If you have the sniffles, you may want to cancel that cruise ship vacation. It turns out that you really shouldn't get sick while you're at sea. Unless you want to pay a small fortune in costs.
Taking to the r/mildlyinfuriating subreddit, one passenger opened up about getting ill on a Norwegian cruise ship. they ended up with a lengthy medical bill that totals $9,750.86. Medical staff on board performed 21 different tests on the poster. That totaled $8,761. Then it cost $618.59 on medications and $380.27 on supplies.
That's quite the expensive price point for getting sick on a cruise ship. And I thought going to the ER was bad! Several Redditors shared their own experiences with cruise ships.
The general consensus seems to be get travel medical insurance if you're planning to go on a cruise ship.
Cruise Ship Prices
One wrote, "My neighbor had to be airlifted off a cruise ship the other year. Fortunately she is a 'veteran cruiser' and carries enough insurance to mitigate the diabolical costs. Sorry you have to absorb this, OP."
Another wrote, "My friend's mom slipped and fell and broke her back in the bathroom on her Alaskan cruise. She was in her 60's but great health otherwise. Had to be airlifted to a hospital. Definitely was worth it to have the insurance.
And another wrote, "Also got sick on a cruise (also Norwegian lol) and my claim was denied because it was out of network and my deductible for out of network was $10k or something. Luckily we bought the travel insurance that covered the $5600 bill."
One Redditor who claimed to be a doctor shared their own experiences on the matter.
They wrote, "Doctor here. I agree with everything people have said about travel insurance and attempting to get reimbursement from your insurance company. If you don't get anywhere with that I would call into question some of these charges that look duplicated. For instance there were 7 separate charges for IV push/infusion. That sounds excessive for whatever you had going on. I assume you got IV fluids or something. Maybe they gave you a dose of IV antibiotics. I doubt you got 7 different IV infusions. Also, they charged you twice for the IV pump. All of that needs to be called into question."
