FAQs: Cruise travel insurance benefits

When generating a Cover-More travel insurance quote – the first step in buying our cover – you will be asked if you are travelling on a sea or ocean cruise for two or more nights (This is not required for cruises that remain within Australia New Zealand Internal Waters, the Territorial Sea of New Zealand or for travelling on a river cruise ). An additional premium will be applied to your policy and the Cruise Cover benefits will be available once the premium is paid and the Certificate of Insurance issued. 

To buy cover for a domestic cruise in New Zealand, enter or select “DNew Zealand” as the destination in the quote box.

To buy cover for an international cruise, select the country or countries as your destination, and answer the cruise question when prompted.

Before protecting your trip with our Cover-More cruise insurance benefits, please read the Policy Wording to ensure our product is right for you.

At Cover-More, we recommend you purchase travel insurance as soon as you’ve booked your trip to help protect against incidents before you even leave home.

If you include a level of cancellation cover on your policy and have told us you are going on a sea or ocean-going cruise for two or more nights, and have paid the additional premium, the cancellation benefits will apply to your cruise as well.

For information on our optional cancellation cover, please read the Policy Wording.

You can also get a quote online now.

No. For cruise benefits to apply, your travel insurance policy must include our Cruise Cover and must be purchased before you leave home. This also includes before you catch any flights or transportation required to get to your departing port.

To find out how much it costs to include our Cover-More cruise insurance benefits in your travel insurance policy, get a quote online now.

When generating your Cover-More travel insurance quote, you can select multiple destinations under “Where are you going?”. 

Then, when prompted, you must answer yes to the question around travelling on a sea or ocean-going cruise for two or more nights, and pay the additional premium, for the cruise cover benefits to be applied to your policy for cover while you’re on board a cruise.

If you need further assistance with protecting your multi-country cruise, call us on (0800) 500 225.

There are some scenarios when you don’t need to tell us you are going on a cruise of two or more nights. If you are:

• travelling on a river cruise
• not travelling on a cruise ship on the sea or ocean
• on a cruise for only one night
• only taking a ferry trip
• only cruising in New Zealand or international rivers (e.g. on the Murray River, the Rhine or the Danube River)
• sailing (note: sailing is not covered in international waters)

…then our Cruise Cover is not required.

Cruise ships do offer medical assistance, but the medics are only there to stabilise your condition.

If you require urgent medical attention, you may need to be evacuated from your cruise and taken to the hospital.

Our Cruise Cover benefits offer onboard medical and emergency dental cover, and ship to shore medical cover. This means if you get sick or injured, we can help.

Contact our 24-hour Emergency Assistance team as soon as possible if you are hospitalised while on a cruise.

Our Cruise Cover benefit includes cover for onboard emergency medical and dental expenses and ship-to-shore medical expenses incurred by travellers on multi-night cruises. If you fall ill with COVID-19 while on board a cruise, we can help you financially and provide emergency assistance support if required.

For more information on what is and isn’t covered regarding COVID-19 while you’re on a multi-night cruise, please read the Policy Wording. For example, it’s important to know there is no cover for any cabin confinement claims related to COVID-19 – even if Cruise Cover is included in your policy.

If you miss the boat because of a delayed connection, our Cruise Cover option may be able to set you on your way again.

If the cruise ship takes off without your bags and your Cover-More policy includes our Cruise Cover option, our delayed luggage cover can reimburse you for any reasonable expenses incurred to replace delayed items.

Travelling with expensive items? Additional cover may be required if you want those high-priced items insured. This extra level of cover can be added to your policy when you purchase it.

For more information regarding our delayed luggage cover and benefit limits, read the Policy Wording.

If sudden illness, injury, or an unexpected weather event prevents you from experiencing your cruise, our Cover-More travel insurance with Cruise Cover benefits can help. This includes providing cover for non-refundable, unused, prepaid expenses such as deposits or onshore bookings up to the level of cancellation cover you have added to your policy.

Note: the benefit limit for cruise cancellation depends on the cover chosen when buying your policy. Please read the Policy Wording for details.

Unfortunately, we do not cover claims resulting from lack of enjoyment. If your ship is unable to visit a port, we will not be able to compensate you for loss of enjoyment.

Depending on the cover purchased and the circumstances of a claim, we may be able to cover cancellation of non-refundable, prepaid onshore tours.