My wife and I choose Eastern Caribbean 7 nights. Our destination was flying to Fort Lauderdale then we would sail to San Juan, St. Thomas, and St. Maarten. Our sailing date Nov. 19, 2017 to Nov. 26, 2017. She explained about getting Travel Insurance to protect our investment. Since our sailing date was so far in advance anything can happen and we would be covered. In Jan. of 2014 our first payment was $199. Then on April 10, 2014 they took $225.56. Then on March 7, 2016 they took $500.00 for the Celebrity Cruises Line, On Sept. 22, 2014 they took $292.99 for QVC Travel Insurance and on March 25, 2016 they took $299 for Travel Insurance again, and the name changed to CSA Travel Protect. Our monthly installments were $117.33. On Jan. 22, 2015 the final payment of $117.33 was made totaling $1855.67 for a cruise certificate. On Aug. 31, 2017, my wife’s birthday, they took another final payment of $1056.67
Sept. rolls around, our worst nightmare. Hurricane Irma, hits the Eastern, destroying our planned destinations, all they talked about, and showed on the news channel 2, 4, 7 all across the world was the devastation, and damages Irma, left behind in St. Thomas, St. Maarten, and other areas. Thomas, and Maarten was over 70% destroyed, buildings damaged 90% of power out across those islands. St. Thomas, and St. Maarten ports closed indefinitely. Irma was 50 miles from San Juan which sustained some damage. Aug. 2017 Hurricane Harvey hits causing more damage. Nicking our planned sailing port in Fort Lauderdale, in which was able to recover and ships were able now to sail out of. With St. Thomas, and St. Maarten ports closed indefinitely my wife and I decided to just cancel the cruise as we were looking forward going to St. Thomas, and St. Maarten based on family, and friends that had cruised there told us. I told my wife “Glad we listened to Lisa and took out that insurance”.
We contacted Tripmate Travel Insurance (CSA) and put in a claim for the cruise, and for the flight. On Nov. 9th we received a letter from CSA saying “We are unable to consider this to be a covered claim with the information on file, then they list a bunch of reasons. One reason in particular that caught our eye was the one that said “Natural Disaster makes your destination accommodations uninhabitable. Well that sounds just like our reason. 90% of the power was out buildings, and the docking port destroyed and as of our cursing date over 50% of the power was still out. But the biggest part was the cruise line changed the Itinerary knowing they could not go there, because it was so bad!!!! And under Definitions line 8 that if a hurricane is named 30 days before your sailing date you can’t be refunded. REALY!!! All hurricanes are named. Right? Never known one not to be named. How can they get away with putting things like this in a contact using this to take your money?