So what's the deal with 2 for 1

So I have cruised for years and years with the big guys, but recently they have been going the ways of the airlines, offering a ridiculously and then nickle and diming to get the price you actually pay back up. So I though I would try a more upscale option hopefully to get away from this silliness.

So I open my Oceana brochures that all seem to list these high prices, but they say, wait, because of our "special offers" we are giving you 2 for 1 prices. Am I missing something? Who pays the "regular" prices? I seems like they waste lots of space in the brochure explaining this. This puts a bad taste in my mouth.

So I have cruised for years and years with the big guys, but recently they have been going the ways of the airlines, offering a ridiculously and then nickle and diming to get the price you actually pay back up. So I though I would try a more upscale option hopefully to get away from this silliness.

 

So I open my Oceana brochures that all seem to list these high prices, but they say, wait, because of our "special offers" we are giving you 2 for 1 prices. Am I missing something? Who pays the "regular" prices? I seems like they waste lots of space in the brochure explaining this. This puts a bad taste in my mouth.

Nobody pays regular price. But that's true for virtually every cruise line. You will always see a high "brochure price" that nobody in the history of cruising has ever paid.

That's just how cruise marketing works.

it is marketing

just look at the promotional price pp & remember it includes airfare

If you do not want the air ask about the cruise only fare

some of the new perks are included excursions, PPG & free internet

No one pays the list price, the two for one is the price. The free air is not free, if you do not use it you get a credit. It's just marketing. Oceania is full of lots of marketing stuff. Go on their web site and make a trial booking to get the price you would really pay.

Nobody pays regular price. But that's true for virtually every cruise line. You will always see a high "brochure price" that nobody in the history of cruising has ever paid.

 

That's just how cruise marketing works.

Hmmm... If I go to RCL, Carnival or NCL, the price on their web site IS the price you pay, plus port charges, gratuities, photos, etc. I haven't seen the fake "2 for 1" offer used since the late-night infomercials for Ginsu knife sets.

Hmmm... If I go to RCL, Carnival or NCL, the price on their web site IS the price you pay, plus port charges, gratuities, photos, etc. I haven't seen the fake "2 for 1" offer used since the late-night infomercials for Ginsu knife sets.

I didn't say they all use "2 for 1". What I said was that nobody pays "regular" price. Every single cruise line will show some kind of brochure price, or some other word to indicate their starting price, and then they'll show the actual price as if it's some kind of special.

Show me a cruise line that doesn't do this. It's standard marketing across the industry.

Editing to add - I just took a look at RCL's website. What they show is the cruise price, and underneath that, it says "Was $xxx", which is a much higher price. So yeah, they do it too.

Editing again to add - I just went and looked at Regent Seven Seas. They too use the "2 for 1" ploy:

Enjoy 2-for-1 All-Inclusive Fares, FREE Unlimited WiFi for all suite categories, FREE Roundtrip Air* plus Early Booking Savings of up to $13,998 per suite & more!

So yeah, it's not just Oceania. And it's not just Ginsu knives! ;)

I see that once you get to their web site the 2 for 1 disappears, and you start to see "cruises from $xxx" But when I select one I still can't get the price, I get a box to fill in my name and email and they will call me with a "quote." Sounds like I will need to use a travel agent with Oceana, othwise I may need to cross them off my list. I have trouble dealing with any company that won't tell you the basic price of their products.

There's a simple answer if you're having a problem -- avoid the problem. Or, accept it as marketing that somehow works, like the rest of us do, and enjoy what Oceania has to offer. How they market it has little to do with how the operate on board.

My mistake. I do see prices for some, others seem to require a quote.

After taking a cruise on a new line, I try to decide how this new cruise fits into the scheme of things, and then me and my wife decide how to proceed from there. Definitely each cruiseline is a learning adventure, but its funny how much first impressions change your opinions.

In any case, I do have another question. As you probably know Oceana is now owned by Norwegian and Norwegian has a new CEO as of January. Norwegian cruises has seen GIANT changes to the brand since the new CEO took over. Has Oceania changed at all, or is Norwegian leaving them alone?

