First Things First--Travel Insurance

 Good luck doesn't last forever. Good insurance does. ~ Plucked from a meme on Pinterest

When we were much younger and believed ourselves quasi-immortal, as all young people do, we never bothered with travel insurance. I always considered it betting against myself. 

I've given that ridiculous notion another think. 

Especially on our longer cruises, we've seen disasters happen to our fellow cruisers and despaired for them. The first was on our 30 day South Pacific cruise on HAL. A lady had a health emergency that required her to be put off the ship in Rarotonga, even though the seas were judged too rough for the rest of us to tender in to that port of call. From there, she was airlifted to Australia (about 3000 miles away!)

Our prayers went with her, and part of that prayer was that she had adequate travel insurance. The cost of emergency medical transport on the high seas can easily wipe out someone's life's savings.

Even the most healthy of travelers can have an accident. Lots of places we visit feature cobbled streets and uneven ground. One moment of inattention, taking a photo while still walking, and it's easy to go tail over tea-kettle. On our Viking WC, one of our fellow travelers lost her footing at the pyramids and fell, breaking her hip. She had to have hip replacement surgery. 

In Egypt.    

Medicare does not follow us beyond the US borders. Ditto for our supplemental insurance. If we are hospitalized outside the US, it's on our dime unless we have adequate travel medical insurance. 

And if you have a pre-existing condition, like I do with my NSIP (the least virulent of all the fibrotic lung diseases), a clock is ticking for complications from it to be covered by travel insurance. This waiver period is usually 14 to 21 days from the date of your first deposit on a cruise. In our case this time, because we had bought insurance for the Oceania voyage we later cancelled, we were able to transfer that coverage to our 2025 Cunard WC. I just had to call our carrier, give them the new details of our planned travel and policy was changed to cover us on Queen Anne & Queen Mary included travel to and from the embarkation/debarkation port. We are good to go.  

There are lots of different travel insurance companies out there and your travel agent can help you find a quote. There are plenty of options available, but here are the things we always look for:

• Trip cancellation (of course, we want our money back if we can't go for some reason)
• Trip interruption (in case of ...oh, something like a pandemic)
• $100K in primary emergency medical care (some insurance specifies that it provides secondary coverage. Remember, our US insurance will likely not work anywhere else, unless we happen to be visiting a US territory, so there is no existing primary when we're on the move. Our travel medical must be primary.) 
• $1,000,000 in medical evacuation and repatriation

But that doesn't keep me from wanting to wander!

There are usually a few extra bits and bobs included like flight delays, lost luggage compensation or coverage for car rentals, but we're mostly interested in not losing our travel investment, and being medically covered in case of accident or illness. And more than anything else, we want a way to get home if we need to. 

Even if that means coming home in a box. 

Morbid, I suppose, but it's a relief to know we wouldn't be burdening each other with that detail should the worst come to pass.

So...we've checked off the first box in planning for our 2025 Cunard WC. Our trip is insured and we can travel knowing we will be cared for if things don't go completely to plan. Our policy will be among our printed-out travel documents in case we need to make a claim. To date, we've never had to use any of the travel policies we've bought. Please God may that continue. 

But unlike my younger self thought, I'm not betting against myself. I'm gifting myself with peace of mind.