Travel Insurance?

[mom23]

We are ready to book our cruise and the price that we were quoted included travel insurance through Disney which added about $300 onto the price of the cruise. Has anyone NOT used this insurance? Do the vast majority of people use it? I have never used insurance before but then again, I have never been on a cruise or out of the country. Give me your thoughts....

Thanks!
Robin

 

[allears]

My strong recommendation would, get travel insurance! We always get it for our curises. You don't have to get it through DCL, I have read that you can get it a bit cheaper on your own, I go head and tack it on, just one less thing to think about.

Here's why you should get it, you never know what may come up. In 2003 we were booked on a 7 night trip. The Sunday before we were to sail my wife was hospitalized with a kidney infection. The good news is she got out the day before we sailed and was okayed by the dr. to go. If not, w/out insuance we would have lost the entire trip. Way too late for a full refund. That was a close call and made a believer out of me.

Next story, we sailed this past September, the Hurricane Jeane crusie. The departure of which was delayed from Saturday to late Monday night. We were pretty much enroute to Florida when we found out. We were booked overnight at the Airport Hyatt, but they didn't have any rooms available for Saturday and Sunday. Our TA was able to find us a great place for all three nights. So we had two extra nights of a hotel, food, and taxi expenses. Our travel insurance covered all of that. We got back close to $1000, well worth the, I think, $250 or $300 it costs us. The only thing insurance didn't cover were cell phone calls to any place other than DCL.

Latest story, we sailed on the 1/15 voyage of the Magic. We of course bought insurance. However, we booked our air fare independently. We used Cheap tickets. com. I was a little nervous about that, so I bought seperate travel insurance for the flights. I think it cost $75. Well, when we got off the ship Saturday, we found out that the northeast was bracing for a major snow storm and our flights to Philly were cancelled and re-booked to Sunday. That ment a hotel and food for another day. And I'm about to submit that to the insurance company.

Bottom line, I will never take an expensive trip, like a cruise without getting insurance. There is just too much risk involved. Life throws too many curve balls at us and at the last minute. Get insurance!

End of commerical.

 

[mom23]

Thanks for the response! BTW, how do you get that little counter under your names that says...X number days until Disney Cruise? I see a lot of people have that and I am not sure how to do it.

Robin

 

[allears]

Hey Robin, your most welcome. As you can tell, I'm a big believer in the insurance thing. Just too much money at stake.

There is a web site where you can down load the count down clock from. If you don't get someone else telling you where to find it, when I get home tonight, I'll look up the web site from my favorites and froward it to you. In the mean time, do search here on the boards and enter count down, I know there are probably recent threads that can lead you to it. It really is a fun thing to have.

When are you going to cruise?

 

[ThreeSmiths]

Robin,

Go to www.insuremytrip.com where you can get quotes on travel insurance from several companies. We paid under $120.00 for our 7 day cruise in Sept 04 for 3 passengers. It was very simple, and with the scary hurricane season we just endured, I will never take another expensive trip without it! Be careful to compare what is offered by each company before you make your decision. You won't regret it if you buy it, but you will definitely regret it if you need it and don't have it!

Stacy

 

[kfields1]

DEFINTELY get the insurance. I just had to cancel my 2/19 Wonder Cruise that I have had booked for a year b/c my 5 yr. old son has developed inner ear problems. Without the insurance (and doctor's note) I would have lost $2000.00 !!! Definitely worth the money!!!

 

[ThreeSmiths]

kfields1:

I'm so sorry to hear that you had to cancel your cruise. Hopefully you'll be rebooking in the near future. I'm glad you didn't lose your $$!

Stacy

 

[mom23]

Thanks again for all the comments. I went to the website suggested and there was insurance there for $79 for my whole family. Now...how do I know if they are reputable companies?

Thanks also for helping me with that counter. We are going on the cruise October 23rd-27th of this year. I looked for that counter but could not find it. I also cannot figure out how to even add it. I will keep fiddling with it, but if you could give me some hints, that would be great! I may even start another thread asking about it!

 

[ThreeSmiths]

Maybe post a thread asking if anyone has ever used "xxx" Insurance? We bought ours through Travelsafe, I believe. However we did not have to use it.

Stacy

 

[allears]

Hi Robin, here's the link. You may have to type this in, but once you get there, there are instuctions

http://psiklops.brinkster.net/CDTimers/CDTimerGen.htm

 

[TiggerInNY]

ThreeSmiths,

Where did you get insurance for $129 for 3 of you and how much liability did you take out? I'm having trouble finding a price that you quoted. I'm getting more like $300 plus quotes from the website posted. I'm including air, cruise, hotel for the night before, and rental car.

Am I doing this correctly?

Thanks.

TiggerInNY
Maria

 

[mom23]

Thanks for that info on the counter! I found it and added it! Yeah! How fun!

 

[allears]

You're most welcome!

 

[ThreeSmiths]

ThreeSmiths,

Where did you get insurance for $129 for 3 of you and how much liability did you take out? I'm having trouble finding a price that you quoted. I'm getting more like $300 plus quotes from the website posted. I'm including air, cruise, hotel for the night before, and rental car.

Am I doing this correctly?

Thanks.

TiggerInNY
Maria

TiggerInNY:

I only bought coverage for the cost of our cruise itself. We drove to the port and our hotel had a cancel by 6 p.m. policy, so we weren't at risk of losing money on it. You are probably getting higher quotes because you're insuring more. Also, we cruised cat 11 the cheapest week of the year (hurricane season), so our cruise fare might not have been as much as yours. I don't remember our exact coverages, but I do remember it was through Travel Safe. Sorry I couldn't be more help!

Stacy

 

[TiggerInNY]

Stacy,

Thanks you were a lot of help. Maybe I don't need to include the hotel and car. We have a Cat. 6 and there's four of us. I will insure the airline tickets, and definetly the cruise. I think I better call the ins. co. They really explain everything better on the phone. Last time I bought insurance it was through access America from AAA. I'll try that again.

Thanks again.

TiggerInNY,
Maria

 

[lbgraves]

We paid 86 for the four of us for a total of 4000 coverage that includes the cruise and hotels. We used Access America's AAA family plan where the kids are free.