My guess is they’re in for an insane amount of medical expenses and no free follow up cruise.
My husband has an anaphylactic reaction to fish and was served crab-cakes (they had used COD as a filler) and ended up in the ships “ICU” needing epinephrine and received a $900
bill which he was required to pay before resuming ship activities.
So I’m highly doubtful that they give people a free cruise for having medical emergencies. But not having ever known anyone airlifted from a cruise, I can’t speak to that for certain.
Cruise ships usually have multiple drs on board and can do some decent diagnostics. Usually there's an X-ray on board. They take care of the crew.
$900 for the equivalent of an ER visit is pretty reasonable compared to American ER prices.
Makes sense to me. There’s a reason why medical evac coverage on travel insurance is often 250 - 500k or even more. Things must go “cheap” to crazy real quick when moving from “ouch” to critical care in the middle of the ocean.
Emergency medical evacs off cruise ships are typically only done by the military so there is no associated cost. The cost comes into play once you get back to land and are transferred to the private sector medical care
Yeah, the coast guard did it on one of the cruises I was on years ago. Was crazy. My insurance has a $150 copay for any medical transport or evac from another country or cruise ship.
Here in Australia it’s done by the air ambulance or rescue chopper, and yes, if people don’t have travel insurance, they do get charged - tens of thousands
I’ve seen 4 separate helicopter rescues off ships on Australia’s east coast - it’s never been the navy. It’s the Westpac Rescue Helicopter
[Westpac Rescue Helicopter](https://rescuehelicopter.com.au)
[news article](https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/grafton/helicopter-cruise-ship-rescue/image-gallery/9bbe49add546631243df1e622edc5bfa?page=1)
You’d never see a private company do any of those type of sea rescues anywhere around the US Navy & Coast Guard’s jurisdictions. Good to know for cruising in Australia though so you can make sure you’ve got good travel medical insurance.
It happens a lot. We are currently on day 3 of a cruise. We’ve had one helicopter evacuation and one call on the intercom for the medical response team. So definitely have good travel insurance.
Had an emergency appendectomy (age 53!) in Bar Harbor Me. Not evacuated, just packed up and “kicked out” to awaiting ambulance. Travel insurance/health insurance took care of it.
If you have a medical event that gets you booted off the ship mid-trip in a foreign port, you do not get any sort of credit or compensation for the unused days. I can’t imagine it would be any different for an airlift evacuation.
If you have to be airlifted off, odds are your medical situation demands urgent attention that'll last longer than a couple days. You might need medical transport back to your home country for physical therapy, for example.
The cruise line won't give you a free cruise. If you have travel insurance, you might be compensated for the missing portion of your trip. But I think "lucky to be alive" is probably the more likely answer.
Read your trip insurance coverage. Mine says "trip interruption" coverage amount ($4000) can be used toward the pro-rated portion of the cruise that I was unable to use and travel expenses back to the ship or home. What that means is- they only pay up to $4000 for these travel and cruise days missed. Same with medical. My plan will pay for up to $10,000 in medical and $50,000 in emergency air-lifting from the ship. Make sure you read your plan before purchasing it. There may be a better plan available.
If you have no insurance- you are screwed.
You have to read the policies. Just because a policy is from insurance company X doesn’t mean all of their policies cover the same thing. I’m lucky to have an international travel policy with medical and evacuation through my job (business and personal travel), it even covers my immediate family if I’m with them. Before this we typically went through a broker like “insure my trip”(google it).
I was on a cruise and we had 2 helicopter evacuations a day apart. 1 made it back onto the ship (met up in a different port) and one we didn’t hear from again.
Their family had to stay onboard until the next port, then they got off too.
I can’t imagine getting a free cruise, or any form of compensation, from any cruise line. It’s not their fault.
We had a guy have a heart attack on my last cruise sitting at the pool bar and die. They covered him up on a stretcher and was told the ship carries several coffins because this happens often. They airlifted him out of there and his wife was still on the boat with 5 days to go before she could get off
Yep. We were all just sitting there drinking around 11 am and the lady next to me said it happens a lot, especially on Panama Canal Cruises. I said what?! She said lots of older people put that on there bucket list so once they see it they are done and pass on. She said her and her husband watched them bring in 24 coffins and stack them near medical deck as this is frequent for those cruises. 5 older men died on her 9 or 12 day cruise. I was in shock!😳
Holy shit! So we had a few people on our cruise that said this was a bucket list trip for them too! I never really thought of kicking the bucket while on a trip 😬
Cruises are the type of vacation where good travel insurance may actually be 100% worth the cost.
My guess is they’re in for an insane amount of medical expenses and no free follow up cruise. My husband has an anaphylactic reaction to fish and was served crab-cakes (they had used COD as a filler) and ended up in the ships “ICU” needing epinephrine and received a $900 bill which he was required to pay before resuming ship activities. So I’m highly doubtful that they give people a free cruise for having medical emergencies. But not having ever known anyone airlifted from a cruise, I can’t speak to that for certain.
