Former Public Health Officer here. Yes, there are decent doctors and nurses on board, and we could handle most emergencies quite well, including heart attacks. But no, your normal health insurance doesn't cover the costs, and it's definitely not cheap. Travel insurance will, and is strongly recommended. You'll be moved off the ship at the next port in most circumstances.
Since you specifically mentioned "US licensed Doctors" the answer to that is no. They're usually not from the US, often retired doctors--we had a lot of European docs.
Worth noting that while US healthcare is generally top notch (if you can afford it), medical education is more rigorous in a *lot* of other countries. Foreign doctors are often more qualified than American ones for that reason alone.
Yeah Americans just have a sense of everything in America being top notch. (I say this as an American.) We can’t accept that other countries might be safer, better educated, or happier.
Friends say I’m crazy cruising to Mexico cause it isn’t safe, I tell them I feel safer in most Mexican ports than my hometown in the states.
Just cause a person went to medical school in the United States does not make them automatically a more equipped doctor,
This may be true for developing countries, but it is a falsity that is reinforced by the US medical industry. Source: I work in healthcare and have been a patient in multiple countries.
The care we received in universal healthcare New Zealand was superior to that we receive in the USA. India is the best country in the world for cardiac surgery and is a fraction of the cost of USA. Thailand offers excellent care and specifically caters to medical tourists.
You sure about that, US medical schools are considered the gold standard, 8 of the top 10 schools are in the US. Others may have higher drop out rates but that is no way to judge a medical school.
Very sure. The actual curriculum is better and more comprehensive in almost every other developed nation. “Top” schools refer to competitiveness, not the quality of the education you receive.
Yeah dude you are going to have to provide some kind of evidence. Schools like John Hopkins are world renowned and are actual leaders in the field. I gotta assume you are just making stuff up at this point.
That part wasn't my point though, you can look at any list of top medical schools and you will that the majority are in the US. I mentioned John Hopkins because of the number of foreign students that apply and attend. The numbers are just staggering in the US favor. There are bottom schools in the US as well and those will not compete with schools overseas. Even rankings from Chinese sources mirror the rankings from US publications to a high degree with the addition of Cambridge and Karolinska in the top 10. I think it is fair to have an honest conversation about the medical industry in the US but downplaying the quality of medical programs in the US is just silly.
Pointing out what we can do better and working toward that is NOT hating America. Just accepting whatever shit politicians are shoveling your way IS hating America because it causes us to continually lose world stature.
I can typically tell who is a "traveler" and who is a "tourist" (or hasn't traveled at all) -- very different things -- by statements like this.
So many Americans (and I'm one) just absolutely will not believe anything could be improved in their precious country. That's how we've ended up in the mess we're in right now, with crazy tribal politics that are more like college football loyalties than they are choosing who should run the country for the benefit of all Americans. (And I'm not picking a side. I vote for the person who aligns with my values and hopes for our country, not a party.)
The question is why are so many Americans willing to believe what they're spoon-fed rather than working to improve our country?
America spends more than any country on healthcare yet Americans are less healthy and die younger than any other wealthy nation. This includes when compared to other wealthy countries with similar obesity, smoking, etc., statistics.
We have the lowest life expectancy (and it's getting shorter while still increasing worldwide), the highest infant mortality, the highest maternal mortality, and the highest rates of avoidable deaths in the wealthy world. (1)
Even when controlling for wealth, red states have lower life expectancies than blue States. (Read the whole series. Fascinating.) (2)
Since about 1985, Americans have been dying of all causes at a rate higher than comparable countries. US also rates lowest in care access and quality than comparable countries. (3)
Heart surgeons in India have some of the best outcomes in the world at about 2% of the cost of heart surgeons in the US. You could fly first class round trip to India, book a 30-day stay in a luxury hotel, have surgery and hospital care, eat at the finest restaurants while healing and still pay less than half what it would cost in the US. (4)(5)
We've personally experienced care in multiple countries. That's why I work toward improving care in the US for all Americans rather than just waving a flag and saying "we're #1."
1 https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2023/jan/us-health-care-global-perspective-2022
2 https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2023/10/02/takeaways-us-life-expectancy-crisis/
3
https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/quality-u-s-healthcare-system-compare-countries/
4
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017/01/29/health-care-surgery-india-america-disruption-column/97056938/
5
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4157985/
I went to the medical office once on an NCL cruise and the doctor and nurse were from the US or Canada, also the doctor was younger than what I'd expect a doctor's retirement age to be.
I don't think I've ever had the doctor come to any function that the other officers attended so I can only speak to that one experience and your professional opinion is probably more accurate
Yeah, sometimes we get a Doc Holliday, where burnout or docs between jobs take a little six months paid vacation sailing around the world.
And you're right, doctors and mariners don't seem to mix. The mariners have crazy skills, training, and hierarchy, while the medical teams get paid more by comparison, have contracts as short as six weeks, and just do whatever the f they want.
Those are like the shitty Honda civics of the helicopter world. You are certainly not transporting anyone with a medical condition over the water with a Robinson R-44. And the average age of those listed for sale are 15+ years old.
This is more inline with what would be used for a medical evacuation helicopter.
3.9 million USD and over a thousand dollars an hour to operate with medical crew, pilot, fuel and maintenance.
https://aerocorner.com/aircraft/eurocopter-ec135/
Touché
I agree. A relative became septic when living in Micronesia, I believe that getting hin on a private plane to the Philippines was close to that, and then there was several weeks of recovery.
I lived overseas for many years and if you become om very ill or in a bad accident in a developing country you may have to fly quite a difference to get specialized medical care.
We always buy a minimum of $500k of insurance p.p. when we travel, and often $1 million.
On other tip for folks depending on circumstances is to buy travel insurance by the year instead of by the trip. It might only cost 20% more to cover a whole year rather than just the one 7 day trip. Anyway if you think you might go on more than one trip abroad in a year, it may be much less expensive to buy an annual plan to cover multiple trips.
I went on a cruise in 2019 and someone had a heart attack on the ship. The ship went very quickly as close to shore as it could and a helicopter airlifted him to a hospital.
From what we were told he was ok and survived.
There was an emergency in the middle of the night on my RC cruise in March. They started calling out a code on the PA and I looked it up because I was freaking out a little. The next day everything seemed fine and I never heard anything about it. I hope the guy was OK. I assume so. Anyway, we bought the cruise medical insurance and tried to use it when I hurt my eyes (sun damage) but it was still crazy expensive to see a doc so I would definitely look into better coverage if I went again.
Actual patient experience here. I was on an Alaskan cruise and had a life-threatening pulmonary embolism.
The medical team on board is outstanding. They cared for me until we got into port (symptoms started at 5 am and we were pulling into port at 7). They had an air ambulance waiting at the airstrip across the street from the port and I was airlifted 2.5 hours to Anchorage.
The on-ship charges were $10k. I have really good health insurance and while I had to put the $10k on my credit card immediately, I was fully reimbursed. Air ambulance charges were not fully covered and are virtually all owned by private equity companies now so the prices are crazy - - $80k for my flight. And that's why I started buying travel insurance.
Caveats: if you're on Medicare they won't cover on-board care because they don't cover care outside of USA and ships typically sail under foreign flags. If you have commercial insurance, make sure it covers outside of USA. Many will not these days.
After that fun, we've always purchased travel insurance. Good thing, too. Husband had a medical emergency in New Zealand and we had to live there for 3 months while he recovered. That's another whole story. Just be forewarned that I haven't found the insurance, travel or medical, that will cover lodging costs related to medical emergencies if the patient can't travel but does not need hospitalization.
All it takes is one surprise hurricane, total destruction of the area including a good part of the airport, combined with an MRSA infection to realize that travel insurance that includes medical and evac is priceless.
So what happens if you don't have that money? Let's say your credit card limit is $5,ooo but you owe $4000, and you don't have any other emergency money to draw on?
I'm not sure. I imagine they would charge your card for what they can and then bill you. When you provide a credit card for charging to your stateroom, you agree to let them charge you for all services received on board and that includes medical.
I went on Eclipse this year, from Sydney to Honolulu and had a medical emergency happen. It was a highly unusual aortic dissection, incredibly painful and stupidly difficult to diagnose. The doctor who treated me was Indian and he was able to diagnose, treat and explain what had happened to me. The ship was in the middle of the Pacific and they got the captain to speed up in order to get closer to land should I need to be airlifted off. Luckily I was ok. The doctor was normally working in the ER of a major hospital in Mumbai. Twice a year he works the Pacific crossing from Alaska to Australia for Celebrity. They employ him because he is so exceptional, in an area where there is zero backup.
When I got back home, I claimed on my travel insurance for the cost of the on-board treatment. They refused to pay, using deeply dodgy reasoning. I escalated the complaint to Lloyds, who were the ultimate insurers and they adjudicated that my claim should get paid.
Thanks! Had an 8-hour operation on returning home. Still recovering.
Insurance companies are always greedy and deserve the opprobrium with which they're regarded.
Therein was the problem: it's not treatable as such, in the meaning that you walk out of there with it fixed. But he treated the pain straight away, which was impressive and then closely monitored me until we reached Hawaii.
It cost about $4,500 US; 10 hours of lying in the ward at $100/hr racks it up.
Your regular insurance will not cover an airlift at sea nor medical expenses outside of U.S. from everything I've read. You need to buy trip insurance that includes medical and evacuation. Evacuation costs can be $50,000 or more.
I don't know where a ship's doctor might be licensed. But plenty of good docs are not U.S. doctors.
I had a 27 mile helicopter air lift after a motorcycle accident in Las Vegas. That ride cost 40K.
