Poll do you buy trip insurance, if so have you had to use it?

[chirogrrl]

We did not purchase insurance on our first 6 cruises, but we will from now on! My husband had to visit the medical center on the Dream a couple of weeks ago. He got hit hard with a kidney infection on day 2 of our 5 night cruise and was really sick by the time I convinced him to see the doctor. He ended up with lots of tests, IV fluids and antibiotics, as well as 2 follow up visits, oral antibiotics and lots of Tylenol. The medical staff was AMAZING and really salvaged the rest of our vacation, since we were spending an additional 3 nights at WDW. When all was said and done, we could not believe that the total bill was less than $900, but it was also $900 that we weren't planning on spending. At one point, the doctor mentioned that if they couldn't get his fever down and the infection under control, they would consider medevac to a hospital! Yikes. We will be adding it very soon to our cruise for next year.

 

[Shellyred8]

We don't normally buy it for our vacations that are in the main-land USA. However, for our cruise this fall, we did decide to purchase it. Normally our vacations aren't that expensive, so we don't worry about it. But this cruise will be the most expensive vacation we've ever done. So we decided it would be worth it for this trip. Also, since we are planning so far in the future for this one, it's nice to have that safety net in case something happens between now and then.

For those that are interested: I did my research on squaremouth and ended up going with TinLeg for our trip insurance.

Here's hoping we won't need to use it!!

 

[Shellyred8]

My mom just had to use travel insurance on a European cruise. It was on Princess and she purchased the Platinum level coverage. Princess lost her only suitcase. She had NO clothing except what she was wearing. It was a 10 night cruise. She had to buy a bunch of things, do laundry every day, etc. The cruise line ended up crediting her shipboard account $750, reimbursed her for all her purchases, and guess what...the bag was found on the second to last night of the cruise, in another passengers stateroom. Since she had the insurance, it wasn't as terrible as it could have been.

The insurance cost $125.

Total side-track from this thread, but who keeps a stranger's bag in their stateroom for 8 days without notifying someone??? There's not enough room for my stuff let alone someone elses!! And didn't they think "hey, this person might need their stuff for this cruise, we should notify someone"? Sigh...

 

[chirogrrl]

For those who have purchased travel insurance...do you purchase just medical coverage, or do you get a comprehensive policy? I know we will get medical coverage for our next cruise, but I am not sure if we need to purchase coverage for everything else? It's so much cheaper for just medical.

 

[Shellyred8]

For those who have purchased travel insurance...do you purchase just medical coverage, or do you get a comprehensive policy? I know we will get medical coverage for our next cruise, but I am not sure if we need to purchase coverage for everything else? It's so much cheaper for just medical.

We made sure ours included medical evacuation and trip cancellation. A medical evacuation can cost in the thousands of dollars range (think $25,000 or higher). I don't want to have to pay that out of my pocket. We have family members that are avid travelers, and these are two of the things they HIGHLY recommended.

 

[Off to Neverland 7]

Really considering getting travel insurance for our December land and sea vacay. DH and I travel every week for work and haven't needed travel insurance other than a car rental incident that was thankfully covered by our credit card.

 

[kiford]

My father has had to use his twice. Once when there was a snowstorm when he was on his way to a cruise leaving from Santiago, Chile. He had to miss two nights at the hotel which was pre-paid and had to drive 6 hours to another airport to get on a flight to even make the cruise. Insurance paid for the two nights plus the extra trip - about $1,100.

The second time he was in Spain and ended up with a lung infection two-thirds of the way through his trip. Nine days in the hospital, missed his flight and ended up having to be escorted home (business class) with an EMT who was carrying oxygen. He estimates the entire thing cost $40K. Although he is in his 80's he was (or seemed to be) in perfect health before he left home. He was more worried about my aunt who is older and had existing medical problems. She was fine.

