Seabourn Cruise Line Travel Insurance - 2024 Review

Seabourn Cruise Line is one of a growing number of cruise lines that provides luxury cruises for travelers wishing to sail on smaller ships. Seabourn provides intimate ships that have ocean-front suites with elegant living spaces, complimentary drinks, world-class dining, and optional excursions.

Seabourn offers travel insurance at the time of booking of your cruise with them. Their brand of travel insurance is called “SeabournShield”. In this article, we’ll review what SeabournShield covers and compare it to plans available on the wider travel insurance marketplace. That way, you can determine whether SeabournSheild is a good value for the money, and whether or not it meets your needs.

Our Seabourn Cruise: 14-Day Canary Island Jewels & Morocco

For our sample cruise, our sample couple, ages 55 and 60, chose a 14-day cruise aboard the Seabourn Ovation. The cruise sails from 4/9/22-4/23/22, departing from Lisbon, Portugal, and ending in Monte Carlo, Monaco.

The cost of the cruise totals $16,998 for both travelers. Conveniently, Seabourn offers the ability to purchase SeabournSheild at checkout.

If our two travelers chose to include SeabournShield with their booking, it’ll cost them a total of $1,478.70 for the travel insurance.

Is this a good deal? Next, we’ll look at how the cost of SeabournShield measures up to the competition.

Alternative Travel Insurance Options

TravelDefenders  recommends all travelers leaving the United States carry sufficient insurance in case of an overseas catastrophe. This saves you the heartache of paying for medical treatment out of pocket or a possible 6-figure transportation fee to return home in a worst-case scenario.

Therefore, TravelDefenders  advises carrying a minimum of $100k Medical Insurance, $250k Emergency Medical Evacuation, and a Waiver of Pre-Existing Medical Conditions whenever possible. This is the primary benchmark we use to determine if a cruise line’s travel insurance plan provides sufficient coverage.

Using the same trip details above, we ran a quote at TravelDefenders that produced 27 travel insurance plans to choose from. For this review, we compared SeabournShield to three plans available at TravelDefenders .

First, we compared it to Trawick First Class for $999.02, because it is the least expensive option that meets our minimum recommendations.

Next, we compared it to IMG Travel SE for $1,044.66, to highlight another option that meets our minimum recommendations.

Lastly, we compared it to Trawick First Class (CFAR 75%) for $1,698.33, because it was the least expensive plan that met our minimum recommendations that also includes Cancel For Any Reason.

Now, we’ll examine how the coverages compare between the four plans, side-by-side.

Benefit	SeabournShield Guest Protection Program	Trawick First Class	IMG Travel SE	Trawick First Class (CFAR 75%)
Trip Cancellation	100% of trip cost	100% of trip cost	100% of trip cost	100% of trip cost
Trip Interruption	100% of trip cost	150% of trip cost	150% of trip cost	150% of trip cost
Medical Insurance	$20,000	$150,000	$250,000	$150,000
Medical Evacuation	$50,000	$1,000,000	$500,000	$1,000,000
Baggage Loss/Damage	$3,000	$500/article, up to $2,000	$250/article, up to $1,000	$500/article, up to $2,000
Baggage Delay	$500	$400	$250	$400
Travel Delay (Incl quarantine)	$1,000	$1,000	$2,000 ($125/day)	$1,000
Missed Connection	No	$1,000	$500	$1,000
Cover Pre-existing Medical Conditions	No	Yes, if purchased within 14 days of deposit	Yes, if purchased within 20 days of deposit	Yes, if purchased within 14 days of deposit
Cancel For Work Reason	No	Yes	Yes	No
Interrupt For Any Reason	No	No	No	No
Cancel For Any Reason	No	No	No	Yes, if purchased within 10 days of deposit
Accidental Death & Dismemberment	No	$10,000 (24 hour) $25,000 (common carrier)	$25,000 (common carrier)	$10,000 (24 hour) $25,000 (common carrier)
Cost of Policy	$1,478.70 (8.7% of trip cost)	$999.02 (5.9% of trip cost)	$1,044.66 (6.1% of trip cost)	$1,698.33 (10% of trip cost)

