What's your thoughts on trip insurance?

[kbkids]

Again - first time cruiser here. We're doing a 3 night at the end of October, and we've got a great deal. We've been quoted insurance at $49 each for the 1st two people, $39 each for each additional - total of $176 for us. Not sure what this includes as I haven't looked into it that far.

1) Yes, I hate to spend the extra money. But I do LIVE in FLorida, so I'm very familiar with hurricanes. I also know that late October is getting pretty late in the season too, but that's just a gamble and there's no way to know right now.

2) Anyone the best deal and with who?

3) Do you have to purchase it at the time of your deposit, or I guess I should say, what's the latest you can purchase it?

 

[lcborn2run]

I just posted my insurance question about 1 minute after yours!

Unfortunately, I can't help you, but I 'm sure the experts on this board will help us out. It's a great bunch of people here

So let the answers roll in..........

Lisa

 

[kbkids]

Oops - I didn't notice yours. I'm just full of questions this morning. We've got to do the deposit by tomorrow in order to keep our reservation, so I'm just making sure I've got all my ducks in a row. My TA hasn't come in yet this morning, so poor thing, she's got all my questions in her inbox waiting on her? Unfortunately, most all of them have already been answered on this board - feel bad for wasting her time.

 

[HappyLawyer]

i never purchase it but i am still debating this next trip because so many things are happening in our world, natural disasters and all the other stuff

 

[kbkids]

Guess I should add that ours would be strictly for the cruise itself. We're driving down, so airfare isn't an issue.

 

[minkydog]

My thoughts on insurance...if you ever spend $1000s on a vacation and lose it all because you couldn't go due of some unforeseen circumstance, you will understand the concept.

Thankfully we did have the insurance, so when my DH fell critically ill 3 months before the cruise there was time to cancel and get most of our money back.For peace of mind, Get the insurance!

 

[UGAFan0829]

Well, I just booked our 2nd cruise for Oct. of this year, and I once again decided to go with the insurance. Before we sailed in January, so there wasn't as much of a risk of having bad weather as before, but still, anything can happen!

 

[allears]

I can't speak to the best deal, we usually just take the insurance as part of our cruise package. However, I can stongly suggest having insurance. We've cruised 5 times and had insurance each time. On our 3rd cruise we came within 12 hours or less of cancelling our 7 night cruise due to a medical issue, we were a lot less stressed since we knew we had insurance.

Our 4th cruise was last September, smack in the middle of the hurricanes that were ravaging Florida. Our cruise was delayed by close to 3 days. We were already in Florida and had to spend money on transportation, hotel and food for those days. The insurance re-imbursed us around $800 in expenses.

Our last cruise, just my DW and I was in January. We had booked our air fare seperately and on a huntch I purchased insurance on the flights. The cruise portion was no problem, but the Saturday we got off the ship a major snow storm hit the north east region and we were "trapped" in Florida another night. Again the insurance picked up the hotel, food and transprotation, up to $150 per person per day. I spent about $70 for the insurance, but got back $300.

Moral of the story, get insurance, hope that you don't have to use it but you'll be very glad if you do.

 

[jacobatt1]

We bought our insurance from Disney when we made our reservations. I'm just not a risk-taker, so I would be a wreck if I didn't have the insurance, just worrying about what could happen! It's good also for trip interruption, or if you need to be air-lifted out of somewhere or whatever. It really is pretty cheap, and I felt better doing it through Disney b/c I trust them and I knew they'd stand behind their product (I know it's another company, but at least they have a relationship with Disney.) I'd rather have everything in one place!

Just my 2 cents!

Amy

 

[UGAFan0829]

We bought our insurance from Disney when we made our reservations. I'm just not a risk-taker, so I would be a wreck if I didn't have the insurance, just worrying about what could happen! It's good also for trip interruption, or if you need to be air-lifted out of somewhere or whatever. It really is pretty cheap, and I felt better doing it through Disney b/c I trust them and I knew they'd stand behind their product (I know it's another company, but at least they have a relationship with Disney.) I'd rather have everything in one place!

Just my 2 cents!

Amy

I totally agree with what you just said. Just as you, I get mine with DCL!

