Help- ?'s About Third Party Travel Insurance

[Lil' Lori]

Hello everyone. I was reading a thread about a cruise gone wrong, even though the person had travel insurance through the cruise line. Tom and the other cruise gurus suggested third party travel insurance. Can you talk about why 3rd party insur is best vs. through the cruise line. Also, my husband and I are going to the Galapagos and Machu Picchu on July 29th for almost 3 weeks. The travel company is Gap Adventures, who National Geoghrapic Traveler recommended. They require mandatory evacuation and repatriation insurance. We will have to show proof of this insur on the first day of the trip. Has anybody heard of SOS International, I found them on the web. Does anyone have any companys they would recommend? Any info/advice is appreciated. Thanks, Lil' Lori

[Cruise Specialist]

Lori, I cannot say that I have heard of SOS, but I can answer why it might be better to get 3rd party insurance...

A few years ago the Premier Cruise Line (Big Red Boat) went banckrupt, they were served a Seize & Desist order at one of the ports of call, all the passengers were told to immediatley disembark the ship and this left them on their own to get back to the USA..the ones who bought 3rd party insurance were able to re-coup their losses, but those who had bought the cruiseline insurance, of course, lost out since the company went bankrupt, the insurance was not any good either. Sometimes it is better to purchase the 3rd party insurance, but some cruiselines make it hard for you in a case of flying and traveling and purchasing everything from them in a package, they won't help you if you do not carry their insurance, but then again, even if you did, there is no guarantee that they will help you in a travel situation such as missed flights etc....

[NancyN]

Hi Lori,
I cannot say I have ever heard of SOS either, but Tom has researched and written a great article on buying insurance and his recommendation for third party insurers (which I definitely agree with). Here's the link:
http://www.cruisereviews.com/Insurance.htm

Hope that helps,
Nancy

[Lil' Lori]

Hi Carol and Nancy. Thanks for the link to Tom's review of 3rd party insurance. That will be the only way I go from now on. I saw a full page ad in Budget Travel Magazine for a company called "Medex". They have an extensive website. Have either one of you, or anybody else heard of them, or used them?? Is anyone willing to recommend a insurance company. Tom recommended one in his link. Does anyone else have anyothers they use? Thanks for the info. Lil' Lori

[joeyanddavid]

Hello
Third party Insurance, is invaluable to protect your vacation investment.
With the soaring costs of vacations, some cruises will set you back a few thousand at least. To protect your interest is at the utmost.
We used a clearing house website to find insurance for our Mediterranean Cruise for next October. It gave us options as to the amount of coverage’s and what type of coverage’s we desired.

When purchasing insurance be sure to ask to look at whether or not the insurance is state specific. In our situation we looked for a company that adhered to all of California laws. We are registered Domestic Partners and wanted to make sure that we were in fact considered as immediate family as far as insurance terms, in case there was a need for that over seas.

The web site we used was http://www.insuremytrip.com
Good luck I hope this helps!