For years, my approach to buying travel insurance was scattershot. I didn’t understand insurance lingo and hadn’t really given much thought to what aspect of insurance coverage was most important to my family. Then my husband and I experienced “Honolulu Hell.”
Upon checking into our hotel after a Hawaii cruise, taken to commemorate our 15th anniversary, the bellman put our luggage on a van back to the airport instead of taking it to our room. The bags were never located. We lost clothing, cameras, iPods, work-related documents and all the photos we’d taken during our seven-night cruise! Luckily, our trip insurance policy made us whole — monetarily, at least. We are, to this day, devastated about the loss of our vacation photos. (Because it was such a special vacation, we went all out and did things we’ll probably never have the chance to do again. We may not have the photos, but at least we have the memories.)
After that experience, I thought about the myriad things — personal illness, cancellation of plans by a travel companion, airline delays, lost baggage or a cruise line going out of business — that could go wrong on vacation. In the future, I vowed to purchase travel insurance policies that would best cover our interests.
Many travelers have the attitude that “it will never happen to us” and choose not to spend the extra money on insurance for the unlikely event something will go wrong. But I’m living proof that bad things can happen to good cruisers. I’ve seen why it’s important to safeguard yourself and your cruise investment by purchasing travel insurance. After all, can any of us afford to throw away the investment we make each time we pay for a vacation?
Sometimes, purchasing insurance is a no-brainer because you want to cover easy-to-foresee issues. For example, your elderly mom has been getting sick more often these days, and it’s possible the illness will flare up and you’ll need to cancel your trip in order to stay home and care for her. Or, maybe you’re traveling to the Caribbean in September. A horrific storm could sidetrack your trip because, hey, it’s the peak of hurricane season. Or perhaps you’re traveling to an exotic destination that’s a once-in-a-lifetime splurge. You certainly can’t afford to lose all the money you paid months (even a year) in advance, should something prevent you from taking the trip.
Sometimes, though, trouble pops up in ways you’d least expect. In October 2010, Celebrity Century suffered damage to its rudder just two days into a 12-night Mediterranean cruise. Guests were dropped in Villefranche, France, where — to add insult to injury — they discovered that French transportation strikes were going to make getting home extremely difficult. While Celebrity eventually offered refunds, spending money for incidentals and compensation for airfare rebooking fees, its original offer was less generous. A travel insurance policy would have given the greatest protection to travelers in this situation — especially since you never know how much a cruise line will reimburse you.
With everything that could go wrong on the way to the cruise terminal or during the cruise itself, do you really want to chance it and go without travel insurance?
The ins and outs of purchasing travel insurance can be confusing at times. Over the next several posts we will cover everything you need to know to find the best policy for your next vacation, including:
- What Does Travel Insurance Cover?
- Does Everyone in the Group Need Insurance?
- What’s Not Covered?
- A la Carte Policy Additions
- Types of Travel Insurance
- Cruise-Line or Third-Party Insurance?
- When to Buy Insurance
- Real-World Examples
–by Andrea M. Rotondo, a New York City writer specializing in luxury cruise travel and romantic vacations She writes the Luxury Cruise Bible blog at www.luxurycruisebible.com.
