the_travel_locks Posted February 24, 2020 #1 Share Posted February 24, 2020 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paulchili Posted February 24, 2020 #2 Share Posted February 24, 2020 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). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flatbush Flyer Posted February 24, 2020 #3 Share Posted February 24, 2020 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gogie Posted February 24, 2020 #4 Share Posted February 24, 2020 (edited) 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KS&JW Posted February 24, 2020 #5 Share Posted February 24, 2020 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? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KS&JW Posted February 24, 2020 #6 Share Posted February 24, 2020 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. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StanandJim Posted February 24, 2020 #7 Share Posted February 24, 2020 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wishing on a star Posted February 24, 2020 #8 Share Posted February 24, 2020 (edited) 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 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare LHT28 Posted February 24, 2020 #9 Share Posted February 24, 2020 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare ORV Posted February 24, 2020 #10 Share Posted February 24, 2020 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. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paulchili Posted February 24, 2020 #11 Share Posted February 24, 2020 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawaiidan Posted February 24, 2020 #12 Share Posted February 24, 2020 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samiam0403 Posted February 24, 2020 #13 Share Posted February 24, 2020 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! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beagle5 Posted February 24, 2020 #14 Share Posted February 24, 2020 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. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paulchili Posted February 24, 2020 #15 Share Posted February 24, 2020 (edited) 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 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drkitkat123 Posted February 24, 2020 #16 Share Posted February 24, 2020 (edited) 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawaiidan Posted February 24, 2020 #17 Share Posted February 24, 2020 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare ORV Posted February 24, 2020 #18 Share Posted February 24, 2020 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawaiidan Posted February 24, 2020 #19 Share Posted February 24, 2020 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare ORV Posted February 24, 2020 #20 Share Posted February 24, 2020 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawaiidan Posted February 24, 2020 #21 Share Posted February 24, 2020 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.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drkitkat123 Posted February 24, 2020 #22 Share Posted February 24, 2020 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... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare ORV Posted February 24, 2020 #23 Share Posted February 24, 2020 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. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drkitkat123 Posted February 24, 2020 #24 Share Posted February 24, 2020 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawaiidan Posted February 24, 2020 #25 Share Posted February 24, 2020 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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