Making It Work: How We Got Grandma and Grandpa on the Vista

My grandparents were terrified of cruising. That's what I kept hearing every time I brought it up. My grandmother, Dorothy, was worried about getting seasick. My grandfather, Frank, couldn't imagine being stuck on a ship for a week with nothing to do. They were in their mid-seventies, reasonably healthy but not exactly adventurous travelers anymore. My mom kept saying, "Just drop it, they're too old for that sort of thing." But I wasn't ready to give up, especially after my grandfather mentioned during a phone call that he'd always wondered what it was like to wake up in a different country. I started doing research obsessively. I needed to find the right ship, the right cruise line, the right itinerary. I wasn't looking for a floating nightclub or a party atmosphere—I needed something that felt a little more civilized, a little more like what my grandparents might actually enjoy. When I found information about Oceania Cruises' Vista, something clicked. The ship is smaller than those mega-ships, carrying around 1,200 passengers instead of 6,000. The reviews kept mentioning that Oceania attracts a more mature demographic, which I knew meant my grandparents wouldn't feel completely…