Oceania Special Offer Options - Advice Please

[the_travel_locks]

We're about to make a booking for an Oceania cruise in 2022 - bookings open on Thursday.

The special offer  for this cruise is for half price deposit as well as a  choice of $800 USD on board credit, or 8 free excursions ( 4 each) or  free beverage package.

I am guessing that we will need to make  the choice of offer when we place the booking.

Given this will be our first cruise with Oceania ( having been used to all inclusive scenarios on other lines) we are keen to know what  experienced Oceanic cruisers  think the best option to choose would be.

We do like to have wines with dinner and sometimes with  lunch - but have no idea of the value of beverage packages or what the actual bar prices might be if not on package.

Also am assuming that any of the free offered shore excursions might just be basic ones - would that be correct?

 

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Cheers

[Paulchili]

Book the cruise without O Life ($800 less) - you can always add it later (up to 14 days before cruising).

If you do take it, forget the $800 OBC - you are essentially prepaying your own OBC 2 years in advance - the worst option.

Will you drink $800 worth of drinks? You can search for drink prices on this board and what basic package includes.

If you don't mind taking ship's excursions, those are the best value as you pay $100/excursion (a total of 4/pp) and most of them are well over $100 - up to $199. Later you can see what excursions they offer and see if you would be interested in 4/pp (only excursions without letters like OE, OS can be chosen).

[Flatbush Flyer]

Just now, Paulchili said:

.....If you don't mind taking ship's excursions, those are the best value as you pay $100/excursion (a total of 4/pp) and most of them are well over $100 - up to $199. Later you can see what excursions they offer and see if you would be interested in 4/pp (only excursions without letters like OE, OS can be chosen).

And the O Life tour choices count toward the minimum number of tours required if you want the 25% Your World Your Way discount on the more expensive ones (that YWYW number varies by cruise itinerary).

BTW, there's a zillion CC threads discussing your question. Try the CC search feature.

[Gogie]

2 hours ago, Paulchili said:

Book the cruise without O Life ($800 less) - you can always add it later (up to 14 days before cruising).

If you do take it, forget the $800 OBC - you are essentially prepaying your own OBC 2 years in advance - the worst option.

Will you drink $800 worth of drinks? You can search for drink prices on this board and what basic package includes.

If you don't mind taking ship's excursions, those are the best value as you pay $100/excursion (a total of 4/pp) and most of them are well over $100 - up to $199. Later you can see what excursions they offer and see if you would be interested in 4/pp (only excursions without letters like OE, OS can be chosen).

 

Not sure how one effectively "prepays" OBC when they make a deposit on a cruise.  In my experience the deposit amount is always the same regardless of whether O Life is chosen or not.  Also, you don't have to drink $800 worth of booze to utilize the OBC - it can be applied against gratuities and any other on board charges incurred (excluding most, but not all, casino charges).

 

Edit:  If one books an OS, VS or OC suite the required deposit is 20% of the cruise fare so I guess in that case booking O Life means you are effectively prepaying 20% of your OBC.  Otherwise the deposit amount is a flat US $750 PP per cruise regardless of cabin booked. 

Edited February 24, 2020 by Gogie

[KS&JW]

1 hour ago, Gogie said:

 

Not sure how one effectively "prepays" OBC when they make a deposit on a cruise.  In my experience the deposit amount is always the same regardless of whether O Life is chosen or not.  Also, you don't have to drink $800 worth of booze to utilize the OBC - it can be applied against gratuities and any other on board charges incurred (excluding most, but not all, casino charges).

 

 

 

The point being that you are paying Oceania $800 more for your cruise so that you can get $800 worth of OBC.  Why not just skip  the middle man and keep your money and pay your gratuities, drink, etc with your own money versus OBC?  

[KS&JW]

5 hours ago, the_travel_locks said:

We're about to make a booking for an Oceania cruise in 2022 - bookings open on Thursday.

The special offer  for this cruise is for half price deposit as well as a  choice of $800 USD on board credit, or 8 free excursions ( 4 each) or  free beverage package.

I am guessing that we will need to make  the choice of offer when we place the booking.

Given this will be our first cruise with Oceania ( having been used to all inclusive scenarios on other lines) we are keen to know what  experienced Oceanic cruisers  think the best option to choose would be.

We do like to have wines with dinner and sometimes with  lunch - but have no idea of the value of beverage packages or what the actual bar prices might be if not on package.

Also am assuming that any of the free offered shore excursions might just be basic ones - would that be correct?

