What this answers, and what it refuses to
Most cruise insurance tools online are quote forms wearing a calculator's clothes. This one asks for no contact details and produces no quote.
It answers three questions instead.
How much cover does this particular trip call for, given where you are sailing and who is going. Is cancel-for-any-reason worth the money for a trip of this size. And how many days do you have left before the purchase window closes on the benefits that expire.
That last one is the reason this exists. The pre-existing condition waiver and cancel-for-any-reason are gated on how long ago you paid your first deposit — 14 days at some carriers, 20 or 21 at others — and once that window shuts they are gone at any price. It is the most consequential deadline in travel insurance and almost nothing tells you where you stand against it.
What it will not do is name a policy. This site does not endorse carriers, so the tool tells you what to require and which companies publish limits meeting it. The choosing stays with you.
The calculator
Eight questions, none of them your email address. Nothing is sent anywhere — this runs in your browser, updates live as you change an answer, and can hand you a results link and a calendar file when it is done.
What you would lose if you cancelled today — fares, flights, excursions, hotels.
The clock on the waiver and cancel-for-any-reason starts here, not at final payment.
How far ahead you are is half the cancel-for-any-reason question.
More causally linked to the number than age alone. Medicare generally does not travel.
Listed where this site has found a named carrier exception. Those are applied to your results, not just flagged.
Two things this deliberately does not do.
It does not ask for your email, and it does not produce a quote. It also does not name a policy to buy. It tells you what to require, then which companies publish limits that meet it — and leaves the choosing to you.
The reasoning behind every threshold is set out below, because a number you cannot interrogate is not much use.
Where these numbers come from
A threshold you cannot argue with is a threshold you should not trust. Here is every one of them, and the reasoning.
The thresholds this tool applies are Seabound's judgement, not an industry standard. They are built from the destination risk tiers above, the commonly cited $250,000 evacuation minimum, and the gap left when Medicare pays nothing abroad. The carrier figures are facts — they are the limits those companies publish, researched from their own materials and recorded in each guide on this site. The tool tells you which companies publish limits that meet your requirement. It does not tell you which to buy, and no company has paid to appear.
No foreign hospital billing and no long repatriation, so the floor here is about the gap your own plan leaves rather than catastrophe. If any port is outside the US — including a Bahamas or Mexico call on a cruise leaving a US port — choose one of the tiers below instead.
Foreign hospitals bill up front and US health plans usually pay little or nothing abroad. Evacuation is short-haul but still five figures.
Good hospitals, high costs, and a long flight home. Repatriation on a stretcher is the expensive scenario, not the treatment itself.
Ports are further from tertiary hospitals, and moving a patient can mean a helicopter before it means a plane.
The nearest adequate facility and the hospital you would actually want are frequently different countries. This is the tier evacuation limits exist for.
The evacuation figures anchor on $250,000, the sum most commonly cited as a sensible floor for international travel, and rise from there as the nearest adequate hospital gets further away.
The medical figures move for a different reason: what your existing cover does when you leave the country. Private plans vary widely in what they pay abroad. Original Medicare generally pays nothing outside the United States, outside limited exceptions. So the adjustment applies to international sailings only — a domestic cruise never triggers it, because the reasoning behind it does not apply.
And the deadline is not a judgement at all. It is arithmetic on the windows the carriers themselves publish, counted from the date you enter.
What to do with the answer
Four steps, in this order. The first one has a clock on it and the rest do not.
If the deadline is still open, act on it first. Everything else on this page can be reconsidered next week. The waiver window cannot. Buying a policy you later swap is usually possible; recovering a window you let close is not.
Take the two limits as a floor, not a target. They are the point below which this site would not sail on that itinerary. Nothing stops you buying more, and on a long or remote trip more is often the right call.
Then compare the shortlist on the things this tool cannot weigh. Claims handling, purchase conditions, whether the plan is even sold in your state. Each company guide scores those, and the state page explains why the shelf changes by address.
And read the plan document before you buy, not after. Every carrier on this site says the same thing in its own words: the certificate issued to you is the binding version. A calculator, including this one, is a way of knowing what to look for in it.
Straight answers
Does this tell me which policy to buy?
