My husband and I are going on a land/cruise tour of Alaska with Princess this August. We are trying to decide if we need to purchase the suggested insurance or not. I am 48 and he is 58, both of us in excellent health and our immediate family is in good health (no one close to dying). This cruise is a bit more expensive the other ones we have both gone on or are scheduled to go in the near future. Is it really worth spending the extra money for insurance? My hubby told me to ask you guys - he hears me giving advice that I have received from the chat site all of the time. So all of you cruise experts - let me know what you think.

Lizzyjane

By the way we are spending about $4500. per person for the air/land/cruise.

That is a lot of money to risk losing if something unexpected happens. Good health often has nothing to do with it. An accident, fire, whatever, could cause you to miss the vacation.

A late friend of mine was all set for a cruise with his family, to include his mother-in-law. He didn't get insurance. Three days before they were to leave, his wife and her mother were driving down a street and hit by a drunk driver. The mother-in-law was killed. No cruise, and no insurance for the trip. They eventually recovered the loss with the accident settlement, but why have to go through that mess?

I always get the insurance, even for the cheap little 3-day cruise I'm doing next month.

I always go for the insurance, as well. Make sure that it covers trip interruption as well as cancellation, just in case you need to get home in an emergency.

I'm paying a little over a grand for my August 3-night cruise, including air. This is the price anyone can find on the internet. It isn't a special price. My insurance is costing me $74, and that includes $500,000 for medical evacuation, trip interruption coverage, and many other things. Medical evacuation is something I have personal experience with. It is never cheap and most personal medical insurance policies don't cover all of it. Some won't cover any air evacuations. I'll never forget the bill for $10,000 for a 15 mile medevac helicopter ride for my wife after the accident in 2006.

Two questions, if you had a crisis prior to the cruise, would the loss of everything but a refund of tax and fuel charge be okay? A crisis can be anyhting and you don't have to be in poor health or elderly to get the flu or as Dave points out, have a car accident or any of a thousand other things that can cause a cancellation.

Second, if something serious were to happen while on the cruise, would the cost and lost of the remainder of your cruise on top of the expense be okay? A simple fall while touring a glacier could result in the need for exacuation. A medical emergency aboard the ship. We do things on vacation we don't do in our daily lives. Dog sled, float plane, bear watching? An ambulance probably can't get to your location while on a dog sled excursion. If the float plane has mechanical problems, how will you get back to the ship? If the ships departs without you, who pays for the flight to catch up and continue your vacation? I won't even go into the posibilities with bears or other wildlife excursions. Are these things likely to happen and create major costs? Nope. Could they? Yep. For a small cost insurance policy will you sleep better as your cruise approaches? I would.

Cheers, Neil

Lizzyjane, I have to put my two cents in here! A year ago we were scheduled to leave on our Alaska land/cruise tour. Fortunately we purchased insurance. One week before the cruise we were shopping for luggage when I tripped over a display and broke my wrist.

The trip had to be cancelled. If we had not bought insurance, we would have lost something like $7,000! As it was, we were totally reimbursed for the cost of the cruise, air fares, transfers, etc.

This was a simple accident that could happen to anyone.

Go for the insurance! It will give you peace of mind.

Nadine

Thank you all for the advise. I will call my TA Monday and ask her to send us the forms. I think it will be worth the peace of mind.

Lizzyjane

Lizzyjane, good choice in my opinion. By the way, there are sometimes better coverages available than the cruiseline policies. Ask your T/A for a recommendation on what you can get that has the best value and coverage.

Sandy and some others on here have used and recommend Travel Guard often, I understand they offer high limits at reasonable pricing and some things like any reason cancellation protection that you can't get with other companies. I've used and have recommended for a long time a company called CSA Travel Protection with no problems, they're another good company. I know there are other very good sources but have no 1st hand knowledge of any of the others.

Cruiseline coverage is often very limited in the coverage and often as high cost or higher than the outside providers so don't feel like you're limited in what's available to you.

Cheers, Neil

I never get the cruise line insurance. A good place to compare policies is insuremytrip.com where you can see policies from all the major travel insurers. You can select several and compare them on the same screen.

