lkar

The way I figure it, it is about $325 for $10k if I book early enough, with cancel for work coverage. I am always better than 3.5 percent likely to have to cancel for work after final payment. Adding in the supplemental stuff you get makes it a no brainer. Iberia lost our bags this summer for several days. We had primary baggage delay coverage. There were some paperwork burdens when we got home, but we got reimbursed in about two weeks. (Travelguard.)

Blue Skye

will research this and see what options work for me. thanks for the info. i honestly didn't know one could get a yearly type of travel insurance.

Often1

OP's question is impossible to answer and the variety of answers provided show that different circumstances have different results.

Only you know exactly what your particular policies cover and only you can see if what the cruise line or third-party vendor has to offer is worth it.

Just because a policy covers air evacuation, does that mean evacuation to the closest point in the US or your hometown? If overseas, is it evacuation to a major city or back to the USA? What about the costs of people in your travel party. If your spouse is stuck for 30 days at a hotel, not wanting to leave you alone, are you covered for that?

As to the basics of missed cruises and the like, take a look at what you are covered for already. Maybe you bought a package including air and ground transfers which covers the cost of getting you to the next stop. Maybe the next stop is a $75 flight. Maybe it's $7,500.

The one thing I would do is make sure that you focus more on medical than on anything else. That is where the costs can be extraordinary. Whether you get stuck for a $15 taxi because you missed a van is hardly the sort of thing to freak about.

TIGA31328

I have always used the insurance, you never know what can happen when you are booking so far out, it's worth it. I have a booking nearly two years out and have insurance on it, who the heck knows what's going to happen between now and a cruise that far out.

-Patrick

jt58203

I always take out the insurance, not just for the trip cancellation aspect of it, but in case an emergency on board would happen or on an accident on a shore excursion in a foreign country. I've heard med evac's are over $30K. Also, our parent's are elderly and if something were to happen to them while we're on a cruise we can be assured we would get home quickly.

Swarez

Check your CC insurance and your home owner's or personal insurance or company benefits to see if they cover any vacation issues.

Many do, some cap out, but research what you have before you buy more.

bug.db

I HIGHLY recommend to purchase travel insurance. I have personally witness people who unfortunately get injured or critically ill and have to be transported off the ship for a medical emergency. Did you know that the ship will actually charge all medical services on the ship to your onboard account? From there, you will have to get reimbursed from your travel insurance or health insurance. Most health insurance do not cover travel cost. Another shocking observation: Some hospitals from outside the US will not give medical care if you do not have the cash or do not have enough credit on the credit card. The travel insurance in this case will take care of the cost.

Travelgaurd does offer yearly travel insurance for the savvy traveler. A great peace of mind

decabea

We only use Dan's basic plan for evacuation. The same company has now introduced a yearly plan for unlimited trips, covering your basic travel insurance issues. I am going to research this and see if it worthwhile for us. So far, knock on wood, in our 40 years of travel, we are way ahead of the game; even if we had an unexpected reason to cancel an upcoming trip. But who knows, what tomorrow brings?

DeirdreTours

Again, just the basic math involved in travel insurance makes it a very poor value for anyone who travels frequently. Travel insurance has one the highest commission rates of any insurance product, usually around 50%. That means, for every $1 you spend on coverage, only 50 cents goes to the insurance company, the rest is kept by the selling agent. We must assume that some of that 50 cents goes to running the insurance company and profit, so less than 50 cents on the dollar ever goes to claims.

If your vacation is a once in a lifetime luxury, then insurance may well make sense. If you travel frequently and you could absorb the total loss of any individual trip without affecting your lifestyle or financial future, than travel insurance is just paying 50 cents on the dollar for the pleasure of spreading your payments over many trips rather than just paying for your loss in one payment.

Medical is more complicated, but I think most of us have everything except evacuation covered by main health insurance policy. Even 30k for evacuation would not change my financial future, so insuring against it doesn't make financial sense to me.

danielonn

Shouldn't a Credit Card like a World Elite MasterCard+ Your own Insurance policy be enough for traveler's insurance? I think Insurance companies should just have a clause for Travel Insurance. What you do is when you leave let your Insurance Agent know and he or she will activate that portion for X amount and you can start it when you leave.

All you do is forward your itinerary with all of your purchases from cruise to flights etc to your insurance agent and he or she just adds it to your file. From there in an emergency your Insurance Agency is connected to an overseas agency that can help you evacuate.

All Pre Existing conditions would be covered just like at home so if you needed to cancel your insurance policy can help.

With your credit card policy it would be your secondary one just in case some coverage could not be had through your primary insurance.

Just my 2 cents.

I think its extortion that as an insured individual that I have to purchase extra insurance to travel when I should be covered by my own policy. I don't think I should have to pay for something I doubt I would need. At least if I pay a small fee to my current policy that includes travel and not have to worry as everything is now covered then fine.

