How does cruise insurance work

Pre-existing conditions: This can be a critical component of your insurance choices because the companies offering coverage vary widely in the amount of time you have to have been symptom-free before your condition is covered. What you need to research, in the case of pre-existing conditions, is the number of "lookback days" the company requires in order to "waive the exclusion.

Some companies require a day period, some a day period, and some as few as a day period. And in order to waive the exclusion, you have to purchase your trip insurance within 10, 14 or 21 days of your initial deposit, again depending on the insurer. Yes, it's complicated! Trip cancellation: If you break your ankle or someone in your family becomes ill, if your friend who is sharing your cabin ends up canceling, if you can't travel for any reason that isn't excluded by your policy, you will get percent of your trip cost reimbursed.

Your "trip cost" includes everything that is pre-paid, not simply reserved. In fact, if your hotel is going to charge a one-night penalty should you fail to arrive, it's better to pre-pay the entire amount. Your insurance will cover the penalty as long as the stay is pre-paid, but if it's just guaranteed to your credit card, you're out of luck. The benefits don't kick in until you have been delayed at least six hours and in some cases 12 hours so reviewing your plan's provisions is important.

How to choose what's best for your needs Here are some scenarios so you can see how the different coverages might affect your trip. Cost comparison: You're a couple, each 42 years old. You are taking a seven-night cruise on Carnival and you are flying to the port. One of you has a relative who is suffering from an illness that might cause you to have to cancel your trip.

You suddenly get ill and have to be evacuated. Exclusions comparison: You have planned your cruise for over a year. You will be traveling with Morrie and Elaine, your good friends, and you will be celebrating your 30th anniversary.

You even managed to get adjoining suites for this trip. All of you took out travel insurance. A week before your departure, Elaine gets an ear infection and her doctor says she can't travel.

Morrie and Elaine have to cancel their trip and will get percent of their prepaid costs refunded to them. You don't want to go if they aren't going; this is not the anniversary cruise you had planned, and it would be ruined if they weren't also traveling. Can you get a refund? Morrie and Elaine are not family members, which BerkleyCare, administrators for most cruise line coverage, describes as "spouse, domestic partner, common-law spouse, siblings, step-siblings, siblings-in-law, parents, step-parents, parents-in-law, children, step-children, adopted children, grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins.

This comes under "I changed my mind," which is one of the excluded reasons for cancellation. And the BIG question: hurricane coverage: Many, many people are curious as to whether insurance coverage has changed after 's devastating hurricane season.

The short answer is: No, it hasn't. Since the carriers all offer trip interruption and trip cancellation insurance, and since a change in itinerary isn't covered in any event, there was no need to make changes.

If there have been any adjustments, it's been in the premiums, not in the coverage. Remember, you take a risk when you book your Caribbean cruise during hurricane season June 1 through November You also get a better price point for that cruise, so it's a tradeoff.

Not only will your policy not cover the treatments, it also will not pay for delays, evacuations, or related medical expenses. Airline tickets purchased with frequent-flyer miles aren't covered. However, insurers will reimburse the redeposit fee if you cancel the award before embarking on the first leg of the trip or cover the change fee if you must reschedule your return ticket due to a covered event. In addition to comprehensive packages, insurers also offer a cadre of a la carte add-ons.

They may include:. As the phrase suggests, you can cancel your trip for any reason such as concern over traveling to a particular area due to political unrest or disease outbreaks -- a luxury normal insurance policies won't allow.

Most insurers require this policy add-on be purchased between 14 and 21 days following your final cruise payment. Read the description of coverage to find out what percentage of your trip deposits are reimbursed under this type of "cancel for any reason" terminology. Most policies max out the coverage at 75 percent of the trip costs, but some cover as little as 50 percent. These policies are more expensive roughly 40 percent more than a standard policy but make sense in certain circumstances -- say, a particularly costly itinerary or during a known event such as the world-wide coronavirus pandemic.

While airline accident coverage is typically a supplemental add-on, it might be included in the cost of comprehensive standard policies or offered as "bonus" coverage.

