Should I buy my travel insurance thru the cruise line?

I do not really favor buying travel insurance thru the cruise line. In most cases what you get only covers cruise related travel, not the air going to or from the cruise. Also, for the cost unless you are well into retirement you can usually get far more comprehensive coverage thru a reputable travel insurance program. I personally like a couple of travel insurance programs with my overall favorite being the Gold Level plan offered thru Travel Guard.

The cruise line programs are backed by an actual insurance company, but it is one who does not regularly sell directly to the public. Instead they create programs customized for each cruise line. In many cases money back is in the form of future cruise credits which actually is more beneficial to the cruise line than the passenger. Other areas of concern with these policies, usually unless you specifically force payment of them before final payment, there is no coverage and no pre-existing condition coverage will be available when it is needed.

The limits on coverage for these plans are often very small. In fact one area I where I have big concern is medical evacuation coverage. They usually will only fly you to the nearest appropriate facility, not to a facility of your choice. That means they may not even fly you back to a US facility.  Also, the cost limits are such that depending on where you start and need to go the coverage may not fully pay for the medical evacuation.  Thus, even with insurance you could still have to shell out quite a bit of cash to get to an appropriate hospital and more to get home.

I’ve heard many people complain after the fact about how little was covered when they really needed the help.  This is of particular concern since the idea behind insurance is to have it there when needed, not to have it so limited that you only get partial coverage or worse find out many typical conditions are actually excluded from coverage. Of course only getting future cruise credit may depending on circumstances amount to no reimbursement at all.  Thus, I strongly recommend my clients both get travel insurance and that they get it and that they take true travel insurance from a reputable company as linked to above.