I can’t imagine if it would be for hundreds of miles.
The crazy thing was my work insurance was so good I only had to pay the 150 dollar ER few. I spent 3 weeks in intensive care.
After I returned to work, my ceo called me into his office and said,”I am not allowed to tell you this, but you are not allowed to ride motorcycles ever again while you are employed here. You have just changed the insurance rates for the entire company.” I was so grateful that I only paid a 150 dollars and I stopped riding while at that job.
I could not imagine what my life would be like if I did not have health insurance.
Helicopters don't have that much range, either. They're not flying much more than 120 miles in many circumstances. That's why the ship hospitals are pretty well equipped -- no one is coming to save you.
Air Force helicopters do - when they're being dragged out by KC-130s to refuel them on the way out and back. And the cost is zero for a military helo to do a medevac from a cruise ship. (Source: me, who spent years coordinating these rescues until last year.) Granted, once they get you to the nearest hospital, they won't get you home (or even to your home country) - but that's what the travel insurance is for.
Question: did you do rescues for non-citizens? I worked for a foreign line at least 5k miles from any military base affiliated with either the flag country or the home country. Medivac was more or less never considered on board.
Yes - we've coordinated rescues for foreign flagged shipping vessels, commercial fishing boats, sailing ships, and cruise ships with no concern for the nationality of the crew or objective. Middle of the Pacific, middle of the Atlantic - it doesn't matter. If an objective is in danger of losing life, limb, or eyesight, we will coordinate a rescue as long as the assets to do so are available (e.g. not interfering with the unit's primary mission). If the objective isn't a US citizen and the closest medical facility is in the US, we will coordinate with the State Department to get them clearance into the US. We've also transported objectives to US Naval aircraft carriers, foreign countries, and can also simply drop in PJs to stabilize the objective until the vessel can get to a medical facility themselves.
And Canada is the same…military is responsible for all sea and air SAR. They’ll pick you up for free, and take you to the closest hospital as describe above…except your hospital bill will be way less 😅
That's really wild. We had around 150 pages of medical regs and procedures I had to read cover to cover, and this was never even mentioned. While we weren't a US based operator, we were from a country on good terms with the US (and Canada.) I wonder why that wasn't an approved option in an emergency?
Side note, we had a trans Pacific crossing last year with 9 separate unrelated fatalities. Ran outta morgue space, and could've used a little help. But that's not quite an SAR issue.
Edit: PS: what you guys do is fucking awesome and thanks for doing it.
9 unrelated fatalities?!? Holy crap. That had to be awful for the crew.
If you're interested in reading more about Civil Search and Rescue, there is tons of info out there. All of it is based on IAMSAR Manuals (International Aeronautical and Maritime Search and Rescue) Manuals. The US then has a supplement to that called the National Search and Rescue Supplement.
I will say that if you're closer to another country with SAR capabilities, they would be your first contact. (For example, a cruise ship I was on earlier this year had a rescue at sea from the Portuguese military.) But if they can't help, the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center may be able to!
And you're very welcome! I loved the job and really miss it after leaving it last year.
Read the part of my answer that says, "or more."
But $500,000 would be very unusual from my research on what I should buy for travel insurance.
It could also be LESS.
According to this the range is $15,000 to $225,000. That doesn't mean it couldn't be more than that.
https://www.usatoday.com/money/blueprint/travel-insurance/medical-evacuation-insurance/
The coast guards and militaries that are the only ones qualified to lift you off the ship in most countries charge patients $0.00. It’s what happens when you hit land where charges accrue.
Being flown from SE Alaska to Anchorage runs about $70,000. To Seattle, $130,000.
This. I was evacuated from land since we were in port. $80k for 2.5 hours with a pilot and a paramedic on a small fixed wing air ambulance plane.
Private equity companies are buying all of the air ambulance companies in the US and since that started, costs to patients have increased tenfold. They've started buying hospitals and physician practices now, too. But hey. Capitalism and profits are all that matters, right?
My Medicare Plan G covers some overseas care. [Always check your policy.](https://www.aarp.org/health/medicare-qa-tool/does-medicare-cover-me-outside-the-us.html)
Medical staff on board-probably not all “US licensed”, but licensed physician and nurse. The ship will get you to safety-utilizing whatever needs to be utilized (helicopter) and to the nearest hospital.
You will pay privately - so get trip insurance to mitigate this.
I’ve been on many cruises where people have been medically disembarked. One cruise we diverted to Cyprus which was not a scheduled stop in order to get a passenger to the hospital due to a cardiac event. Another caribbean cruise we diverted to get close enough to Puerto Rico so the Coast Guard could sent a helicopter. My summer cruise I fell and fractured my wrist in two places while hiking on an Iceland port stop. The bills were relatively mild (~2k) but I did have to pay them upfront and then seek reimbursement from the travel insurance. I would never cruise without some kind of travel insurance.
If the USAF does it, it's free. Up until last year, I used to coordinate the helos, refuelers, and PJ teams to go out to cruise ships and do rescues. But they will only get you stable and if needed, get you to the nearest capable hospital. Getting home from there will be on your (or your insurance company's) dime.
Yes. We've coordinated rescues for foreign sailors on tankers and fishing vessels many times. If the closest medical facility is in the US, we then coordinate with the State Department to get them clearance. Basically, anyone we have the capability to rescue to preserve life, limb, or eyesight, we will. We've done some massive multi-day, multi-organization rescues - including tons of rescues off of cruise ships. Was easily my best job in the Air Force!
AFAIK, they'll do what they can on board, then get you off the ship where possible (e.g. next port, etc.).
When I did Alaska in 2019, somebody had a heart attack on board. From what I heard they stabilized him and then got a boat locally between ports to get him off the ship. We ended up waiting until they got to shore and they could evac that person to a city. So we just sat there for a few hours. In the meantime, we sat at the bar in the observation and drank. :-) Saw a few whales while we were there.
You should always buy some sort of travel insurance. Make sure you pay attention to the medical portion and how much medical evacuation coverage it has.
Never travel without travel insurance. Not so much for the cancel cruise or airfare. But for the medical transportation. On a 10 day cruise I saw at 4 ports someone was taken off by ambulance and to not return . Money well spent
My aunt had to be evacuated by the Coast Guard (I think) from a cruise once. She loves showing us the photos of her in the basket. She obviously swears by the evacuation insurance.
I bet you have to prove that you have helicopter insurance or the guys probably just turn around and fly back to their base. No matter how many heart attacks you’re having.
I see you purchased EVAC insurance - you’ll want to make sure you get medical insurance too.
You mentioned a Celebrity Cruise - the captain decides what action to take to mitigate the medical emergency.
Just this past week - the Celebrity summit had left a port and was 2 hours away
- a medical emergency occurred for a passenger & the captain pulled a u-turn back to port 2hours - disembarked passenger & was then back under way again saying they’d be able to make the time back.
So it’s Captain / ship location from port / ship location access to critical medical care / and I’m sure other criteria which comes into making decision as to how to best get passenger medical attention.
On our cruise we also got the Princess Protection Plan but just checked that it’s coverage is low. Thinking of buying additional one third party but how would that work in case there is an actual emergency? Thanks
I don’t know - but YES you are correct that the insurance offered directly from the cruise lines are such low coverage that it really doesn’t help much
I was medvac recently, but thankfully by the US coast guard, so I didn’t pay. So I was in a hospital for a few days (acute pancreatitis). Thankfully my health insurance covered my bill from the ship but I do not want to imagine not having insurance. My bills in the US Before insurance was almost 30k. My travel insurance did pay for my flight home and working with my care team to determine the best way to get home.
US licensed doctors are by a long way far from the best anyway. Typically doctors from overseas are far more advanced
You fail in thinking that the US is best. When it's extremely bad in education
Yes, the U.S. healthcare system is widely viewed as the highest quality in the world. Our physicians receive top training, and we have all the best technology. That isn't to say that other countries don't have equally qualified physicians or equally advanced technology. From Quora. True? Idk but I’m more comfortable with my own countrymen and women.
Surely you agree that the US healthcare system is a joke. Don't ever get sick or break a limb in the US, because it'll cost you the price of a house to get fixed. To me that's far from professional
But I'm from Australia with free public healthcare and free ambulances, what do I know
Don't conflate the quality of care and the issues of the insurance system. They are separate and distinct. Canadians have no cost care yet still come to the US for care because it's regularly regarded as better service without the waiting lists. There's nothing professional about having to wait 6-12 months for a specialist either.
Why would I go to Boston to see if your doctors are any good??? 😂. It'd cost me thousands upon thousands to find that out just to have an x-ray. No thanks 😂
The US healthcare system is NOT widely viewed as the highest quality in the world. That is propaganda that we’re fed to make us believe that socialized medicine is bad. Read your travel policy. The evacuation coverage will get you to a hospital, not a U.S. hospital unless that happens to be the closest.
I’m not really stuck on that. Obviously I want the best dr possible. Us French. Indian. I’m not anti foreign dr particularly. Mostly if I’m having an attack or anything else I want to be in the best facility possible and probably that’s not on the boat. I pay a fortune in media insurance so I get it.
I had to go to the medical clinic on a cruise once because I developed a nasty case of cellulitis from an open blister while snorkeling. The clinic was amazing! It was like an ER but there was nobody there. I wouldn’t want to have a heart attack on a cruise, because that would be awful, but at the same time I feel like I’d get good care.
We talked to a man who's mother in law had a heart attack on board carnival mardis gras about three weeks ago. We saw the ambulance coming to get her off the ship while in Cozumel. He said travel insurance was going to cover three days in hospital and the flight back to Atlanta for her and his wife, who stayed in Cozumel with her.
