"Are you ready for some pain?" OR "Why you should buy travel insurance."

Preface: This ultimately is a very positive review. I'm happy with the outcome. And even the process. But man, the process.

Trigger warning: if you don't do medical grossness well, stop reading here. I've toned it way down, but a few facts are unavoidable as they are material to the story.

The scene: NCL Pearl, a blustery June Saturday morning on the Pacific Coast of Canada, en route from Ketchikan to Victoria. Our author, well fed and rested after the first six days of his seven day Alaskan voyage, woke much earlier than planned in his mini-suite. He awoke not due to the dulcet tones of his children snoring, or due to the light Pacific swell rocking Pearl's 93,530 Gross Tons too and fro, but due to the throbbing pain in his big toe. The pain, which had first appeared with an inflamed ingrown toenail following Monday's shore excursion in Juneau, had grown familiar over the course of the week. But each day it grew a little worse than the day before. And each day the inflammation spread. Our author walked with annoyance through Skagway. Limped his way around the deck while taking in the sights of Glacier Bay. Then hobbled his way along the incredible shore of Nooya Lake in the Misty Fjords after the float plane ride of a lifetime (thanks Island Wings!). But it was still cruising as normal.

Then came Saturday morning. Let's just say that healthy toes aren't supposed to seep anything. And they're supposed to bend at the major joints. And not be bigger on one foot than the other. Over night, however, this one had turned the color of red wine, become unbendable, and had gone all...icky -- in ways best not posted on a genteel forum such as Cruise Critic. So, at 8:30 AM, our author left a note for his sleeping family, hopped down the hall to the elevator, and headed down to the uncharted reaches of the medical center on Deck 4 in search of antibiotics and perhaps a bottle of whiskey and a bone saw to cut the darned thing off, Battle of Trafalgar style (non-English naval history types, go look it up).

Pearl's medical center had all the charm of your typical suburban doctor's office. Without the fish tank or old magazines. But with watertight doors. It was small, impeccably clean, and smelled like...comforting antiseptic things that you use to kill things that make you sick. It was staffed by an incredibly friendly nurse / receptionist, who seemed to understand that most of her clientele tends to freak the heck out when they see the bill at the end of their visit. So she made clear that the visit itself would be $149, in addition to any procedures performed and supplies used, and provided an itemized sheet of all the potential charges. The same sheet is posted on their door. While a person might not be in the best position to do the math at the time they come in, or realize just how many of those boxes might get checked for a single procedure, the pricing was basically transparent [except for the medicine; more on that in a bit].

Enter Dr. A [name protected for privacy, although the dude is a hard core practical skills physician to whom your author owe great thanks and appreciation]. Dr. A took one look at the offending toe -- and yes, it was offending in every sense of the word -- and asked in a Spanish accent that was somehow fitting to the whole triage medicine-on-the-high-seas situation, "So, are you ready for some pain?" Now, those words can be asked in a couple different ways. And not all of those ways come through in print. The way he said it? It was conveyed with warmth and sincerity, and with honesty. It was a subtle message of "I know my business. I know I will fix you. But to fix you, first I must seek out and destroy that which offends you. With cold sharp things. And some pinchy / proddy / yank-y things too."

We went back into the examination room / operating theater / medical storage space. Again clean, well organized, and more like small hospital ER than anything else. A portable X-ray machine stood in one corner. A reclining table stood to the side. Shelves and drawers contained most all of the implements of basic emergency medicine. There was even a drawer labeled with what seemed to be intubation supplies. Not that anyone wants to be intubated at sea, but hey sometimes there's no choosing these things.

Dr. A went to work. Bigly. He communicated well about what was to occur next. He tried less invasive things, before going to more invasive. He tried without having to numb the toe first, because that was a separate line item on the bill [more on that later too]. He delivered on the pain. And he dug out the infection. Your author was not, in any respect, ready. As the people on Deck 7 likely heard. Anyone on the June 25 sailing of Pearl who heard shrieks on the last day at sea? Yeah, my bad.

Within 24 hours, though, and after some hard core oral antibiotics and an antibiotic topical creme, the offending toe, partially nail-less, no longer offended. It only whimpered softly under its band-aid. Its removal was no longer contemplated. Nor was death at sea from sepsis. Thanks again, Dr. A!

