Top 5 Reasons NOT to Have Travel Insurance for Your Next Cruise!

Top 5 Reasons Not to Have Travel Insurance for Your Cruise

A cruise is always a big splurge, and cutting insurance cost is the easiest way to save some bucks. Here are five reasons to stand by that decision:

1. Your Trip is Fully Refundable

   The best thing to have in this world is a trip that is fully refundable with 100% cashback. Rare, but we’re told they exist. If you’re able to book one such cruise for yourself, then you definitely don’t need travel insurance. Because why protect money which you can get back entirely? 

   Of course, the small fine print that doesn’t seem important usually has other plans. Most cruise fares turn non-refundable, while others arrive as future cruise trips' refunds, which aren’t quite how you paid. 

   So, if you want to actually protect your hard-earned money, you can get travel insurance with cruise cover. But if you can actually cancel and get all your money back, then you can save a little money by not paying the travel insurance premium. 

2. You Can Risk Spending Lakhs on Medical Emergencies 

   Nothing goes wrong at sea. Not even health. So you can easily skip travel insurance and simply hope that nothing goes wrong medically. After all, what could happen when you’re thousands of kilometres away from a hospital?

   A cruise definitely offers medical facilities, but this treatment comes with a cost (which is always extremely high). Based on where you are on your cruise journey and how you need to be evacuated, your bill can run into hundreds and thousands of dollars. 

   So, yes. If you want, you can take a risk of increasing your travel budget to twice or thrice its original amount if you have that much amount in your emergency fund. Because paying for a helicopter ambulance makes more sense than paying for travel insurance. 

3. You Won’t Mind Paying for Passport and Luggage Replacement 

   Why bother insuring luggage and a passport when you can easily replace them? All you would have to do is fill out forms, get all your documents ready and stand in line for hours. All this in a port city which isn’t even your country. You now have a chance to spend part of your holiday figuring out what to do in case of passport theft abroad.

   Travel insurance can cover your eligible losses related to baggage, baggage delays and lost travel documents. But if you are perfectly happy paying for a new passport, the cab fare to Indian Embassies abroad and handling the paperwork all alone, by all means, skip the cover.

4. You Think Domestic Cruises are Risk-Free

   ‘What’s the point of having travel insurance if I am just cruising within India?’ - This is a valid question. Because if you aren’t leaving India, not getting your passport stamped, why should you pay for travel insurance?

   Well, you could always pay out of your pocket if you need medical care onboard or need to be evacuated from the cruise. You could simply hope that your cruise sails smoothly and your body does too. If it does, great. If it doesn't, that relaxing little Mumbai–Goa getaway could still come with an unexpectedly expensive bill.

5. Assuming Cruise Line Protection Programme is Enough

   The cruise line has offered you a protection programme, so why complicate things with another policy? Because you've got protection. What could possibly go wrong? 

   The small detail is that cruise line programmes can have lower coverage, several limits and exclusions from standalone travel insurance. Some may focus on cruise cancellations or interruptions without providing the same level of medical, evacuation or baggage protection. 

So, Is Travel Insurance Worth Skipping?

If your cruise line programme is offering you what you need, a separate policy may not be necessary. And it might. You should read the document and see what coverage it can give you during your cruise. If it doesn’t, that’s your sign to get travel insurance with cruise cover. 

It can reimburse your eligible trip cancellations, missed sailing, medical expenses for up to $250,000 and any itinerary changes, depending on your policy. It covers sudden illness and even provides coverage for your emergency evacuation at sea, which is where the bill gets biggest.