klfrodo

There are 2 advantages for cruise line insurance in my opinion. 1) It includes "Cancel For Any Reason" in the base cost and allows you to cancel up to scheduled departure. 3rd party offers CFAR at an additional cost and requires 48 hour notice prior to departure. 2) The price is fixed no matter your age. 3rd party prices increase as you get older. The disadvantages 1) Low medical limit. $20K on most. 3rd party offers plans of $50K, $100K, and high if you wish. 2) Cruise line policies pay as "Secondary". You have to files claims with your other home-based policies first, wait for payment or denial, then send all that documentation in to get fully reimbursed. Some 3rd party policies offer "Primary". You only have to deal with them. 3) The cruise line will offer no assistance when it comes to filing your claim. They just sell it, receive the commission, the rest is on you. 3rd party, if you go thru a broker such as mentioned above, will assist you and intervene if necessary. 4) Cruise line plan is fixed. You can't mix and match for what fits YOUR needs. 3rd party can. 5) Cruise line insurance does not offer to work with the hospital for direct pay if required before treatment will begin. Some 3rd party policies do offer this service (at their discretion). Just as a side note: Many cruisers think evacuation means emergency evac from the ship. This is not true. Emergency evacuation from the ship will not cost the patient a dime. This is done via international treaty by Navies or Coast Guards around the world under at Safety at Sea or like a Search & Resue thing. Evacuation once medically stabilized from 1 hospital to another is where evacuation costs to the patient comes in. Hope this helps.

Before you choose who to go with, ensure that the price includes the number of bags you can take. We discovered (in time to make changes) that they only allowed 1 bag per person. We had more than the allotted amount and we had to change to a different mode of transportation.

I believe that you intentionally took my quote out of context, but that's okay. I understand.

Evacuation from a ship is governed by international treaties and is always performed for free just as any search and rescue. Let's say for example you have a medical emergency at sea and the coast guard evacuates you from the ship to let's say Juneau. That will be free. Now, let's say the patient is stabilized in Juneau but requires additional treatment that Juneau can't do and they want to evacuate the patient to either Anchorage or Seattle. That will be treated as an ambulance here on land but by air (since there are no roads to Juneau). Ambulances is covered by your healthcare plan.

I can only speak from my experience. I'm on Medicare also. Also, like you, I'm not very concerned about losing the cost of the cruise. My major concern is, can I absorb the potential cost of a medical event. I also look at any insurance as a risk sharing cost item. What am I willing to risk vs. what do I need to do to share any possible risk. Last year my wife and I sailed out of Vancouver BC to Alaska, then flew home from Anchorage. I made the decision that since less than 5% of our time was going to be spent in Canada, I decided to risk no additional medical insurance. Evacuation from the ship is done by the Coast Guard at no cost. Chances were very high that I would be evacuated to a US based hospital along the voyage where my Medicare would be acceptable. Is there risk in this plan? Of course. I personally found this level of risk acceptable. However, you have to do what's acceptable to you and your family. Side Note: Since travel insurance is regulated by each State, it is necessary to purchase separate policies if family members have different residencies.

You have a very valid question and I hope you get some great advice. I do see that you are from the UK. A very large percentage of people on this particular forum are from the US or Canada and may not (I know I'm not) be familiar with insurance or how it's regulated for UK based clients. May I suggest that you copy your post and put it in the UK Cruisers forum. You might get quicker advice over there. You can find the UK cruisers forum at this link. UK Cruisers - Cruise Critic Community Good luck

I would have to ask why. What coverage are you currently missing that you are concerned about that a cruise line policy can alleviate? Any insurance is a risk management tool in my opinion. What can I assume full risk on? And what do I need to share risk on that could potentially cause me financial hardship or worse, bankruptcy. Cruise line policies are also secondary. They max out at about $20K on medical. The only advantage they have that I'm aware of is they include CFAR and the pricing is not based on age. Myself. My wife and I are retired. Both on Medicare. Most of our travels are 10 to 14 days. We can absorb the cost of losing a cruise. (If we were to take a world cruise on Cunard, I'd readjust my strategy). I cannot absorb a major medical event. I use a high limit card from Chase Sapphire Reserve that has some level of cancellation, baggage loss, etc. I buy an individual trip policy from Steve at TripInsuranceStore to share risk for the that portion of my trip that includes primary medical and a limited amount of Trip Deay and Trip Interruption. Steve is the expert I count on. You might want to consider giving him a call.

