Cruises are as expensive as they are luxurious and protecting your cruise holiday with cruise insurance could be wise idea.
The best cruise insurance should aim to cover the higher risks and expenses that are exclusive to cruise travel. For instance, if you are confined to your cabin for medical reasons by the ship’s medical officer we will pay up to £25 per day up to a limit of £500 to reimburse this unforeseen incident.
If your public transport to embarkation point is delayed after you have allowed sufficient time to reach your destination then our cruise cover may reimburse you for reasonable travel and accommodation costs to reach your cruise’s next embarkation point up to £2000.
Crucially, the cover provided by cruise insurance is not just the extras you see advertised but often affects the entire policy. This means that any aspects of a normal travel insurance policy may not apply and be covered if you are on a cruise.
If you fall ill at sea then you may not be covered by standard travel insurance. This could potentially be an emergency helicopter out at sea with significant costs. Or it could be something as simple as protecting your personal property. Travel insurance will probably not provide its stated coverage if you are at sea.
Thankfully cruise insurance doesn’t need to be expensive. At Emerald the cost of a single trip cruise insurance policy for a couple aged 57 would be £31.24. That’s just an extra £10.42 on top of their standard policy. Cruise cover for the USA and certain other countries tends to me more expensive because of the higher medical costs in these countries.
With Emerald the cruise add-on would be £29.28 for that same couple. Nevertheless this reflects the price of costs should anything go wrong in a USA cruise and so could still be a valuable protection.
Here at Emerald as an ethical insurer we pride ourselves on being fair and clear when we sell policies. In our research into cruise insurance we found that several big insurers advertise cruise insurance but then lead customers to standard quote journeys in which the cruise cover may not be included. One insurer, despite providing a tick box for cruise cover early in the process, would give quotes and not draw attention to the fact that the cruise cover only applied to the higher level of cover presented.
Another big player included cruises in their standard travel cover but therefore missed out exclusive cruise extras like cabin confinement.