Trip insurance?

[proud mom]

Do you buy trip insurance for your WDW trip? I usually don't, but with everything being what it is right now I'm thinking of adding it to my package.

I'd love to hear people's thoughts on it.

 

[robinb]

No, I only buy trip insurance when I cruise and I pay extra for evacuation to the hospital of my choice. If I need to be hospitalized, I don't want to be stuck in one on a tiny island.

So many travel companies are still allowing free cancelations, I wouldn't bother with trip insurance for WDW.

 

[tvguy]

I've only purchased trip insurance twice. Once on my Disney cruise because it was so darn expensive, it was during winter and a holiday peak travel period, December 27 to January 3.
Second time was on our cruise on Celebrity in October 2019 because it was cheap, only $25 due to a promotion to get folks on the ships in an off peak time on a cruise from Vancouver to Los Angeles and the flight routing they booked for us took us 800 miles out of the way.
I never have worried about medical because my group health insurance has always covered health care anywhere in the world.......and as the guy at our last presentation put it, health care is cheaper everywhere else in the world so they save money over U.S. care. Also, all my cruises have been within reach of the U.S. Coast Guard who would medivac me home for free.
Now, next year when I go on Medicare, I WILL have to check on if I need coverage. I know Medicare won't cover me, but I have to research the Medicare Advantage plans I hope to get because they cover a whole lot more for less money than Medicare.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

I don't see any reason to. Everyone's cancellation policies are so flexible now that there's really minimal risk.

 

[easyas123]

No, I only buy trip insurance when I cruise and I pay extra for evacuation to the hospital of my choice. If I need to be hospitalized, I don't want to be stuck in one on a tiny island.

So many travel companies are still allowing free cancelations, I wouldn't bother with trip insurance for WDW.

Same here, we only get it when we are traveling out of the US.

 

[DisneyTexan]

I have been buying it for the last few years for trips almost anywhere. I've had at least three incidents where a flight gets cancelled, and there is zero reimbursement from the airline for the extra day of vacation. The insurance covered the transportation to and from a hotel, the hotel expense, dinner, and breakfast. The one thing it doesn't always cover is an extra day of parking at the airport at home. I've always managed to get home with a delay of "only" 24 hours.

If you want to compare policies I highly recommend a website called insure my trip dot com

 

[afan]

I have been buying it for the last few years for trips almost anywhere. I've had at least three incidents where a flight gets cancelled, and there is zero reimbursement from the airline for the extra day of vacation. The insurance covered the transportation to and from a hotel, the hotel expense, dinner, and breakfast. The one thing it doesn't always cover is an extra day of parking at the airport at home. I've always managed to get home with a delay of "only" 24 hours.

If you want to compare policies I highly recommend a website called insure my trip dot com

Also good to see what type of coverage your credit cards may have. As long as I use the right card this would be covered my their trip interruption.

 

[DisneyTexan]

Also good to see what type of coverage your credit cards may have. As long as I use the right card this would be covered my their trip interruption.

Trip interruption insurance does not cover flight cancellations. Be sure to read the definition that is being used by your credit card company. A flight cancellation falls into the trip delay category.

Trip interruption includes events such as severe weather, death of a family member at home, traveler injury, etc.

 

[DoleWhipping]

We normally do not purchase trip insurance. However, we were scheduled to leave in the evening Sept. 30th and had to cancel our trip the day of due to receiving a positive covid test result that morning. The cast member we spoke to was very kind and patient and helped us reschedule. The rescheduled trip now has trip insurance.

 

[barkley]

we have when our particular health insurance plans had little to no out of state coverage, or coverage for crazy high deductibles/copay's in the event of out of state 'non emergent care'. in my experience with health insurance unless something is life or death they will not deem it emergent so if given the choice of paying a couple hundred 'just in case' vs. a couple thousand if i have to get medical treatment i choose the couple of hundred.

 

[Donna M]

The only time we bought insurance for the airfare was when one of our group had a job that seemed iffy. There were 8 of us and without warning, it ended up being my dh that was ¨retired early.¨ We got all the money back, over $2000.

