Cruise Health Insurance

[Laura2017]

I'm going on a cruise in March ("free" just had to pay port fees/ child's ticket/gratuity).  Anyway the operator convinced me we needed additional Insurance just in case there was some type of accident and we needed to be medivac'd out.

Seems a little extreme.  We have health insurance, but she said normal insurance doesn't cover that. It's a week long cost and it's $31pp for my husband and me, and $99 for my child (hers was more expensive since her ticket was more expensive).

thoughts? 

I tried searching the threads, bc I'm sure this has been discussed, but couldn't find it.

[geekette]

I usually buy trip insurance, but from a third party (like Allianz, but there are others), never the supplier.  Medivac is only one (very expensive) thing that can go wrong. 

Is it just medivac insurance?  or does it cover cancellation if you or a close relative gets sick?  Trip interruption?  Lost bags?  Repatriation of remains (worst case scenario).

Some medical insurance doesn't cover you outside the US - definitely check what you have before you turn it down.

While it's rarely needed, just within our extended family we've had 2 very expensive trips cancelled at the last minute due to injury, and my DH got sick on a cruise and we were reimbursed for the doc/meds.

[I'm a red panda]

Normal insurance almost never will cover a medivac. I did have travel insurance through an AD&D policy at my last job though.

We buy cruise insurance if we are going places where we would be bankrupted by the medivac fees (like say when we went to the Galapagos, which is very remote, as opposed by the holy shit this sucks I could have bought a small house level of expense that a less remote destination would cost.) We also buy trip insurance when we have a condition that makes it more likely we'd need it- like when I was pregnant.  We don't purchase it if we are going to destinations where we are fine with their hospitals.

However, we purchase it through our insurance company, NOT the cruiseline.


We used ours to cover a doctor's visit when my husband got very sick on the boat (except for the heavy accent, great doctor, cheap meds!) and also for coverage when an FAA fire shut down the airports in our region and we missed a day of the vacation.

[boarder42]

i've vacationed many places and on over 10 cruises including europe/alaska/caribbean/baja cali and never bought this.  no reason to buy it.

[Valhalla]

I do recommend trip insurance if it's relatively cheap.  It covers cancellations, lost luggage, flight delays, etc, and health issues.  If you browse cruisecritics.com you'll see cases where it has come in very handy.

I had relatives who could have used this insurance when their airline canceled their flight and they almost didn't make their cruise departure...it was a huge hassle and very costly - they had to spend a lot of money to buy another flight and made it barely in the nick of time.

[boarder42]

why are all of you wasting money on things like this... these are frivilous un needed insurances.  and i travel ALOT probably much more than 90% of this community

[UnleashHell]

We’ve done a few cruises. On one of them my kids got sick. My son dehydrated badly and needed an iv drip to get fluids back in him. They also thought he had appendicitis. At the next port we were first off the ship and off to hospital. More tests and a barium meal and scans.
Turned out that he had gastroenteritis, which causes an inflammation of the appendix.
Ultimately he didn’t need surgery and we rejoined the cruise.

The total medical bill was just over 10k. Trip insurance picked it up with no issue.

So no – you don’t need it but it’s one of the few I recommend getting. If you do a lot of travel them a more general year long policy might be applicable.

Boarder – I agree with your mortgage stance – but not on this one. Take the insurance but shop around for it.
 

[I'm a red panda]

i've vacationed many places and on over 10 cruises including europe/alaska/caribbean/baja cali and never bought this.  no reason to buy it.

Just like any insurance, you don't need it until you do.

If you can afford to self-insure, do it- but some people can't. 
Lots of people get sick or injured on vacation.  People also miss the ship in ports- insurance will fly you to the next port or to home. 

Like any insurance, it is about weighing the risk level. 

[Capsu78]

You can find lots of pros and cons over at www.cruisecritic.com as well as much great info on your particular trip- even a Roll Call for your individual cruise.

I have probably had trip insurance less that 10% of the time, but they were major internationals or times when my aging Father was ill and I wasn't certain if I would have to cancel or not.
I met a you guy back in the spring who had a sling and some stabilizers for his arm.  Since we had a couple of ice storms earlier I asked if he fell on the ice... No, was skiing in Austria, clipped a small rock which sent me head over heels into a tree... Had to be airlifted off the mountain, moved to a more specialized hospital for immediate temporary surgery, then flown back on a different airline because he needed a business class seat so he could get back to the specialized hospital here.  He waffled on getting trip insurance, and finally said "Ah well, just do it"  He thought the bills were up over $50,000 when he last saw them, and he still had to put down his credit card in multiple places until insurance coverage was verified.  Fortunately he worked for a multi national organization travel department who helped with setting up the logistics.   I said, I don't know you at all, but if you did slip and fall on the ice, and that story is total BS, go with it anyway!

[Catbert]

Check to see what your regular health insurance will cover.  Mine would Medivac me out if necessary so no worries.

Also check what coverage you might have through the cc you used to book the trip.

As others have mentioned check around for other insurance options.  If you're only concerned about medical overseas that's different coverage that something that covers the cost of trip if you cancel before hand as well as get sick/injured while overseas.