Think you dont need trip insurance or Passports?..........

It was just about a year ago, we became Mexican citizens for 3 days.

First, PRINCESS CRUISES ROCKS AT TAKING CARE OF THEIR CUSTOMERS.

long post coming.

We were on the Grand for the Sept 25 Mexican Riviera 10 day cruise.

We did not have trip insurance on this cruise, Ah we don't need it for this cruise...........Ooops.

We have Passports and Passport Cards, but our Passports had expired a month before and we didn't notice until a week before, OOOPS,

We were in Puerto Vallarta on the 29th of September, on our own. We have branched out and have discovered all sorts of cool places on our own, There is a awesome little Cantina in the middle of the jungle outside of Puerta Vallarta by the way.

My wife was shopping for t shirts in the city when she stumbled on a step, tried catching herself and dislocated her shoulder. This was about 3 or so, plenty of time to meet the 8:00 departure time.

We discussed what to do with our cab driver, we decided to go back to the ship first. Medical was awesome, but the x ray machine was not working.

So they took us to Amerimed, a few blocks from the ship.

Amerimed took our health insurance but the translations etc, took so long that we were not able to get the procedure done in time since she would need to be sedated and watched for a hr.

So about 730 Fidel the port rep called me,said he would need to have me come back disembark and we would need to stay the night in Mexico.

Princess again ROCKS, and so does Amerimed, the hospital driver took me back, Princess had packed my room and the Hospital guy took me back to the hospital, they had preformed the relocation and Carly was ok.

Fidel the port rep booked us a room in the Holiday In Express next door, and we discussed what to do, either take a bus to Manzinillo the next day or go home. But the Dr. did not speak English, and the nurse that did, didn't translate what the dr said correctly, so we decided to go home.

We decided to go home, so I booked a flight for Saturday.

Princess customer care also called me directly from California to ask if everything was ok and if they could do anything, even though they had no responsibility for anything really.

So, remember I said we had Passport Cards? Well I just happened to remember that they were only good for land/sea travel and not flying. OH OH. This was about 5 on Saturday.

I called the Customs office and united and they said there would be no issue, umm ok. I called Fidel the port rep and he said there would probably be no issue, but call him again when at the airport if there were problems.

Soooo. we got to the airport Saturday, up to the counter, Need passports, don't have passports, cant travel, and its not "HAHA, we may not let you go home" or "HAHA you cant leave" Its looking you dead in the eye and saying" YOU CANT TRAVEL WITHOUT A PASSPORT, YOUR NOT GOING ANYWHERE"!!!! OH, OH, got in touch with head customs and immigrations guy at airport, 45 minute wait, big hand slap, got everything taken care of.

I had called Fidel again during this, and he said the answer is always No, at the counter but customs usually takes care of it, but to call again if they wouldn't do it and he would come to the airport. It is pretty scary though facing the possibility of being stuck in a different country.

Soooo......we got on the plane to San Francisco, made it to San Francisco, and the fun was just beginning.

3rd degree from US Customs after standing in line and WINNER we get to go to secondary customs, the land of strip searches and the Spanish Inquisition, I bet a lot of sweating goes on in that room, waiting for your fate. I overheard a Asian lady getting a "second chance" and getting her fine waived for something.

Actually they guy was nice and just needed to verify our addresses and stuff. only took about 15 min.

Made it home Saturday night and booked our 2017 Caribbean cruise and our 2018 Panama Canal cruise with trip insurance and renewed Passports. YIPPPEEEEE

You mentioned they accepted your health insurance. Did you have to pay anything for the Dr visit or will they bill your insurance first? I've heard horror stories about bills needing to be paid immediately and not having a few thousand to spare to pay the bill while traveling.

Glad it ended up working out, and yes very good lessons here. Also glad to hear Princess did so well even though they were not on the hook for any of it.

This was last year?

You are lucky the hospital didn't levy a several grand "in cash" charge to let her go.

They are notorious for that.

I would have posted this as soon as I got home. ;)

Glad it worked out.

Thanks for posting this again. I know that this is an "encore" posting, but, it is good to remind folks from time to time what may happen if.......

