I’m sure I’m not the only cruiser who occasionally worries about failing to reach a cruise ship before it sails.  So I can imagine how awful it was for a troop of girl scouts who couldn’t make their airline connection and missed their Carnival cruise.  Instead of spending a week sailing the warm waters of the Caribbean, stayed in a motel.

Cincinnati radio station WKRC reports that three years after the mishap the girls are still trying to recoup their losses.   And investigative reporter Howard Ain says that getting the right travel insurance would have avoided the problem.

Here’s what happened:  the group arrived in Indianapolis two hours early for their connecting flight to Miami and, upon presenting paper tickets, were told they were invalid.  After troop leader Diane McConnell called the travel agent, new reservations were made but the group arrived at the pier moments after the Carnival ship departed.  The girls spent their vacation at a Daytona beach hotel rather than on the ship.

Upon return, the troop sued their travel agent and won $4300 in damages.  The travel agency then sued Air Tran airlines — and won. The judge ruled there was really no problem with the tickets, it’s just Air Tran had overbooked the flight.

While some of the girls had no travel insurance, several scouts had taken out trip cancellation insurance but that didn’t work either. “With it being a, they called it a computer glitch, that they wouldn’t cover that — it was unrecoverable,” says troop leader Diane McConnell

According to reporter Ain, “Turns out the trip insurance they bought was from the cruise line. While it is less expensive, it’s also a lot more restrictive than trip insurance purchased from an independent company. Had they bought trip insurance from an independent company, more than likely they would have been covered for the missed cruise. Such insurance is something to consider if you’re ever planning to leave the country.”

This is why I’ve been preaching about the importance of buying travel insurance from one of the independent companies like Travel Guard and Access America.  No matter how much your cruise costs, it’s important to protect your investment.

Do you buy travel insurance?