I do own a firm that you can view all the companies who sells coverage and decide for yourself. It took me 35 years before I would allow this for my firm but after seeing the negative results, well……the rest is history.

You are right when you say you are making a small bet saving the money (very unlikely to be used), but its a huge loss when you lose.

I assume the reason they put very ill passengers off the ship at the first port is liability. And it’s also the reason they don’t directly hire doctors or nurses.

Actually there’s a law on the books that a company must provide medical care for its staff and crew….but there’s nothing that says a cruise line has to provide it for passengers.

An 89-year-old passenger comes into your clinic and states that he is bleeding from both his mouth and his rectum. To bleed from both orifices at the same time obviously has to be somewhat of a significantly large bleed. You advise him (truthfully) that this is a serious condition, and that it needs urgent investigation. He pleads with you that he doesn’t have insurance, and so doesn’t want to be disembarked in the current port of call, because it would be expensive, and his insurance wouldn’t cover his expenses. If it was America, everything would be fine, because he would have insurance, and everything would be paid for. This is ONLY different because he is out of America, he doesn’t have insurance, and he doesn’t want to be lumbered with a large bill.

Let’s say that in this case the doctor takes pity on the guy, and says he can stay on board the ship. Since I am playing devil’s advocate here, we can assume the worse possible outcome happens… The guy stays on the ship, the ship leaves port on the start of a 2 day journey back to Florida. 20 hours into this journey, the 89-year-old takes a sudden turn for the worse. He starts to bleed uncontrollably from the rectum, and lapses into unconsciousness. The medical team on board tries their best to resuscitate him, but as everyone knows, they can’t perform major surgery, and they don’t have blood transfusions on board the ship. The medical team asks the captain for help. The captains says that helicopter evacuation is out of the question because they are completely out of range of anywhere suitable. The only possibility is to divert the ship to the nearest other port with proper medical facilities. This happens to be Cozumel, but oh dear, Cozumel is a 6 hour diversion from their normal route. This is a life-or-death-situation, so the captain diverts the ship anyway. One hour away from Cozumel, the 89-year-old passenger dies.

Now look at the situation… There is now a dead passenger on the ship who otherwise would have survived had he been on a land-based medical facility. The family of the passenger are of course ‘furious’. They now don’t want to admit that they pleaded with the ship doctor to keep him on the ship. They are going to sue the cruise ship company for every penny they can get. Maybe this is even worth 10 million dollars!!! Meanwhile, the captain of the ship has been going maximum speed in the wrong direction. He has burned an extra $100,000 of fuel to try and get to Cozumel quickly, and that was for nothing. He now has to try and get back to Florida, again at maximum speed, and that is going to cost the company an extra $250,000 in fuel. He isn’t going to be able to get back to Florida in time though. He was already 5 hours behind schedule because of the diversion, and it is going to be impossible to fully make up that time deficit. He makes his way to Florida, finally arriving at the home port 8 hours late.

Oh dear… (again) !!! 2500 passengers have now missed their flights, and all 3500 passengers are thoroughly upset at all the inconvenience caused. The cruise ship company is of course completely liable for this, and then has to fork out about 2 million dollars in compensation, extra flight arrangements, and hotels.

Think about it. Is it any surprise that cruise ship doctors choose to play it safe and disembark people who have potentially life threatening conditions like Mr Clevenger. It’s not just Carnival Cruise Lines… It would be ANY cruise line, without exception.

Think about the contrast… On the one hand, you have a dead passenger and a bill for over $2,000,000, possibly more than $10,000,000 if the family is successful at suing Carnival. On the other hand, you have a live medically stable passenger, somewhat disgruntled. You do the maths. This was not only the best financial decision for Carnival; it was the *right* decision. Full Stop.

The moral of the story is… Get Travel Insurance, and stop blaming the cruise lines for following the only reasonable course.

Another scenario: you book a flight from your home town to the port of embarkation. But your flight is cancelled or delayed and you don’t make the ship? Travel insurance covers you for this.

PS: I am not an employee of any travel insurance company. I’ve just been close to some situations where people are both covered and NOT covered in medical emergencies.

I read in a guidebook: if you get sick in Italy get on your hands and knees and crawl to an airport.