carnival cruise insurance

[arcone]

What is your opinion of Carnival cruise insurance? I am in the process of deciding on where to buy the Cruise insurance. at this moment in time there is no health issues for either of us. Any advice on what to concern when buying cruise insurance.

[flyingb]

What is your opinion of Carnival cruise insurance? I am in the process of deciding on where to buy the Cruise insurance. at this moment in time there is no health issues for either of us. Any advice on what to concern when buying cruise insurance.

 

DH & I always buy CCL insurance. It's worth it just for the peace of mind, even if you don't use it. Over the years we have had to cancel because of illness. And it covers a death in the family (even in-laws) and so many unforeseen events. Wouldn't cruise without it. ;)

Luv's Crusin'

[EastTexans2]

I usually go to www.insuremytrip.com and you can pick and choose from several policies.

[Frank12]

My opinion is Carnival's is too expensive!

[Frank12]

Ouch! That last post was #666. Gotta make another one quickly!:eek:

[Shipshape7]

What is your opinion of Carnival cruise insurance? I am in the process of deciding on where to buy the Cruise insurance. at this moment in time there is no health issues for either of us. Any advice on what to concern when buying cruise insurance.

 

I buy it from insuremytrip.com too. One of the things you are insuring against is non-performance by the cruise line (bankruptcy, damaged ship, etc.- we were booked on Pride of America when it sank while being constructed:eek:) so to me it makes better sense to buy it from a third party. The primary reason I buy insurance is the high cost of medical evacuation from a ship at sea. Cancellation and lost luggage are very secondary to the huge financial blow that would be. Even without obvious medical issues you just never know and there is always the possibility of injury even if you are young and healthy.

[Perfect Stranger]

Carnival's is too expensive and doesn't have enough Med Vac coverage.

[4bolts]

I buy it from insuremytrip.com too. One of the things you are insuring against is non-performance by the cruise line (bankruptcy, damaged ship, etc.- we were booked on Pride of America when it sank while being constructed:eek:) so to me it makes better sense to buy it from a third party. The primary reason I buy insurance is the high cost of medical evacuation from a ship at sea. Cancellation and lost luggage are very secondary to the huge financial blow that would be. Even without obvious medical issues you just never know and there is always the possibility of injury even if you are young and healthy.

 

I had someone (ken) from the CC boards go to each of the insurance sites and price mine out. We are going through CSA that also provides pre-existing conditions. The medical and evacuation was our concern having seen our friend put over 25k on her cc to help her in-laws in China.

[Ken076]

What is your opinion of Carnival cruise insurance? I am in the process of deciding on where to buy the Cruise insurance. at this moment in time there is no health issues for either of us. Any advice on what to concern when buying cruise insurance.

 

I’ve been researching the Carnival Berkley Policy versus various 3rd Party Policies as listed on www.insuremytrip.com and www.buyamericaninsurance.com .

I did find some surprising OSITIVElittle known?) coverages in the Carnival Policy:

 

• The Carnival policy is fully refundable if you cancel Cruise Booking & Trip Insurance prior to Final Payment deadline.
  
• The plan cost is not refundable outside of Carnival’s published penalty period for Early Saver bookings.
  
• If your Carnival insurance claim is declined due to a Pre-Existing Medical condition, you will still receive the claim amount as credit toward a future cruise.
  
• Carnival Insurance guarantees a $1000 payment to the Hospital if required for your admittance.
  
• Carnival Insurance arranges for your Medical Evacuation and guarantees (pre-pays) the transportation company.
  
• According to Carnival and Berkley Reps (and the Trip Insurance Airfare FAQ’s) the Carnival Insurance Trip Cancellation coverage also covers Non-Carnival Airfare!!! From a careful reading of the words of the Policy, I could infer this to be the case – it would be more reliable if it was clearly stated in the Policy!!!
  

With Respect To other 3rd Party Policies, the Carnival Berkley Policy is “lacking” in these areas:

• Carnival Policy has No "Waiver of Pre-Existing Conditions"
  
• Carnival’s $30,000 Medical Evacuation coverage is barely adequate for the Caribbean and very low for European Cruises.
  
• Carnival’s $10,000 Medical coverage is pretty low.
  
• Carnival has no Accidental Death & Dismemberment (AD&D) Coverage for Airline Flights or for the Cruise.
  
• Carnival’s premiums are overall higher than the 3rd party policies which have better coverages. The Carnival premiums are MUCH higher for younger travelers, who can save 50% or more, with higher coverages, by using the 3rd party policies.
  