My mistake. I do see prices for some, others seem to require a quote.

 

After taking a cruise on a new line, I try to decide how this new cruise fits into the scheme of things, and then me and my wife decide how to proceed from there. Definitely each cruiseline is a learning adventure, but its funny how much first impressions change your opinions.

 

In any case, I do have another question. As you probably know Oceana is now owned by Norwegian and Norwegian has a new CEO as of January. Norwegian cruises has seen GIANT changes to the brand since the new CEO took over. Has Oceania changed at all, or is Norwegian leaving them alone?

The new CEO of Norwegian is the CEO and founder of Oceania. ....and any changes on the Oceania cruise line, if any, are minimal and to me are not noticeable. NO nickel and diming for sure.

My mistake. I do see prices for some, others seem to require a quote.

 

After taking a cruise on a new line, I try to decide how this new cruise fits into the scheme of things, and then me and my wife decide how to proceed from there. Definitely each cruiseline is a learning adventure, but its funny how much first impressions change your opinions.

 

In any case, I do have another question. As you probably know Oceana is now owned by Norwegian and Norwegian has a new CEO as of January. Norwegian cruises has seen GIANT changes to the brand since the new CEO took over. Has Oceania changed at all, or is Norwegian leaving them alone?

I am going to leave an answer to this to hondorner. I do want you to know that the new CEO is none other than Frank Del Rio, one of the original founders of Oceania. Norwegian does not "own" Oceania. Three different cruise lines (NCL,O and Regent) are run by the same holding company. The changes you may be seeing on NCL are for the better due to the diligence of Mr. Del Rio and all seem to be positive.

Also, whenever I check onto O website. I chose find a cruise. It always comes up with prices. Do not hit get a quote just cruise info. No one needs to call you nor you them. I do honestly recommend that you go thru a TA no matter.

ano - I'll try to walk you through it. First, there are many travel agents that put up sites that appear to be Oceania but are not (this is not Oceania's fault). Let's start with the correct website. Here is a link: https://www.oceaniacruises.com/

I clicked on "Find a Cruise" which took me to this page. https://www.oceaniacruises.com/cruise-finder/ Then I selected the month of January, 2016 and clicked on the ship "Riviera". It shows that there are three results. I clicked to see the results: https://www.oceaniacruises.com/cruise-finder/#sailDates=2016|01#ships=RVA

Clicked on the January 3rd cruise and will now click on the button to view details (we are almost done:))

https://www.oceaniacruises.com/Caribbean-cruises/miami-to-miami-RVA160103/?sr=%2Fcruise-finder%2F%23sailDates%3D2016%7C01%23ships%3DRVA Now we have the cruise itinerary and if you scroll down you will see pricing, availability, etc. The "Promotional Fare: is the price you would pay per person. You will notice that there are prices for all categories - even ones that are no longer available. Your comment about some categories requiring a quote made me think that you were probably looking on the wrong website.

If you click on a suite category, you will see the size of that suite. I don't want to get more complicated than I already have so I won't get into other areas.

Depending upon the cruise you select, there could be a promotion going on that will include tips, internet, etc. These promotions are typically limited.

I do think that it is a good idea to use a TA that is familiar with booking Oceania. They can give you all of the inside details that you need to know and many times they will pay gratuities for you and may even give you some OBC's (on board credits).

You will not pay extra for port charges and there are no photographers on board. Hope this helps and that you give Oceania a try.

Thank you so much. VERY helpful.

The jury is still out on what the NCL changes mean. Over the last 7 or 8 months I've seen NCL prices drop by large amounts, but the price of everything else have gone up. Gratuities went up twice in the last 6 months, and now they are just paid for, if you didn't like something you have to fill out a form AFTER the cruise to get your money back. I think in 2016, 6 NCL ships will get major overhauls. (A record for one year.) our captain said they would be large overhauls. I know Frank Del Rio is a big proponent of updating ships instead of replacing them. Probably a good idea.

