Travel Insurance Question - part land and part cruise

[Fozwald]

My wife and I are heading off on a 6 week "start of retirement" holiday next year which includes a 17 night repositioning cruise to Hawaii from Sydney.

I have a question for fellow Australian travellers in regard to buying travel insurance. Can we buy a policy which has part land and part cruise because when I select the cruise option on travel insurance quotes, the price increase accordingly, which I understand. However, we aren't actually cruising for the entire 6 weeks and am trying to find a policy which meets our needs.

 

Has anyone else met this challenge previously?

[Aus Traveller]

Have you considered the complimentary travel insurance that comes with many credit cards?

[Ozwoody]

39 minutes ago, Fozwald said:

My wife and I are heading off on a 6 week "start of retirement" holiday next year which includes a 17 night repositioning cruise to Hawaii from Sydney.

I have a question for fellow Australian travellers in regard to buying travel insurance. Can we buy a policy which has part land and part cruise because when I select the cruise option on travel insurance quotes, the price increase accordingly, which I understand. However, we aren't actually cruising for the entire 6 weeks and am trying to find a policy which meets our needs.

 

Has anyone else met this challenge previously?

From your post I am assuming:

1/ Your Aust

2/ The land bit will be in Hawaii

 

As Aus Traveller said, I would look at your free Credit Card insurance, if it does not cover the cruise bit just arrange cruise cover for dates of cruise, and use the CC insurance for the land bit.

 

Always check with your CC insurer what your cover is.

 

Regards

 

[Fozwald]

Yes Ozwoody, the first part of the holiday is a cruise to Hawaii and then our travels are land based in Hawaii and then across to the US mainland.

[MicCanberra]

Do you have any medical conditions to declare re, the ones not normally covered (43),  You should be fine if you just get a quote for your trip to the US and add the cruise option.

Or just call a couple of insurance companies and outline your trip for a verbal quote.

[Ima Ginaree]

Just to add another layer of complexity, when looking for insurance for my upcoming trip/cruise, I listed both Australia and New Zealand as countries where I require cover, because the cruise starts in NZ then visits four Oz ports, ending at Sydney.

When getting insurance quotes online, a couple of providers basically said ‘try again - you can’t have domestic and international on the one policy.’ This makes no sense in my scenario because it is all the one trip and I need cover from the time I leave home until the time I return. Obviously if I have a medical emergency onshore in an Oz port, I have ambulance cover, Medicare and private health cover to protect me. The problem only comes up if I need an emergency visit to the medical centre onboard, including if we’re at sea between 2 Oz ports. Anecdotally trips to the medical centre can cost thousands of dollars and the onboard providers and/or medical evacuation are not covered by Medicare or private health insurance, hence the need for a comprehensive travel insurance policy for the whole trip.

Luckily I found a provider with a policy that appeared to meet my needs. I rang them and double checked that my whole trip (including the Oz component) is covered by the policy. 

[Bubbeh]

17 minutes ago, Ima Ginaree said:

Luckily I found a provider with a policy that appeared to meet my needs. I rang them and double checked that my whole trip (including the Oz component) is covered by the policy.

Good to hear, presumably your mind is not at ease.

[Ozwoody]

5 hours ago, Fozwald said:

Yes Ozwoody, the first part of the holiday is a cruise to Hawaii and then our travels are land based in Hawaii and then across to the US mainland.

Do let us know how you get on, its always good to hear peoples experience with travel insurance.

It helps with the general knowledge of the cruising community.

 

Regards

 

[Mareblu]

I have just answered a query re travel insurance using free credit card cover.  Check this thread:

"Westpac & ANZ Complimentary Travel Insurance" (sic).  Our free credit card insurance covers us for cruising in international and Australian waters.  From memory when I took out the policy when making all our travel arrangements some months ago, there was no added charge for the cruise component, as there usually is with normal travel ins.  I rang to check that we were covered for cruising, because next year we will be away for over two months, with two cruises included in that time.  The patient advisor I rang directed me to a section of the Letter of Eligibility which clearly states that cruising as I've described above is included in our cover.   Hope this helps🙂

[phoenixxx]

On 12/18/2023 at 3:06 PM, Ima Ginaree said:

Just to add another layer of complexity, when looking for insurance for my upcoming trip/cruise, I listed both Australia and New Zealand as countries where I require cover, because the cruise starts in NZ then visits four Oz ports, ending at Sydney.

When getting insurance quotes online, a couple of providers basically said ‘try again - you can’t have domestic and international on the one policy.’ This makes no sense in my scenario because it is all the one trip and I need cover from the time I leave home until the time I return. Obviously if I have a medical emergency onshore in an Oz port, I have ambulance cover, Medicare and private health cover to protect me. The problem only comes up if I need an emergency visit to the medical centre onboard, including if we’re at sea between 2 Oz ports. Anecdotally trips to the medical centre can cost thousands of dollars and the onboard providers and/or medical evacuation are not covered by Medicare or private health insurance, hence the need for a comprehensive travel insurance policy for the whole trip.

Luckily I found a provider with a policy that appeared to meet my needs. I rang them and double checked that my whole trip (including the Oz component) is covered by the policy. 

Which insurance company did you go with?

[Ima Ginaree]

3 hours ago, phoenixxx said:

Which insurance company did you go with?

Fastcover. They give a senior’s discount.