Booking a cruise works differently than booking a traditional vacation.
While buy-now-pay-later enables passengers to space out payments for all sorts of travel, cruises have always offered that option. Generally, to book a cruise, you put down a deposit and then can either pay over time or make a lump-sum payment to close out your bill.
In all cases, cruises post final-payment dates. That's the hard-and-fast day by which you must complete payment in full or lose your deposit.
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Before final payment, you can generally change your cruise dates or even switch to a different ship. Once you reach the final payment, however, you lose the ability to cancel your cruise or get your price adjusted if the cost of the cruise drops.
In a broad sense, unless you purchase travel insurance, or specifically booked a fare that allows changes after the final payment — something that's rarely offered — if you make your final payment, you are locked in.
This point is the subject of a warning to passengers from Carnival Cruise Line's (CCL) -) brand ambassador, John Heald, in a recent post on his popular Facebook page.
Image source:Carnival Cruise Line
Carnival's brand ambassador posts a warning
Many cruisers don't realize that cruises can't be canceled or changed after they've made their final payments. That's likely because many airline tickets and hotel reservations come with more generous change policies, where people can at least get credits for trips they can't take.
That's not how it works with Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and any of the other major cruise lines. On his Facebook page, Heald outlined situations where people end up not being able to cruise.
"One of the saddest, most gut-wrenching parts of my job is when people write that they have been ill, lost a loved one, or been involved in an emergency situation at home. They have therefore had to cancel their cruise. They ask me, they beg me to help them reclaim their money because, well, they didn’t have insurance," he wrote.
When that's the case, neither Heald nor any other cruise-line representative can do anything to help.
"Responding to them is always so hard and many times even though their posts contain angry words and personal attacks I know they are writing through sadness and high emotion. Nevertheless, it really does tug at my heartstrings," he added.
Heald then made a plea to passengers.
"I hope I am not out of place then to say please, if you can, purchase travel insurance. It will never happen to me...until it does," he wrote.
How do you purchase cruise travel insurance?
Both Carnival and Royal Caribbean sell insurance as an option when you book your cruise. Read what you're getting carefully, but usually the insurance covers cancellations due to health emergencies, deaths in the family, and weather causing you not to be able to get to the port.
Policies vary, however, so it's important to read your policy to know what's covered.
Many cruisers also use third parties to purchase insurance. One of those, Allianz Cruise Insurance, explained how a policy can protect passengers on its website.
"If the ship sails without you because your flight to Miami was delayed, cruise insurance can help you catch up," the company said. "If you break your leg and have to cancel your trip, the cruise line won't reimburse you — but travel insurance can. And if you suffer a medical crisis on board, cruise insurance can cover your evacuation and emergency medical care."
Third-party insurers generally offer single-trip and annual insurance options for people who travel (not just cruise) frequently.
Anyone who books a cruise using a travel agent can generally discuss options with their agent, who may offer their own insurance partner.
Heald's warning should be heeded. Nobody expects a medical or any other sort of emergency, but they do happen. If one happens to you and you don't have insurance, you could lose thousands of dollars, or in the case of an onboard emergency, incur thousands of dollars in medical bills.
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