Overall we really like the NCL cruise, and at $899 for 11 days with a balcony, I probably couldn't have stayed at Motel 6 for that with food. Nobody once was pushing drinks on you and although they did some photos, it wasn't excessive. I just felt the room service charge didn't fit in.

Its good to hear that Oceania isn't changing much, because i can tell you EVERY other one is. Just look at CC posts in each area and you will see LOTS of posts like "I'VE CRUISED ON XXX FOR YEARS BUT NEVER AGAIN." You can insert Carnival, NCL, RCL, Princess, Celebrity, etc. fill in the blank.

On this last 11-day cruise it was maybe 2/3 full. I saw few people who didn't have at least a balcony. They keep popping out the new ships, but the number of people cruising is not growing as fast.

There's a simple answer if you're having a problem -- avoid the problem. Or, accept it as marketing that somehow works, like the rest of us do, and enjoy what Oceania has to offer. How they market it has little to do with how the operate on board.

That's pretty much how I see it. In the end, what matters to me is the cruise experience.

My mistake. I do see prices for some, others seem to require a quote.

TravelCat may be right - you may not be looking at the official Oceania website. I have never seen a cruise on their site that didn't have full, category-by-category pricing available after just a few clicks. Hopefully you will follow her tutorial

Once you get to the correct website, and have found an itinerary you are interested in, here's the key: don't click "Request a Quote", click "View Cruise Details". All the pricing will come up. Then, if you want to actually price it out with your specifics (number of pax, category, needing air or not), again don't click "Request a quote", click "Plan my cruise". You can then input your details and you get very specific pricing.

 

In any case, I do have another question. As you probably know Oceana is now owned by Norwegian and Norwegian has a new CEO as of January. Norwegian cruises has seen GIANT changes to the brand since the new CEO took over. Has Oceania changed at all, or is Norwegian leaving them alone?

There's a very recent thread in the Oceania forum that tackles exactly this question. Click here to read it: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2275630

You'll see that the vast majority of responses indicate that there have been no detrimental impacts from the merger.

Yes - clicking on "Plan My Cruise" is very helpful. I do that all the time on Regent to see what specific suites are available in each category.

In terms of NCL changes, IMO, there are many more changes on NCL than on Oceania or Regent because FDR has been CEO of Oceania forever and has been CEO for Regent for several years. Any changes that needed to be made have already been made. On the other hand, NCL is being looked at by a new management team (not the President but the CEO and some Board members). Time will tell how this will look in a year from now (with FDR at the helm, I would not be concerned).

Yes - clicking on "Plan My Cruise" is very helpful. I do that all the time on Regent to see what specific suites are available in each category.

This is exactly how I kept up with the available inventory of PHs on my upcoming cruise. :D Once I saw they were down to three, I realized the possibility of an upsell had dropped to virtually nil...so we jumped on it and upgraded ourselves. And they are now sold out entirely, so it's good we jumped when we did!

We decided to get an Oceania travel agent. I normally can do all this myself, but in this case, it might be worth some help to sort it all out.

We decided to get an Oceania travel agent. I normally can do all this myself, but in this case, it might be worth some help to sort it all out.

The top producers get higher commission rates based on their total O sales. At a minimum, make sure TA is in O's Connoisseurs Club. For the future, compare TA notes at onboard M&Gs.

Is there a list of these so you can check if your TA is on the list?

Is there a list of these so you can check if your TA is on the list?

I would love to know this as well. Virginia

2 fore 1 fares dont mean nothing to me.

I get up to half off on select cruises from Oceania's discounted fare from my TA.

Nothing, but if you have a good TA. But another 1/2 off? Really!

Rick

Leejnd4, Good for you! I just did the same thing for the CPT round trip in 2 weeks. Was able to upgrade to an OS at a 60% discount:D

2 fore 1 fares dont mean nothing to me.

 

I get up to half off on select cruises from Oceania's discounted fare from my TA.

With exceptions for the "leftovers," no you don't. And the "leftovers" are available to anyone who subscribes to the O deals e-mails.

So do Oceania prices change over time like with most cruise lines? What happens if prices drop after booking? We pretty flexible on date and location. How do you find the best buys? Is the TA good at finding those?