What’s included in free O Life excursions?

[cruisecountess]

Trying to decide between shipboard credit or O Life excursions.  I know that OE excursions are not included in the free offerings but what about OS excursions?  Are they part of the O Life included free excursions?  There’s one port in Chile where the only way to get off the ship is to take the one and only excursion being offered, an OS at over $300 per person.  If it’s covered by OLife, it makes financial sense to take that option; otherwise, the shipboard credit is a more attractive option for us as we have already arranged 5 independent excursions.  Thanks.

[PhD-iva]

48 minutes ago, cruisecountess said:

Trying to decide between shipboard credit or O Life excursions.  I know that OE excursions are not included in the free offerings but what about OS excursions?  Are they part of the O Life included free excursions?  There’s one port in Chile where the only way to get off the ship is to take the one and only excursion being offered, an OS at over $300 per person.  If it’s covered by OLife, it makes financial sense to take that option; otherwise, the shipboard credit is a more attractive option for us as we have already arranged 5 independent excursions.  Thanks.

OS excursions are not included w olife. The OLife excursions have a cost limit of $200 to be covered within your olife allowance.

i’m sure other more knowledgeable posters will also provide you with additional information. Enjoy your cruise!

[LHT28]

Any excursions with Letter  in the box are not part of O Life

OLife Choice free shore excursions vary by voyage and exclude Oceania Select, Oceania Exclusive, Executive Collection, Food & Wine Trails, Wellness Discovery Tours by Aquamar,

https://www.oceaniacruises.com/legal/promotion-terms/

 

 

 if those are your options I would not take the O Life

You can do O air with or without O Life  or just take cruise only fare book your own tours & airfare

 

[pinotlover]

The particular shore tour in question is an interesting one. The very small port does not allow cruise ships to off load passengers there. To otherwise get there requires a long arduous vehicle ride. Once there, individually, a few small companies run the catamaran or other boats up to the glacier. Cost is about $100 equivalent.

 

Oceania has an arrangement with the catamaran company wherein it will come out to the ship (Marina), pick up guests directly off the ship, and do the tour to the glacier. The catamaran has a capacity of about 300 guests for the 3 hour tour. About two such tours occur in any day. Therefore a max of 600 can go on the tour and/or get off the ship. Oceania charges over $300 for that privilege. Nice profit margin!! Otherwise, it’s another day at sea?

[Flatbush Flyer]

2 hours ago, PhD-iva said:

OS excursions are not included w olife. The OLife excursions have a cost limit of $200 to be covered within your olife allowance.

i’m sure other more knowledgeable posters will also provide you with additional information. Enjoy your cruise!

Limit is $199 with no OS/OE.

OP would do themselves a favor by using the CC search feature to find the zillion threads about O Life strategies in general and excursions specifically (incl the relationship to “YWYW” [also searchable]).
Hint: NEVER take the SBC.

[Rainbow3fe]

3 hours ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

Limit is $199 with no OS/OE.

OP would do themselves a favor by using the CC search feature to find the zillion threads about O Life strategies in general and excursions specifically (incl the relationship to “YWYW” [also searchable]).
Hint: NEVER take the SBC.

Hi,

  I would like to know what SBC stands for. I know you're knowledgeable about Oceania excursions. We mostly go on TA cruises so we don't usually take lots of ship excursions.

    Thanks.  I  did take your advice when booking the excursions for our Capetown cruise 2023. We ended up doing Unlimited and saved about $200.pp. We were able to use our, OH I UNDERSTAND,  SBC =Shipboard Credit and apply it to the cost of the Unlimited.  If that's not appropriate,  please advise me of a better strategy. 

Thanks for your help. 

Stay safe,

Felice 

    

[1985rz1]

31 minutes ago, Rainbow3fe said:

Hi,

  I would like to know what SBC stands for. I know you're knowledgeable about Oceania excursions. We mostly go on TA cruises so we don't usually take lots of ship excursions.

    Thanks.  I  did take your advice when booking the excursions for our Capetown cruise 2023. We ended up doing Unlimited and saved about $200.pp. We were able to use our, OH I UNDERSTAND,  SBC =Shipboard Credit and apply it to the cost of the Unlimited.  If that's not appropriate,  please advise me of a better strategy. 

Thanks for your help. 

