Celestyal Cruises Travel Insurance - 2024 Review

Celestyal Cruises for 2022

Celestyal Cruises pride themselves on being “the number one choice for cruise travelers who wish to explore the Greek Islands and Eastern Mediterranean.” Based in Greece, Celestyal Cruises focus on immersive cultural experiences. In the past 7 years Celestyal have won over 60 major travel awards. There offer special packages for themed cruises, group cruises, and also for solo cruising. They also have all-inclusive offers that include on-board entertainment, onshore excursions, and a menu of international and Greek dishes.

Celestyal’s ships (Experience, Olympia, and Crystal) are considered in this day and age to me medium sized, which means they can visit ports that many of the larger cruise ships cannot access.

Sample Cruise Itinerary

To be able to determine the quality and price of the travel insurance offered at check-out by Celeystal, we need to set off on a sample cruise.

For our example, we chose the “Idyllic Aegean from Thessaloniki,” which is a 7-night all-inclusive cruise. This cruise visits the ports of Kusadasi, Rhodes, Crete, Santorini, Mykonos, Milos, and Athens. Cruise dates chosen were 11/11/2022 – 11/18/2022. Our two travelers are two adults who are aged 55 and 60. The cruise price starts at $1,250 per person, but after taxes and upgrade fees the price came to $1,659 per person. The total cost for both travelers is $3,318.

Since airfare is purchased separately, the cost of such travel expenses cannot be insured through the travel policies offered by cruise lines. For this reason, our comparison review only includes the cost of the cruise, instead of all pre-paid, non-refundable expenses associated with the trip. You will of course wish to protect each part of your vacation, so if you are heading off on a Celestyal cruise, if you select their own travel insurance plan, you will need a seperate plan for the flights, transfers and any other expense not covered by Celestyal.

Comparison Quotes

Celestyal Cruses offers travel insurance through a partnership with Allianz Global Assistance. Travelers can purchase policies at checkout. They currently offer three options, or plans. The basic plan (Complete) has medical insurance, medical evacuation, and baggage loss. The mid-range plan (Plus) has the same coverage as the basic, but it also adds rather limited cancellation benefits and personal liability cover. Finally, the Premium plan includes the same benefits as the Plus, but it also includes increased medical limits.

All three policies are underwritten by Allianz who are a quality insurer. Unfortunately, the Celestyal plans provide very weak coverage versus other plans available in the wider travel insurance marketplace. Also of note is that the benefit is in Euros, not in US Dollars, which are subject to currency exchange rate changes. In addition, the plans are subject to the laws of Greece, not the United States. If you have a problem with the plan when you return home, you will be fighting in a non United States jurisdiction. As a result, we feel that the program lacks the stronger consumer protections required in the United States. In addition, we feel that all three plans are needlessly confusing.

Based on our sample couple, ages 55 and 60, we created comparison quotes using TripInsure101’s travel insurance marketplace engine. The trip cost used for the comparison is $1,659 per person for a total of $3,318.

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 if at all possible. We used these criteria to choose the selected quotes.

The least expensive plan with adequate coverage on our quote from TripInsure101 is the Trawick First Class. We will compare this plan to the Complete plan that Celestyal currently offers.

This Trawick policy allows for cancellation for the most common reasons seen in comprehensive travel isurance plans, such as: unforeseen illness, accidental injury, or death of a family member. The Complete plan offered by Celestyal Cruises does not offer any cancellation coverage.

However, even though the most common reasons for cancelling a trip are covered by every TripInsure101 policy, some travelers also want the ability to cancel for any reason whatsoever without forfeiting their entire investment. This is where a Cancel for Any Reason (CFAR) policy allows the insured to cancel for reasons that are not listed in the policy and still receive a 75% cash refund. 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). As mentioned above, Celestyal’s plans will only cover the cruise portion of your travels, meaning if you wanted to insure the other parts of your trip, you would need to take out an additonal policy anyway. Surely it's best to have just one policy that provides greater cover for all the parts of your trip at a lower price than that offered by Celestyal.

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 Celestyal Plus plan, even though it does not have CFAR.

The easiest way to see the plan benefits against one another is to set them out in a simple table. This allows you to see which plans offer you the best value for money and policy coverage, so you can make the right buying decision for your trip. Here is our side-by-side comparison:

Benefit	Celestyal Cruises Complete Plan	Celestyal Cruises Plus Plan	Trawick First Class	Trawick First Class (CFAR 75%)
Trip Cancellation	No	1,500 Euro Limit ($1,742.78 USD)	100% of trip cost	100% of trip cost
Trip Interruption	No	100% Only for new illness* or accident	150% of trip cost	150% of trip cost
Medical Insurance	150,000 Euros shared with Evacuation ($174,250.50 USD)	150,000 Euros shared with Evacuation ($174,250.50 USD)	$150,000	$150,000
Medical Evacuation	(see above)	(see above)	$1,000,000	$1,000,000
Baggage Loss/Damage	700 Euros shared with baggage delay ($813.17 USD)	700 Euros shared with baggage delay ($813.17 USD)	$500/article up to $2,000 per person	$500/article up to $2,000 per person
Baggage Delay	(see above)	(see above)	$400	$400
Travel Delay (Incl quarantine)	No	No	$1000 per person	$1000 per person
Missed Connection	200 Euros	200 Euros	$1,000 per person	$1,000 per person
Cover Pre-existing Medical Conditions	No	No	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	No	No	75% of trip cost
Accidental Death & Dismemberment	No	No	$25,000	$25,000
Cost of Policy	$111.60 (3.36% of trip cost)	$405.00 (12.21% of trip cost)	$182.49 (5.5% of trip cost)	$310.23 (9.35% or trip cost)