At first glance, you can see that the plans we reviewed at TravelDefenders offer much higher limits for Medical Insurance and Medical Evacuation coverage. You’ll also see that the same three plans also cover Pre-Existing Conditions if purchased shortly after making your initial deposit towards the trip, whereas SeabournShield does not offer that coverage at all. Furthermore, SeabournShield does not offer the ability to Cancel For Any Reason.

Why are these coverages so important? Next, we’ll review these coverages more in depth.

Trip Cancellation

Trip Cancellation protects your travel investment by reimbursing 100% of your pre-paid and non-refundable trip costs if you must cancel your trip for a covered reason. As such, the more reasons a policy covers, the better.

Disappointingly, SeabournShield only covers five reasons for cancellation:

1. Your Sickness, Accidental Injury or death, that results in medically imposed restrictions as certified by a Physician at the time of Loss preventing Your participation in the Trip. A Physician must advise to cancel the Trip on or before the Scheduled Departure Date.

2. Sickness, Accidental Injury or death of a Family Member or Traveling Companion booked to travel with You, that results in medically imposed restrictions as certified by a Physician that causes Your Trip to be cancelled.

3. Sickness, Accidental Injury or death of a non-traveling Family Member.

4. You or Your Traveling Companion being hijacked, Quarantined, required to serve on a jury, or subpoenaed within ten (10) days of departure; having Your Home made Uninhabitable by Natural Disaster.

5. You or Your Traveling Companion being directly involved in a traffic accident (substantiated by a police report provided by You to the Company) while en route to departure.

With a comprehensive travel insurance plan found on the marketplace, travelers enjoy the best possible coverage without paying an unnecessarily high premium. These policies cover all the above reasons and more, including but not limited to:

• Your destination rendered uninhabitable or inaccessible by fire, flood, natural disaster, or vandalism
• A terrorist incident your destination
• A documented theft of passport or visas
• An unannounced strike causing a complete cessation of services
• Inclement weather causing a complete cessation of services
• Equipment failure/mechanical breakdown of the Common Carrier
• Involuntary termination or layoff
• Revocation of military leave due to war
• Bankruptcy or default of airline, cruise line, tour operator

In comparison, Trawick First Class covers 14 cancellation reasons, while IMG Travel SE covers 39 reasons, including if the US State Department issues a Level 4 (Do Not Travel) Advisory for your destination after the policy is purchased and within 30 days of departure. This is especially helpful coverage to have included in a policy during these uncertain times of Covid-19.

Trawick First Class (CFAR 75%) takes it one step further, by offering the flexibility and piece of mind that comes with being able to Cancel For Any Reason not otherwise covered by the policy, and still receive a substantial reimbursement of your trip cost.

Seabourn does not offer Cancel for Any Reason benefits in its travel insurance plan, which is a shame. Many travelers find the additional cancellation protection to be of great use.

Cancel For Any Reason

Cancel For Any Reason coverage is exactly what it sounds like – it allows you to cancel for any reason that’s not covered by the policy and still receive a reimbursement of your trip cost.

For example, suppose you are concerned about having to cancel your trip due to a border closure or because your destination country stops letting in travelers due to Covid-19. While these are valid concerns for cancellation, cancelling your trip for these reasons would not be covered under a Standard Cancellation plan, such as SeabournShield, Trawick First Class or IMG Travel SE.

However, a Cancel For Any Reason plan, like Trawick First Class (CFAR 75%), will allow you to cancel your trip for this reason and still be reimbursed 75% of your trip cost.

Many major cruise lines offer Cancel For Any Reason, which assigns a future cruise credit to the travelers if they cancel their cruise for any reason not listed on the policy. Surprisingly, Seabourn does not offer anything of the sort. While a future cruise credit is far from preferable, it’s better than nothing.