 

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Cheers

 

Which ever option you choose, you can always change it later.  So the choice you make now is not that important.  You can research the topic a bit more and change your mind. 

[StanandJim]

7 minutes ago, KS&JW said:

hich ever option you choose, you can always change it later.  So the choice you make now is not that important.  You can research the topic a bit more and change your mind. 

True, with the proviso that the final choice must be made prior to the week before sailing, at which point  everything, including pre-cruise Specialty Restaurant Reservations, lock in.

 

At any rate, Olife cannot be edited once onboard.

 

[Wishing on a star]

We are also new to Oceania.

I have been looking at all of this, and will try to simplify and clarify, if that is possible.

 

It appears, that no matter when the total fare is paid, if you choose the onboard credit, you are basically paying that same amount of money for that amount of onboard credit.   So, not a real benefit or perk there.

I am not sure how Oceania would handle returning any unused credit?

That might be a good question?

(Refundable OBC is refunded fairly quickly and easily on the one other cruise line where I have done that.)

 

I think that most people would not be drinking enough to warrant paying that amount for the drink package.

YMMV.  Some might really want and appreciate that choice.

 

One benefit can come if you want to choose Oceania excursions.  In effect, it is possible to pay that $100. each for excursions that might have a price up to $199.  (if I am correct on this)

So, a benefit can be had there.

You can pull up the upcoming cruises where excursions are open for booking, and look at the ports on your itinerary to see what is available, and the prices.

 

The more exclusive and expensive excursions are not covered by the O-life included excursions.

As mentioned, once one books a certain number of excursions. (I am not the expert!!!) then you can book additional excursions, the more expensive ones, with that discount mentioned above.

 

And, as mentioned, it is possible to book a cruise as a "cruise only" fare, and then cover everything as you go.

 

 

Edited February 24, 2020 by Wishing on a star

[LHT28]

The O LIFE perk of OBC  is  nonrefundable  Use it or lose it

The  drink package offered is wine by the glass/beer  at lunch & dinner only

the excursions are  the better value  if you like to do ship's tours  any excursions that do not have letters after the description such  OE OC FW  etc  are eligible  for the OLife  deal

I am sure you could find the Terms & condition on the Australian website

[ORV]

The drink package is always a great deal for those of us that enjoy drinks. When I add the prestige package I drink the most expensive scotch available. I couple of doubles before dinner will set you back around $100. Of course if I didn't have the package I wouldn't be ordering those. 

 

Then you can add on a drink or two in the afternoon plus wine at lunch and dinner. That can put it up to around $200 a day. Not a bad deal for $800 plus the upgrade. On a 10 day cruise (which I never do the upgrade until day 3 or 4) for 2 people your cost would be $1200. At a value of $200 per person a day you would get a value of $4000 in drinks. 

 

I think I did that math right. With the Prestige package it becomes quality instead of quantity. 

 

If you don't drink, the excursions are the best way to go. OBC never, unless you just like taking your money from the right to your left hand, many months in advance(final payment) and has been noted becomes non refundable, so you might not use it all. For many of us here we already have included gratuities and other OBC. 

 

Depending on the cruise we either do the package or the excursions. If you don't drink and don't like ships excursions then don't take the Olife. You can still get the air without it. 

[Paulchili]

3 hours ago, Gogie said:

Not sure how one effectively "prepays" OBC when they make a deposit on a cruise.  In my experience the deposit amount is always the same regardless of whether O Life is chosen or not.  Also, you don't have to drink $800 worth of booze to utilize the OBC - it can be applied against gratuities and any other on board charges incurred (excluding most, but not all, casino charges).

Please read all the above explanations provided by others.

What I meant is IF one chooses O Life and then picks OBC as their choice then the OBC they will receive once onboard is essentially what they paid for O Life. Yes, one can use that credit for many things but one must use it up or lose the remaining balance.

This is why choosing OBC as the O Life option does not make sense.

Choosing O Life does not change the amount of cruise deposit - only the final payment.

[Hawaiidan]

7 hours ago, the_travel_locks said:

We're about to make a booking for an Oceania cruise in 2022 - bookings open on Thursday.

The special offer  for this cruise is for half price deposit as well as a  choice of $800 USD on board credit, or 8 free excursions ( 4 each) or  free beverage package.

I am guessing that we will need to make  the choice of offer when we place the booking.

Given this will be our first cruise with Oceania ( having been used to all inclusive scenarios on other lines) we are keen to know what  experienced Oceanic cruisers  think the best option to choose would be.

