When Disney Magic Turns Real: My Cruise Insurance Wake-Up Call

I've taken six cruises in the past eight years, and I've never once bought travel insurance. Not once. I'd always thought it was one of those things cruise lines push on you to pad their profits, right up there with the beverage packages and photo packages. My reasoning was simple: I'm healthy, my family's healthy, and what are the odds something actually goes wrong? Spoiler alert: the odds were exactly 100 percent, because something went very wrong on what was supposed to be the most magical week of our lives aboard the Disney Fantasy. Let me back up. My wife Sarah and I had been planning this seven-day Eastern Caribbean cruise for almost two years. We were taking our two kids—Emma, who'd just turned eight, and Lucas, who was six—for what we thought would be the perfect introduction to Disney Cruise Line. We'd saved up, picked our stateroom carefully (a verandah cabin on Deck 8), and I'd already spent an embarrassing amount of time going through the Disney Fantasy's deck plans and planning our port days. We were going to Castaway Cay, St. Thomas, St. Maarten, and Tortola. The kids were buzzing with excitement. Sarah kept sending me photos of the Disney Fantasy's dining options an…