Insurance is a smart buy.....You could be involved in an accident on the way to the ship....or while on the ship....I didn't get insurance until a few years ago, when we sat on the runway in Minnesota, waiting to take off in a snowstorm....I don't leave home without it now:-)....Happy sailing...You will love Alaska...

Bob E

So can someone provide a general guideline for picking insurance? What should the limits be? How important is primary vs. secondary insurance (and many policies are primary for certain aspects, and secondary for others)? What features are absolutely necessary, and which can you do without?

Last time I used TravelInsured - very good price, and the coverage was good. This time I'm having a little tougher time deciding.

I went to insuremytrip.com, and they give you plenty of info - almost too much. It's hard to tell if it's worth going for the more expensive plan on not. Plus, I want to make sure I pick a plan that won't hassle me if I actually need to use it.

Mike- you don't need to spend a fortune to be adaquately insured. Most important are trip cancellation insurance (say you loose you job or someone gets sick and can't go etc). Then the next biggest item is accident/health insurance. On our last cruise to the Med, we personally saw 4 people being taken off the ship into awaiting ambulances. Can you imagine what the hospital bills would be for care in a foreign country or worse yet, medivac air transport back to the states? No one expects to get injured on the cruise but it happens. We also saw 3 people with what looked like brand new casts (on the wrists).

The other items you should make sure your policy covers are trip interuption (your flight gets cancelled and you need to meet the ship in the next port) and luggage insurance (most cover so much money per day up to an amount to cover buying new clothes in case your luggage is lost. The couple in the cabin across the hall from us did not get their luggage until the 7th day of the cruise. They did not have insurance. They were walking ads for Carnival (they bought much of their clothes in the Carnival store). I don't want to think about how much money they spent for basics.

Those are the must haves (otherwise why bother with insurance). The limits and other coverages you can decide on yourself based on your needs. Being a father of 2 that we left with grandma in the states, we picked a plan that had good life insurance pay out too. In case of the worst event, I wanted my childern well cared for. But, obviously for a young person, that may not be important.

Use the travel insured website and find the plan comparison chart. Pick the plan that provides you with the options you feel you need and then find the cheapest version of that plan .

I probably missed something as I am not an insurance expert but this is what I did and anyone with further advice is free to jump in and help.

I always use the same folks and always buy the same plan. They offer a higher cost, higher limit option but I've never felt I needed a $1M policy for med transportation when $250K should more than cover about anything that could come up including evac off a ship (about $15-$20k in most cases), chartered med flight home for long term care if needed (about $50k from caribbean), etc. As far as getting with a provider that is hassle free, I have have 1st hand experience with one provider, CSA and I know they are very good at paying claims. I've never personally had to file a claim but have had hundreds of claims that I also have 1st hand knowledge of being filed because of my situation.

I am confident there are other great providers and many may even be better, or a better value than the policy I get each time. I'm also confident there are some that are not great insurance or great companies to deal with. I don't know any of those to steer you away from, I just know they can't all be great.

Cheers, Neil

I've bought policies with CSA, Travelex, and Travel Insured. In every case the price was fair and the coverage comprehensive.

I don't usually get insurance for drive to ports. I am this time though, and have been looking at Travel Insured. I just don't feel comfortable without it anymore.

Dwayne

What about primary vs secondary insurance? I've noticed that alot of these company's medical coverage is secondary. If I were to need the insurance, and am I going to have a difficult time getting paid with secondary?

Or maybe I don't need to worry about that.

secondary just means that they cover what your medical insurance won't. If you don't have your own medical insurance, I'm not sure what that means.

I also use CSA and Travel Insured..

I'd feel better with primary. That way you don't have to research where your insurance will cover/what it will cover, etc. You'd know you were covered no matter what. Just my opinion.

but is the potential hassle of having secondary cruise insurance worth paying the extra for primary?

quote:

but is the potential hassle of having secondary cruise insurance worth paying the extra for primary?

Only you can answer that question. It's your money and possibly your time if you have to wade through it with your primary insurer.

For instance, some may think I'm crazy but I get the rental car insurance even though I'm probably covered by my own policy, and/or my credit card. If the rental gets damaged I don't want the hassles, and that is worth the price to me.