You may recall the weekend last March when we had a record snowfall in our area, President Bush even declared Ohio a disaster area. Judy Doran of Middletown had booked a Caribbean cruise with her sister. Their plane was scheduled to leave here early on that Sunday morning.
JUDY DORAN: "We had snow. Lots and lots of snow so we couldn't get out. WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU COULDN'T GET OUT? Couldn't even get out of the driveway or couldn't get out of the roads. We were snowed in."
They had taken out trip cancellation insurance to cover them just in case they missed the boat-- so filed a claim-- but it was denied.
DORAN: "Actually what the insurance company wanted me to prove that the roads were barricaded. Well I called the sheriff's department and they said they don't barricade the roads."
But authorities did issue road condition warnings that weekend and she sent those to Travel Guard Insurance and argued-- DORAN: "You had different level alerts unless it was an emergency though they really didn't want you out on the roads."
In its letter of denial Travel Guard says its insurance policy defines inclement weather as a weather condition that delays the schedule departure of a common carrier. In this case that delta plane did take off.
DORAN: "The Cincinnati airport was open. They spent lots of money for that. But Dayton, Cleveland they were all shut down for 3 or 3 days. If I could have got out of the subdivision I might have could have made it. BUT YOU'RE PRETTY FAR AWAY FROM THE HIGHWAY HERE? Yes."
I checked with several travel agents who said while travel insurance is strongly recommended when you book a cruise, try to get to the boat one day before sailing.
In addition, book through a local travel agent who can contact the insurance company to explain just how bad the road conditions were.