Cost Comparison

Overall, it is clear to see that the Allianz plans offered through Celestyal Cruises are insufficient in terms of coverage and expensive in price for what they offer. They provide only a fraction of the recommended limits of $100,000 in Medical Insurance, and $250,000 in Medical Evacuation. Also, Celestyal Cruises does not offer a Pre-existing Medical Condition Waiver, which would waive any look back into your medical history. Additionally, it’s important to consider that Celestyal’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 TripInsure101, our two travelers will receive far greater protection at a much better value. This savings could be applied to airfare, additional tours, or shopping. More importantly, the policies offered through TripInsure101 provide the support and protection you need when your health, finances, and safety are on the line. The plans on TripInsure101 are also government by the laws in the United Stated, not Greece. It’s true that you might not ever need to use your travel policy, but we encourage you to purchase a plan that would provide the coverages you’d want in the event of that worst-case-scenario.

In the following sections, we discuss what to look for when shopping for travel insurance for your Celestyal 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 most common reasons for cancellation are covered with every policy TripInsure101 offers.

However, Celestyal Cruises travel insurance is quite different.

First, only the Plus and the Premium plans allow cancellation. There are only two covered reasons for cancellation: injury, illness, or death of the traveler; hospitalization or death of a family member. The illness causing cancellation must be new. It doesn’t cover the injury or illness if it is a Pre-existing Medical Condition as defined by Celestyal Cruises. Additionally, the plans restrict illness cancellation to travelers under the age of 75. Any traveler 75 or older is not eligible for illness-related cancellation. We feel this is very strictive and could leave you in a position of having a claim denied and then losing your holiday investment.

Also, Celestyal cruises defines Family Member as a spouse or minor children living at home. That definition is as narrow as possible and far narrower then any travel insurance plan offered by TripInsure101. Most American travel insurance policies include extended family such as brothers, sisters, parents, grandparents, adult children and grandchildren, nieces, nephews, uncles, aunts, step-family, and in-laws.

Keep in mind, 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. While most travelers recognize the significance of cancellation protection, many don’t realize that trip interruption is just as important.

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.

While American travel insurance covers 10-20 reasons for interruption, Celestyal Cruises permits only one: if your trip ends early due to the traveler’s covered illness or injury. Keep in mind, it won’t pay if interruption is due to a pre-existing illness or injury, and if age 75 or higher, illness (even if new) is not covered. The more one reviews the coverage levels versus the Trawick plan, the more one can see that the Celestyal plans are not good value for money and have woefully insufficient coverage.

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.

Unfortunately, Celestyal Cruises does not offer Cancel for Any Reason (CFAR), even as future cruise credit like many cruise lines do. Whilst we are never a fan of a cruise operator providing a benefit in future cruise credit instead of cash, it is at least some form of benefit, but here there is no CFAR benefit whatsoever.

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, but this is not the case. Another 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.

TripInsure101 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.

Celestyal cruise insurance offers up to 150,000 Euros for medical treatment, but it’s an aggregate limit shared with emergency medical evacuation. Because that limit is not exclusive to medical treatment, it increases your risk of financial loss.

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.

The Medical Evacuation coverage offered by Celestyal Cruises is lacking in many ways. The Medical Evacuation amount is shared with Medical Insurance. Even if it were standalone, 150,000 Euros is not enough to get you home after a health catastrophe. In contrast, each of the Trawick policies offered through Aardy will pay up to $1 million per person for Emergency Medical Evacuation.

Additionally, the Medical Evacuation offered by Celestyal Cruises only covers transportation to a hospital. It does not cover the cost of returning you home after a medical emergency.

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. Both Trawick policies will cover Pre-existing Medical Conditions.

In contrast, Celestyal Cruises travel insurance does not cover any Pre-existing Medical Condition for medical treatment or cancellation and offers no Waiver. Even more problematic, Celestyal Cruises trip insurance defines a Pre-existing Condition as: Any serious or recurring medical condition which has been previously diagnosed, or been investigated or treated in any way, at any time prior to travel, even if this condition is currently considered to be stable and under control.

Price and Value

Celestyal Cruises travel insurance plans carry minimal coverage. The medical insurance and medical evacuation coverages are shared, and the limits may not be adequate for a serious illness or injury. Cancellation reasons are limited, and only offered on the more expensive plans. Cancel for Any Reason (CFAR) is not an option in any of Celestyal’s plans. Overall, they offer limited value for the price.

In contrast, by comparison shopping, we found the standard Trawick First Class policy 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.

Conclusion

Celestyal Cruises travel insurance plans provide travelers with minimal coverages for a high cost, and that could leave travelers unpleasantly surprised during an emergency. Medical coverage and medical evacuation limits are shared (and low), and there are a limited number of covered cancellation reasons. Though they have a strong partner in Allianz, the insurance itself is rather weak. Overall, we rate it a 6 out of 10.

Travelers planning a cruise with Celestyal will find the best value for their money and peace of mind when they shop for travel insurance at TripInsure101 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, TripInsure101 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 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@TripInsure101.com or alternatively call us at +1(650) 397-6592. We would love to hear from you.

Safe Travels!