O Life Choice Perks

[BBQ Lover]

We are looking at booking our first Oceania Cruise and don't really know what to pick. We don't drink, so the beverage package is a no go. The included free shore excursions don't really seem to be doing it for us either, so that just leaves the on board credit. We normally don't spend very much money on a ship, so I'm not really even sure what to spend $800 on. Can the OBC be used to pay gratuities?

 

We're thinking about taking the OBC and applying it towards some of the more expensive excursions, but we can't actually book those until we get onboard. We're not even sure if most of the better excursions sell out pre cruise or not, and we're curious as to what you veteran O cruisers have experienced in the past. Besides, we stopped doing ship excursions years ago because we prefer to do things independently.

 

I guess we could always just spend the money on spa treatments, but I would like to find a little better use for the money. Or I guess we could try taking the included excursions. Any suggestions would be appreciated. 

Edited December 24, 2018 by BBQ Lover
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[ORV]

If your cruise is after May 19, 2019 then your OBC is usable in advance if you select that for Olife. If you're not getting grats from your TA then your OBC can definitely be used to pay that. 

[Flatbush Flyer]

14 minutes ago, BBQ Lover said:

We are looking at booking our first Oceania Cruise and don't really know what to pick. We don't drink, so the beverage package is a no go. The included free shore excursions don't really seem to be doing it for us either, so that just leaves the on board credit. We normally don't spend very much money on a ship, so I'm not really even sure what to spend $800 on. Can the OBC be used to pay gratuities?

 

We're thinking about taking the OBC and applying it towards some of the more expensive excursions, but we can't actually book those until we get onboard. We're not even sure if most of the better excursions sell out pre cruise or not, and we're curious as to what you veteran O cruisers have experienced in the past. Besides, we stopped doing ship excursions years ago because we prefer to do things independently.

 

I guess we could always just spend the money on spa treatments, but I would like to find a little better use for the money. Or I guess we could try taking the included excursions. Any suggestions would be appreciated. 

Right now, for cruises starting after this coming mid-May, you can use the O Life (and O loyalty) SBC to pre-purchase excursions online. Your online account will show how much of that kind of SBC you have in your bank. Not included is SBC from your TA. 

 

Yes, you can use your O Life SBC perk to cover the gratuities. For future O cruises, however, you may want to use a TA that will pay your gratuities (and share their commission or "pass through" O's promotional partnership promotional OBC - DO find TAs that are members of O's Connoisseurs Club).

 

If you do decide to buy some tours, know that the online booking software is very intuitive!!!

 

Pick as many different tours (both allowable O Life freebies and OS/OE extra cost) as you want (even different between individuals in your cabin).

When you go to your cart to look things over, the most expensive of the allowable "O Life" tours will have $0.00 next to them up to your total allotted number of O Life tours. The remainder will show their prices, which can vary depending on whether you had selected the retail, "Passport" or "Your World" option button at the top. Note that each "option button" has the total cost to you listed next to it. And remember that you can pay a flat fee for the Passport which includes all the least expensive tours plus up to 40% off the OE/OS selections or you must have a minimum number of tours (including your freebies to get the 25% off Your World discount on anything beyond the freebies. Note that you can find the minimum number of tours required for "Your World" specific to your itinerary on the PDF of excursions that you should have received with your Oceania invoice (you can also get that PDF as early as 6 months prior to cruising by calling Oceania (though not all tours may be yet listed that far in advance).

 

In our experience (we most often mix ship and private tours), we've never found the Passport option to be worth the total cost.

 

As for O Life perk choice, we always take the SBC (when we book early- usually onboard before "shopping" TAs for transfer) since,  once we start perusing the tours and find the selected freebies to be a better value than $100 each average, you can call Oceania and have them switch your perk from SBC to excursions (I.e., 1 excursion = $100 or vice versa). And now that you can use O Life SBC to pre-buy tours before embarkation date, you can easily do the math as to which perk gives you more value. 

 

Finally, you can play with the variations on the O website tour software without "pulling the trigger" on purchase. And, if you get confused, you can always call Oceania and they will work it out with you (no need to go through your TA).

PS: For cruises starting before mid-May, you can pre-buy your excursions with credit card now and then trade them onboard for payment by SBC and return of your purchase dollars as refundable SBC. And, yes, any additional purchases on board are always assigned first to non-refundable SBC before refundable SBC.

