Insurance? Worth it or not?

[scrapperjill]

I just wanted to clairify that when I said..." We are not getting it mainly for the little things it will/could cover but for larger things like trip cancelation..." I didn't mean if/when disney cancels a cruise..but if we needed to cancel prior to the cruise after the 60 day mark. I still beleive you never know whats going to happen...and when...and myself I'd rather feel covered if the unexpected happened.

We got it for our last cruise...and luckly we didn't use it at all..but do I regret getting it? Not a bit. We went right in the middle of an active hurricane season...Matter of fact the first week of our trip at WDW was cancled..just days before we were set to leave home...and it wasn't until a few day's before the cruise that we knew for sure we would be able to go at all.

 

[Jeanne B]

I bought insurance for our first cruise in January - I had never purchased trip insurance previously but since we live in New England and we were going to be flying in January I thought it made sense to purchase it. Thank goodness I did because we had weather delays both down and back (airport shut down due to fog on our departure day which was 2 days prior to the cruise departure, shut down due to a blizzard on the way back...go figure!!). I filed a claim following our cruise and we received a $1000 check in the mail about a month later. This will probably be the one and only time we ever use the trip insurance but I will always consider it for now on.

 

[slabeaume]

The first cruise I went on was with my 72 year old dad. We did not get the insurance---figuring there was no way we would cancel. Didn't even consider the health part of it---but then, we were both healthy. At least until my dad went snorkeling and tried to drown (with a life vest on, even!). 9 hours later----after $4000 ship care, then a tug boat ride to Grand Bahama, then a Lear jet evac ride to Ft. Lauderdale (all the while being intubated)---he ended up in the hospital for 5 nights. I ended up in a nearby hotel. When we found out when he was being released, I made all the necessary arrangements to get home, but that had to be put off another 3 days in order to use our original airline tickets (with the $100 change fee)---which also meant more hotel nights, renting a car, and driving back to Orlando. My Dad's tri-care for life paid for a lot of his treatment (medicare didn't pay on the ship or the evac since it was out of the country). He paid for my hotel and the car rental.

The next cruise I took with my daughter and insurance was cheap, so I got it. DIdn't need it.

Then my dad and I took another cruise. I checked on insurance, but it was a lot more expensive for a 73 year old, so he elected to go on his own insurance like the first time. This trip went without a hitch. And he stayed out of the ocean!

 

[cats04]

My husband and I decided we didn't need it. Well guess what. He was in a very serious car accident last week. He broke his femur and hip, which was fixed with a titanium rod and pins. He also injured his liver. A few too many days of bed rest in ICU led to bloodclots. Which they can't treat w/bloodthinners because of the injury to the liver. So, they inserted a "net" to catch any additional bloodclots (one made it to his lungs). He was moved yesterday to the rehibilatation floor. He'll be there for 2 weeks and will need home care when he's released. He'll be in a wheelchair for 3 months. Our cruise is September 24th. That's cutting it close. I know we can cancel but my husband said the cruise is his motivation to start walking on his own. We have until the 11th of July to cancel w/refund. We'll see what happens. We didn't worry about hurricanes because the ship can sail around them. We're still young and weren't worried about our health. Didn't think of the unthinkable. Get the insurance!!!! I don't think anyone would cover us now

 

[DisneyElf]

CATS04 -- I hope you will be able to make it to your cruise -- its a great motivator

I'm sort of in the same boat - with the pre-existing conditions ... I may breakdown and by it for the cancellation provisions - since I am on the repo cruise and will be sailing during the peak hurricane season for both coasts

On that note -- I've been there & done that already. I sailed on the 9/4/04 (oops - Hurricane Frances 9/7/04 cruise). We were already down in Florida -since we flew down the week before to do WDW then board the ship. By Wedns. nite - we knew we were in trouble - and that just got worse. My nephew (I was traveling with friends & my sister) was in a serious car accident -- he didn't need to be hospitalized but had neck & back injuries. My sister was torn between trying to fly home on Thurs (all flights booked) and then they closed the airport at noon on Friday. We were stuck -- our brother -in -law practically stayed at our house and gave us updates on his condition. Thankfully he has made almost a full recovery from the accident.

