Costco Travel
 

Has anyone used Costco Travel to book a cruise? I tried to book a cruise for 2026 on Princess Cruise lines. The Costco Travel site has a blank field for me to enter my PrincessCaptain Circle number, but it won’t accept my number or my wife’s number either There are no options for selecting insurance or upgrade, etc.
I talked to Costco Travel yesterday and the agent told me that I had to go ahead and book ($800 deposit) the cruise and then go to Princess site and select the options that I wanted.
I would like to know the bottom line before I book.
Has anybody had any experience during this?

And another question, we have always used the insurance provided by the cruise lines. Are there other options for cruise insurance that may be more economical?
Thanks for any input.

You can almost always get travel insurance cheaper when you do not buy it from the cruise line.


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Cruise Travel Insurance: Is It Worth the Cost? - NerdWallet

My wife and I always buy an annual policy. It covers you for the entire year so if you take one trip a year, it is not a good choice but if you take several trips a year, it saves a lot of money.

Please note that for the annual policy, the trip cancellation and trip interruption amount is per insured, per year, so if you choose $5,000 per person, that is the most you can get even if you take 10 trips.

The policies claim that you covered if you are traveling more than 100 miles from your home so if you are driving to Miami for a weekend, you should be covered with the annual policy.

However, the primary reason that we buy travel insurance is for the medical benefits. The medical benefits are per insured, per trip. So if you go on a cruise in January and you use $49,000 of your medical benefits on that cruise you can go on a cruise in March and medical benefits start all over again - you still have $50,000 for the second or third or tenth cruise. THAT IS THE MAIN REASON FOR BUYING CRUISE INSURANCE - TO COVER MEDICAL TREATMENT ON A CRUISE SHIP. My wife had a very minor injury on a cruise and had to see the doctor. The bill was about $500 and it is not covered by your medical insurance. We are paying less than that for the annual policy!

If we have to cancel a cruise because of sickness or death, the most we would be out of pocket would be under $10,000. I would not want to lose that but if you need medical treatment on a cruise ship, it could cost you a lot more than $10,000.

Check out the story about how NCL charged a passenger $47,000 for a few days in the ship's infirmary!

Norwegian cruise passenger gets flu, and $47,000 medical bill | FOX 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul

We book all of our cruises through Costco.
The way I do it is I have the Princess website up and call Costco Travel. I let them know what cabin I want and they book it.
Costco will kick back a good chunk of their commission in the form of a shopping card. An example. Our next cruise is 31 days and we’re getting back ~$1,400. We also pay with our Costco credit card. It’s like double dipping. lol.
As far as as the bottom line. I don’t get Princess’s insurance. I go through the company Costco uses. More comprehensive coverage for a better price. Their rate is about 5% of the cost of your trip.
There are many things you’ll need to do on the Princess app. That’s the case no matter who you book through.
Also if you’re flying to or from the port make sure you book your flights through Princess. It’s not only cheaper, especially international flights but also comes with guarantees such as getting you to the ship in case there’s a problem with your flight.
We cruise Princess almost exclusively so if you have any questions fire away.

Hi there! 👋 I’m Lauren with Insurance Consultants International, while I have never booked a cruise through Costco, I can answer your travel insurance question —cruise line insurance is convenient, but it’s not always the best bang for your buck.

There are other options! Third-party travel insurance plans often provide more comprehensive coverage, including higher medical limits, broader cancellation reasons, and protection for your entire trip (not just the cruise portion). Plus, you can sometimes save money while getting better coverage.

We actually wrote a blog post all about this if you'd like to dive deeper:
👉 Why Buying Travel Insurance from a 3rd Party Company is Better than Buying from a Cruise Line

Happy to answer any questions — here to help! Safe Travels!

In most cases, you're only going to get marginal savings (if any) booking through a third-party. The cruise lines structure their deals to third parties in such a way that you can't really compare apples to apples. Usually the third party travel agents will only be able to get you "upgrades" or "cashback" but when you compare the full bottom line to booking through the cruiseline it will usually end up being the same.

The devil is in the details. We have found that third party insurers were the way to go for cruises and other trips. (Check out Allianz). Since we travel 3-4 times per year, an annual policy definitely provides more for less money. While we haven’t had to use it yet, it seems to be the prudent thing to do at our age.

I disagree. Third parties are able to get group space and save quite a bit on the cruise plus rebate part of their commission as obc. Also BJ gives us discount cars for use in the store

We also get an annual policy. Found out a few weeks ago that if you want cancel for any reason you have to pick it up just after booking and it is for specific cruise.

Agree 100% but if you are a loyal customer on a cruise line the 3rd party providers have a lot less clout

Another option is to book through Princess directly then transfer the reservation to Costco. Very easy to do, after booking just call Costco Travel and they do all the work for you. You still get the Costco Cash Card and I pay with my Costco credit card to get that bonus money also. Saved me about $800 on my Alaska cruise!

What are the steps to take to book through Princess and then transfer to Costco? I’m guessing that when you book with Princess, you make your deposit with your Costco card? Do you then just call Costco Travel and have it transferred?

As an agent I have found insurance companies ar not in the business of paying out policies for the most part. For collections on a policy it seems the easiest to work with are when you purchase thru the cruise line…it’s not actually them insuring but a third party they use…but knowing you are a customer sometimes helps expedite claims. But be prepared to have lots and lots of documentation!

Book it yourself with the cruise line. Ask for any discounts or special rates for seniors, etc. They will help you with insurance too. If you book through the cruise line and see that the cost for the cruise went down in price, they will honor that......but a travel agent will not usually. Get the booking agent's name and number that you can personally contact with question. They will help you with anything.

Chase Sapphire credit card is one card that comes with travel insurance.

Just watched this video yesterday and their conclusion was the best deal was vacations to go. Might be worth checking out.

https://youtu.be/Ug54PlmGkzA?si=hcf7k6iCipQEvTft

I bought the annual policy through Allianz because I had several cruises booked. Unfortunately, my son got very sick and I had to cancel 2 cruises last minute. Allianz was WONDERFUL! At an extremely difficult time, they walked me through what I needed to submit. I uploaded the information with a short explanation and if I remember correctly, I was reimbursed in 3 days.

We always use Costco Travel for cruise bookings...have done so for at least 15 years. Typically, we'll book the cruise directly through the cruise line, and then transfer the booking immediately to Costco Travel. There are many perks, and no costs, to doing so. If there is a fare reduction prior to the sail date (it happens), a simple call to Costco Travel gets you the lower rate. We also usually get an unannounced extra onboard credit, and a boarding day gift, such as a bottle of wine from them. The biggie, though, is the post-cruise Costco cash card. Depending on the cruise, these can be substantial. On an 18-day Australia cruise, the cash card from Costco was over $900.00. Another much appreciated benefit is their customer service. When you call, you will speak with a USA based English speaker who is genuinely glad to help.

I’ve re-fared several times through Costco when fares have dropped. Just called them up, they called Princess and I had the lower fare. Easy peazy.

As previously mentioned, some credit card companies provide travel insurance if you purchase the trip (airfare, ground transportation and cruise) on the card. I have a Chase Sapphire Reserve card that provides us with insurance. It's yearly fee is somewhat high but becaue we usually take a couple of cruises ir sort of pays for itself. Not long ago we had 2 cruises in Asia and for additional protection I purchased a health only policy through Allianz to supplement the credit card coverage. It was very reasonable. I had an accident in Vietnam and had to seek medical attention at the ships infirmary. i submitted a claim on the Allianz policy while we were still on the ship and a few days later we were reimbursed. I'd use Allianz again if I needed a policy. Happy cruising.