...when you'll need it. Travel insurance is definitely one of those things that it's better to have it and not need it then to need it and not have it.
It's no secret the insurance offered thru the cruise line isn't the best and, of course, it's a bit overpriced. If you go to websites such as insuremytrip.com they have a dizzying array of travel insurance options to cover as much or as little as you want for much more affordable rates.
In the past I never bought travel insurance. Why should I? The chances of us not going on a trip are pretty slim by the time we hit the penalty phase, right? We're healthy. And where we cruised to wasn't so very far from US soil so I never really saw that much need for it. Like countless others I've read numerous mishaps where people were thanking their lucky stars they had the insurance or the heartbreaking tales of those who wished they'd purchased some protection. Either way, the stories were always someone else's story. That wasn't me. Wasn't going to be me. Can't and won't happen to me. Right? WRONG!
I've had our May 25th Fantasy Western Caribbean cruise booked for over a year. I didn't even think about insurance until a few months ago when we really started making decisions as to what we'd do in each of the ports. Once we had plans to do non-cruise-line activities, one of which is pretty adventurous, I decided maybe it'd be worth spending a few bucks buying a little something to cover at least medical/medical transport costs since what I read so often was that standard US health insurances don't offer enough or sometimes any coverage outside the country. So, I went to insuremytrip.com, did some studying on the coverage definitions and started shopping the myriad of policies & companies. I found something that looked adequate for what I was looking for at an acceptable price and purchased the policy. I think I paid somewhere between $160 & $180. It wasn't anywhere near as much as the cruise line wanted. And, considering the cruise itself was costing us $5300 I felt it was a good buy.
Without going into all the gory details, the past 10 days of...uh...posterior issues for our oldest boy led to a visit to the pediatrician yesterday. And that is taking us to a GI doc at the downtown med center who doesn't normally even see anyone under 18 but is making an exception. The kid is in bad shape. Still no solid answers as to what's wrong but all the possibilities I'm reading about online point to long, painful recovery periods that would prevent him from being physically able to travel to the port. He wouldn't be able to do much of anything on the ship. He wouldn't be able to go on any of the excursions we have planned. Currently he can't even sit up long enough to be able to make it thru a dinner in a main dining room. The possibility of us needing to cancel or reschedule is very real at this point.
As a mom, of course I'm totally worried sick about my "baby". Right now I'm thanking my lucky stars it ever occurred to me to buy that (totally unnecessary, right?) travel insurance policy. I contacted them last night just to see if I was reading the pre-existing exclusions correctly. I was. Anything that didn't exist prior to 180 days from sailing is covered. Pre-existing is for stuff over 180 days from sailing. We're covered. If I cancelled our cruise right now DCL is only going to refund 50%. But, because I bought that policy anything that doesn't get refunded by the cruise line or the independent excursion companies I've booked with will be eligible for reimbursement up to the amount I paid for the vacation. Talk about a load of my mind.
And so, thankfully, I don't have to pile on the stress of learning the travel insurance lesson the hard way. You better believe from here on out I won't cross into the penalty period of a cruise without a policy in place.
If you've never thought you would have a need for travel insurance, think again. You never know. Is it worth the risk?
It's no secret the insurance offered thru the cruise line isn't the best and, of course, it's a bit overpriced. If you go to websites such as insuremytrip.com they have a dizzying array of travel insurance options to cover as much or as little as you want for much more affordable rates.
In the past I never bought travel insurance. Why should I? The chances of us not going on a trip are pretty slim by the time we hit the penalty phase, right? We're healthy. And where we cruised to wasn't so very far from US soil so I never really saw that much need for it. Like countless others I've read numerous mishaps where people were thanking their lucky stars they had the insurance or the heartbreaking tales of those who wished they'd purchased some protection. Either way, the stories were always someone else's story. That wasn't me. Wasn't going to be me. Can't and won't happen to me. Right? WRONG!
I've had our May 25th Fantasy Western Caribbean cruise booked for over a year. I didn't even think about insurance until a few months ago when we really started making decisions as to what we'd do in each of the ports. Once we had plans to do non-cruise-line activities, one of which is pretty adventurous, I decided maybe it'd be worth spending a few bucks buying a little something to cover at least medical/medical transport costs since what I read so often was that standard US health insurances don't offer enough or sometimes any coverage outside the country. So, I went to insuremytrip.com, did some studying on the coverage definitions and started shopping the myriad of policies & companies. I found something that looked adequate for what I was looking for at an acceptable price and purchased the policy. I think I paid somewhere between $160 & $180. It wasn't anywhere near as much as the cruise line wanted. And, considering the cruise itself was costing us $5300 I felt it was a good buy.
Without going into all the gory details, the past 10 days of...uh...posterior issues for our oldest boy led to a visit to the pediatrician yesterday. And that is taking us to a GI doc at the downtown med center who doesn't normally even see anyone under 18 but is making an exception. The kid is in bad shape. Still no solid answers as to what's wrong but all the possibilities I'm reading about online point to long, painful recovery periods that would prevent him from being physically able to travel to the port. He wouldn't be able to do much of anything on the ship. He wouldn't be able to go on any of the excursions we have planned. Currently he can't even sit up long enough to be able to make it thru a dinner in a main dining room. The possibility of us needing to cancel or reschedule is very real at this point.
As a mom, of course I'm totally worried sick about my "baby". Right now I'm thanking my lucky stars it ever occurred to me to buy that (totally unnecessary, right?) travel insurance policy. I contacted them last night just to see if I was reading the pre-existing exclusions correctly. I was. Anything that didn't exist prior to 180 days from sailing is covered. Pre-existing is for stuff over 180 days from sailing. We're covered. If I cancelled our cruise right now DCL is only going to refund 50%. But, because I bought that policy anything that doesn't get refunded by the cruise line or the independent excursion companies I've booked with will be eligible for reimbursement up to the amount I paid for the vacation. Talk about a load of my mind.
And so, thankfully, I don't have to pile on the stress of learning the travel insurance lesson the hard way. You better believe from here on out I won't cross into the penalty period of a cruise without a policy in place.
If you've never thought you would have a need for travel insurance, think again. You never know. Is it worth the risk?
Poor thing! I so hope he's okay! 
