Had to cancel last minute - What to do...

[Taiko]

We are having to cancel our 27th Wonder sailing after all. Sickness prevailed. I booked through Expedia, and didn't take any insurance. Will the DCL even entertain a partial credit or refund of some kind at this time? Its a terrible shame to throw the money away.

Anyone have any ideas?

 

[Michelle]

Your cruise was on the 27th of this month? That is very unfortunate, if that's the case, as within 7 days of sailing there are no refunds at all, you lose the entire cruise fare. You can see if you perhaps can CHANGE your dates and just pay change fees, but within 7 days of sailing I'm not sure if they'll even allow that.

Good luck!

 

[Chattyaholic]

That is why one should always, always, always take out travel insurance when they book a cruise. You just never know what could happen to cause you to have to cancel. If someone is willing to spend thousands of dollars on a cruise, they should be willing to add a couple hundred dollars or so to get the travel insurance.

 

[Wishing on a star]

My DH had a hard time swallowing the high costs of the insurance thru DCL.... Thanks to this board, we visited insuremytrip.com, and some if the insurance there is WAY less! Now, we are definately going to get the insurance. Never know, and better safe than sorry.

 

[alexandrew]

We always book our travel insurance with my TA. Afterall, your insurance is only as good as your insurer. If you booked your insurance through a faceless entity on the web, who's throat do you choke (sic) if you don't get served properly. At least when booking through my TA, I get the full backing of the nationwide franchised company he's affiliated with...True, we pay maybe $50.00 more for my family of 4, but for the extra peace of mind, it's well worth it...

 

[Cruise]

Originally posted by Taiko
We are having to cancel our 27th Wonder sailing after all. Sickness prevailed. I booked through Expedia, and didn't take any insurance. Will the DCL even entertain a partial credit or refund of some kind at this time? Its a terrible shame to throw the money away.

Anyone have any ideas?

The only way to know is by contacting DCL directly. I wouldn't get my hopes up about getting any kind of refund or credit, but it never hurts to ask. The most they can do is say "no" (and then talk about you in the break room over cofffee....) heh..can you tell I've done customer service?

Seriously... call and ask. No harm in that.

Julie

 

[Thumper1]

If they don't give your money back or won't reschedule is there any way you can give the cruise to friends or something?

 

[nedleycan]

I have always heard that a direct family member has to die before you can cancel (or something like that). And that not much else is covered. I am not talking about Disney specifically, just travel insurance in general. My mom is a travel consultant, and they never get insurance. Now, they travel 4 times a year, and if you figure how much money they have saved in insurance, a cancelled trip would still not equal what they have saved.

But, I guess we are risk takers too, as we have never bought the insurance and I am sure it has already paid off, going on one or two trips a year for the past 15 years.

Now for the other side of the story. A friend of mine (who almost never travels - once every 5 years) had to cancel her trip to St. Maarten when her mom died and she lost everything. For her, the couple hundred dollars would have been worth it.

Just like car insurance. Over the twenty years that I have been driving, I have probably paid $15,000 in insurance, and had only one claim (last year) that was worth $2,000. Hardly seems worth it... but you never know! (and it's the law - so what can you do!)

I think you have to look at your situation and also decide if you like to take risks.

Taiko: hope all works out for you, both with getting your money back and with your personal situation.

 

[Rootee]

I have always heard that a direct family member has to die before you can cancel (or something like that). And that not much else is covered. I am not talking about Disney specifically, just travel insurance in general. My mom is a travel consultant, and they never get insurance. Now, they travel 4 times a year, and if you figure how much money they have saved in insurance, a cancelled trip would still not equal what they have saved.

My sister is a travel agent, and I have a brother-in-law who owns a travel agency. Neither would ever dream of going without the travel insurance on a vacation such as this. Our policy stated that when a family member or the family member of a traveling companion has a parent, child, aunt, uncle, mil, fil, sister, brother, niece, nephew that has a life-threatening illness or injury, then they would be covered for any money lost when the trip needed to be cancelled beforehand or if the traveling party needed to cancel during the trip in order to be with their loved one at the hospital. Of course, the death of a family member would also be covered.