We usually get some medical coverage (we both have extended health insurance through our jobs but we still top up), trip interruption, sometimes baggage, and sometimes cancellation (depends on the trip). On our next trip we were just going to get trip interruption and a bit of medical but the comprehensive package of everything was a very minimal extra charge so we went with that. I would never travel without at least trip interruption. I believe that the gods are just waiting to drop an anvil on my head or something as soon as I leave home. And after my father's experience, I'd rather spend a few hundred dollars and be safe than risk tens of thousands.

 

[MinnesotaMouseketeers]

We have always bought trip insurance for cruises and overseas vacations and glad to have never needed to use it. On one of our vacation we were traveling with a choir group and the dad of one of the choir members had a heart attack, this was when they were traveling/performing in Ireland. This was on day one on the trip and he was still in the hospital when we headed for home. Not sure if he had trip insurance and I'm going out on a limb and say that he wasn't planning on this. We just won't take the chance of traveling without trip insurance.

 

[adisneyaunt]

Dh had to cancel rather last minute, a medical emergency. We had purchased insurance thru insure my trip dot com... I don't recall carrier tho it ll come to me. It was an expensive adventure and we felt very lucky indeed to be able to recoup our money as it was $$$. It was handled superbly., easy and quicker than anticipated.
As far as buying insurance, I typically only buy it if a trip is above a certain cost, and costs can not be used as a credit or refunded, or during a more questionable weather time( tho we honestly avoid these type now) ... typical quick getaways2-4 days... don't usually buy.
I think that a disney family vacation for most other people.. they should buy it, it's nominal compared to the cost of their overall trip.

 

[DLgal]

Total side-track from this thread, but who keeps a stranger's bag in their stateroom for 8 days without notifying someone??? There's not enough room for my stuff let alone someone elses!! And didn't they think "hey, this person might need their stuff for this cruise, we should notify someone"? Sigh...

I know, right? So it was an elderly lady and her more elderly father sharing a cabin. Each one thought the bag belonged to the other. The room steward is the one who realized it was the missing bag that THE ENTIRE CREW was notified to be on the lookout for, for the duration of the cruise. The bag was inside the stateroom closet.

I would have absolutely torn that lady a new one if it had been me. That is just stupidity on a whole new level. Yeah, let's ignore the brightly colored tag and name tags with some stranger's name and just assume a FULL, locked bag that is never opened for 10 days, belongs to my travelling companion. Idiots.

 

[phil1914]

i'd always declined trip insurance, but when we went to WDW, we actually could have used it. our morning PST flight out of SJC got cancelled so we ended up missing our connecting flight. we were fortunate enough that there were still flights to get us into MCO, but they had us checking into AKL 3am EST the following morning, which was also a planned park day for us. had we had trip insurance, we could have probably saved one night's hotel and maybe even one park hopper day.

i'm of the opinion that the more complex your vacation plans are, the more could go wrong and so the more trip insurance makes sense. i planned our upcoming WDW-DCL trip thru AAA knowing that trip insurance for the kids is free.

 

[kmix78]

Two cruises, we bought it twice and used it once. Very glad we had it when Hurricane Matthew caused major travel delays in October 2016.

 

[xlxo]

I get travel insurance.... but don't plan to use it. As a result, I demand the highest deductible. My travel insurance drops to almost half price!

 

[DCLMacro415]

Bought it and had to use it.

We scheduled a Sea/Land trip the week of Thanksgiving 2014. It was to be a 3 night Bahamian on the Dream, and then we would finish off the week in WDW. We had this booked a year in advance and bought trip insurance. The Dream departed on a Sunday, even though we joked about it, we told my nephew to not pick the Saturday before the trip for his wedding. He did, which meant we know had to fly out the day of the cruise. We went to the wedding, left part way through the reception to get home and sleep for we had a 6am flight from PIT to MCO via AirTran (Southwest had recently acquired AirTran but they were not integrated yet). Got home and got my son to bed (7 year old at the time). Within a few hours he woke up that his stomach hurt and eventually got sick. This was due to all the cookies and sugar at the wedding, etc. We got him back to bed, and decided let's get up as planned and see how he is in the morning. Around midnight AirTran called informing us our flight had been cancelled due to maintenance. Being Thanksgiving week, it was busy, the best they could do was get us on another flight (now connecting) that would get us to MCO at 4pm. They could not transfer us to a Southwest flight, nor would any other airline have a flight that worked out. I had AirTran book us anyways so we at least had flight but had to then wait until the morning to call DCL about options.