No, deliberately. It tells you what to require and by when, then names the companies whose published limits meet that requirement so you can compare them yourself. Choosing between two adequate policies depends on claims experience over years, which no calculator can supply — and a tool that pretended otherwise would be telling you about its affiliate agreements rather than about insurance. The companies page explains that position in full.
Where does the deadline come from?
From the purchase windows the carriers publish. The pre-existing condition waiver and, usually, the cancel-for-any-reason upgrade are only available if you buy within a set number of days of your first trip payment — 14 days at some carriers, 20 or 21 at others. Miss it and those benefits are gone at any price. The tool counts from the deposit date you enter, so the number it shows is your actual remaining time, not a generic rule.
Why does the medical figure go up if someone is 65 or over?
Because Original Medicare generally pays nothing for care outside the United States, and where a Medigap plan includes a foreign-travel benefit it is commonly capped at $50,000 for a lifetime, not per trip. Travellers under 65 may have private health coverage that offers some emergency protection abroad, but the terms vary widely. Over 65, the policy you buy for the cruise is frequently the only cover in play. None of this applies to a sailing that never leaves the United States, and the tool does not raise the floor on those.
Should I always buy cancel-for-any-reason?
No. It costs real money and it exists for one situation: you may need to cancel for a reason your policy does not list. If your trip is cheap, fully refundable, or booked close to departure, the standard covered reasons may be enough. If it is expensive, non-refundable and booked far ahead — which describes most cruises — the calculation changes. The tool flags it when your inputs put you in the second case.
The tool says my state changes things. What does that mean?
That this site has found a named exception published by a carrier for your state — a plan not sold there, a benefit withdrawn, a limit capped, or cover that is secondary rather than primary. Those are the ones found by name; others may exist. The state guide sets out what changes and why.
Is this insurance advice?
No. It is a structured way of working out what to ask for, built from carriers' own published materials. Seabound Journeys is not an insurance agency and does not sell insurance. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy any policy, and the plan document issued for your state is the only binding version of any cover discussed.
Ask us about cruise insurance
Tell us about the trip, and who's going.
What your booking is exposed to, which coverage types your group needs, and which deadline is closest to biting you.
Seabound Journeys is an independent travel advisory and does not sell insurance. Answers come from this guide and are general information rather than advice about your policy.
Sources and verification
The carrier limits, purchase windows and state exceptions used by this calculator were taken from the companies' own current plan pages, FAQs and policy materials, and are recorded in the relevant guide on this site. Medicare and Medigap statements were checked against Medicare's own published rules. The destination floors, the cancel-for-any-reason prompt and the cover adjustment are Seabound's methodology, not an insurer or government recommendation. That distinction matters here, because this page mixes sourced facts with editorial rules.
Source of the medical and evacuation limits, the purchase windows, and whether cancel-for-any-reason is sold at all. Every figure is recorded with its source in that company's guide on this site.
The tool applies these to the shortlist rather than only warning about them — WorldTrips' $50,000 New Hampshire medical maximum, Travel Insured's unavailability in Montana, New York and Washington, Seven Corners' secondary-cover exceptions in Montana and Missouri, and Allianz's Pennsylvania child-cover exclusion.
Original Medicare generally provides no coverage outside the United States, subject to limited exceptions; where a Medigap plan carries a foreign-travel emergency benefit it is commonly capped at $50,000 for a lifetime. Checked against Medicare's own published rules.
The $250,000 figure the evacuation floors anchor to is the sum most commonly cited as a sensible minimum for international travel.
The only binding version of any cover this tool describes. The floors are guidance; the certificate is the contract. The destination thresholds, the age and cover adjustment, and the cancel-for-any-reason prompt are Seabound methodology, not sourced recommendations.
Verified July 2026. Insurance terms change, ratings are revised, and carriers update plan documents without announcement. This page records what the sources said when it was checked and carries that date deliberately. The plan document issued for your state is the only binding version — nothing here replaces reading it.
Joey Boleslawski is the founder of Seabound Journeys and a CLIA-affiliated travel advisor with more than twenty years in the hospitality industry. He researches and writes every guide on this site himself, and books the sailings he writes about. The examples on this page were assembled from carriers' own plan documents, FAQs and disclosures, with secondary reporting used only where identified in the source notes above. More about how this site works →
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