BOShappyflyer

I am a seasoned traveler and relatively healthy, so I never saw a need to buy travel insurance...until

One time my family and I went to travel and unfortunately someone got sick. We had to alter plans and fly back (language was also a problem) and it was luck that we got back when we did. At the time, we thought about a lot of options to ease the cost, but ultimately, we all decided to come back since things were unraveling pretty quickly. We were out a bit in terms of the non-refundable and change fees, but it could've been much worse financially.

Since that, I've bought a travel insurance for every 'international' trip I've ever taken. Sure, you could say it's money down the drain (and what I always thought too), but it's worth its pennies when things go wrong (that's stressful enough already without worrying about the costs). Just in case. Mostly, I care just about the medical coverage, and having that insurance gives me some peace of mind when I travel.

And, yes, I'd get it if going on a cruise too.

bobunf

The most important aspect of travel insurance is medical evacuation when overseas, or at sea. The costs could be many tens of thousands of dollars. You're on a stretcher, clinging to life by a thread, and need immediate evacuation to an appropriate medical facility. It's not a good time to be hung up on costs.

Second is medical expenses. Using your domestic health insurance in a foreign country can be challenging, expensive, and it may not actually cover some things - or anything. Medical costs are likely to be a lot less than in the US, but could still run into many thousands of dollars.

Airfares, hotels and cruises can be tens of thousands of dollars, but you can probably get some of that back, your credit card or other insurance may cover some of it. And, you can LIVE without that money. You have time to figure it out and work things out. Still, nice to have it covered.

mayodave

Bumping this back up, Non US Citizen on first time cruise Vancouver to Alaska only 7 nights, buy cruise company insurance or find a policy online, if online advice please from first hand experience would be appreciated.

GeezerCouple

Okay - our first post here, although we joined back in the fall.

WHY is this our first post?

We are starting retirement travel (even though not really retired yet), so we made reservations for 3 major cruises, spread out over 1+ years.

We splurged on this first one, as it was also a very major birthday.
(It was a long flight, and we decided to go flat-bed for the first time ever, to get to cruise. Eager to find out if our slightly aging bodies would notice the difference )

Less than 2 weeks to go... DH gets a very serious health problem, out of nowhere.

Within a few days, physicians/surgeons announce he isn't going ANYWHERE in about 10 days.
Everything needs to be cancelled!

But we didn't actually get the insurance for this, given how remote we thought the chance was.

DH still has occasionally "must attend" consulting work, which could be with less than one month's notice.
We purchased insurance that included 75% for Cancel For Any Reason (CFAR). It could also be "we didn't like that predicted hurricane" or "the political situation got too unstable", or even something as silly as "I changed my mind" (rather absurd, in our case).

MEDICAL: For extreme, catastrophic events, consider MedJetAssist. IF you find yourself an inpatient far from home (more than 150 miles qualifies), they will fly you to "the hospital of YOUR choice", by air ambulance if necessary.

ANNUAL Travel Insurance: There is a very cost effective annual coverage, given that most trips won't get cancelled.
One BIG caveat for us (and perhaps most): IF you use that coverage, and you need additional coverage for other planned trips, you will be TOO LATE to get coverage that includes pre-existing conditions. That's a big concern for us, and will become more so, as we get older and more little (or not so little) things start to "happen".

Speak with Steve (owner) or anyone at

http://TripInsuranceStore.com

(We have no affiliation with them, other than great satisfaction with their detailed explanations of the pros and cons of coverage types.)

DH is finally about to be cleared for travel again, so we are back to making plans

GeezerCouple

JDiver

Exactly what I do. It's nice to have 20 - 30 insurance policies to peruse and compare, read the fine print, etc. after specifying some basic entry parameters.

How often have I needed it?

My SO got very ill, we had to cancel the cruise, air, hotels, etc. Insurance covered us for all the losses (cruise payment, nonrefundable portions of anything else, etc.)

We had begun our trip to LIM and IQT for our Amazon cruise (last August). When we arrived MIA, we were told the cruise ship had burned. Whoops, we had begun the trip and incurred potentially significant airline change / cancellation fees, not to mention the cruise payment, nonrefundable hotel bookings (cancellation clause stated 48 hours advance notice required), etc. Even as the cruise company reimbursed us, we were still out significant money out of pocket.

That's in the last 3-4 years. We were fully covered by the insurance we got via insuremytrip.com, where you can read all the fine print, compare policies, etc.

Why not the "cruise protection program" offered by the cruise line? Because... that does not cover, among other things, default or provider failure (bankruptcy, etc. like Peter Deilmann Cruises, Sea Safaris, Conquest Vacations, Mexicana and Malév airlines, See and Sea Travel, Oad Holland, etc. etc.) and is written to protect THEM, not you. Yeah, read your history and you will see "prominent", well-known travel companies, airlines and even cruise lines that suddenly went belly-up and left people stranded in the back o' Bourke - and with significant debts to boot.

Yes, it's not cheap; losing a lot of money from a suddenly defunct "holiday of a lifetime" because the "protection" was issued by a company that did not cover certain possibilities caused by its actions, failure to act or negligence, or because you suddenly became ill, had an accident etc. can hurt a lot more.