Cruise Insurance - Advice

[jccave]

We will be sailing on November 1st on the Epic. I am looking for some advice for cruise insurance.

In the past, we always found a 3rd party to go through and never had to use it. Recently, my partners mom was diagnosed with lung cancer (stage 4). We anticipate that things will be okay by the time we cruise, but want to be extra safe this time around with insurance.

I have been researching plans online and looking at NCL's some, but feel like I am going cross-eyed reading the details of the coverage.

Does anyone have any suggestions or experience with travel insurance companies in which you encountered a similar scenario? I would like the coverage to cover as much as possibly of our airfare and cruise (around $3,500) if we gave to cancel if she is not doing well.

Any help?

[david_sobe]

Good thing you are shopping around. Since I live in Miami, I dont have a need for airfare for most of my cruises. I have bought NCL insurance and American Express insurance. But I have never had to use travel insurance. But good thing you are checking around.

 

Here is just my opinion. The NCL insurance is more expenisve than most but if you read the policy, it covers alot more. Most insurance will give you coverage for medical issues that come up and you need to cancel. But for example if your dog gets ill and needs to be put down and you are not in the mood to take a cruise, the insurance companies are not going to cover such a scenario. NCL insurance does cover such a scenario. You would not get money back but they would give you 70% to 90% of cruise credit for a future cruise. NCL also has coverage for air lift rescue if you would ever need it on a ship. Those costs would run $20k or more.

So I like the clause that I can cancel for any reason at any time and still get MOST of my money back for a furture cruise date. I dont think other insurance programs offer that but I could be wrong.

If you are ONLY looking for airfare coverage probably NCL insurance may not be for you.

[mommyto2girls]

I have nothing against the NCL policy but we like the cancel for work reason policy, which is 100% of your cash back and the really high coverage on Medical Evacuation so we always get our insurance through insure my trip dot com. You can compare and buy the policy you want that way. We have found it very easy to tailor a policy to our needs. At one point having very elderly parents we always feared the worst when we went away, we had great experiences with Global Alert when we needed them.

Wishing you a safe trip with no claims needed :)

[jdvmd]

I am assuming you haven't made final payment yet since the cruise is in November. That said, insurance for pre-existing conditions need to be purchased, usually within 14 days of booking. Every company will be different so read everything carefully so you will hopefully be covered.

[ocean12ny]

You are going to probably have to pay a little extra and get the cancel for any reason if this is a friend you are worried about. Most other plans cover certain family members.

 

We got it for this last cruise as we paid for Haven and did not want to loose all that money. I have seen many people say they have lost the cruise money when something goes wrong at home. Cruise companies do NOT give refunds for ANY reason (cancer, death). You Need insurance in order to get refunded.

 

We went through same site as above poster and picked one that covered our needs.

[jccave]

Thanks to everyone for the feedback thus far!

I am going to check out the site that someone mentioned. I am also thinking about just sticking with the NCL insurance. If something were to happen, we would rebook a future cruise. Airfare was a reasonable price and that is all we would be out. I may just be over thinking the situation, but at least with NCL I know we will get something back, versus an outside company holding us on some fine print stipulation.

Good thing you are shopping around. Since I live in Miami, I dont have a need for airfare for most of my cruises. I have bought NCL insurance and American Express insurance. But I have never had to use travel insurance. But good thing you are checking around.

 

Here is just my opinion. The NCL insurance is more expenisve than most but if you read the policy, it covers alot more. Most insurance will give you coverage for medical issues that come up and you need to cancel. But for example if your dog gets ill and needs to be put down and you are not in the mood to take a cruise, the insurance companies are not going to cover such a scenario. NCL insurance does cover such a scenario. You would not get money back but they would give you 70% to 90% of cruise credit for a future cruise. NCL also has coverage for air lift rescue if you would ever need it on a ship. Those costs would run $20k or more.

So I like the clause that I can cancel for any reason at any time and still get MOST of my money back for a furture cruise date. I dont think other insurance programs offer that but I could be wrong.

If you are ONLY looking for airfare coverage probably NCL insurance may not be for you.

[TravelDiva88]

I am assuming you made your initial trip payment more than 15 days ago, so I'm going to say stick with norwegian.

 

If you have booked this trip within the past 15 days, I'm going to suggest TravelGuard. We had a similar situation with my father (stage 4 cancer, though he was unfortunately end-stage by the time we booked our trip). We purchased the policy within 15 days of initial payment for a land-based trip, and had no issues whatsoever filing a claim when he died before our trip.

 

Extreme case, but a great option for those who haven't booked yet, or who have booked within the last 15 days. It was also more affordable than the NCL insurance.

 

You are going to probably have to pay a little extra and get the cancel for any reason if this is a friend you are worried about. Most other plans cover certain family members.

 

 

OP said it was their partner's mother. I'm assuming that means domestic partner/spouse- which would be covered under most contracts.

[david_sobe]

Thanks to everyone for the feedback thus far!

I am going to check out the site that someone mentioned. I am also thinking about just sticking with the NCL insurance. If something were to happen, we would rebook a future cruise. Airfare was a reasonable price and that is all we would be out. I may just be over thinking the situation, but at least with NCL I know we will get something back, versus an outside company holding us on some fine print stipulation.

I have had NCL policies before and never read a word of the coverage. They never mail you a copy of the coverage either. But on the NCL site under MyNcl and your booking there is an icon for the insurance coverage. I printed mine out and read it. I was surprised on how much it covered. Of course we are all afraid of illness of a family member but there are so many more reasons to cancel a trip at the last minute. So I like the piece of mind to at least get a future cruise and not lose all my money.

[Markanddonna]

Pay attention to the advice about the exclusion of a pre-existing condition if you are just getting around to purchasing it. You may want to cancel that booking and rebook if that is possible so that you can purchase this from another company.

[david_sobe]

Pay attention to the advice about the exclusion of a pre-existing condition if you are just getting around to purchasing it. You may want to cancel that booking and rebook if that is possible so that you can purchase this from another company.

Excellent point

As we know insurance companies will find an out if there is one. And a pre-existing condition would be one of them. We also learned recently on CC that alchohol consumption can nulify the entire policy if you had anything to drink and then need medical treatment. There was a full thread about that here about a month ago. A guy had heat exhaustion on an excursion and had a few margaritas and fell ill and had to stay in the hospital. The insurance company did not reimburse or pay a dime.