Trip Ins

[Pooch]

I am going to call Allianz & ask but I know many of you have experience in this area.  After the cluster you know what with my brother, I am going with better insurance for our future cruises.  My agent sent a list of coverage levels with a brochure for each but ins language is Greek to me (took French in school ).  We fly down mostly during winter months so I want a policy that covers weather related delays/cancellations.  I can live with FCCs as I don’t mind a reason to book another cruise.  I also don’t think we cruise enough to make an annual policy work.  Any thoughts, guidance, helpful hints are welcome and appreciated.

[steverk]

I have an Allianz annual policy. The price was very good ($425 for everyone in my household), but I haven't had to use it. Therefore I can't really tell you the full story.

I purchased it for the medical insurance, but it does have trip interruption coverage 

[Matt]

My biggest piece of advice is read what the policy covers and doesn't cover. Think about what scenarios you want protected and then inquire if it covers that.

All too often people buy travel insurance assuming it's a catch-all, which it's not. Most common example: Hurricane headed to Florida and someone wants to cancel their trip pro-actively before Royal cancels or makes changes.  Travel insurance doesn't cover it, unless it's a Cancel For Any Reason policy. Even then, it usually covers 75%.

[ChessE4]

Just remember there is an annual cap on benefits for annual policies.  So depending upon how much you travel and how much each trip costs, you may use up benefits before the year is out. 

The big difference I see in policies is how much you are covered for medical and evacuation.  What you actually need should drive your decision-making.  We found that even Allianz had different benefit levels with different premiums.

[YOLO]

@Pooch  I was wondering if you made an decisions on Travel Insurance?  I too like the idea of Annual Cruise Insurance, but it seems like Allianz was the only provider I could find for such insurance so I could not do any comparison shopping.  Any info you have would be appreciated.  Thanks!

[TXcruzer]

17 minutes ago, YOLO said:

@Pooch  I was wondering if you made an decisions on Travel Insurance?  I too like the idea of Annual Cruise Insurance, but it seems like Allianz was the only provider I could find for such insurance so I could not do any comparison shopping.  Any info you have would be appreciated.  Thanks!

I have had a Trawick International annual policy for about 5 years now and have been very pleased with it.

[Moby Dick]

On 6/3/2022 at 11:33 AM, ChessE4 said:

Just remember there is an annual cap on benefits for annual policies.  So depending upon how much you travel and how much each trip costs, you may use up benefits before the year is out. 

Yep, an annual policy is just that, when you use it (the maximum amount or any portion thereof) you lose it for the rest of the year.  When you purchase the insurance for that one cruise, it would be hard to need the benefit more than once during a cruise and you only purchased it for that one cruise.  In order for a benefit to be offered after it has been used on an annual policy, you'd have to purchase it again. 

However, the cost of an annual policy seems to be very competitive if you are just talking about dollars and cents.   

I think I'll stick to purchasing the per cruise insurance offered by the Cruise line or TA.  

[TXcruzer]

1 hour ago, Suite Snob said:

Yep, an annual policy is just that, when you use it (the maximum amount or any portion thereof) you lose it for the rest of the year.  When you purchase the insurance for that one cruise, it would be hard to need the benefit more than once during a cruise and you only purchased it for that one cruise.  In order for a benefit to be offered after it has been used on an annual policy, you'd have to purchase it again. 

However, the cost of an annual policy seems to be very competitive if you are just talking about dollars and cents.   

I think I'll stick to purchasing the per cruise insurance offered by the Cruise line or TA.  

My annual policy has a $1 million dollar per annum (per person) cap on benefits.

I have made claims on multiple trips in a single year with no issues.  It is in effect anytime I am more than 100 miles from my home address.  

[Moby Dick]

8 minutes ago, TXcruzer said:

My annual policy has a $1 million dollar per annum (per person) cap on benefits.

I have made claims on multiple trips in a single year with no issues. 

And I'll stick my neck out here and say you are paying more than $300.00 - $4XX.xx a year for that $1 million dollar policy.  