You mentioned they accepted your health insurance. Did you have to pay anything for the Dr visit or will they bill your insurance first? I've heard horror stories about bills needing to be paid immediately and not having a few thousand to spare to pay the bill while traveling.

This was last year?

You are lucky the hospital didn't levy a several grand "in cash" charge to let her go.

They are notorious for that.

I would have posted this as soon as I got home. ;)

Glad it worked out.

Oh I did post about a yr ago.

Actually, they did have us pay first and out insurance repaid us, Before this I was like "what ever" on the immigration issue, now, not so much.

I actually have a few issues with immigration now that I have been on both sides, we became Mexican citizens for three days, we had our immigration cards and could have stayed in Mexico for 6 months.

The US gives so many concessions to immigrants, Mexico, umm no consideration to US people living there, figure it out or fall behind.

First, translations, they had to do a "check in" check how much money you have on your credit card so you can pay for it if your insurance wont pay for it. "How Much"? $300 or $400, oh no sweat, try this card. doent work, try another doesn't work, hmm how much are you trying, Oh $4000 "what"!!!!!

So I thought they may have been trying to scam us, but I really don't think they understood the US monetary amounts due to the other translation mistakes.

So I had to call my mother and they had to do a back and forth deal with forms which is what took so long.

Another, translating and understanding what the person said, then saying it in English.

Dr say she was ok to go, he didn't speak English, nurse "understood" how to translate Spanish to English, she translated it as no, she still needs some work, it may still be needing adjustment, which is why we decided to fly home. We could have taken a bus to Manzinillo and caught the ship again there.

Another is venturing off to the "real world" on vacation You think you are in a tourist area, WRONG, only if you stay in your tourist world. If you go venture out on your own, have insurance and let someone know where your going, which we do, and did before we left the ship for the hospital.

Doing "real world" stuff, you find out how alone you really are. Going to the Pharmacy to get pain killers, or even trying to order lunch and dinner from Carls Jr or trying to make a phone call.

.Google translate is your friend

So I thought they may have been trying to scam us, but I really don't think they understood the US monetary amounts due to the other translation mistakes.

Oh believe me they understand perfectly what they are doing.

They are masters at it. :(

My DH and I were on this same cruise and he too had a bit of a spill at the end of our private ziplining excursion in Puerto Vallata. He had an evullsion injury to his little finger and had jammed it very hard on rocks. The ziplining guys were great, cleaning and wrapping it before the 45 minute ride back into town.

Once back on the ship, we went to the medical center once they opened. We too found the medical team great! They unwrapped the bandage to find it about three times as big as it should be, purple due to bruising, with the tip evullsed and the nail torn off.

They did a great job cleaning it up, but because they were worried that there was a break in addition to the open wound, coupled with his existing medical conditions, that he could end up with a bone infection, so they wanted to determine if there was a confirmed break. That is when we too were told that the X-ray machine was out of order.

We were much more lucky than the OP, as it was less urgent. We were told we should go off the next day to a clinic in Manzanillo for an X-ray, which of course we agreed to.

Everything was arranged by Princess, so the next morning we were put in a cab and off to the clinic. We were the first people there and there was one office staff person who spoke a bit of English. We were checked in and the doctor arrived within 15 minutes (just enough time for us to check out the doctor's diploma from medical school that was on the wall).

The doctor arrived and we discovered that his English was impeccable. He examined the finger and took the X-ray himself. He showed us the film and advised us there was no fracture. He re-bandaged the finger and sent us off.

We checked out with his office staff and were charged the equivalent of about $75 US. Interestingly, the cab ride to and from the clinic (which was quite a distance), cost only about $20 less than the medical treatment. We were back at the ship in no time and decided to just consider that our excursion for the day, not wanting to press our luck.

During the remainder of the cruise, we saw the medical team a few more times for dressing changes and monitoring of a few other things related to DH's medical conditions. The treatment in Manzanillo was by far the cheapest medical care received. We had private insurance, which was primary. We filed a claim once back home, with supporting records and receipts, and were reimbursed without a problem.

