Trip Insurance

[jumpropemom]

I'm new at this, so I'm not sure I'm posting this in the right spot. Sorry if I'm not. Our family just made our reservations for WDW and I got the trip insurance and now I am questioning myself. Any suggestions on if I should keep or decline it would be great.

 

[Hoosier37]

I don't usually buy such things, but for us in Indiana, planning a trip in March to WDW, it seemed like a good idea to get the insurance. We have no idea whether the flu, or a blizzard, a family emergency, etc., might come up, and the insurance would get our money back...it didn't seem like too much to spend when compared to the cost of the trip.

 

[pepe of ohio]

I must say, i'm no believer in trip insurance.. It's like extended auto insurance, alot of money for nothing. We've taken 43 trips to WDW over the years and never bought nor had any issue to use it, so for us, it was money well saved. But.....we don't travel in the height of hurricane season nor dead of Ohio's winter. We have flown a few times back in the 80's, have driven some but usually rely on Amtrak and though we have had some issues with travel, we've always made our destination. I've never checked into the small print of trip insurance but I'd be wary as to what it covers before spending my money............I would really read the fine print so if you did purchase it and had to use it, you weren't surprised as to what it covered. I have always felt that this insurance was out there just to make some one alot of money. Just my feelings on the subject based on nothing but it's how we do it.

 

[bicker]

Insurance (and this includes extended warranties and such) is, practically by definition, a bad financial decision. You're essentially paying someone else to take some of your risk away, but just like a casino, insurance underwriters charge what is pretty-much a vigorish - they take a percentage over-and-above what odds-are they'd have to pay-out in terms of making-good on the coverage they provide you. In the long-run, you're almost always better-off without insurance, just covering the costs of losses you incur from your own money.

There are a few situations where insurance is worth considering.

The most notable situation is where the potential losses you could incur would be far in excess of what you could practically afford to cover from your own money. A great example of this is the insurance you take out when you go on a cruise, that covers the cost of medical evacuation at sea, which could run tens of thousands of dollars.

Another situation would be where the insurance is actually treated by the underwriter as pre-payment for services inevitably needed. In that case, it isn't really a transfer of risk (since the payout is inevitable), so generally such insurance is simply bundling services and locking the consumer into specific providers, and for that perhaps a moderate discounting is applied. Good examples of this include the wellness portion of health insurance, and routine dental care.

A third situation would be where insurance is bundled with other benefits that cannot be readily obtained in other ways. Some home applicance protection plans include priority service, essentially giving subscribers priority over walk-ins.

So take a look at what the travel insurance covers, and then look at your bank account. If you have enough money in the bank (and enough credit on your credit cards to access that amount of money in a pinch, for the short-term) to cover what coverage you want from the travel insurance, then skip the travel insurance and "self-insure" (i.e., if something goes wrong, whip out your credit card and make things right, yourself).

 

[Gitts2008]

I'm new at this, so I'm not sure I'm posting this in the right spot. Sorry if I'm not. Our family just made our reservations for WDW and I got the trip insurance and now I am questioning myself. Any suggestions on if I should keep or decline it would be great.

Congrats on your planned trip!

I say that trip insurance is a MUST and I tell you this from personal experience! Our 1st WDW my dd and dh got very sic and we cut our vacation short by 4 days. It was an 8 day vacation so I essentially received 1/2 of my back. This made it possible for us to go back to wdw 5 months later and have a true WDW experience.

If you purchased it through WDW it probably cost you about $45.00 a person. WDW vacations are not inexpensive, so having insurance to protect you from the unexpected is important. We had insurance through AAA. Maybe someone with WDW insurance will post to help ease your mind.

HAVE A GREAT TRIP!

 

[dormouse72]

I don't usually get trip insurance but I did for our upcoming trip in January. Really more for BF than for me - we both work for a non-profit agency and every day hear about another lay-off in a different department. He liked the idea that if one of us lost our job, we wouldn't be on the hook (personally I'd just go regardless). If it makes him feel more secure about the trip so he can enjoy the planning process, then it's worth the money. It was about the same amount that we'd have paid to upgrade to a water-view room at our resort (which for the small amount of time we actually SPEND in our room would really be a waste of money).

 

[lovetoscrap]

As you can see from these responses insurance is really a very personal decision.

You need to look at your life situation and how you would be affected if something happened.

• Do you have any close relatives in ill health?
  
• Will your health insurance cover you while you are in route or in FL?
  
• Are you able to afford an extra week or more in a hotel in case of an emergency?
  
• Are you able to afford to lose your airline tickets, or pay the change fees if something happens?

Even if you are young and healthy and in great shape, it only takes an instant to slip and fall and break your leg in 12 places requiring surgery and an extended hospital stay, which would also mean the family having to stay around and having to make new flight arrangements. And an illness like flu, food poisoning or norwalk virus can completely ruin a trip. An accident or illness can also happen before you leave causing you to have to cancel. It is nice to know you won't lose the money you have spent and can then plan the trip for another time.


If you think that you should go ahead with insurance then I wouldn't buy it through Disney. Go to insuremytrip.com and check out the options there-- they compare prices from a bunch of places. Usually they are way less expensive and may cover more. And read the policy to see what you really need. For instance if you are going to FL you really don't need $50,000 worth of medical evacuation insurance, but if you are going on a cruise you might.


For my family, we drive, our medical insurance covers us all over the country, and we would be okay if we had to stay an extra week or two in a hotel so we don't worry about insurance for Disney. But my mom went to Disney a few months ago and flew instead of drove. My grandmother and stepfather are in poor health so I told her she should get it. She did get insurance and while she didn't need it, it did make her feel much better knowing that if anything happened she wouldn't have to worry about canceling the trip. When we have cruised we have always had insurance, I wouldn't leave the country without it.

 

[Metro West]

 

[iggler]

I have purchased the Insurance as well, $133.00 for the family is hardly nothing compared to the amount lost if unable to go. I have had an instance of having a trip planned to visit family, however due to a immediate death in the family I had to cancel and lost all my money to boot because I did not purchase the insurance, on another occasion, my father had a trip planned with My brother and sil, he became ill and they had to cancel the trip they got money back for all 3 of them.

extended warranties, I swear by them, had a new front load washer that gave me trouble almost 3 years after I bought it, was unable to get a factory authorized repairman to come to my house to fix it, so the warranty replaced it with a brand new machine, no questions asked.

Yeah, some say don't get it, it is wasted money, BUT that is why they call it Insurance, if you pay for and don't need it thats great!!!!!!