BUT...when I ALMOST booked for this Febuary (back in November) I had the insurance ready to hit go...but I didn't hit the button because FIL is ill and moved in with us in December.

So since it's Hurricane season and so far off I'd do the insurance. IMO.

 

[a1tinkfans]

if you add on to a pkg, when you first book it, you have 10 days to cancel, You can ADD insurance on a pkg up until final payment. (thats what they told me just today)


You can get it outside Disney (i have used insuremytrip.com) several times and they were great, you can get MANY quotes, different carriers, and compare prices.

As an aside, the riders on the policies or Exclusions are REALLY what matter. ie, pre-existing condition waiver means, if your family member HAD that prob or treated with it, even a LONG time ago and you chose NOT to get the pre -existent waiver, you do NOT collect if you need to cancel.
You really need to familiarize yourself with the policy, some have "dates" like last 90 days and some say nothing, then exclude if they treated in the last 150 days.
Some carriers will only let you ADD pre-existant waiver if you do it within a certain period of time (like within 30 days of original booking) so, it really pays to ASK if you have ANY q's at ALL!

By the way, I go in august a lot and never had to use it, but have bought it. Had a family member that had to cancel and THANKFULLY we had the insurance and got back thousands which otherwise would have been lost!
Good Luck!
So, my only HINT is, READ and ASK specifics if you have ANY q's!

 

[tartemis]

Do you have kids? If yes, I would get it. I never bought trip insurance when it was just my husband and I. Since my daughter has been born, we always get it --- and have already had to use it when my daughter got sick right before our 1st Disney trip and we had to reschedule.

 

[Cars2006]

We always purchased on big trips since 2001. We were not going to buy the insurance but the Travel Agent convinced us so we purchased. Good thing we didn't need it but two major things happen before and during our trip. Our 1st trip Honeymoon cruise to Bermuda was almost canceled due to September 11th. We were married on 9/15/01 and the cruise was going to be canceled due to the atmosphere of fear. Then there was a bomb threat while we were boarding. We did take off that day but 7 hours later.

Then our first trip as a family on 9/10/05. Our 18mth son was hospitalized for a week for an asthma attack. The doctor gave to go ahead said Disney and Florida air would do him some good. Then this year we were booked to go during February vacation and I change it to April. Go thing because he ended up in the hospital for an asthma attack. So it depends on if you know you might need it go ahead. This is also from a person who won’t buy extra insurance on a rental.

 

[Disneydreamer5]

We were booked 8 months in advance and all ready set to go back in Sept of 07. We had our rooms. park hopper, bags were getting ready to be all closed up and packed,Snacks and drinks from Costco were purchased, car had its tune up for the long drive from Jersey to Orlando and the school had given the kids all the assignments they were going to need and then BAM!
My DH crushed his arm in a forklift at work a week and a half before our scheduled day to leave.
We were checking in to Caribbean Beach in a little over and week and then just like that we weren't going anywhere,canceled, and the trip was paid in full.
Over $5,500.00
We got every penny back all because I spent that extra $200 on insurance.
Best money I ever spent. It did take a few months to get the money back but the thing of it is that we got it back.
I say get it cause you never know what tomorrow may hold for you. Its nice to beleive nothing bad will ever happen but Disney Magic or not bad things can and do happen even when we aren't looking for them.

 

[ancestry]

We did purchase the insurance more to be able to get a refund on the airfare than the Disney package. The cost for the insurance was $133.90 but our airfare was close to $1,000. There have been a lot of layoffs at DH's job and I have a very elderly grandmother. We didn't want to be out a lot of money if we had to cancel so we opted for the insurance.

I believe Disney is pretty good with refunds themselves without the insurance. You can cancel up to 45 days without penalty, between 44 days and up to 6 days before check in for a $100 fee, and for less than 5 days a cancellation fee of $200 applies without needing any type of insurance coverage. However that doesn't help if you bought airfare, which is where the insurance comes in.

 

[AmyMama2AvaNtheo]

I got it ... my hubby is military so there is always a chance he will be called away. Right now he is actually deployed, so just incase he gets extended we will get our $ back

 

[3goofyboys]

We bought it for our upcoming trip. I figure we spend several thousand dollars on this vacation, $133 is a very small percentage of the overall cost to cover us "just in case". I have small kids, one of whom has a few medical issues so it's not out of the realm of possibility that something could happen before or during our trip.

 

[MarriedToAPrince]

We always purchase the insurance. You just never know what life will throw you way. We have had to use it once.

 

[AustinTink]

I thought your package was refundable anyway when booked through Disney?

 

[Jacob'sMom]

We are going to WDW in May and at the time I made the reservation I decided that we did not need the insurance. After reading this thread I decided to get insurance when I called this afternoon to modify our reservation.

Just and FYI, I did ask the CSR if pre-exsisting conditions are covered and he said yes, but I will definetly read the brochure when it arrives.

 

[Bibbidi]

I believe Disney is pretty good with refunds themselves without the insurance. You can cancel up to 45 days without penalty, between 44 days and up to 6 days before check in for a $100 fee, and for less than 5 days a cancellation fee of $200 applies without needing any type of insurance coverage. However that doesn't help if you bought airfare, which is where the insurance comes in.

For me the issue with insurance is also a matter of whether something happens to you while you're at Disney. From what I understand they are generally very accomodating with those circumstances as well, but it's always good to be sure you're covered.

 

[mom2maggie]

I got it with this vacation because I'm pregnant, and just in case I'm not allowed to travel, we wanted that safety net.

 

[christa112]

Yes we do. We have vactioned 3 times at WDW and and had to use the insurance once. On our last trip I left my camera bag on the airplane and of course it was never found. I got reimbursed for my brand new camcorder, my brand new camera bag, my digital camera, my memory cards, my cell phone. We recovered over $700 for my loss, it was still devastated because I lost all my pictures and videos, but at least I recooped the cost.

 

[a1tinkfans]

We are going to WDW in May and at the time I made the reservation I decided that we did not need the insurance. After reading this thread I decided to get insurance when I called this afternoon to modify our reservation.

Just and FYI, I did ask the CSR if pre-exsisting conditions are covered and he said yes, but I will definetly read the brochure when it arrives.

I just printed out the DISNEY brochure for insurance and there is a PRE-EXISTING EXCLUSION paragraph that says
it will NOT pay for sickness, injury or other condition....if within 60 days prior, that person (you/family/etc) ill, should have known etc etc.....They actually HIGHLIGHT their policy. It is thru Travelguard. The pre-existant is applicable to ALL their coverages too.
You should have had that included within your e mailed pkg reservation to be printed out, so take a look for/at it to be sure! So many times, cms mistakenly give that info out and it is misleading (although I really think unintentionally, TILL you need to use it and can't now thats a shame!!)
Best of Luck!!!
Interestingly enough, the policy WITH a pre-existance waiver on insuremytrip.com, with global alert was 133, a tad LESS than disney but with BETTER coverage.