We went on the Western 8/17. My fil went to the hospital on October 12 to check out some numbness in his arm. He was expected to be discharged the next day when all tests turned out to be fine. The next morning he had a massive heart attack and had kidney failure all within a couple of hours. He died on the 16th. The $230 we paid for travel insurance would have been well worth it for us not to lose the $5,000 we spent on the cruise if this had happened a short two months ago.

Accidents and illnesses occur so very suddenly - you just never know.

Ruth

 

[nedleycan]

Yup, and like I said, it really depends on your situation. With all our extended family overseas (who we don't know very well) and very small families here, it reduces our chances of someone getting sick. Plus, if we lost this money, it wouldn't devistate us (we wouldn't like it, but it wouldn't be the end of the world). But, if you are someone who saves for 5 years to go on a trip like this, it would be horrible to lose all that money. We are flying on Air Canada points (and because we travel for business alot, there are more points available) and a portion of our trip is paid for by credit card points, we wouldn't be that upset by losing the money, we would be much, much more upset about our sick relative.

It really is a personal choice that you are the one who will have to live with.

 

[thebecka]

We always get the insurance cause we cruise in the winter...if I didn't I know we would get snowed in with a foot or two of snow.

 

[Wishing on a star]

I wouldn't want to plan a major, and the key here is, NONrefundable, vacation without insurance.

Both DH and Myself have elderly parents with health considerations. Heck, even something as simple as DS (5) coming down with a terrible flu/bronchitis/ or whatever happens to be going around... etc. DH has never been ill a day of his life, but even I would have to be concerned about my own health!

If I happened to personally know a great TA who happened to have some good connections to an insurance co., then I may consider spending a bit more. But, basicly ANY of these travel insurance companies, including the one offered thru DCL, amount to filing a claim with a faceless entity in some far-away city. So, hey, if one reputable company is nearly half the cost of the others, I will pocket that extra money.

Helps to know that I have a Physician who would be understanding and would gladly complete any necessary paperwork to see for sure that a claim gets approved, if (knock on wood!!!) it became necessary.

 

[lpursell]

There's also different amounts of insurance. My TA said they had very good luck (claims paid without any problems) with Access America and offered me a policy. The coverage was a lot more than what was offered on Access America's website, more coverage for emergencies and illness overseas etc. My main concern is my father's age (79) so I opted for the website coverage of Access America that has trip cancellation plus other emergency services but not as high limits for less premium. We are a family of 7 and I (grandma) am paying for everything so I need to protect this huge expense, within reason.

 

[Taiko]

Conclusion:

Well, I didn't call DCL to plead, I was too sick and couldn't face it.
However - Luckily all flights from the UK and West coast were on air miles so I only lost a couple hundred dollars for re deposit fees.
I had written the cruise money off, when I got a call from the childrens Mom in the UK.
As normal, we had taken out Travel insurance for the kids in case they got sick in the US.....well, after a little detective work, they determined that buried in the travel insurance, was - you guessed it - Trip cancellation coverage -

In disbelief, I called the insurance company in London, and they confirmed that yes - we are 100% eligible for a full refund of our Cruise costs and Hotel cancellation charges.
So, I'm off to the hospital to get my medical claim filled out and file that claim !

Lesson learned - In a situation like this, you only get this lucky once - In future I will always take out cancellation insurance.

 

[4nana]

OMG...
Wonderful news...the *pixie dust* was with you for sure!!
With our grp of 16 we'd rather be safe than sorry!! We realize anything could happen to anyone of us at any time and we can't risk all our hard earned $'s down the drain!! We definitely purchased cruise insurance.

 

[zurgswife]

Glad everything seems to have worked out.....

 

[Laura24]

this thread couldn't have begun at a better time for me. Cruising in Feb. with DH and two friends, I fussed over to purchase or not to purchase insurance. For peace of mind....I purchased it. Great site at Insuremytrip.com. Lots of comparison shopping available with a click of the mouse. How many things in life do we do as preventive measures.......medical- dental checkups, car servicing, home maintenance, priority seatings.....the list goes on and on for those just in case times. How many of us have been on a cruise and experienced the med-evac of someone off the ship (twice on one cruise for us)........what was your reaction...oh, that poor family. What unfortunate timing to be taken ill on their vacation. You never know........

 

[leslieh]

MY DN decided 48 hrs prior she was not going. DCL said i could replace her with anyone 24 hours before sailing. But too late to find someone, so we went without her. Call them asap, they may let you change to another date.