Hopefully my last insurance question!

[bethy]

Hi all. I am researching insurance and getting ready to purchase it. After much consideration here are the only reasons I would be purchasing it:

1. If one of the members of our travelling party gets very sick and/or is refused boarding. What if anything would DCL do for us if they refused us boarding? Would they really take our entire cruise fare and say "sorry"? This is really my main question.

2. There is a really, really bad hurricane at the end of October that DCL would not be able to sail around but they decide to do the cruise anyway. It's too late for me to buy a cancel for any reason clause and so this is moot I think?

I am not worried about lost luggage, work conflicts, flights or even medical evacuation - I have no problem self insuring for the first stuff and we have a different coverage for medical evac through DH's work because their employees travel a lot.

It's a 4 day cruise in the Bahamas. Should I even bother?

 

[mylittlebuttercup]

1. If one of the members of our travelling party gets very sick and/or is refused boarding. What if anything would DCL do for us if they refused us boarding? Would they really take our entire cruise fare and say "sorry"? This is really my main question.

I have wondered something similar--if one member of our party got really sick before the cruise (i.e. just me, or just my DH, or just my DS), would the healthy members of the family still be expected to be able to sail without that person? Or would travel insurance cover the entire cost of the trip since we obviously would need to be shoreside for the sick person?

 

[Weedy]

I doubt you would be able to get insurance for a hurrican if there was one in the area. I know you can't get homeowners insurance for storms if there is a "named" storm.

 

[bumbershoot]

1. If one of the members of our travelling party gets very sick and/or is refused boarding. What if anything would DCL do for us if they refused us boarding? Would they really take our entire cruise fare and say "sorry"? This is really my main question.

If you don't have trip insurance, yes, absolutely. That's what insurance is for, to cover things like that. January 2014 DS and I got sick nearly the moment we got off the plane. So sick we never one thought "let's put 5 face masks on and just go HOME"...we had a 4 week trip and we stuck the whole thing out, quite a bit of it in our hotel room. The last week was a cruise. We had no trip insurance for ANY of it. One of the reasons we spent so much time resting and trying to get better (and spending scads of money at Whole Foods on supplements and probiotics) was so that we were better by that time. We were , yay, able to answer the health questions honestly and we got onboard. If someone had had a fever last longer or if it had been a bit different illness-wise we would have kissed the whole thing goodbye.

OR DH would have had an AMAZING cruise by himself. (of course, he hadn't been with us for the first 2 weeks of the trip, and he got a smaller form of the illness on day 2 of the cruise, and it seemed that everyone else on the cruise had it as well, so...)


As for a hurricane...again, you get the insurance to cover those "what ifs". If it's not a "what if", it's too late to buy insurance for it.

 

[lanejudy]

1. If one of the members of our travelling party gets very sick and/or is refused boarding. What if anything would DCL do for us if they refused us boarding? Would they really take our entire cruise fare and say "sorry"? This is really my main question.

Correct. If you are deemed "too sick" to cruise at embarkation, DCL will NOT be refunding your money. If you have insurance, you will be able to file a claim for reimbursement.

2. There is a really, really bad hurricane at the end of October that DCL would not be able to sail around but they decide to do the cruise anyway. It's too late for me to buy a cancel for any reason clause and so this is moot I think?

I'm not quite following... yes you would need "cancel for any reason" coverage if DCL does not cancel the cruise yet you opt to skip. It is VERY rare for DCL to cancel a cruise due to weather. DCL is most likely to change the planned itinerary, even resulting in a "cruise to nowhere" and avoid the storm. If DCL has to skip scheduled port stops, you may be able to file a claim with insurance for missed port excursions (if not refundable, port excursions scheduled through DCL are refundable if canceled). You MAY be able to purchase "cancel for any reason" coverage now, but it likely will cost you dearly if you can find such a policy; and once a storm is named, you cannot purchase any insurance that will include coverage.

As a note, DCL's insurance has something similar to "cancel for any reason" in that if the insurance officially denies your claim, then DCL will issue a credit equal to 75% for use on a future cruise. I think that's the percentage, and it may have a time limit on when it must be used.

Enjoy your cruise!

 

[bethy]

Correct. If you are deemed "too sick" to cruise at embarkation, DCL will NOT be refunding your money. If you have insurance, you will be able to file a claim for reimbursement.


I'm not quite following... yes you would need "cancel for any reason" coverage if DCL does not cancel the cruise yet you opt to skip. It is VERY rare for DCL to cancel a cruise due to weather. DCL is most likely to change the planned itinerary, even resulting in a "cruise to nowhere" and avoid the storm. If DCL has to skip scheduled port stops, you may be able to file a claim with insurance for missed port excursions (if not refundable, port excursions scheduled through DCL are refundable if canceled). You MAY be able to purchase "cancel for any reason" coverage now, but it likely will cost you dearly if you can find such a policy; and once a storm is named, you cannot purchase any insurance that will include coverage.

As a note, DCL's insurance has something similar to "cancel for any reason" in that if the insurance officially denies your claim, then DCL will issue a credit equal to 75% for use on a future cruise. I think that's the percentage, and it may have a time limit on when it must be used.

Enjoy your cruise!

Thank you, this is extremely helpful.

I've got to say that I am shocked that if DCL denies you boarding they wouldn't offer to help you reschedule. Don't get me wrong I am very glad they don't allow contagious people to board but that is amazing that they just say too bad, so sad! I can tell I am new to the cruise industry in that it's hard to get my head wrapped around that paradigm. Disney is typically so helpful and accommodating otherwise and it's not like a person can help getting a fever or would even want to get a fever just so they could postpone a cruise!

It is what it is.

 

[turtle27]

Once the cruise lines got into the travel insurance business (buy independently, it will be cheaper and cover more, look at insuremytrip.com OR other similar insurance comparison sites, google will let you know) all cruise lines have been adhering to their stated policy more stringently.

So yes, if you show up to port sick, you may be turned away and you will not be refunded your cruise fare, taxes and port fees, yes, but without travel insurance, you are SOL. Sucks, but there you have it. Part of this is also because of how the pricing of cruises is done, a cruise leaving on Sept. 7 may be much less expensive than a cruise leaving on June 15. Plus, the company has technically not been able to sell your room on this cruise and would not be able to at the last moment, so why should the company eat the cost of the cruise? I know, it sounds like they should out of customer service, but what if this happened 20 times every cruise? It would add up, causing everyone to pay higher fares so that the company maintains its profit margins so that it keeps its investors happy. Vicious cycle, but there you have it. Travel insurance is a way that we, as consumers, can protect ourselves for a pretty minimal cost.

My rule of thumb is if I am ok being out the money and will just be disappointed by missing my vacation, no insurance. If I will be upset about losing my money AND vacation, insure the trip. Peace of mind is priceless.

 

[tvguy]

You have specific concerns, I would look for travel insurance that covers those concerns.
As Travel Weekly so nicely put it, you aren't really buying insurance, you are buying peace of mind when you buy travel insurance. And there certainly is value in peace of mind.