Forgot to add. GeoBlue Trekker is a "Secondary" plan. This means that they pay second. When filing the claim, you MUST file with your primary medical insurance company first. Then after they reimburse you or even if they deny any of the claim, then you file with GeoBlue and include any records of reimbursement or the denial letter along with your receipts/documentation. For example: You have a $3000 medical claim. You file with your Aetna plan. They reimburse you $1000. You then file with GeoBlue for the remaining $2000. Or, you have Medicare. You know that Medicare will not reimburse you for medical care outside the US. When I did this, when I submitted my claim, I asked them to expedite the denial and return immediately. When I did finally file the claim with my travel insurance provider, I included the denial letter.

As with most travel insurance, the answer is Maybe. Travel insurance, to include GeoBlue, is an indemnity type of insurance. In exchange for you paying a premium to them, they promise to make you whole for covered events. So, you go on the ship, you have a medical event, they treat your medical event, and you pay for those services either cash or credit. Then, you gather all the notes/receipts, submit a claim for the amount it cost you out of pocket, then they review/investigate and if they determine the event was a covered event, they reimburse you. One of the nice things about GeoBlue is that they claim to have a worldwide network of hospitals where they will direct pay, so no out of pocket expenses. The problem with this is that in a case of emergency, there is no way for you the patient to decide which hospital is going to treat you for this possible life saving event if you even know which hospital may be part of the network in the region of the world you are in. Some policies, and I can't answer for GeoBlue, will offer some type of guarantee of payment or provide payment upfront, but this is at the discretion of the insurance provider and even at the discretion of the hospital as to if they will accept this upfront payment from a 3rd party provider.

What do you mean by "cover me"? Are you asking will they reimburse you after you file a claim? Or are you asking if cruise ships have an agreement with GeoBlue for direct pay?

Having flown 1/2 million miles on Alaska, I'd chance it. If for some reason it doesn't fit, they will gate check it at no charge. Almost all the time now, they announce that they are happy to gate check any carryon for free in exchange for early boarding.

I doubt it's complimentary. I would imagine that the medical facility has a code that bills Royal in some shape or form. The medical contractor has to show revenue also. Complimentary in the fact the patient doesn't see the bill. When it comes to ships, every department has a cost/revenue bucket that at the end of the voyage, their revenue has to be more than the costs. Those department costs are labor, meal and drink expenses for their employees, living space for the employees, materials, etc. Those departments would include but not limited to shops, dining venues, entertainers (thats why they run the scratch offs and bingo), beverage services, hotel services, and of course medical.

I attempted to use SpainDayTours last October for my Canaries cruise out of Southampton. I did announce the tours on my roll call (but not too many Brits know about CC) and I announced it on the other social media group page that cannot be named on CC. The problem (and I understand from their part) is that they were not able to fill the small tour group. No other interest. I guess where I was disappointed was that I was not notified until about 2 weeks before the trip that SpainDayTours was not going to be able to do the tours. That left us scrambling to find last minute tours. I'm thinking at least 30 days would be a better timeframe.

I completely understand the current controversies surrounding the Vrbo/B&B property rental situations. I understand both sides. However, I would like that controversy to not be included in the answer to my question please. Now that the potential drama has been put to rest,,,,, how far in advance do you recommend that deposits be made on these properties? As soon as possible? 6 months out will still give you a good selection? 12 months? 3 months? I would assume it's based on requirements. We would need 2 bedroom 2 bath at a minimum. A great location in the middle of everything, washer and dryer are highly desirable. A/C would be nice.

