Sickness with Kids and postponing/Travel Insurance

[vicarrieous]

My hubby is against getting trip insurance, but I am a worry wart.

We are going mid November and have a 4(will be 5) and 2 year old. Our 4 year old will be starting 4K this fall and this is his first outside of home experience with lots of other kids. I am convinced he is going to get hit with sickness constantly.

My fear is he will get something terrible right before we go and/or give something to his brother.

Would trip insurance cover this? Hubby thinks since we are flying Southwest we should get "credited" flight costs and could rebook for a later day, but not sure how Disney would work with you to postpone especially in such a busy time.

Can I purchase trip insurance after the purchase of the trip?

 

[RafikiTiki21]

Different travel insurance companies cover different scenarios, so read the details before purchasing but the ones I have used would cover family illness.

You can definitely purchase insurance after you buy your trip-- you'll need to know the $$ amount spent to calculate coverage. There may be a cut off of # of days before travel to buy though, so also read that carefully (i.e. you likely can't buy insurance the day before your trip if your child is sick then).

To me, the cost of insurance is a small % of the total cost of your major Disney trip, and worth it when traveling with little ones or in winter.

 

[mjkacmom]

The bad news is, yes, they will probably get a bunch of colds, a couple of stomach bugs, and a handful of the ones most kids are bound to get anyway (fifths, coxsackie, roseola..), but the good news is that I think it's pretty easy to reschedule your stay, and southwest is one of the few airlines good about these things.

After a decade of illnesss (5 kids in under 7 years), my kids rarely catch anything, and haven't in years.

ETA, we never had to postpone a vacation due to illness! Disney, cruises, cities, beach, Caribbean, you name it, we were fine. Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter always had a bunch of boogers, though.

 

[amygphillips]

We have been on many family Disney trips and with 4 kids. Sickness does happen sometimes at vacation time... We have never had trip insurance. Ohh and I'm a preschool teacher where all my littles attend! Lots of germs! What I do with a flexible job... I take the week off and keep all littles home the week before... It's actually more like a week 1/2 by the last day of preschool to the day we leave for our trip. The littles catch most cold/ viruses. This helps alot to keep them home. If anyone gets sick I take them right away to get tested for cold/ flu so I know its a virus and go on with our plans. 2 yrs ago our 6.5 yr old had a fever the day before and we spent several hrs at an after hour clinic then went home to bed with motrin and as we were leaving she threw up twice! After the 2 times we gave her a bag and started driving thank goodness she never got sick again and fever broke by the time we got to disney. Best trip ever and no others got sick... So we got lucky! But our kids and us would've been heartbroken to cancel/ reschedule our trip. So we tried and it worked out, but we are aware it could've been horrible! Also we don't go during cold flu season ... We normally go may- beg of Oct. Hope this helps!

 

[branv]

Before we had our DS, we only purchased trip insurance for cruises. Though, yes, our first trip together to WDW was cut in half by food poisoning. That was fun, spent the last half of the trip stuck in the hotel room. Though thankfully that was back when tickets didn't expire.

Now that we have DS, we did buy trip insurance for our November trip. While I believe a room only ressies you only lose one night if you cancel a day or so before (I think. That may have changed), you are charged the full amount upon arrival. And lots of kids get sick while at WDW. While, yes, SW will give you credit for your flight, if you have to fly home early or late, you will still have to pay the difference of the really high cost of a last minute fare. Take for instance that an ear infection. You wouldn't want to put them on a plane with one of those, so now you might have either a few more days you have to pay for a hotel plus airfare changes, or cancel the air and rent a car to drive home. All OOP. What can I say: with all the time I've been on the DIS, I've read a whole lot of "sick at Disney" stories. I'm not taking my chances.

Oh yes, and technically November is still hurricane season.

Though for us, it also came down to two other things. Every. Single. Time we have gone to Disney someone either died in the week before our trip or during. We literally found out the minute we turned back on our phones after stepping off the DCL boat that DHs grandmother had passed the day before. So far the timing worked out that we did not have to postpone our trip, but it's taught me a lesson. Secondly, both my mom and my FIL have major illnesses. Though technically they are stable, things can happen. I made sure to buy trip insurance within 15 days of booking my trip to get the preexisting illness waiver.

Like a PP, though, regardless we will be keeping our DS out of mothers day out the week before. It will be his first classroom/care situation as well, plus having no siblings, which means this fall he'll be a nonstop illness waiting to happen

 

[HoneyLemon]

K4 was my DS first away from home and daily surrounded by kids expierence. He missed 48 days of school that year and he was very sick either fever or throwing up every singe one of those days. That's not including him being sick half of Christmas break and most of march break.

It wasn't just him either. He shared the colds with me and his little sister. The worst cold we were home 2 weeks straight and sleeping 18 hours a day for most of it. The Dr said it was viral so we had to suffer through.

His second year of school he brought home so many colds I was literally sick from Nov 24 until Dec 23. Not a touch of the sniffles sick. I had several fevers, days of throwing up and only having ginger ale sick. DS wasn't quite so bad but his little sister was worse than me.

I don't want to be all doom and gloom but if it were me looking back on my DS first year I would know every rescheduling policy and probably keep everyone home mid week so they don't pick anything up. If your family is prone to colds trip insurance could really end up saving you.