Cruise Travel Insurance

Some cruise insurance policies will cover travellers up to the age of 65, but others have no age limit.

Keep in mind that the older a policyholder is, the more they can expect to pay for their insurance premiums as older travellers are viewed as higher-risk and therefore more likely to make a claim.

As with any type of travel insurance, the best time to take out a policy is as soon as a holiday is booked. Cover will start immediately meaning the policyholder will be protected should an emergency cause them to cancel their trip.

It’s important to have specialist cruise travel insurance even for cruises around the UK. Cruise insurance will cover you, protecting you from financial loss, if the cruise is delayed or cancelled, for example, or if your travel plans are disrupted due to illness once onboard, so it can offer extra peace of mind.

To run quotes for cruise insurance online, the policyholder will need to provide details such as their holiday destination. Insurance for destinations outside of Europe tends to cost more, with the most expensive policies covering the US, Canada and the Caribbean, and depending on the insurer, Mexico and Greenland. This is because medical costs are usually higher at these locations.

You can get individual cruise travel cover, cover for a couple, a family or a group policy.

If you’re travelling as a group, the price of the premium will be determined by the age and health of everybody within the party. So for any passengers with pre-existing conditions or those in an older age group it could be more cost-effective to take out individual policies instead.

Most cruise insurance travel policies now provide claims arising due to Covid. But policy terms and conditions, exclusions and limits vary between insurers so read the small print and compare levels of cover.

It is important to list all the countries you’ll visit as part of your cruise as insurers need this information to accurately price your cover.

To get the best deal on cruise insurance, travellers can shop around and compare quotes versus levels of cover.

Bear in mind that the holiday destination can affect the price of a policy. Travellers will pay more if they’re visiting countries with more expensive healthcare systems, for example the USA and the Caribbean, and Hong Kong or – within Europe – Spain, Greece and Cyprus.

The time of year you travel on your cruise can also have a big impact on the cost of travel insurance.  This is often due to higher demand at different times of the year. For example, the premium price for a cruise to the Caribbean in December can cost twice as much as cover for the same cruise taken in April or May.

Yes, cruise travel insurance can be taken out for an ocean or a river cruise.

Consumers have rights when they travel by sea with compensation for delays and cancellations. Note this is not the case if you’ve booked your cruise as part of a package holiday. In this instance the rules for compensation will fall under ABTA’s code.

Under maritime passenger rights you should be given refreshments after a 90 minute delay, where this is possible.

If a ferry is delayed by 90 minutes or more, you should be offered either re-routing to your destination or a refund. If your ferry is delayed or cancelled and you cannot be re-routed to your destination – and the delay is not due to bad weather or to ensure the safe operation of the vessel – then you should be offered overnight accommodation. This is subject to a limit of £70 per night and for a maximum of three nights.

In some circumstances passengers will also be offered partial refunds if a ferry is late arriving at its destination.