Cruise travel insurance for cruising holidays

Only you can decide this. However, cruises can involve unique scenarios that don't apply to other holidays, like:

• onboard medical treatment
• ship-to-shore medical transfers
• missed ports
• missed shore excursions
• cruise cancellations.  

Our Cover-More Cruise Cover is designed for multi-night ocean or sea cruises and can help with eligible cruise-specific expenses if something unexpected happens.  

We unfortunately can’t cover cruise-related scenarios if you’re travelling on a multi-night ocean or sea cruise and you don’t include Cruise Cover on your policy. So, it’s worth adding it to your travel insurance policy if you want cover while you’re at sea.

Our Cover-More Cruise Cover option offers these cruise-specific benefits (subject to the terms, conditions, limits, and exclusions listed on the Policy Wording):  

• Cruise cancellation up to your chosen cancellation amount
• Onboard medical and dental cover
• Ship-to-Shore medical cover
• Sea Sickness cover
• Cabin confinement benefit
• Missed port (embarkation) cover
• Missed shore excursion cover.

Make sure to read the Policy Wording before you buy your policy, so you’re across all benefit limits, conditions and exclusions.

That’s up to you to decide.  

Whether you need to include Cruise Cover on your policy for your domestic cruise depends on your specific cruise plans.  

Cruising within New Zealand internal waters (e.g. the Bay of Islands or Milford Sound)? Then you can purchase a domestic plan to have cover for your cruise – you won’t need to include Cruise Cover.

Hopping on a port-to-port(s) cruise around New Zealand? These cruises travel outside our coastal waters, so you’ll need to include Cruise Cover.  Please select ‘Domestic Cruise’ as your destination when you’re getting a quote, if you’d like cover for this type of domestic cruise holiday.  

Important: Domestic cruises can still involve unexpected expenses if something goes wrong. For example, you could miss your departure, need medical treatment onboard, become confined to your cabin because of illness, or need to cancel your trip before departure. Domestic cruise travel insurance may help with some costs in these situations. It might be worth considering packing domestic cruise travel insurance if you’re going on a multi-night ocean or sea-going cruise travelling between New Zealand ports.

Yes. Just add Cruise Cover to your policy as you’re getting a quote, if you want international cruise travel insurance.  

You’ll need to do this if you want cover for your cruise travel. You will also get access to these cruise specific benefits while taking a multi-night ocean cruise:

• Onboard medical and dental cover
• Ship-to-shore medical cover
• Sea Sickness cover
• Cabin confinement benefit
• Missed port (embarkation) cover
• Missed shore excursion cover.

Buying our travel insurance for cruises is easy. Follow these steps when you’re looking at our quote box:  

1. Select the country or region you’re going to in the ‘Where are you going?’ section.
2. Choose ‘Domestic cruise’ if you’ve going on a New Zealand ocean or sea cruise. Then;
3. Choose the dates of your trip, add the age of the traveller(s) you want to include, and select ‘Get quote’.  
4. Now you can select a plan option that suits you, including whether you want a single trip policy or an annual multi-trip policy if the option is available.
5. You’ll then be asked if you’re travelling for two or more nights on a sea or ocean cruise. You’ll need answer ‘Yes’ for cover to be added to your policy if you’re going on a cruise for two or more nights. You’ll have no cover for anything related to your cruise if you select ‘No’.
6. Continue to follow the prompts to complete your policy purchase.

Yes. We offer cruise travel insurance for all travellers, including seniors.  

When you're getting a quote, you’ll be asked if you’re going on a cruise for two or more nights. Answer ‘Yes’ if you’re going on a cruise and want cover for it under your policy.

Yes, all our plans include some cover for COVID-19.  We can help you financially and provide emergency assistance support if you need it, if you include our Cruise Cover in your policy and you fall ill with COVID-19 while on board a cruise. 

Take a look at the Policy Wording and our COVID-19 page for all the details, including what is and isn’t covered for COVID-19-related situations while you’re on a multi-night cruise.

Important: We don’t cover cabin confinement related to COVID-19 – even if Cruise Cover is included in your policy.

Our Cruise Cover option may be able to get you back on board if you miss the boat because of an unforeseeable circumstance like a delayed connection. We may be able to pay for costs you incur to use public transport to catch up on your planned itinerary.  

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

For more information regarding this, read the Policy Wording.

Yes, you can. But we always recommend buying cover before you leave home.

You can still buy it if you’re already on board and realise you’ve forgotten to pack travel insurance. But, you’ll have a 3-day ‘no cover’ period. This means you won’t have financial cover for anything that happens for the first three days after you buy your insurance. 
 

Our Cruise Cover includes onboard medical and emergency dental cover, plus ship-to-shore medical cover if you need to get help on dry land. This can come in handy as you won’t have access to government or private healthcare benefits while on a cruise ship while overseas or outside New Zealand coastal waters.

This means if you get sick or injured, we can help – whether it’s financially or accessing the health care you need. Just call our emergency assistance team, and they’ll help you navigate this.

As always check the Policy Wording for the terms and conditions of our medical cover before you buy.   
 

Yes, it can. Cruise ships are usually only equipped with basic medical assistance. You’ll need to be evacuated from the ship if you need more detailed medical attention to prevent long-term medical illness or death.

We may be able to cover medical evacuation costs if this happens. For more information, check out the Policy Wording or look at the cover table at the top of this very page.