 

[Cadiewampus]

Not for Disney but did for a trip we have coming up in Feb to iceland cause with my luck who knows what could happen

 

[_19disnA]

Have never bought trip insurance. Make sure to read the 'fine print' of what exactly they do/don't cover to avoid surprises and unrealistic expectations of what might be reimbursed. The one time we had to cancel a trip when there was storm damage to our home, the airline allowed us to reschedule the flights with no charge even though the tickets were non-refundable. The few times I have had to call various airlines to change something due to circumstances beyond my control, they all seem to have policies that aren't widely advertised to cover these situations and were very flexible in what they could do. To me that is different from just changing your mind and deciding not to travel.

 

[kathy884]

Do you buy trip insurance for your WDW trip? I usually don't, but with everything being what it is right now I'm thinking of adding it to my package.

I'd love to hear people's thoughts on it.

For domestic travel I don't buy it and WDW is a domestic trip for me. For air, I usually book SW, so could change flights and get the credit if need be. to apply to future travel For hotels, I usually book the refundable rate. Rental cars have no penalty to cancel. For offsite condos (my typical accommodations for Orlando), I would typically be out some money or timeshare points that I inherited if I cancel last minute, but typically I just self insure on that. If I loose the money or points, I loose the money or points. It's not worth it to me to insure that amount. For tickets to parks, I can usually apply them to tickets for a future trip. And my medical insurance has a good network across the US and an out of network benefit., so I don't bother getting medical insurance either. Please note, though, that I am an offsite visitor, so don't know the ins and outs of canceling a WDW package and what cancellation policies are.

Cruising or International travel is a whole different story for me. My number 1 concern is always medical and medical evacuation insurance (something that could bankrupt me if I wasn't covered and someone had a medical emergency) that I typically buy by itself or bundled with other coverage. I don't think the coverage the ships offer have high enough limits, so I get my own. Young people can get great inexpensive medical coverage for a trip. Geoblue (a global Blue Cross Blue Shield) is something I often get (good reviews for handling claims and inexpensive for a short trip.). As you get older it's move expensive, and sometimes it almost makes more sense to buy a comprehensive policy. I like the brokers on the website Insure by trip for help picking out a comprehensive policy. With more risks of traveling these days for international many recommend getting a cancel for any reason policy that will cover 75% of your non-refundable trip costs. Typically that will set you back about 10% of the cost of your trip. Something that I also do with international travel is stick with the same carrier for the whole long leg trip back, so if I miss a layover that they will make me whole and get me to where I need to go eventually. It is more expensive that mixing and matching discount carriers. I have heard horror stories about missed connections and people having to buy expensive last minute tickets due to having booked on multiple carriers to save a few dollars, though, so I pay the price or don't go. With the delta variant though (just me), I'm not ready to cruise or do international travel yet - in a wait and see mode and am sticking closer to home on vacations (staying in the US so far and continuing that in 2022). Depending on travel cost increases too, who knows, my international travel days could be over (expensive, takes too long to get there, is more of a hassle than it used to be with ever changing rules and recommendations). Don't know if I will ever end up doing my canceled June 2020 European trip or not.

My dad's now 85 and we are sticking to domestic US travel now. with him There are many reasons for this, but medical risks and the high cost of trip medical insurance is one of the reasons.

 

[Twohsieh]

Also good to see what type of coverage your credit cards may have. As long as I use the right card this would be covered my their trip interruption.

We always pay all of our trip expenses with our Chase Sapphire Reserve card to be covered under their travel insurance. The annual fee of $550, but $300 is credited back on the card for travel related expenses, plus it has Priority Pass and many other benefits. The card covers rental cars with primary coverage, trip cancellation/interruption, trip delay, emergency evacuation and transportation coverage, lost /delay baggage, medical/dental coverage, and travel accident coverage.

 

[LuvOrlando]

Am I the only person who has read all the stories about businesses declaring they will cover losses only to drop the customers into a blackhole of awful customer service excuses and unanswered phone calls? Pfft, I wouldn't do a single thing without a clear exit strategy and if that means extra insurance then so be it & that insurance better have excellent reviews.

@Twohsieh, I'm totally going to remember this card for my 2022 extravaganza trips, thanks!

 

[jen7233]

No, we don't. Will use a card that has the best trip type of insurance usually the CSR or Amex Plat. Not overly concerned on airlines and the hotels and working with them. Biggest cost or problem I see if for some reason we can't use our park tickets within the allotted calendar time with the type of tickets we get, and dealing with that issue.

 

[CdnCarrie]

We have it on our credit card.