halfapair

Hello, We are booked on the Vista for a Jerusalem to Istanbul cruise in 2024 (I know, it's way in the future, but I am curious about how things work).

Our cruise begins on June 1st with an overnight in Haifa, Israel, and departs for Ashdod, Israel on June 2nd at 10:00 PM.

When is the muster drill? On June 1st? Or June 2nd?

I am asking this because I plan to set up a private tour guide (we will be in Israel for several days before the cruise departs), and would like to know when we need to be on board.

We were on the Insignia for the Panama Canal cruise, 28 December 2022 - 16 January 2023, and we had Oleg in Martinis playing the piano. He played before dinner. Not sure about after dinner, tho.

1 hour ago, Rosroz said:

I’m sorry to see Jaques go I would have preferred Polo to have been replaced , very old fashioned in my opinion, Also think Red Ginger is itching special , either way I hope they take a good look at ALL the menus , modernisation is what is needed .
Saying that I can’t say I’ve been that disappointed with the food 😆

100% agree about Polo. The menu needs a refresh.

On 11/3/2022 at 12:11 PM, WNcruiser said:

It states reservations are required for dinner. 
 

I don't see how "crab cakes with spicy aoli" is inventive. Seems like that's been done a million times before.

I also wish they would update the menu in Polo. It's kind of boring, and the desserts aren't that good.

I've been on two Princess cruises (Alaska & Caribbean), and two Oceania cruises (Baltic Sea & Panama Canal). Here is my take.

Princess and Oceania are oceans apart (forgive my pun!), in terms of quality, service, and ambiance.

The food quality is next-level on Oceania. The Main Dining Room food is better than the restaurants on any Princess ship. The restaurants on Oceania are even better than the dining room. With the exception of the nightly souffle in the dining room (different flavor every night!)... I wish they had it in Polo. But you can always drop into the dining room for dessert after dinner in another venue😉

Baristas is awesome. You can order a "frou frou" drink. I ordered vanilla iced lattes in the afternoon. Just delicious. As others have stated, there is no additional charge for cappuccinos, lattes, or espressos.

The service is excellent. Twice a day your room will be made up. In the morning, and then turn-down service as night. My only quibble is with the chocolate at night, I wish it tasted better. But I ate them and was happy. The staff in every venue really go above and beyond, whether it's dining reservations, bar service, or assistance with an emergency (which I had). They are all unfailingly polite, kind, and helpful.

Oceania ships are smaller than Princess ships, and the passengers are a bit older. But the overall feeling is very casual, and friendly. It's easy to just strike up a conversation with anybody on board. Take part in the games (bridge lessons, team trivia, golf, bean bag toss, shuffleboard, etc) and get to know your fellow passengers. Soon, you'll find yourself meeting them for meals, chatting in Baristas, or playing cards together.

We'll never sail on Princess again, but we did book another Oceania cruise during our Panama Canal cruise. Can't wait!!!

Yes. Get off the flight as soon as possible, and have your transfer to the airport set up to pick you up the port.

We just got off the Insignia and loved it. Yes, the bathroom is small, but my 6'4" husband made it work, so you shouldn't have much of a problem. As others have said, the staff on board is lovely, always pleasant and ready to help. The passengers are wonderful, too. It's easy to strike up a conversation and make friends.

18 hours ago, SSFrance69 said:

Hi all,

I have a very basic question about packing for my upcoming cruise. I tried searching the forums and didn't find the same question with an answer, so here it goes. I see a "flat iron" in the list of items you can't pack. I'm assuming that means a hair flat iron? My question is are you allowed to bring on a curling iron or hot rollers. 

 

Thank you!

I've taken on hair straightener/curler without any problems. They do ask that you unplug any electrical devices when you leave your room.

There are clothes irons in the laundry room, so you don't need to bring an iron for your clothes.

12 hours ago, ORV said:

The Captain had drinks? Hope he wasn't driving the ship. 

He was drinking a Coke, his wife had a glass of Champagne.😊

On 1/18/2023 at 1:47 PM, pinotlover said:

+1. Won’t much affect a TA, but this will become a huge factor between the two lines, especially as Oceania slices more port times away.

 

For those that care, some of Oceania’s senior staff, such as the ship captain, are invisible. They don’t even show up for the Captain’s Welcome Party. AZ’s senior staff intermingles with the passengers FAR more than Oceania’s. Never been a big deal for me, but others enjoy meeting and being coddled by senior staff.

