NCLH Press Release on “Simply More”

[GeorginaSpica]

On 7/5/2023 at 10:41 PM, LHT28 said:

Tell  the TA to speak to a supervisor at O

See the posts in another thread  people are getting their booked cruises repriced to SM  no problem

It took a couple of emails and a call but the booking has been changed to SM at no extra cost. 

We are travelling with my US relatives and they got it changed with just one call.  When I called, I mentioned cousin's switch done day before and he asked for a screenshot of my communications with cousin.  TA said he had to chat with supervisor. About an hour later, new documents were emailed. 

[urlaub]

I wonder what happens with the included shore excursions. My husband is fulltime in a wheelchair. He cannot climb up into a bus. Normally I organize private tours for us. Oceania offers NO excursions for people who need assistance.

[AMHuntFerry]

15 minutes ago, urlaub said:

I wonder what happens with the included shore excursions. My husband is fulltime in a wheelchair. He cannot climb up into a bus. Normally I organize private tours for us. Oceania offers NO excursions for people who need assistance.

I just noticed the other day that there are some (new?) accessible shorex available, but I'm sure the availability with be better/worse depending on the itinerary. You can view the ports with accessible tours by clicking on the wheelchair icon on the following page:
https://www.oceaniacruises.com/shore-excursions

Note: Some appear to be more accessible than others, or at least have specifics in the descriptions such as buses with wheelchair lifts and accessible bathrooms.

Edited July 11, 2023 by AMHuntFerry

[TFree]

On 7/6/2023 at 8:56 AM, terrydtx said:

We are a group of 6 in 3 cabins so this extra shore excursion credit is a big deal. My TA is out this week but I am sure she will find out next week.

@terrydtx: Based on our experience with our November 2023 Panama Canal cruise, it will not happen automatically.  Our TA was first told that we could not switch to SM because the cruise in all categories is sold out. But the Oceania rep said he/she would check with a supervisor.  The next day our TA called to let us know that the supervisor had approved the switch if we want to make it, and that it would cost us $399 pp extra.  This was pretty close to a wash for us, but we opted to go to SM to get the second WiFi login and the "free" wine and beer with lunch and dinner.  (We had booked OLife w/o air and had chosen the excursion option.) So I think you will find that you can switch on one phone call if the categories of your cabins are not sold out, and you can switch with supervisor approval if they are sold out.

 

Tom & Judy

[terrydtx]

On 7/6/2023 at 10:45 AM, terrydtx said:

We are booked on the Marina in March 2025 for 18 nights in an A3 Concierge cabin. When we booked we chose the O Life Bev promo with no air as we will book our own air. With the new SM we could add the $1000 shore excursion credit and the price of our cabin is the same as when we booked back in February. From reading the press release and some comments here it looks like we will automatically get the new SM promo, is this true?  I will have my TA look into this just to be sure.

Update:

My TA was able to get us booked with SM today at no extra cost in our cabin. So this was a big win for us.

Edited July 12, 2023 by terrydtx

[LaCroisiereS'amuse]

Only just caught up on Simply More due to a protracted house move & am a bit late to the party.  The only O excursion I have ever taken is one of the culinary whole day class/market tours in Bilbao, but this type of tour is rarely offered, so I am afraid that O have lost me as I don't want to pay for tours that I will never take, as I prefer to go independent and at my own pace rather than that of the lowest common denominator.  O Life worked perfectly for me and it just seems that O are morphing into Regent Lite.  It's a shame as I've been loyal since year 2 & the whole draw was that the product really was "Your world, your way" - I'll always be fond of O, but its time to move on.

[basor]

11 minutes ago, LaCroisiereS'amuse said:

Only just caught up on Simply More due to a protracted house move & am a bit late to the party.  The only O excursion I have ever taken is one of the culinary whole day class/market tours in Bilbao, but this type of tour is rarely offered, so I am afraid that O have lost me as I don't want to pay for tours that I will never take, as I prefer to go independent and at my own pace rather than that of the lowest common denominator.  O Life worked perfectly for me and it just seems that O are morphing into Regent Lite.  It's a shame as I've been loyal since year 2 & the whole draw was that the product really was "Your world, your way" - I'll always be fond of O, but its time to move on.

