How to Get Travel Insurance for Your Next Disney World Trip

A trip to Disney World is a must for families looking to create those special, once-in-a-lifetime memories with their kids. But creating magical memories can be expensive. Theme park tickets, hotel bookings, flights and car rentals all add up. That is why buying travel insurance to protect your trip investment is a smart idea.  

With the right travel insurance plan, you can rest easy knowing that expenses related to everything from lost luggage to a full trip cancellation can be covered.

Let’s take a look at how you can secure the right travel insurance for your Disney World Trip, and what to expect.

Disney’s Own Travel Insurance

The first thing to know is that Disney conveniently offers their very own travel insurance plan, which you can purchase as an add-on to a booked vacation package for either Disneyland in California or Walt Disney World in Florida. When checking out, you just need to select the “Add Travel Protection” option. You can also add it to your reservation by calling Walt Disney Resort, and it can be purchased at any time before finalizing your trip payment.

Their Travel Protection Plan is available to U.S. residents and the insurance benefits are backed by Arch Insurance Company, located in Jersey City, NJ.

What does Disney’s official travel insurance cover as of the date of this article? Let’s take a look:

Trip Cancellation or Trip Interruption: If you need to cancel or interrupt your upcoming Disney trip due to one of the covered reasons, such as illness or injury, you could be reimbursed for non-refundable travel package costs. This includes the cost of your airfare, even if it was booked separately, as long as you are scheduled to fly within seven days of your travel package.

Trip Delay: If you experience a delay in your trip for a covered reason, Disney’s insurance plan can reimburse qualifying related expenses up to $600 ($200 per day).

Baggage Loss and Bag Delay: If your baggage is lost, stolen, or damaged, the Disney insurance plan will reimburse up to $2,000. For bags that are delayed, the plan will reimburse any necessary purchases made as a result of a bag delay of 12+ hours.

Emergency Medical Protection: The plan can cover up to $25,000 if you’re injured or become ill on your trip.

Emergency Evacuation/Repatriation: The plan can also cover emergency medical transportation and related costs in the case that you’re injured and need to be evacuated or transported.

Travel Accident: If an accident occurs on your trip, such as accidental death or dismemberment, the plan can provide up to $25,000.

Rental Car Damage: If you’re renting a car on your trip and it gets damaged, vandalized, or if there is a car theft, the plan can reimburse costs up to $25,000.

One thing to keep in mind is that the details of the policy may change depending on your state of residence.

Disney Insurance vs. Third Party Travel Insurance

While you can certainly buy travel insurance directly from Disney, you can also buy travel insurance from other providers. In fact, comparing insurance plans from other providers may save you money and provide more suitable coverage in the long run.

As of 2022, Disney charges a flat rate of $82.50 per adult and $6 per child for its travel insurance plan (you’ll only see this price when you go through the vacation booking package process at checkout). If you are booking an expensive Disney trip, then this isn’t a bad price, especially since it comes with everything mentioned above, but for more tightly budgeted trips, it is a pretty expensive plan.

Additionally, it is very uncommon to find flat-rate travel insurance plans from travel insurance companies. Typically, when booking travel insurance from various providers, you’ll find that the price varies based on a few key factors, like your age, the trip cost, and the kind of coverage you’re looking for. Chances are, you’ll find less expensive travel insurance from a third party insurance company than directly from Disney.

When booking with a travel insurance company, you will also be allowed much more flexibility when it comes to coverage. You can pick and choose what kind of coverage you need. For example, maybe you are driving to Disney World in your own car, in which case, you wouldn’t need the Car Rental Damage or the Baggage Loss/ Baggage Delay insurance Disney offers. And maybe you aren’t too worried about death or dismemberment on your trip, in which case you wouldn’t need Disney’s Travel Accident coverage, either.

In short, booking with outside insurance providers allows you the benefit of selecting the exact coverage you need, which will affect the price – so it’s likely that you’ll get a better deal than what Disney is offering in their comprehensive Travel Protection Plan.

Get Your Insurance

If you want to see what travel insurance company providers are offering in terms of coverage and pricing, you can easily compare rates at TravelInsurance.com. All you need to do is fill out a quick online form to get started. Make sure you have the following information handy:

• Trip cost
• Main destination
• Trip dates
• Number of travelers
• Ages of travelers
• Permanent residence
• Citizenship
• Initial trip payment date

Comparison travel insurance websites are great because they allow you to the check pricing and coverage levels of various policies from top insurance companies in a matter of minutes, making it easy to find the best policy for your Disney trip.

What to Keep in Mind When Shopping for Travel Insurance

With so many companies offering travel insurance policies with every level of coverage, you may be unsure about what kind of coverage you should get. So how do you choose the right travel insurance plan for a Disney World trip?

Below are the major types of travel insurance to consider and weigh against your particular needs:

Lost Baggage

Arriving at an airport and finding out your baggage is either lost or delayed can be a real headache, but if you are traveling with kids, it can be a downright nightmare. You may need to run out immediately and purchase diapers, snacks, clothes, pajamas and toothpaste.

While baggage insurance won’t magically locate your lost baggage, it can cover the costs associated with the loss so you don’t have to stress about the money being spent on the inconvenience. What a relief!

Trip Cancellation

Trip Cancellation insurance can reimburse prepaid, non-refundable costs, such as hotel reservations, flights, and other bookings if your trip is canceled for a covered reason.

Be sure to check the details on what is considered a covered reason, though this type of insurance usually covers injury or illness, hurricanes and other natural disasters.

Cancel for Any Reason

This type of travel insurance is typically an upgrade from your standard Trip Cancellation insurance, and it’s exactly what it sounds like – you can cancel your trip for any reason at all. This option is especially useful in today’s uncertain COVID-19 climate, where you may have fears about the virus before your Disney trip. Most travel insurance plans consider contracting COVID-19 to be a valid reason for standard trip cancellation, but they won’t cover fear or worries about traveling or a Disney World shutdown, which is where a Cancel For Any Reason upgrade can come in handy.

Final Thoughts

Losing your luggage, getting sick right before your trip, a hurricane warning – none of these things are fun to think about in relation to your upcoming Disney World vacation, but having travel insurance, whether it’s through Disney or an outside insurance company, will give you the ultimate luxury: piece of mind.

Compare prices online today at TravelInsurance.com to see what rates you can find for your upcoming vacation.

Compare and Buy Travel Insurance

Compare and buy travel insurance plans from top rated insurers