We just got off Oceania Insignia where we had drinks with the captain and his wife in Martinis bar one evening. We just happened to sit down with them. 

They can save fuel by sailing slower between ports, thereby reducing fuel costs. Taking away time in port allows them to go slower....

From 2008, but looks like it applies to 2023:

https://www.seattletimes.com/life/travel/cruise-ships-cut-ports-and-slow-down-to-save-on-fuel/

20 hours ago, Woofa said:

Okay, so here is the big one you have been waiting for.  Food.  Once again let me preface this by saying that we have nothing cruise-wise to compare this to as this was our first cruise ever.  Across the board we had great service but more importantly the type of service you would expect in a fine restaurant, they change up your silverware and your plates for every course, clean your crumbs when they get out of hand, fresh ground pepper or cheese is offered where needed, the bread on board was uniformly very good (except the bagels for breakfast and lets face it, the croissants were very good so I just had my smoked salmon and cream cheese on a croissant every morning!) and butter in most places was in a single serving dish or in the MDR in pats on a special tray with ice hidden below it.  I am open to splenda but generally use stevia at home we had both at most venues.  We had asked for Coke Zero in our cabin and we had plenty however most venues did not have it available.  Luckily I can also drink diet coke so no big deal. 

I will start with Barista's even though this not technically a food venue.  However as a coffee drinker, this quickly became my favorite part of the ship.  The Americano with cream was as good a cup of coffee as I can remember.  They will make it to go as well and I usually went here to get my coffee and then carried it into Terrace for my breakfast.  I found the other coffee on the ship varied from okay to pretty horrible.  As this was pretty much my biggest food complaint, first world problems as they say.. 

My wife had Cappuccino and the iced coffee made in their special machine and thought it was also great.  A nice plus is that I have also started using their wood stirrers as book marks which will keep Oceania on my mind through the time until our next cruise.  Baristas did have food and orange juice available although we did not eat much.  It is okay for a small snack, some bread, cookies, mini sandwiches.  Nothing we thought worth getting again.

Waves (daytime) - This is where we had our first meal on the ship hamburgers after we got on board and we had a few meals here throughout the week.  It is very convenient if you are spending time by the pool and just have to throw on a shirt and some shoes and walk 50 feet to grab a table.  FYI, one day I asked and was actually served our food on the chaise lounges by the pool just let them know and they will deliver.. Burgers hot dogs, all the sandwiches, uniformly good.  Fries also were very good for the most part. 

Waves (nightime) - This is the new pizza venue when waves closes and they have a combination of burrata type cheese salads and pizzas.  Seating is the waves seating so still casual and comfortable.,  We found the pizza to be the best on the ship and very good overall compared to land restaurants.  I am not sure if this venue will really excel however as it is very limited in menu.

New ice cream, smoothie, shake venue by the pool.  I think this was just moved over.  I probably had a milk shake every day on board.  (I ordered chocolate and asked them to throw in a banana.)  very good and the portions are not super huge so you don’t feel too glutinous.  I had a few smoothies as well, they were fine but the milkshakes…

Terrace Café - This is where we ate the majority of our breakfasts and a few dinners.  Breakfast was pretty inclusive and they always had fresh made eggs or choose your omelette.  I was happy as they also always had smoked salmon.  This can be a great venue to eat outside in the right weather.  We mostly ate lunch in Waves.  To me this venue for dinner is completely dependent upon the grill.  They had the grill going most nights where they will make you Shrimp, lobster tails, steak, lamb chops, salmon etc, to order.  Along with grilled vegetables this is actually a great way to have a low carb meal here and there.  I soon found my favorites to be the Shrimp (large, probably U12 or so) and the lamb chops.  On two days they had Caribbean night and the grill was not available.  At that point it lost some luster for us.  The rest of the buffet is solid but not what I would call exciting unless you happen to hit on an item you really like.  Overall I would compare this to a very good buffet like The Bellagio in Vegas (although much smaller and without things like heaping bowls of shrimp or crab legs).  Not quite as good as our favorite Vegas buffet at The Wynn which is now the only one we will go to and usually not for dinner.  There were times that this was crowded and you might have to wait a few minutes for the grill or for them to serve you but it was usually pretty quick.  This is also a great venue to connect to others you meet on the cruise and we sometimes shared tables here.  This is also a great place to try the Humphrey Sloccam ice cream of the day although it is also available in the MDR.  Truth is most of these were a miss for me but only because of the combination.  You could taste it was quality.  I tend to be a Chocolate/Vanilla type of person.  My wife did have a Meyer lemon flavor in the MDR one night so much she ordered seconds.

