Travel Insurance for Cruises

Overview of Cruise Travel Insurance

• Cruises have higher & oftentimes non-refundable payments, so you need good trip cancellation coverage and should consider “cancel for any reason”
• Since you’re stranded at sea, medical & evacuation coverage is extremely important
• Cruises require a wide variety of coverages, and the best type of overall plan is a Premium level Package Plan
• Recommended Cruise Travel Insurance plans (bottom of page)

Cruise travelers need comprehensive coverage for a variety of “cruise-specific” risks

Trip cancellation coverage to protect against lost cruise payments (which are usually non-refundable)
This is one of the most common reasons for travelers to purchase insurance. Cancellation coverage protects you against losing your pre-paid trip expenses if you need to cancel your trip.

For example: You book a 2-week cruise several months in advance for a total cost of $8,000. The cruise company clearly states that any cancellations within 14 days of the trip will cost the full amount. A week before you leave, your wife becomes ill and her doctor say she should not travel. The cruise is off, but what happens to the money you already spent on the trip?

With trip cancellation coverage, you will receive re-reimbursement for any pre-paid, non-refundable expenses if you cancel for a covered reason.

Missed connection coverage helps you “catch up” to the ship if you miss a flight
Another common reason for purchasing travel insurance is the coverage it provides for missed connections. This provides coverage in the event of missing a connecting flight due to a covered reason. This allows you to take another flight necessary to “catch up” to your trip, such as to the next port-of-call for a cruise ship.

Baggage coverage against loss, stolen, or damaged bags
Travelers also buy insurance to protect luggage and personal possessions from theft, loss, or damage. Airlines will often reimburse some money for lost luggage, but there are a few problems with this.

First, they will only reimburse up to a certain limit, which is often very low. With travel insurance, you can have luggage coverage of up to $2,500. Second, airlines only take responsibility when they cause the problem (and even then only sometimes!). But what happens if your bags are stolen from your rental car, hotel room, or on the metro?

The airline will not cover this, but travel insurance will. Furthermore, travel insurance plans will provide coverage for delayed baggage. Let’s say your airline loses you bags but tell you they will arrive the next day. Well, that’s great but what about that business dinner you have tonight? Or that SCUBA lesson you had planned for tomorrow?

You will need some essential items to hold you over until the bags arrive. Travel insurance provides a certain amount of cash reimbursement for baggage delay, which allows you to go out and purchase some essential items until your bags arrive.

Medical/Evacuation coverage so you’re not “stranded at sea”
It is also important to consider medical emergencies and evacuation while traveling, especially on a cruise ship where you are nowhere near a hospital. This is most commonly a concern when traveling abroad, where US health insurance probably won’t provide coverage (and Medicaid definitely doesn’t).

Even if you are in a country that provides “free” care, most travelers feel better knowing that they have the same great coverage that they have back home. With a travel insurance plan to reimburse you for care, you are able to get US-style health coverage while in any country.

Furthermore, and more importantly for a cruise, travel insurance provides coverage for medical transportation and evacuations. If, for example, you become ill while at sea and need to be airlifted to shore, emergency evacuation coverage would cover the sizable bill. Many plans even provide coverage for transport to a hospital of choice so you can make sure you get the best care.

After receiving immediate care, you will also need to get back home. With many injuries or illnesses, you will not be able to take a commercial flight back home. You might need a specially equipped medical transport with staffed medical care. How much do you think that would cost?

Good travel insurance plans will provide up to $1,000,000 of emergency medical transportation costs.

24/7 Assistance to provide support from anywhere in the world
This is another important reason to purchase travel insurance. All well-known and reputable travel insurance companies provide 24/7 assistance services for travel-related emergencies. Most often this is used for medical emergencies, finding the closest trustworthy hospital, and dealing with the hospital themselves.

These 24/7 staffed call centers usually have multi-lingual specialists that can provide help in you time of need. The last thing you need to worry about while having a medical emergency in a foreign country is communication.

Premium Package Plans are the best policy for Cruises

Cruise travelers should buy a comprehensive Package Plan with higher limits
There are many types of travel insurance plans available, but the one that works best for the cruise traveler is called a Package Plan. It is called a Package Plan because it combined several different types of coverage into one convenient “package”.

Instead of buying individual plans, ie. a Travel Medical Plan to cover medical and evacuation expenses, and a Ticket Protector Plan to cover airline tickets, you can purchase a Package Plan to cover all of the common travel needs.

Recommended Cruise Travel Insurance plans (bottom of page)

A Package Plan provides coverage for:

• Trip cancellation
• Trip interruption
• Missed connections
• Lost, stolen, or damaged baggage
• Baggage delay
• Travel delay
• Medical emergencies
• Emergency evacuations
• 24/7 Worldwide Assistance

In addition, some plans provide coverage for:

• Identity theft
• Sports equipment
• Adventure travel activities

Cruise travelers should look at Premium Package Plans
All Package Plans provide the basic coverages: trip cancellation, lost baggage, medical emergencies, and evacuation. Then there are a variety of differences when you get into additional coverage, coverage amounts, and add-on coverages. This provides travelers with a choice of the amount of coverage they need, and how much they want to pay for it. Package Plans can range from the lower priced Basic Package Plans to high-end Premium Package Plans.

