Celebrity Cruises Travel Insurance - 2025 Review

Celebrity Cruises is one of the most recognized names in cruise lines and has a long list of awards over the years including 2020 Travvy Award for Best Premium Cruise Line. Celebrity Cruise Lines strives to provide the traveler with the best vacation possible, and they care about sustaining the environment and leaving the world a better place. Their luxurious accommodations invite you to “revel in stylish design.” Onboard experiences include world-class entertainment, state-of-the-art fitness and wellness centers, casinos, and much more. Their partnerships with renowned chefs earned them the 2020 WAVE Award for Best Onboard Dinning.

Celebrity offers more than 300 destinations on all seven continents.

Sample Cruise Itinerary

For our example, we chose an 8-day cruise that departs from Athens, Greece, and travels to Italy and Spain before returning. Cruise dates chosen were 10/03/2022 – 10/10/2022. Travelers are two adults aged 55 and 60. The cruise price is $3,609 per person for a total of $7,218.

As airfare is purchased separately and pricing can greatly vary, this review includes only the cost of the cruise, instead of total trip cost including airfare.

Comparison Quotes

Celebrity offers CruiseCare Travel Protection as an add-on to your cruise booking. It contains insurance and non-insurance benefits. Their current program is administered by Aon Affinity (Affinity Insurance Services Inc.), and some coverages are underwritten by Arch Insurance Company. Although Arch is a strong insurance partner, the overall CruiseCare Program is not a strong travel insurance plan due to low coverage limits.

Based on our sample couple, ages 55 and 60, we created comparison quotes using AARDY’s travel insurance marketplace engine. The trip cost used for the comparison is the cruise cost for both travelers $3,609 per person for a total of $7,218.

When traveling outside the United States, we recommend a minimum coverage of $100,000 in Medical Insurance, $250,000 in Medical Evacuation, and a Pre-existing Medical Condition Waiver. We used these criteria to choose the selected quotes.

The least expensive plan with adequate coverage on our quote from AARDY is the Trawick First Class. We will compare this plan to the CruiseCare plan that Celebrity currently offers.

This Trawick policy allows for cancellation for the most common reasons such as: unforeseen illness, accidental injury, or death of a family member. This is also the case with Celebrity’s CruiseCare plan. However, some travelers want the ability to cancel for any reason without forfeiting their entire investment. A Cancel For Any Reason (CFAR) policy allows the insured to cancel for reasons not listed and still receive something in return. Trawick’s CFAR offers a 75% cash refund, while Celebrity’s CruiseCare CFAR offers a 90% refund, but only in the form of future cruise credits. It’s also important to point out that Trawick allows you to insure all the pre-paid, non-refundable expenses (which can include airfare, tours and excursions, etc). Celebrity will only cover the cruise portion of your travels.

The Cancel For Any Reason (CFAR) policy that we chose for this comparison is the Trawick First Class (CFAR 75%). This is the most affordable CFAR policy that also contains the medical coverage limits that we recommend. In our example we compare this plan to the Celebrity CruiseCare Protection Plan (with CFAR).

Next, we broke down the benefits of each policy in a side-by-side comparison.

Benefit	Celebrity CruiseCare Protection Plan	Celebrity CruiseCare Protection Plan (with CFAR)	Trawick First Class	Trawick First Class (CFAR 75%)
Trip Cancellation	100% of cruise cost	100% of cruise cost	100% of trip cost	100% of trip cost
Trip Interruption	150% of cruise cost	150% of cruise cost	150% of trip cost	150% of trip cost
Medical Insurance	$25,000	$25,000	$150,000	$150,000
Medical Evacuation	$50,000	$50,000	$1,000,000	$1,000,000
Baggage Loss/Damage	$1,500	$1,500	$500/article up to $2,000 per person	$500/article up to $2,000 per person
Baggage Delay	$500	$500	$400	$400
Travel Delay (Incl quarantine)	$500	$500	$1000 per person	$1000 per person
Missed Connection	$300	$300	$1,000 per person	$1,000 per person
Cover Pre-existing Medical Conditions	Yes, if purchased within 14 days of deposit	Yes, if purchased within 14 days of deposit	Yes, if purchased within 14 days of deposit	Yes, if purchased within 14 days of deposit
Cancel For Work Reason	No	No	No	No
Interrupt For Any Reason	No	No	No	No
Cancel For Any Reason	No	90% of cruise cost (cruise credit only)	No	75% of trip cost
Accidental Death & Dismemberment	No	No	$25,000	$25,000
Cost of Policy	$485.00 (6.72% of trip cost)	$805.00 (11.15% of trip cost)	$354.20 (4.91% of trip cost)	$602.14 (8.34% or trip cost)

