This morning I came across an article about the different types of travel insurance and their pros and cons. It is important to consider what type of travel insurance you are purchasing before determining if it is right for you.  There are two main types of travel insurance: cancellation insurance and medical insurance.  Cancellation insurance will protect you should you have to cancel your Disney vacation due to illness, injury, death in the family, loss of your job or other covered reasons. Cancellation insurance is the most common type of travel insurance.  Medical travel insurance is designed to supplement your health insurance should you become sick or injured on your vacation.  This type of coverage is geared more towards those travelling to exotic destinations where local health care options may not be desirable or for adventure travel. 

 ”Should I opt for the travel insurance or save the extra $134?” is a frequent question guests have when booking their Disney vacations.  Ask yourself a few questions and do some checking before you purchase.

• What am I looking to cover?  Just cancellation or am I travelling during a time of year where I may need trip interruption or travel delay coverage? For example, during hurricane season or from a location with potential for snow or ice delays.
• How much am I out-of-pocket if I have to cancel?  With a Walt Disney World vacation package, even if you were to cancel the morning of your scheduled arrival, your maximum non-refundable cost would be $200 on your vacation package.  You may have other expenses such as cancellation or change fees with your air carrier.  This is a different scenario for Disney Cruise vacations.  After your final payment, cancellation penalties begin and a last-minute cancellation can have you forfeiting the entire cost of your vacation. 
• Does anyone in my family have a pre-existing condition that may prevent us from travelling?  Don’t consider just your travel party but also family members remaining at home who you may have to stay home to care for should they become ill.  If anyone has a preexisting condition, make sure you purchase your travel insurance as soon as possible after your deposit. Most companies will waive the preexisting condition clause if insurance is purchased right away.
• What sort of coverage do I already have?  Your homeowners insurance may cover lost luggage and the credit card used to pay for your vacation may provide some degree of coverage as well.

Another tip is to compare different vacation insurance policies.  You can find the coverage available for Walt Disney World vacations and Disney Cruise Line vacations at the links here.  Compare those options to other popular policies at insuremytrip.com. Just be sure to include the entire cost of your trip including all package components, air fare and transfers.  Don’t be tempted to round down to get into a cheaper coverage “band.”  Doing so may invalidate your entire claim should anything happen on your trip.

Are you planning a cruise vacation?  If so, I definitely recommend that you purchase vacation insurance of some sort.  Make sure that the policy has good covereage both for cancellation and for medical evacuation. In the event you have something serious happen on board, the insurance will come in handy should you need to be medically evacuated from the ship mid-sailing. On my honeymoon cruise, a table-mate had to be lifted off due to a medical issue. They were travelling with another family who remained aboard and were telling us that they were thankful they purchased the insurance as the evacuation would have cost several thousand dollars had they not!    Also keep in mind that while vacation insurance may cover the missed time on your cruise, it can’t guarantee that you make it to port on time should you experience travel delays on the way!  This article has a great suggestion of arriving a day early for your cruise to make sure you don’t miss the “all aboard” time!

See ya real soon!

Lori Hardegree
Magical Memories Travel
lori@magicalmemoriestravel.com