Getting Sick is Still No. 1 Concern for American Cruise Passengers

Slightly more than 43% of Americans say they are concerned that they will get sick or injured before or during a cruise, slightly up from the approximately 42% of cruisers who rated this their No. 1 concern in last year’s InsureMyTrip survey.

When asked what their other top concerns were, in second place was bad weather (39.8%), followed by missing a cruise departure (17.1%). In last year’s survey, 37.3% were worried about bad weather, and 20.5% said missing a cruise departure was a concern.

The survey is generally good news for the cruise industry, as two years ago, InsureMyTrip reported that 52% of people were concerned with illnesses, and bad weather was the concern of 29% of survey respondents.

“Those results may suggest that cruisers are feeling a little bit more at ease about health concerns, maybe in part due to their choosing more to protect their trip with insurance, including medical emergency coverage,” explained Julie Loffredi, InsureMyTrip’s media relations manager.

She also believes that a more moderate hurricane season this year has slowed the growth in cruisers concerned about weather interrupting their trips.

“If you look at it, the majority of the cruises visit the Caribbean, and the hurricane season was pretty mild the last few years. As a result, we haven’t seen as many itineraries changed and cruises canceled, like we saw in years past,” Loffredi said. 

Additionally, out of those polled, 19% filed a travel insurance claim for a cruise-related issue, down from 24% in the last InsureMyTrip cruise poll. The most common reasons for a claim in this year’s survey were:

• Medical care required during a cruise
• Medical issue forced a trip cancellation
• Bad weather forced a delay or cancellation of a cruise
• Missed flight led to a delay or cancellation of a cruise
• Items were stolen or lost during a trip

“Again, possibly the mild hurricane season had an impact on the decrease in claims. It’s one potential factor,” said Loffredi. “In our opinion, that’s great. Cruisers are enjoying their trips without issues.” (Travelers who voluntarily participated in this survey had all researched or purchased travel insurance within the past 24 months.)

For medical claims, Loffredi proposed that one reason for fewer claims could simply be the random nature of “medical issues and medical needs the typical cruiser might experience. The changes could be related to that.”

About 30% of Americans who have taken a cruise say they have either gotten seasickness or fallen ill onboard, according to InsureMyTrip, which polled 2,072 Americans this year.

InsureMyTrip also looked at the months when travelers book cruises. The top months are February and September (11%), followed by October and May (10%), and January (9%). The least busy months were December (4%) and July/August (5%).

Loffredi said that, given the large volume of marketing and advertising expended during the annual “Wave Season” booking period, the fact that two fall months were also popular was a modest surprise.

“The folks purchasing insurance through us tend to book a good deal of that at the end of January, beginning of February. That makes sense, because that is when Wave Season is in full bloom,” said Loffredi. “When we look at our hard data, when our clients are paying for their insurance, we don’t see as many fall bookings.”

Finally, InsureMyTrip also asked cruisers what excites them the most about exploring their next cruise booking. Cruise deals were the number one enticement (58.1%), followed by hearing about itineraries with more time in port and less at sea (27.7%), updated onboard WiFi news (9.9%), and new VIP services for suite guests (4.3%).