If your plans include the rental of a vehicle, car-rental collision coverage can be useful. One caveat is most policies will only cover cars, not trucks or even vans, so be sure to read the fine print or call your insurance provider for clarification before you reserve your rental vehicle.

The company will send a plane and medical personnel to you. Air ambulance companies that offer these policies will each have specific requirements for evacuations when the insured patient has COVID They must abide by the regulations of both the country they are evacuating from and the country you are returning to, which may limit their ability to provide the service regardless of the restrictions in place at the time you purchased the policy.

A standalone emergency evacuation policy is a good choice if you don't plan on getting other insurance but still want coverage for a medical emergency. Some insurance companies provide additional coverage for those participating in extreme sports or other high-risk activities on their vacation.

Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection's AdrenalineCare, for example, offers an upgraded medical expense limit and emergency evacuation limit, as well as an adventure sports exclusion waiver covering more extreme sports than the average policy. This type of policy can apply to scuba diving, rock climbing or even wind surfing. Not all travel insurance policies are the same, and you need to know which type you're buying, in addition to specific coverages.

Just about every cruise line on the planet offers its own travel protection program, but it might not be the comprehensive policy you desire. Cruise-line insurance usually offers secondary coverage see below and is more limited than similarly priced coverage you can buy on your own. For example, cruise-line coverage generally doesn't cover its own financial default. Third-party travel insurance companies offer more inclusive policies that provide more protection, and these are often the best bet.

As you look at plans, you'll notice two main flavors of insurance policies: primary and secondary. Primary insurance kicks in the moment something goes wrong -- before or during your trip. Secondary insurance means that you must attempt to collect on any private insurance policies before the trip insurance coverage activates. For example, if you have secondary insurance and someone steals your camera from your bag in St. Mark's Square, you'll need to try to collect on your homeowner's or renter's policy first.

Therefore, secondary insurance can be problematic if the insured can't easily cover out-of-pocket expenses while waiting for insurance reimbursement -- first from your primary plan and then, if not covered, from your travel insurance. It might not be clear from the outset which type of plan you're looking at, so you need to read the terms carefully. Hint: Primary coverage is usually more expensive, but it generally combines better coverage with the ease that immediate claim service brings.

Also, in a package policy, some coverage such as trip cancellation and travel delay might be primary, while others including lost baggage and medical coverage can be secondary. If you're considering secondary insurance, be sure to review your primary medical coverage before deciding.

Will you be out-of-pocket for any medical expenses overseas? Note: The Social Security Medicare program will not cover hospital or medical expenses that you incur outside of the United States. You can purchase travel insurance through your cruise line, travel agent, a specific insurance provider or even a travel-insurance aggregator site like InsureMyTrip.

See below for a list of trip-insurance companies and insurance comparison sites. Third-party insurance providers and aggregators can often help you with coverage that is specific to cruise travel like expenses for catching up to your ship if you miss embarkation due to a covered issue. Ask your travel agent for guidance; he or she will have knowledge of a variety of insurance company policies and can help match the best policy to your needs.

Always comparison shop, looking at what amounts of coverage you get for what price. No matter which policy you select, you want to be sure that it is underwritten by a reputable and licensed insurer; companies are regulated by state insurance departments.

The U. Travel Insurance Association is a good place to start to research licensed insurers in your state. It's also easy to search online for feedback on particular insurance providers. Travel-insurance aggregators like SquareMouth will show you the underwriter for each policy and how it is rated by the A.

Best Company an agency that rates financial institutions , as well as provide reviews from previous purchasers. When checking for the details of what is and is not covered, it's best to look at the actual policy documents or coverage details. Links to these are often found within or at the end of comparison charts or broad policy descriptions and may involve downloading multi-page PDF documents to read through.

You can purchase insurance plans up to 24 hours before your trip departure date, but we don't recommend waiting that long. If you do wait, you may not be eligible for many important benefits, such as the waiver of the pre-existing conditions clause.

If you want to be covered for pre-existing medical conditions, you should buy insurance at the time you make your final cruise payment. Not all policies offer pre-existing coverage, but among those that do, each insurer dictates its own coverage window.