 

[3DisneyNUTS]

I would definitely recommend it. In opur case it covers emergency medical too. SO for $59 pp for adults and $39 for kids it is well worth it.

Our agent told me that say for some reason we had to be airlifted off an island that it would cover the expense of that etc. Our son got an ear infection on our last cruise if we had insurance for that it would have been covered instead we had $200 unexpected bill that trip.

This in addition to trip cancellation.

 

[3DisneyNUTS]

We bought our insurance from Disney when we made our reservations. I'm just not a risk-taker, so I would be a wreck if I didn't have the insurance, just worrying about what could happen! It's good also for trip interruption, or if you need to be air-lifted out of somewhere or whatever. It really is pretty cheap, and I felt better doing it through Disney b/c I trust them and I knew they'd stand behind their product (I know it's another company, but at least they have a relationship with Disney.) I'd rather have everything in one place!

Just my 2 cents!

Amy

Should have read ahead LOL....I agree 100%

 

[djs113]

insurance is mandatory in my mind

 

[3mickeys&me]

October is still considered Hurricane season! I am sure you remember last year all too well. IMO its a must to have trip insurance. Its not expensive at all to purchase its all based on the price you pay for your trip. Our Insurance cost us $121.00 for 4 people, for our 7 day land and sea cruise that includes everything.

Its so worth it!!!

 

[Amberle3]

I'm a travel agent, and I don't make any travel plans for myself that don't include the insurance.

Depending on what insurance company (and sometimes depending on what agent) the insurance has to be purchased either within 48 hours of making the first payment, or when the payment becomes non-refundable. Most insurance companies now have policies in place that are meant for cruises, since most other packages don't have refundable deposits.

The benefit to waiting until final payment is that, well, you're not paying for the insurance now. And really it's kind of pointless to take it when paying the deposit, since if you cancel the cruise you'd get your deposit back so it's not really insuring anything.

The benefit to taking it when you make your deposit is that almost all of the insurance policies have clauses for "pre existing conditions", both medical and... environmental. For instance (for the medical):
You book a trip July '04, for travel July '05. Final payment isn't due until sometime in May '05, and you can cancel any time up until then and get your deposit back. In April '05 you discover you have a minor heart condition and you're put on medication for it. If your insurance was purchased in July '04 that condition would be covered, since it wasn't known about when the insurance was purchased. If you purchased the insurance when making final payment in May '05, the condition would not be covered because a) it's known and b) it's not "stable", meaning that it's condition or any medications for it haven't changed in the last 90 days. Because it's a new condition and you've just started the meds, it obviously hasn't been stable for the 90 days before the insurance purchase so... not covered.

 

[Jeanne B]

My DH and I went on our first cruise in January and we've never bought travel insurance previously but with this being our first cruise and the fact that we were traveling in the winter from New England something told me I should by insurance. Thank goodness I did because we had travel delays down and back which cost us over $800 due to unplanned hotel stays, meals, a car rental and additional airfare (due to having to book with a different airline out of a different airport in order to make it to the ship on time). I sent my claim information to the insurance company last week and breathed a sigh of relief that I had bought the insurance. We're going on the 3-day Disney cruise with our DD in late October and I will definitely be buying insurance!!

 

[budwmn]

Recently received a check for $2500 for 3 days of trip interruption (DS had norovirus). Yah, I'd say it's worth it!

 

[annrae]

We booked a Sept. 2006 cruise because of the excellent rates and would not even think of NOT getting trip insurance. We took out the insurance with DCL and I really feel so much more comfortable having the insurance with the crazy weather patterns and the restless world we live in.

 

[missyoh8]

YES YES YES...........have the insurance. We were on the same cruise as allears(hurricane Jeane cruise) and we received a check for $2600 when we got home. I would never cruise again without it. I don't recall anyone on our cruise who was not satisfied with their insurance reimbursment, so I don't think who you buy it from is a big issue if you go with whoever your TA reccomends. Small price to pay for the piece of mind.

Missyoh8

 

[DonnaW]

Does insurance generally cover delays/cancels, etc. due to hurricanes? I got kind of conflicting information from my travel agent.