Cost Comparison

Overall, Celebrity’s CruiseCare Travel Protection plans are insufficient. They provide only a fraction of the recommended limits of $100,000 in Medical Insurance, and $250,000 in Medical Evacuation. Also, Celebrity Cruises does not offer a Pre-existing Medical Condition Waiver, which would waive the 60-day Look Back Period that their plans require. Their CFAR policy only provides a cruise credit valid for one year instead of a refund option. It’s also important to consider that Celebrity’s plans will only insure the cruise portion of your trip, not your flights or other pre-paid expenses.

By shopping for cruise insurance through AARDY, our two travelers can save anywhere from $130.80 - $202.86, which could be applied to airfare, additional tours, or shopping.

In the following sections, we discuss what to look for when shopping for travel insurance for your Celebrity cruise.

Trip Cancellation

A significant concern for travelers is Trip Cancellation. If you became ill or had an accidental injury prior to your departure date, you may have to cancel your travel arrangements, resulting in financial losses. This makes Trip Cancellation a valuable feature if you’re keen on protecting your financial investment.

The trip cancellation offered in the cruise insurance is a non-insurance benefit, which means that Celebrity Cruises offers the coverage and pays any claims, not an insurance provider. Their plans permit cancellation for the following reasons:

• Unexpected injury, illness, or death of traveler or family member.
• Residence uninhabitable by natural disaster, fire, flood, burglary

Unfortunately, Celebrity’s list of cancellation reasons lacks some important coverages. We recommend policies that also include:

• Default or bankruptcy of the common carrier or travel supplier
• Cancel For Work Reason (traveler required to work during the trip)
• Employer-initiated transfer of 250 miles or more
• Destination uninhabitable or unreachable by fire, flood or natural disaster
• Mechanical breakdown of a common carrier
• Traveler involved in accident en-route to departure
• Mandatory evacuation
• Hurricanes
• Documented theft of passports or visas
• Jury duty, or subpoena.

Celebrity CruiseCare Travel Protection will provide a full refund if you have to cancel for a covered reason, but their Cancel For Any Reason policy only provides a 90% refund in the form of a future cruise credit. Also, their protection plans do not cover any travel arrangements booked outside of your cruise.

Both the Trawick First Class policy and the Trawick First Class (CFAR 75%) policy can cover all travel arrangements, regardless of where you booked them. In addition, they both offer a 100% refund for covered Trip Cancellations, a 150% refund for covered Trip Interruptions, and a broad list of covered reasons, including cancelling due to contracting COVID.

Trip Interruption

A Trip Interruption is a situation during your trip that causes you to miss some or the rest of your vacation. It’s like Trip Cancellation but happens during your travels.

The most common trip interruption is the injury or illness of a traveler. If you had an injury or illness on your vacation but can continue traveling after treatment, trip interruption reimburses the unused portion of the trip, and the cost to rejoin the trip in progress.

Trip interruption also includes a family member who had a sudden grave illness or passed away. If your covered situation requires curtailing the trip and going home early, Trip Interruption also reimburses for the unused portion of the trip, plus the added cost of going home early.

In the Celebrity CruiseCare Travel Protection insurance policy, Trip Interruption benefits include up to 150% of the total trip costs if you interrupt due to a covered reason. That amount includes reimbursement of unused trip costs plus the added cost of transportation home.