The following morning, and as promised, an itemized invoice arrived on our stateroom door. For $973. The breakdown:

• Office visit during posted hours -- $149
  
• Peripheral Nerve Block [read, lidocaine shot] -- $175
  
• Removal of Nail -- $369 [and man, did Dr. A earn every penny of this. Gross and challenging work, right there]
  
• Dressing Supplies for Medium to Major Wound Care -- $25 [curiously this was checked but not added to the total on the bill]
  

Medical total: $693

• Levaquin, 500 mg, 8 tablets -- $280 [this price is in line for the branded drug; but it's available on land for much, much less in generic form]
  
• Topical antibiotic ointment [didn't show up on the bill either. Yay, freebies!]
  

Pharma total: $280

Total bill: $973

Fortunately, before the sailing, we went with an AIG Travel Guard plan that included $25k in medical coverage. The total premium on that plan, purchased through a major website with a name that rhymes with inuremytrip, was under $300 total for everyone in our family. While AIG hasn't indicated how much they'll pay on the service yet, it'd be surprising if it isn't a significant amount.

And if you're still reading the longest post in the history of the internet about a single toenail removal: I return to my title question why should you buy travel insurance? Because fixing an infected toenail on an NCL boat was a nearly $1,000 undertaking. During our voyage, we heard over the PA that two patients had medical events which triggered "code alpha" major medical interventions. It would seem bills for those kinds of events can easily hit five figures, and that's before the patient gets carted up to the helipad on the deck 10 sports court for a coast guard Dolphin ride to shore. Please, if you're going to spend a week or longer on a vessel away from land, and if you can afford to drop $x,xxx for the privilege, plan to invest the extra $xxx to insure it properly. You don't have to go through the cruise line, but please make sure you have a dedicated policy in place and that you understand what it covers.

Hope that some portion of this was helpful to someone out there. Stay tuned for an update here on the insurance denouement, hopefully within 24 to 72 hours.

The End.

Wow! A good argument indeed. Glad you were able to find relief.

I have never gotten the ins. Before, however, after reading a few of these stories I bought it for an upcoming TA.

It's stories like this that make me glad I did. Thanks for sharing and look forward to finding out the out come of your story.

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Now, I am nervous! I am going to do some research. First, I better call our insurance carrier and find out what they have to say for themselves. This probably will end up with "you two are screwed if something happens outside the good ole USA". On a serious note, thank you for bringing this to our attention. I will indeed investigate the cost and coverage.

I "winced" at your description of your ordeal. Thank you for sharing and I hope things are much better now.

I am guessing many would agree on getting the insurance, and some of us would still point out that paying out of pocket for the RARE incident is cheaper than buying insurance on every cruise. (we take many - see signature).

We often take out insurance but not for travel delays, etc. We take it out for medical, but even then not because we are worried about a bill for $1,000, but instead for bigger issues. If that is all that happened every 3 or so cruises, it would still be cheaper to NOT take insurance.

We do sometimes get the medical insurance - not for small items - but for a major medical evac. We are doing a 10 day Canada cruise this fall. We are doing any kind of insurance. We use the money for other things. Could something still happen? Sure can, but likely - nope.

I "winced" at your description of your ordeal. Thank you for sharing and I hope things are much better now.

 

I am guessing many would agree on getting the insurance, and some of us would still point out that paying out of pocket for the RARE incident is cheaper than buying insurance on every cruise. (we take many - see signature).

 

We often take out insurance but not for travel delays, etc. We take it out for medical, but even then not because we are worried about a bill for $1,000, but instead for bigger issues. If that is all that happened every 3 or so cruises, it would still be cheaper to NOT take insurance.

 

We do sometimes get the medical insurance - not for small items - but for a major medical evac. We are doing a 10 day Canada cruise this fall. We are doing any kind of insurance. We use the money for other things. Could something still happen? Sure can, but likely - nope.

I do understand this line of thinking, and follow it in many situations where others might insure something. Here, the thing that motivated me to buy our policy was actually the "cancel for work reasons" provision -- I have an unpredictable job, and there was a risk of having to pull the plug on $x,xxx in non-refundable cruise investments at the last minute.

I will say this -- between myself, my wife, my Mom, and my kids, we have sometime like 12 individual cruises (e.g. 4 people x 1 cruise = 4 individual person cruises). Those trips have featured 3 medical center visits and one recoverable trip interruption that applied to three travelers. Fortunately none worse than what I described above. Bad luck? Obviously. But at ~$1200 to get the third party insurance in place to cover all those voyages, we're ahead relative to self insurance. If we went without insurance and suffered one major event to anyone in our party over the next 30 to 50 cruises as a group -- anything that requires extraction from the boat, for example -- we'd likely lose the bet on self insuring. We'd also have to deal with the large lump sum out of pocket obligation vs. relatively smaller incremental costs we spend on insurance with each trip.

