Oceania Special Offer Options - Advice Please

[samiam0403]

22 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. 

I'm solo cruising on Riviera in a PH3 in December. OLife with airfare = $2999pp. Cruise only = $2499pp. Air credit from my invoice = $600. What am I missing, please?

[drkitkat123]

4 minutes ago, Hawaiidan said:

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.

I am not a TA but maybe a little harsh ... Seriously though, I think the agents here (in Australia) get less commission/OBC vouchers to rebate back so there is much less to play with

[Hawaiidan]

8 minutes ago, samiam0403 said:

I'm solo cruising on Riviera in a PH3 in December. OLife with airfare = $2999pp. Cruise only = $2499pp. Air credit from my invoice = $600. What am I missing, please?

Your not really getting O life..  Just base fare with air.      Did you get a choice of OBC/Tours or Liquor included?   I think you did not...  but its the way things are presented    that make it look like  you do.   What package did you choose?     

Edited February 24, 2020 by Hawaiidan

[samiam0403]

2 minutes ago, Hawaiidan said:

Your not really getting O life..  Just base fare with air.      Did you get a choice of OBC/Tours or Liquor included?   I think you did not...  but its the way things are presented    

I had the choice of OBC, shore excursions, and the House Select beverage package. I am indeed getting OLife - booked directly with Oceania. Pulled the prices that I quoted directly off of their website and my invoice.

Edited February 24, 2020 by samiam0403

[Beagle5]

18 minutes ago, Hawaiidan said:

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.

It’s Oceania that have put that pricing structure together for Australia, not the travel agents. 

[Paulchili]

35 minutes ago, samiam0403 said:

I'm solo cruising on Riviera in a PH3 in December. OLife with airfare = $2999pp. Cruise only = $2499pp. Air credit from my invoice = $600. What am I missing, please?

I am guessing the OBC with your O Life is $500 - is that correct?

[samiam0403]

1 minute ago, Paulchili said:

I am guessing the OBC with your O Life is $500 - is that correct?

No, it's $400. 

[Best Cat Mom]

7 hours ago, Hawaiidan said:

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

Sorry to maybe go off topic here...

 

You're lucky to get 2 glasses per meal? When we dine, we expect to have cocktails while we peruse the menu and then a new glass with each course. Is that going to be difficult? Is that because the servers are not very attentive? Sometimes we want different wines with each course and ordering a bottle does not make as much sense as separate glasses (especially if we order items at each course where we each want different grapes).

[Best Cat Mom]

duplicate, sorry

Edited February 25, 2020 by Best Cat Mom

[ORV]

33 minutes ago, samiam0403 said:

I had the choice of OBC, shore excursions, and the House Select beverage package. I am indeed getting OLife - booked directly with Oceania. Pulled the prices that I quoted directly off of their website and my invoice. 

Since you are traveling solo I'm not sure of the amount of OBC you will get. I see your are taking the air credit. The $400 OBC is for 2 people. Seeing how there is no Solo Supplement on your cruise I assume you're paying double. If you're not taking air you're paying $5398. The air credit is $600. The cruise only fare is $4998. The difference between $5398 and $4998 is $400, the exact amount of the OBC you're getting. 

 

How is your math different?

[Paulchili]

38 minutes ago, samiam0403 said:

No, it's $400. 

OK - I think I found your cruise - Riviera Dec 13 - Dec 20 - correct>?

PH3 with O Life & air $2999 PER PERSON

Take away $300 air PER PERSON and $200 OBC PER PERSON = minus $500/pp and you come up with cruise only fare of $2499/pp

You are mixing cruise price per person and OBC ($400)and air per cabin ($600)

Am I right? (Forget the thing below - don't know how it got there)

 

Edited February 25, 2020 by Paulchili

[ORV]

Paul, see my post above yours, I think we came to the same conclusion. 

[Paulchili]

1 minute ago, ORV said:

Paul, see my post above yours, I think we came to the same conclusion. 

