Insurance Awareness Day exists to remind you that things go wrong, and that generally, it’s a good idea to have a backup plan. If you are like most people, you have health insurance, life insurance, and house or apartment insurance. We'll talk about Travel Insurance in this post and suggest why it is a good idea to consider it before traveling.
Expect the Unexpected
I'd like to make a few
suggestions to anyone planning a cruise
vacation. Similar considerations go for other (land) vacations as well. As the title suggests, one should plan for the
unexpected in advance so that the situations I describe, should they
occur to you, would not ruin your vacation or at the very least you
would have assistance before, during, and after the vacation.
Situation 1 - Weather Impacting Departure for Cruise
If
you've been watching the news lately, I'm sure you've watched in horror
as flood waters washed homes away, houses were destroyed in minutes by
tornados, and various other disasters that are going on across the
world. We always like to think that this can't happen to us and
hopefully that is the case. Unfortunately situations like these do occur
and no one is exempt from the possibility.
What does
this have to do with cruising you might ask? Well, if that were your
home, or if you lived in that neighborhood, odds are that you wouldn't
be able to depart on schedule for your cruise. Several possibile
situations come to mind from roads being blocked, airports being closed,
flights delayed, family members injured during the storms. All of these
would most likely prevent you from arriving in the cruise departure
city prior to the ship sailing.
Suggestion 1 - Leave Early
I've
said this many times before, but it bears repeating: Plan to arrive in
the embarkation port the day before your cruise (domestic cruises) and
at least the day before your cruise (overseas cruises).
Assuming
that you are flying to the embarkation city, you can either book
airfare with the cruise line or on your own. In most cases, I suggest
that my clients book on their own since they have full flexibility and
can often save money (perhaps using frequent flier miles, or finding
special pricing). I'm more than happy to assist them either way.
That's
not to say that you can't use frequent flier miles or get good prices
through the cruise line, but you will have to make arrangements through
the cruise line's "custom air" department. In some cases, there may be
extra fees to tailor your flights to your schedule. The "non-custom" air
arrangements typically arrive the day of the cruise which doesn't
provide any room for delays.
We've personally had many occasions where we arrived the day before the cruise, so we didn't have any issues.
However, our return trip was delayed as many as 4 hours due to weather. Had that
been the day of the cruise, we could have missed the ship (assuming it
was on the same day as ship departure).
Suggestion 2 - Purchase Trip Insurance
In
the above example, depending on the length of the delay and other
factors, had you missed the ship your insurance may have provided
assistance in rejoining the cruise or reimbursement for unused portion
of the trip.
If your house had been damaged or if a
family member had ended up in the hospital, due to the storm as
described above, the trip cancellation clause of the insurance policy
may have come into play providing some financial relief.
Insurance policies vary, so you need to read the policy and compare them to your needs.
Situation 2 - Injury During Cruise
The following situation
DID occur to one of the passengers on one of our cruises and we have been on many other cruises where similar situations occured.
The
ship sailed on time, we had dinner and had gone to the welcome aboard
show. The captain came on the loud speaker system and made an
announcement. The ship was turning around and returning to New York
because there was a medical emergency onboard. It was necessary to get
closer to New York so that the passenger could be transferred to a
hospital onshore.
From what we can gather, the injury
wasn't life threatening but it required medical attention that could
best be provided in a hospital. The passenger was transferred from the
ship to a hospital by the U.S. Coast Guard.
A medical
evacuation is a very expensive procedure - often costing tens of
thousands of dollars. These costs are typically not covered by your
personal health insurance policies and could have a very negative impact
if you had to bear the cost yourself.
I'm not trying
to scare you out of booking a cruise. In fact, these situations I
describe could happen any day and on any vacation. I hope that the
cruise specialist, or other travel consultant that you work with,
recommends insurance to you and that you seriously consider purchasing a
policy. Besides the financial protection, there is the intangible
benefit of having someone to turn to in the time of crisis. The majority
of the policies available offer a 24 hour assistance line.
- You have to cancel your trip due to an
unexpected event such as bad weather, an illness in the family or the
financial default of your airline, cruise line or tour operator.
- You have to return home early due to an unexpected emergency such as an illness or death in the family.
- Your luggage is lost or delayed, forcing you to purchase necessary essentials, or prescription medications.
- Your luggage or personal effects are damaged or stolen.
- You become ill or injured and learn that your health care plan doesn't cover you outside the U.S.
- You need an emergency medical evacuation due to an accident or sudden illness.
- You run into flight delays and miss a portion of your trip or cruise.
- Your trip is interrupted due to an unexpected hurricane or storm.
- You lose your passport, leaving you stranded abroad.
- You need assistance with replacing a prescription or an emergency cash transfer.
Plan for Unexpected - Leave Early, Purchase Travel Insurance, Enjoy Your Cruise
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