Carnival Cruise Lines to our military: Tough luck if your unit deploys

by Janice Hough on January 13, 2010

Does cruise insurance cover the military if they have to deploy? Surprisingly, the answer from Carnival was, “It is NOT covered.” Confirmed by two people at Carnival and two at the insurance agency, the policy would provide coverage if and only if he was deployed for a natural disaster, so presumably something like Tuesday’s earthquake in Haiti might qualify. But not for a war or act of war.

In today’s world that is a part of the policy that should be changed.

For Christmas 2010 I have a family group planning a Carnival cruise. Thirteen people are involved, including one father who is a long-time career military man permanently stationed in Honolulu.

At this point, his position has been stable for years and there are no plans to send him anywhere. But considering the uncertainty in the world, the family indicated that they definitely wanted to purchase insurance. Because besides the regular health issues, there is always a chance, if a slim one, that anyone in the military, or the reserves, can be sent to action in an emergency.

While it seemed like a no-brainer question, I asked Carnival, and their insurance agent BerkelyCare, if this situation was covered. (The cruise line has in fact always offered discounts to active military, although on the particular holiday cruise, the discount is not as good as the past-passenger rate.) Again, this is not a new recruit or someone returning from a tour of duty, but this is a Navy veteran who has been assigned to a post for many years.

Surprisingly, the answer was, “It is NOT covered” by Carnival’s cruise insurance policy.

Fortunately there are third party insurance companies that will allow travelers to purchase insurance, at a higher premium, that covers cancellation for any reason. And others, one Travel Guard Gold policy, for example, do specifically cover military deployment. (Although any readers needing to cover this contingency would be advised to call on their policy of choice, ask the specific question, and take down the person’s name giving the answer.)

In addition, some cruise lines offer two-tiered insurance, where for a higher premium more conditions and issues are covered. Still others will give a travel credit to clients who cancel for a any non-covered reason. But Carnival doesn’t pay anything in those situations.

The Carnival vacation protection plan does cover passengers for canceled cruises due to illness, job loss, and even severe weather. Yet “the greatest travel value protection program in the industry”, as Carnival calls their insurance, doesn’t consider being shipped overseas to fight in a war as a covered reason. I seldom make unequivocal statements in this blog. But this should be changed.

photo by Superstrikertwo of the Carnival Splendor on flickr.com – creative commons.

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Tagged as: BerkelyCare, Carnival Cruise Lines, military travel, Travel Guard, travel insurance

  • http://www.singleparenttravel.net John Frenaye

    Hey, the ships are not registered in the US, why expect then to cut a guy a break fighting for the US.

    The solution for this is as you said–third party insurance. While the cruise lines are relatively stable, most of the travel supplier “insurance policies” are not insurance at all but a cancellation waiver. Some have insurance attributes, but they typically will not cover supplier default since they are essentially self-insured.

  • SirWired

    John, as you said, the solution is indeed third party insurance. However, the cruise-line sold policies are indeed real insurance, sold by real insurance companies. No, they don’t cover supplier default, but they do cover many other things, and they are backed by the insurance company, not the cruise line.

    BerkleyCare is an Aon subsidiary.

    There are indeed cancellation waiver policies, but I think those are more common with airlines than cruise companies. Since an airline is just transportation, many of the services provided by a full travel insurance policy, such as medical care, don’t make any sense at all.

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