Oceania Cruises Introduces Free Wi-Fi Fleetwide

[roothy123]

What am I missing? The title of the thread states everyone gets free internet, yet now O's PR dept is saying it must be purchased. Somebody please clue me in!

 

See earlier posts: Free Wifi, but if you want to play movies or do other things that require more bandwidth, you'll need to pay for upgraded Wifi.

[tropicalkerry2002]

thanks, Roothy!

[buggins0402]

What am I missing? The title of the thread states everyone gets free internet, yet now O's PR dept is saying it must be purchased. Somebody please clue me in!

 

The better package allows better streaming.

 

Does anyone know if both people in a cabin will be required to sign up for the premium access? I’m addicted enough to my Peloton spin classes to pay $10 a day to stream them, but not enough to pay $20.

[GeezerCouple]

So, if more people move away from O'Life Choice, that would probably cut in to TA's bottom line commission. Might get tremor of an uprising there?

 

Our TA just a few minutes ago pointed out that there was now no benefit to us, and he'd only be getting a small extra amount, so we probably should *not* bother, if there are no other included perks (like some sort of air) that we'd make use of.

 

OTOH, I can't imagine not using the $800 OBC, given that we do order nice wine by the bottle, and given the current airline security rules, we still can't hand carry any favorite bottles from home.

 

GC

[Cruise Junky]

 

OTOH, I can't imagine not using the $800 OBC, given that we do order nice wine by the bottle, and given the current airline security rules, we still can't hand carry any favorite bottles from home.

 

GC

 

I'm sure you'd use it, but what's the point in paying $800 2- 3 months ahead of time to Oceania to get $800 in non refundable OBC while onboard. It makes no sense.

[PaulMCO]

I'm sure you'd use it, but what's the point in paying $800 2- 3 months ahead of time to Oceania to get $800 in non refundable OBC while onboard. It makes no sense.

+1 exactly. Unless they change the with O life pricing..

The only reason if you really love the Oceania excursions you are being charged $100 per in O life and you could pick ones that have a value of up to $199. But even then marginally worth it.

[LHT28]

Maybe they will do away with the O Life deal

not worth it for some people but I can see people new to O may use some of the perks

JMO

[DrivesLikeMario]

This is awesome news and frankly, one more reason why I might book with Oceania for our next big cruise. :)

[buggins0402]

I'm sure you'd use it, but what's the point in paying $800 2- 3 months ahead of time to Oceania to get $800 in non refundable OBC while onboard. It makes no sense.

 

If for some reason you have to cancel during the penalty phase, is the OBC refundable?? Or for those that buy cancellation insurance, is this a “cost” that must be insured (perhaps increasing the price of the insurance)? If the OBC is not refundable on cancellation, I guess that might be another reason to go cruise only.

[GeezerCouple]

If for some reason you have to cancel during the penalty phase, is the OBC refundable?? Or for those that buy cancellation insurance, is this a “cost” that must be insured (perhaps increasing the price of the insurance)? If the OBC is not refundable on cancellation, I guess that might be another reason to go cruise only.

 

Thanks.

 

You hit the nail on the head.

 

I had already sent a message to our TA a short time ago, that we do NOT want the "wash package" [if only it included some actual laundry!], precisely because of the increase in trip insurance.

 

I suspect that we'd have paid less "extra" than any modest "extra" he would have gotten, given my understanding of percentages/commissions, but we aren't interested in starting some complicated quid pro quo for what isn't enough to fret about.

 

But thanks very much for mentioning that, because I almost missed it!

(If it fit in to the "current $1k interval" at the final trip time, there wouldn't have been an extra cost, but that's impossible to know now.)

 

GC

[rallydave]

If for some reason you have to cancel during the penalty phase, is the OBC refundable?? Or for those that buy cancellation insurance, is this a “cost” that must be insured (perhaps increasing the price of athe insurance)? If the OBC is not refundable on cancellation, I guess that might be another reason to go cruise only.

 

Difficult to understand your question and why the included OBC would need to be refunded. Say the O life OBC is $800. The price of the cruise with O life is $800 more than the price without O life. So, if you cancel the reimbursement would be calculated from the fare including the O life so yes, if you cancel say at the 50% penalty phase your would get back 50% of the increased costs for including the O life.

 

You are insuring the price of the cruise which may or may not include the O life so you have to insure for how much of that cruise cost includes. Another hopefully helpful example. The price of your food is included in your fare just like the OBC should you take O life and if you cancel at the 50% penalty point, you will pay 50% of the cost of food included in the fare.

