Will DCL be kind about a cancellation for a broken arm?

[Footnotegirl]

My mom just broke her arm and the doctors won’t cast the arm until 10 days for the swelling to go down.

We are sailing on this Sunday 9/08. We don’t have insurance. Is there any way that DCL will take pity on us and give us cruise credit?

Does anyone have experience with something like this? We will go on the cruise if we can’t cancel/get credit, but if we could reschedule that would be the best option.

Here's my experience from this past March:
Two days before our cruise, the day before our flight, I woke up in the morning with a terrible stomach ache that later turned into a sharp pain in my right abdomen (some people in the audience may well know what doom was ahead for me).
By 7 p.m. after a blood test and a ct scan, I was at the emergency room, and by 9 p.m. I was being prepped for an emergency appendectomy. Luckily, we had booked through a travel agent, so my husband (who normally doesn't do the disney part of the planning, he does the flights and non disney hotels) was able to call her while I was unable to be dealing with anything but pain and worry.
Disney WAS willing to move our cruise, but we had to get a signed letter from my surgeon that I absolutely could not cruise, and we still payed a pretty good sized date changing fee. We lost the money we'd spent on the pre cruise hotel, and were able to get our flight rebooked with a small fee.
We don't travel without insurance anymore.
Our new cruise is in a little over a month!

 

[lanejudy]

If anybody knows, does using DVC points for a cruise change anything about $99 Travelex coverage?

I don't have an exact answer for you but it may help direct your research... as I understand it, using DVC points for a DCL cruise isn't the same as a WDW resort. It's essentially transferring those points out of the system like for a non-Disney resort (exchange?). So I wouldn't be surprised if the coverage may in fact be different.

You might want to consider renting your DVC points and using that cash to pay for DCL.

 

[ldo]

OP-check which CC you used for the cruise. Some have automatic cancelation insurance.

 

[Rebecca Pocahontas]

Sorry for not giving an update but — the Disney cast members I talked to were so kind and gave us a one time date change. We had to pay $300 per person ($1200) and we moved the cruise to next year. It was totally worth it to pay the money because my mom would not have been able to make it on this cruise.

She is still healing but she’s so much better now.

Thank you for all your answers. It never hurts to ask.

 

[Girl of the South]

That’s great news! Did you have a specific cruise that you asked to change it to? Just wondering if it’s better to be specific. Always nice to have something to look forward to. My Mom broke her wrist two days before my sisters wedding. Her baby blue cast matched her Mother of the Bride dress . .

 

[randumb0]

Sorry for not giving an update but — the Disney cast members I talked to were so kind and gave us a one time date change. We had to pay $300 per person ($1200) and we moved the cruise to next year. It was totally worth it to pay the money because my mom would not have been able to make it on this cruise.

She is still healing but she’s so much better now.

Thank you for all your answers. It never hurts to ask.

Please purchase insurance for next year's trip

 

[Rebecca Pocahontas]

That’s great news! Did you have a specific cruise that you asked to change it to? Just wondering if it’s better to be specific. Always nice to have something to look forward to. My Mom broke her wrist two days before my sisters wedding. Her baby blue cast matched her Mother of the Bride dress . .

The cast member let me call her back so we could have time to find the exact cruise we wanted.

 

[Dug720]

Please purchase insurance for next year's trip

absolutely this! You can guarantee there is a note on the new cruise about the one-time last minute date change, so they won't be as understanding the next time.

It isn't that expensive. And if you do more than one vacation a year (cruise or not) it might be worth looking into an annual policy. I was able to get one for not a whole lot more than a one-time policy.

 

[Beachbummer]

absolutely this! You can guarantee there is a note on the new cruise about the one-time last minute date change, so they won't be as understanding the next time.

It isn't that expensive. And if you do more than one vacation a year (cruise or not) it might be worth looking into an annual policy. I was able to get one for not a whole lot more than a one-time policy.

Which company do you use for an annual policy? My family travels often, but I usually rely on my credit card for travel insurance. After reading this, I think I need to purchase insurance this cruise (it's our first cruise)! My final payment is due next week!

 

[Beachbummer]

Here's my experience from this past March:
Two days before our cruise, the day before our flight, I woke up in the morning with a terrible stomach ache that later turned into a sharp pain in my right abdomen (some people in the audience may well know what doom was ahead for me).
By 7 p.m. after a blood test and a ct scan, I was at the emergency room, and by 9 p.m. I was being prepped for an emergency appendectomy. Luckily, we had booked through a travel agent, so my husband (who normally doesn't do the disney part of the planning, he does the flights and non disney hotels) was able to call her while I was unable to be dealing with anything but pain and worry.
Disney WAS willing to move our cruise, but we had to get a signed letter from my surgeon that I absolutely could not cruise, and we still payed a pretty good sized date changing fee. We lost the money we'd spent on the pre cruise hotel, and were able to get our flight rebooked with a small fee.
We don't travel without insurance anymore.
Our new cruise is in a little over a month!

Did you have Disney insurance? Or did they just make an exception in your case?

 

[Beachbummer]

Our experience is a bit different but:
In December 2022, we were on the first sailing of a back-to-back cruise on the Disney Wish. My wife's mom (back shoreside) had a massive stroke and we weren't sure if she'd even survive (she did, thankfully). We obviously found out while onboard the first of the two sailings.

We spoke to onboard guest services who had to have us call shoreside guest services since they didn't have access to the next cruise yet. We called and they absolutely did not do anything for us. Matter of fact, when we said we would need transport back to the airport the next day when the current cruise disembarked as we could not reembark, they obliged and charged us for it even through we'd already paid for it for the cruise we couldn't take.

We did have 3rd party cruise insurance so it did work out for us, we got everything reimbursed, but Disney was of zero help. It was actually easier working with the airline to change our flights. I was shocked and extremely disappointed. Not that they didn't break the rules for us, we knew what the rules were, but in how we were treated by shoreside. The person was more worried about informing the port we wouldn't be reboarding and releasing the room than helping us. It was bad.

Separately, I had to call DVC to cancel a points booking as we originally were going to head to WDW for a night after the 2nd cruise and they refunded the points no questions asked.

I wish you a better experience and more luck than we had! I do know if you ask about moving/changing, for a per person fee they will typically do that (but it's something like $200-$300 per person to move is what we were told - unsure if real given how bad of an experience we had).

Who do you use for 3rd party insurance?

 

[Dug720]

Which company do you use for an annual policy? My family travels often, but I usually rely on my credit card for travel insurance. After reading this, I think I need to purchase insurance this cruise (it's our first cruise)! My final payment is due next week!

Allianz.

 

[Love4Eeyore]

Who do you use for 3rd party insurance?

I second Allianz. We have an annual policy through them.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Which company do you use for an annual policy? My family travels often, but I usually rely on my credit card for travel insurance. After reading this, I think I need to purchase insurance this cruise (it's our first cruise)! My final payment is due next week!

We've gotten a medical annual policy through GeoBlue for a number of years. You can go to any of the travel insurance comparison sites to look, they will show you a variety of companies/policies for you to check out.

 

[JWG]

Who do you use for 3rd party insurance?

Trawick International Safe Travels Voyagers. We found it through an aggregator and given our good luck with it when needed we now just keep getting it.