Free travel insurance offers when booking online

One of the latest perks being offered by various online cruise travel websites is free travel insurance with bookings.

Here are some offers we've come across recently:

eCruises.com offers complimentary cruise travel insurance to all vacationers who book through their site. It insures all the passengers in a stateroom and not just the first two. Coverages include trip interruption and cancellation, emergency dental and medical expenses, emergency medical evacuation, travel delay, and baggage delays and losses.

Cruise Value Center offers free cruise travel insurance when you book voyages on select Carnival, Celebrity, and Royal Caribbean sailings. The deal includes most of the above coverages but applies to new bookings for first and second passengers in a stateroom only.

TopCruiseClub.com offers free cruise travel insurance with every new online booking through its website. This is described as a "limited time offer" but no expiration date is noted.

As with any free offer, it's important to read the fine print and compare it with other offers before signing up. Cruise travel insurance benefits can vary widely, and not all contingencies that could force you to miss your cruise may apply.

But if you are able to take advantage of one of these offers, it could save you several hundred dollars off your total costs.

Cruise ship photo by Dennis Cox/WorldViews