The purpose of travel insurance is to cover the nonrefundable costs associated with your trip in case of an unforeseen event. Cruise vacations can be expensive and involve a great deal of planning. However, one thing many people don’t plan for is the unexpected. Cruise travel insurance is meant to cover that gap and help alleviate some of the stress when planning your cruise vacation.

What is Cruise Travel Insurance?

Like regular insurance, cruise travel insurance covers the unforeseen- such as cruise cancellations, interruptions, trip delays, lost bags, emergency medical expenses, and more. Not everything goes according to plan, and cruise travel insurance plans for that. For example, you may need to cancel your cruise due to a sudden illness, or you may get sick while you are on the cruise and need emergency medical attention. Another possibility is missing your departure due to a delayed or canceled flight, or missing a flight home because the ship is late arriving back at port.

Travel insurance can cover events that occur both before and during your cruise vacation. For example, for expenses that occur before a trip begins, most travel insurance policies will cover the cost of canceling a cruise due to a last minute crisis or illness. They also cover the cost related to your cruise being interrupted for whatever reason. For these types of events, trip cancellation insurance and/or trip interruption insurance may be necessary.

These policies also typically cover medical expenses that you may incur while on your cruise. If you are in extreme medical crisis, good travel insurance will cover the expenses of evacuating you from a foreign country. Medical expenses make up a large portion of travel insurance claims. According to travel insurance company, Allianz Global Assistance, 53 percent (53%) of all cruise insurance billings are because of illness for the insured, while 14 percent (14%) of them are due to an injury.

Many times, travel insurance policies from reputable insurers will also cover out-of-pocket expenses due to a flight delay or cancellation that causes you to miss your cruise departure, as well as expenses connected to baggage delays or lost baggage. However, these coverages may be limited to certain parts of a traveler’s voyage if a flight was purchased from a different entity than the cruise ticket, so always  be sure to check the fine print.

Finally, when people are on cruise vacations, they are encouraged to take risks that they would not otherwise have taken. Often, passengers will feel pressured to participate in inherently dangerous activities that are framed by marketing departments as the normal things a cruise passenger should anticipate on their next vacation. These risks can include riding jet skis, driving motorized scooters in foreign countries with different laws, speeding through jungles on dirt roads in a buggy, ATV or even on a segue like mall security guards, parasailing, ice skating, bungee jumping, hiking in unfamiliar territory with minimal or ineffective protective equipment and untrained tour guides. In fact, cruising in the 21^st Century brings many of these experiences to passengers without the need of ever disembarking a ship as seen in the popular surf simulator onboard ships like Royal Caribbean’s Flow Rider. By taking these risks and recasting them as typical parts of a cruise vacation, passengers are encouraged to let their guard down so they can relax and enjoy themselves while unfortunately increasing the likelihood of sustaining an injury increases exponentially.

What Travel Insurance Does Not Cover.

Cruise travel insurance policies do not cover everything. One example of this occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many travelers would try to cancel their trips for full refunds due to the fear of contracting COVID-19 while on the vessel. Most standard travel insurers would not reimburse the traveler for these worries. Even if the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issues a warning about going on cruises, insurance providers still will not normally cover reimbursement for cancellation due to these types of concerns.

Reputable insurers typically bundled coverage for trip cancelation due to pandemic under force majeure provisions, also known as “Acts of God” coverage which were considered to be unforeseeable prior to March 2020. Unfortunately, however, that is no longer the case due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on international travel and the cruise industry specifically.

What You Should Know When Buying Travel Insurance for your Cruise.

When looking for cruise travel insurance policies, it helps to shop around, but before that, it helps to know what you need. Not all plans are created equal. They do not offer the same coverage or protection. Many times, cruise lines will offer their own travel insurance, but their options tend to be more limited in scope.

It usually helps to get travel insurance from a third party after doing some shopping around. Travel insurance can also be booked through a travel agent or directly through a third-party travel insurance provider which can be purchased online or in person at an agency. Some of the popular third-party insurance companies that offer cruise travel insurance policies including Allianz Travel Insurance, American Express Travel Insurance, AIG Travel, and Travelex Insurance. Using a travel agent to work with these third parties can often be a good method for finding the correct type of coverage since travel agents regularly work with them. Since policies vary, it helps to compare different plans and make sure the one you choose has all the elements that you need or desire.

When booking a cruise, cruise lines will ask customers if they wish to buy their travel insurance policy at the time of purchase directly from the cruise line. However, most consumers do not ask for the details of what is actually covered in advance, preventing them from reviewing the policy specifics for coverages offered and exclusions in relation to those available from insurers that do not pay a cruise line for the right to be the exclusive travel insurance offered to prospective cruise passengers that simply click a box guaranteeing the cruise insurer of increased profits with more policies sold and premiums paid.