Stay safe,

Felice 

    

The issue with taking SBC (some call it OBC) as the OLife option is that it does not involve any savings.  The amount of SBC per cabin is the same as the  cost of OLife per cabin added to the cruise-only fare.  You simply give O the money in advance for the SBC.  Some folks like it for it's convenience, but there is the downside that if you don't spend it by the end of the cruise, any balance is non-refundable:  use it or lose it.  But it can be applied towards any excursions you book prior to embarkation or any stateroom charges incurred while onboard, but financially it's a wash.

 

If your following Flatbush, I'm sure you know that OLife  and air are separate entities.

 

 

Edited April 25, 2022 by 1985rz1

[RJB]

8 hours ago, PhD-iva said:

OS excursions are not included w olife. The OLife excursions have a cost limit of $200 to be covered within your olife allowance.

i’m sure other more knowledgeable posters will also provide you with additional information. Enjoy your cruise!

We have taken quite a few O Life tours and for the most part O is doing a very good job with them. Will take them in the future when we find one that goes where we want to go.  Some are just as good as some private tours we have taken.

[Rainbow3fe]

39 minutes ago, RJB said:

We have taken quite a few O Life tours and for the most part O is doing a very good job with them. Will take them in the future when we find one that goes where we want to go.  Some are just as good as some private tours we have taken.

     In Europe we usually book private small group excursions. We decided to book Oceania excursions while on the cruise in South Africa. 

     We wanted to make sure we'd be able to get open air safari vehicles in the game preserves as opposed to traveling in a tour bus. Oceania does offer them on this cruise.  I am sure there's a limited number of those vehicles available in each park. We've been on Safari in the past and it's incredible to be so close to the animals in the wild. I was leery of booking privately because the game preserves are over an hours bus ride from the pier. Getting back to the ship on-time is a concern. 

    Maybe I am worrying too much but being older comes with certain issues.

   Stay safe,

Felice 

    

 

Edited April 25, 2022 by Rainbow3fe

[Flatbush Flyer]

3 hours ago, Rainbow3fe said:

Hi,

  I would like to know what SBC stands for. I know you're knowledgeable about Oceania excursions. We mostly go on TA cruises so we don't usually take lots of ship excursions.

    Thanks.  I  did take your advice when booking the excursions for our Capetown cruise 2023. We ended up doing Unlimited and saved about $200.pp. We were able to use our, OH I UNDERSTAND,  SBC =Shipboard Credit and apply it to the cost of the Unlimited.  If that's not appropriate,  please advise me of a better strategy. 

Thanks for your help. 

Stay safe,

Felice 

    

SBC? It’s right there on your Oceania invoice under “Amenities” (if you’re getting it because of your O Club status)- “shipboard credit” aka SBC.

[Rainbow3fe]

Just now, Flatbush Flyer said:

SBC? It’s right there on your Oceania invoice under “Amenities” (if you’re getting it because of your O Club status)- “shipboard credit” aka SBC.

     Hi,

   Sorry I realized it as I was writing the post. Please explain why you say don't take it. Our TA usually adds some. We book "cruise only" price. For our upcoming South African cruise we paid for Unlimited Excursions because of the high cost of the excursions we chose.  I asked Oceania and there is no YWYW offered for this cruise. Then we used our SBC to offset the cost of the excursions.  

    Please let me know if you have a suggestion about a different way I should handle this. 

    I really appreciate your expertise. 

Stay safe 

Felice 

[Flatbush Flyer]

1 minute ago, Rainbow3fe said:

     Hi,

   Sorry I realized it as I was writing the post. Please explain why you say don't take it. Our TA usually adds some. We book "cruise only" price. For our upcoming South African cruise we paid for Unlimited Excursions because of the high cost of the excursions we chose.  I asked Oceania and there is no YWYW offered for this cruise. Then we used our SBC to offset the cost of the excursions.  

    Please let me know if you have a suggestion about a different way I should handle this. 

    I really appreciate your expertise. 

Stay safe 

Felice 

What I said was don’t select the O Life SBC option because you pay for it $ for $ in the O Life fare. The booze or excursions are the better O Life deal.
Do take any other SBC you get (e.g, O Club status perk) though, if it’s coming from O, it is non-refundable. In most cases,  TA SBC is refundable (unless it’s pass through incentive $ provided by O via the TA per the TA’s discretion).

If YWYW is available on a cruise (double check that since if it is available, it should be listed in the first page of the Oceania “ShoreExcursions.pdf” you received when you booked the Cruise) note that I have always found it to be a better “bottom line” deal than the PassPort option.

As with everything O, do the math. In fact, call O, tell them what excursions you are interested in and let the rep tell you which way is the cheapest (while also confirming the YWYW availability question).