We do like to have wines with dinner and sometimes with  lunch - but have no idea of the value of beverage packages or what the actual bar prices might be if not on package.

Also am assuming that any of the free offered shore excursions might just be basic ones - would that be correct?

 

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Cheers

The only "deal"  is 1/2price  deposit......   your going to get charged  for any of those 3 choices.   The wine/beer deal is a joke   you get a choice of about  20 average to good, none excellent wines....  at lunch and dinner you will be lucky to get 2 glasses per meal !!!  It is not "bar service or room service"   Beer starts at $7 and liquors $9 USD ( 14 aud with tip included)   If  you take the liquor option and pay $20 pp per day more then you get unlimited liquor  from any venue all day and as long as they are serving in bars at night.  It does not include premimum wines

[samiam0403]

I know I'm new to Oceania, but I'm always perplexed at the comments that the difference between Olife and cruise-only fare is the amount of the OBC offered. I've chosen OBC for the 2 Oceania cruises I've booked, and the difference is far less than the OBC amount offered - I paid $100 extra for OLife which gave me $400 in OBC. Choosing the OBC works for me, as I use the OBC to purchase the Premium Beverage Package (for a grand total of less than $20 out of pocket). On my first Oceania cruise, I initially selected the House Select Beverage Package, then realized that I'd have to pay $20 per day to upgrade. Made a lot more sense to change my OLife selection to OBC! 

[Beagle5]

9 hours ago, Paulchili said:

Book the cruise without O Life ($800 less)

 

Hi the_travel_locks,

Unfortunately, for Australian cruisers, much of what has been written above  is incorrect.

In particular, in Australia, the base pricing is inclusive of the O-life Choice offer. You cannot deselect it and 'book the cruise without O Life'. The only 'choice' is which one of the three options you take. (Note some cruises are sold with the O Life Ultimate deal where the base price includes all three amenities).

 

I just tried a dummy booking and the Oceania website actually describes the choices as 'selecting which of the following complimentary amenities you would like'. Bizarrely it also allows you to deselect the included gratuities. If you deselect all the amenities and the gratuities the price is exactly the same as if you include them - so the base price is already inclusive of the O Life choice selection and gratuities.

Note, I always use a Travel agent for Oceania Cruises. Ours has managed to get us extra OBC because of the volume they do with Oceania.

 

As to which is the right Choice, well, we do choose the onboard credit. We prefer to do our own independent tours. When we have had tours included as part of the ultimate package we have found them very slow (we are early 50s - our idea of a typical port visit is to get off the ship, look for the nearest hill and climb it).

The drinks package is OK if you like to drink at both lunch and dinner. But we also like to imbibe at cocktail hour and later in the evening - never at lunch. For dinner we buy wine by the bottle and they will keep the undrunk portion of the bottle for you and you can have it at your next meal at any of the restaurants. There is a 2 for 1 happy hour before dinner and you can also take as much booze onboard as you like and drink it in your cabin.

 

So for us the OBC is the preferred option. On the last cruise it covered: all our  purchased drinks, reservations at La Reserve (highly recommended), and  2 x mens haircuts.

 

One of the things I do like about Oceania is that when they shove the account under your door on the final day, for us, it has always shown $0 owing.

Happy choosing.

[Paulchili]

Beagle5 - your situation in Australia is obviously very different and I was not aware of that - thank you for pointing it out.

From now on when I will discuss this subject I will specify that what I am saying applies to N. American market.

It does sound like OBC is the best option as you are obligated to take O Life and choose one option.

In my case, if I didn't drink enough and didn't like ship's shore excursions I would simply leave O Life out rather than take the OBC option but that is not an option for you.

Cheers.

PS It was recently pointed out to me that your air options are different from ours as well

Edited February 24, 2020 by Paulchili

[drkitkat123]

and (this is an Australian view which may not be true) remember that when choosing the 8 free tours which may be listed up to 249 AUD each  and thus potentially get almost 2000 worth of value as opposed to the 800AUD  OBC, the tours are probably charged by Oceania at double what you could get independently in a small group, thus the value is not as great as one thinks

Edited February 24, 2020 by drkitkat123
incorrect

[Hawaiidan]

6 hours ago, ORV said:

The drink package is always a great deal for those of us that enjoy drinks. When I add the prestige package I drink the most expensive scotch available. I couple of doubles before dinner will set you back around $100. Of course if I didn't have the package I wouldn't be ordering those. 

