There are two big questions you need to answer about travel insurance to get started.
Do I want it and where do I get it?
The smart answer to the first question is "Yes, I want it" Travel insurance, like auto insurance, is something you hope you'll never need but chances are someday you will. What makes travel insurance such a debated issue is that you can indeed cruise without it while you don't really have a choice on auto insurance, it's required by law. Personally I think you need to look at your particular situation before deciding NOT to buy it as buying it is the safe bet.
We did not buy travel insurance for our first 5 cruises. We were all in good health and it seems that health issues are one of the big coverage points. It's true, to be evacuated from the beach at Playa Sol in Cozumel by chopper is expensive. Insurance would cover it. Everything went fine for us so I believed we had made the right decision.
On our 6th cruise we decided, more on a whim, to buy travel insurance. Again we didn't use it. But we ALMOST did. Lisa was diagnosed with cancer shortly before the cruise. It was decided that she could wait till after the cruise for the surgery that was needed. Had she needed to go in for surgery and NOT made the cruise, we would have been covered. I was sold on travel insurance.
The second question, where to get it, is another part of your cruise equation that requires some study and investigation to be sure that your coverage is good and the price is reasonable. The easy way out is to buy it through the cruise line or your travel agent. They all have policies they'd love to sell you and they might have just the thing you need.
I suggest full coverage Travel Guard Travel Insurance as the a great value that covers all the bases. The reason I recommend Travel Guard is because they are good about paying claims. I work with about one client a week who is filing a claim for the first time and know from personal experience that Travel Guard makes them jump through less hoops to get it done than others. They all want documentation of everything but TravelGuard is quite helpful in getting the ball rolling and processing the claim quickly once they have all the information they need.
TIP: If you ever have to be treated for a medical condition anywhere along your covered vacation, be sure to get documentation signed by the medical professional who treated you. That is the most common slow-up. All the insurance companies want that and it's harder than you might imagine to get a doctor to sign off on his treatment of you in London when you're back home in Chicago.
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