Shore Excursions through Oceania

Hi,

I am trying to book shore excursions with Oceania and am rather frustrated with the fact that they can't tell me the time of the excursion or even if they are an afternoon or a morning event. In fact, the representative didn't even want to talk with me directly since I booked through a travel agent. I am very disappointed right now with the overall customer service from Oceania. Has anyone else had trouble with booking shore excursions? I would like to plan other activities so it would be helpful to at least know if they are morning or afternoon events.

Would you recommend waiting until I get on board to book? Maybe they will have more information by then? Any advice would be great.

Thank you.

Hi,

 

I am trying to book shore excursions with Oceania and am rather frustrated with the fact that they can't tell me the time of the excursion or even if they are an afternoon or a morning event. In fact, the representative didn't even want to talk with me directly since I booked through a travel agent. I am very disappointed right now with the overall customer service from Oceania.

 

Would you recommend waiting until I get on board to book? Maybe they will have more information by then? Any advice would be great.

 

Thank you.

The res agent probably does not know the times.

Yes it is quite common if you have booked with a TA that the res agents will not discuss things with you. Why not ask your TA to check for you.

Unless it is something that may book up early EG Moscow trip, Iguassu falls, I would wait till on board when they will have the times posted.

I would definately wait until on board. We just got back from the rome to venice cruise. We Did all excursions on our own--much cheaper and you go at your own pace. Yes, maybe we did not see everything but then again we would go out early and return when we wanted.

Our TA had informed us that she would be happy to reserve our shore excursions (and she was grateful that they are commissionable). We decided to take the whole Discovery collection because the price was slightly cheaper (almost 2 "free" excursions for the price of the 10 excursions we originally chose).

The Cruise Critic Board is heavily oriented to "Do It Yourself" but we have found that most of the ship's excursions were a good product and there are some benefits to taking the ship's tours. 1. Ship personnel go on the tours often and write up reports on the tour and how the tour was delivered. 2. You know that the bus/van is liscenced and well-maintained and the driver is legal. 3. The tour guide/translator can get in touch with ship's agent if there is a delay or a problem. Also guide wants to continue to get business from ship so will try to do a quality job. 4. THE SHIP WAITS for their tour groups but not for missing private tours 5. I hesitate to take the word of someone I don't know (even though it seems like we know our Cruise Critic friends) and send off several hundred dollars (group of 4) and hope each day THEY show up with the car in good shape (and air conditioned) with a sane driver who doesn't smoke or go off to drink a beer!:eek: It seems often that people rave aout a certain few companies or drivers but then they report it was not the one they hired but "his friend" who was also very good.

Go to your TA and have them reserve your tours. Remember that you must pay for them when booked. Have a great cruise however you decide to see the world.

Thanks to everyone who replied so quickly. I think we will do many ports on our own because we like to do a lot of walking but there are a few excursions that sounded interesting to me. My TA couldn't get anymore information from Oceania regarding the timing of the excursions. As far as I can see, there is no benefit to booking ahead of time so I think we will wait until we are onboard.

I'm still open to more suggestions and feedback. This is all very helpful!

Thank you.

When I called Oceania regarding information on the excursions, I found the main office staff very unhelpful. However, when I sent them an email, I received the information I wanted and they were helpful. It took them 24 hours to respond, but I was satisfied with their response.

Wow, first I discover that you only get a hot breakfast via room service if you are in one of the highest level cabins. The "lower classes" just get some fruit and rolls tossed their way. Now I find out that you cannot book your shore excursions on line and if you booked with a TA they have to book these for you? I have cruised with both Seabourn and HAL and was able to book my shore excursions directly on line myself with no intervention from my travel agent. This is getting really annoying.

I am sailing on a Transatlantic cruise in November-only one shore excursion is showing up on the website. When I called Oceania to inquire the person I spoke with told me there were no shore excursions because it is a TA cruise. I asked her about the 4 days in Brazil but she said she didn't think TA cruises had shore excursion:eek:. I also tried emailing and the response was to check about a month before sailing-no info available. Hopefully the shore excursions will appear before we sail.

Cathy

. Now I find out that you cannot book your shore excursions on line and if you booked with a TA they have to book these for you?

As already posted

If the shore excursions are listed for your cruise just login to the Already booked" then ADD the excursion you want to your "shopping basket" (just like online shopping sites) then confirm with a credit card.

Just note you will billed at the time you book them they will not be added to your ship board account.

I am sailing on a Transatlantic cruise in November-only one shore excursion is showing up on the website.

 

Cathy

Usually the shore excursions are posted 3-4 months prior to sailing you will also receive a booklet not sure if it is 60 days or less prior.

Lyn

I thought I HAD booked a tour through O's online site but when confirming with the onboard Tours Desk they had no knowledge of our booking and anyway the tour was cancelled due to poor turnout. This was such a disappointment to us on a somewhat amazing cruise!