On the other hand, some third-party travel insurance plans, like Trawick First Class (CFAR 75%) have Cancel For Any Reason benefits built into the policy. Instead of offering future credit, the policy gives you a cash reimbursement for a portion of the trip cost.

However, Cancel For Any Reason has a few rules. The coverage reimburses 75% of your pre-paid and non-refundable trip costs, provided you:

• Purchase the policy within 10-21 days (depending on the policy) of your initial payment or deposit towards the trip. For the Trawick First Class (CFAR 75%), this timeframe, called the Time Sensitive Period, is 14 days.
• Insure 100% of your pre-paid and non-refundable trip costs, and add any subsequent payments to the policy’s trip cost within the Time Sensitive Period
• Cancel your trip no later than 48 hours prior to departure

Trip Interruption

Similar to Trip Cancellation, Trip Interruption reimburses you for the unused portion of your trip if you have a covered interruption. Covered reasons for Trip Interruption mimic those of Trip Cancellation.

For example, if you unexpectedly fell ill during your cruise and had to seek treatment off the ship for two days, that’s a covered Trip Interruption (along with a Medical Insurance claim).

In some cases, your Trip Interruption may allow you to return to the trip after missing a portion of it, as in the example above. Other times, you may have to return home early due to a family emergency. In the same fashion, a Trip Interruption could delay your arrival to the cruise.

In any event, travel insurance reimburses you up to your trip cost for the unused, pre-paid, non-refundable expenses for your travel arrangements, plus the additional transportation cost paid to either:

• Join your trip if you must depart after your scheduled departure date or travel via alternate route of travel; or
• Rejoin your trip from the point where your trip was interrupted or return home early

SeabournShield’s Trip Interruption covers up to 100% of your trip cost, while Trawick First Class, IMG Travel SE, and Trawick First Class (CFAR 75%) all cover up to a 150% refund. The extra 50% helps cover the added cost of transportation.

Trip Interruption coverage that exceeds 100% is a hallmark of a robust and comprehensive travel insurance policy.

Medical Insurance

One of the most critical elements of a travel insurance plan is proper Medical Insurance.

Many countries that we visit have subsidized or state-sponsored medical programs, these programs are almost always for the benefit of their residents, not for visitors. Visitors are usually sent to private medical facilities that can easily cost $3k-$4k per day. As such, suffering a serious illness or accident overseas can become very expensive.

It's important to note that Medicare does not pay for your treatment outside the US. In addition, many private healthcare plans only reimburse for emergencies. For example, although some Medicare supplements cover up to $50k of emergency treatment abroad, it’s a lifetime limit and you must pay a 20% co-pay out of pocket. These policies falsely lead you to believe you’re safely covered, but they leave your retirement savings exposed to the risk of a sudden, catastrophic financial loss.

Furthermore, the US State Department does not provide any medical support to Americans traveling overseas, which is why carrying adequate Medical Insurance is critical when leaving the country.

Thus, TravelDefenders  recommends each traveler carry at least $100k in Medical Insurance when leaving the US. This is enough coverage to assure you’re properly treated without paying off medical bills for years to come.

SeabournShield only covers $20k in Medical Insurance, which is woefully insufficient coverage for travel outside of the US.

On the other hand, Trawick First Class and Trawick First Class (CFAR 75%) includes $150k Medical Insurance, while IMG Travel SE offers $250k Medical Insurance. These levels of coverage are much better suited for seniors cruising outside of the US.

Medical Evacuation

Medical Evacuation coverage pays for transportation from the place of an injury or illness to a local hospital. Once you’re stable and the physician treating you determines it’s necessary, Medical Evacuation returns you home to the US for further treatment. If your condition is critical and you require ongoing care by a medical team to return home, an air ambulance might be most appropriate.

Private air transportation such as this can cost $15k to $25k per flight hour, therefore coming back to the US from overseas can get very expensive, very quickly.