Longer story short, we could try to get a flight to the Bahamas on Monday and meet up with the ship (not really an option for a 3 night cruise), or cancel. DCL was great in that they canceled the cruise and filed with the insurance company who I then called right after and started the process. What I found out was the insurance would only cover us if there was an act of god or someone was sick since the airline could still technically get us to the airport. Since my son was sick the night before, they suggest I fill out the forms, have it signed by a doctor and submit the claim. Being a Sunday, we went to MedExpress and had my son checked out. They agreed it was probably just all the sugar and excitement of the day but signed the form he should not fly for 24 hours. We submitted the claim and also called WDW to see if we could get a room a few days early from our planned Wednesday arrival. We had AirTran book us flights on Monday and flew to MCO the next day without issue.

We lost out on a cruise, but still had a week at WDW. Within a few months I had the refund from the cruise. Which we turned around and booked another for later that year. For every cruise since then, we always buy the insurance, and always fly down the day before if not a few days before.

 

[MaryKatesMom]

I've been on two DCL cruises that have had to medically evacuate passengers off the ship. The second was a quick overnight stop in a port that was unnoticeable to probably all of the guests. but the first left an huge impression on me. They had to take someone off by lifeboat and from the deck we could see the whole process. I was stuck by how long it too and could only imagine the cost incurred.

 

[MaryKatesMom]

I would also like to stress how important it is to buy the coverage ASAP. I booked DCL 2 cruises on opening day last month and then forgot to immediately buy the insurance. I get the "cancel for any reason" because the cruises are so far away I think it is important with my DD's now being in college. Because I waited, I had exactly 1 choice and it wasn't as inexpensive as usual. My bad.

 

[RedSox68]

I purchased it for every cruise for the past 15 years. And then when I needed it -- they denied my claim. So now I am not sure I will ever purchase it except strictly for the med vac. Illness and work related circumstances don't fly with them and they had excuse after excuse for denying payment. Thank goodness we only needed refund of our flight monies and Norwegian Air came through with flying colors once they got the note from my doc. The travel insurance was a total waste of $370 and I am beyond disappointed and frustrated with my claim experience.

 

[MaryKatesMom]

I purchased it for every cruise for the past 15 years. And then when I needed it -- they denied my claim. So now I am not sure I will ever purchase it except strictly for the med vac. Illness and work related circumstances don't fly with them and they had excuse after excuse for denying payment. Thank goodness we only needed refund of our flight monies and Norwegian Air came through with flying colors once they got the note from my doc. The travel insurance was a total waste of $370 and I am beyond disappointed and frustrated with my claim experience.

What happened? What company?

 

[RedSox68]

What happened? What company?

It was Travel Guard -- but THAT wasn't the problem. I did not know that when you file a claim, it goes to a company that makes the overall decision for a lot of travel insurance companies. I plan on writing to the original company I got the policy with and am also filing a claim for return of my monies since they covered nothing I paid for -- including paying extra for pre-existing conditions!

 

[tvguy]

I would have selected OTHER is it was an option.

10 cruises, only purchased insurance once.
It was a Disney cruise, and I bought the insurance because:
1) We were traveling in winter December 26 to January 3.
2) We were traveling during a peak holiday time.
3) It was the most expensive cruise (by three fold) we have ever taken.

My medical insurance is good world wide, so no issue there. Check your insurance if you are concerned. I know some who were surprised that they were covered. If you are on Medicare, you are not covered, unless you sublet your coverage to an HMO and they you MAY be covered, just depends on the plan.