MDR - This is truly a beautiful venue and we enjoyed eating here.  Only because of how much we liked the specialties was this second place.  This was by far the most formal venue in our opinion.  Menus were nice but we found the food to be hit or miss.  Salmon overcooked one lunch, Risotto undercooked one dinner.  On the other hand I had Beef Wellington with Caviar as an appetizer one night and I loved both.  Similarly one day for lunch I had probably my favorite Club Sandwich ever (with hard-boiled egg, avocado and the edges of the bread cut off.)  What made it better is that we sat by the window and had the entire section to ourselves.  Felt like true pampering.  Quick note on window seats.  For our cruise, once it got dark, window seats were a waste, there was nothing to see.  But if you had one during the day, let's say on a sea day while the boat was moving, well worth it.  It is my impression from our cruise that overall the MDR skews a little older and certainly more formal than Terrace.  More than once we were seated next to or near couples who were very dressed, very proper and to be honest put a slight damper on having a fun talkative dinner.  The MDR does have a daily souffle which was good.  We even had dinner one night in the Terrace and then walked over to the MDR just to order dessert and get the souffle.

 

The specialties were in our opinion, well special.  I can see why people do try to get more than their allotment when possible.  But it is not just that food is very good, the restaurants are beautiful, the service was great and each is so different you have the ability to dine in four completely different high end restaurants on the same cruise, five if you include the MDR.  

Jacques:  I would say our favorite of the four.  Our escargot was perfect, we had lobster thermidor first the first time ever and loved it. 

Polo Grill:  The filet I had for dinner along with my wife’s Rib Eye was very good.  To compare I would say it was one notch below what we get when we go Del Friscos Double Eagle.  (For a true comparison I actually had what I think was the best filet ever when we got back to Miami and had dinner with friends at Bourbon Steak.  That was truly spectacular.)  Appetizers, salads, all very good.

Toscana:  My favorite food to eat out is usually Italian and Toscana on our last night did not disappoint.  My wife loved getting to choose her olive oil and balsamic and I was still able to get butter as that is my preference.  The roasted garlic they put in with the bread was a nice touch.  Calamari and Buffalo Mozzarella did not disappoint.  I had veal scallopini with a side of capellini Bolognese.  Perhaps my favorite meal.  Veal was very good, again I would say a notch below the truly fine Italian restaurants I have eaten at in New York, Philadelphia, etc.  Dessert, let’s take a minute to discuss dessert.  I am usually a pretty plain jane dessert guy.  I like cheesecake, I like bread pudding and a little else. The quintet of mini deserts was the best we had eaten all week and in particular, they had a peach tart that I wish I had asked for additional helpings. 

Red Ginger:  We split the vegetable tempura and some sushi to start, both very good.  I love the idea of picking your chopsticks depending upon your skill level.  FYI, they had no problem bringing me a fork.  I ended up with the lobster pad Thai and it was best pad Thai I have eaten (although that number is somewhat limited.)

 

There were so many other dishes I would still like to try at the specialties for our next cruise.  You can certainly push for more reservations and we did actually try on the second night (sea day) and was unable to get anything, then again on maybe day 5 or 6 when we were able to snag a Jacques reservation for 8:30 but around 6 that night my wife was hungry so we cancelled that reservation and just went to the Terrace. Looking back now that might have been a mistake.  One of the gentleman I played bridge with aboard let me know on day nine that he had actually eaten in a specialty on 8 of the first nine nights.  Of course I don’t know what level cabin he was in. 

 

So,  overall, I can imagine that Oceania does have the finest cuisine at sea.  Of course food is subjective and just recently on these boards I can see people having varied results on the different ships.  We felt very good about the food on our cruise and that for our next cruise we will be able to zero in on what we now know we like to make that one even better.  Was every meal 100 perfect, no, was any meal the best of its type we ever had, well not really as my Pad Thai experience is limited.  But overall with a little research, and armed with the knowledge that you can always walk into the terrace, maybe even have an appetizer, then walk out and go to get Waves Pizza for a main course then head to the MDR for dessert, I think most people will find this a very pleasant dining experience.