Overall, I'm not a guy who buys the extended service plan on a $500 television, and maybe not even on my car if it's a reliable brand. But if a $300 travel policy ensures me against a non-trivial chance of losing my $x,xxx investment in the vacation and a remote but non-zero chance of a $xx,xxx medical bill, that's a fair gamble. But I do see how others may crunch the numbers differently.

Thanks for sharing your story. I am sorry for your pain, but so glad you did have the insurance! I ALWAYS get it. Sadly used it twice when cancelling due to my sick Dad and got all our money back without issue. I have had a similar toe issue, not the toenail though, actual toe infected and I remember that pain and also waiting until I could not walk on it or bend it for treatment! Hope your next cruise is less painful lol

Yet another reason to purchase travel insurance: aging parents. My wife and I had to cancel three of four booked cruises, all three within three days of sailing, during a period of about a year and half. The first time my mother became gravely ill and was hospitalized three days before our upcoming cruise. The other two times my wife's mother became seriously ill several days before time to sail and was hospitalized. Ironically, all three booked cruises were to take us to Aruba and Curacao for the first time. We've decided to not try for that itinerary again. Did we lose a boat load of money? Nope. We had travel insurance and recouped all monies all three times. Had we not planned ahead and gotten insurance, yep, we would have lost a boat load of money. Is it worth the risk to save a hundred bucks or so and not get insurance. Nope. Not for anyone, imho. If you can't afford travel insurance, you really can't afford to cruise, even though you may be doing it anyway.

Ouch (in more ways than one). Glad it was a quick fix and didn't linger any longer. I am a wimp and would have gone for the peripheral nerve block (and the whisky) straight away.

We NEVER cruise without travel insurance. Case in point. A few years ago our son and his wife were going on a cruise. When they got to the Pittsburgh airport to fly out to the port, our son received word that his business partner had been killed in a snowmobile accident. He immediately drove back home to be with his business partner's family and cancelled his cruise. Thanks to travel insurance, he was reimbursed for everything.

Preface: This ultimately is a very positive review. I'm happy with the outcome. And even the process. But man, the process.

 

Trigger warning: if you don't do medical grossness well, stop reading here. I've toned it way down, but a few facts are unavoidable as they are material to the story.

 

The scene: NCL Pearl, a blustery June Saturday morning on the Pacific Coast of Canada, en route from Ketchikan to Victoria. Our author, well fed and rested after the first six days of his seven day Alaskan voyage, woke much earlier than planned in his mini-suite. He awoke not due to the dulcet tones of his children snoring, or due to the light Pacific swell rocking Pearl's 93,530 Gross Tons too and fro, but due to the throbbing pain in his big toe. The pain, which had first appeared with an inflamed ingrown toenail following Monday's shore excursion in Juneau, had grown familiar over the course of the week. But each day it grew a little worse than the day before. And each day the inflammation spread. Our author walked with annoyance through Skagway. Limped his way around the deck while taking in the sights of Glacier Bay. Then hobbled his way along the incredible shore of Nooya Lake in the Misty Fjords after the float plane ride of a lifetime (thanks Island Wings!). But it was still cruising as normal.

 

Then came Saturday morning. Let's just say that healthy toes aren't supposed to seep anything. And they're supposed to bend at the major joints. And not be bigger on one foot than the other. Over night, however, this one had turned the color of red wine, become unbendable, and had gone all...icky -- in ways best not posted on a genteel forum such as Cruise Critic. So, at 8:30 AM, our author left a note for his sleeping family, hopped down the hall to the elevator, and headed down to the uncharted reaches of the medical center on Deck 4 in search of antibiotics and perhaps a bottle of whiskey and a bone saw to cut the darned thing off, Battle of Trafalgar style (non-English naval history types, go look it up).

 

Pearl's medical center had all the charm of your typical suburban doctor's office. Without the fish tank or old magazines. But with watertight doors. It was small, impeccably clean, and smelled like...comforting antiseptic things that you use to kill things that make you sick. It was staffed by an incredibly friendly nurse / receptionist, who seemed to understand that most of her clientele tends to freak the heck out when they see the bill at the end of their visit. So she made clear that the visit itself would be $149, in addition to any procedures performed and supplies used, and provided an itemized sheet of all the potential charges. The same sheet is posted on their door. While a person might not be in the best position to do the math at the time they come in, or realize just how many of those boxes might get checked for a single procedure, the pricing was basically transparent [except for the medicine; more on that in a bit].