Travel insurance plans like the Trawick First Class also offer 150% of trip costs for interruption. Therefore, they cover up to 100% of the unused costs, plus up to an additional 50% to cover transportation costs to return home.

Cancel For Any Reason

Cancel For Any Reason cruise insurance provides the highest level of flexibility and reimbursement if you must cancel your trip for any reason not covered by the policy.

If you cancel your Celebrity cruise for a reason not listed in their policy, they grant future credits for 90% of the prepaid, non-refundable cancellation fees paid to them. Credits expire after one year, are non-transferrable and not redeemable for cash. Celebrity, not their insurance policy, provides this part of the CruiseCare Travel Protection. When it comes to refunds, we always prefer cash since future credits may not be used.

Alternatively, travel insurance policies like Trawick First Class with Cancel For Any Reason included pay a 75% cash refund of all prepaid, non-refundable trip costs including arrangements made outside of Celebrity Cruises. This could include flights, hotels, rental cars, excursions, and transfers.

Cancel For Any Reason policies have several stipulations:

1. Purchase the policy within 10 - 21 days (depending on policy), of your initial payment (ITP) or deposit date,
2. Insure 100% of the prepaid trip costs subject to cancellation penalties or restrictions. For additional prepaid non-refundable payments made after the purchase of the policy, insure within 10-21 days (depending on policy), of each subsequent payment added to your trip, and
3. Cancel your trip 2 days or more before your scheduled departure date.

Medical Insurance for Emergency Treatment

One of the most important factors in selecting trip insurance is having adequate Medical Insurance when you travel. Anything can happen, including accidental injuries or sudden illness.

If you have a medical emergency when traveling and don’t have proper medical insurance coverage while overseas, you could find yourself with huge, unexpected hospital bills. Many Americans mistakenly believe countries with universal health care will treat them for free. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

Instead, Americans receive treatment at private hospitals, not public, and must pay like anyone else. Admission for inpatient care can cost $3,000-$4,000 per day, plus the cost of treatment, x-rays, surgeries, and specialists.

A common misconception is that Medicare will pay for hospitalization overseas.  Unfortunately, they won’t. Medicare does not pay providers outside the US. Some Medicare supplements do cover overseas, but have lifetime limits or reduced benefits, and pay for emergencies only. They can still require you to pay 20% of the costs. As a result, you could go on vacation and end up with medical bills in the thousands.

AARDY urges overseas travelers to take travel medical insurance of at least $100,000 per person. In a medical emergency, $100,000 provides ample health care and helps protect your retirement savings from unexpected financial burdens.

Celebrity CruiseCare Travel Protection provides a $25,000 benefit for Medical Insurance that would cover illness or injury. Trawick’s First Class policy includes $150,000 of medical coverage per person, so you can receive proper treatment without ending up in debt.

Emergency Medical Evacuation

Medical Insurance isn’t the only potentially expensive part of a trip. Emergency Medical Evacuation transports you from the place of injury or illness to the closest hospital. Once you’re stable enough for transport, Medical Evacuation brings you home via commercial flight or, if necessary, private medical jet.

Medical flights can cost up to $25,000 per hour and regular health insurance does not cover it. In addition, the US State Department does not offer any medical treatment or evacuation assistance for US citizens. AARDY advises travelers to get at least $250,000 Medical Evacuation to assure there’s enough coverage to get them back home from almost anywhere if they experience a serious medical event.

Celebrity CruiseCare Travel Protection includes Medical Evacuation up to $50,000 per person.  However, the Trawick First Class plans both provide $1,000,000 per person for Medical Evacuation, so you can feel secure knowing you have adequate coverage to transport you back home if needed.