The following 3 Policies stand-out for the indicated reasons:

PATRIOT T.R.I.P. is an (almost) comparable policy in coverages (except for too low coverage for Medical Evacuation and for Baggage Delay/Loss), with MUCH lower premiums.

TRAVEL INSURED LITE EXPANDED is about 25% less expensive for Senior Travelers and some 50% less expensive for Younger Travelers. The policy offers much higher Medical Expense and Medical Evacuation coverages, and includes Waiver of Pre-Existing Conditions, optional AD&D coverage, 1 kid per adult insured FREE, and Trip Cancellation coverage for Extended School Schedule.

CSA FREESTYLE looks to give the “best bang for the buck” with much higher/better coverage (for all but Baggage Delay/Loss). The policy includes coverage for Missed Connection, Waiver of Pre-Existing Conditions when purchased as late as FINAL Payment, Rental Car CDW, and AD&D Flight coverage. The premiums are lower for Seniors and quite a bit lower for Younger Travelers, but you can decrease those premiums by 20% more if you purchase your policy less than 20 days before sailing (you probably lose the Waiver of Pre-Existing conditions).

Noteworthy coverages are indicated in bold.

· Several Policies include EXTENSION OF SCHOOL YEAR as a covered reason for cancellation: CSA, TRAVEL-INSURED

· Several policies specifically include MISSED [AIRPORT] CONNECTION coverage: CSA, PATRIOT-TRIP, TRAVEL-INSURED

· Several Policies include EMPLOYER LAYOFF as covered reason for cancellation: CSA, TRAVELEX, PATRIOT-TRIP

· Several policies cover Kids free for insured parents: TRAVELEX, TRAVEL-INSURED

· Several Policies offer CANCEL FOR BUSINESS REASONS option: CSA, TRAVELEX, TRAVEL-INSURED, AIG

· Several Policies offer CANCEL FOR MILITARY REASONS OPTION: TRAVELEX

· Several Policies offer CANCEL FOR ANY REASON option: CSA LUXE (up to 100% Refund), TRAVEL-INSURED (75% Refund), AIG CRUISE (75% Refund), TravelSafe

· Several Policies provide 150% OF TRIP COST reimbursement for Trip Interruption which better covers Expenses AND Airline Ticket.

· Several Policies offer Accidental Death & Dismemberment (AD&D) coverage for covered Airline flights.

· Several Policies return your premium if you cancel your cruise booking.

· The CSA Policies offer “Last Minute Purchase” 20% discount for purchase 20 days before departure.

· Travel Safe has the most detailed Policy.

For policies marked “secondary”, you will have to FIRST file with any of your existing Medical Plans, Homeowner’s Policies, or Credit Card Policies that apply; the “secondary” policy will cover (up to it’s limits) any expenses not paid by your PRIMARY policy(s).

For whichever of your Health Coverages (your own Health Plan or your Trip Insurance Plan) is PRIMARY, you probably want to use the Doctors/Facilities enrolled with that PRIMARY plan, in order to maximize benefits.

WRT premium costs, The Cruise Line policies noticeably discriminate against young and middle-aged cruisers – younger cruisers in particular should seriously consider these 3rd party policies that also factor age into the premium calculation. For Cruisers over age 60 the 3rd party std policy premiums are fairly close to those of the Cruise Lines, but with much better coverages than the Cruise Line coverages.

Ken

[Shipshape7]

I had someone (ken) from the CC boards go to each of the insurance sites and price mine out. We are going through CSA that also provides pre-existing conditions. The medical and evacuation was our concern having seen our friend put over 25k on her cc to help her in-laws in China.

 

Yup, I think CSA is the one I usually end up buying too. The real purpose of insurance is protection from catastrophic loss, not losses you can afford.

[Kygirl1965]

I got the Carnival Insurance & we booked our own air so I took that as well, it is through Access America, it has the job loss provision and several others that I thought were quite good. I think it cost us about $20 each, it is worth it for the peace of mind and I figure it may take up where Carnival's leaves off and I hope I don't need either of them.

[Shipshape7]

Wow! Thank you so much, Ken. I'm saving your post for future cruises and I'm planning to get around to buying insurance for our upcoming Legend cruise this morning. You just saved me from wading through insuremytrip once again:D

[Ken076]

Wow! Thank you so much, Ken. I'm saving your post for future cruises and I'm planning to get around to buying insurance for our upcoming Legend cruise this morning. You just saved me from wading through insuremytrip once again:D

 

You're Welcome! Interestingly, after all this research and leaning toward CSA, for our upcomming Princess Alaska cruise I went with Princess Berkely because it includes "Cancel for Any Reason" 75% Cruise Credit, which makes the Princess (and RC) Berkely policies a little more attractive!!!