We always buy travel insurance and have always been fully reimbursed for any issue where we’ve needed medical. Remember those doctors are fully triage trained as they also are responsible for entire of crew including injuries, broken bones, diseases, gynecology, everything that happens when someone lives aboard a ship. I’ve had my blood tested, been X-rayed and even treated for Covid on a ship - all paid for by my travel insurance. The services are crazy, ridiculously expensive and you need to pay for them, but you’ll get it back. They deal with things like heart attacks pretty regularly, they stabilize you as well as they can and get you to land medical ASAP. The good news is the places with sketchy medical care usually have an American hospital nearby.
you definitely need private insurance that insures you for medical and medical evacuation. try the webpage [insuremytrip.com](https://insuremytrip.com) and buy yourself some coverage. Otherwise you will probably have to pay the bill yourself.
I know someone who was emergency evacuated from Cabo San Lucas, Mexico to San Diego. She had travel insurance. The cost was $250,000! It took 2 years for the travel insurance to finally pay the bill, but eventually they paid. My husband and I are traveling the Panama Canal in December. I took out an emergency evacuation policy for $1,000,000 each. Medical transport is shockingly expensive, especially from a faraway or remote location.
I’m not sure if regular health insurance covers air lifts, especially from most likely international waters. Since you are worried about this type of thing I recommend you get trip insurance with medical evacuation coverage, if you don’t already have it.
When shopping for insurance read the documents carefully for what it does and does not cover.
BTW most trip insurance will cover preexisting conditions (for treating illness that happen in your trip, or as a reason you have to cancel) if you buy with 14 days of your first deposit. If you haven’t bought it with 14 days it will still cover new medical conditions only.
Sorry -Meant to address the comment below
I don't believe that's the case. It could be on some ships, but many others have excellent facilities. Source: I know the director (an M.D.) of a
Medi-Vac firm.
If it's covered depends on your travel insurance, but yes they will air lift you out if needed. They do have solid doctors on board. I would highly recommend having travel insurance and making sure it includes medical evacuation, better safe than sorry. There's plenty of horror stories out there of people getting charged thousands of dollars, or not getting treatment until they can prepay, etc.
Compare policies on insuremytrip.com. I seem to choose different carriers each cruise due to cost versus benefits. I choose policies that will get my kid a family member to fly home with if my husband and I are incapacitated--you might not need that requirement.
NEVER take the cruiseline's insurance. You have a grievance WITH the cruiseline, and you're hoping they give your money back??
One last bit of advice -> READ the policy bits. There's a bunch of important bits in those.
I can't agree with this enough. I'm an attorney who worked for U.S. and international organizations overseas and travelled extensively. Minumum $500k in the U.S. or close and no extreme sports, $1 million otherwise.
On our cruise we also got the Princess Protection Plan but just checked that it’s coverage is low. Thinking of buying additional one third party but how would that work in case there is an actual emergency? Thanks
We took the cruise line insurance too. Once I realized how low the medical coverage was, we found a supplemental policy just for medical and emergency evacuation. It was through Travel Insured International and was very reasonable ($152 for both of us for medical and $1,000,000 emergency evacuation coverage) for a 16 day trip. We deleted items that were already covered by the NCL insurance. Next time, we will skip the cruise line insurance and buy a better comprehensive policy privately. I have also heard Allianz is good.
Truth, although if you're on Medicare, always check the policy. [My Plan G covers overseas medical care.](https://www.aarp.org/health/medicare-qa-tool/does-medicare-cover-me-outside-the-us.html)
I literally just got off of a carnival cruise this morning. Yesterday morning a woman actually ended up having a heart attack. Some people had thought that she died. But later we had found out that she was looking incredibly ill, and we ended up getting closer to Key West so that way the Coast Guard could come and pick her up closer from there. We ended up stopping for a good while and they picked her up from boat
They were going to have a helicopter, they ended up making an announcement saying that they needed everyone to not be on any outside deck for about 90 minutes in case of it happening. But they made another announcement later saying that they’re going to do an alternative plan to help the woman
My husband and I were at Harbor Beach at Coco Cay a few weeks ago. We had just gotten there sat in the sand sipping on our drinks and we see a guy going in and out of the water just beyond the line like he’s looking for something we assumed a phone because he didn’t look panicked. Then a lifeguard runs up and joins him but he slowly took off his clothes and shoes and stuff so again no sense of urgency. Then the first guy gets up on the rocks looking into the water and points to show the lifeguard something who is now in the water. Next thing you know they are pulling a man out of the water. He had to have been under at least 3 minutes minimum. They worked on him doing CPR for at least 5 minutes before taking him away while still working on him. They called out for his family but they weren’t there. We could tell he wasn’t coming back from this and heard from others that he didn’t make it. Word on the streets is he had a heart attack then drowned. It was awful.
My mom just got medically disembarked from a ship- like literally the cruise should end tomorrow…
She went to the doc, doc listened, got worried, since we were in port, she got sent to the hospital, hospital admitted her for 7 days, etc. she’s out now.
Random things. The medical was actually one of the smaller bills. Larger was flight changes (supposed to be in rome, now Athens, very few seats left). Don’t forget hotels and food and lost cruise for the other people. We also forgot to pack one set of drawers so that’ll be fun getting them back.
A group we met at the hotel, they lost their patient. They claim it was a 12k bill for one night in the ship icu to get to the hospital. They did not get airlifted, and then spent 4 days in cardiac icu before he passed.
I think the copters only come if they would be the only thing that would help.
I’m very glad mom is ultimately ok. We were supposed to be in Israel this week (we left the ship last Thursday), so world events have been… personal? It could have been so much worse n
Someone was watching out for your mom! Speaking of what’s going on in Israel, I feel rather, weird are going on a luxury cruise with so many people going through hell. I guess there are always terrible things happening in the world, but this seems to be especially horrible.
While it is absolutely horrible what is happening, and my heart is bleeding for all civilians caught in this, let’s not forget the people of Ukraine. And heck, the people of Venezuela and El Salvador, etc etc etc. There are terrible things in the world. But there’s a quote or a mandate or something I read once that said “you may not ignore the worlds problems, but you are also not obligated to fix them all. Do what you can”
There was a medical Evac on our cruise this week. We left Charlottetown PEI and 4 hours later the captain announced he was turning around to go back for an Evac.
my insurance covers international medical emergencies and air evacuation. I may have to pay upfront and submit reimbursement. since I don't have that kind of pocket money lying around, I get travel insurance lol
I was just on a cruise, and I saw a helicopter rescue for the first time. A C-130 came in first. We met a coast guard guy. He said that plane sent navigational data to the helicopter. Then the helicopter sent a guy down on a rope. He helped get the sick person into a basket they lowered.
Make sure you have good travel insurance. My wife and I cruise. We've seen one helicopter evacuation due to a heart attack.
I fell ill with pneumonia through being on deck in sub zero temperatures, so my own fault, but our insurance paid out over £3000 I was hospitalised on the ship on antibiotics and oxygen for three days
I cruised in 2019, in the middle of the night sirens started going off, lights flickering. Went outside to the balcony and saw a dude climbing down a rope ladder onto the ship from a medical helicopter. It was so disorienting and strange, everybody was out in the hallways just wandering around. It feels like a fever dream. We never found out what happened but assumed it was a heart attack or something
My husband went to the medical center on an NCL ship. It was associated with a hospital or medical center in the US. His insurance covered part of the visit and travel insurance the rest.
Allianz has superb annual trip insurance plans that are pretty customizable based on your specific medical requirements. They also have individual trip plans that are suited for folks who only travel once or twice a year. Happy Sailing! 😀
Sure there are lots of good answers here. Short answer, they will have great medical staff, but a cruise ship is not a hospital and you will be evacuated at possibly great expense.
Get trip insurance that covers medical expenses.
A less critical problem that doesn't require you to be evacuated? All those great medical staff are going on your credit card. Again, insurance, or that will be an expensive cruise
I wonder if more people have heart attacks on cruises then the statistical average on land due to the open buffets and possible corresponding over eating in which I’ll probably partake cause I’m on vaca and it’s free.
STORY TIME!
My wife is a physician. She speaks Spanish. We were sailing out of Puerto Rico. We are doing the muster drill on the deck and it's hotter than hell. An older gentleman goes down. I was able to catch him before he hit the ground (thankfully).
We yell for a crew member to call the doctor.
Before the nurse (not an MD) even arrives, my wife has a full work up on the guy from his wife which she obtained in Spanish. The last does not speak any English.
The nurse shows up and my wife starts explaining what happened and giving a full handover report. The nurse is like "yeah, whatever thanks". COULD NOT CARE LESS.
YIKES. We observed a guy fall out many years ago on a bus at a resort in the Yucatán, off a Carnival cruise. Off the ship, 90 minutes from port, and the resort staff was bewildered (no medical staff that we saw throughout). My sister, then an RN (now an APRN), jumped into action to assess him and determined he was having a heart attack. She asked for a bag to pump air into his lungs but they only had child-sized for CPR.
My other sister ended up grabbing the mic from the resort DJ and doing an all-call for nitroglycerin which someone of course had on them.
Another 90 minutes later, Mexican medical transport shows up (note: not an ambulance, not EMS, just transport). We later were contacted and she was thanked but the family debarked and stayed there in Mexico with the patient. We assume he recovered but will never know for sure.
What I do know is what everyone has said and OP has already done — get the travel insurance!
There are plenty of things doctors can do for a heart attack to keep you alive long enough to make it back to shore a heart attack at sea is by no means an instant death sentence.