Exactly - more than one way to skin the cat (or figure out O pricing 😀)

[Gogie]

This may be an anomaly but let me give you the actual cost of a cruise I have recently booked to show how taking OLife is actually worth money for me.  Note that dollar amounts are in $CAD.  The cruise I booked is in 2021 and it's a 26-day back-to-back.  On a per person basis, the OLife cost for a PH1 suite is $14,399.  The credit for air is $900 and the OBC with OLife amounts to $920.  If you subtract the air credit and OBC from the $14,399 you come up with $12,579.  The cruise-only fare for this cruise is $12,649.  By taking OLife I come out ahead $70 PP, which equates to about $50 PP $US.  I'll take an extra $100 US in OBC any day.  I may change my choice once shore excursions become available and effectively come out further ahead (as many others have mentioned you can easily "save" close to $100 PP per excursion taking that option).  Again, these amounts are from my actual Oceania invoice so they are not hypothetical.

[samiam0403]

1 hour ago, ORV said:

Since you are traveling solo I'm not sure of the amount of OBC you will get. I see your are taking the air credit. The $400 OBC is for 2 people. Seeing how there is no Solo Supplement on your cruise I assume you're paying double. If you're not taking air you're paying $5398. The air credit is $600. The cruise only fare is $4998. The difference between $5398 and $4998 is $400, the exact amount of the OBC you're getting. 

 

How is your math different?

My solo supplement is $2199 per my invoice. 

[samiam0403]

1 hour ago, Paulchili said:

OK - I think I found your cruise - Riviera Dec 13 - Dec 20 - correct>?

PH3 with O Life & air $2999 PER PERSON

Take away $300 air PER PERSON and $200 OBC PER PERSON = minus $500/pp and you come up with cruise only fare of $2499/pp

You are mixing cruise price per person and OBC ($400)and air per cabin ($600)

Am I right? (Forget the thing below - don't know how it got there)

 

 

I understand your per person numbers, but I am telling you that per my invoice, I get $400 OBC for myself (just like I did on my first O solo cruise last December), and $600 air credit for myself. The amounts I quoted are not per person, as I sailed solo last December, and am doing the same next December. I'm not mixing up per person and per cabin.

[Paulchili]

3 minutes ago, samiam0403 said:

I'm not mixing up per person and per cabin.

But the price of $2999you quote is per person - does not include single supplement.

The airfare credit of $600 you list is for 2 people.

I give up 😃

[ORV]

23 minutes ago, samiam0403 said:

My solo supplement is $2199 per my invoice. 

Since we're talking numbers what is your total invoice? Your single supplement is $300 less the cruise only price. 

[Mura]

2 hours ago, Best Cat Mom said:

Sorry to maybe go off topic here...

 

You're lucky to get 2 glasses per meal? When we dine, we expect to have cocktails while we peruse the menu and then a new glass with each course. Is that going to be difficult? Is that because the servers are not very attentive? Sometimes we want different wines with each course and ordering a bottle does not make as much sense as separate glasses (especially if we order items at each course where we each want different grapes).

I will forgive you!  We've never taken the package but for us it isn't a value, but from what I have read it is not that you are limited to 2 glasses per meal.  It's that service refilling your glass can be VERY slow.  We did not discuss this on our last cruises, but they were in November '17 and May '18 so things may well have changed. You can't order a bottle with the package anyway -- it's strictly per glass, although they do have several choices per wine type.

 

If you have a discussion with the server when he brings your first glass, perhaps you can do better than others have said.

 

Good luck!

[samiam0403]

43 minutes ago, Paulchili said:

But the price of $2999you quote is per person - does not include single supplement.

The airfare credit of $600 you list is for 2 people.

I give up 😃

I promise, I'm not trying to be obtuse, or difficult! I really don't understand - my solo supplement (as I mentioned previously) is $2199. And I don't know why my Oceania rep gave me the $600 airfare credit - but she did. I'm just relaying the numbers I have on my invoice. 

[ORV]

9 minutes ago, samiam0403 said:

I promise, I'm not trying to be obtuse, or difficult! I really don't understand - my solo supplement (as I mentioned previously) is $2199. And I don't know why my Oceania rep gave me the $600 airfare credit - but she did. I'm just relaying the numbers I have on my invoice. 