If you are taking an expensive trip such as a cruise, it is a good idea to spend a little more on a Premium Package Plan. This type of plan will provide higher coverage levels for baggage, medical, baggage delay, and travel delay. They will also include coverages that cost extra with other plans, such as financial default coverage, terrorism, and pre-existing condition coverage.

Since they have better coverage and higher amounts of coverage, a Premium Package Plan will cost you more money. Travelers see this as a part of the overall trip cost, and consider it well worth the peace of mind it provides.

4 things to look for in cruise travel insurance

Make sure you get (and understand) the coverage you need
Be certain your policy covers what you think it covers and don’t make any assumptions about what coverage you get with the plan. The best way to fully understand your coverage is to read the policy certificate.

The policy certificate is the actual legal document that binds your coverage with the insurance company. This is the “agreement” between you and the insurance company; your agreement to pay the premium, and their agreement to pay you for losses causes for covered reasons.

When you hear a travel insurance “horror story” about denied claims and other problems, they often stem from not understanding your coverage.

Write down a list of the coverage you feel are most important to you. Get familiar with the different types of coverage, and know what to look for.

Review the policy exclusions to find out what is not covered
This is an essential part of buying travel insurance. Every insurance policy, travel and otherwise, has a list of “exclusions”. Exclusions are situations in which coverage is not provided, and a claim would not be paid. Insurance companies need to add these to policies to make sure they are not defrauded, or to limit their risk.

Policy exclusions usually pertain to risky behavior, or to intentional or negligent behavior. Common exclusions include: injuries as a result of intoxication, injuries while engaging in dangerous activities such as skydiving, self-inflicted injuries, and more.

As you can see, these are all things that increase your likely-hood of injury, and the insurance companies need to exclude them to keep the price at a reasonable level. Note: some plans will provide coverage for “adventure activities”; these plans will cover sky-diving, rock climbing, etc.

Recommended Cruise Travel Insurance plans (bottom of page)

Check the coverage limits to make sure it will be adequate
After you make sure the right coverage is in place, and you understand what the policy exclusions are, make sure you have the right amount of coverage. You will find the coverage amounts in several places: on your policy, on the brochure, on the website, or on your email confirmation. This will list the type of coverage, as well as a payment limit. Sometimes the amount of coverage is listed as a total, and sometimes it is listed per day, depending on the coverage.

The key with coverage amounts is to make sure you are comfortable with the amount of coverage. This is one of the key differences between a Premium plan and a Basic plan (as well as the additional coverage). Higher coverage=higher price.

If you want more coverage than your policy provides, there are usually a few different options. First, many plans offer adjustable coverage amounts. When you get a quote, you can select your coverage using a drop-down list. Take note of how your premium changes as you increase your coverage. Second, is there are several coverage amounts you would like to increase, you might want to upgrade your overall plan.

Travel insurance companies have several levels of plans offering varying coverage and coverage amounts. If you are looking at a Basic plan and you want more coverage, look at a Standard plan (or even a Premium Plan).

Extra coverages
You should also take a look at the extra coverages that many companies offer; either as an add-on benefit for extra premium, or included with a Premium Plan. These coverage can provide a lot of extra benefits for a little extra money, and provide great peace of mind.

One popular extra coverage is “cancel for any reason”. This add a clause to your policy that allows you to cancel you trip, for any reason, and receive reimbursement. With standard coverage, if you want to be reimbursed for losses resulting from cancellation the reason for cancellation must be listed in the policy.

For example: illnesses, jury duty, and a death in the family all constitute covered reasons. On the other hand, if your cat dies a week before the trip it wouldn’t be covered. With “cancel for any reason” coverage, you can just call off the trip, no questions asked, and receive reimbursement.

Note: there is usually a time frame in which you need to cancel for this to apply, often 48 hours before the trip departure. Also, there are different amounts of coverage available for “cancel for any reason”, with some companies providing 100% of the trip cost, and others only covering up to 75%.

Another add-on coverage provides coverage for “pre-existing conditions”. This has to do with emergency medical coverage, and allows for coverage if you had previous signs of a condition with a certain time period. Most travel insurance plans will not cover you for medical expenses that arise from conditions you already had.

Hazardous Sports coverage will provide coverage for activities that are usually not covered with travel insurance. Travel insurance companies, knowing that many travelers plan adventure-seeking trips around the world, have designed special add-on coverage, and sometimes even special standalone plane, just for adventure travelers. This adds a list of covered activities to your medical coverage, such as rock climbing, sky diving, SCUBA diving, and more.

Recommended Cruise Package Plans

	Good	Better	Best
Company
Policy Name	“Vacation”	“Worldwide Trip Protector Gold”	“Travel Max”
Notes	-Very simple website, easy quoting -Excellent value, great coverage for the price -Layoff coverage is included -”Cancel for any reason” covers 100% of trip cost -Sample Cost*: $254 (add “cancel for any reason” for +$100)	-Optional “cancel for work reasons” coverage -Includes Rental Car Damage -Layoff coverage is included -Sample Cost*: $350 (add “cancel for any reason” for +$171)	-Includes “cancel for work reasons” coverage -Includes Identity Theft coverage -Layoff coverage is included -Emergency medical coverage is Primary -Sample Cost*: $422 (add “cancel for any reason” for 50% more)
Quote & Buy	Visit the TravelSafe website to get a quote and buy online	Visit the Travel Insured International website to get a quote and purchase	Visit the Travelex website to get a quote and purchase

*(based on two 40-year old travelers on a 2 week cruise costing $6,000)