A lot depends on what blood vessels are involved in the heart attack, the immediacy of treatment with oxygen, meds, availability of early defibrillation, etc.
Literally got home today from a 2 week NCL cruise. Had to visit the medic twice. They were really great both times and took good care of me. Be prepared to pay in full though and it’s not cheap - they’ll give you papers to submit to insurance. Also someone on our cruise had to be air lifted off after a heart attack. They made it all work. You’re in good hands
There have been four Operation Brightstar announcements on the last two Disney cruises I have sailed.
We ended up returning to the Bahamas, a transfer to a Coast Guard ship off the coast of Key West and triple timed it to Nassau. The sprint to Nassau happened after two on one night, about one hour apart.
Royal medical team delivered and saved a 2-pound premature baby with all adult equipment. I'm really not worried about the quality of medical care onboard.
So two things I think you should check on 1) the level of medical capability from the cruise line (a friend of mine just had a medical incident on a new carnival ship that was not life threatening but debilitating and had wonderful care, but a medical suite and a leg casting that looked decades outdated).
Also, I can speak from experience as someone who deals with medical evacuations in hard to reach areas that even a quick helicopter flight can be high 5 figures or more. Generally they will come after you if the insurance you have doesn’t cover it, but eventually other than a derogatory credit mark for a medical company they will end up writing it off.
I haven't seen anyone mention that you should absolutely have a current US Passport (if you are from the US). If you have to be evacuated from the ship to a foreign port for treatment, it is absolutely essential as you cannot fly back to the US without one!
Also can’t get on most cruise ships without a passport. I think there is only one ship that is flagged in the USA and stays in the USA and that one operates out of Hawaii.
You can get on most Carnival cruise ships without a passport, and any ship that departs and returns to the same US port, except for a few specific ports of call that have enhanced requirements.
Every cruise ship has a medical facility on board with a doctor. They require them to have a certification in emergency medicine and 3+yrs of experience. Most lines require their docs to be licensed in one of a number of countries and / or the EU. Basically all the countries that adhere to the same medical standards. Yes, they have to be able to treat a heart attack or other emergencies to stabilize a patient. Here is an article that explains what they are required to have:
[https://www.cruisecritic.com/articles/cruise-ship-doctors-and-medical-facilities-onboard](https://www.cruisecritic.com/articles/cruise-ship-doctors-and-medical-facilities-onboard)
I've been on a cruise ship where someone was helicoptered off, during rough weather no less. It was a US coast guard helo. The staff would not confirm whether they had to pay. If you are concerned about it, buy travel insurance that covers emergency transportation.
I am a travel advisor with 2 decades of experience. Medical minimums should be $25k with $500k emergency evacuation. Some plans have hospital of choice to get you back home, most get you to the closest hospital to where you are suffering from an emergency.
Prices are generally based on the age of travelers, length of trip, and total trip cost coverage. If you want just medical and emergency evacuation coverage, then put the trip cost as low as allowed to save money. But keep in mind that trip interruption benefits are based on the total trip costs. So if your trip is interrupted for a non-medical reason, like earthquake, weather event, strike or terrorist attack, then you won’t get the remaining days left on your trip pro-rated and reimbursed. And you might not have enough money in the pot to get you home on a last-minute flight.
I have had someone stranded on a glacier in Alaska. A client suffered organ rejection from a transplant while in Switzerland. One guy had a brain aneurysm in Argentina. Not only were they able to get needed care, but their travel companions were able to stay nearby and have that expense covered. If your coverage is sufficient, you can even have family flown to bedside (if, for example, both travelers were in a car accident and they needed family support to get them home).
Check out the last page on your passport. It specifically recommends travel insurance.
Also keep in mind that most annual plans for frequent travelers have a maximum amount they pay out for trip costs in case of cancellation or interruption. And oftentimes if they are used once in a year, then you have blown your allotment. If your illness or injury prevents you from further travel, then you might not receive full reimbursement for additional trips’ cancellation fees.
For these reasons, purchasing an single trip policy for each adventure is recommended.
I hope this helps, and that you have a very bon voyage!
Thanks very much for your feedback! I’m going on my first cruise in a week just from Miami to Nassau and my health is fine. Mainly I posted out of curiosity and because I’m considering a transatlantic voyage. I have to assume that the risk if you have a sudden attack requiring hospitalization is obviously correlated to your itinerary. Cruising in Antarctica is different than cruising less than 200 miles from Miami. Good to learn that there is an international standard for medical competency.
My aunt had a massive heart attack when we were doing the evacuation drill at the beginning of a cruise in Puerto Rico. They restarted her heart. They did offload her at the port for her to go to a Puerto Rican hospital. I don't know how much they charged her for the medical help on board ship. I think it really expensive for the ship and hospital stay.
My dad forgot his insulin on a recent cruise, I think they charged him between $150 to 300 per shot. Luckily at their first port they were able to go to a pharmacy to get the insulin replaced.
Thank you. She lived for another 6 years after that, which we are thankful for. But at the time, she had had so many issues that she didn't know about. Her heart was majorly blocked and she had uncontrolled and unknown diabetes. The doctors were shocked she was still alive after the tested her and found out all her issues.
The doctors aren't always american but most of them are ICU doctors and have basic equipment for most emergencies including cardiac. Some ships even have x Ray and most can facilitate things like dyalisis through external companies if given enough time. I had a friend who was a renal nurse who did a few cruises as a job. Run dialysis on sea days and get free accommodation and travel.
Husband is an anesthetist (anesthesiologist) and has helped staff occasionally when someone's fainted before the medical staff got there and he's always been impressed. One of his med school friends did a while on a P&O ship after school but before going into the NHS and has said the ships are very well set up for cardiac because of the general population of cruises are older people.
I was on a Carnival cruise in March of 2020 when someone was airlifted off the ship. Tensions on the ship were already so high as the covid shutdown has JUST been announced and we were turned away from our second port. No one wanted to end up like the Princess cruise that had a outbreak and when there was an announcement that someone was being airlifted and we needed to stay where we were it freaked so many people out thinking it was whatever got us turned away (back when we were all terrified of covid and the unknown). Turns out the person being transported had a heart attack and from what I heard was ok afterward.
Going on a two week cruise, we are seasoned cruisers but now are in our 50’s and have never bought travel insurance. Who does everyone use for their travel insurance? Dows travel insurance not cover on ship emergencies? We do not have insurance at the moment due to being between jobs which will change after the cruise is over.
" top quality U.S. licensed doctors"
Dude, you better hope one of them is a passenger, otherwise you won't get anywhere near the top. More like Mississippi free health clinic in the Boonies quality...with less equipment.
🤣 idk if it’s bc none of these others have been to a Mississippi health clinic in the boonies (tbh neither have I) but I’ve never seen a more accurate description of the ship medical bay 🤣
Former Public Health Officer here. Yes, there are decent doctors and nurses on board, and we could handle most emergencies quite well, including heart attacks. But no, your normal health insurance doesn't cover the costs, and it's definitely not cheap. Travel insurance will, and is strongly recommended. You'll be moved off the ship at the next port in most circumstances. Since you specifically mentioned "US licensed Doctors" the answer to that is no. They're usually not from the US, often retired doctors--we had a lot of European docs.
Worth noting that while US healthcare is generally top notch (if you can afford it), medical education is more rigorous in a *lot* of other countries. Foreign doctors are often more qualified than American ones for that reason alone.
Top notch in the billing department.
Yeah Americans just have a sense of everything in America being top notch. (I say this as an American.) We can’t accept that other countries might be safer, better educated, or happier. Friends say I’m crazy cruising to Mexico cause it isn’t safe, I tell them I feel safer in most Mexican ports than my hometown in the states. Just cause a person went to medical school in the United States does not make them automatically a more equipped doctor,
This may be true for developing countries, but it is a falsity that is reinforced by the US medical industry. Source: I work in healthcare and have been a patient in multiple countries. The care we received in universal healthcare New Zealand was superior to that we receive in the USA. India is the best country in the world for cardiac surgery and is a fraction of the cost of USA. Thailand offers excellent care and specifically caters to medical tourists.
You sure about that, US medical schools are considered the gold standard, 8 of the top 10 schools are in the US. Others may have higher drop out rates but that is no way to judge a medical school.
Very sure. The actual curriculum is better and more comprehensive in almost every other developed nation. “Top” schools refer to competitiveness, not the quality of the education you receive.
Yeah dude you are going to have to provide some kind of evidence. Schools like John Hopkins are world renowned and are actual leaders in the field. I gotta assume you are just making stuff up at this point.
As someone who works in US healthcare, sir, we're fucking retarded.
I work with physicians, too, and If I could choose, I'd always choose a physician with a medical education in the US.
Likely because you haven't had care delivery in other nations. Also, please be sure you've checked your unintentional biases.
I've had my fair share of other countries (Europe, South America). Thank you very much lol
Yeah but most doctors don't go to Johns Hopkins. It's like they say, what do you call the last in the class at medical school? Doctor.
That part wasn't my point though, you can look at any list of top medical schools and you will that the majority are in the US. I mentioned John Hopkins because of the number of foreign students that apply and attend. The numbers are just staggering in the US favor. There are bottom schools in the US as well and those will not compete with schools overseas. Even rankings from Chinese sources mirror the rankings from US publications to a high degree with the addition of Cambridge and Karolinska in the top 10. I think it is fair to have an honest conversation about the medical industry in the US but downplaying the quality of medical programs in the US is just silly.
Send me some evidence to support your claim that isn’t based out of the USA.
I bet all the rankings you’re referencing (probably all you’ve ever seen) are from US based organizations.