Wow, first I discover that you only get a hot breakfast via room service if you are in one of the highest level cabins. The "lower classes" just get some fruit and rolls tossed their way. Now I find out that you cannot book your shore excursions on line and if you booked with a TA they have to book these for you? I have cruised with both Seabourn and HAL and was able to book my shore excursions directly on line myself with no intervention from my travel agent. This is getting really annoying.

If you are looking for reasons to be negative, you will find them anywhere, even Seabourn. Nothing gets "tossed your way", the service is impeccable.

You have been misinformed or have misunderstood about booking the shore excursions. They will appear on line when it is closer to the cruise. This is true with most cruise lines, because shore excursion providers do change, and current excursions are not confirmed until 3 or 4 months before a cruise, sometimes less. You will be able to book them on line whether you use a TA or not. You may also book them through your TA. My excellent TA has informed me that individual tours are not commssionable, but he is happy to book them for me as a courtesy. I have booked them online on occasion, but I tend to wait until we are on board, especially if we have shipboard credit to spend.

I thought I HAD booked a tour through O's online site but when confirming with the onboard Tours Desk they had no knowledge of our booking and anyway the tour was cancelled due to poor turnout. This was such a disappointment to us on a somewhat amazing cruise!

According to my most knowledgeable travel agent, the most frequent source of errors with the online booking system is guests placing a tour in the shopping cart, then failing to check out. If you have not been asked for your credit card, you have not completed the booking, and when it is complete, you will receive an email confirmation from Oceania.

I am sailing on a Transatlantic cruise in November-only one shore excursion is showing up on the website. When I called Oceania to inquire the person I spoke with told me there were no shore excursions because it is a TA cruise. I asked her about the 4 days in Brazil but she said she didn't think TA cruises had shore excursion:eek:.

This seems to be a problem in the home offices of most cruise lines. Unfortunately, the low level folks seem to prefer to guess rather than find the correct answer. I'm fortunate in that my travel agent will not give up. He recently had to talk to 6 or 7 people in Celebrity before he found someone with knowledge of the US Direct program in Vancouver who could tell him how to book it for me. The first 5 or 6 people all denied it existed (I'm now booked)!

I don't know what the solution could be, but by being on CruiseCritic, you are heading in the right direction.

By the way, I have taken 3 cruises with Oceania and have 2 more booked, and a few folks have credited me with a little knowledge about it, yet I have yet to call or email the Oceania office. If your agent is not getting you the correct answers, you might consider a new agent! (This was a general statement, not directed to OceanNurse).

I am certainly very glad to hear that I CAN book my shore excursions directly on line myself. It takes me a long time to sort through all the various options for shore excursions and I find myself returning to the listings over and over again while trying to decide. I try to focus on one or two ports at a time and make my final selections and then continue on to another port so I am glad that I can pursue and book my choices on line.

You may want to print out the shore excursions and then review and delete by crossing out the ones not of interest.

We find that for longer port intensive-cruises it is a big help to have a printed version in our hands. We also have never had a problem booking on line and getting our tickets delivered the first afternoon.:)

I'm taking my first Regent Seven Seas cruise in December, partly due to the included shore excursions. I cut and pasted all of the ones that matched our needs into Open Office Writer (like MS Word, but free) and formatted one to a page and printed them out. Then, Betsy and I spent a delightful evening passing them back and forth, pointing out things the other had missed, researching a few which were unfamiliar, and sorting them into priorities.

As soon as the official excursion list is posted (usually about 120 days out, which will be sometime next week), we're ready to load and lock. Because they're included in the cruise fare we understand they go quickly, so I check every day to see if they have been posted yet.

RSSC's website has the courtesy to publish a list of excursions that have been offered in the past to use as a planning reference. The list is not official until the booking opportunity is posted.

Often, if one is early enough, one can accomplish the same thing with Oceania by looking at the excursions for an upcoming cruise. This only works if one is looking approximately a year ahead. For Example, for our B2B cruises next March and April, I looked in January at the same cruises for 2009. the ports don't always match up perfectly, but one can get a good idea. Another way to do it is to find a cruise going to the same port, even if it's not the same ship or the same itinerary or the same time of the year.

... I asked her about the 4 days in Brazil but she said she didn't think TA cruises had shore excursion:eek:. I also tried emailing and the response was to check about a month before sailing-no info available. Hopefully the shore excursions will appear before we sail.

 

Cathy

Cathy -

If you're going to be in Brazil for 4 days ... we had a wonderful driver/guide that I'm sure you would be happy with. He's been in the business for years ... has a new(er), air-conditioned mini-van ... speaks excellent English and is very personable and knowledgeable. If you'd like more info, I can't post it here (rules you know) but I'd be happy to email it to you. We'll be using him again in April when we're back in Rio.

I am sailing on a Transatlantic cruise in November-only one shore excursion is showing up on the website. When I called Oceania to inquire the person I spoke with told me there were no shore excursions because it is a TA cruise. I asked her about the 4 days in Brazil but she said she didn't think TA cruises had shore excursion:eek:. I also tried emailing and the response was to check about a month before sailing-no info available. Hopefully the shore excursions will appear before we sail.