 

We live in Tampa and have been looking at the Legend!!!

 

ken

[redsoxfan58]

I booked our cruise thru a travel agent at a Navy Base. The price he gave me included insurance, tax and tips. The insurance is from Carnival. I take out the insurance mainly because my mom and mother in law are elderly. Just in case we have an emergency with them and have to cancel. To me it was one less thing to have to worry about. I'd rather not have to shop around. The price I'm paying includes everything all I need to worry about is paying for drinks!

[cruise-aholicRN]

I have used CSA for several years. It tends to be lower cost and broader coverage. Thank goodness I have never had to use it. I really appreciate the time and effort you put into this. I, too, will be saving this for future reference.

Thanks!!!

T.J.

[Ken076]

I booked our cruise thru a travel agent at a Navy Base. The price he gave me included insurance, tax and tips. The insurance is from Carnival. I take out the insurance mainly because my mom and mother in law are elderly. Just in case we have an emergency with them and have to cancel. To me it was one less thing to have to worry about. I'd rather not have to shop around. The price I'm paying includes everything all I need to worry about is paying for drinks!

 

The trade-off wrt "shopping around" is that the 3rd party Policies are generally less expensive than the cruiseline's Policy and unquesationably offer much higher/wider/better coverages. Now, in the case of your elderly Mother and MIL, the 3rd party policies probably won't be much cheaper than Carnivals, but would offer higher coverages. It's all a matter of personal choice!!! ken

[grandmato4]

 

I’ve been researching the Carnival Berkley Policy versus various 3rd Party Policies as listed on www.insuremytrip.com and www.buyamericaninsurance.com .

 

 

Ken

 

 

Nice comparison write up Ken!:) Now if we could just convince all those looking to purchase insurance to spend a bit of time investigating under what conditions they would and would "not" get paid if filing a claim and at what maximum level of payment they could recieve payment. Just because one has purchased insurance does not mean that one is covered "just because" something goes wrong. There are many many clarifiers within all policies stating the very specific conditions that have to occur in order to be paid. We never leave home for a cruise without travel insurance, but we also make sure we understand exactly what we have purchased should we ever need to file a claim.:)

[Ken076]

Nice comparison write up Ken!:) Now if we could just convince all those looking to purchase insurance to spend a bit of time investigating under what conditions they would and would "not" get paid if filing a claim and at what maximum level of payment they could recieve payment. Just because one has purchased insurance does not mean that one is covered "just because" something goes wrong. There are many many clarifiers within all policies stating the very specific conditions that have to occur in order to be paid. We never leave home for a cruise without travel insurance, but we also make sure we understand exactly what we have purchased should we ever need to file a claim.:)

 

Thanks!

 

There are (at least) two things purchasers need to research.

 

(1) The Policies vary and some are better suited to each person's needs than others; for example parents traveling with children might look at TravelInsured and TravelEx as they insure kids for free with insured adults, etc., etc.

 

(2) As you say, you've got to carefully, scrupulously read the Policy(s) to determine what they DO and what they DON'T cover, and that's a very difficult task!

 

As a Generalization, for a Middle-Age, married couple considering Cruise Trip Insurance I'd be totally comfortable with CSA Freestyle (or TravelEX).

 

The "scenario" I haven't researched is where cruisers book Early Saver, then suggest (costly) "Cancel for Any Reason" coverage to cover the non-refundable deposit in case they need to cancel - intuitively I'm not sure this is a good plan.

 

 

ken

[BlueJacketsFan1]

My wife and I have always gone with Berkley Ins. with AAA auto club.

[Traveler353]

Within the past hour I have cancelled my Carnival insurance and changed it over to CSA. Saved about $30 less than the Carnival price with much greater coverage. Also if anyone is interested the CSA Freestyle is only available if you book thru a TA. As I book directly thru a PVP I purchased the CSA Custom, it was about $6 more than the Freestyle. Thanks ken076 for the information.

[Ken076]

Within the past hour I have cancelled my Carnival insurance and changed it over to CSA. Saved about $30 less than the Carnival price with much greater coverage. Also if anyone is interested the CSA Freestyle is only available if you book thru a TA. As I book directly thru a PVP I purchased the CSA Custom, it was about $6 more than the Freestyle. Thanks ken076 for the information.