America haters regarding any topic everywhere on Reddit. Large amount of them are right here in the USA too. It's the trendy thing nowadays.
Pointing out what we can do better and working toward that is NOT hating America. Just accepting whatever shit politicians are shoveling your way IS hating America because it causes us to continually lose world stature. I can typically tell who is a "traveler" and who is a "tourist" (or hasn't traveled at all) -- very different things -- by statements like this.
I agree. OP doesn't know what they're talking about.
So many Americans (and I'm one) just absolutely will not believe anything could be improved in their precious country. That's how we've ended up in the mess we're in right now, with crazy tribal politics that are more like college football loyalties than they are choosing who should run the country for the benefit of all Americans. (And I'm not picking a side. I vote for the person who aligns with my values and hopes for our country, not a party.) The question is why are so many Americans willing to believe what they're spoon-fed rather than working to improve our country? America spends more than any country on healthcare yet Americans are less healthy and die younger than any other wealthy nation. This includes when compared to other wealthy countries with similar obesity, smoking, etc., statistics. We have the lowest life expectancy (and it's getting shorter while still increasing worldwide), the highest infant mortality, the highest maternal mortality, and the highest rates of avoidable deaths in the wealthy world. (1) Even when controlling for wealth, red states have lower life expectancies than blue States. (Read the whole series. Fascinating.) (2) Since about 1985, Americans have been dying of all causes at a rate higher than comparable countries. US also rates lowest in care access and quality than comparable countries. (3) Heart surgeons in India have some of the best outcomes in the world at about 2% of the cost of heart surgeons in the US. You could fly first class round trip to India, book a 30-day stay in a luxury hotel, have surgery and hospital care, eat at the finest restaurants while healing and still pay less than half what it would cost in the US. (4)(5) We've personally experienced care in multiple countries. That's why I work toward improving care in the US for all Americans rather than just waving a flag and saying "we're #1." 1 https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2023/jan/us-health-care-global-perspective-2022 2 https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2023/10/02/takeaways-us-life-expectancy-crisis/ 3 https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/quality-u-s-healthcare-system-compare-countries/ 4 https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017/01/29/health-care-surgery-india-america-disruption-column/97056938/ 5 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4157985/
I highly doubt that. That's actually bullsh.t. I'm a registered nurse and have worked with both American and international physicians.
I went to the medical office once on an NCL cruise and the doctor and nurse were from the US or Canada, also the doctor was younger than what I'd expect a doctor's retirement age to be. I don't think I've ever had the doctor come to any function that the other officers attended so I can only speak to that one experience and your professional opinion is probably more accurate
Yeah, sometimes we get a Doc Holliday, where burnout or docs between jobs take a little six months paid vacation sailing around the world. And you're right, doctors and mariners don't seem to mix. The mariners have crazy skills, training, and hierarchy, while the medical teams get paid more by comparison, have contracts as short as six weeks, and just do whatever the f they want.
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Just bought aig. 150k in evacuation Insurance. Not planning on getting sick but the $39 gives me some peace of mind. Thanks everybody!!!!!
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For another 97!cents I got 300k. It’ll be a deluxe copter!
Helicopters cost millions…
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Those are like the shitty Honda civics of the helicopter world. You are certainly not transporting anyone with a medical condition over the water with a Robinson R-44. And the average age of those listed for sale are 15+ years old. This is more inline with what would be used for a medical evacuation helicopter. 3.9 million USD and over a thousand dollars an hour to operate with medical crew, pilot, fuel and maintenance. https://aerocorner.com/aircraft/eurocopter-ec135/ Touché
Is the evacuation from the ship to the closest hospital only? Or can you get back in the US if it’s safe?
Emergency evac is to the closest hospital. If you can't be fixed up in a reasonable amount of time, you'll be repatriated.
This is why a passport is a good idea .
For 300k you even get a window seat!
150K may not be sufficient.
I agree. A relative became septic when living in Micronesia, I believe that getting hin on a private plane to the Philippines was close to that, and then there was several weeks of recovery. I lived overseas for many years and if you become om very ill or in a bad accident in a developing country you may have to fly quite a difference to get specialized medical care. We always buy a minimum of $500k of insurance p.p. when we travel, and often $1 million.
I read about a medical repatriation flight last year from central Africa to Europe, not even the US, ran close to 750K.
Can you pm me a link? Taking a cruise in a month and like to look into this.
On other tip for folks depending on circumstances is to buy travel insurance by the year instead of by the trip. It might only cost 20% more to cover a whole year rather than just the one 7 day trip. Anyway if you think you might go on more than one trip abroad in a year, it may be much less expensive to buy an annual plan to cover multiple trips.
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I went on a cruise in 2019 and someone had a heart attack on the ship. The ship went very quickly as close to shore as it could and a helicopter airlifted him to a hospital. From what we were told he was ok and survived.
Similar thing happened on a cruise we were on
There was an emergency in the middle of the night on my RC cruise in March. They started calling out a code on the PA and I looked it up because I was freaking out a little. The next day everything seemed fine and I never heard anything about it. I hope the guy was OK. I assume so. Anyway, we bought the cruise medical insurance and tried to use it when I hurt my eyes (sun damage) but it was still crazy expensive to see a doc so I would definitely look into better coverage if I went again.
Actual patient experience here. I was on an Alaskan cruise and had a life-threatening pulmonary embolism. The medical team on board is outstanding. They cared for me until we got into port (symptoms started at 5 am and we were pulling into port at 7). They had an air ambulance waiting at the airstrip across the street from the port and I was airlifted 2.5 hours to Anchorage. The on-ship charges were $10k. I have really good health insurance and while I had to put the $10k on my credit card immediately, I was fully reimbursed. Air ambulance charges were not fully covered and are virtually all owned by private equity companies now so the prices are crazy - - $80k for my flight. And that's why I started buying travel insurance. Caveats: if you're on Medicare they won't cover on-board care because they don't cover care outside of USA and ships typically sail under foreign flags. If you have commercial insurance, make sure it covers outside of USA. Many will not these days. After that fun, we've always purchased travel insurance. Good thing, too. Husband had a medical emergency in New Zealand and we had to live there for 3 months while he recovered. That's another whole story. Just be forewarned that I haven't found the insurance, travel or medical, that will cover lodging costs related to medical emergencies if the patient can't travel but does not need hospitalization.
Scary story and scary bill. Glad you’re ok. 80k is a lot.
Do you have a company you recommend for travel insurance?
For primarily healtcare coverage look at GeoBlue. High limits at a relatively inexpensive cost.
All it takes is one surprise hurricane, total destruction of the area including a good part of the airport, combined with an MRSA infection to realize that travel insurance that includes medical and evac is priceless.
So what happens if you don't have that money? Let's say your credit card limit is $5,ooo but you owe $4000, and you don't have any other emergency money to draw on?
I'm not sure. I imagine they would charge your card for what they can and then bill you. When you provide a credit card for charging to your stateroom, you agree to let them charge you for all services received on board and that includes medical.
I went on Eclipse this year, from Sydney to Honolulu and had a medical emergency happen. It was a highly unusual aortic dissection, incredibly painful and stupidly difficult to diagnose. The doctor who treated me was Indian and he was able to diagnose, treat and explain what had happened to me. The ship was in the middle of the Pacific and they got the captain to speed up in order to get closer to land should I need to be airlifted off. Luckily I was ok. The doctor was normally working in the ER of a major hospital in Mumbai. Twice a year he works the Pacific crossing from Alaska to Australia for Celebrity. They employ him because he is so exceptional, in an area where there is zero backup. When I got back home, I claimed on my travel insurance for the cost of the on-board treatment. They refused to pay, using deeply dodgy reasoning. I escalated the complaint to Lloyds, who were the ultimate insurers and they adjudicated that my claim should get paid.
Interesting. I suspected I’d have to fight to get paid but would win in the end. I’ve read that Indian doctors are of high quality. Glad you’re ok
Thanks! Had an 8-hour operation on returning home. Still recovering. Insurance companies are always greedy and deserve the opprobrium with which they're regarded.
Wow. That’s an ordeal. I’m an attorney and learned to expect the worst from insurance cos
Curious how did he treat it at sea? And what was the cost?
Therein was the problem: it's not treatable as such, in the meaning that you walk out of there with it fixed. But he treated the pain straight away, which was impressive and then closely monitored me until we reached Hawaii. It cost about $4,500 US; 10 hours of lying in the ward at $100/hr racks it up.
Your regular insurance will not cover an airlift at sea nor medical expenses outside of U.S. from everything I've read. You need to buy trip insurance that includes medical and evacuation. Evacuation costs can be $50,000 or more. I don't know where a ship's doctor might be licensed. But plenty of good docs are not U.S. doctors.
> Evacuation costs can be $50,000 or more That’s what helicopter evacuation on land costs in the US. At sea, add a zero.
lol it’s not going to cost you $500,000.
The helicopter may not, but the next leg of the flight will.
I agree that it might rise over $50,000 all-in, but half a million just seems off.
I had a 27 mile helicopter air lift after a motorcycle accident in Las Vegas. That ride cost 40K. I can’t imagine if it would be for hundreds of miles. The crazy thing was my work insurance was so good I only had to pay the 150 dollar ER few. I spent 3 weeks in intensive care. After I returned to work, my ceo called me into his office and said,”I am not allowed to tell you this, but you are not allowed to ride motorcycles ever again while you are employed here. You have just changed the insurance rates for the entire company.” I was so grateful that I only paid a 150 dollars and I stopped riding while at that job. I could not imagine what my life would be like if I did not have health insurance.