 

Cathy

We're on the Insignia (the cruise after you) and our excursions are listed. If you just doing a general check on the Oceania site make sure you look under South America and not TA (only Cape Verde is listed there).

Cathy -

 

If you're going to be in Brazil for 4 days ... we had a wonderful driver/guide that I'm sure you would be happy with. He's been in the business for years ... has a new(er), air-conditioned mini-van ... speaks excellent English and is very personable and knowledgeable. If you'd like more info, I can't post it here (rules you know) but I'd be happy to email it to you. We'll be using him again in April when we're back in Rio.

Thank you so much. You can email me at cathyee_98 at yahoo.com

I really appreciate the info. I want to make the most of my time there. Thanks again. Cathy

I attempted to bok shore excursions for an upcoming cruise late last week on the Oceania web site and was also unable o do so. I called Oceania and spoke with a representative who said they were having problems with their site. He said he would book them for me. Unfortunately, every single one of the shore excursions that I wanted to take was full so he wait listed me. I called my TA and he is working on it. Unlike some of the advice I have seen on this Cruise Critic Board, in the future, I will book shore excursions for those trips I plan to take that are offered by the ship, as soon as they are available for booking, rather than wait until I am on board the ship, to avboid disappointment. I recognize that ship-provided shore excursions may not always be full in advance of sailing, but in this instance, perhaps because it is a Grand Tour and there are two parts (I am taking both) the excursions are.

Also, with regard to a discussion in another thread about Regent's advertised "free" shore excursions, I learned to my surprise and dismay that they are not all in fact "free". Rather, a Regent rep told me that Regent did not state that "all" of the shore excursions (in the particular cruise I am taking, or in any cruise that are advertised as having "free shore excursions") were free (which was certainly the way I read and understood it); that "there is at least one free shore excursion in every port" and that "at least 80% of them are free." Some of the most desirable destinations that would be accessed through a certain port are, in fact, only offered through very expensive multi-day "land and hotel" programs that take place during the cruise itself.

rather than wait until I am on board the ship, to avboid disappointment.

Your cruise may be the exception to the rule, but, at least on Oceania, it is far more common for a tour to be cancelled due to poor bookings than it is to be turned away because the tour is full.

I'm wondering if the Websight Gremlins might be causing those excursions to appear full.......try checking back in about a week, and see if the answer is still the same.

It has been our experience that longer "Grand Tour" types of cruises, usually attract older passengers who have "been there, done that".

At several ports, they will either simply lunch at a fondly remembered restaurant or even opt to stay on the ship.

Unless your cruise sails in a matter of weeks, there is something odd about a great many of the excursions being sold out.

Wow, first I discover that you only get a hot breakfast via room service if you are in one of the highest level cabins. The "lower classes" just get some fruit and rolls tossed their way. Now I find out that you cannot book your shore excursions on line and if you booked with a TA they have to book these for you? I have cruised with both Seabourn and HAL and was able to book my shore excursions directly on line myself with no intervention from my travel agent. This is getting really annoying.

My friend and I booked our cruise thru a TA. My friend likes to have everything planned well in advance and only wanted to do ship's tours. So she got the TA to book her excursions as soon as they were released.

I joined a tour of Pompeii with other people on our roll call but then decided to do some ship's tours. The TA said go ahead and book them myself when I was ready as she did not get a commission for it and that way I could spread out the cost as Oceania bill your credit card as soon as you book. There was one tour that every time I tried to book I just got an error message so I booked that once we were on board

The only danger of waiting until you are aboard is signing up late and finding a tour "filled."

I made the mistake of not seeing where I had to pay for the tours I signed up for online a month before the cruise, and when I got aboard, I was not signed up for any. One of the ones I wanted had not had enough interest and had been cancelled.

As for quality, it works both ways. We had a mix of Oceania and private tours on our Baltic cruise. Three of the Oceania tours were excellent, one was fair, and one tour guide was terrible. We had two private tours -- one absolutely fabulous (in St. Petersburg), and one very fair (in Berlin). These were both arranged with the same company.

Oceania's tours are pricey there is no question. You pay less for a private tour for a small group and CAN have a better time, but there is no guarantee which one will be better. All you can do is check and do some research, and for that I have found CC to be the most helpful tool around.

I would definately wait until on board. We just got back from the rome to venice cruise. We Did all excursions on our own--much cheaper and you go at your own pace. Yes, maybe we did not see everything but then again we would go out early and return when we wanted.

We are taking this cruise (Rome to Venice) Oct 5 and would really appreciate it if you would share some of your experiences at the different ports. Was it easy to find local venders at the port? In Taormina were you able to find a tour to Mt Etna that also gave you some time to see Taormina? Any information you could give us would be a great help. We don't like the big bus tours either.

Thank you,

Diane

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