 

Enter Dr. A [name protected for privacy, although the dude is a hard core practical skills physician to whom your author owe great thanks and appreciation]. Dr. A took one look at the offending toe -- and yes, it was offending in every sense of the word -- and asked in a Spanish accent that was somehow fitting to the whole triage medicine-on-the-high-seas situation, "So, are you ready for some pain?" Now, those words can be asked in a couple different ways. And not all of those ways come through in print. The way he said it? It was conveyed with warmth and sincerity, and with honesty. It was a subtle message of "I know my business. I know I will fix you. But to fix you, first I must seek out and destroy that which offends you. With cold sharp things. And some pinchy / proddy / yank-y things too."

 

We went back into the examination room / operating theater / medical storage space. Again clean, well organized, and more like small hospital ER than anything else. A portable X-ray machine stood in one corner. A reclining table stood to the side. Shelves and drawers contained most all of the implements of basic emergency medicine. There was even a drawer labeled with what seemed to be intubation supplies. Not that anyone wants to be intubated at sea, but hey sometimes there's no choosing these things.

 

Dr. A went to work. Bigly. He communicated well about what was to occur next. He tried less invasive things, before going to more invasive. He tried without having to numb the toe first, because that was a separate line item on the bill [more on that later too]. He delivered on the pain. And he dug out the infection. Your author was not, in any respect, ready. As the people on Deck 7 likely heard. Anyone on the June 25 sailing of Pearl who heard shrieks on the last day at sea? Yeah, my bad.

 

Within 24 hours, though, and after some hard core oral antibiotics and an antibiotic topical creme, the offending toe, partially nail-less, no longer offended. It only whimpered softly under its band-aid. Its removal was no longer contemplated. Nor was death at sea from sepsis. Thanks again, Dr. A!

 

The following morning, and as promised, an itemized invoice arrived on our stateroom door. For $973. The breakdown:

 

• Office visit during posted hours -- $149
  
• Peripheral Nerve Block [read, lidocaine shot] -- $175
  
• Removal of Nail -- $369 [and man, did Dr. A earn every penny of this. Gross and challenging work, right there]
  
• Dressing Supplies for Medium to Major Wound Care -- $25 [curiously this was checked but not added to the total on the bill]
  

Medical total: $693

• Levaquin, 500 mg, 8 tablets -- $280 [this price is in line for the branded drug; but it's available on land for much, much less in generic form]
  
• Topical antibiotic ointment [didn't show up on the bill either. Yay, freebies!]
  

Pharma total: $280

 

Total bill: $973

 

Fortunately, before the sailing, we went with an AIG Travel Guard plan that included $25k in medical coverage. The total premium on that plan, purchased through a major website with a name that rhymes with inuremytrip, was under $300 total for everyone in our family. While AIG hasn't indicated how much they'll pay on the service yet, it'd be surprising if it isn't a significant amount.

 

And if you're still reading the longest post in the history of the internet about a single toenail removal: I return to my title question why should you buy travel insurance? Because fixing an infected toenail on an NCL boat was a nearly $1,000 undertaking. During our voyage, we heard over the PA that two patients had medical events which triggered "code alpha" major medical interventions. It would seem bills for those kinds of events can easily hit five figures, and that's before the patient gets carted up to the helipad on the deck 10 sports court for a coast guard Dolphin ride to shore. Please, if you're going to spend a week or longer on a vessel away from land, and if you can afford to drop $x,xxx for the privilege, plan to invest the extra $xxx to insure it properly. You don't have to go through the cruise line, but please make sure you have a dedicated policy in place and that you understand what it covers.

 

Hope that some portion of this was helpful to someone out there. Stay tuned for an update here on the insurance denouement, hopefully within 24 to 72 hours.

 

The End.

Without that insurance, you'd have to "foot that bill." No pun intended.

I'm a big believer in travel insurance. I have always purchased it but my reasons why have changed over the years. It used to be because my daughter was going through cancer treatments and could be sick or rushed to the hospital at less than a moment's notice. We have to cancel/postpone a few trips because of that. Thankfully, she's beaten the most horrible disease in the world (twice, I might add) and is now a healthy teenager. Then we started buying the insurance because my husband's work schedule constantly changes. It was difficult to plan anything. Last year, I took a cruise with my mom and our cruise ended up returning back to our home port 5 hours late (someone else had a major medical emergency and we needed to return to the previous port). Needless to say, I couldn't make my return flight home and ended up flying home the next day instead. The insurance paid for all my incurred expenses because of the delay- even down to the bottles of water I bought for my hotel room. I will never travel without insurance.

