Canceling a cruise? Wondering if you’ll get your money back? How long it will take? Read a real life example here!
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If you’re going on a cruise and find yourself in an emergency situation where you will be unable to go on your vacation, it can be overwhelming.
Read this real life example of exactly what happened, the process of filing with travel insurance and the result to see if any money was lost.
If you did not get travel insurance, the first couple sections on exactly how I canceled my cruise will be the only relevant part to you. After that, this post will discuss how everything turned out with the travel insurance company.
It can be very confusing and stressful go to through this process. Read along for a step by step example.
This post is all about canceling a cruise.
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WHAT HAPPENED:
Why did I need to cancel a cruise?
Long story short, I had been having tons of heart palpitations all day long for seemingly no reason at all. This went on for over a week and was very scary as someone who is relatively healthy and only 27 years old.
I ended up going to urgent care just to get checked out. It was a weekend so they told me I should go get a couple tests done at the emergency room since nothing else is open on the weekend.
They also told me I should not go on my cruise since I would be either in the middle of the ocean or in Mexico.
I ended up deciding not to go to the ER and make an appointment with a cardiologist 3 days from then.
If something happened, I’d go to the ER but considering everything (I had private insurance that didn’t cover the ER so it would’ve costs me thousands) and what they would test for there, I decided to wait.
This ended up being the right decision and I met with the cardiologist a couple days later to start running several tests.
How did I cancel the cruise?
This cruise was with Royal Caribbean’s Adventure of The Seas.
We had gotten travel insurance thankfully through Royal so I knew I would probably get SOME money back, but was upset that I would potentially still lose hundreds.
I had never with the process of canceling a cruise before so I was extremely nervous.
Travel insurance cost:
I couldn’t call them to cancel over the weekend after I went to urgent care because their customer service was not open. I had to wait until Monday morning, which was the day the cruise was leaving.
That morning I called their customer service, which I cannot say enough good things about. Royal’s customer service has always been so helpful to me no matter what I have needed.
I explained to the agent that my cruise was departing today, I needed to cancel my cruise due to a medical reason and had travel insurance through them.
The agent canceled my cruise and said I should be refunded for some items. I wasn’t really sure at this time what I was going to get back, why, and what I’d have to file for.
At this point I had my mind on my health and figured I could work everything else out after it had been canceled.
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THE PROCESS:
Initial refund
The first thing I noticed was a refund to my credit card of two-thirds of the total balance for my cruise. This was given back to me in just a couple days from calling to cancel.
This was SO much faster than I thought it would be in comparison to what I had heard about canceling a cruise!
I was definitely still curious on if I was going to get the last portion of my money back from the cruise but had a big sigh of relief that I got back the majority already.
What I had to do to get the last portion refunded
I called customer service again another day and explained to the agent what I had already been refunded and asked what the next steps were to get the last portion of my money.
She informed me that I need to wait about 20 business days from my cancelation date to see if I get the rest of the money back. If that doesn’t happen she informed me I would need to file a claim with my travel insurance I got through Royal Caribbean.
What happened in the mean time
While I was waiting to see if I would receive my money back I met with the cardiologist. The ended up ordering blood work, a stress test, an echocardiogram and I also had to wear a heart monitor for a month.
Along with that I had an EKG both times I ended up going to the cardiologist. The urgent care had told me my EKG was irregular but the cardiologist informed me that they were both actually normal.
Filing a claim with travel insurance
I ended up not recieving any more money in the waiting period that the customer service agent told me about. After that, I then looked up the next steps with Royal Caribbean’s travel partner, AON Affinity.
I went on their website and started the claim process. They sent me an email stating I would receive the forms I had to submit to them within 2 days.
Upon reviewing the forms it said that treatment needed to be completed or a diagnosis had to be made before I should send the forms in.
I had to wait a couple months to run tests and then have my doctor fill out the forms for me.
Forms they required me to submit:
1. Confirm my name and address
2. Details about the trip
3. Patient’s medical information
4. Physician’s statement on treatment
5. All proof of purchase for the cruise, add ons such as shore excursions, drink packages, what I had already received back and what I was requesting money for still.
THE RESULT:
While this entire process did take a couple months, that was only because I was waiting for information from my doctor about my treatment plan.
The process of actually talking to customer service, requesting forms, submitting forms and getting an answer from the travel insurance company was actually extremely quick.
It’s important to note this isn’t always the case. I’ve seen tons of posts on cruise Facebook groups of travel agents stating how long and how much of a headache it can be to get an answer from these companies.
The company ended up emailing me back a week after I submitted the forms.
Final Answer:
I was denied for the “cancel for any reason” and get 100% of your money back via check.
Personally based on what happened and what my doctor wrote I didn’t think this ruling was right.
However, I didn’t want to fight them on this because they ended up giving me a future cruise credit for 90% through Royal Caribbean.
I recieved an email from Royal one week later with my future cruise credit. This is a credit that you can use within a year of when it was issued towards another cruise. They also sent some terms and conditions of the credit I have also included.
How much money did I lose?
All said and done between the refund to my card initally right after I canceled the cruise and then the future cruise credit I received after filing a claim with the travel insurance I only lost out on $60.
Which technially I only paid $58 for 2 people to get the insurance so I basically was refunded for everything except the cost of the insurance.
FINAL THOUGHTS
No matter if you’re going on a cruise or any other type of trip or vacation, you should ALWAYS get travel insurance.
It really is not worth it to chance your money, especially when you’re spending thousands of dollars when you can find affordable travel insurance options.
I am extremely happy I decided to get travel insurance for this trip (because I haven’t always in the past) and will get insurance for every single trip in the future because of this situation.
You might think if you’re young, healthy, nothing has happened on countless trips that it won’t happen to you but it definitely can.
The process of canceling a cruise, filing with travel insurance and getting my money back took some work but it wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be thankfully.
Hopefully this example helps if you ever have to cancel a cruise or any trip in the future. It can be an overwhelming process but you can get results if you follow through.
This post was all about canceling a cruise.
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