cruiselife Posted February 13, 2018 Report Share Posted February 13, 2018 My wife and I usually drive to the port in Galveston when we cruise, so we have never purchased travel insurance. We are about to book a cruise on Harmony out of Florida and so we will be purchasing the insurance this time around. My question is should we book it through Royal Caribbean or go with an outside company? The cost from Royal Caribbean is $118.00 for the two of us. Is this a competitive rate and also competitive coverage? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DunkelBierJay Posted February 13, 2018 Report Share Posted February 13, 2018 14 minutes ago, Cruiselife said: My wife and I usually drive to the port in Galveston when we cruise, so we have never purchased travel insurance. We are about to book a cruise on Harmony out of Florida and so we will be purchasing the insurance this time around. My question is should we book it through Royal Caribbean or go with an outside company? The cost from Royal Caribbean is $118.00 for the two of us. Is this a competitive rate and also competitive coverage? You can run quotes on various third party sites like Roam Right, Travel Guard and Allianz. They all offer similar products and coverages. Most recently, I bought a policy for a five nighter on Roam Right for $96.00. I am not certain if Royal's insurance covers parts of your trip not booked through them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted February 13, 2018 Report Share Posted February 13, 2018 There is no one answer for everyone. You need to look at costs and most importantly, coverage. Gears 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melski94 Posted February 13, 2018 Report Share Posted February 13, 2018 Looking at RC policy there is minimal trip delay coverage but you may not get reimbursed for flights. The good thing about RC policy is there cancel for any reason policy. The bad is that IMO the medical evacuation is on the lower side. Look at the some of the above sites or look at insuremytrip.com and you can compare companies there. If you are a USAA member, look there as I have found the best rates from them. One of the things I'm most concerned about is medical evacuation. I could absorb the loss of a missed trip and airplane tickets as they have already been paid for (although I wouldn't like it) however the medical evacuation on the rare case it would be needed could be a serious financial hit. Everyone has their own reason to get trip insurance or not but you can look at those websites and investigate the differences between them as well as RC policy based on your state (you can find it online). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephanie Posted February 13, 2018 Report Share Posted February 13, 2018 Check with your credit card that you used to booked the cruise. Lots of credit cards have trip insurance and/or medical evacuation built in as a feature, particularly cards that have an annual fee. No sense in paying for something you might already have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom2mybugs Posted February 14, 2018 Report Share Posted February 14, 2018 I've never had to make a claim but both travel agents I've used have gotten me allianz and i think it was well priced and very clear on what was covered. We were able to get cancel for any reason for the summer hurricane season southern Caribbean cruise and basic for our others. They covered all travel (including pre/post cruise hotels). Jane Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocLC Posted February 14, 2018 Report Share Posted February 14, 2018 I also book the insurance independently and only had to make a claim once, fortunately. Typically, you get better coverage for the money when purchasing it independently. You can also bundle in other expenses like prepaid hotels, airfare, and the like. Also, as stated, check with your credit card company, too. The Costco Visa had very good trip cancellation/interruption insurance, for instance, but might not cover medical evacuation like most policies do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rose City Cruiser Posted February 14, 2018 Report Share Posted February 14, 2018 Purchase a policy that covers you from the time you leave your home until you return home. "Door to door" policies will reimburse in cash for any non-refundable portions of your trip instead of getting reimbursement in the form of future credit that is offered by the cruise/airlines. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobroo Posted February 14, 2018 Report Share Posted February 14, 2018 My wife and I are covered best by the travel protection given by credit card we have (incidentally the one we receive all our airline miles on). We also have an annual travel policy-- which the premium is a lot less than you might imagine and you won't have to vacation much before getting an annual policy to be a no brainer. I'm guessing at the bottom of the list is our health coverage and our homeowners. 'Cause in some cases those can come into play. Comparing the above to what Royal offers? No, we have a much better deal and for us it's worth the effort to look elsewhere. Do any of these travel policies actually pay out? Well, I've never made a claim. To be truthful, there is not a lot of fine print to them; they are rather broad (red flag). But in the same breath it has become very apparent to us just how close we have missed hurricanes, outbreaks of norovirus, heard of misfortunes of other passengers while onboard, or other mishaps we have found out about on ships or at ports in which we just narrowly missed. Everyone knows airlines can get real poopie when the weather gets bad. At some point...... So in summary, I think all veteran RCL Blog members will tell you it's well worthwhile to cover your butt--somehow/someway. And if you are away from home a couple weeks or more a year it's worth researching benefits and costs of different products or avenues. Also worth noting, my perspective with this whole insurance thing is that if something does happen; my view is that I hope I will have some recourse when I get home--maybe. All this insurance is by no means a guarantee and my expectations for recovery are low. I just don't think insurance companies have a lot of integrity when it comes to writing checks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrbuilder11377 Posted April 27, 2019 Report Share Posted April 27, 2019 Any recourse when a travel insurance company won’t pay? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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