Trip Insurance Question

[Mom2OakandEm]

We are cruising the Western Caribbean in September so I definitely want trip insurance. My question is do you just buy it through Disney, do you buy it on your own.

Has anyone ever used Allianz or SquareMouth? Any other recommendations?

 

[samily]

We buy it through squaremouth or insure my trip. If you purchase through DCL, just be aware that it will only cover those portions of your trip that you book through DCL so if you purchased your airfare on your own for example, it won't be covered. Also, preexisting conditions are not covered through the DCL policy.

One benefit of purchasing through DCL though is if the insurance company denies your claim, DCL will give you a credit for a portion of your cruise fare to use on another cruise.

We have always found better coverage for less money booking on our own.

 

[Mom2OakandEm]

We buy it through squaremouth or insure my trip. If you purchase through DCL, just be aware that it will only cover those portions of your trip that you book through DCL so if you purchased your airfare on your own for example, it won't be covered. Also, preexisting conditions are not covered through the DCL policy.

One benefit of purchasing through DCL though is if the insurance company denies your claim, DCL will give you a credit for a portion of your cruise fare to use on another cruise.

We have always found better coverage for less money booking on our own.

Perfect, thank you. I'm definitely thinking about going out on my own.

 

[JWG]

We do it on our own through Insure My Trip (use google, there are several trip insurance aggregator sites out there that help you choose). We've found it's significantly cheaper to get the same or better coverage if you're willing to read into the details of the many policy options.

Our cruise last month cost us $289 in total for 3 of us to have trip insurance. It would have been roughly $480 through Disney. Somewhat comparable coverages, though ours had pre-existing coverage and obviously covered all parts (not just the cruise/Disney portions). We did no pay for the often expensive "cancel for any reason" add-on. Though, if we had, I think the cost would have been the same as Disney's for better coverage.

Cruises are the only thing we buy trip insurance for. If we were to do some significant international travel we likely would as well.

We ended up with a John Hancock Silver policy using the Insure My Trip comparison tool. I printed the Disney coverage and then compared that to the options through 3rd party.

 

[MaleficentRN]

I've found coverage through Insure my Trip, but the last two I've gotten a great price through USAA if you are a member.

 

[elvispursley]

I know that generally when you purchase an independent insurance policy, you're required to purchase it within a certain timeframe of booking the cruise. How does that work for adding in such items as hotel and airfare if you haven't booked those yet? Do you just estimate the cost? Or can you add those at a later date? We've always bought Disney's insurance but didn't realize that not all things were covered.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I know that generally when you purchase an independent insurance policy, you're required to purchase it within a certain timeframe of booking the cruise. How does that work for adding in such items as hotel and airfare if you haven't booked those yet? Do you just estimate the cost? Or can you add those at a later date? We've always bought Disney's insurance but didn't realize that not all things were covered.

Yes, you can estimate and adjust, if need be. Or just insure what you have and then add the changes. We were allowed to add our second cruise to our original cruise booking (making it a B2B) later (I think it was actually about 6-8 months later).

The "must purchase by" thing is only important for pre-existing conditions, generally. And not all insurance companies have that clause.

 

[elvispursley]

Great! It just goes to show that one needs to read the fine print rather than take people's word on the policies. Never realized that our hotel, even though booked though Disney (not DCL) wouldn't be covered And USAA does offer good prices...I just thought it was easier to do everything through DCL (and at the time, if I did't have to spend a lot of time and effort and could make things as easy as possible, it was worth the extra $. Not anymore)!!

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Great! It just goes to show that one needs to read the fine print rather than take people's word on the policies. Never realized that our hotel, even though booked though Disney (not DCL) wouldn't be covered And USAA does offer good prices...I just thought it was easier to do everything through DCL (and at the time, if I did't have to spend a lot of time and effort and could make things as easy as possible, it was worth the extra $. Not anymore)!!

I always use one of the travel insurance comparison sites. insure my trip or squaremouth, mostly. You put in the parameters of what you want covered, and how much coverage, then they show you several companies policies.

 

[JWG]

I've gotten a great price through USAA if you are a member.

So wish I was!

 

[MillauFr]

Why not just use the insurance that you get for free when charging your trip on a credit card. Some cards have very generous coverage.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Why not just use the insurance that you get for free when charging your trip on a credit card. Some cards have very generous coverage.

Yes, some cards do. Others, not so much. You need to check and see what coverage you might get by using your credit card. I'm not sure that many of them cover more than cancellation/delays. We get travel insurance primarily for the medical/evacuation coverage. Getting sick out of the country can be expensive.