Alaska cruise vacations are getting more and more popular in the U.S. and Canada. Of course, the best time to enjoy such cruises is during the summer. Alaskan cruises are either one-way or round-trip. The exact ports, including the embarkation and disembarkation ports, may vary based on the specific cruise line. But, typically, the cruise starts from either Seattle, Washington (United States) or Vancouver, BC (Canada) and on the other end, it is still Anchorage, Seward, Skagway, or another nearby port.
Round-trip cruises are typically 9 to 10 days, while a one-way cruise lasts around one week. Some round-trip cruises that are 6 to 7 days long only go halfway, such as to Ketchikan and back. Therefore, before making a booking, please make sure that the type of cruise that you want to go on is what you are getting.
Some Alaskan cruises also include stops on land at places such as Anchorage, Seward, Talkeetna, Denali, and Fairbanks. There is also a train ride from Fairbanks from Seward which is very beautiful. Such cruises are easily 12 to 14 days and offer the best that Alaska has to offer. Even though many options of travel suppliers are available, for a sea-plus-land cruise, Princess Cruises are the best as they have the best resorts and lodges available at every place. (Disclaimer: We have no affiliation with them.)
Even though going on an Alaska cruise can be a once-in-a-lifetime experience, there are many chances of things going wrong, and you should purchase Alaska cruise travel insurance to protect yourself.
Alaska cruise travel insurance can offer a wide variety of benefits, as listed below:
Trip Cancellation
An Alaska cruise typically costs much more than other cruises, such as Caribbean ones. On top of that, there are many expensive shore excursions that you may want to enjoy—such as a helicopter ride to the top of a glacier, dog sledding, an airplane ride to circle around the Denali, and so on.
In case you were to get sick or injured (or your family member were to pass away, or you get called for jury duty, or get laid off, or your house got flooded or caught on fire) sometime during or just before you were scheduled to go on your Alaska cruise, you would end up losing all the prepaid expenses related to your trip.
Travel insurance plans can help you get reimbursed for the insured trip costs in case of trip cancellation due to a covered reason. The sooner you buy the travel insurance, the better the chances that if anything goes wrong, you will already be covered.
Trip Interruption
While you are on an Alaska cruise, if you needed to cut your trip short and return home early due to any number of reasons (such as a family member passing away, your home being destroyed, getting injured and not being able to continue the cruise, or the cruise ship breaking down and not being able to finish the itinerary), trip interruption coverage in travel insurance would help pay for you to make alternate travel arrangements to go home early, as well as pay for the unused portion of your itinerary.
Emergency Medical Evacuation
Everywhere in Alaska is pretty much a remote place. Most of the cruises also pass through the “inside passage”. Therefore, if you were to get severely sick or injured while on your Alaska cruise, there are very high chances that proper medical facilities that can provide adequate care would not be available. Therefore, having a high amount of emergency medical evacuation coverage in travel insurance is very important.
Medical Expenses
Of course, Alaska is a state of the U.S. and very much part of the U.S. However, Alaska cruises take routes mostly through Canadian waters.
Your domestic health insurance may not have any coverage outside the U.S. Even if it does, it may have a very high deductible, coinsurance, and out of pocket expenses. Therefore, having a high amount of medical coverage in travel insurance is recommended. You should look at $100,000 or more in medical coverage.
Trip Delay / Missed Connection
Most people would be taking a flight either to Seattle, Washington in the U.S. or Vancouver, BC, in Canada to embark on the cruise, unless they are from that local area. Given the geographic location of both of these ports, it is quite possible that you would have a connecting flight.
For any reason, if your first flight leg were to be delayed and you were to miss your second leg, or even if you made it to Seattle or Vancouver but your gets into an accident or gets stuck in traffic due to construction work, you may miss the boat. Travel insurance can provide coverage due to such reasons.
In some cases, if the cruise needs to depart the next day due to bad weather such as rain or fog (very likely in Seattle area), you may need to pay for the extra night of hotel reservations and meals. Trip delay coverage can help pay for these expenses.
If you are taking a southbound cruise one-way, you would need to most likely fly into Anchorage, Alaska, and then take local transport to your cruise port at Whittier or Seward. As the Anchorage airport is quite busy and there may be weather-related delays, trip delay coverage in travel insurance is very important.
Financial Default
Even if everything goes well on your side, what if the cruise line or another travel supplier gets into financial default? Travel insurance can help you recover your prepaid nonrefundable expenses in such cases.