Additionally, many travelers assume their private health insurance pays for Medical Evacuation so they can get home. In fact, private health insurance plans, including Medicare supplements, do not include Medical Evacuation benefits beyond a limited amount for a ground ambulance to the hospital. So, that medical flight cost comes out of your pocket and could cost as much as a house.

Because of this, TravelDefenders  recommends all travelers leaving the US carry a minimum of $250k Emergency Medical Evacuation coverage. Travelers venturing even further from home, to destinations such as Africa, Asia, or beyond, should carry a minimum of $500k.

SeabournShield only provides a $50k Medical Evacuation benefit. Meanwhile, Trawick First Class and Trawick First Class (CFAR 75%) have a benefit of $1m for Medical Evacuation, with the IMG Travel SE covering $500k. With these limits you can rest assured you’ll have adequate evacuation coverage without risking your retirement savings should you need to be airlifted back home.

Pre-Existing Medical Conditions

Coverage for Pre-Existing Conditions is a significant concern for many senior travelers.

A Pre-Existing Condition refers to an injury, illness, or disease of an insured, traveling companion, business partner, or family member, for which care, testing or treatment was given or recommended by a physician, within the 60-180-day period immediately preceding, and including, the purchase date of the plan.

Travel insurance does not pay benefits for Pre-Existing Conditions. It’s a standard, industry-wide exclusion. However, many policies offer a waiver that adds coverage for Pre-Existing Conditions back into the policy. Typically, these policies must be purchased within 14-21 days (depending on policy) from the date you place your initial payment or deposit towards the trip. This timeframe is called the Time Sensitive Period.

TravelDefenders  recommends travelers, especially seniors, purchase a travel insurance plan that covers Pre-Existing Conditions whenever possible.

SeabournShield does not offer a Waiver of Pre-Existing Conditions whatsoever but will automatically cover your condition if it is stable, older than 60 days, and controlled with medication.

Alternatively, all three policies we reviewed at TravelDefenders include a Waiver of Pre-Existing Conditions if purchased within the Time Sensitive Period. The Time Sensitive Period is 20 days for IMG Travel SE and 14 days for Trawick First Class and Trawick First Class (CFAR 75%).

There is no additional fee for the waiver, it’s just a matter of timing. If you wait too long to buy travel insurance, you lose out on the peace of mind that comes with the Pre-Existing Condition Waiver.

However, like the SeabournShield, these policies will still automatically cover your Pre-Existing Condition if the condition is stable, older than 60 days, and controlled with medication, even if you purchase outside of the Time Sensitive Period.

Conclusion

SeabournShield provides insufficient coverage in many areas. While it does have a strong insurance partner, the cost and low coverage limits are not beneficial, nor are they valuable to the traveler.

We spend a lot of money on cruises, and we sometimes book and pay for them months, or even over a year in advance. This investment needs to be properly protected, which would not be the case if you selected SeabournSheild.

Here’s why:

1. Such a short list of covered reasons for cancellation limits your ability to cancel your cruise and receive a reimbursement of your trip cost. Further, SeabournShield does not offer Cancel For Any Reason.
2. Inadequate Medical Insurance and Medical Evacuation coverage. Should you need to use either coverage in a worst-case scenario, you’ll risk getting left with a bill with such low coverages.
3. No coverage offered for Pre-Existing Conditions, which is a concern for many senior travelers.
4. High cost for lack of coverage offered

Overall, we rate Seabourn a 6 out of 10.

Visit TravelDefenders first to see your options before committing to the first travel insurance policy you’re offered. You’ll find more value for your money working with us.

Did you know you won’t find lower prices on the same policy anywhere else, not even with the insurance company directly? At TravelDefenders , we take the nation’s top travel insurance carriers and bring them in our marketplace where you can shop and compare different plans.

Have questions? Stop by and have a chat, send an email, or give us a call at +1(786) 321 3723.

Safe travels!