Vacation Insurance ... to buy or not to buy ... that is the question

[Disnee4Me]

With our luck lately, I am seriously thinking of getting the insurance when we go next year (Christmas 2015). It seems that time of year (although we love it) we always have bad luck. In '08 the day before we left for our trip, our older DS got into a car accident (fortunately he was not hurt), either in '07 or '09 (or maybe even '08) we got stuck in a real bad snow storm in Virginia (driving down from Connecticut). We haven't been since '09, but almost planned last Christmas, but it's a good thing we didn't as my DH ended up at NYU Medical Center on December 14th and had surgery for a ruptured brain aneurysm on December 17th. So we are almost done paying off his medical bills (earned lots of Disney and Discover card $$$s) and now my 24 year old DS has to have his tonsils out on December 12th. I'm hoping all the bad luck will be done by next Christmas and we can go there, practically with free tickets and free resort, but I'm seriously considering getting that insurance.

 

[JIMINYCR]

It's inexpensive, we always include it in our trips and although we haven had to use it, theres peace of mind that it's there. Like I've never had to use my home owners insurance for anything but its there just in case. The one time we wouldn't opt for it, I know something would happen.
Or carry a rabbits foot, four leaf clover, upturned horseshoe, or similar good luck charms and hope for the best..

 

[minniemickeyfan]

Get the insurance for peace of mind, and then you won't need it. I'm hoping with the snow blower I just bought I won't need it, but its there just in case. Have a great trip!

 

[PHS79]

Our last trip to WDW was the first time that we ever took insurance on a trip and boy were we glad we did! We were supposed to fly out of our local regional airport at 7am on a Thursday, we ended up getting freezing rain on Wednesday night so the flight in from MSP never made it which meant that there was no plane for us to fly out on, and this also meant that we were going to miss our connection from MSP to MCO.

And to top it off the east coast was having a Noreaster so Deltas customer service lines were at 3 hours+ wait time, luckily we have a GREAT TA and within literally 40 minutes of talking to her she had new flights booked for us for the next day, hotel rooms in MSP for the night and rebooked WDW so we still had our full 8 days. The travel insurance covered the hotel rooms, our supper and breakfast in MSP, and since we had to push Disney back 1 day that meant we went into the "peak" season so room rates went up about $100, and the insurance covered that also.

So needless to say we took out the insurance for our trip to WDW in February.

 

[Master Yoda]

When it comes to a cruise, always get trip insurance. The medical coverage alone makes it worth it.

For a Disney trip we have to do a little math. You are basically looking at a cost benefit analysis. How much will the insurance cost, how much do you stand to loose, what is the probability of needing it?

Canceling a Disney trip costs you $200 max. If that is all you stand to loose and the insurance will be more then it is not really worth it.

Non-refundable airline tickets are usually reason enough to get it. With the east coast on the cusp of a pretty harsh winter, flight delays and cancellations are going to be all too common for the next few months. Add those two together and you have an equation of "getting on a plane=get insurance".

Just and FYI...you do have other options other than insurance directly through Disney. There are a number of third party companies out there that offer trip insurance. Some credit card companies even offer it for free if you charge the trip to the card.

Bottom line is you can add it through Disney up until the point where the trip is paid off so get a quote and a list of coverages from Disney and shop the price.

 

[BrianV]

Just be careful of the exclusions and fine print. The only people I know who ever attempted to make a claim were denied.

In my experience, most hotels and airlines and rental car companies are very helpful with weather related delays. If you get sick, that is a different story. But again, in the case of my friends, their illness was denied so they got nothing but did loose the cost of the premium.

 

[Monty]

It's a numbers game.

If you travel a lot it will ultimately cost more for insurance than you'll ever claim. But if you can't afford to absorb the full cost then it's worth it.

I will get insurance for a cruise simply because medical evacuation is very expensive, I don't insure Disney trips because I can cover the loss and I save the insurance fees. Over time I've saved thousands by not insuring, so now one or two trips would be comfortably covered.

Similarly, I don't buy extended warranties because I've saved enough to cover any losses probably ten-fold and I can cover even major losses.

 

[DisneyJoe]

If you travel a lot it will ultimately cost more for insurance than you'll ever claim. But if you can't afford to absorb the full cost then it's worth it.

If you travel that much, you can purchase insurance that will cover you for an entire year, the cost is very reasonable.

 

[Monty]

If you travel that much, you can purchase insurance that will cover you for an entire year, the cost is very reasonable.

True, but my point was more that generally if you can afford the "hit" of a problem, insurance is unnecessary.

Insurance spreads the cost of claims across all the people using it, based on the overall costs vs risks, economies of scale. If you can cover one-offs, the odds are you won't need it in the long run. I was clear that if you can't cover the one-off, insurance was worth getting.

 

[Tom 55]

I am usually one to not buy insurance but back in 2004 it was our first trip to Disney after a few years. So for about $50 we got the insurance. 2004 was the year of 3 hurricanes hitting the Orlando area. We happened to be there when the parks were closed for a day because of hurricane Jean. We filed a claim with the insurance and got close to 1/3 of the total we spent as a payment. Since we go in September most years we have continued to buy insurance. You never know.

 

[Weather_Lady]

If you don't buy vacation insurance within a couple of weeks after your initial deposit, you may have trouble finding "cancel for any reason" coverage, and be relegated to coverage that only kicks in if there's a major medical issue for someone in the traveling party. Of course, it might be worth it for the delay/cancellation coverage alone, since you're traveling at a time of year prone to weather-related travel delays.

 

[JillC LI]

We've always taken the risk of not getting insurance for our Disney trips because we usually use credit card points for airline tickets so no money potentially lost there (and we couldn't recoup the points anyway), but we just booked a trip to Europe, and given the price of the airfare alone, we sure as heck got insurance for that trip.

 

[Disnee4Me]

Thanks for all the advice. I think I have time before I have to make a decision about purchasing the insurance. so we'll see how things go and maybe 6 months or so before we leave, I'll make that decision.

 

[docdebbi]

just another thing to think about. with my job, no two folks can be gone at the same time, just too hard for those remaining. i worry not just about myself, but my partners.
if something happens to anyone, it happens to all of us
so i always buy insurance that includes work relates causes for cancellations. not all do, you have to check the specs. never had to cancel due to work, but it sure is a possibility
and I have indeed made a claim and been paid for a problem. once we missed a connecting flight because of an airline delay, not weather but plane related. the airline offered to put me on their next available connecting flight, 3 days later! out of a 7 day trip!
we went on the delayed first flight and rented a car and drove the next 8 hours to get to the end point!! the insurance covered the car, the airline wouldn't since they offered us the next available flight.

 

[71dsp]

We've bought it every year. For our family of 3, it's been below $200, and it's a drop in the bucket compared to the overall cost of the trip. So for us it's an easy decision.

 

[LSUxStitch]

We had an issue of a sick family member (back at home, not on trip) January and had to leave our trip a day after arriving, we did not have trip insurance and had to eat most of the cost. I was told that if we had Trip Insurance, it would have benefited us (from Disney rep). Not sure how or what hoops we'd have to jump through for it, but it's opened my eyes to trip insurance and will probably fork up the 150 bucks to cover ourselves for future trips.

 

[Frankie The Beer]

As others have stated, if you're booking a cruise, you definitely want vacation insurance. If its a WDW vacation, I never bother.

 

[yensid67]

Everytime I make a reservation for flight package for a DISNEY trip, I never buy the insurance because come hell or high water...I WILL GO no matter what! Plus for me its too expensive to add on to the package. Once I make the reservations I know I will not change them! So I suppose its personal preference to buy the insurance for you this way!