trip insurance

[jajo]

when should i buy trip insurance for a cruise in april, 2013. thanks

[helen haywood]

If you want the insurance to cover any pre-existing conditions, then you need to buy it soon after your initial deposit. Otherwise you can buy it up to the day before you go. Check out insuremytrip.com for my advice.

[NJ Fred]

We are on the 4/20/13 Eclipse TA. Purchased ours last month.

 

If you have private insurance (medical), be sure to check out what coverage you might already enjoy so you don't spend money you do not have to. Just make absolutely certain you tell your insurance carrier what ports/countries you will visit.

 

The biggest potential expense is medical evacuation.

 

A Happy Voyage to you!

[BKFlowerMound]

when should i buy trip insurance for a cruise in april, 2013. thanks

 

If you want to cover pre-existing conditions, you have two options (one of which you might have missed):

 

Within a Few Weeks of Deposit. Some insurance companies require that you pay for the insurance within a few weeks (usually it's 2 weeks) of initial deposit. See below for another important limitation.

 

Within a Few Weeks of Final Payment. Others require that you pay for the insurance with a few weeks of final payment. Again see below for other important limitations.

 

Updating Coverage. One little known requirement (loophole) is that to maintain the coverage for pre-existing conditions, you have to insure the entire value of the non-refundable portion of the trip. You have a few weeks to update the coverage if you add other non-refundable items to your trip. For example, if you book airfare (and its nonrefundable) you have to add that to the value of the trip, if you book nonrefundable hotel rooms, tickets to museums, deposit for an excursion, etc. If you don't do this, then you're back to the normal pre-existing condition limitations.

[ghstudio]

If you want the insurance to cover any pre-existing conditions, then you need to buy it soon after your initial deposit. Otherwise you can buy it up to the day before you go. Check out insuremytrip.com for my advice.

 

This is wrong and a common mistake....

 

The question is whether you have a pre-existing condition AS DEFINED BY THE POLICY. If you read your policy you will find that in almost every case there is a lookback period ranging from 60-180 days. If you have a chronic condition that is controlled with or without medications and there has been no change during the lookback period, you DO NOT have a pre-existing condition. If you have high blood pressure and are on blood pressure pills that control your blood pressure and there has been no change to your medication during the lookback period and you have a stroke, you will be covered....because you DO NOT HAVE A PRE-EXISTING CONDITION according to the policy.

 

There are many other things you have to read carefully...some policies only cover trip interruption if there is a problem with you or the person(s) you are travelling with....others cover if a family member is hospitalized with a life-threatening condition, whether they are with you or not. Important difference!

 

Some policies cover a mechanical breakdown of your ship as trip interruption, but the majority of policies would call it a trip delay with far far lower coverage (BTW, celebrity's policy does not cover this as we found out when the century cruise was cancelled the first day out).

 

Finally, everyone should understand MedJet evacuation insurance which you buy in addition to a travel insurance policy. Check it out....it's something that National Geographic takes for all of it's worldwide travelling personnel and it's something you want to have because it will get you home without needing anyone to agree that it is medically REQUIRED for you to be flown home (which almost never happens). If you think you are covered for this in your regular travel insurance policy, read the policy very carefully to see who has to agree to what for them to fly you on the very expensive flight back to the US or Canada; then read the MedJet policy.

[helen haywood]

Sorry, should have said you need to purchase insurance within a short window from initial payment to cover SOME pre-existing conditions.....and that more information could be found at insuremytrip.com.