When & from who to purchase trip insurance??

[suz72]

Hi-

After reading another thread, I think I need some advice about when and from who to purchase trip insurance.

I just recently put down a deposit on a DCL cruise with Dreams Unlimited. I haven't been offered trip insurance yet.

When do I buy it? Now? Right before I cruise?
Where? Who sells it?
How much? Is it based on the price of your cruise?
Do I also purchase it for my airfare?
Can I read the entire policy to see what it covers?

Thank you in advance for the info...

Susan

 

[buster478]

You should be able to buy it when you book your cruise. Ask your travel agent. I believe it is about $50 pp. I believe you can buy it up until your final payment is due. After that you are out of luck. We bought it last time and didn't need it. This time we didn't and after all the hurricanes wished we would have. As of now I think I am safe. The weather looks good for this weekend.

Good luck.

 

[ljm]

Check out this website:
www.insuremytrip.com

They offer insurance from a number of reputable companies. When checking for my January cruise, the lowest quote for a party of 4 for insurance was $96; Disney's insurance would be $200. The coverages offered vary widely between companies and between policies, so be sure to check the fine print.

From what I have been told, if you are purchasing Disney's insurance, you must do it prior to paying your final payment.

 

[pvangordon]

From what I've learned, you should get your insurance within 14 days of booking your cruise if there's a pre-existing condition. Otherwise, you can get it when you make final payment. If you pay too early, you don't get the premium back if you decide to cancel the cruise before final payment. The insurance is more useful when you actually stand to lose something (i.e., your final payment within the two months before your cruise).

 

[Cleo41]

We were considering getting the medical coverage. Any ideas? Also, we were told we could do it up to 24 hours prior to departure. Is that true?

 

[Greysword]

Insurance needs to be paid within two weeks of booking the cruise in order to get certain discounts, such as protection from terrorist activity at your destination and a couple other such things. Otherwise, they will cover air, hotel, food, lost luggage, medical and a load of other expenses.

The two larger companies are:

Travel Insured
http://www.travelinsured.com

and

Travel Guard
http://www.travelguard.com

I have the former ready for my trip in January. They will cover me if I get hurt or ill at sea or in a foreign port (money upfront talks), missing ship movement due to factors beyond my control, hotel if I need to stay due to missing the boat, lost luggae costs, food and travel enroute to the ship if I miss it, accidents in a rental car, cancelation due to a wide variety of issues.

Highly recommended, and we have been discussing this on here for quite some time. It is like the passport discussion. You can sut corners, but if bad things happen (and they do), then you can be covered no matter the situation with a little planning. i would rather pay $300 now because I know I don't have thousands to pay later.

 

[TheWog]

i second the idea to check insuremytrip.com.

You can compare many of the different policies against each other. We will purchase our insurance at the time we make our final payment. I think we will go with travelex because of the coverages they provide for the amount they charge. Want to make sure the medical and evacuation covered. DCL won't cover air travel unless purchased through them I believe, so check everything carefully.

 

[jlmarr]

Originally posted by Greysword
Insurance needs to be paid within two weeks of booking the cruise in order to get certain ...

I think the important coverage that you can't get after two weeks is cancellation coverage. That's a biggie, so I wanted to bump this reply.

 

[cruisenewbie2004]

I believe the standard is that it must be bought within 14 days of sending in your deposit, nit your final payment. That is what it was for us. The insurance obviously makes the interest on the money you give them that far ahead of time. But if your travel agent did not give you information, shame on them. There is a time limit.

 

[vossjemi]

Originally posted by jlmarr
I think the important coverage that you can't get after two weeks is cancellation coverage. That's a biggie, so I wanted to bump this reply.

I think this is incorrect. The 2 week deal is for pre-existing conditions whether it be for cancellation, trip interruption, or whatever. All of the policies give cancellation coverage for other reasons, usually sickness/death, etc... that was not a preexisting condition. I just got CSA webdirect. It covers me even if I have to cancel due to a preexisting condition of a family member staying home. It also covers me for terrorism in itinerary cities. You just have to look closely at the policies as some will cover some things and not others and decide what is important to you. Insuremytrip does a really good job of listing all the policies/prices/coverages so that you know exactly what you are getting.

 

[suz72]

O.K.

I think it has been 2 weeks to the day since we put down the deposit for DH and I. We are going to add the girls on soon. I did DH and to get SPR 5020 before it was gone.

We are not cruising for over 2 years. It would seem silly to buy the trip insurance now.

I will definately buy it before we pay final payment. I will also send note to TA to inquire more about it.

I'm going to check the websites mentioned above and "read the fine print".

If anyone else has any further advice, I would welcome it!

Thank you ,

Susan

 

[Luckymommyx2]

We're in the same "boat" Susan. We don't want to buy trip insurance for our Sept 2006 cruise yet. I haven't purchased it before and really need to do my homework. I want to make sure anything to do with hurricanes is covered since we're sailing the first week of September!! I don't know if this is something standard on all policies or not. I'm really in the beginning stages in all of this.

 

[jlmarr]

Originally posted by vossjemi
I think this is incorrect. The 2 week deal is for pre-existing conditions whether it be for cancellation, trip interruption, or whatever. All of the policies give cancellation coverage for other reasons, usually sickness/death, etc... that was not a preexisting condition.

You're right - our situation involved a pre-existing condition (ailing mother in law) which was our main concern. But you do lose a lot of benefit after that first two weeks. The fine print on the policy we looked into said "within 15 days of first trip payment".

 

[vossjemi]

The insurance I just bought CSA WebDirect was for my Jan cruise. I didn't buy it at the time I booked as I'd heard that if I cancelled the cruise, the premium was not refundable. I also have a cruise booked for sept 05 and have not purchased insurance yet. However, in doing my research for the jan cruise, I discovered that my belief of nonrefundable insurance premium was incorrect. I think the Global Alert policy did have a refundable insurance premium. Also, when looking at the various policies, some had an option at the bottom for an extra $10 or $15 to make the premium refundable. So, if you need insurance for preexisting reasons, you might look into the refundable premium policies. If not, then there is no reason not to wait until close to or near final payment time....or at least until you have booked your air or something that makes the deal solid and where you can actually suffer a loss should you need to cancel. Hope this helps.

 

[karebear1]

I'm a little confused. Wouldn't your regular health insurance cover any pre-existing conditions if you had a problem while on your trip? For that fact, wouldn't your reg. health insurnce cover you for any kind of medical problem ? I can see why you'd want insurance if you had to be flighted over- is that the coverage you're talking about?

 

[TheWog]

Originally posted by karebear1
I'm a little confused. Wouldn't your regular health insurance cover any pre-existing conditions if you had a problem while on your trip? For that fact, wouldn't your reg. health insurnce cover you for any kind of medical problem ? I can see why you'd want insurance if you had to be flighted over- is that the coverage you're talking about?

your health insurance won't reimburse your cruise costs if you can not travel due to illness. The trip insurance will cover the costs you have paid for a trip if you can not travel due to illness and if you purchase within xx amount of days of deposit they will cover all pre-existing conditions as they will not if you wait to purchase later. Some health care plans also will not cover medical expenses incurred outside the U.S.