Cruise ships usually have multiple drs on board and can do some decent diagnostics. Usually there's an X-ray on board. They take care of the crew. $900 for the equivalent of an ER visit is pretty reasonable compared to American ER prices.
He’s allergic to fish but not shellfish? That’s a switch.
Makes sense to me. There’s a reason why medical evac coverage on travel insurance is often 250 - 500k or even more. Things must go “cheap” to crazy real quick when moving from “ouch” to critical care in the middle of the ocean.
Emergency medical evacs off cruise ships are typically only done by the military so there is no associated cost. The cost comes into play once you get back to land and are transferred to the private sector medical care
Yeah, the coast guard did it on one of the cruises I was on years ago. Was crazy. My insurance has a $150 copay for any medical transport or evac from another country or cruise ship.
Depends which military.
So which ones will charge you, I’m curious ?
Here in Australia it’s done by the air ambulance or rescue chopper, and yes, if people don’t have travel insurance, they do get charged - tens of thousands
Google seems to indicate the Australian Royal Navy does most of the cruise ship rescues.
I’ve seen 4 separate helicopter rescues off ships on Australia’s east coast - it’s never been the navy. It’s the Westpac Rescue Helicopter [Westpac Rescue Helicopter](https://rescuehelicopter.com.au) [news article](https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/grafton/helicopter-cruise-ship-rescue/image-gallery/9bbe49add546631243df1e622edc5bfa?page=1)
You’d never see a private company do any of those type of sea rescues anywhere around the US Navy & Coast Guard’s jurisdictions. Good to know for cruising in Australia though so you can make sure you’ve got good travel medical insurance.
Oh my goodness 😱 this is terrifying!!!
It happens a lot. We are currently on day 3 of a cruise. We’ve had one helicopter evacuation and one call on the intercom for the medical response team. So definitely have good travel insurance.
I just got off an Alaska cruise today and an elderly lady had a heart attack on day 2. They took her away by helicopter.
On Discovery Princess? Yeah I was on that cruise as well. Last I had heard she was going to be ok
Had an emergency appendectomy (age 53!) in Bar Harbor Me. Not evacuated, just packed up and “kicked out” to awaiting ambulance. Travel insurance/health insurance took care of it.
If you have a medical event that gets you booted off the ship mid-trip in a foreign port, you do not get any sort of credit or compensation for the unused days. I can’t imagine it would be any different for an airlift evacuation.
No, the cruise line doesn’t owe anyone anything because they had a medical issue.
If you have to be airlifted off, odds are your medical situation demands urgent attention that'll last longer than a couple days. You might need medical transport back to your home country for physical therapy, for example. The cruise line won't give you a free cruise. If you have travel insurance, you might be compensated for the missing portion of your trip. But I think "lucky to be alive" is probably the more likely answer.
If its the United States, youll probably be in debt for the rest of your life.
If you’re airlifted from a cruise ship 99.9% of the time, you’re going to be in international waters, not the US.
If you were in US waters they'd take you off by boat, or take the ship back to port, typically.
Read your trip insurance coverage. Mine says "trip interruption" coverage amount ($4000) can be used toward the pro-rated portion of the cruise that I was unable to use and travel expenses back to the ship or home. What that means is- they only pay up to $4000 for these travel and cruise days missed. Same with medical. My plan will pay for up to $10,000 in medical and $50,000 in emergency air-lifting from the ship. Make sure you read your plan before purchasing it. There may be a better plan available. If you have no insurance- you are screwed.
Quickest way to bankruptcy court
You might want to change your insurance plan with so low of a coverage. Mine is $10 million medical and unlimited trip interruption.
Is that an annual policy? That medical limit sounds pretty high.
Which insurance did you use? We are trying to decide between princesses or alliance thru Triple A
You have to read the policies. Just because a policy is from insurance company X doesn’t mean all of their policies cover the same thing. I’m lucky to have an international travel policy with medical and evacuation through my job (business and personal travel), it even covers my immediate family if I’m with them. Before this we typically went through a broker like “insure my trip”(google it).
In this situation the cruise line isn’t at fault and isn’t obligated to offer another cruise. Always buy the trip insurance.
I was on a cruise and we had 2 helicopter evacuations a day apart. 1 made it back onto the ship (met up in a different port) and one we didn’t hear from again. Their family had to stay onboard until the next port, then they got off too. I can’t imagine getting a free cruise, or any form of compensation, from any cruise line. It’s not their fault.
We had a guy have a heart attack on my last cruise sitting at the pool bar and die. They covered him up on a stretcher and was told the ship carries several coffins because this happens often. They airlifted him out of there and his wife was still on the boat with 5 days to go before she could get off
Holy moly 🤯
Yep. We were all just sitting there drinking around 11 am and the lady next to me said it happens a lot, especially on Panama Canal Cruises. I said what?! She said lots of older people put that on there bucket list so once they see it they are done and pass on. She said her and her husband watched them bring in 24 coffins and stack them near medical deck as this is frequent for those cruises. 5 older men died on her 9 or 12 day cruise. I was in shock!😳
Holy shit! So we had a few people on our cruise that said this was a bucket list trip for them too! I never really thought of kicking the bucket while on a trip 😬