[Pooch]

Well I wanted to let you all know the end of my brother’s saga.  Aon Ins issued FCC for 90% of the unrefunded fare.  At first the amount looked wrong but he was finally able to contact a supervisor who told him the FCC was issued in 2 parts (where have I heard that before??) and he never received the second one.  Together they total what I expected him to get.  I won’t be able to take him on the cruise deal we got on Harmony but at least we can go somewhere together.  Thanks for everyone’s sympathy and encouragement!

[TXcruzer]

14 hours ago, Suite Snob said:

And I'll stick my neck out here and say you are paying more than $300.00 - $4XX.xx a year for that $1 million dollar policy.  

Not sticking your neck out at all, you are right, and I must make a correction; after reviewing my policy documents my policy has a $500,000 annual CAP.

[RWDW1204]

@Suite Snob, @TXCruiser . Your opinions please. We've never thought about travel insurance before but now with chances of maybe needing it, what's the difference in cost between 1 time vs an annual policy? We cruise 2 - 3 times a year and have been lucky with no covid positives to cancel us or anything else that wouldn't make us be able to cruise. Have either of you, or anyone else willing to respond, actually have to use it and how easy and quickly was it available? 

[TXcruzer]

8 hours ago, RWDW1204 said:

@Suite Snob, @TXCruiser . Your opinions please. We've never thought about travel insurance before but now with chances of maybe needing it, what's the difference in cost between 1 time vs an annual policy? We cruise 2 - 3 times a year and have been lucky with no covid positives to cancel us or anything else that wouldn't make us be able to cruise. Have either of you, or anyone else willing to respond, actually have to use it and how easy and quickly was it available? 

I can not honestly speak to the difference in cost, as I have had an annual policy for many years and have not kept up with rates on "per trip" coverage. 

I can tell you, at my last renewal, I paid about $650 for my annual policy (covering myself and my wife)

It seems @Suite Snob may be able to give up to date information on a one trip policy, as I believe he just returned from Alaska.

Regarding using the policy, I have found mine relatively easy to use.  Make no mistakes, insurance companies of all types have their idiosyncrasies and their red tape, but I have always received payment on valid claims (granted, one rarely has a claim).  My policy treats Covid as it treats any other disease, I believe that may be unique.  Also, as I said above, my policy covers events anytime we are more than 150 miles from home. We make a lot of road trips, and I fly monthly to do Locum Tenuns work; as well as several cruises a year, so that is peace of mind for us. I like the annual policy, because we can just up and go at anytime and have coverage without worries of pre existing conditions, look back periods, or timing of policy dates and booking dates.

[Pooch]

Can I ask who your carrier is?

[TXcruzer]

12 minutes ago, Pooch said:

Can I ask who your carrier is?

My policy is through Trawick International, and is underwritten by Nationwide Mutual.

[Moby Dick]

The per Cruise Insurance is based upon how much you pay for the cruise.  So, what I pay for my insurance may be different from what you pay for yours.

On our Ovation cruise we paid a total (cruise fare only), that's for 4 people, $12,568.00.   Our travel protection insurance was $328.00 per person, that's their top tier plan.  This insurance was purchased through our TA, not Royal Caribbean.  

Not only do you need to understand that an annual plan is only good up to a certain amount of money (a ceiling) per year/per incident but it also may include some items that you don't need because an annual plan if for all types of travel, not cruise specific.  You'd have to take both types of plans and look at them side by side and line off the things that you don't need, on both types of plans, decide what is on one but not the other that you feel is important for you and make a decision from there.  Of course, price is a huge factor for most of us. 

I want to make myself perfectly clear here, I'm not against any specific type of travel insurance.  I'm only saying that an annual plan isn't for me, based upon my needs and desires and basically why it isn't for ME.  We are all adults and we can make up our own minds as to what we need/want based upon a lot of factors.  For me, I cruise on average of once every other year and I take car trips often.  So, an annual policy just doesn't make sense to/for me. 

We no longer purchase travel insurance prior to the final payment date (I may be repeating myself from this thread or another) because it is nonrefundable for ANY reason, or most any reason, and if you have a life changing event that is not allow/covered by the policy, before the final payment date, you don't get the policy cost/price back but you get 100% of your cruise fare back, minus the deposit, if it is nonrefundable, if canceled before the final payment date.  Oh, and we never make a final payment until the final payment date.  The only thing the cruise company has of my money is the deposit up until the 90 days out and that's when they start deducting the % you can get back for canceling. 