We're just trying to figure it out, because your case is definitely an anomaly. And unless if a person is traveling solo it doesn't change the situation of the OBC being the worst choice. It just goes to show that a person always has to do the math. Did you see my question above? 

Edited February 25, 2020 by ORV

[samiam0403]

5 minutes ago, ORV said:

We're just trying to figure it out, because your case is definitely an anomaly. And unless if a person is traveling solo it doesn't change the situation of the OBC being the worst choice. It just goes to show that a person always has to do the math. Did you see my question above? 

The total invoice question? Sorry, just caught that once you pointed it out. My total invoice number is $3173 what with early booking discount, bonus discount, onboard booking savings, air credit, and a casino credit. Anomaly, indeed! Thanks for your patience with this Oceania newbie - on most of the other boards, I'd have been insulted and called a liar about 50 times by now. 😀

[ORV]

Well that's a heck of a deal, you're saving $2200 off of what it would cost if you booked it on the website today. Does this include your deposit? 

 

I've never heard of a casino discount on Oceania. Is that due to your previous play?

 

Does that $3173 include your $2199 solo supplement?

Edited February 25, 2020 by ORV

[the_travel_locks]

5 hours ago, Beagle5 said:

 

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.

 

Thanks so much for this information , Beagle5 

Very helpful to have the Australian booking scenario clarified like this. Much appreciated that you went  to the trouble of doing a dummy booking to check  on it too.

 

Also thanks to everyone else for making us aware of the term 'O Life'. As newbies to Oceania we didn't know to use that terminology to search before creating the original post here. We were looking at an offer called the Tropics and Exotics offer which includes choice of (per stateroom) $800 USD OBC, or 8 excursions or beverage package, but these are not specifically termed as 'O life'  on the cruise details page. Also in Australia, as  Beagle5 has noted, these options are not  removable  for us (and that's Oceania direct's pricing  model - not TA price).

 

So the offer of a discounted fare, plus 50% off deposits, plus the inclusion of a chosen extra option is where we are at.

And as you say, it now just comes down to selecting which option to choose and we have some very helpful info here now to help with that, thanks to everyone's comments.

 

Also am assuming that the beverage package option would be a package per person and not per stateroom? It's not really clear in T &C's . I must ask Oceania that tomorrow in my next call. If it is per person,  that does make it seem OK value,  as if we each purchased a basic beverage package at $52 AUD per person ($104  AUD) per day over  a 20 day cruise that would cost us in total $2080  - so choosing that option from the  3 non-removable  options ,  sounds perhaps a better choice  for anyone wishing  to have a glass of wine with dinner and /or lunch- - if my reasoning is correct.

Cheers

 

[Beagle5]

25 minutes ago, the_travel_locks said:

 

Also am assuming that the beverage package option would be a package per person and not per stateroom? It's not really clear in T &C's . I must ask Oceania that tomorrow in my next call. If it is per person,  that does make it seem OK value,  as if we each purchased a basic beverage package at $52 AUD per person ($104  AUD) per day over  a 20 day cruise that would cost us in total $2080  - so choosing that option from the  3 non-removable  options ,  sounds perhaps a better choice  for anyone wishing  to have a glass of wine with dinner and /or lunch- - if my reasoning is correct.

Cheers

 

 

That's right - the beverage packages are priced per person. So yes, on a 20 day cruise if you have a couple of wines a day with lunch/dinnerthen choosing the beverage package as your  o life choice you will come out ahead compared to the US800 of OBC.

 

A glass of wine off the menu starts at about USD12 (incl gratuity), so 4 glasses a day for 20 days would be US960.

 

Our last cruise was 12 days and so the OBC made more sense for us.

 

Also note that if you take the beverage package as your OLife choice you can upgrade  it when you get on board to the premium package for US 20(?) each per day. With the premium package you can order spirits as well as wine/beer at all times not just lunch/dinner.

 

Edit: Actually - you may want to check with Oceania the cost of the beverage package per person for your cruise. I just checked my current reservation and it is showing A$ 31.76 per day per guest including gratuity for the basic package and $47.65 per guest per day for the premium package. It is possible the $52 you quoted is for both of you not per person like I first thought - best check with your TA

Edited February 25, 2020 by Beagle5
clarification