Health Insurance

As I said, the health insurance thing was a bit complex.  

First, we had to have insurance from 10 days before the earliest departure of the ship until 10 days after the latest arrival.  For planning purposes the earliest departure date was a week before the scheduled departure date, and the latest arrival was a week after the scheduled arrival date.  So we actually had to insure ourselves for something like a total of 48 days: 14 days (the transit) plus 14 days (earliest departure plus earliest arrival) plus 20 days (10 days on either side).

Then we had to have the right coverage.  This included medical expenses, emergency evacuations, repatriation of remains, etc.  At Colin's suggestion, we also opted to include trip cancellation.

Finally, the coverage had to be worldwide.  

It took us a few tries to get it right.  Fortunately the company we used -- World Nomads -- was great about working with us as we cancelled and cancelled and cancelled until we finally got it right. And Colin was very patient in helping us get it right.

Of note, Colin recommended that we hold off on finalizing the insurance until we got relatively close to departure.  Once we got to that point, he said that we could tighten up the dates a little.

When all was said and done, the total cost for both of us was about $670 USD.

One final note...if you are doing this, once you submit your application and payment information for the health insurance, you will receive two document almost immediately: a receipt, and a health insurance policy package.  Neither of these is particularly important for the shipping company.  Be patient and wait a bit.  Within 30 minutes or so you should be receiving a one page insurance letter that spells out everything.  This is what the shipping company wants to see.