Is Cruise Travel Insurance a Good Idea for You?

Cruise lines hate to give refunds. Because most cruises are booked several months or more in advance, people worry about losing their money if they are unable to take their cruise. The list of things that people worry about interfering with the cruise ranges from travel problems, to illness, to family emergencies such as a death of a relative. In the mind of the traveller, cruise travel insurance would seem to be the solution to allay these fears. This is especially true for the first time cruiser.

Cruise travel insurance is not cheap.

Many years ago, even a low end cruise was extremely expensive. A family would have to invest thousands of dollars for even a brief cruise. As the industry has become more prolific and competitive, prices have fallen dramatically. When prices were high, paying a hundred dollars or so for cruise travel insurance seemed like a small additional expense to protect your vacation investment. However, with prices for some cruises falling only a few hundred dollars, the insurance now seems somewhat pricey. If you take a short cruise with an inside cabin, you may only spend about $1,000 for the family cruise. To add another $300 to $500 on to this cost just for insurance begins to seem to not worth it.

You need to read how cruise travel insurance works before purchasing it.

Cruise travel insurance is designed to cover a very narrow range of cancellation reasons. Car trouble, traffic jams, and minor illness will not usually get you a refund. Airline delays are often excluded unless you have purchased an and sea package through the cruise line. Some insurers even draw the line more narrow than this. You must also be able to give proof to verify your reason for making a claim. Cruise insurance does not mean that now you will not have to worry about whether you make it to the port or not. The fine print is important. Make sure that you understand it before making the purchase.

Travel agents and cruise lines want you to buy insurance.

Whether you use and independent travel agent or book through the cruise line itself, you need to be aware that when you purchase cruise travel insurance someone earns a commission. This means that both sellers have incentive to persuade you to buy the insurance policy. This might be construed as a conflict of interest, but it happens nonetheless.

You still might want to buy cruise travel insurance.

If you are taking an upscale cruise, cruise travel insurance might still be a good option for you. Like any other insurance policy, you will pay out a little to remove some of the financial risk from your vacation or travel. For people who obsess about such things, cruise travel insurance can be a good way to help you sleep at night even if it does not make good financial sense for your specific cruise. If you know that you have a situation that could cause you to miss your cruise and it fits the guidelines, purchasing the policy would be a good idea.