Jump to content

Oceania Choice shore excursions


cdn.cruiser
 Share

Recommended Posts

Thanks LHT for your reply. Too bad, it is so limited. I think all the full day excursions have the

OC designation. Oceania offers free excursions on O Life and then really restricts them. I understand the O Select would not be available but disappointed about OC.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

All I can say is that on our cruises where oLife was available (June/July on Nautica and in October on Sirena) when we calculated the cost of tours if purchased, we came out ahead. You do need to compare the cost of the tour if you were to buy it as opposed to your cost for the oLife surcharge... if I'm at all clear, it's late at night so maybe I'm not!

 

For example we did a tour to Reid's Hotel for tea in Funchal that would have cost around $200 even though it wasn't one of the "elite" tours.

 

Mura

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
All I can say is that on our cruises where oLife was available (June/July on Nautica and in October on Sirena) when we calculated the cost of tours if purchased, we came out ahead. You do need to compare the cost of the tour if you were to buy it as opposed to your cost for the oLife surcharge... if I'm at all clear, it's late at night so maybe I'm not!

I'm confused about what you're saying. Did you pick the free excursions? Did you have to pay anything extra for them? I understand the restrictions on OLife included excursions. But you can't spend the included OBC until you get on the ship, which presumably means waiting to purchase the excursions until you get on board and hoping they aren't sold out. Not sure how often that happens on Oceania, I'm a potential first-time customer trying to figure out what to do.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm confused about what you're saying. Did you pick the free excursions? Did you have to pay anything extra for them? I understand the restrictions on OLife included excursions. But you can't spend the included OBC until you get on the ship, which presumably means waiting to purchase the excursions until you get on board and hoping they aren't sold out. Not sure how often that happens on Oceania, I'm a potential first-time customer trying to figure out what to do.

 

 

If you look at your O Life options you'll see that the number of excursions works out to be a $100 value each when compared to the OBC option (e.g., 4 excursions per person or $800 OBC for the cabin).

If you pick the most expensive of the included-for-O Life tours, you're ahead of the game.

Sometimes we pick the tours option for O Life (still doing some other private tours), other times we'll pick the OBC and use it for booze on the port intensive and/or longer journeys where the prestige package makes less sense.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm confused about what you're saying. Did you pick the free excursions? Did you have to pay anything extra for them? I understand the restrictions on OLife included excursions. But you can't spend the included OBC until you get on the ship, which presumably means waiting to purchase the excursions until you get on board and hoping they aren't sold out. Not sure how often that happens on Oceania, I'm a potential first-time customer trying to figure out what to do.

 

Yes, we took the "free" excursions. As Flatbush Flyer suggested, I first looked at the price and THEN the description. So we ended up saving a good hunk of change by taking the excursions. We already had a lot of OBC from other sources so we didn't want more. Now, for our cruise in November we probably will NOT take the tour offerings because so far nothing that is offered entices me and we will be meeting friends in three of the ports. It also seems that these days the spread between cruise only and oLife is much wider than it was to begin with.

 

Mura

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Since we never do O tours and drink only a glass or two of wine a day, we much prefer the A La Carte pricing. We also never use their included air so the cruise only price works well for us.

Crystal's all included prices do not have air or tours and they provide some excellent wines so fortunately that works very well for us as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, we took the "free" excursions. As Flatbush Flyer suggested, I first looked at the price and THEN the description. So we ended up saving a good hunk of change by taking the excursions. We already had a lot of OBC from other sources so we didn't want more. Now, for our cruise in November we probably will NOT take the tour offerings because so far nothing that is offered entices me and we will be meeting friends in three of the ports. It also seems that these days the spread between cruise only and oLife is much wider than it was to begin with.

Thanks. On my cruise, the price difference is $700pp. My airfare is NYC-SFO and MIA-NYC, so between that, $400pp in OBC and a free internet package, it seems like a good deal. I need to see how much they'll give me instead of air (my cruise is not until October 2018 so I'm not sure I can do that yet).

 

The shore excursions for my cruise are not yet available except for a few private van/car tours that do not qualify since they're $400+. I just checked the 2017 version of the cruise (SF-MIA Panama Canal) which has its excursions posted to get an idea of the pricing. There were several that seemed interesting, and unless I'm missing something, many in the $129-199 price range seemed to be eligible for the OLife benefit. Normally I'd book tours on my own, but since I don't think there's anything else I'd want to spend the OBC on, taking the free excursions would seem to be a good choice. Unless I can't get the excursions I want, of course!

