OLife excursion credit

[Tn gal]

I am trying to understand if it would be better to pay the $800 upgrade for OLife and choose the excursions.  Because of the length of the cruise I would get $800 credit.  Would this get me reduced pricing on excursions or should I just pay for the excursions and forget the OLife credit?  New cruiser for a Oceania.  Thank you.

[Flatbush Flyer]

16 minutes ago, Tn gal said:

I am trying to understand if it would be better to pay the $800 upgrade for OLife and choose the excursions.  Because of the length of the cruise I would get $800 credit.  Would this get me reduced pricing on excursions or should I just pay for the excursions and forget the OLife credit?  New cruiser for a Oceania.  Thank you.

 If you take the most expensive of the allowable O Life excursions (non-OE non-OS, et al.), you will actually have as much as twice the value of the $800 SBC. 

 In addition, if you pre-book the "O Life" excursions (which is required), they will count towards the minimum number of required excursions to qualify for the "your world your way" 25% discount on non-O Life excursions. So if  you are interested in doing ship excursions, definitely take the excursions as your old life perk. 

[Parapara]

Hi Flatbush Flyer,

Can you tell me what is the minimum number of required excursions to qualify for the 25% discount?

Thanks!

[Flatbush Flyer]

23 minutes ago, Parapara said:

Hi Flatbush Flyer,

Can you tell me what is the minimum number of required excursions to qualify for the 25% discount?

Thanks!

Varies by itinerary. Cart in your account online will tell you. Or you can call and get a PDF of the tours and it will state the minimum on page 1.

[azam71209]

Look at the excursions and see what appeals to you. If you don't really want to go on so many excursions or would prefer to book a private tour now and then, it could be better to use the OBC for gratuities or drinks. One downside to OLife excursions is that you have to decide in advance and can't change your mind once you are onboard. 

 

Mary

[Paulchili]

59 minutes ago, azam71209 said:

Look at the excursions and see what appeals to you. If you don't really want to go on so many excursions or would prefer to book a private tour now and then, it could be better to use the OBC for gratuities or drinks. One downside to OLife excursions is that you have to decide in advance and can't change your mind once you are onboard. 

 

Mary

Sorry but I have to disagree with some of your statements.

1 Choosing OBC as an O Life perk is a terrible choice - you essentially just pre-pay your OBC and then you have to worry about spending it. In such a case it is better not to take O Life and just pay for gratuities and drinks as you go - they may add up to less then what you pre-paid for O Life.

2 If you decide to take O Life (and like ship’s excursions) then choosing excursions is the best value. Cannot comment on O Life value of drinks package as we don’t drink

3 if you choose O Life with excursions you cannot cancel them once onboard but you CAN exchange them for other excursions (provided that there is availability)

As to how many excursions one needs for 25% discount it is usually 2 over the O Life included excursions on most cruises (could be more on long cruises).

[Flatbush Flyer]

3 hours ago, Paulchili said:

As to how many excursions one needs for 25% discount it is usually 2 over the O Life included excursions on most cruises (could be more on long cruises).

On "longer" cruises (e.g., >3 wks), the YWYW minimum will increase while the O Life included tours may not.

 

Nonetheless, as has been established here numerous times, tours as the O Life perk can have real value if you pick the most expensive of the allowable ones that have interest for you. And, when you prepurchase enough additional tours to total the YWYW minimum for your cruise, the 25% discount is a great added perk.

 

And, if it's a long cruise, you have great flexibility to mix ship O Life tours, added ship OE/OS (non O Life) tours (sufficient for the 25% off), private tours and some DIY ports.

[Wishing on a star]

Yes, I am a newbie, and have appreciated this info as well.

We looked at current sailings for the ports we are visiting, and this will show the excursions and pricing.

We would get two excursions each.  And, of course, this would be for the $400.00 O-life,  or $100. per excursion.

We are looking at one excursion that is $199. at one port, and one that is like $169.00, if I remember correctly.

so that 400 for O-life would get us well more than that in value.

It appears that YMMV.

Check the excursions you are interested in on your cruise.

 

I was wondering if Concierge or O-life would give any advance reservations or preferential treatment for booking the excursions that we want.  But, from what I am seeing here on CC,  there is no benefit like that.  So, I assume we want to make up our minds and book these excursions ASAP when booking opens.

