Thread: Travel Insurance: Have you USED it?

I think that most of us recognize the fact that, unless you are independently wealthy, or can absolutely guarantee your own perfect luck. you need to buy travel insurance for your cruise.

But, insurance is one of those things you buy hoping you won't need it.

However - who among us HAS needed it?
Have you had a situation arise in which you did need to use the coverage provided by yoour travel insurance?

If so - please tell us about it!

In all of our 45 plus cruises we have needed the insurance once.

I got sick with acute bronchitis on one of our Alaska cruises and needed to go to the infirmary. After IV antibiotics and breathing treatments my bill was a bit over $900. Had no trouble getting reimbursement for the total amount. It took less than 30 days from the time I contacted them for the forms and the time our check arrived in the mail. This was Travelex TraveLite.

By the way, the Infirmary on Celebrity's Infinity was excellent!

Originally Posted by canarymoon

I think that most of us recognize the fact that, unless you are independently wealthy, or can absolutely guarantee your own perfect luck. you need to buy travel insurance for your cruise.

But, insurance is one of those things you buy hoping you won't need it.

However - who among us HAS needed it?
Have you had a situation arise in which you did need to use the coverage provided by yoour travel insurance?

If so - please tell us about it!

We have always bought the insurance and only once did we need it. It was on the Celebrity Mercury, That my husband came down with bronchitis and I with Pneumonia. Between the IV antibiotics, Nebulizer treatments etc. we ran up medical bills of $1500. They were reimbursed to us in two weeks time, even along with condolences for having been sick on our cruise.

Anyone that is on Medicare, needs to buy this insurance, for Medicare will not cover you outside the United States.

Lois & Mike

Yep, we have needed it.

My youngest was 8 months old when she needed to be evacuated off of the Disney Magic. Long story short - caught a virus onboard. My husband found her in the pack n play in the cabin - she was blue, seizing and her eyes were rolled to the back of her head.

2 days later she wasn't clear to fly back home. So on top of the ship's medical center expenses (stay in the ship's hospital bed for lmost 24 hours) we had the added expense of cancelled flights. Hotel near the hospital. Ambulance ride. The Port Canaveral hospital. etc

Come to find our that our $10,000 trip (it was a back to back with a week at Walt Disney World pre cruise) wasn't totally insured. I had told my travel Agent (AAA) that I wanted everything insured. I saw the insurance charge on my bill. Well she just insured it through "Disney Cruise Line" and not through an insurance that covered the entire TRIP.

So cancelled flights - not covered

Hotel bills - not covered

Cancelled flight fees - not covered

Basically we got back a few hundred for "trip interuption".

When I asked the TA WHY she hadn't covered the ENTIRE trip, she said "I didn't want to charge you any more money. I was trying to keep the prices low."

It was a $10,000 trip. WHY would I want to keep the insurance prices low?

So that was the end of me using that TA. And now I rely on myself.

Yikes, Michele... I get the insurance too and always use an independent company....I think they offer better coverage for less money anyway.

We have use the ships infirmary once or twice...

D

What a bummer Michele! I think the TA should have been held to account for your loss! Sorry to hear about your bad experience.
Lois

Originally Posted by lolomeme

I think the TA should have been held to account for your loss!
Lois

Yeah I bet that would have been a case to go after her E&O insurance. Oh well. I know better now. And that same little baby girl just made Diamond on Royal Caribbean. So it didn't slow us down.

Medevacs are horrendously expensive - STARTing at around 10 grand and most are MORE. So, in my mind, 'trip interruption' or reimbursment for a delayed or rescheduled air fare is the LEAST of the reasons to use it.


Even if you don't have health issues, you never know if there mightbe an accident while in port , orwhatever, requiring you to be flown back to the states via one of othose super expensive hospital planes.

Originally Posted by lolomeme

What a bummer Michele! I think the TA should have been held to account for your loss! Sorry to hear about your bad experience.
Lois

It is for reasons like that, I always recommend third-party insurance for anything that is not a single supplier, and usually even when it is a single supplier. That way you purchase a policy that covers the entire trip from beginning to end. Also, if your supplier goes bankrupt, the supplier insurance won't do you any good.

A good number of years ago, the entire family plus friends went on the Carnival Paradise. We were in Cozumel all day and that nite, hubby wasn't feeling well. Stomach issues changed to trouble breathing. Ran down to the infirmary and the doc thought it might have been a heart attack and since we were scheduled to be at sea for an entire day before docking in Grand Cayman, we were taken off the ship.

Hubby spent 4 wonderful days in a "hospital" in Cozumel. Carnival ground rep found a hotel for myself and the kids and we spent 4 days going back and forth to the hospital. First thing the hospital wanted was a credit card payment of $1500 (this was 12 years ago so I am sure it is more now). My first call was to the travel insurance company.

They had their doctor speak to the doctor in Cozumel. After deciding that it was not a heart attack but rather angina, the insurance company arranged (and paid ) for fligths home from Cozumel. They paid for:

5 missed days on the cruise
Hotel bill for myself and the kids
air fare home
all meals that I could get receipts for
any cab fare to the hospital and airport that I could get receipts for
all hospital bills not covered by our health insurance

What they offered in addition was PEACE OF MIND! I was in a foreign country with 2 teen agers who thougth their father was going to die. I had someone to speak to in English to explain what was going on with my husband's care and to make sure that we were all ok.

Do I take out insurance on every trip we take? YES
Do I recommend travel insurance to every one of my clients? YES

While we were there an elderly man fell in his cabin and broke his hip. $25,000 to medivac him to Miami and they wanted that money guaranteed! Do you have that kind of credit limit on your credit card?

By the way, hubby had a gall bladder attack- not a heart attack. My kids refused to go to Cozumel for years after that and they will never let their father forget that he ruined their vacation!