 

OBC you get from your TA is not a big deal since that is refundable if you don't spend it. Celebrity has recently started allowing guests to spend OBC that the cruise line gives you prior to the cruise. Oceania should do that as well. Normally I'd spend ship-provided OBC on tips, but I have those included (as most people seem to for booking thru a preferred agency).

Edited by MisterBill99
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I believe the real information about tours for your cruise appear at the website around 6 months beforehand. Sometimes earlier, but for our November 2017 cruise they just appeared a couple of weeks ago.

 

We are about to be gold on O so we get more OBC than just from our TA ... not that we argue about the source!

 

Mura

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks. On my cruise, the price difference is $700pp. My airfare is NYC-SFO and MIA-NYC, so between that, $400pp in OBC and a free internet package, it seems like a good deal. I need to see how much they'll give me instead of air (my cruise is not until October 2018 so I'm not sure I can do that yet).

 

The shore excursions for my cruise are not yet available except for a few private van/car tours that do not qualify since they're $400+. I just checked the 2017 version of the cruise (SF-MIA Panama Canal) which has its excursions posted to get an idea of the pricing. There were several that seemed interesting, and unless I'm missing something, many in the $129-199 price range seemed to be eligible for the OLife benefit. Normally I'd book tours on my own, but since I don't think there's anything else I'd want to spend the OBC on, taking the free excursions would seem to be a good choice. Unless I can't get the excursions I want, of course!

 

OBC you get from your TA is not a big deal since that is refundable if you don't spend it. Celebrity has recently started allowing guests to spend OBC that the cruise line gives you prior to the cruise. Oceania should do that as well. Normally I'd spend ship-provided OBC on tips, but I have those included (as most people seem to for booking thru a preferred agency).

 

 

You can find out the air credit today by checking the O Life price on the website with and without air (not to be confused with the "cruise only" price).

On the initial cruise page, the "promotional" price is the O Life price with air. Choose your cabin level and move on to the next page where you'll be given the option of with air or without (near the top of the pricing). Do it each way and you'll know what is the air credit. Also, if you do the simple math, you'll find that the "cruise only" price is usually the same as the promotional price minus the O Life OBC amount and the air credit.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Edited by Flatbush Flyer
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks. On my cruise, the price difference is $700pp. My airfare is NYC-SFO and MIA-NYC, so between that, $400pp in OBC and a free internet package, it seems like a good deal. I need to see how much they'll give me instead of air (my cruise is not until October 2018 so I'm not sure I can do that yet).

you can ask about the air credit now the closer to sailing the amount may be less

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You can find out the air credit today by checking the O Life price on the website with and without air (not to be confused with the "cruise only" price).

On the initial cruise page, the "promotional" price is the O Life price with air. Choose your cabin level and move on to the next page where you'll be given the option of with air or without (near the top of the pricing). Do it each way and you'll know what is the air credit. Also, if you do the simple math, you'll find that the "cruise only" price is usually the same as the promotional price minus the O Life OBC amount and the air credit.

Thanks. They're only reducing it by $300 per person (which makes sense based on what you said). I can't fly for that. I have a year to decide what to do.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks. They're only reducing it by $300 per person (which makes sense based on what you said). I can't fly for that. I have a year to decide what to do.

If they did not include the airfare what would pay to fly to the embarkation port & home?

 

Sometimes using the airfare plus the deviation fee can work sometimes not

 

some people will not fly in economy so taking the credit & booking their own air works best for them

 

In the old days you could take the air credit & book flights for that amount or less now not so much

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks. They're only reducing it by $300 per person (which makes sense based on what you said). I can't fly for that. I have a year to decide what to do.

 

 

Not that you're doing the same routing as me but:

 

I recently did SFO-MIA (one way) for under $300 to start an O cruise. Took the $1000 O air credit, avoided any deviation fee (we always fly in early), and "sort of" started ahead of the game-- except that now we had to get home from Athens.

One way "economy coach" from Athens was about $900. So, $1200 total cost to me (pick my own fly dates, etc.) vs $1000 O air value + $175 deviation (to maybe get my preferred flights) = $1175. So, it looks like I am out $125 if I do my own thing. However, by taking credit and DIY, I was able to use FF points to either upgrade or use all points outright for first class tix ATH to SFO. Found a United/Lufthansa "saver award" for first class and did that. $700 in my pocket (I.e., $1000 credit - $300 SFO-MIA ticket).

Of course, not everyone has a bank of FF miles. But, my point here is that everyone needs to do the math/value dance.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share

  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...