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Comparing cruise travel insurance

Taking a cruise is a great way to holiday, many people love the idea of waking up in a different place every day and enjoying life at sea. But there are a few things that could happen on a cruise that wouldn’t on a traditional holiday.

That’s why it’s useful to search for cruise specific cover when you’re looking for your travel insurance.

As you probably know, it can be essential to have travel insurance as it should protect you if things go wrong when you’re far from home.

What does travel insurance cover?

The main idea behind travel or holiday insurance is to cover you for cost of medical treatment abroad – which could go into thousands of pounds. It could also pay for you to be transported home in an emergency.

Policies do vary from insurer to insurer, but most should includeemergency medical treatment costs, including hospital charges and ambulance fees. They usually cover getting you home after medical treatment abroad, if you can’t use your original ticket. Often you’ll be covered for the costs of a friend or relative staying with you while you’re treated, or flying out from home to support you if needed.

Your policy can also cover you for the loss of your baggage or other possessions, and refund you if the trip has to be cancelled or cut short for some reason.

Isn’t that enough for a cruise too?

If you’re getting travel insurance it’s usually because you want to protect against unlikely - but serious - things that could go wrong on your trip.

So as there are some more things that could happen on a cruise, it might make sense to protect against these too.

Let’s talk about the kinds of things that you might want your cover to protect against. These are included in most policies but check your level of cover.

Missed port cover protects you if a planned destination visit is cancelled because of bad weather or timetabling. In others words, if you miss out on an island or city that you were looking forward to visiting, you will get some money back.

Cabin Confinement Cover means that you can claim a payment if you have to stay in your cabin due to illness. You would need to have been confined to cabin by the ship’s medical officer to claim.

Unused Excursions Protection should pay out if you miss an excursion because of an accident, injury or illness. This might only apply to excursions you choose at the point of booking your cruise, not ones you have booked since being on board.

Finally, a serious risk when you’re on a cruise is that you have a medical emergency and need to be taken urgently to hospital. Cruise insurance will allow for the costs of emergency helicopter transfers.

So how much will it cost you to buy cruise insurance? It actually depends on a few things, so the best way to find out what would work best for you is to run a travel insurance comparison.

Where are you going?

When you compare travel insurance you first need to decide if your policy needs to cover you just for Europe, the USA or Caribbean, or if you need worldwide travel insurance – you need to name the countries as part of the quote journey, so have your cruise itinerary handy.

Who are you taking?

Your cruise insurance could just be for you, or you could buy it as a couple, family or a group. If you’re including other people, you’ll need their dates of birth and information about any medical conditions they might have, to get an accurate quote.

How’s your health?

Insurers believe that if you have a health condition it could mean you‘re more likely to need medical help while you’re away. Because of this, some conditions might make your insurance more expensive but this isn’t always the case with all conditions.

It’s important that you list any medical conditions and give insurers all the information they need because, if not, you might be charged more by your insurer or not be covered. Should your insurer discover that the medical emergency on your trip was linked to a condition you already had, they could refuse to pay your bills or add a cost.

So to get you a list of quotes, we’ll ask you a few questions about your health and ask you to add in the names of any medical conditions.

Compare and save!

Next you’ll get a page full of travel insurance quotes. This are listed in price order with the cheapest travel insurance at the top.

You can also see the details and features of each policy – how well it’s rated by Defaqto, the levels of medical, baggage and cancellation cover and what excess you would pay if you did make a claim. You can filter your results to only show those over a certain limit, if you like.

To find out more about what is and isn’t included in the policies, click each one for more details.

Once you have found a travel insurance quote that suits your planned cruise, click the button to go through and buy. But do make sure you read all the details.

We hope you have a fantastic cruise and have no need to claim, but make sure you have the right cover, just in case