mikervas

As i concern, Travel insurance is must. But its up to you according to your budget!!

mahasamatman

We've never purchased any type of trip cancellation insurance, but it's all up to your own risk tolerance. Medical/evacuation insurance is a different beast, however, and we do make sure we're covered either through current insurance, credit card insurance, or supplemental insurance. I don't think we would ever even consider purchasing insurance from the cruise companies.

JDiver

For medevac we use DAN - Divers Alert Network. They use TravelAssist, and members must be 50 miles / 80 km from home to avail themselves of Medevac - no age restrictions ^, and no requirement for the incident to be dive-related.

Membership is $35 per person per annum, or $55.00 for a family membership per annum, IMO a super deal. (This is targeted at US residents.)

You also get a magazine (yeah, related to dive safety ) and a dive medical guide, but useful for all travellers:


They also offer Annual Travel Insurance:

$292 - 634 per person per annum, which includes from $2,000 to $5,000 trip cancellation insurance (so instead of buying per trip you buy per year - a good deal unless you have multiple trip cancellations), as well as baggage and personal effects loss (same figures); the same amounts for all levels for medevac and repatriation $100,000, $10,000 medical, car rental collision coverage $25,000.

They are a non-profit organization mainly aimed at scuba divers, and I've used DAN for decades as a scuba diver and known people who have used DAN medevac for non-dive and dive-related issues. For $55 for the two of us, how do you spell D-E-A-L!

FireStation46

It is very profitable for the insurance companies that provide the coverage. They have to make a profit to stay in business.
Find a carrier that has a great reputation with your state's insurance commissioner and/or Better Business Bureau.
The cost of the insurance is dictated by the type, length, number of people, cost of your trip.
The insurance companies like this line of business as the premiums they get is way ahead of their payouts.
However, if you get ill, hurt and are far from home will the insurance get you to a top tier medical facility or provide transportation to get you there? Extra expenses due to delay? Get you back home?
Ask a lot of questions. Get them confirmed in writing.
So, it is your call. Do you want to eliminate as many risks as you can or can you afford the cost if you need to cancel or something happens on the trip and need urgent assistance.
That call us up to you.
So far on the cruise I took, the one I am taking, I bought the Max coverage.
Good luck!

cargo13

Trip insurance is a no brainer. Its usually not expensive if bought at the same time as your cruise.

So much can go wrong in travel that is out of your control...that it makes sense to have trip insurance coverage.

I use this site to self book: http://www.cruisedeals.com/clients/travel_insurance.asp

Or call your travel agent.

mahasamatman

I also consider it a no-brainer, but in my case, that means not buying it.

If your cruise is a one-time thing, it may be worth it. But when you cruse two or three times a year, it can add up. Again, everyone needs to evaluate their own risk tolerance and balance all factors.

philemer

Lots of good info on cruise critic forum: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=635

cargo13

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A travel agent can purchase an annual trip insurance plan for you. Contact Jennifer Hardy ([email protected]). She provided our annual plan the year I lost my job and we traveled extensively.
http://www.allaboardtravel.com/

hansi

I would never go without insurance, and a recent illness on board a cruise brought that home. I ran up a medical bill of $4000, but because I was properly insured, my insurance company paid without a quibble

cruisr

My uncle got sick on a 24 day cruise round trip NYC. he got sick in CPH and had to have a medical disembark. Coincidentally, the chief pursers wife, who was also onboard had to be medically disembarked, it turned out my uncle has some sort of edema and was in the hospital for 5 days. The insurance paid for everything including the hotel for my Aunt and then flew them to meet up with the cruise ship and continue the cruise after he received medical clearance. I can't even imagine what that would have cost them out of pocket. Insurance is something you should have when "God forbid" happens.

747FC

The Allianz policy will not cover preexisting conditions, which are covered on some of their other policies.

lexiconxoxo

I'd have to agree on this one. About 10 years back, I planned a family cruise and purchased for about 9 of us. Fast forward a year my youngest cousin contracted meningitis at college and we ended up not going. This was back when I didn't go for trip cancellation - I thought it was a scam. Today, I wouldn't buy tickets for a cruise without it. It only takes one time for you to really regret not spending the little bit of extra money.

KathyWdrf

Ouch! Maybe that illustrates some of the risk factors to consider when deciding on insurance. You purchased for about 9 people -- probably riskier than purchasing for just one or two; and you purchased (apparently) WAY in advance -- a year or more -- definitely riskier than purchasing on short notice, since more can go wrong over the course of time. (On the other hand, if you purchased for 9, but only one person, the sick one, dropped out and the rest went on the cruise, not as bad an outcome. When there's a lot of people traveling together and their plans are all interdependent, watch out!)

Randyk47

We used to self-insure our vacations that for years were cruises in the Caribbean. Three years ago we switched our interest to more distant itineraries in Europe, mostly the Med, and because of the substantial investment, much of it in non-refundable deposits and airfare, we now purchase insurance. The other aspect, while it beats the alternative, is that we've gotten older and that means while we're both still in relatively good health things can happen. With five digit money at risk it just makes sense now to insure. We usually use www.insuremytrip.com to compare and price travel insurance but based on a recommendation we used www.travelinsurancestore.com for our Med cruise earlier this year.

Jeannietx

Travel insurance is a combination of coverages, and how much coverage you buy is very individual.

We travel a lot, mostly international, a combination of air/rail/rental car land travel and cruises.

We self insure trip cost, and we buy high limit medical coverage and keep an annual MedJet Express policy.