Where to look

The following site represents 14 different insurance companies, many of the same ones used by travel agents. It even includes companies in England and Sweden.

It's the best place I know to compare cruise travel insurance policies, their costs and coverage: www.insuremytrip.com

Trip cancellation & trip interruption

Is either a real possibility?

Yes, always, for many reasons. To be honest, I never bought cruise travel insurance until recently. Now I won't leave home without it.

Because of what happened while I was on a cruise though it wasn't the Caribbean.

I was on the land portion of an Alaska cruise, checking my bags at the counter in Fairbanks, Alaska, early on the morning of 9/11.

All flights were grounded before I received my ticket stub.  I was stuck in Fairbanks for a week before I could get a flight out.

This was a dramatic and unusual trip interruption but virtually anything could happen anytime, anywhere, even in the normally tranquil Caribbean.

Hurricanes

During the summer of 2004 when hurricane after hurricane wracked the Caribbean, some people understandably didn't show up for their cruise. 

They thought their cruise line would be understandable and either refund or let them take a cruise at a later time.

Didn't always happen. Quite a few people were stuck with the entire cost of a cruise vacation they never made.

Illness or injury

And what happens if you or a family member becomes ill? Or there's a traffic accident on the way to the cruise port and you miss the ship?

Or you're injured while on your cruise and need medical attention? Will you have insurance to be treated locally -- or to be medically evacuated back home if necessary?

If you have an elderly relative who is not well, what will you do if they become ill just before your departure? Cancel or cruise?

Lots of questions and considerations. Hopefully you'll never need your cruise travel insurance, but if you do, it could be the best investment you've ever made.

A consumer reporter speaks . . .

Greg Dawson, the consumer reporter for the Orlando (FL) Sentinel, has dealt with so many complaints about cruise line refunds that he penned this New Year's advice for shopping smart:

To always buy cruise insurance because the cruise lines are more merciless than Scrooge and twice as cheap.

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