ak1004

Your analysis is spot on. While I think the new structure is actually beneficial for people who drink and take ship excursions, for the non drinkers it will be easier to find another cruise with comparable prices. I mean, if I have to pay for drinks that I don't consume anyway, I might as well add another $50-100/day and sail on SB or SS..

But this is not apples to apples comparison. You are still on a large ship, with all the crowds, and the price for Princess Grill is typically more than PH on O.. And the perks you get there are included for all guests on O.

Just out of curiosity, if you consider the new prices too high, which "nice ships" would you consider for future sailings? As non drinkers, we are running out of options if we don't want to pay for "stuff we don’t want". Viking already included drinks and excursions, and their prices were higher than O.

I can understand why you like Viking comparing it to mainstream / mass market lines. It would be interesting to see how it compares to O (or another premium line).

Have you cruised with other lines or only Viking?

Actually no.. my comparison was with yesterday prices, not the prices I paid a year ago. So I'm staying with my original booking too because the new prices are more than $1,000 CAD higher compared to what I paid. But you are still missing my point. I understand that your new price is more and you are not switching. But some of us are trying to gather more information to understand what is the real increase per day, as this is the only thing that matters when people book cruises.

This is probably pretty typical, maybe slightly more, but for some reason people cannot do a simple math. Criticizing is always more popular..

And this is unfortunate, personally I'm not loyal to any cruise line and like to have more options. But based on the info we have now, we won't be booking Viking anytime soo.. That said, while I consider the SM increase reasonable considering what you get, the new pricing in some cases gets dangerously close to SB and SS. And lets face it, I love O, but with similar pricing, I would book SB or SS (given the right itinerary of course).

If you click on the question mark near "Simply More Shore Excursion Package", it still says "Minimum of 5 excursions for 25% off"

It depends on the category and what you are comparing to. If you compare to the price that you booked a year ago, then obviously the increase is more. The only apples to apples comparison is comparing the current price to the price yesterday, for cruise only. Here is a screenshot I took yesterday for two cruises next year. https://www.oceaniacruises.com/mediterranean-cruises/venice-to-istanbul-VIS240501/ https://www.oceaniacruises.com/mediterranean-cruises/barcelona-to-lisbon-MNA241105/ As you can see, the increase is $550 CAD or $400 USD. Same for veranda and PH.

It matters to make a fair comparison and get an idea how much fares went up per day in each category. My fare went up by $1,100 CAD for a 10 nights cruise I booked a year ago. But prices already went up by $550 during the year before the switch to Simply More, so Simply More added $550 per person.

Exactly. And if you booked at least 6-12 month ago and prices already went up before today's increase, then it's reasonable to assume that your original deal is better. Comparing the new prices to the previous ones is a nice academic exercise, but the only thing that matters going forward is how the new pricing compares to the competition, considering all inclusions.

Agree with you 100%. For us, we would prefer to stay with the previous structure as we don't drink and prefer not to take ship excursions. However, most people do drink and take at least the basic drink package for $40/day. Now there is a $40/day price increase, so they basically get the excursion credit of $40/day and the second WiFi for free. Or put it another way, if someone booked with oLife, they got one amenity, now they get 2 for the same price, plus second WiFi. Looks very reasonable to me.

which cruise went up $1000? Which category? How many days?

Just checked few sailings that I recorded before and after. All prices are in CAD Vista May 1 2024 B5 $4,999 $5,549 $550 increase Vista Sep 3 2024 B5 $4,999 $5,549 $550 increase Marina Nov 5 2024 C $3,445 $3,999 $550 increase Riviera Nov 14 2024 G $2,349 $2,849 $500 increase But the website looks very buggy, search doesn't work well. Based on those prices, looks like in lower categories the increase is around $400 USD per person for 10 day cruises. I believe it's important to compare to the prices yesterday, not to what people paid a year or 2 years ago.

Are you comparing to what you booked for or what is was yesterday before the increase?

I never sailed with Viking, for few reasons. First, I don't like the idea of giving a business an interest free loan for 12-24 months. Second, I find their prices way too high. In fact, in many cases they are higher than SB or SS. And third, I could never find an attractive itinerary. Their itineraries are repetitive and limited. But apparently, I'm in minority. They have a very loyal following, and have the highest rankings on CC (higher than O, AZ, SB, SS and Regent). Not that those rankings mean anything (Celebrity is ranked higher than O, SS and Regent) but still.. So they must be doing something right.

Count me in too..

Yep. When they introduced deviation air waiver, where were all bashers?

Thanks for sharing. What about French veranda pricing on the Vista 10 nights European cruises?

I'm not disputing it. I also don't want the included drinks and excursions. Other people might say that they don't want the included wifi and specialty restaurants but still forced to pay for it. The simple truth is that a small ship experience inevitably comes with more inclusions that some people might not want. Till now O was the less inclusive of all premium/luxury lines. They just adjust their pricing structure to be more in line with other small ship lines. Yes for some people myself included the la carte pricing of O was a big plus. We all will need to adjust. It is what it is.

SB and SS..

Very well said. And now it all comes to pricing. We booked 3 SS cruises and are willing to pay for the drinks because the price even with drinks and all other inclusions was comparable to O (and obviously we liked the itinerary). We will continue booking O even after tomorrow's price increase IF the overall price is still competitive (knowing that we would pay for things we don't use). But since now all premium lines will include drinks (Windstar is one exception), and we are not going back to Celebrity/Hal), we don't have much choice. Using your Ford/Chevrolet analogy, I'm sure we are not using half of the feature of the new cars (heads up display come to mind as an example), but we still buy cars because basically all of them now include some of those cool but useless features.

Definition of opaque: not able to be seen through; not transparent Old model: Cruise only or Cruise plus air or cruise plus excursions or cruise plus OBC or cruise plus air credit or Cruise plus air or cruise plus excursions plus air or cruise plus OBC plus air or cruise plus air credit plus air or New model: Cruise only or Cruise plus air Which one is more "opaque"? Another angle: Cruise has the following elements: Breakfast Lunch Afternoon tea Dinner Room service In room dining Accommodation Cabin Stuart service Butler service Self laundry service Valet laundry service Specialty restaurants Water and basic tea/coffee Soft drinks Specialty tea/coffee Alcohol at meals Alcohol anytime First WiFi Second WiFi Free shuttles Free unlimited black caviar I'm sure I forgot something, but you get the idea. Now you compare the prices and what's included with every line and decide what works the best for you.

How was it different before? They still were giving you an invoice without itemization of WiFi, specialty restaurants, non alcoholic beverages etc. They are just moving closer to the all inclusive model of SB and SS. Does anyone consider SB or SS pricing "opaque"? It's just up to you to compare between different brands considering all inclusions.