Edited January 12, 2020 by Wishing on a star

[Wishing on a star]

Paul,  and FF,  so on our shorter cruise, we would get 4 excursions with O-life.  (2 each)

Then, we would have to book 8 excursions, and then get 25% off the second, non O-life, excursions?

 

I don't think we will do this.  As we do want to take some better private excursions at some ports.

But, I was looking at one expensive OE excursion.  25% off of that would be nice.

 

Thanks!

Edited January 12, 2020 by Wishing on a star

[Flatbush Flyer]

39 minutes ago, Wishing on a star said:

Paul,  and FF,  so on our shorter cruise, we would get 4 excursions with O-life.  (2 each)

Then, we would have to book 8 excursions, and then get 25% off the second, non O-life, excursions?

 

I don't think we will do this.  As we do want to take some better private excursions at some ports.

But, I was looking at one expensive OE excursion.  25% off of that would be nice.

 

Thanks!

Unsure what you are saying.

If the total tours needed for YWYW 25% off is 8 and you get 4 "O Life", you'd only need 4 more to qualify. The  added 4 (or more) get 25% off. And if those 4 "O Life" tours are closer to $200 retail than to $100 retail, you'll reap a significantly better deal.

BTW, many (but not all) O tours are quite good and most will not use giant busses unless they are of the "panoramic" variety.

[Paulchili]

1 hour ago, Wishing on a star said:

Paul,  and FF,  so on our shorter cruise, we would get 4 excursions with O-life.  (2 each)

Then, we would have to book 8 excursions, and then get 25% off the second, non O-life, excursions?

 

I don't think we will do this.  As we do want to take some better private excursions at some ports.

But, I was looking at one expensive OE excursion.  25% off of that would be nice.

 

Thanks!

So it sounds to me that you would have to buy only 4 more (2 /pp) excursions in addition to your 4 O Life ones.

As you are already interested in 2 OE excursion (1/pp) at 25% savings you would have to find only one more/pp to get the 25% discount on that one also.

Can you find one more interesting excursion to make this work?

Remember, you are already “making out” pretty well on your original 4 O Life excursions 😊

If you don’t take the O Life, ALL your excursions would be at full price (or private, that tend to cost more unless you find others to share the cost).

[Wishing on a star]

Wow, I so appreciate all of the help in info.

We will look again to see if there are 4 excursions that we might want.

[Parapara]

Thanks for all the  feed back on shore excursions.  It seems we have a different package from most called O life ultimate which includes- for the two of us-  8 free excursions,a drink package, US$800 credit plus internet and included gratuities. So we will be booking at least 4  shore excursions each.  As to how many extra we would have to book to get 25% off I am not sure but think it might be another  4 each before the discount applies. The excursions seem to be extremely expensive ( especially in NZ $) so may be looking to do our own sight seeing in some places. I understand Oceania offers free shuttles in a lot of ports. Is this correct? If so does anyone know which places we are visiting they apply.

Thanks!

[Paulchili]

The very first thread on Oceania forum at the very top deals with shuttles:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/1401115-oceanias-free-shuttles-list/

As to how many more excursions you would need to get the 25% discount - I would call Oceania or your TA.

Where is your cruise - maybe some here might help you with shuttles.

[Parapara]

Hi Paulchili,

I have looked at the list and some places we go to are listed but, is there a shuttle at Reykjavik for example? 

Thanks.

[Flatbush Flyer]

1 minute ago, Parapara said:

Hi Paulchili,

I have looked at the list and some places we go to are listed but, is there a shuttle at Reykjavik for example? 

Thanks.

We were in Reykjavik this past autumn and Oceania had a shuttle.

[Parapara]

17 hours ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

We were in Reykjavik this past autumn and Oceania had a shuttle.

Many thanks for that info.

 

[Mura]

OTOH, we were a group of 8 who rented two cars in Reykjavik -- this is back in 2006, I think -- but it was very economical for all of us and gave us time to really drive around Iceland.  We did have an overnight there ... The only problem was when it appeared we were running out of gas and we were in an area that did NOT appear to have any gas stations!  Fortunately we found one just in time ...

 

On that cruise we also had a day in the Faroe Islands where we had a large van for the 8 of us.  Also a good investment!

 

As I recall in other ports we joined groups on our Roll Call for excellent private tours or did things on our own.

 

Mura