What type of travel insurance do I need for a cruise?
Cruise travel insurance is an important part of planning any cruise vacation. It can protect you from unexpected events, such as illness, injury, lost luggage and missed flights. Smartraveller, the Australian government’s travel advisory service, strongly recommends choosing travel insurance that covers cruising, even if you are not leaving Australian territory. Some cruise liners will not allow passengers to come aboard without adequate travel insurance, and some countries may stop passengers without appropriate international travel insurance from disembarking at their ports.
The options providers may offer include travel insurance policies that are:
- Specialist, cruise-only policies
- General policies that automatically include cruising
- General policies that offer add-on insurance for cruises for an extra fee.
What type of travel insurance policy you need to cover your cruise depends on your needs, such as:
- The length of the cruise
- Where you are cruising to
- What activities you will do on the cruise, both on and off the ship
- Who is travelling with you
- Your coverage preferences and your budget
- If you are travelling elsewhere before you embark or after disembarking.
Keep in mind if you are planning an overseas holiday with a cruise that some countries require international travel insurance (including medical cover) as a condition of entry.
What is the best travel insurance for a cruise?
There’s no one ‘best’ cruise travel insurance provider or policy. However, Canstar’s Travel Insurance Awards recognise the cruise insurance providers that offer outstanding value to customers around Australia.
Our most recent award winners were:
- 2025 Travel Insurance Award – Cruise: PassportCard, Southern Cross Travel Insurance, Tick Travel Insurance, Travel Protect, WAS Insurance, and World2Cover
How to find the best travel insurance policy for your cruise
The best travel insurance for a cruise will ultimately depend on your particular needs and preferences, but there are some considerations that can help you narrow the choice down. Whether or not a cruise travel policy is the best for your needs depends on how the policy matches your cover needs and budget. Think about what you will be doing on your travels, the risks involved, and how you might pay for something if there was a problem.
The following general tips could help when choosing a cruise travel insurance policy:
- Make sure the policy covers the type of cruise you are taking: You may need a certain type of policy if you are staying within Australian waters (a domestic cruise), while cruises in international waters, or river cruises in a different country, may need a different policy.
- Check the policy limits to make sure they’re sufficient for your needs: This includes ‘claim limits’ and ‘sub limits’, which set out the maximum amount of money you could receive for certain types of claims, such as expensive cameras or lost jewellery items.
- Read the policy carefully to understand what is and is not covered: Policies can have exclusions around ‘pre-existing conditions’, which could be a problem if you require medical treatment while away. For cruises with activities onshore and onboard the vessel, you may need to purchase add-on cover for any adventurous activities not listed in your policy.
- Consider policies that include cancellation cover: Even if you are confident that you won’t cancel your cruise, this can protect you in the event of unforeseen circumstances.
- Check the medical care coverage: Whether you’re going on an international or a domestic cruise, Medicare and your Australian private health insurance won’t cover medical expenses. Check that your cruise travel insurance policy has coverage for medical care.
- Compare cruise travel insurance policies: It’s always a good idea to compare policies from a range of insurers to get the best deal for your cover needs.
Remember! Before purchasing any policy, read the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) and Target Market Determination (TMD) carefully.
What does cruise travel insurance cover?
Depending on your policy and the level of cover you choose, cruise travel insurance could cover claims for:
- Overseas medical and hospital
- Luggage and personal effects, up to a certain limit
- Death and disability, and funeral expenses
- Legal liability
- Hijack and kidnap.
The provider may also offer add-on insurance for:
- Expensive items, like camera equipment, golf clubs and mobile phones
- Ski and winter sports.
What doesn’t cruise travel insurance cover?
When an insurance policy doesn’t cover something, it’s called an ‘exclusion’. Some common cruise travel insurance exclusions could include:
- Not complying with what your ticket says
- Reckless/irresponsible behaviour, such as being under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or leaving items unattended
- Dangerous activities, such as bungee jumping, skiing or skydiving, whether or not they happen as part of on-board activities or during shore leave with adventure tourism (you may need a separate or add-on policy to cover these)
- Deliberately injuring yourself
- Civil unrest, war or acts of terrorism
- Government actions, including having something confiscated at customs, or any time a government action results in something being damaged, detained or destroyed
- Certain pre-existing medical conditions.
There could be extra exclusions in a travel insurance policy for cruises. With this in mind, it’s a good idea to check if the insurance policy covers you for things such as:
- Cancellation or postponement: Check under what conditions you can claim, how much of the travel cost the policy would cover if the trip was cancelled and what associated costs would be covered due to postponement.
- Disruption due to illness, pandemic or epidemic: Check the terms if you were to contract an illness while travelling (such as COVID-19), including what medical, transport and cancellation expenses are covered.
- Quarantine requirements due to illness (pandemic or epidemic): Some policies specifically exclude covering costs related to government-mandated quarantine, such as for COVID-19. This might refer to only excluding Australian quarantine, or it could extend to any quarantine anywhere in the world, including if it is staying on the ship.
- Activities on the ship: Some cruise ships now include a range of activities that would be considered 'extreme sports' on land (e.g. waterslides, ziplines, adventure parks and rock climbing). Check what’s on offer on the ship and compare it to what activities are covered under your base policy.
How do I know if I will get seasick on a cruise?
If you've never been on a boat, you may be prone to feeling unwell if you have a history of motion sickness on cars, buses, trains or planes.
However, the vast majority of people never get sick on a cruise, for two reasons:
- Cruise liners have the benefit of sheer size, meaning they are impacted less by waves.
- Cruise liners also come equipped with large stabilisers, which are underwater wings that are computer-controlled and counteract the motion of the sea.
If you're concerned, speak to your doctor about ways to prevent and treat seasickness during your cruise.