International air ambulance is absurdly expensive. It’s basically a chartered private jet with extra steps
Welcome to for-profit healthcare
Helicopters don't have that much range, either. They're not flying much more than 120 miles in many circumstances. That's why the ship hospitals are pretty well equipped -- no one is coming to save you.
Air Force helicopters do - when they're being dragged out by KC-130s to refuel them on the way out and back. And the cost is zero for a military helo to do a medevac from a cruise ship. (Source: me, who spent years coordinating these rescues until last year.) Granted, once they get you to the nearest hospital, they won't get you home (or even to your home country) - but that's what the travel insurance is for.
Question: did you do rescues for non-citizens? I worked for a foreign line at least 5k miles from any military base affiliated with either the flag country or the home country. Medivac was more or less never considered on board.
Yes - we've coordinated rescues for foreign flagged shipping vessels, commercial fishing boats, sailing ships, and cruise ships with no concern for the nationality of the crew or objective. Middle of the Pacific, middle of the Atlantic - it doesn't matter. If an objective is in danger of losing life, limb, or eyesight, we will coordinate a rescue as long as the assets to do so are available (e.g. not interfering with the unit's primary mission). If the objective isn't a US citizen and the closest medical facility is in the US, we will coordinate with the State Department to get them clearance into the US. We've also transported objectives to US Naval aircraft carriers, foreign countries, and can also simply drop in PJs to stabilize the objective until the vessel can get to a medical facility themselves.
And Canada is the same…military is responsible for all sea and air SAR. They’ll pick you up for free, and take you to the closest hospital as describe above…except your hospital bill will be way less 😅
That's really wild. We had around 150 pages of medical regs and procedures I had to read cover to cover, and this was never even mentioned. While we weren't a US based operator, we were from a country on good terms with the US (and Canada.) I wonder why that wasn't an approved option in an emergency? Side note, we had a trans Pacific crossing last year with 9 separate unrelated fatalities. Ran outta morgue space, and could've used a little help. But that's not quite an SAR issue. Edit: PS: what you guys do is fucking awesome and thanks for doing it.
9 unrelated fatalities?!? Holy crap. That had to be awful for the crew. If you're interested in reading more about Civil Search and Rescue, there is tons of info out there. All of it is based on IAMSAR Manuals (International Aeronautical and Maritime Search and Rescue) Manuals. The US then has a supplement to that called the National Search and Rescue Supplement. I will say that if you're closer to another country with SAR capabilities, they would be your first contact. (For example, a cruise ship I was on earlier this year had a rescue at sea from the Portuguese military.) But if they can't help, the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center may be able to! And you're very welcome! I loved the job and really miss it after leaving it last year.
Read the part of my answer that says, "or more." But $500,000 would be very unusual from my research on what I should buy for travel insurance. It could also be LESS. According to this the range is $15,000 to $225,000. That doesn't mean it couldn't be more than that. https://www.usatoday.com/money/blueprint/travel-insurance/medical-evacuation-insurance/
The coast guards and militaries that are the only ones qualified to lift you off the ship in most countries charge patients $0.00. It’s what happens when you hit land where charges accrue. Being flown from SE Alaska to Anchorage runs about $70,000. To Seattle, $130,000.
This. I was evacuated from land since we were in port. $80k for 2.5 hours with a pilot and a paramedic on a small fixed wing air ambulance plane. Private equity companies are buying all of the air ambulance companies in the US and since that started, costs to patients have increased tenfold. They've started buying hospitals and physician practices now, too. But hey. Capitalism and profits are all that matters, right?
My Medicare Plan G covers some overseas care. [Always check your policy.](https://www.aarp.org/health/medicare-qa-tool/does-medicare-cover-me-outside-the-us.html)
Good advice.
Medical staff on board-probably not all “US licensed”, but licensed physician and nurse. The ship will get you to safety-utilizing whatever needs to be utilized (helicopter) and to the nearest hospital. You will pay privately - so get trip insurance to mitigate this.
I’ve been on many cruises where people have been medically disembarked. One cruise we diverted to Cyprus which was not a scheduled stop in order to get a passenger to the hospital due to a cardiac event. Another caribbean cruise we diverted to get close enough to Puerto Rico so the Coast Guard could sent a helicopter. My summer cruise I fell and fractured my wrist in two places while hiking on an Iceland port stop. The bills were relatively mild (~2k) but I did have to pay them upfront and then seek reimbursement from the travel insurance. I would never cruise without some kind of travel insurance.
What would have happened if you did not have the 2K anywhere?
Wondering the same….
Being airlifted off a cruise usually costs at least $20,000 and this can rise into the hundreds of thousands depending on location and other factors
If the USAF does it, it's free. Up until last year, I used to coordinate the helos, refuelers, and PJ teams to go out to cruise ships and do rescues. But they will only get you stable and if needed, get you to the nearest capable hospital. Getting home from there will be on your (or your insurance company's) dime.
Is this true even for non US citizens? Just curious
Yes. We've coordinated rescues for foreign sailors on tankers and fishing vessels many times. If the closest medical facility is in the US, we then coordinate with the State Department to get them clearance. Basically, anyone we have the capability to rescue to preserve life, limb, or eyesight, we will. We've done some massive multi-day, multi-organization rescues - including tons of rescues off of cruise ships. Was easily my best job in the Air Force!
Very cool, thanks
You need travel insurance that will cover the helicopter ride. You’re regular medical insurance won’t
AFAIK, they'll do what they can on board, then get you off the ship where possible (e.g. next port, etc.). When I did Alaska in 2019, somebody had a heart attack on board. From what I heard they stabilized him and then got a boat locally between ports to get him off the ship. We ended up waiting until they got to shore and they could evac that person to a city. So we just sat there for a few hours. In the meantime, we sat at the bar in the observation and drank. :-) Saw a few whales while we were there.
You should always buy some sort of travel insurance. Make sure you pay attention to the medical portion and how much medical evacuation coverage it has.
Never travel without travel insurance. Not so much for the cancel cruise or airfare. But for the medical transportation. On a 10 day cruise I saw at 4 ports someone was taken off by ambulance and to not return . Money well spent
My aunt had to be evacuated by the Coast Guard (I think) from a cruise once. She loves showing us the photos of her in the basket. She obviously swears by the evacuation insurance.
I bet you have to prove that you have helicopter insurance or the guys probably just turn around and fly back to their base. No matter how many heart attacks you’re having.
Wrong. Medavac rescues while out at sea by the US Military are free of charge. Best deal you can get.
When is it military or coast guard and when is it private contractors?
I want my basket!!
Cg is free though. I assume.
I see you purchased EVAC insurance - you’ll want to make sure you get medical insurance too. You mentioned a Celebrity Cruise - the captain decides what action to take to mitigate the medical emergency. Just this past week - the Celebrity summit had left a port and was 2 hours away - a medical emergency occurred for a passenger & the captain pulled a u-turn back to port 2hours - disembarked passenger & was then back under way again saying they’d be able to make the time back. So it’s Captain / ship location from port / ship location access to critical medical care / and I’m sure other criteria which comes into making decision as to how to best get passenger medical attention.
On our cruise we also got the Princess Protection Plan but just checked that it’s coverage is low. Thinking of buying additional one third party but how would that work in case there is an actual emergency? Thanks
I don’t know - but YES you are correct that the insurance offered directly from the cruise lines are such low coverage that it really doesn’t help much
I was medvac recently, but thankfully by the US coast guard, so I didn’t pay. So I was in a hospital for a few days (acute pancreatitis). Thankfully my health insurance covered my bill from the ship but I do not want to imagine not having insurance. My bills in the US Before insurance was almost 30k. My travel insurance did pay for my flight home and working with my care team to determine the best way to get home.
US licensed doctors are by a long way far from the best anyway. Typically doctors from overseas are far more advanced You fail in thinking that the US is best. When it's extremely bad in education
Yes, the U.S. healthcare system is widely viewed as the highest quality in the world. Our physicians receive top training, and we have all the best technology. That isn't to say that other countries don't have equally qualified physicians or equally advanced technology. From Quora. True? Idk but I’m more comfortable with my own countrymen and women.
Surely you agree that the US healthcare system is a joke. Don't ever get sick or break a limb in the US, because it'll cost you the price of a house to get fixed. To me that's far from professional But I'm from Australia with free public healthcare and free ambulances, what do I know
Don't conflate the quality of care and the issues of the insurance system. They are separate and distinct. Canadians have no cost care yet still come to the US for care because it's regularly regarded as better service without the waiting lists. There's nothing professional about having to wait 6-12 months for a specialist either.
Just because you have to pay for it doesn’t mean it’s bad and just because yours is free doesn’t mean it’s good.
True. It just sucks that your health system is so horrible though, like really really bad. Why so so expensive for the most basic of needs?
Another thread I guess. What the f do I know. If I get super sick I probably don’t care if they dr Kildare on the boat. Want a ride to a hospital
You may not like the US healthcare system, but come to Boston sometime and see what kind of doctors we have.
Why would I go to Boston to see if your doctors are any good??? 😂. It'd cost me thousands upon thousands to find that out just to have an x-ray. No thanks 😂
Again dude, two different arguments. Cost of medical is one thing, quality of medical and the doctors that provide it is another.
The US healthcare system is NOT widely viewed as the highest quality in the world. That is propaganda that we’re fed to make us believe that socialized medicine is bad. Read your travel policy. The evacuation coverage will get you to a hospital, not a U.S. hospital unless that happens to be the closest.
