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Oceania Questions


Sabbycat
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Hi All,

 

We are considering switching our Azamara booking to Oceania, but there are a few differences between the lines that I am seeking clarification regarding.

 

First, can one upgrade the airfare to business class? If yes, is it worth the upgrade price or is one better off taking the airfare deviation credit and booking the airfare on ones own?

 

Second, having only cruised X and AZ I am completely confused by the excursions with O. I see there are packages. I understand that one can purchase the top tier excursion package and (within limitations), participate in unlimited excursions. On - for example, a 2 week Mediterranean cruise, what would the price be - ball park? I am trying to grasp this package and without any price examples, or so far only finding the world cruise examples I am not able to put this in perspective.

 

It would appear that for the Your World Collection one pays for all excursions taken but can save up to 25% off each excursion. Does one have to pay a fee for this package or simply buy the minimum number of excursions based on the duration of the cruise.

 

Are there any other major differences between AZ and O that I should know about. (I know alcoholic beverages and gratuities are not included on O.)

 

Thanks all for your assistance.

Sabrina

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One way to get an estimate is to go into O's web page, go to find a cruise, select Nov 2016 and Mediterranean, you'll see a 12 day cruise on Riviera. Select that cruise and then select ports and excursions and show all ports. When you select each port you'll see a list of excursion and the three prices. The Your World is simply a bulk discount if you pick five or more. I do not know the charge/fee for the unlimited option. One thing to note is that if you select the O Life option of included excursions (some cruises offer choice of 4-8 excursions per person or house beverage or SBC) these count toward your 5 for the Your World discount. For example we are going on a 12 day French Polynesian cruise in Feb and have selected 4 excursions (vice drink package or SBC) out very next excursion purchased is at the Your World rate.

 

Hope that helps and I haven't merely muddied the waters.:o

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O does offer business class air fare options but my experience has been that virtually always it is more expensive than buying it on your own. One exception was when we were flying home from London a couple of years ago and they DID offer a reduced fare business flight which we took and was excellent. The caveat here is that it is "restricted business" which simply means that flights over land will be in coach. That's okay if the land portion is short! For us it doesn't matter since we fly to/from NYC.

 

FYI, we just got back from a cruise where we opted for O's premium economy option at $99pp NY to Copenhagen on SAS and Heathrow to NY on BA. Both were more than okay although we preferred the SAS flight. The seats were pretty much the same. Obviously not business but far better than coach on both flights. (This option isn't always offered.)

 

On our cruise we took the oLife ship's tour option and bought one more ship's tour on our own. They were all extremely good and not crowded. The only not-quite-so-good-one was in Russia where the guide's English was not top drawer. It turned out her day job is teaching Englsh ... :rolleyes:

 

You will find that many here argue against ship's tours, and we ourselves usually organize our own or join someone else's DIY tour. In this case we took advantage of the oLife option for some of the ports and were pleased. For most of the ports we were on our own. (Russia without a visa is a problem so of course there you either have to have an agency that provides a group visa or use Oceania tours.)

 

If you like ship's tours rather than organizing your own, I'd recommend a package since it does save you some money. O's tours are notoriously expensive.

 

Mura

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We enjoy both Oceania and Azamara. The only time we bought the tours was in Russia with Azamara. Very good and fair price. All others we do on our own. You will find many posts about how friendly the crew and Officers are on Azamara. I find the food is better on Oceania and no charge. Our next cruise on Oceania we will use the $99. prem. econ. upgrade. Won`t be as good as business but it was a great price and far less than booking on our own.

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