One Word Solution: Insurance

An unfortunate situation has come to light in social media circles and this statement from Norwegian Cruise Line should put it in perspective:

Many of you have heard about the recent story regarding one of our guests and the tragic circumstances surrounding his family’s upcoming cruise. In light of recent discussions, we would like to take the time to share some background with you.

After learning of the circumstances regarding the cancellation of the Colucci family’s cruise, we wanted to make sure that Nicolas would be able to take cruise that he was so very much looking forward to.

While we knew getting Nicolas well again was the family’s top priority, we offered to work closely with the family when Nicolas was ready to travel to ensure that they took their vacation and we provided a personal contact at Norwegian for the family to stay in touch with. Separately, one of our travel partners reached out to Mrs. Colucci and offered their help in making sure the family took the cruise they had planned.

We contacted the Make-A-Wish Foundation, an organization that we work closely with to grant the wishes of hundreds of children each year who want to take a cruise. If the family chooses to participate in the Make-A-Wish program, we will make sure that they receive the cruise they were looking forward to.

We are touched by many similar situations and do our very best to work with our guests to offer support wherever possible. As a company that provides vacation experiences for more than 1.3 million people each year, we understand that situations such as this occur. In all instances, we balance these requests with the need to treat fairly those guests who have elected to purchase travel protection insurance. In an effort to provide guests with peace of mind, we offer travel protection and we strongly encourage our guests to take advantage of this safeguard to cover unforeseen circumstances.

We continue to wish the very best for the Colucci family and hope that Nicolas gets well soon. He and his family are in our thoughts and prayers.

We agree with those who've commented on Facebook and elsewhere that the purchase of travel insurance would have been a prudent move on the part of the family involved. Stories similar to this one pop up every day, which is why cruise lines and independent third-party insurers offer policies to cover such situations. We are not unsympathetic, but our advice to all travelers is to buy insurance unless you are able to "self insure" in case of a loss.