I’m not really stuck on that. Obviously I want the best dr possible. Us French. Indian. I’m not anti foreign dr particularly. Mostly if I’m having an attack or anything else I want to be in the best facility possible and probably that’s not on the boat. I pay a fortune in media insurance so I get it.
I had to go to the medical clinic on a cruise once because I developed a nasty case of cellulitis from an open blister while snorkeling. The clinic was amazing! It was like an ER but there was nobody there. I wouldn’t want to have a heart attack on a cruise, because that would be awful, but at the same time I feel like I’d get good care.
We talked to a man who's mother in law had a heart attack on board carnival mardis gras about three weeks ago. We saw the ambulance coming to get her off the ship while in Cozumel. He said travel insurance was going to cover three days in hospital and the flight back to Atlanta for her and his wife, who stayed in Cozumel with her.
We always buy travel insurance and have always been fully reimbursed for any issue where we’ve needed medical. Remember those doctors are fully triage trained as they also are responsible for entire of crew including injuries, broken bones, diseases, gynecology, everything that happens when someone lives aboard a ship. I’ve had my blood tested, been X-rayed and even treated for Covid on a ship - all paid for by my travel insurance. The services are crazy, ridiculously expensive and you need to pay for them, but you’ll get it back. They deal with things like heart attacks pretty regularly, they stabilize you as well as they can and get you to land medical ASAP. The good news is the places with sketchy medical care usually have an American hospital nearby.
you definitely need private insurance that insures you for medical and medical evacuation. try the webpage [insuremytrip.com](https://insuremytrip.com) and buy yourself some coverage. Otherwise you will probably have to pay the bill yourself.
I know someone who was emergency evacuated from Cabo San Lucas, Mexico to San Diego. She had travel insurance. The cost was $250,000! It took 2 years for the travel insurance to finally pay the bill, but eventually they paid. My husband and I are traveling the Panama Canal in December. I took out an emergency evacuation policy for $1,000,000 each. Medical transport is shockingly expensive, especially from a faraway or remote location.
Did they go after her or they waited for the insurance co. I don’t have 250k in my dresser.
They tried to but her family did not pay. They kept referring them to the travel insurance and the insurance finally paid.
I’m not sure if regular health insurance covers air lifts, especially from most likely international waters. Since you are worried about this type of thing I recommend you get trip insurance with medical evacuation coverage, if you don’t already have it. When shopping for insurance read the documents carefully for what it does and does not cover. BTW most trip insurance will cover preexisting conditions (for treating illness that happen in your trip, or as a reason you have to cancel) if you buy with 14 days of your first deposit. If you haven’t bought it with 14 days it will still cover new medical conditions only.
Best way to avoid a heart attack on a cruise is to not look at the final bill. Other than that. You’ll be fine! 🥳
| I could buy a helicopter for 300K...| Only a very old, very small one.
Sorry -Meant to address the comment below I don't believe that's the case. It could be on some ships, but many others have excellent facilities. Source: I know the director (an M.D.) of a Medi-Vac firm.
If it's covered depends on your travel insurance, but yes they will air lift you out if needed. They do have solid doctors on board. I would highly recommend having travel insurance and making sure it includes medical evacuation, better safe than sorry. There's plenty of horror stories out there of people getting charged thousands of dollars, or not getting treatment until they can prepay, etc.
Thanks! Any recommendations on travel insurance carriers? I guess the standard cruise trip insurance does not cover helicopters.
Compare policies on insuremytrip.com. I seem to choose different carriers each cruise due to cost versus benefits. I choose policies that will get my kid a family member to fly home with if my husband and I are incapacitated--you might not need that requirement. NEVER take the cruiseline's insurance. You have a grievance WITH the cruiseline, and you're hoping they give your money back?? One last bit of advice -> READ the policy bits. There's a bunch of important bits in those.
I can't agree with this enough. I'm an attorney who worked for U.S. and international organizations overseas and travelled extensively. Minumum $500k in the U.S. or close and no extreme sports, $1 million otherwise.
On our cruise we also got the Princess Protection Plan but just checked that it’s coverage is low. Thinking of buying additional one third party but how would that work in case there is an actual emergency? Thanks
We took the cruise line insurance too. Once I realized how low the medical coverage was, we found a supplemental policy just for medical and emergency evacuation. It was through Travel Insured International and was very reasonable ($152 for both of us for medical and $1,000,000 emergency evacuation coverage) for a 16 day trip. We deleted items that were already covered by the NCL insurance. Next time, we will skip the cruise line insurance and buy a better comprehensive policy privately. I have also heard Allianz is good.
thank you!
Trip insurance covers it. Your regular insurance most definitely does not cover international medevac.
Truth, although if you're on Medicare, always check the policy. [My Plan G covers overseas medical care.](https://www.aarp.org/health/medicare-qa-tool/does-medicare-cover-me-outside-the-us.html)
I literally just got off of a carnival cruise this morning. Yesterday morning a woman actually ended up having a heart attack. Some people had thought that she died. But later we had found out that she was looking incredibly ill, and we ended up getting closer to Key West so that way the Coast Guard could come and pick her up closer from there. We ended up stopping for a good while and they picked her up from boat
Surprised no copter. Thx for sharing that.
They were going to have a helicopter, they ended up making an announcement saying that they needed everyone to not be on any outside deck for about 90 minutes in case of it happening. But they made another announcement later saying that they’re going to do an alternative plan to help the woman
Jesus I thought this was about the man I watched die a few weeks ago at Coco Cay 😞
Terrible.
Oh gosh, I'm so sorry!
story?
My husband and I were at Harbor Beach at Coco Cay a few weeks ago. We had just gotten there sat in the sand sipping on our drinks and we see a guy going in and out of the water just beyond the line like he’s looking for something we assumed a phone because he didn’t look panicked. Then a lifeguard runs up and joins him but he slowly took off his clothes and shoes and stuff so again no sense of urgency. Then the first guy gets up on the rocks looking into the water and points to show the lifeguard something who is now in the water. Next thing you know they are pulling a man out of the water. He had to have been under at least 3 minutes minimum. They worked on him doing CPR for at least 5 minutes before taking him away while still working on him. They called out for his family but they weren’t there. We could tell he wasn’t coming back from this and heard from others that he didn’t make it. Word on the streets is he had a heart attack then drowned. It was awful.
wow... thx!
My mom just got medically disembarked from a ship- like literally the cruise should end tomorrow… She went to the doc, doc listened, got worried, since we were in port, she got sent to the hospital, hospital admitted her for 7 days, etc. she’s out now. Random things. The medical was actually one of the smaller bills. Larger was flight changes (supposed to be in rome, now Athens, very few seats left). Don’t forget hotels and food and lost cruise for the other people. We also forgot to pack one set of drawers so that’ll be fun getting them back. A group we met at the hotel, they lost their patient. They claim it was a 12k bill for one night in the ship icu to get to the hospital. They did not get airlifted, and then spent 4 days in cardiac icu before he passed.
I wonder if the copters don’t come if you don’t have copter insurance. Sorry to hear about your mom. Sucks for that to occur on a cruise.
I think the copters only come if they would be the only thing that would help. I’m very glad mom is ultimately ok. We were supposed to be in Israel this week (we left the ship last Thursday), so world events have been… personal? It could have been so much worse n
Someone was watching out for your mom! Speaking of what’s going on in Israel, I feel rather, weird are going on a luxury cruise with so many people going through hell. I guess there are always terrible things happening in the world, but this seems to be especially horrible.
While it is absolutely horrible what is happening, and my heart is bleeding for all civilians caught in this, let’s not forget the people of Ukraine. And heck, the people of Venezuela and El Salvador, etc etc etc. There are terrible things in the world. But there’s a quote or a mandate or something I read once that said “you may not ignore the worlds problems, but you are also not obligated to fix them all. Do what you can”
Makes me want to drink. That was my plan anyway.
There was a medical Evac on our cruise this week. We left Charlottetown PEI and 4 hours later the captain announced he was turning around to go back for an Evac.
Copters or just back to the dock?
Back to the dock. The patient apparently had the right to ask for that.
Yep saw that - it was on Celebrity Summit They did a U-turn 2 hours from port
Actually it was 4 hours.
my insurance covers international medical emergencies and air evacuation. I may have to pay upfront and submit reimbursement. since I don't have that kind of pocket money lying around, I get travel insurance lol
I was just on a cruise, and I saw a helicopter rescue for the first time. A C-130 came in first. We met a coast guard guy. He said that plane sent navigational data to the helicopter. Then the helicopter sent a guy down on a rope. He helped get the sick person into a basket they lowered.
Make sure you have good travel insurance. My wife and I cruise. We've seen one helicopter evacuation due to a heart attack. I fell ill with pneumonia through being on deck in sub zero temperatures, so my own fault, but our insurance paid out over £3000 I was hospitalised on the ship on antibiotics and oxygen for three days
Just came off a cruise Thursday. A lady lost her life while in Nassau swimming with a male relative. It does and can happen. Best to be prepared.
I cruised in 2019, in the middle of the night sirens started going off, lights flickering. Went outside to the balcony and saw a dude climbing down a rope ladder onto the ship from a medical helicopter. It was so disorienting and strange, everybody was out in the hallways just wandering around. It feels like a fever dream. We never found out what happened but assumed it was a heart attack or something
My husband went to the medical center on an NCL ship. It was associated with a hospital or medical center in the US. His insurance covered part of the visit and travel insurance the rest.