Reinforced for us the need to always have insurance. It also affirmed for me that I can't leave my DH unsupervised for even a few moments, lest he hurt himself.:')

rp23gy, after reading your thread I was totally exhausted and saying OH NO! I hope those who say that they never need trip insurance sees that anything can happen. Just making a stupid step and falling down, not checking your passports for expiration dates is another snafu. Tonight we're going over everything in our travel folder to make sure everything is up to date and all travel arrangements confirmed. It's so easy to make mistakes. We're flying from SFO to Quebec next month for the Fall Leaves cruise, hotel, flights, hotel, ship, excursions, flights, back to SF and staying at a hotel where our car is parked. What could go wrong?:eek:

Never leave home without them.

Well, since this poster did get medical care and finally make it home, I certainly hope that some readers here will not be thinking, hey, if they made it thru without the appropriate and necessary things like trip insurance and full passports, then we can too.

The way this worked out could have been much worse!

Well, since this poster did get medical care and finally make it home, I certainly hope that some readers here will not be thinking, hey, if they made it thru without the appropriate and necessary things like trip insurance and full passports, then we can too.

 

The way this worked out could have been much worse!

IMHO, it was the worse outcome. They had to pay the medical expenses, the flight home, and they lost what they paid for the cruise. What could be worse than that? I'd say the OP got a real lickin.

If you want a peculiar situation that may never happen again and the sort of thing you would never think of occurring when you are waiting to holiday and thinking or not thinking about insurance.

The pipeline connecting Whangarei to Auckland airport to deliver Avgas was broken last week. There is not enough Avgas available so planes are being cancelled or made to divert to where there is Avgas.

Think of missed connections, nights in a hotel etc.

No Insurance is a no-brainer.

I agree!! You can read my account of missing the ship in Nassau..... Under Royal.. I learned the hard way!

I agree!! You can read my account of missing the ship in Nassau..... Under Royal.. I learned the hard way!

OMG, your story was amazing! I read it a couple of times and showed it to my adult kids in their 20's when we did a Mexican Riviera cruise in 2015 so they would make sure not miss the ship.:D

I have probably spent enough money on insurance that I didn't use (thank you, very much) to pay for a cruise in a suite (lol). That being said, I have collected on things I never expected to collect on: 1) Ship blew up (NCL Norway) while cruise reimbursed by NCL, air to port would have been lost if not insured. 2) Stolen or lost camera. Son left it in a lounge at closing time, less than 5 minutes later went back for it and it was gone. 3) Ears got plugged up with ear-wax and needed to be cleaned out. Then we have had "routine" claims: 1) Pneumonia while on the ship; 2) DH falls and breaks a hip right before a TA having to cancel and ; 3) Leg gets caught in heavy closing door on the ship DH says he is starting to think he had better locate sick bay for me when we get on the ship since we may have to make a trip there later (lol).

I just factor the cost in with the basic cost of the cruise like tips and taxes. Just the cost of doing business (lol).

rp23g7-

Thanks for sharing. I think we all need these reminders about documents and insurance. Especially those who refuse to ever make that purchase.

It's nice to hear a positive experience once in awhile, even if it is a year old.

What one needs to remember is be CAREFUL above all, because when you have a medical mishap, whos paying should be the least of your concerns, getting the best medical service possible is.

Even if you have insurance you have to properly file and keep receipts.You need to make sure to understand what your insurance covers.....look at your age, what does your present med. policy and credit card cover.

Is it primary or secondary, what is trip interruption vs trip delay...etc.etc....

On each trip I make a conscience decision on whether or not the coverage will benefit us as each situation and booking is different.

Just recently I have used cruise line insurance..because on a few cruises I wanted the option to cancel for any reason.

OMG, your story was amazing! I read it a couple of times and showed it to my adult kids in their 20's when we did a Mexican Riviera cruise in 2015 so they would make sure not miss the ship.:D

Thanks! Hope it helped someone :)

I'm surprised the Princess reps at the embarkation port didn't stop the OP before getting on the ship with expired passports. They will generally remind you that your passport is about to expire even if you still have 3-4 months left. Was it because they were only going to Mexico and it doesn't apply as it would to other foreign ports?

I'm surprised the Princess reps at the embarkation port didn't stop the OP before getting on the ship with expired passports. They will generally remind you that your passport is about to expire even if you still have 3-4 months left. Was it because they were only going to Mexico and it doesn't apply as it would to other foreign ports?