 

Then you can add on a drink or two in the afternoon plus wine at lunch and dinner. That can put it up to around $200 a day. Not a bad deal for $800 plus the upgrade. On a 10 day cruise (which I never do the upgrade until day 3 or 4) for 2 people your cost would be $1200. At a value of $200 per person a day you would get a value of $4000 in drinks. 

 

I think I did that math right. With the Prestige package it becomes quality instead of quantity. 

 

If you don't drink, the excursions are the best way to go. OBC never, unless you just like taking your money from the right to your left hand, many months in advance(final payment) and has been noted becomes non refundable, so you might not use it all. For many of us here we already have included gratuities and other OBC. 

 

Depending on the cruise we either do the package or the excursions. If you don't drink and don't like ships excursions then don't take the Olife. You can still get the air without it. 

Fine print  the OBC of 800  is per person If I remember..... making it only $400.    Same with the shore ex...  6 excursions  are really only 3 

[ORV]

3 hours ago, samiam0403 said:

I know I'm new to Oceania, but I'm always perplexed at the comments that the difference between Olife and cruise-only fare is the amount of the OBC offered. I've chosen OBC for the 2 Oceania cruises I've booked, and the difference is far less than the OBC amount offered - I paid $100 extra for OLife which gave me $400 in OBC. Choosing the OBC works for me, as I use the OBC to purchase the Premium Beverage Package (for a grand total of less than $20 out of pocket). On my first Oceania cruise, I initially selected the House Select Beverage Package, then realized that I'd have to pay $20 per day to upgrade. Made a lot more sense to change my OLife selection to OBC! 

I'm not saying you're wrong, but I've never seen it like that. Case in point, a cruise I'm booking is $5949 pp, air credit is $650 pp, cost of cruise only is $4899, add in the $400 pp for Olife and the cost is $5299. The amount of OBC? $400 pp. Exactly the same as the extra you pay. Every cruise I've ever taken on Oceania has worked out this way. You gotta work the numbers right. 

[Hawaiidan]

23 minutes ago, drkitkat123 said:

and (this is an Australian view which may not be true) remember that when choosing the 8 free tours which may be listed up to 249 AUD each  and thus potentially get almost 2000 worth of value as opposed to the 800AUD  OBC, the tours are probably charged by Oceania at double what you could get independently in a small group, thus the value is not as great as one thinks

The 8 free tours are really only 4 !     the 8 is per cabin with 2     O tours are 100-150% markup  Seldom will you find a tour over 140=150  USD   About 208 Aud tops

[ORV]

2 minutes ago, Hawaiidan said:

Fine print  the OBC of 800  is per person If I remember..... making it only $400.    Same with the shore ex...  6 excursions  are really only 3 

$800 per couple? I think that's the max now. It used to be higher sometimes. 

[Hawaiidan]

5 minutes ago, ORV said:

I'm not saying you're wrong, but I've never seen it like that. Case in point, a cruise I'm booking is $5949 pp, air credit is $650 pp, cost of cruise only is $4899, add in the $400 pp for Olife and the cost is $5299. The amount of OBC? $400 pp. Exactly the same as the extra you pay. Every cruise I've ever taken on Oceania has worked out this way. You gotta work the numbers right. 

The OBC amount has been for years  the difference you pay between base fare and whatever the OBC is.  It is very simply your money that you are paying O to later give you credit  for it....its your money not something extra or free....

[drkitkat123]

6 minutes ago, Hawaiidan said:

The 8 free tours are really only 4 !     the 8 is per cabin with 2     O tours are 100-150% markup  Seldom will you find a tour over 140=150  USD   About 208 Aud tops

not sure what you mean by only 4 tours - its still 8 for two people which is 8 costed tours. BTW I have seen 249AUD tours available for our upcoming cruise - not a lot I grant you...

[ORV]

Yes Dan, that is what I was trying to show the poster. I'd like to see the cruise they're looking at. You ain't going to get $400 of Obc for $100. 

[drkitkat123]

3 minutes ago, Hawaiidan said:

The OBC amount has been for years  the difference you pay between base fare and whatever the OBC is.  It is very simply your money that you are paying O to later give you credit  for it....its your money not something extra or free....

remember that in Australia its essentially compulsory to take one so it is essentially extra you cant get back

[Hawaiidan]

9 minutes ago, drkitkat123 said:

remember that in Australia its essentially compulsory to take one so it is essentially extra you cant get back

Thats a rip off    So in essence they are making you pay an extra $$$ over the base fare even if you do not want the extras......  I know OZ  has some funny ways of doing business in travel  was just there 4months ago.... Trave agents there dont give anything just take their clients with all sorts of scams.