Poor Man’s Cruise Insurance Primer

You have several options when it comes to insuring your next cruise:

  • Self insure with what you have
  • buy the insurance or waiver plan offered by cruise line
  • buy 3rd party travel insurance plan

Self insure with what you already have. At the very least you should check to see if your regular health insurance covers you where you are traveling to. If you can afford to lose your entire prepaid investment if you have to cancel last minute then thats self insuring as well. If you like to feel a sense of uncertainty or like living on the edge and not insuring adds a touch of anxious excitement, then by all means self insuring is probably your best option.

Buying the insurance or waiver plan the cruise line offers is another option, although I recommend getting familiar with what coverages these plans offer. Its easy enough to do, it might even be included in your purchase or easily added on in the course of purchasing your cruise. The problem here is the perceived sense of having coverage where little or none exist and not giving it much thought other than “I purchased cruise insurance, therefore I’m covered”. Do yourself a favor, take the extra 5 minutes or so and read what you are getting – chances are the coverage is thin at best and you could get a better plan cheaper from a 3rd party insurer.

The final option is to purchase a 3rd party travel insurance plan. These plans can offer more coverage at a lower price than what most cruise insurance/waiver plans offer. The problem here is that there are alot of plans to choose from and choosing the right plan could make the difference between having coverage or not. Travel agents only offer 1, maybe 2 companies and a total of 3 to 4 plans if you are lucky, and more often than not these are the premium plans that might give you too much coverage that you don’t need.

Personally I do not recommend the first option, since I like to take as much of the worry out of travel as possible. The second option might be a good fit, its hard to tell since every cruise line has their own plan and they can vary widely in what they cover. At least skim over the plan wording and see if you are comfortable with it, and even if you are its worthwhile to see what other options are out there. Of course the quickest way to do so would be to get a travel insurance quote with us.

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