Edited December 24, 2018 by Flatbush Flyer

[BBQ Lover]

1 hour ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

Right now, for cruises starting after this coming mid-May, you can use the O Life (and O loyalty) SBC to pre-purchase excursions online. Your online account will show how much of that kind of SBC you have in your bank. Not included is SBC from your TA. 

 

Yes, you can use your O Life SBC perk to cover the gratuities. For future O cruises, however, you may want to use a TA that will pay your gratuities (and share their commission or "pass through" O's promotional partnership promotional OBC - DO find TAs that are members of O's Connoisseurs Club).

 

If you do decide to buy some tours, know that the online booking software is very intuitive!!!

 

Pick as many different tours (both allowable O Life freebies and OS/OE extra cost) as you want (even different between individuals in your cabin).

When you go to your cart to look things over, the most expensive of the allowable "O Life" tours will have $0.00 next to them up to your total allotted number of O Life tours. The remainder will show their prices, which can vary depending on whether you had selected the retail, "Passport" or "Your World" option button at the top. Note that each "option button" has the total cost to you listed next to it. And remember that you can pay a flat fee for the Passport which includes all the least expensive tours plus up to 40% off the OE/OS selections or you must have a minimum number of tours (including your freebies to get the 25% off Your World discount on anything beyond the freebies. Note that you can find the minimum number of tours required for "Your World" specific to your itinerary on the PDF of excursions that you should have received with your Oceania invoice (you can also get that PDF as early as 6 months prior to cruising by calling Oceania (though not all tours may be yet listed that far in advance).

 

In our experience (we most often mix ship and private tours), we've never found the Passport option to be worth the total cost.

 

As for O Life perk choice, we always take the SBC (when we book early- usually onboard before "shopping" TAs for transfer) since,  once we start perusing the tours and find the selected freebies to be a better value than $100 each average, you can call Oceania and have them switch your perk from SBC to excursions (I.e., 1 excursion = $100 or vice versa). And now that you can use O Life SBC to pre-buy tours before embarkation date, you can easily do the math as to which perk gives you more value. 

 

Finally, you can play with the variations on the O website tour software without "pulling the trigger" on purchase. And, if you get confused, you can always call Oceania and they will work it out with you (no need to go through your TA).

PS: For cruises starting before mid-May, you can pre-buy your excursions with credit card now and then trade them onboard for payment by SBC and return of your purchase dollars as refundable SBC. And, yes, any additional purchases on board are always assigned first to non-refundable SBC before refundable SBC.

 

Thank you both for the very detailed information. It looks like we will definitely be going with the OBC option. We haven't actually booked yet and we have been looking for an O Connoisseur's Club (OCC) TA. We actually found a brick and mortar OCC TA near us in California but they want to charge a $350pp cancellation fee in the unlikely event that we would have to cancel, and some other fees that just seem unreasonable (including a document fee, for example). We have also found a Canadian based OCC TA that we read about it in a Forbes Magazine article. The article could not say enough good things about this particular TA. We have not yet reached out to this TA. My only concern would be using a TA from a foreign country, even though I assume that we would be paying in US dollars. Can anybody see any problems with using a Canadian TA?

 

I have even tried asking Oceania for a list of OCC TA's, but they didn't seem too hip on giving out that information

Edited December 24, 2018 by BBQ Lover
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[LHT28]

I use  a USA TA  & can pay  in USD or CAD  which ever works better for me  at the time

If you do not want the air you can opt out  & get a credit  or do the cruise only  fare

Do the math to see  what  works best for you

 

 

 

[GeezerCouple]

1 hour ago, BBQ Lover said:

 

Thank you both for the very detailed information. It looks like we will definitely be going with the OBC option. We haven't actually booked yet and we have been looking for an O Connoisseur's Club (OCC) TA. We actually found a brick and mortar OCC TA near us in California but they want to charge a $350pp cancellation fee in the unlikely event that we would have to cancel, and some other fees that just seem unreasonable (including a document fee, for example). We have also found a Canadian based OCC TA that we read about it in a Forbes Magazine article. The article could not say enough good things about this particular TA. We have not yet reached out to this TA. My only concern would be using a TA from a foreign country, even though I assume that we would be paying in US dollars. Can anybody see any problems with using a Canadian TA?