Glad to hear your story has a happy ending Hoopics! Loved the way you described your ordeal. [emoji12]

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Absolutely agree on the importance of travel insurance!

Thanks for sharing your experience.

Glad to hear you received excellent medical treatment. Sorry about the pain and stress involved. You are a WONDERFUL storyteller, and I thank you for sharing that gift with us.

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We cruise twice a year and so take insurance continually, annually but making sure that all future bookings are covered from day 1. Would not travel internationally without it.

Ouch! My DH feels your pain. He just went through the same procedure, last month but that was on land. Thank goodness we had already reached our high deductible. We have always purchased travel insurance through the cruiseline but recently have been considering through the online broker. Best of luck with your toe. Don't forget to soak in Epson Salts!!! Oh, by the way, CVS has Toe Sleeves that you can buy. When my DH was ready to where his work boots, the sleeve gave him an added cushion for his toe.

We never go on a cruise without insurance, if i can spend 3-5K on a cruise, surely 2-300 on a good insurance plan is a good choice!

Only 1000? You got lucky. My bill was at 3500 before they stopped charging me. And I was almost med jetted off but I refused to get off the ship at 6pm in Acapulco

AIG insurance covered every penny and received the check before the credit card bill arrived!

Ha! I once took an entry-level course that required weekly "just write something" papers, and I always wrote my titles Rocky and Bullwinkle - style. Appreciated!

Definitely a gruesome story, but not without its humor (from afar, anyway). Completely agree on travel insurance. With how infrequently I get to travel, I want to make darn sure I get reimbursed if SHTF.

Hoopics, bless you for sharing this story! This reassures me on why I always fork out the extra money for the NCL travel insurance for our cruises. We are leaving on the Getaway next week and my teenage daughter literally just had to have an infected ingrown toenail removed a few months ago...I hadn't considered that it could flare up again during our cruise. Or another minor medical issue that would require medical attention. So again, thank you so much for reminding us that these things do happen and to be prepared! :-)

Thanks for your post! Sorry that happened to you but glad you're OK. I love your writing style and you would be a hoot to cruise with!

We always buy insurance because, like you, you just never know.

Thanks for your post! Sorry that happened to you but glad you're OK. I love your writing style and you would be a hoot to cruise with!

 

We always buy insurance because, like you, you just never know.

Thanks for this important thread. I am sorry for your pain. It has got me thinking. I am looking thru our trip insurance thru NCL. Seems like it only covers trip cancellation, interruption & death & dismemberment ugh! Doesn't say a thing about having medical issues. I would guess I need another policy for medical issues? Are there policies out there that cover both? Looks like more research is in my future but does anyone know offhand? Thanks.

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Hoopics - Sorry that you were in such pain throughout the trip. Glad you're doing better,and I hope AIG sends a check quickly. You've got a great writing style. I agree with a previous poster that you'd be a hoot to cruise with. Sounds like you can make any situation a funny story.

This is a great reminder about having travel insurance. Luckily, neither my DH nor I have had to go to the doctor's office onboard and it's interesting to hear about that part of your experience, as well as what the costs were for your procedure. Doubt your health insurance plan covers any of it.

DH and I have been on 4 cruises from 1987 to 2009 and did not buy insurance for any of them. Lucked out and had no problems. Now that we're empty nesters, we're traveling more and buy insurance every time. You never know what may happen and you can find policies that include "cancel for any reason" (expensive) and ones that are less expensive and cover such a long list of possibilities that they may as well be "any reason" - illness of immediate family member (get that if you've got elderly parents or have kids), losing your job (don't assume you can't get laid off - your company can get bought by another and you can lose your job regardless of how good you are at it), as well as the usual medical and trip change expenses.

Our travel insurance covers all costs - airfare, hotels, excursions, as well as the cruise itself. DH researched various plans and found that you can buy a more inclusive policy for far less than what NCL will sell you.

Medical insurance/medical evacuation insurance is vital. It is also included as a benefit on some credit cards, so check your credit card benefits booklet. Ours was included, so we purchased medical evacuation insurance separately...very reasonable.

Thanks for this important thread. I am sorry for your pain. It has got me thinking. I am looking thru our trip insurance thru NCL. Seems like it only covers trip cancellation, interruption & death & dismemberment ugh! Doesn't say a thing about having medical issues. I would guess I need another policy for medical issues? Are there policies out there that cover both? Looks like more research is in my future but does anyone know offhand? Thanks.

 

 

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Hmmm. Attached is a screenshot of the Book safe plan through NCL. Thought I am covered. Will need to do more research on this.

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insuremytrip.com will provide LOTS of information on coverages and options.