Cruise lines often offer travel insurance during checkout, but it is important to understand that they are not actually providing the coverage themselves. They are selling a third-party insurance product, usually with a convenience markup. That does not automatically make it bad, but it means you should compare it with other options before adding it to your booking.
Before buying cruise insurance, check whether you already have coverage through your credit card. Premium travel cards, such as the Chase Sapphire Reserve, offer strong built-in protections including trip delay, trip interruption, trip cancellation, lost luggage reimbursement, emergency medical evacuation, and accidental death benefits. If you pay for your cruise with a card like this, you may already have many of the protections you would be paying for through the cruise line.
Another key factor is your health insurance. Medical care onboard ships and in foreign countries can be expensive, and not all insurance plans cover care outside of your home network. Some plans provide out-of-network or international coverage, while others do not. Knowing what your health plan will or will not pay for is important before deciding if you need supplemental medical or evacuation coverage.
Some travelers opt for annual travel insurance policies, especially if they cruise or travel internationally multiple times per year. This can be cost-effective, but you still need to check that the coverage is meaningfully better than what you receive automatically by paying with a premium credit card. There is no point in paying for an annual policy if the limits and benefits are the same, or weaker, than what you already have for free.
Cruise-line-sold insurance can be convenient for people who want a simple, one-click solution, especially those who do not have strong credit card benefits or extended health coverage. However, it is not automatically the best or cheapest option, and the protections are not guaranteed to cover everything you might assume. It also tends to focus more on trip cancellation rather than robust medical evacuation, which is where costs can truly escalate.
Overall, travel insurance can be valuable for a cruise, but the key is to look at what you already have first. If your credit card and health plan already provide meaningful protections, you may not need to buy anything additional. If they do not, or if you want higher limits and more comprehensive medical coverage, a third-party policy that you shop for independently usually offers more flexibility and better value than simply purchasing whatever the cruise line suggests.
As a general rule, take five minutes to compare coverage before clicking “buy.” You may already be covered, you may need supplemental protection, or you may want a more robust policy than the cruise line’s default offering. The smart move is to understand your benefits before paying for something that duplicates them.