Pre-existing Medical Conditions

A significant concern for senior travelers can be pre-existing medical conditions. A Pre-Existing Medical Condition is one in which you’ve received medical treatment, testing, medication changes, added new medications, or received a recommendation for a treatment or test that hasn’t happened yet. Most travel insurance policies exclude pre-existing conditions unless you purchase the policy within the required time-period from your initial trip deposit date (called the Time Sensitive Period). Otherwise, the insurer will look backward 60, 90, or 180 days (depending on the policy) from the date you purchased the insurance to see if there are any pre-existing medical conditions they won’t cover. This is called the Look Back Period. Any medical conditions older than this Look Back Period, unchanged or stabilized with no medication dosage changes are covered, as are any new conditions that arise after you purchase the policy.

If you must cancel, interrupt, or seek medical treatment for a medical condition while traveling, travel insurance policies typically exclude claims related to Pre-existing Medical Conditions. However, if you purchase the policy within a few days of your Initial Trip Payment or Deposit date, many policies add a Waiver to the policy that covers Pre-existing Conditions. As a result, there is no Look Back Period and Pre-existing Conditions are covered.

The CruiseCare Travel Protection covers Pre-Existing Conditions provided that:

• Your payment for this plan is received within the Time Sensitive Period (14 days of Initial Trip Payment) and
• You insure 100% of the cost of all Travel Arrangements that are subject to cancellation penalties and
• You or the individual with the Pre-Existing Condition, are not disabled from travel at the time You make Your payment for this plan, and
• Trip cost per person does not exceed $15,000 per person

The Trawick First Class policies also cover Pre-existing Medical Conditions, and the same 14-day Time Sensitive Period applies. Additionally, the Trawick policy does not have a cap on the trip cost.

Price and Value

Celebrity’s CruiseCare Travel Protection plans carry minimal coverage and are more expensive than other available options. The medical insurance is only $25,000, while medical evacuation is only $50,000, which may not be adequate for a serious illness or injury. Cancellation reasons are limited and adding the Cancel For Any Reason option substantially increases the cost of the insurance yet only grants future cruise credits that expire after a year. Overall, it offers limited value for the price.

In contrast, by comparison shopping, we found the standard Trawick First Class policy comes in at $354.20. It includes superior medical and evacuation benefits, 100% refund for trip costs for covered cancellation, 150% refund for covered trip interruption, and a robust list of cancellation reasons.

Choosing the CruiseCare Travel Protection plan with Cancel For Any Reason didn’t provide any better value. Their Cancel For Any Reason option will only provide a 90% cruise credit for up to one year. Again, by comparison shopping, we found the Trawick First Class (CFAR 75%) policy for $602.14. It includes $150,000 medical insurance and $1,000,000 medical evacuation. Plus, it includes a Cancel For Any Reason provision that refunds 75% of trip costs back in cash, rather than future credit. It has superior coverage over Celebrity’s policy at a more affordable rate.

Conclusion

Celebrity’s CruiseCare Travel Protection plans provides travelers with a minimal insurance policy for a high cost that could leave travelers unpleasantly surprised during an emergency. Medical coverage and medical evacuation limits are low, and there are a limited number of covered cancellation and interruption reasons, as well as insufficient trip cost reimbursement. Though they have a strong partner in Celebrity, the insurance itself is rather weak. Overall, we rate it a 7 out of 10.

Travelers planning a Celebrity vacation will find the best value for their money and peace of mind when they shop for travel insurance at AARDY Travel Insurance Marketplace. There, you can review dozens of options and select the best policy to fit your needs.

To help you find the best policy, AARDY recommends having at least $100,000 in travel medical coverage and $250,000 emergency medical evacuation when traveling within 2-3 hours of the US, and $500,000 for further locations. And, if you purchase the policy within the 14-21 days of initial trip payment, please consider a travel insurance policy with the pre-existing condition waiver included to ensure the most coverage for your money.

If you are planning a Celebrity cruise in 2022, be sure to pack insurance before you travel. You never know when you may need it.

Have questions? Chat with us online, send us an email at agent@aardy.com or alternatively call us at (650) 492-6298. We would love to hear from you.

Safe Travels!