 

Happy to answer any additional question I can.

My favorite dessert in Toscana was the peaches with zabaglione. OMG, SO GOOD!

They use the photos for facial recognition. When you get on & off the ship during your cruise, they will use F/R instead of scanning your room key. You should still carry your room key in case the software doesn’t recognize you.

9 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

no shade  on the spa deck for those like me that burn quickly

 Steam room heated loungers  are open to all

It  might depend on the time of day and position of the ship. On the Insignia there were covered areas on the spa deck. I prefer sun, husband prefers shade. We were both happy up there.

On 1/17/2023 at 12:27 PM, Mariastreby said:

Woofa, how was the Wi-Fi? We’d been told by a relative who works for Norwegian Cruise Line in IT that it should have been greatly improved during the dry dock period. But he was only making an educated guess. It certainly needed improving.  We have our first Riviera cruise coming up on March 2, and are used to both having some use of Wi-Fi connectivity at the same time on Viking cruises. Recently got off their first ship, and the Wi-Fi was horrible, but took the maiden voyage on their Mars last May, and it usually worked pretty well. 
 

I know that O has the rule about just one device per cabin using Wi-Fi at a time, which is also a pain now that we can’t do that. Sometimes my husband and I would be in different parts of the ship, and I’d just need a little bit of connectivity to download something, like email. It seems as if all brands of newly built ships are really getting their wifi upgraded, but you’d think it would be a priority during refurbs too. Or do you think I’m asking too much?

100% this! We had some younger people on our cruise who were trying to work from the ship. I can only imagine their WiFi pain.

I would love to semi-retire and be able to work from the ship (any Oceania ship!). Hey, Oceania! Make this happen for me, OK? We need two WiFi accounts per cabin, and good connectivity.

Am I asking for the moon, here?

On 1/15/2023 at 6:43 AM, Woofa said:

I may take this in pieces as we work our way home.  Regarding shore excursions I am afraid we did very little.  New to cruising and to keep our costs down we did cruise only fair and had basically decided to just get off the ship at each port.  However we were very fortunate to meet up with @CaptainR on our roll call and he and his wife invited us to spend our first stop, St Kitts, at a beautiful Hyatt resort.  It was about a 30 minute cab ride and felt like a completely different island.  We had a nice private cabana well shaded and access to the private beach and huge pool.  Some food and drinks were included and the poolside bar was available for anything additional.  It was a beautiful day and the resort was very private and quiet.  We made good friends that day and they kept a good eye on us throughout our first cruise.  Helping with the little things experienced cruisers learn.  In fact we were fortunate to make numerous friends throughout our cruise and ended up exchanging contact information with multiple people.  

Regarding the five other stops we basically just walked off the ship into the local town for an hour or two and then back on the ship for lunch.  Overall we found lots of jewelry stores, liquor stores and cheap souvenirs.  St bars of course had much more expensive stores but even there we really did not find anything to buy like nice local art or crafts in a nice but reasonable price range (low hundreds of dollars.). Now this was partially our fault as we really did no research and did not feel like exploring too far.

A note here on the tender for St Barts.  This was by far the worst part of our trip.  My guess is that we were very close to not being allowed to go to shore at all.  I don't know exactly what I thought the tender process would be like but sitting in a cramped lifeboat with fifty other people was not fun or luxurious.  Getting on and off was in my opinion dangerous as the step on/off often moved up or down by six or more inches as you took it.  The crew was very good about getting everyone on and of safely but I would not be surprised if people get injured regularly.  I don't have any easy solution for this and others let us know this is not always so difficult but we did let Oceania know our concerns.  

We docked everywhere else and getting on/off was quick and easy.

Another quick note is that on this cruise at least, we found it difficult, if not impossible to get shaded chaise lounges by the Pool deck, even on port days.  Very early on these were all taken and rarely emptied even when people went to lunch as they left their stuff.  Now we were not in a bad spot as we had an extended balcony with our own private chaise lounges.  Additionally I was not able to just sit in a direct sun lounger as I did not have enough of a tan.  I also really don't have a great plan for this either except add some additional shade on deck 14 over looking the pool.  this is probably not as big an issue on non Caribbean cruises.  It would not surprise me if the majority of people never got off the ship which added to this being an issue.

More to come...

