Should you get cruise insurance? Yes, but ...

Lost, stolen or damaged baggage/baggage delay: It just isn't that unusual these days (alas!) to have a baggage "incident," wherein your bags end up in Zurich while your plane lands in Tampa. In case of a baggage delay, most coverage includes an amount to get your essentials, somewhere between $200 and $600 depending on your plan. Lost, damaged or stolen bag coverage is between $1,000 and $2,500, but airline coverage is $2,800 for domestic flights, so this should not be a major component in making a decision on your insurance choice.

How to choose what's best for your needs
Here are some scenarios so you can see how the different coverages might affect your trip.

Cost comparison: You're a couple, each 42 years old. You are taking a seven-night cruise on Carnival and you are flying to the port. The total cost of your prepaid vacation is $1,300 per person. One of you has a relative who is suffering from an illness that might cause you to have to cancel your trip.

• Carnival's coverage: Will cost you at least $119 per person and will reimburse you for the cost of the cruise and the airfare.
• Travel Insured: The least expensive we've found, will cost $61 per person, offers primary coverage, and will refund 100 percent of your trip cost.
• Travelex: At $64.50 per person, will reimburse 100 percent of your insured amount.
• CSA: $68 per person, and will cover 100 percent of the trip cost.

Coverage comparison: You're 56 years old, traveling on NCL's new Norwegian Jewel, on a 12-day Greek Isles cruise. The total cost of your cruise plus airfare is $2400 per person. You suddenly get ill and have to be evacuated.

• NCL's Travel Care Free Coverage: Will cost $169 for the standard policy, giving you a maximum of $25,000 in evacuation costs. Upgrading to the premium policy, $50 more ($219 per person), will increase the evacuation coverage to $50,000.
• Travel Insured: Offers $250,000 in evacuation coverage with a premium cost of $105 per person, and the rest of the policy is primary coverage with a $50,000 emergency medical guarantee.
• HTH (Trip Protector Preferred): At $215 per person, this is the most expensive outside coverage we found, but it covers evacuations up to $1,000,000 and medical emergencies up to $250,000.

Exclusions comparison: You have planned your cruise for over a year. You will be traveling with Morrie and Elaine, your good friends, and you will be celebrating your 30th anniversary. You even managed to get adjoining suites for this trip. All of you took out travel insurance. A week before your departure, Elaine gets an ear infection and her doctor says she can't travel. Morrie and Elaine have to cancel their trip and will get 100 percent of their prepaid costs refunded to them. You don't want to go if they aren't going; this is not the anniversary cruise you had planned, and it would be ruined if they weren't also traveling. Can you get a refund?

Nope. Not from any of the travel protection carriers.

Morrie and Elaine are not family members, which BerkleyCare, administrators for most cruise line coverage, describes as "spouse, domestic partner, common-law spouse, siblings, step-siblings, siblings-in-law, parents, step-parents, parents-in-law, children, step-children, adopted children, grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins." They might be travel companions, but in order for you to be able to cancel and get reimbursed, you have to be sharing the same cabin. This comes under "I changed my mind," which is one of the excluded reasons for cancellation.

And the BIG question: hurricane coverage: Many, many people are curious as to whether insurance coverage has changed after 2005's devastating hurricane season. The short answer is: No, it hasn't. Since the carriers all offer trip interruption and trip cancellation insurance, and since a change in itinerary isn't covered in any event, there was no need to make changes. If there have been any adjustments, it's been in the premiums, not in the coverage.

Remember, you take a risk when you book your Caribbean cruise during hurricane season (June 1 through November 30). You also get a better price point for that cruise, so it's a tradeoff.

Online resources
Having a trusted travel agent who knows you, the cruise "product" and travel insurance options is obviously a benefit. If you're one of those do-it-yourselfers, though, there are ways by which you can access the necessary information. In fact, even for those with agents, you should get to know your options in case there is an insurance plan that better suits your needs than one your agent recommends.

We found that most of the cruise line plans are obscure and difficult to access on the Web, with the exception of those of NCL and Celebrity. Both of those lines' basic protection plans are easily found on their Web sites.

Two other Web sites proved invaluable to us as we researched this article; both provided information that would allow us to make clear choices in selecting travel protection.

Insure My Trip provides quotes from several insurance sources and breakdowns of what each plan covers. You can do the research and purchase your protection right from the site.

The Trip Insurance Store is an online insurance agency that also allows you to book your protection right from the site, but offers so much information in such a clear and concise manner that we found it to be one of the best Web sites we have ever visited. Not only can you compare the coverage of several travel insurance providers side by side, each covered component is described and explained in a manner that makes it easy to understand. We applaud and appreciate that, since the choices and conditions can be overwhelming. Another thing we liked about the Trip Insurance Store is that there are live agents you can call toll free to clarify any questions you might have.

Again, we stress that Cruise Critic is not recommending nor endorsing any particular insurance plan or insurance vendor, but we do believe that an informed traveler is a happier traveler, and we encourage everyone to examine all options. Of course, the member postings on   Cruise Critic's message boards can be an invaluable resource, and are probably the very best place to start your research.

By San Diego-based Jana Jones, who is the creator and editor of lodging Web site Sleeping-Around.com, as well as one of Cruise Critic's stalwart ship reviewers.

Cruise Critic, which launched in 1995, is a comprehensive cruise vacation planning guide providing objective cruise ship reviews, cruise line profiles, destination content on 125+ worldwide ports, cruise bargains, tips, industry news, and cruise message boards.

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