Insurance...

[Bethanie1]

we purchased insurance through DCL, but do I need more. Feeing very uninformed! Any help is welcome!

 

[Starwind]

What insurance a person needs is a very personal decision.

The first step is reading the policy and understanding what it does and does not cover, including things like pre-existing condition exclusions. Understand when it "kicks in". Understand your onbligations under it in terms of things like notification if medical care if required.

For our family, we buy the DCL insurance, but we supplement it with (1) travel insurance through the credit card used to pay for the trip; and (2) a multi-trip annual travel medical insurance policy that covers us outside our home province. I also am considering purchasing a separate annual inexpensive medical evacuation policy.

It means we have some duplicate/overlapping coverage for some things, but sufficient coverage for certain things that matter a lot to me (eg DCL's has a very small medical coverag amount with a lengthy PEC clause; our separate annual policy has plenty of coverage with a 7 day PEC clause, the lowest I could find). I have looked but not found a better all-in-one solution, in large part because we are in Canada and the insurance options available to us are very different than the USA (e.g. I cannot find an all in one travel insurance policy (ie cancelation, interruption, medical, baggage....) that waives the pre-existing condition clause if purchased within X amount of time of booking the trip; as far as I can find they just don't exist in Canada and so you are stuck with some kind of pre-existing condition clause -- if anyone knows otherwise please let me know!).

Some people are happy with just the DCL policy. Others don;t get the DCL policy at all but instead get insurance on their own. Others don't carry insurance at all.

For our family, no insurance is not an option. We have had to make use of our policies. We have had family and friends who would have been in serious financial trouble if not for the travel medical insurance they had which covered them when medical or other issues struck them while traveling (one, when I was a teen, was the husband of one of my mother's friends who had a severe heart attack on a cruise ship at sea: he was stabilized on board, airlifted by helicopter from the ship to a land hospital in the USA (I think Miami), spent weeks in the cardiac ICU at that hospital and also had heart surgery there, then was medical airlifted back to a hospital near his home in Canada, where he spent some more weeks in hospital -- all of it upto arriving back in the home province hospital was covered by the travel medical insurance; the end cost was astronomical but not theirs to pay).

SW

 

[lanejudy]

The insurance offered directly through DCL will only cover those portions of your vacation booked directly through DCL. For many of us, it would only cover the cruise -- from embarkation to debarkation -- and not travel (air or ground), pre- or post-cruise hotels, etc. Only you can decide what is your level of "need" vs what level of "risk" you are willing to accept. Many people purchase DCL's coverage; many people purchase third-party coverage; and based on reports here on the DIS I'll also add that many people "self-insure" or don't purchase coverage.

As PP says, think about your concerns and your needs. Then compare policies. I believe the DCL coverage isn't actually purchased until PIF, so you may have time to weigh some options.

Enjoy your cruise!