By Thurs morning - POFQ - was able to release rooms to us to extend our stay -- we didn't have to change rooms even. We were going to stay by the Port for that Friday nite -- but that hotel was evacuated. WDW was extremely nice and gave us the same rate as the FL evacuees ($ 80.00 a night vs. $ 140.00). We ended up staying until Tues. morning .. but in terms of additional money out of pocket we only paid additional money for Sat. & Sun. nite (Friday was a wash since we would have been paying for a room by the port anyway). DCL - comped all the passengers there room on Monday Nite. Food wise - POFQ food court was closed for 24 hrs during the storm (save money that way ). Picked up supplies at the supermarket on Thurs. nite before we returned the rental car $ 25.00. Extra food a disney I would estimate at $ 150 (Sat Morning, Sunday nite & Monday).

So -- the delay cost us $ 310. -- vs. the cost of insurance $ 200 (we are in our 40's.) Considering that we have sailed 3 times in Sept and only had a problem once -- we are ahead of the game (so far - knock on wood). Plus as many are aware DCL gave us shipboard credits, vouchers for our next cruise & a 50% refund.

Medically -- it's even more interesting -- since I didn't buy the insurance immediately all prior conditions are excluded. So... I called my health insurance carrier -- Oxford - Freedom Plan (option to go out of network if needed). After an interesting talk with a rep (and yes I am going to get it in writing before I leave) a trip to the Medical Facility is equal to an ER room visit at home ($ 50. co-pay) and yes they do pay for medical evacuation. So... my real concern is do you have to pay up front for the medical evac - or do they bill you .... I'm hoping I'll never have to find out but somehow I can't see any cruise line denying care (talk about a lawsuit) if you can't fork over $ 25,000 to be evacuated, and I can send the bill to the insurance to pay later.

Sorry for the extra long post --

 

[cats04]

Thanks DisneyElf. Glad to hear that everything work out ok. I love happy endings. My brain wasn't working until AFTER I laid down to sleep.....Then it popped into my head, July 11th was the first day we could make on-line reservations. 90 days prior is next weekend. Either way, I think we're going to go for it. My DH joked that if he still needed the wheelchair when we went we'd be able to board the plane first and move to the front of the line at WDW .

 

[slabeaume]

DisneyElf---

Unless thing have changed in the past year, you won't have to pay for the evacuation before hand. What you do have to pay before leaving is the onboard medical treatment. Usually you list a credit card to your account and they'll automatically charge the bill to your account. Then they'll give you all the itemized bills to submit to your insurance company. The only reason I knew about the pay before you leave the ship medical bill with my dad was because he was using a new credit card and had a low limit on it. So they called to tell me I needed to charge the rest to my card. His on-board fees were about $5000. I don't know if there was a charge for the tug boat, but the lear jet ambulance was quite expensive. That bill was sent directly to his tri-care insurance I believe. The hospital bill was sent to Medicare, then to tri-care, then he picked up the rest. For all this (not sure how much it totalled out to but had to be over $35,000), he paid about $850 out of pocket (not including my extra hotel nights and car rental). I will say----medical care and support for familiy members were exceptional both on the ship and at Northridge Medical Center in Ft. Lauderdale! By the time my dad was released, he was calling it Northridge Medical Center and Spa.

 

[bicker]

Maybe it was someone being overly alarmist, but I definitely remember reading something that said the exact opposite on Cruise Critic -- specifically that payment for medical evac is expected at time of provision of the evac. It seemed unbelieveable at the time, but no one challenged the statement (and I had no way of knowing either way).

Wait... just reread what you wrote: So credit card on file was sufficient to cover the medical evac. Okay, that jives. And there's no way to cruise, these days, without a credit card, is there?

