Oceania Exclusive vs Regular Oceania Shore Excursions

[kywhiskey]

Hi...anyone been on the Oceania Exclusive Shore Excursions? These claim to be smaller group excursions from Oceania. Are they worth the extra money? I generally don't mind group tours if they are not too big so thought this might be a good choice for us. Thanks! Jeff

[EmsMom]

We thought the Exclusive Shore Escursions were outrageously expensive. We can do private tours on our own for way less than these exclusive excursions. I understand that there is the security that they are ship sponsored excursions but we have never had a problem with the private excursions that we booked on our own. If money is no object and you don't want to spend the time and energy looking for excursions on your own, they should be fine.

[MarleneAm]

Hi...anyone been on the Oceania Exclusive Shore Excursions? These claim to be smaller group excursions from Oceania. Are they worth the extra money? I generally don't mind group tours if they are not too big so thought this might be a good choice for us. Thanks! Jeff

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I have been on both regular and Oceania Exclusive excursions. The time I was most happy to be on Oceania Exclusive was in Kotor Montenegro going over the famous 27 hairpin bend mountain road to the old capital. The Exclusive excursion was in a vehicle small enough to fit the road; the regular excursions were in a big bus; the people in the bus had a very scary ride. Kotor is not a place that I would feel comfortable arranging a private excursion over the 27 hairpin bend road. So the extra cost may be

worth it to you under special circumstances or depending on your preferences under all circumstances. Some people bought the package of

all Oceania exclusive excursions. If you do this, you can pay for everything before you even take the cruise and then you will not have to carry or worry about obtaining the 100s of Euros necessary to pay for private excursions or your share of private excursions.

[Andromeda93]

KYWhiskey,

 

I thought you might be interested in a similar discussion on the topic of 'regular' vs small-group Oceania excursions that occurred a couple of months ago. If this link doesn't work, just search CC for 'Oceania choice' and you should find it.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/archive/index.php/t-1536497.html

 

I was a bit confused by the wording of your OP, as for our 2011 cruise I don't recall O using the 'Exclusive' nomenclature for the tours they offered.

 

It may be my faltering memory, but in our 2011 booking I think the O excursions were classified as either regular tours (i.e. not described as anything special in terms of size) or "Oceania Choice" (which were the small-group tours, max of 16 people). It sounds like for 2012+ they've changed the way O classifies the various types of tours? If so, thanks for posting your question as it's helpful to know there may be another O term in use regarding tours.