The day before Christmas Eve, we received a phone call from our travel agent informing us that Oceania had sent the following announcement by email to travel agents and passengers of our Around the World Cruise:

Dear Insignia Guest and Travel Partners,

We finished our initial repair assessment for Insignia and expect the ship will remain in San Juan for an estimated nine weeks to complete the required work. Because the time needed is longer than we anticipated, we regrettably must modify our Around the World cruise and cancel the first three segments of the voyage.

Three Grand Voyages aboard Insignia, the 126-day Miami to Sydney cruise on January 10, along with the 90-day Cape Town to Sydney and 128-day Cape Town to Los Angeles sailings on February 15, have also been altered. The modified Grand Voyages and Around the World cruise will now start in Singapore on March 22, 2015, with the ship scheduled to sail the remainder of the original itinerary.

We understand how disappointing this news must be and sincerely apologize for this unfortunate situation. We appreciate your understanding, and as our valued guests we would like to provide you with the following options for your consideration.

• Continue with your booking and join the ship in Singapore. A pro-rata refund will be provided for the cancelled cruise days, along with an additional 25% of the refunded amount in the form of a future cruise credit. To assist with your travel to the ship, Oceania Cruises will provide complimentary business class airfare to Singapore and a one-night pre-cruise hotel stay.

• Cancel your booking and receive a full refund and a 25% future cruise credit associated with the pro-rata cruise fare on the three canceled segments.

Please contact us with your selection by Friday, January 16, 2015. After this date, standard cancellation penalties will apply. The future cruise credit is valid for bookings made before June 30, 2015 with a sail date prior to December 31, 2016.

You may use a portion of your refund or future cruise credit towards a selection of Oceania Cruises voyages departing in January, February and March. We have special pricing on select cruises, many of which are timed so you could enjoy an Oceania Cruises vacation before the revised March 22, 2015 start date for the Around the World cruise and three Grand Voyages.

To discuss available options, we kindly ask that you to call the Insignia Guest Assistance Hotline at 1-866-765-3622 or 786-322-7990.

Once again, our deepest apologies and we hope to welcome you aboard an Oceania Cruises ship soon.

Sincerely,

Crane Gladding

Senior Vice President, Passenger Services

The trip will not resume until the ship is repaired and transported to Singapore. So, our choices are to join it there on March 22 to complete the last of the voyage, or simply cancel it all. With just over two weeks to our sail date, and our luggage scheduled to be shipped in one week, the news was devastating and profoundly disappointing. After well over a year of intense planning and mounting anticipation, this past Christmas holiday has been reflective, thoughtful, and very emotional.

We have until January 16 to decide.