One tip to solve the pool lounger problem is to book a Concierge level stateroom. You get access to the spa and the dedicated spa sun deck. It's pretty easy to get a lounger on the Spa deck, even on sea days. Also, the steam room and other spa areas area lovely.

1 hour ago, Noxequifans said:

The comment on the coldness of the ship may be due to efforts to reduce the possibilities of illness, etc.

It was also a tropical cruise, and the first few ports were very hot. Grand Cayman & Cartagena were in the mid-to-upper 80's, and humid. The Pacific side of the cruise was still warm, but less humid. It's always easier to put on a light sweater, than to cool off inside.

On 1/18/2023 at 8:42 AM, jonthomas said:

thank you for your review....

 

we will be on the Insignia for a holiday cruise in 2024. Hopefully it will be refitted by then although no info has been given in that regard...

 

it is a very pricey cruise, if things do not improve for food, service and state of ship, we will be cancelling....

We were on the very same cruise and had different thoughts. I have posted my review, too.

We were in a Concierge stateroom, and while it was small, it was comfortable. We had plenty of space to store our items, a sofa, and two chairs on the verandah. Yes, the bathroom is a bit tight, but my husband is 6'4" and managed to shower & shave, etc in the space. He even said he could manage the ATW cruise if we wanted to do that in the future.

There are many comfortable spaces on the ship: Horizons, the library, the pool deck, the atrium, Martinis, etc. The ship itself is in excellent condition. The crew keeps it very clean and well maintained. It was just updated with the new color scheme (carpeting, upholstery, curtains, etc), so it looks quite fresh and inviting.

We did not have any problems with the food. We ate plenty of lobster (which was always cooked perfectly), veal, lamb, beef, etc. The Main Dining Room as a different souffle every night for dinner. I've never eaten so many souffles in my life. The service was very good and we certainly felt quite spoiled.

On 6/17/2022 at 7:51 AM, pinotlover said:

😂

 

Opps! Should have been Ray ! 🥂

Totes agree about Ray Carr. We just had him on Insignia for the Panama Canal cruise. He was on for the ATW. #GoHawks!

My husband and I just completed the Insignia 18-Day Panama Canal cruise on January 13th. We disembarked in 2 days early in San Diego for a family emergency. I wanted to compare & contrast with the previous review by @artbcpa. As he says, these are just my opinions (and husband's, too!).

A+ Panama Canal: I booked us in a Concierge stateroom, which turned out to be great. We could stand on the sun deck, actually on the platform to the whirlpool, and watch the transit from there. We could hear the commentary, too. Definitely the highlight of the cruise. The transit does take 10 hours. We didn't stay on the sun deck the whole time, but it was really great up there!

Solid A Entertainment: I agree with the "A" for entertainment. We had a magician a couple of nights - Fred & Bobbi Beck. He was REALLY funny! Since we disembarked in SD, I cannot comment on Liar's Club. Wish we could have been there. We had a great pianist, Reuel, for two nights. And a singer. She was over-amplified, unfortunately, and this distorted her voice. She had a lovely voice, so the sound team needs to dial back the amplification.

A  Social Director: Ray Carr was great! Funny, genial, and a snappy dresser. We enjoyed Team Trivia with him.

B+ Itinerary: I wish the ship had stopped in some other places such as Belize, Costa Rica, and Panama (we did get on to see the canal, afterall. How about a stop in Colon or Panama City?). El Salvador is a hot mess. Our tour was escorted by a police truck the whole time. And the stops in Mexico were fine. We did a wonderful whale watching tour in Cabo San Lucas. We self-booked it.

Solid B Activities: Everything artbcpa said was true. We even learned to play bridge. The morning bridge lessons were a highlight. Shout out to Michaela & Charlie if you see this - we loved playing & learning with you!

B+ Crew: The service was a bit inconsistent. Our room stewards (two!) were great, though. Our room was always clean & fresh. Hannah in Dining Reservations & MDR hostess was wonderful. Always so cheerful and helpful. Pinky in the spa gave me the best massage every (hot stone). And the whole spa staff was great, too. Other crew members wanted to be helpful, but seemed to need more training (as was noted).

