Too late? Bad luck? Or do you get compensation…?

Sometimes customers call me with questions about delays (either they get delayed and the ship is gone when they arrive, or the ship gets delayed and they need to change connecting travel). I have looked into some of these cases and found out if any compensation will be received for a delay (caused by the cruise line or airline).
This is a little bit of a grey area, so get prepared the best you can before traveling. Below is one of the common questions and a detailed response.
Please let me know if you like to read more tips about this subject.

Question:
I’m booked on a Caribbean cruise during hurricane season. Should I get travel insurance?

Answer:
The answer is a qualified yes.

A good travel insurance plan (remember, not all plans are created equal) will cover you for trip delay, interruption and cancellation in the event of a major storm minus any compensation you get from the cruise line or airline. So if bad weather forces you to miss or reroute a flight, miss part of a cruise due to a travel delay or get stuck unexpectedly in a city overnight, you should be covered under a travel insurance plan. However, if you need to reschedule a flight and the airline has agreed to waive change fees or if a cruise is cut short by a day, but the line reimburses you for the missed day, you won’t get additional compensation payment.

More importantly, you will not be covered for a change of cruise itinerary. Say you booked a seven-night cruise to the Western Caribbean, but to avoid a storm, the cruise line changes the itinerary to an Eastern Caribbean one. If you’re onboard for all seven nights, you will receive no compensation from your insurance provider. At best, you can hope the cruise line will take pity and throw some onboard credit your way, but don’t count on it. Note: In the event that a port is canceled and replaced with another port, the line is obliged to give you nothing, but if there’s no replacement port, the cruise line will refund any port charges for missed ports in the form of on board credit. The amount differs by line. Carnival offers a blanket amount of $20 OBC per person, per port; Royal Caribbean refunds (again, in OBC) the actual amount of the port fees, which varies by port.

Also, travel insurance covers only unexpected events. If you’ve neglected to pre-book insurance, your cruise departs in a week and the weatherman is suddenly reporting on an upcoming storm, don’t bother calling up an insurance broker. It’s too late for you to be covered. You can purchase cancel-for-any-reason policies, but these tend to be much more expensive than regular travel insurance.

Therefore we recommend that all travelers booked on a cruise during hurricane season who stand to suffer a sizable financial loss if the trip is delayed, interrupted or canceled, purchase travel insurance.

Also, a word of warning: Cruise line protection plans are technically not insurance plans, as in they are not backed by a government agency (see here for a good comparison). You will have better coverage and an outlet for help in case of a dispute with the plan provider if you book through a third-party provider. Just be sure to read all the fine print to determine what circumstances are covered and which are not before committing to any one plan.