The deadline is usually 10 to 15 days after making that final payment -- or after booking your airfare, if you do that first. If you aren't eligible for this waiver, your insurer will look back into your medical history ranging from 60 to days depending on your policy and will not cover any condition for which you sought medical treatment during that time.

We're talking everything from eczema and asthma to heart angina and strokes. When it comes to buying travel insurance, don't worry if you've paid for your cruise but haven't yet purchased your airline tickets. You can estimate the airfare cost when buying your travel insurance and then give your provider your exact travel itinerary once those tickets are booked. Likewise, if you're arranging your plane tickets first, buy your travel insurance within two weeks of that purchase, and enter your full cruise fare, even if you have not purchased it or have only paid the deposit.

You just need to be sure to pay for travel insurance within the booking window of whichever travel purchase comes first. If reimbursement is required, it will be based on your actual receipts for the purchases within your coverage limits , not your estimates at the time you purchased your insurance.

Again, read through what the insurance policy requires in terms of notification. Some may require notification of any changes in anticipated costs prior to travel, particularly if your estimates turned out to be too low. Remember, too, that you can't purchase travel insurance and expect it to cover events that are already in motion. For example, you book a Caribbean cruise that departs during hurricane season but procrastinate on purchasing travel insurance.

Once your local weatherman announces that a hurricane is howling along the path of your cruise itinerary, it's too late for you to buy travel insurance and be covered for any travel cancellations or delays caused by the storm.

You'd only be covered if you had purchased the insurance prior to the naming of the tropical storm. The per-person price paid for a trip insurance policy will vary depending on many factors, including the insurer, where the traveler lives, the traveler's age, cost of the trip, when the policy is purchased i.

For example, Travel Guard's Preferred plan offers extensive primary coverage including, but not limited to, the following:. You can also elect "add-on" coverage. For cruises up to four nights, you need to cancel 75 days or more prior to cruising. For cruises of five nights or longer, that window increases to 90 days.

If you book on or before July 31st, however, you have more flexible options. Cruise lines will try to sell you their own waiver, but if you read the fine print you'll see they only offer refunds when you cancel your trip for a limited list of covered reasons.

And if you must cancel for another reason, cruise lines' plans generally offer credits worth 75 percent of the trip cost. Don't lose your travel investment. Protect yourself with a travel insurance plan, one that allows you to cancel your trip for a wide range of covered reasons. If you're treated on board, prepare to receive a hefty medical bill. Your regular health insurance likely won't cover you. Allianz Global Assistance offers plans with both an Emergency Transportation and Emergency Medical benefit, in addition to benefits such as Trip Cancellation, Trip Interruption and more.

Time and tide wait for no one. Neither do cruise ships. That's why missed flights and missing bags become big problems when you're beginning your cruise vacation. If your flight to Miami is canceled due to weather, causing you to miss embarkation, you're out of luck — and out that snorkeling excursion you were really looking forward to — unless you have travel insurance.

Trip delay benefits can reimburse you for eligible hotel stays, meals and lost prepaid expenses if your trip is delayed by more the amount of time specified in your travel insurance plan for a covered reason. Missed connection benefits can reimburse you for the cost of transportation to your cruise's first port of call, where you can catch up with the ship.

And Allianz Global Assistance's hour hotline assistance can help you make the needed changes to your travel plan. In the middle of your Caribbean journey from Nassau to Port Lucaya, you get word that your mother has fallen seriously ill. You need to get home fast, but how can you do it without breaking the bank? Call the hour assistance hotline, and a travel expert can help you make arrangements to fly home from the ship's next port of call.

You can be reimbursed for up to percent of the cost of the trip: both the unused portion of your cruise and the additional transportation costs for returning home early. People take cruises to spend quality time with friends and family, to explore new regions of the world, and sometimes even to get from Point A to Point B. A top-flight cruise travel insurance policy, such as the plans offered by Allianz Global Assistance , can offer recourse for the unexpected.

Make sure you review your insurance plan carefully before you buy, because not all plans offer the same coverage. Bon voyage! Type the country where you will be spending the most amount of time. View all of our travel insurance products. Terms, conditions, and exclusions apply.