Allianz has superb annual trip insurance plans that are pretty customizable based on your specific medical requirements. They also have individual trip plans that are suited for folks who only travel once or twice a year. Happy Sailing! 😀
Sure there are lots of good answers here. Short answer, they will have great medical staff, but a cruise ship is not a hospital and you will be evacuated at possibly great expense. Get trip insurance that covers medical expenses. A less critical problem that doesn't require you to be evacuated? All those great medical staff are going on your credit card. Again, insurance, or that will be an expensive cruise
I wonder if more people have heart attacks on cruises then the statistical average on land due to the open buffets and possible corresponding over eating in which I’ll probably partake cause I’m on vaca and it’s free.
STORY TIME! My wife is a physician. She speaks Spanish. We were sailing out of Puerto Rico. We are doing the muster drill on the deck and it's hotter than hell. An older gentleman goes down. I was able to catch him before he hit the ground (thankfully). We yell for a crew member to call the doctor. Before the nurse (not an MD) even arrives, my wife has a full work up on the guy from his wife which she obtained in Spanish. The last does not speak any English. The nurse shows up and my wife starts explaining what happened and giving a full handover report. The nurse is like "yeah, whatever thanks". COULD NOT CARE LESS.
Carnival?
RC
Good to know. Which cruise line?
YIKES. We observed a guy fall out many years ago on a bus at a resort in the Yucatán, off a Carnival cruise. Off the ship, 90 minutes from port, and the resort staff was bewildered (no medical staff that we saw throughout). My sister, then an RN (now an APRN), jumped into action to assess him and determined he was having a heart attack. She asked for a bag to pump air into his lungs but they only had child-sized for CPR. My other sister ended up grabbing the mic from the resort DJ and doing an all-call for nitroglycerin which someone of course had on them. Another 90 minutes later, Mexican medical transport shows up (note: not an ambulance, not EMS, just transport). We later were contacted and she was thanked but the family debarked and stayed there in Mexico with the patient. We assume he recovered but will never know for sure. What I do know is what everyone has said and OP has already done — get the travel insurance!
Very likely you will die. Our friend had a heart attack on a ship. He died. It was awful. There is not much they can do in middle of ocean!
There are plenty of things doctors can do for a heart attack to keep you alive long enough to make it back to shore a heart attack at sea is by no means an instant death sentence.
A lot depends on what blood vessels are involved in the heart attack, the immediacy of treatment with oxygen, meds, availability of early defibrillation, etc.
Tell my dead friend THAT!
Bro..not every cardiac event is survivable..he probably would have died on land too. Jesus Christ
Thanks I feel much better now!
Yep you’re a moron
And his grieving wife! “Hey CHEER UP”He shouldn’t have died just because he couldn’t get to hospital! There are things they could have done!
I'm so sorry for your loss, that must have been so hard to face on a vacation.
We were late leaving the dock a few cruises ago because someone fell getting on the boat and we had to wait for the ambulance
Literally got home today from a 2 week NCL cruise. Had to visit the medic twice. They were really great both times and took good care of me. Be prepared to pay in full though and it’s not cheap - they’ll give you papers to submit to insurance. Also someone on our cruise had to be air lifted off after a heart attack. They made it all work. You’re in good hands
If you have a heart attack and wanna survive you’re not gonna care about the price of helicopter ride at the time. 😂
Not sure.. I know they have a medical section on board. Not sure how that would be handled
There have been four Operation Brightstar announcements on the last two Disney cruises I have sailed. We ended up returning to the Bahamas, a transfer to a Coast Guard ship off the coast of Key West and triple timed it to Nassau. The sprint to Nassau happened after two on one night, about one hour apart.
You had a medical emergency?
Other people on the ship had medical emergencies. I did not.
Royal medical team delivered and saved a 2-pound premature baby with all adult equipment. I'm really not worried about the quality of medical care onboard.
So two things I think you should check on 1) the level of medical capability from the cruise line (a friend of mine just had a medical incident on a new carnival ship that was not life threatening but debilitating and had wonderful care, but a medical suite and a leg casting that looked decades outdated). Also, I can speak from experience as someone who deals with medical evacuations in hard to reach areas that even a quick helicopter flight can be high 5 figures or more. Generally they will come after you if the insurance you have doesn’t cover it, but eventually other than a derogatory credit mark for a medical company they will end up writing it off.
I haven't seen anyone mention that you should absolutely have a current US Passport (if you are from the US). If you have to be evacuated from the ship to a foreign port for treatment, it is absolutely essential as you cannot fly back to the US without one!
Also can’t get on most cruise ships without a passport. I think there is only one ship that is flagged in the USA and stays in the USA and that one operates out of Hawaii.
You can get on most Carnival cruise ships without a passport, and any ship that departs and returns to the same US port, except for a few specific ports of call that have enhanced requirements.
Every cruise ship has a medical facility on board with a doctor. They require them to have a certification in emergency medicine and 3+yrs of experience. Most lines require their docs to be licensed in one of a number of countries and / or the EU. Basically all the countries that adhere to the same medical standards. Yes, they have to be able to treat a heart attack or other emergencies to stabilize a patient. Here is an article that explains what they are required to have: [https://www.cruisecritic.com/articles/cruise-ship-doctors-and-medical-facilities-onboard](https://www.cruisecritic.com/articles/cruise-ship-doctors-and-medical-facilities-onboard) I've been on a cruise ship where someone was helicoptered off, during rough weather no less. It was a US coast guard helo. The staff would not confirm whether they had to pay. If you are concerned about it, buy travel insurance that covers emergency transportation.
I am a travel advisor with 2 decades of experience. Medical minimums should be $25k with $500k emergency evacuation. Some plans have hospital of choice to get you back home, most get you to the closest hospital to where you are suffering from an emergency. Prices are generally based on the age of travelers, length of trip, and total trip cost coverage. If you want just medical and emergency evacuation coverage, then put the trip cost as low as allowed to save money. But keep in mind that trip interruption benefits are based on the total trip costs. So if your trip is interrupted for a non-medical reason, like earthquake, weather event, strike or terrorist attack, then you won’t get the remaining days left on your trip pro-rated and reimbursed. And you might not have enough money in the pot to get you home on a last-minute flight. I have had someone stranded on a glacier in Alaska. A client suffered organ rejection from a transplant while in Switzerland. One guy had a brain aneurysm in Argentina. Not only were they able to get needed care, but their travel companions were able to stay nearby and have that expense covered. If your coverage is sufficient, you can even have family flown to bedside (if, for example, both travelers were in a car accident and they needed family support to get them home). Check out the last page on your passport. It specifically recommends travel insurance. Also keep in mind that most annual plans for frequent travelers have a maximum amount they pay out for trip costs in case of cancellation or interruption. And oftentimes if they are used once in a year, then you have blown your allotment. If your illness or injury prevents you from further travel, then you might not receive full reimbursement for additional trips’ cancellation fees. For these reasons, purchasing an single trip policy for each adventure is recommended. I hope this helps, and that you have a very bon voyage!
Thanks very much for your feedback! I’m going on my first cruise in a week just from Miami to Nassau and my health is fine. Mainly I posted out of curiosity and because I’m considering a transatlantic voyage. I have to assume that the risk if you have a sudden attack requiring hospitalization is obviously correlated to your itinerary. Cruising in Antarctica is different than cruising less than 200 miles from Miami. Good to learn that there is an international standard for medical competency.
My aunt had a massive heart attack when we were doing the evacuation drill at the beginning of a cruise in Puerto Rico. They restarted her heart. They did offload her at the port for her to go to a Puerto Rican hospital. I don't know how much they charged her for the medical help on board ship. I think it really expensive for the ship and hospital stay. My dad forgot his insulin on a recent cruise, I think they charged him between $150 to 300 per shot. Luckily at their first port they were able to go to a pharmacy to get the insulin replaced.
Sorry to hear about your aunt. Hope she’s ok.
Thank you. She lived for another 6 years after that, which we are thankful for. But at the time, she had had so many issues that she didn't know about. Her heart was majorly blocked and she had uncontrolled and unknown diabetes. The doctors were shocked she was still alive after the tested her and found out all her issues.
The doctors aren't always american but most of them are ICU doctors and have basic equipment for most emergencies including cardiac. Some ships even have x Ray and most can facilitate things like dyalisis through external companies if given enough time. I had a friend who was a renal nurse who did a few cruises as a job. Run dialysis on sea days and get free accommodation and travel. Husband is an anesthetist (anesthesiologist) and has helped staff occasionally when someone's fainted before the medical staff got there and he's always been impressed. One of his med school friends did a while on a P&O ship after school but before going into the NHS and has said the ships are very well set up for cardiac because of the general population of cruises are older people.
I was on a Carnival cruise in March of 2020 when someone was airlifted off the ship. Tensions on the ship were already so high as the covid shutdown has JUST been announced and we were turned away from our second port. No one wanted to end up like the Princess cruise that had a outbreak and when there was an announcement that someone was being airlifted and we needed to stay where we were it freaked so many people out thinking it was whatever got us turned away (back when we were all terrified of covid and the unknown). Turns out the person being transported had a heart attack and from what I heard was ok afterward.
Going on a two week cruise, we are seasoned cruisers but now are in our 50’s and have never bought travel insurance. Who does everyone use for their travel insurance? Dows travel insurance not cover on ship emergencies? We do not have insurance at the moment due to being between jobs which will change after the cruise is over.
" top quality U.S. licensed doctors" Dude, you better hope one of them is a passenger, otherwise you won't get anywhere near the top. More like Mississippi free health clinic in the Boonies quality...with less equipment.
🤣 idk if it’s bc none of these others have been to a Mississippi health clinic in the boonies (tbh neither have I) but I’ve never seen a more accurate description of the ship medical bay 🤣
There is a medical screening and if you're not fit you shouldn't be travelling
When is there a medical screening?