I hope this helps

[AshleyDillo]

14 hours ago, RWDW1204 said:

. Your opinions please. We've never thought about travel insurance before but now with chances of maybe needing it, what's the difference in cost between 1 time vs an annual policy? We cruise 2 - 3 times a year and have been lucky with no covid positives to cancel us or anything else that wouldn't make us be able to cruise. Have either of you, or anyone else willing to respond, actually have to use it and how easy and quickly was it available? 

I have never used my annual policy (through Allianz) on a cruise but I have used it for a flight delay. The claims process was very easy and I was reimbursed for my meals and extra rental car charge during the delay.

Very minimal claim but it was good to know if I couldn't make it home that day my extra costs would have been covered. My policy is $450 annually for just me.

Typically a single per cruise insurance policy you can expect about 10% of the value of the cruisefare you are insuring to be your premium for the policy.  If you buy third party and not through the cruiseline you can insure the whole trip (flights, prestay hotel, etc).

I like that the annual policy also covers any smaller non cruise trips I take.  That's just icing on the cake for me since most of those trips involve more nonrefundable travel expenses for me.

[YOLO]

All, thanks for all the great information in this thread.

@TXcruzer  Thanks for the specifics on your policy and cost!

For us, I like the idea of annual insurance.  We tend to buy per cruise insurance in some cases and not in others - trying to hedge our bets depending our situation for each cruise.  By going the annual route we could finally stop worrying or trying to remember which cruises have insurance.  

Also, we worry about air fare and whether or not we used Air2Sea.  The annual insurance takes care of that too.  

And finally, if something major did happen to us causing us to use the full annual limit, I suspect we would be cancelling the rest of our cruises and not traveling for awhile anyway.  For example, a ship evacuation is very costly.  

Overall, we are thinking that an annual plan would work better for us.  

Does anyone know if there is an annual plan which covers evacuation or offers cancel for any reason

[TXcruzer]

8 hours ago, YOLO said:

All, thanks for all the great information in this thread.

@TXcruzer  Thanks for the specifics on your policy and cost!

For us, I like the idea of annual insurance.  We tend to buy per cruise insurance in some cases and not in others - trying to hedge our bets depending our situation for each cruise.  By going the annual route we could finally stop worrying or trying to remember which cruises have insurance.  

Also, we worry about air fare and whether or not we used Air2Sea.  The annual insurance takes care of that too.  

And finally, if something major did happen to us causing us to use the full annual limit, I suspect we would be cancelling the rest of our cruises and not traveling for awhile anyway.  For example, a ship evacuation is very costly.  

Overall, we are thinking that an annual plan would work better for us.  

Does anyone know if there is an annual plan which covers evacuation or offers cancel for any reason

My policy covers medical evacuation.  I have never seen an annual policy that offers CFAR

[steverk]

10 hours ago, YOLO said:

All, thanks for all the great information in this thread.

@TXcruzer  Thanks for the specifics on your policy and cost!

For us, I like the idea of annual insurance.  We tend to buy per cruise insurance in some cases and not in others - trying to hedge our bets depending our situation for each cruise.  By going the annual route we could finally stop worrying or trying to remember which cruises have insurance.  

Also, we worry about air fare and whether or not we used Air2Sea.  The annual insurance takes care of that too.  

And finally, if something major did happen to us causing us to use the full annual limit, I suspect we would be cancelling the rest of our cruises and not traveling for awhile anyway.  For example, a ship evacuation is very costly.  

Overall, we are thinking that an annual plan would work better for us.  

Does anyone know if there is an annual plan which covers evacuation or offers cancel for any reason

Mine covers medical evac, and that's why I buy it.

In my way of thinking, CFAR is an unnecssary expense.  Insurance is designed for low probabilty, high impact events that you can afford to lose.  Medivac falls in the category.  But if the cost of a missed cruise is going to break you financially, then why are you going in the first place?

[Moby Dick]

41 minutes ago, steverk said:

Mine covers medical evac, and that's why I buy it.

That's basically how I feel about it.  Other than one cruise (wasn't going to drive from Alabama to Seattle), we drive to the port.  All of my favorite ports, Galveston, Canaveral, Everglades, Miami  and once out of Cape Liberty, are all within a one days drive for me.  Therefore, Travel Ins isn't much of an issue other than the emergency evac coverage and medical.  