 

So, obviously absolutely no reason to pay extra for O life if in only includes any amount of OBC. By the way, another reason not to pay in advance of OBC is that it is always better to pay for anything as late as possible and for OBC, that will be up to 2 months after your cruise if you pay via credit card and don't prepay for OBC.

 

Hope this helps and why the OBC would not be refunded when it would be included on the fare including O life.

[buggins0402]

Difficult to understand your question and why the included OBC would need to be refunded. Say the O life OBC is $800. The price of the cruise with O life is $800 more than the price without O life. So, if you cancel the reimbursement would be calculated from the fare including the O life so yes, if you cancel say at the 50% penalty phase your would get back 50% of the increased costs for including the O life.

 

You are insuring the price of the cruise which may or may not include the O life so you have to insure for how much of that cruise cost includes. Another hopefully helpful example. The price of your food is included in your fare just like the OBC should you take O life and if you cancel at the 50% penalty point, you will pay 50% of the cost of food included in the fare.

 

So, obviously absolutely no reason to pay extra for O life if in only includes any amount of OBC. By the way, another reason not to pay in advance of OBC is that it is always better to pay for anything as late as possible and for OBC, that will be up to 2 months after your cruise if you pay via credit card and don't prepay for OBC.

 

Hope this helps and why the OBC would not be refunded when it would be included on the fare including O life.

 

Thanks Dave, I was pretty sure that it would be based on the O life price, but not 100%. Yes, there is no reason to add it now, if one is opting for OBC. I originally was in the same mindset as GeezerCouple and was just going to leave it on because it appeared to be a wash. It also had the advantage of not letting my non drinking husband really see how much the trip went up because of my bar bill :p (not that I drink that much).

 

But, there is no reason to put more dollars at risk up front for something that does not have to be prepaid. We somewhat self insure (rely on Chase Sapphire benefits, but could get denied on a pre-existing condition).

[ORV]

It's obvious that there will have to be some tweaking to the Olife, because as has been stated who would pay dollar for dollar for the OBC? The drink package or excursions may come out better.

 

The bottom line is we need to see what the price is for getting the Olife, and then do the math as it compares to your situation and preferences.

[IWantToLiveOverTheSea]

That is exactly what we just did. As soon as I read this announcement we booked with no perks. As you said, why would I pay $400 to get $400 NR OBC.

 

I think a big part of the answer to this question lies in the "other" thing you often get with O Life - Airfare! Not everyone wants to purchase their own air. By doing that you'll likely get better flights, but chances are you'll pay a lot more for them. In many cases, O Life includes free air. That's hard for some of us to pass up, especially if we don't have a lot of frequent flyer miles or Capital One points. Therefore, for any newbies reading this thread and wondering why in the world someone would want to pay $600 extra for O Life to get $600 OBC/excursions/whatever, the answer lies in the airfare. For the cruise we're taking, if you purchase O Life, the cost is $650 more than the cost of the cruise only. Why wouldn't some people want to put up with cruise line-selected flights for only an extra $50?

[rallydave]

I think the answer to this question lies in the "other" thing you often get with O Life - Airfare! Not everyone wants to purchase their own air. By doing that you'll likely get better flights, but chances are you'll pay a lot more for them. In many cases, O Life includes free air. That's hard for some of us to pass up, especially if we don't have a lot of frequent flyer mileage. Therefore, for any newbies reading this thread and wondering why in the world someone would want to pay $600 extra for O Life to get $600 OBC or $600 in excursions, the answer lies in the airfare. For the cruise we're taking, if you purchase O Life, the cost is $650 more than the cost of the cruise only. Why wouldn't some people want to put up with cruise-selected flights for only an extra $50?

 

 

 

What you are missing is that O life has absolutely nothing to do with the included air. Refusing O life does not affect the included air. You do have the ability to get a credit for not taking the included air which is in addition to not taking O life.

 

You can decline sir and get a credit while still taking O life. You thus have four choices. Cruise only cruise plus air cruise plus O life or cruise air and O life.

 

Not really clear in the website.