B Excursions What is it about Oceania excursions? The Colima & Colama towns tour was poorly run. San Salvador was boring (understand that there isn't a whole lot to see there, but the food at lunch was sub, sub-par). I will say that the Cartagena Highlights tour was VERY good, and our excursion in Pueta Chiapas was OK. But my goodness, the other two - yeesh! Terrible (except the lunch in Colama - the food was good, but we were rushed. sad)

C+ Speaker: Agree with Art on the speaker 100%. That guy desperately needs Toastmasters. Now. And we should have had a historian not a political science speaker. So much history in Central America.

B+ Cabin: Our cabin was fine. I did bring a travel fan which helped. The A/C was OK, and we learned to keep our curtains closed during the day so the hot, tropical sun didn't blaze into our room. I liked that the ship felt cold, but I am a menopausal woman, so any time I can be cold enough to not have a hot flash I am pretty happy.

A Food: Our food was excellent. In the MDR, Polo, Toscana, and the buffet it was all delish. Waves got overwhelmed easily, and sometimes they forgot components, or they didn't know that a Swiss Mushroom Burger should have tons of mushrooms, not a couple of slices... We ate lobster quite a few times and it was all cooked perfectly. The clam chowder in Polo was excellent. I would like to see the Polo menu updated. It seems very "1980's" to me.

I was disappointed in the cookies in Baristas. As a grandmother and chief cookie baker, I am offering my services to Oceania. Call me! My terms are negotiable.

My overall evaluation of the cruise would be a A-. At the time of the cruise my family was going through a terrible crisis (my dad found out he had cancer), that's why we got off in SD. My husband and I still had a great time, and we booked another cruise for 2024 while on board. It''s a testament to the cruise line that a customer can be delivered a stunning blow, and yet have such great memories of their cruise and think it was a wonderful experience.

My husband and I disembarked the Insignia in San Diego on January 13th after a 16 day cruise. We thought the food was great. I never asked for anything special such as HP sauce, Marmite, etc.

We ate lobster several times in Polo, Toscana, and MDR. Every time it was cooked perfectly and was absolutely great.

We thought the food was excellent in every venue, although they did seem to forget components in Waves (eg. no mustard on a Cuban, etc).

I think that post-pandemic they may have more untrained people on their ships who don't know the system or process for various things such as bringing around the tray of breakfast pastries in the MDR, etc.

When the cruise started, each table in the MDR, Polo, or Toscana got its own bread basket on the table. After about 8 days, they started coming around and serving pieces of bread. Not sure what happened there. Of course, we couldn't eat all the bread in the basket, so I can see that there was a lot of waste. But the service was uneven.

My husband and I didn't think the meat in Polo was as good as we could get at home - the quality of the cuts, I mean. The cooking was great, but the quality of the meat to begin with was not Prime, I don't think.

2 hours ago, artbcpa said:

Since we haven't sailed on Oceania in nearly 5 years, I can't comment on specific food shortages. As for the general quality, it is nowhere near what it was. We just disembarked from the Insignia, and I would say that the food was among the worst we have eaten on any ship. What was most disappointing was how they labeled their dishes inappropriately. "Shrimp scampi" without garlic in a red sauce; "Classic BLT" served mushed like an egg salad, a "Cuban sandwich", that didn't even approach what a cuban sandwich looks or tastes like. Certainly my worst meal was at Polo Grille of all places, where I was served a veal chop that I could not cut with a steak knife. First the waiter and then the manager came over as they could not believe that veal would be that tough, so I offered to let them try. When they could not cut it, I got a new meal.

We also just disembarked the Insignia where someone else complained about the veal in Polo - theirs was dry.

I had the pancetta wrapped veal chop and it was perfect. I also had veal in the MDR and it was delicious. Husband had veal escalloped in Polo and it was good. So maybe the cooking technique or quality of the meat is uneven.

Thank you for all your replies. My dad is home now. And next time we make a purchase this large we will purchase insurance. That is a guarantee!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and you have a happy & healthy new year.

What insurance company and plan do you normally get? I will need to start purchasing that policy for us.

I am pretty sure I know the answer, but thought I would see what the professionals have to say.

My husband and I are in Miami, FL and ready to board the Insignia on December 28th, but my dad was taken to the hospital for what might be a small stroke. His brother and my mom are with him. Tests are being run, etc. 

If I need to cancel our cruise, will we just be out our whole cruise fare? Probably yes, I am guessing…. 
 

Has anyone had this happen? We did not take out insurance, and I don’t know if travel insurance would cover something like this. If anyone has experience with travel insurance for medical emergencies for family members, it would be great to hear about your experiences (for next time).