 

traveler353 - Way to go! You saved a bit, but you have a noticeably better Policy. If you were to be hospitalized on your trip, they even pay for extra days of boarding if you were boarding a pet!!! I also think their Policy is pretty well-stated.

 

Carnival allowed you to cancel the insurance w/o cancelling the trip? I've always wondered that.

 

Is the old Ingall's shipyard in Pascagoula still open? I spent many days/nites there!!!

 

ken

[dmdiver]

Last year we got our travel insurance through insuremytrip for about half of what Carnival charges.

[Traveler353]

traveler353 - Way to go! You saved a bit, but you have a noticeably better Policy. If you were to be hospitalized on your trip, they even pay for extra days of boarding if you were boarding a pet!!! I also think their Policy is pretty well-stated.

 

Carnival allowed you to cancel the insurance w/o cancelling the trip? I've always wondered that.

 

Is the old Ingall's shipyard in Pascagoula still open? I spent many days/nites there!!!

 

ken

 

No problem cancelling, just gave my PVP a call and he took care of it over the phone.

Ingall's in now called Northrop Grumman and very much still operating.

[grandmato4]

Thanks!

 

There are (at least) two things purchasers need to research.

 

(1) The Policies vary and some are better suited to each person's needs than others; for example parents traveling with children might look at TravelInsured and TravelEx as they insure kids for free with insured adults, etc., etc.

 

(2) As you say, you've got to carefully, scrupulously read the Policy(s) to determine what they DO and what they DON'T cover, and that's a very difficult task!

 

As a Generalization, for a Middle-Age, married couple considering Cruise Trip Insurance I'd be totally comfortable with CSA Freestyle (or TravelEX).

 

The "scenario" I haven't researched is where cruisers book Early Saver, then suggest (costly) "Cancel for Any Reason" coverage to cover the non-refundable deposit in case they need to cancel - intuitively I'm not sure this is a good plan.

 

 

ken

 

Always enjoy reading your insurance info Ken! :)

 

For us, the fact that if find you need to cancel your Early Saver cruise before final payment you can change to another sailing for a $50 pp fee means that we wouldn't be looking at "Cancel for any Reason" insurance unless we found the additional cost for "Cancel for any Reason" cost less but haven't needed to thoroughly research this as of yet;) There's always another cruise in the future:)

 

For us, our health insurance plan does cover medical cost while out of the US but does NOT cover evacuation so that's the biggy we look at as far as medical. I've found that many cruisers haven't researched for certain if their own medical coverage does or does not cover them out of county or if they are covered for evacuation out of the country but instead go on assumption. People also need to consider if they would be better with primary or secondary medical insurance. Primary always being better in my opinion.

 

We love to cruise in Feb but need to fly from the northeast to port so we need to pay special attention to "delay" and "missed connection" clauses in the insurance contracts should we run into flight delays/cancellations which has a high probability due to bad weather at that time of year. We usually fly out of Buffalo so I think that explains our winter weather concerns! ;):D There's usually a lot of details in insurance contracts that have to be met before insurance will pay for these problems including a minimum number of hours for a delayed flight. People often think that IF their original flights are canceled due to bad weather and they can't get another flight that will still get them to their port prior to sailing time that they can go home and invoke their insurance to refund the cost of their missed cruise but usually insurance companies expect that you will still do everything possible to catch up with your cruise if by doing so you will still be able enjoy 51% of the time you originally booked your cruise for.

 

For our last few cruises we have used CSA or HTH as we needed "pre-exisiting condition" coverage because of my elderly parents and we'd choosen to wait to purchase insurance until final payment time. We overall like these policies and as I had checked pricing much earlier did not find them to cost much more than they would have had we purchased them much earlier than final payment and were still covered.

[ms simba]

I will definitely be looking into other policies than Carnival's. My sister and I (67 and 72 years old) will be on a Carnival Cruise Nov 1-5, 2009. I just went with my PVP's suggestion to get Carnival's insurance. Last time I cruised my walker basket was damaged by the time it was brought to my room. I notified the Purser, they gave us some cable ties to hold it on my walker, then I notified the insurance company. No problems arose.

 

However, this trip, I am more concerned about my sister who has asthma, diabetes, and not the best of health. So, like I said, those other insurance companies are worth looking into.

 

Thanks for the information everybody!