aussietwo

One question for our regular Oceania gurus - can ship excursion credit be used for transfers?

As you have used “quite a bit more” buying other ship excursions you would have to be unlucky to lose funds. Those extra funds are credited back first. It is only when those funds are exhausted and the credited amount comes from your “Simply More” ship excursion credits that you will lose funds. Be aware that you will have an amount of “Simply More” ship excursion credits allotted to each cruise. If you have excursions cancelled I suggest that you ask reception where the funds have been credited to and whether there is any remaining excursion credits. Best wishes for a very special anniversary cruise. There are so many positives with O that I would be surprised if you returned to X or any other big ship.

At the outset, I have to say that I am a rusted on O cruiser with 416 days sailed. We had the same situation on our recent cruise with 1 excursion cancelled and our last 2 ports missed resulting in $261 lost excursion credit. Credits for the missed excursions appeared back on our account as nonrefundable cruise credit. This led me to believe that Oceania obviously had allowed some credit refund for the missed excursions. So the next few days were spent searching for items to buy in the poorly stocked over priced shops on Nautica. Fortunately after spending a sizeable sum, I checked our account balance and found that I had exhausted our nonrefundable cruise credit and had spent some of our refundable credit but $261 nonrefundable credit balance was showing on the account. On checking reception told me that those credits were for excursions only. Oceania needs to incorporate a third column in their account system 1. Refundable Credit. 2. Non Refundable Credit 3. Non Refundable Excursion Credit as the current system where 2 & 3 are combined is very misleading. If anyone planned to cover their gratuities with their non refundable credit, it could well lead to a shock debit to their credit card at the end of the cruise.

UK it seems

So what actually happens is that the gratuities are actually included in the fare you pay. Most Aussies would be happy about that. When you become an Oceania Silver Club member you then get US$125 Shipboard Cr in Lieu of Oceania Club PPG's per person. MV21 I suggest that you will get the same.

We have been on ALL of the Oceania ships and they ALL have night lights in the bathrooms.

If you have any refundable OBC at the end of the cruise and you are doing other cruises, be sure to take it in cash as it will be in USD.

SM will be used up first (as was the case when you purchased). As you have paid cash for the balance any cancelled tour amount will become refundable OBC.

Hi Phyllis Just saw your post about Katoomba. My husband John grew up in Katoomba so I can assist you with your plans for the Blue Mountains. Trains run hourly and I suggest you will easily make the 9.18 train. You do not have to book so should you miss that one you can get the 10.18 train. Takes two hours for the trip up so the earlier you leave the better. When you get to Katoomba there is a transportnsw bus that you can hop on and off to get to the different sites. The bus is actually covered by the ticket you bought for the train. You can use a contactless credit card. Simply tap on. It will take you all day to see the sites. We can discuss further when we meet on the cruise. We will be going to Central Station from White Bay terminal so perhaps we could arrange a van to take the seven of us. Will your group have much luggage? Perhaps you could email me. We are happy to assist with your Aussie plans. Cheers Ros 🙂. rosmerleg at hotmail dot com (usual format)

It seems that the Oceania Special Services (Excursions) are really not coping with the demand for ship excursions since the commencement of SM. We have had one port replaced by another port and a second port has been pushed back by a day. As a result, we have now gone from the required 7 excursions to qualify for the Simply More Package 25% discount to having 5 tours booked. While the 2 excursions have disappeared from the list the credits have not come back into our account. When I try to book other excursions there is not enough OBC and I would have to pay on my cc. Also the two ports impacted are just not showing any tours. When I contacted Oceania, I was told to contact my TA.

The same old same old topics seem to constantly come up on these threads. I knew there was one sometime last year so I thought I would do a search and find it for you. Imagine my surprise when on finding it, the OP was one and the same poster as the OP of this thread.

knitter - I suggest you at least wait list the tours you want. Sometimes Oceania increase the number of tour vans in some ports. Then go through and see if there are any tours with vacancies. Some of the more expensive tours often don’t fill up and perhaps one or two of those may use your credit. In the event that your wait listed tours become available you can cancel any tours you don’t want, Good luck!!

We have a cruise we booked during the Black Friday sale which we got at bargain basement. Some friends expressed interest in joining us on the cruise and I screen dumped the price on January 1 2024. For 2 pax in AUD the price was $16,618. Today we received the NEW YEAR SALE and it was shown as applying for the cruise with a 25% discount. Guess what the price is now AUD $18,538. So it went up almost $2,000 from one day to the next. 25% off??

G’Day Erin & Mui So pleased you are visiting Aussie. I read that you are staying on land for a few months. If Canberra is on your itinerary please email me as we would love to catch up. Cheers Ros & John🙂🙂 rosmerleg at hotmail dot com

Aussies get those same perks

Welcome to Cruise Critic gentlemancruiser. We are having a Meet & Greet at Horizons on embankment day Sept 29 at 4 p.m. if you would like to join other Cruise Critic members just come and join us. Cheers Ros🙂

I think one sentence in your post sums up your discontent. “We had a PH and the room was small and the bathroom was tiny.” The PH rooms are small compared to the O class. All other categories there is not much difference in size.

A question - does cancellation of a cruise booked before September currently incur any loss of deposit?

Thx. If we also book for a friend not on the cruise do they get the same apart from the SBC?

Thank you to shepherd really & Flatbush Flyer for your responses. What are the current benefits of booking on board?

Interesting observation - I just went on to check availability for September for all Oceania ships. Every cruise was showing fully wait listed. The other thing O’Life was showing for all September cruises so perhaps any cabins that become available may be able to still choose O’Life. Only cruises from October 1 could choose to change to Simply More.

As of now, I can see a USA site showing there is Oceanview availability on that cruise for USD1849 which includes O’Life choice. If that is of interest, I suggest you contact your TA to ask for a price to upgrade your booking.

Just wondering if there is still any advantage for booking on board since the commencement of Simply More? If I make a booking within 30 days of my cruise, can I request the booking onboard advantage after boarding? Also does anyone know when the Winter Sale finishes? Cheers Ros🙂

WOW!! Thx for posting. Looking forward to joining Vista in September with HiFi43. Would have loved to join him and Marilyn on your cruise. ENJOY🥂🥂

VISTA leaves on her Initial Voyage on Saturday. You may be interested to check that Roll Call where there are at least 100 guests attending the M&G. HiFi43 has arranged the M&G and there will be many officers attending. HiFi43 will also arrange the M&G on a VISTA cruise we will be joining on September 29 in Montreal. We also will have a large group.