[TXcruzer]

3 hours ago, steverk said:

Mine covers medical evac, and that's why I buy it.

In my way of thinking, CFAR is an unnecssary expense.  Insurance is designed for low probabilty, high impact events that you can afford to lose.  Medivac falls in the category.  But if the cost of a missed cruise is going to break you financially, then why are you going in the first place?

Well said 

[Pooch]

Not necessarily “break you financially” but for many a cruise is a significant investment requiring a lot of saving up for a once in a lifetime (or at least once in a very long time) vacation.  To lose all of that due to unforeseen circumstances might not break them but would certainly be a sad waste of funds for which insurance could afford some protection.  Really the same could be applied to any type of insurance, people don’t carry collision coverage. So if you can’t afford to replace your car, you shouldn’t have one?  Not sure I see the logic.

[Pattycruise]

There is a person who did a sailing in May and CoCoCay was a stop.  Apparently he got stuck in "muck" at South Beach, got a cut on his foot and it became infected.....gangrene, sepsis  and now he has had a partial amputation.  No trip insurance and now he's facing massive hospital bills.  It's stories like this that we do not hear about.  I for one have taken trip insurance for granted-figuring it's "only a cruise" and "I can get back home easily", though I did purchase an annual policy this past October because I had booked a "boatload" of cruises-and I added in my family.  After reading about this man and his foot, I'll be thinking of him when I book my next trips and I will buy the insurance.

 

[SpeedNoodles]

Question for those who have an annual policy (and I've looked and can't find the answer).  Once you purchase annual travel insurance, do you have to notify them somehow of every trip you are taking and where you are traveling (and how much you expect to need insured)?  I'm just super confused about how it works.

[Mike.s]

4 hours ago, SpeedNoodles said:

Question for those who have an annual policy (and I've looked and can't find the answer).  Once you purchase annual travel insurance, do you have to notify them somehow of every trip you are taking and where you are traveling (and how much you expect to need insured)?  I'm just super confused about how it works.

Not for my UK policy, when we take the policy out we have to confirm the geographical areas we'd like cover and any add on's such as winter sports etc. The we're good to go (once we've listed all the medical bits, the list seems to get longer as we get older!!).

[WAAAYTOOO]

6 hours ago, SpeedNoodles said:

Question for those who have an annual policy (and I've looked and can't find the answer).  Once you purchase annual travel insurance, do you have to notify them somehow of every trip you are taking and where you are traveling (and how much you expect to need insured)?  I'm just super confused about how it works.

No.  You are good for the entire year and they will not know whether or not you go on a trip and frankly, they don't care.  The only time they will know is if you file a claim.  It's super easy and soooo much better than having individual trip policies, IMO.

[AshleyDillo]

8 hours ago, SpeedNoodles said:

Question for those who have an annual policy (and I've looked and can't find the answer).  Once you purchase annual travel insurance, do you have to notify them somehow of every trip you are taking and where you are traveling (and how much you expect to need insured)?  I'm just super confused about how it works.

Nope. Remember there are policy and claim limits. I believe the policy limits are yearly maximums, so if you have multiple claims in a policy year you could exhaust the limits.

It's a little different than a per trip policy where you have to substantiate the max coverage needed (and thus premium) based on your total trip costs. If you are planning an expensive trip you may want to do an individual policy to cover that trip if the difference between your annual policy and the trip cost is large.  

The annual policy is great for frequent smaller cost trips and it also provides the coverage against the more financially devastating medical piece.

[TXcruzer]

8 hours ago, SpeedNoodles said:

Question for those who have an annual policy (and I've looked and can't find the answer).  Once you purchase annual travel insurance, do you have to notify them somehow of every trip you are taking and where you are traveling (and how much you expect to need insured)?  I'm just super confused about how it works.

I can’t speak for all, but my annual policy is ALWAYS in effect.  I am covered anytime I am 150 miles or more from my home address listed on my policy. 
No need to notify them of anything short of a claim. 

[SpeedNoodles]

Thanks, @TXcruzer, @Mike.s, @AshleyDillo and @WAAAYTOOO!!!