 

[FamilyGuy]

All types of insurance are personal decisions...... Arguments can be made for and against all types of insurance.

Personally, I can live without travel insurance, it's certainly not a neccessity, but still may purchase it when we take our first cruise (hopefully next year).

Personally, I cannot, ABSOLUTELY CANNOT even remotely consider not having decent life insurance! My wife and three kids need to be protected should anything ever happen to me.

You could talk about everything from extended warranties on your automobile, appliances to umbrella policies to cover just about any type of liability...... but that's a whole other story.

 

[slabeaume]

Maybe it was someone being overly alarmist, but I definitely remember reading something that said the exact opposite on Cruise Critic -- specifically that payment for medical evac is expected at time of provision of the evac. It seemed unbelieveable at the time, but no one challenged the statement (and I had no way of knowing either way).

Wait... just reread what you wrote: So credit card on file was sufficient to cover the medical evac. Okay, that jives. And there's no way to cruise, these days, without a credit card, is there?

When my dad was evaced, we had to pay for just the medical treatment while on the Disney ship---not the evac----before leaving the boat. The actual evac fee was sent to his insurance company.

 

[26555]

After all spending $100 to cover a $6000 trip...is IMO worth it.

I guess with these numbers, why not get insurance. I haven't explored insurance outside of Disney but the Disney quote as a percentage of cruise cost is about 14%. Since I don't have airline issues living in FL, it seems like quite a premium on a percentage basis.

 

[bicker]

You might want to check your arithmetic, 26555.

 

[26555]

You might want to check your arithmetic, 26555.

DCL insurance quote = 216. Small World sept cruise cat 12 quote 1531. 216/1531 = .141 ($1531 is same as find on DCL site, declining transfers and insurance)

 

[erikthewise]

Even in higher categories, DCL insurance is well over 5%, which is what I consider to be the maximum acceptable insurance cost. I think for us DCL was about 8-9%, but when we went with another company, it covered the cruise AND airfare for $99, which was about 3%.

 

[26555]

Even in higher categories, DCL insurance is well over 5%, which is what I consider to be the maximum acceptable insurance cost. I think for us DCL was about 8-9%, but when we went with another company, it covered the cruise AND airfare for $99, which was about 3%.

Thanks for the analysis. Looks like I can go thru TravelLite and get insurance for about 4.5% so I'll probably do that.

 

[Cruise04]

We have booked to cruise twice now, bought insurance for the second cruise, didn't have it for the first cruise. Glad we did for the second as we were scheduled for the 9/4 hurricane cruise also. We didn't get ours through DCL. Flight got cancelled but we decided to make a go toward FL to try and make the cruise (this was before finding out it wasn't leaving until Tuesday). Got there, decided to cancel due to Ivan coming and we had to be home on Sunday, couldn't risk it hitting sooner than it did, which was the predictions when we got to FL, and cause us to not get home. Total expense of going down and back - food, hotel stays, was $400. We ended up getting that PLUS (big plus) back. Insurance was $250 or $275 I think. Was it worth it - you bet - especially at that time of year.

For us it would be based on possibly the time of year but my husband also has a medical condition now and that was the main reason we got it, just in case.

 

[Eeyorefan12]

Even in higher categories, DCL insurance is well over 5%, which is what I consider to be the maximum acceptable insurance cost. I think for us DCL was about 8-9%, but when we went with another company, it covered the cruise AND airfare for $99, which was about 3%.

I think we qualify for being in one of the higher categories you mention as we splurged on a suite for this, our first cruise (Magic--next week!). Our insurance through DCL was slightly less than 3% of the total for all 4 family members.

I'm a "peace of mind" kind of gal. Yes, insurance is basically betting against yourself (as my accountant hubby likes to say) but the idea that we're covered if the unthinkable happens is a great mind-reliever. In other travel situations, flights can be rescheduled, hotels re-booked, etc. but this might be a once-in-a-lifetime thing for us. 3% is a small price to pay, IMHO.