They had passport cards which are valid for closed loop cruises.

The main problem, for me, with cruise line insurance is that the medi-vac is usually on the low side plus they only cover what they sell you. If you get your hotels, tours, etc. independently, you are not covered.

The advantage to cruise line is that, when you are of a certain age, it can be a lot cheaper since it is a one-size fits all price. You pay the same if you are 3 or 103 whereas 3rd party is based on the cost of the cruise and your age. Cruise line pre-existing has a "look back" of several months where you won't be covered if something occurs within those months they can say is "pre-existing" if you have been treated for it other than minor changes in medication. If you buy 3rd party and pay for it within a couple of weeks of your deposit, it will cover pre-existing not only for you but your immediate family if you have to cancel or have to "abort" the cruise due to something happening back home.

Some 3rd party policies will cover you for cancel for any reason but it is usually costly. However, if you do cancel, you get all your money back and not a percentage along with credit for a future cruise.

As the OP said, read the fine print and, if necessary, call them with a question. I've had good luck doing that when I couldn't find an answer in their "fine print."

If I am not flying to port, not using a hotel, I do consider cruise line. I live near Galveston so I drive in and on a Western Caribbean their $25K medi-vac would be close to getting me home if need be so I go ahead with cruise line. Any other time, I go with third party with $150+K medi-vac and to get pre-existing by buying it within a couple of weeks of my initial deposit. If I have booked it really far out, then I cross my fingers and pray no pre-existing will be necessary and buy it before I put out any serious dollars (air fare usually) and shortly before final payment. If you don't know what your air fare will be, then "estimate" it when buying after deposit to get pre-existing. . If you find you estimated too low, you can get the coverage upped to cover it and your pre-existing will be still be in place. I've even not covered an airfare "guess" and then upped the insurance by calling them when I have bought it and telling them when I booked the cruise it was too far out to see if I could use my frequent flyer miles and have found out I couldn't when the time came to book it. That worked for me one time (lol)

Travelex is primary coverage but is usually more expensive than secondary policies but I always check them first. On our upcoming Hawaiian cruise, it was only $20 or so more than a secondary policy so I went on and got it. With primary, you don't have to chase other coverage first. You send them your receipts, you get your money.

Tucker in Texas: I would not get insurance from the cruise line. We get TravelGuard and have many options. You can also go to insuremytrip.com and find different insurance carriers. I haven't heard too many good things about travel insurance through the cruiselines.

rp23g7-

Thanks for sharing. I think we all need these reminders about documents and insurance. Especially those who refuse to ever make that purchase.

I totally agree with you.

Tony

I agree with you about cruise line insurance and have only bought it once on a five day el cheapo going out of Galveston. However, in all fairness, I needed to mention the advantage there is to it which basically is the "one price fits all" when you are older.

I go to insuremytrip and found them very helpful with questions. When I have made claims with the 3rd party providers, I've never run into any problems other than time involved getting denied by Medicare and/or BC/BS, airlines, so I can file for the difference.

In fact, there are occasions when 3rd party is cheaper than cruise line. One person on cruise line can be $100 x 2 while two people on a 3rd party can be $85. In some cases if you have kids sharing a cabin with you, they are free.

Always check your invoice when you book to make sure insurance hasn't been added unbeknownst to you as a "convenience." One cruise line is notorious for doing this.

I agree!! You can read my account of missing the ship in Nassau..... Under Royal.. I learned the hard way!

Wow I just read your story, such an eye opener isn't it? At least you were stuck in a place where speaking English is standard.

I had the same feeling, when we were being disembarked and when the luggage was getting put in the hospital van.

I was standing at guest services getting our immigration papers, and heard the captain and Fidel, our port rep talking on the radios, "are we almost done" "we need to be going" "yes, Yes, he is finishing up the paperwork" feeling like they are trying to get rid of you, but you realize that its a ship on a schedule to keep.

And then loading the luggage in the hospital van and watching the ship pulling away, even theough you were told a hr ago that you were going to have to stay. Such a lost and bewildered feeling.

I agree though, research how to make a phone call from where you will be, It was so frustrating trying to make calls and getting a Spanish recording.

It was so much "work" dealing with everything, it doesn't even feel like we had a vacation last yr.