 

I have even tried asking Oceania for a list of OCC TA's, but they didn't seem too hip on giving out that information

 

We've used a Canadian TA (we are in the USA), and have never had any problems.  All of our charges are in US$, the same as it would be with any USA-based agent, for cruises or hotels or anything else.

 

GC

[Flatbush Flyer]

3 hours ago, BBQ Lover said:

 

Thank you both for the very detailed information. It looks like we will definitely be going with the OBC option. We haven't actually booked yet and we have been looking for an O Connoisseur's Club (OCC) TA. We actually found a brick and mortar OCC TA near us in California but they want to charge a $350pp cancellation fee in the unlikely event that we would have to cancel, and some other fees that just seem unreasonable (including a document fee, for example). We have also found a Canadian based OCC TA that we read about it in a Forbes Magazine article. The article could not say enough good things about this particular TA. We have not yet reached out to this TA. My only concern would be using a TA from a foreign country, even though I assume that we would be paying in US dollars. Can anybody see any problems with using a Canadian TA?

 

I have even tried asking Oceania for a list of OCC TA's, but they didn't seem too hip on giving out that information

Google various TA terms like "cruise specialist" and "Connoisseurs Club" and then make a few calls to find OCC TAs. Also, some TAs do include mention of it in their advertising. I'd pass on anyone charging "fees."

Private messaging does not work on Cruise Critic.

Edited December 24, 2018 by Flatbush Flyer

[riffatsea]

In addition to this site I have gotten good advice about Oceania TAs by using the cruise forum on Trip Adviser. You can use Google to find it . It's too bad that there is no private messaging on this site like there is on that one.

[KatieBelle]

On 12/24/2018 at 10:22 AM, BBQ Lover said:

I guess we could always just spend the money on spa treatments, but I would like to find a little better use for the money. Or I guess we could try taking the included excursions. Any suggestions would be appreciated. 

You did not specify which cruise/ship you were considering.  If you are considering cruising on Marina or Riviera, you have several options for using OBC.  Besides the obvious choices of bar tab or shops you may also enjoy taking a class in the Culinary Center.  These can be booked prior to the sailing.  If there is a class that you really want to join, do book in advance as they often fill up quickly.  On occasion additional classes may be added once on board.

 

Another use for OBC is to enjoy a reservation at La Reserve.  Even if you are not wine aficionado, you can learn something about the wines served while enjoying a spectacular evening of food, drink, service, and maybe some new friends.  These reservations can also be booked on line.  Our experience has been that additional dates are available once we board.  

 

There is also the option of booking Privee for a private dinner/celebration.  Another very special evening.

 

We always try to find time to book treatments of our choice in the spa.  Some of the most effective acupuncture I have ever received was at Canyon Ranch Spa on Oceania.  

 

La Reserve, Privee, and Culinary classes are not available on Oceania's smaller (R class) ships.  So if you choose a sailing on the R ships, these options would not be available.  Hope you find an enticing itinerary and have a wonderful cruise!

 

Katie

 

 

 

 

[Andee]

Another option is not to take the OLife at all. That's what we did.

[Flatbush Flyer]

6 minutes ago, Andee said:

Another option is not to take the OLife at all. That's what we did.

"Cruise only" is definitely an option, particularly if one has zero plans to do ship excursions, alcohol, etc; drives to embarkation and has gratuities covered by the TA (or O loyalty).

 

That said, and with the understanding that we do drink, take culinary classes on the larger O ships, often mix some ship tours with our privates and take the air credit to offset the cost of DIY bizclass tix, I have yet to find any O cruise of interest where the bottom line savings of "cruise only" pricing equals or exceeds to dollar value of the appropriate O Life perks.

But, everyone should do their own math. 

[BBQ Lover]

Thanks everybody for all of the information. We ended up booking with the Connoisseur Club TA in Canada and we are going on Riviera for Christmas 2019 and New Year's. We got the free gratuities and other good stuff that comes from dealing with a Connoisseur Club TA. We took the O Life On Board Credit. We found a more expensive excursion that we would like to do and the cooking classes look like fun, so we went with the OBC. Plus I always need to buy a cruise line baseball cap and maybe a couple of other souvenirs.

 

Thanks again

Kevin