 

 

 

 

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[LHT28]

I think a big part of the answer to this question lies in the "other" thing you often get with O Life - Airfare! Not everyone wants to purchase their own air. By doing that you'll likely get better flights, but chances are you'll pay a lot more for them. In many cases, O Life includes free air.[/ quote]

slight correction

 

The included air is NOT part of O Life you can get the air without taking the O Life perks or take the O Life perks without taking the air then you will get a credit for the air portion

[ORV]

I think a big part of the answer to this question lies in the "other" thing you often get with O Life - Airfare! Not everyone wants to purchase their own air. By doing that you'll likely get better flights, but chances are you'll pay a lot more for them. In many cases, O Life includes free air. That's hard for some of us to pass up, especially if we don't have a lot of frequent flyer miles or Capital One points. Therefore, for any newbies reading this thread and wondering why in the world someone would want to pay $600 extra for O Life to get $600 OBC/excursions/whatever, the answer lies in the airfare. For the cruise we're taking, if you purchase O Life, the cost is $650 more than the cost of the cruise only. Why wouldn't some people want to put up with cruise line-selected flights for only an extra $50?

 

Never mind

[Cruise Junky]

I think the answer to this question lies in the "other" thing you often get with O Life - Airfare! Not everyone wants to purchase their own air. By doing that you'll likely get better flights, but chances are you'll pay a lot more for them. In many cases, O Life includes free air. That's hard for some of us to pass up, especially if we don't have a lot of frequent flyer miles or Capital One points. Therefore, for any newbies reading this thread and wondering why in the world someone would want to pay $600 extra for O Life to get $600 OBC or $600 in excursions, the answer lies in the airfare. For the cruise we're taking, if you purchase O Life, the cost is $650 more than the cost of the cruise only. Why wouldn't some people want to put up with cruise line-selected flights for only an extra $50?

 

 

The discussion we were having was about the perks without air. A straight pay $800 extra for $800 OBC. In your example you wouldn't be paying $600 extra to get Air and $600 OBC. Probably closer to $1,600. But if you have an example of where someone can get air and $600 OBC, I'd love to see it.

 

For example, just picking a cruise to Europe next year. The with air and perk price is $6,099. The price without air but with perks is $5,199, no perks $4,799. The OBC in this case is $400 pp. So it's a complete wash between the two options with no air. So it's an extra $900 for the air, plus a deviation fee ( I would never land same day) comes to $1,075 or almost $1,400 Cdn. Air Canada is running a sale right now to London (where the cruise I'm looking at departs from) for just under $900 cdn. I don't usually pay more than $1,000 for our Europe trips but occasionally $1,200. So it would never make any sense unless it was a one way or Tahiti to ever take cruise air.

[docmark]

Title of this thread is Free Wi Fi....just a reminder

[sammiedawg]

Title of this thread is Free Wi Fi....just a reminder

 

The discussion about O life and Pricing options is appropriate. If everyone on the ship gets WiFi there is less incentive to book O life, especially if you are already receiving OBC as a loyalty benefit. Everyone needs to do the math as it relates to their situation.

[Cruise Junky]

Title of this thread is Free Wi Fi....just a reminder

 

So one perk that was attached to a package becomes free therefore affecting the value of the overall perk package and you don't see that as relevant? Strange!

[buggins0402]

So one perk that was attached to a package becomes free therefore affecting the value of the overall perk package and you don't see that as relevant? Strange!

 

We usually DIY, but some only feel comfortable with ship excursions. For those cruisers, there is still value in O life, if they want to sail O.

 

Actually, we had booked a cruise similar to one you have booked on you signature....prior to O life. I ended up cancelling it after banging my head against the wall trying to figure out how to get tot the sites I wanted to see from the ports, via public transportation. O life was instituted after our cancellation and afterwards, looking at some of the excursions, it would have solved some of our issues.

[Classiccruiser777]

Oceania’s air can also be used for just one direction. We often book our own flight going to the ship since we don’t yet qualify for the air deviation waivers.

[buggins0402]

Oceania’s air can also be used for just one direction. We often book our own flight going to the ship since we don’t yet qualify for the air deviation waivers.

 

 

Also comes in handy when you only have enough FF miles left in the bank for one way.

[Paulchili]

We usually DIY, but some only feel comfortable with ship excursions. For those cruisers, there is still value in O life, if they want to sail O.

 

Actually, we had booked a cruise similar to one you have booked on you signature....prior to O life. I ended up cancelling it after banging my head against the wall trying to figure out how to get tot the sites I wanted to see from the ports, via public transportation. O life was instituted after our cancellation and afterwards, looking at some of the excursions, it would have solved some of our issues.

 

Exactly.

O Life can make sense even for those that prefer doing their own excursions as O Life never includes enough excursions to cover all ports.

So, one can do a combination of O Life excursions for those ports where DIY is either difficult or expensive (Japan, etc) and do the rest on your own.

O Life excursions can often double your return - i.e. 3 “free” excursions (valued at $300) can get your excursions worth close to $550- $600.