Just doing some research which of course is not set in stone. Just need to fly from BCN to FCO and I used Google Flights for comparison. Checked luggage was my concern along with a carry on. I just picked a date in early September even though we don't cruise until Aug 2025 (Again, just research and crunching numbers) Even though Wizz, Ryan Air and Vueling has some great base prices, after all the add-on fees, it appears that we can fly ITA in business with 2 free checked bags for the same if not less than these other airlines. Does that sound about right? or am I missing something that I haven't thought of yet?

Just as a side note, medivac from a ship costs the patient nothing. This is done by Search & Rescue under an international treaty usually by a military Coast Guard or Navy. Just as when you get lost in the back country or find yourself injured on a mountain top and need helicopter evacuation. (Evac back to the States after the patient is stable and able to be moved is at their expense though) Having said all that, the OP is venting their frustration at the wrong people. They need to take a look at themselves and re-evaluate their expectations.

Should you or do you HAVE to? No Out of courtesy I do though after I have seen what I wanted to see. If you've ever seen 1 glacier, you've seen them all. But, since I live in the northwest and traveled all over Alaska for work, I'm no longer impressed by a glacier, a dolphin, a seal, or a whale.

The cost of the trip should only include non-refundable costs. So port taxes, fee's should not be included. I also don't include hotels (because I don't pre-pay and can cancel my reservation in an appropriate amount of time), and I also don't include airfare because my airline will either give me a voucher or will just bank my ticket costs towards future travel and insurance won't reimburse if that's the case.. I have had good luck and response time by e-mailing Steve@ tripinsurancestore.com if you want to consider going that route. @iamtrustworthy Maybe you can assist?

Let's see if we can get Hank in on this. He has experience. Calling @Hlitner to the white courtesy phone

This comment is not meant to imply any disrespect, but from the questions, I'm assuming that travel insurance is not your lane of expertise. Your questions are indicative of the complications that is Travel Insurance. I would highly recommend that you call a broker like InsureMyTrip and actually speak to someone who can answer your questions and guide you to the correct policy that works best for you and your circumstances. InsureMyTrip is a reputable company. However, me and many others highly recommend Get the Best Trip Insurance Details, Advice (tripinsurancestore.com), but call them at 888-407-3854. Why do we recommend them? Reputation mostly but also because they are always there for you the client. And if something goes FUBAR, they will help get you in the right direction and even help if needed when it comes to claim time. Neither of these companies cost you any money for their services. Like a travel agent, they earn a commission.

Question 1) How much medical? Myself? I'm more comfortable with $100K but your financial situation may be different. What's more important to me though is that I choose a policy that is "Primary". Which means that I only have to file a claim with the travel insurance company. If secondary, then you must file with whomever else you get medical insurance from even if you know it will be declined for whatever reason, you must include the declination when you are finally able to file a claim with the travel insurance. Question 2) Does it matter when you booked the cruise? Yes, If the policy includes such things as a waiver for pre-existing medical conditions or a rider for Cancel For Any Reason, these things have time limits such that you must purchase the policy within X number of days of initial booking.

Here's the cruise critic insurance board Cruise/Travel Insurance - Cruise Critic Community My preferred vendor of choice for my travel insurance needs is a broker (kind of like a TA but can guide you to an insurance plan that fits your needs AND will help if you need help when filing a claim) Get the Best Trip Insurance Details, Advice (tripinsurancestore.com)

Calling Carnival will do no good. All they do is sell the insurance. Asking us probably won't do any good cause we don't validate the claim. Your best bet would be to call AON. Having expressed all those disclaimers, I'm thinking you're covered as a family. Also, since the insurance you bought includes the Cancel For Any Reason rider, you can cancel the entire trip up to scheduled sailing time and receive a 75% credit towards a future cruise if worse comes to worse.

Do we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that there are “victims”? Maybe in the end, the accused are the true victims.

With the inconsistencies that is now coming out especially with the security videos isn’t even possible that Stella was getting her groove back and got scared. Not like it never happened before. Why are the initial reports taken as gospel? Should people wait for the whole story to come out before condemning the resort and the workers?