Although the lower cost may be tempting to the unwary, travel insurers that are in business ventures with a given cruise line often prioritize their lucrative relationship with the cruise line over their obligations to their insureds. Keep in mind that cruise lines want to reduce costs to them if at all possible. Many of them may offer a travel voucher or a credit for future trip in the event of a covered cancellation and not a refund that third-party insurance will offer. The coverage may simply not be what you want or what you need so be sure to ask for the details of the policy before purchasing anything.

Prior to purchasing any policy of travel insurance, it is advisable to verify whether a travel insurance provider is affiliated with a cruise entity or it is independent. Companies that are in joint ventures with the major cruise lines will make the claims process difficult by design and eliminating all but the most persistent of claimants. Unlike most types of insurances that are sold for auto or commercial liability coverages, travel insurance is largely unregulated given the jurisdictional challenges that are inherent to international travel rendering regulatory oversight largely impossible or at least untenable.

Cost of Cruise Insurance

Cruise insurance, of course, does come at a cost.  In terms of fees, you should expect to pay anywhere from four to eight percent (4-8%) of what your prepaid, nonrefundable trip expenses were. While, yes, that percentage can be quite a wide range; it depends on the quality of travel insurance and what types of products are purchased under the policy. Some of the more basic plans will cost less than four percent (4%) of your trip while some of the more expenses plans that covers pretty much any possible issue can cost as much as 12 percent (12%) of your total trip expenses.

Should You Buy Cruise Travel Insurance?

Certain factors should be kept in mind when making the decision to purchase a cruise travel insurance policy.

One thing to keep in mind is not all regular medical insurance policies will cover you for medical expenses while traveling internationally. In fact, as an American citizen, you may be surprised to hear that most private medical insurance plans will not cover your illnesses or injuries while on an international cruise. That can present a problem if the foreign hospital you are in requires your bill to be paid in full prior to being discharged. Be sure to check with your medical insurance provider first before booking your cruise vacation to see what is covered and where that coverage extends.

You would not think this would be the case, but being evacuated due to a medical condition can be costly. However, there may be no other options available depending on where you fall ill or are injured. If you do not have proof of medical evacuation coverage, many foreign medical providers will request payment upfront. If you are in an emergency, you may have no other option available.  If you are seriously injured, you may have no other option other than to be evacuated from the ship to a foreign medical facility or pay for extensive medical treatment with a credit card and exorbitant interest rates that have led more than a few unfortunate cruise passengers to consider bankruptcy after seeing their accident related medical debts soar into the tens of thousands and even hundreds of thousands of dollars within just a few months of their accident.

Predictability is also important when it comes to planning a cruise vacation. The problem is you cannot predict the weather. Unexpected delays, interruptions, or cancellations occur all of the time due to weather issues, especially during hurricane season in locations such as the Caribbean or Asia. If your vacation is scheduled to occur during hurricane season, and you have concerns about your trip being delayed or cancelled, it may be wise to at least obtain trip cancellation insurance. However, keep in mind you should purchase travel cancellation insurance as early possible. If a storm is already predicted or hurricane is named, you are too late to purchase the policy.

Travel insurance can also cover trip cancellation issues due to weather issues. If flight delays or cancellations occur due to winter storms or other weather issues, trip cancellation insurance may also cover those associated costs.  In addition, travel insurance can cover baggage loss or theft if your luggage does not make it to the destination.  In fact, these types of travel delays are more common than you think. According to Allianz, 13 percent (13%) of billing reasons for claims to them were for common carrier delays, such as flight delays. Weather and natural disaster related claims accounted for three percent (3%) of all billing claims. Lastly, costs tend to increase rapidly when things go wrong on a trip. Without significant emergency savings, you could be setting yourself up for a very dire situation. Travel delays could result in some costs that are not automatically paid for by the cruise line, including nonrefundable flights, prepaid resort or hotel notes, nonrefundable tour fees due to the cancellation, among other expenses and costs.  

The Miami-based cruise ship accident and maritime injury law firm of Delgado Trial Attorneys  possess a skill set that few other maritime attorneys can claim. Raul’s extensive experience representing the cruise lines and developing their defense strategies for years before bringing their skills and training to represent the passengers and crew members that suffered injuries because of a cruise line’s negligence. Combined with Raul Delgado, Sr.’s  45 years of personal injury experience fighting on behalf of injured accident victims, Delgado Trial Attorneys offers a combination of experience in all types of cruise ship personal injuries unlike any of their competitors. Our experience allows us to effectively strategize and advocate for every client we represent. We have handled all types of cruise ship passenger accidents over the years with a focus on slip, trip and falls, medical malpractice, FlowRider accidents, sexual assaults, Death on the High Seas, and more. Contact our law firm today for a free case evaluation. Virtual sign-ups available. Visit https://cruiselawyermiami.com/ to learn more.