Unfortunately, as many of us are finding, there is no comparable cruise line that has not morphed into the same drinks and excursions inclusion.  At least with O, you have a $$$ credit that you can then use on any excursion instead of a "no choice included excursion - usually bus or walk around town"...we are not writing off O yet.  We have our 2024 cruises booked under "OLife" so will face this when getting ready to look at 2025.

[LaCroisiereS'amuse]

1 minute ago, basor said:

Unfortunately, as many of us are finding, there is no comparable cruise line that has not morphed into the same drinks and excursions inclusion.  At least with O, you have a $$$ credit that you can then use on any excursion instead of a "no choice included excursion - usually bus or walk around town"...we are not writing off O yet.  We have our 2024 cruises booked under "OLife" so will face this when getting ready to look at 2025.

 

I'm still doing the '24 cruise that I have booked under O Life and if I could use that OBC for anything other than excursions I would stay with O....I like a drink when on holiday so that isn't an issue for me and I'm now looking at Crystal & Explora.

[terrydtx]

For us switching to SM from O Life gave us an extra $1000 in excursion credit we will use plus we get the house Bev package we already had with O Life and our cruise cost did not change.

[MEFIowa]

If you've been booking off good O sales "cruise only", as we have, both non-sale SM and even the sales prices for the Labor Day Sale are astronomical increases! Doubt we'll be interested in any 2025 cruises, but only time will tell. Still have our 20 night each B2Bs in the Med (Riviera 2023) and Baltic (Sirena 2024).

[basor]

3 minutes ago, LaCroisiereS'amuse said:

 

I'm still doing the '24 cruise that I have booked under O Life and if I could use that OBC for anything other than excursions I would stay with O....I like a drink when on holiday so that isn't an issue for me and I'm now looking at Crystal & Explora.

We have looked at Crystal but the more upscale dress is a not for us plus the $$$ of both are above our "pay grade" .  Crystal just started sailing again after bankruptcy and Explora is just sailing their first cruise.  It will be interesting to see the reviews.  We will compare pricing for O with other upper premium lines and see if we find one that is less than O with SM for 2025.  

[EJL2023]

2 minutes ago, basor said:

We have looked at Crystal but the more upscale dress is a not for us plus the $$$ of both are above our "pay grade" .  Crystal just started sailing again after bankruptcy and Explora is just sailing their first cruise.  It will be interesting to see the reviews.  We will compare pricing for O with other upper premium lines and see if we find one that is less than O with SM for 2025.  

There are some crazy things going on for Explora right now.  I’d suggest reading a few of the threads under Explora.  I was thinking of looking at them too.  I may, but not for a while it looks like they are having some big start up issues. 

[basor]

Just now, EJL2023 said:

There are some crazy things going on for Explora right now.  I’d suggest reading a few of the threads under Explora.  I was thinking of looking at them too.  I may, but not for a while it looks like they are having some big start up issues. 

Agree - no matter the price I would wait at least a year for the kinks to work out on both Explora and the rebirth of Crystal.

[LHT28]

1 hour ago, basor said:

We have looked at Crystal but the more upscale dress is a not for us plus the $$$ of both are above our "pay grade" .

The old Crystal the dress code  seemed very close to O  except men need a jacket  one night  on our 8 day cruise

The evening buffet was  some Argentinian restaurant knock off  which was  awful

The buffet  is self serve ..no thanks

Not sure if the new Crystal is run the same way  or not

[basor]

4 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

The old Crystal the dress code  seemed very close to O  except men need a jacket  one night  on our 8 day cruise

The evening buffet was  some Argentinian restaurant knock off  which was  awful

The buffet  is self serve ..no thanks

Not sure if the new Crystal is run the same way  or not

Seeing the old and new post for Crystal sailings, it appears most men wear a jacket/sport coat every night to dinner in GDR....just going by the posted pictures from people onboard.  We did Seabourn to Antarctica and loved the itinerary but not so much the dress up for evenings and Crystal looks similar..

[the more ports the better]

Seabourn includes alcohol but not excursions and is comparable or better than O pricing in many cases.  They could be the sweet spot.  Smaller ships 450 passengers but the accommodations are lovely.

 

In our case, when sailing with O, we will probably spend the simply more excursion credit on one or two OE excursions and do independent on everything else.

 

Does anyone know if the the SM excursion credits could be spent on the executive collection cars or vans.  That would be a way to spend the SM credit.

[shepherd really]

4 minutes ago, the more ports the better said:

Does anyone know if the the SM excursion credits could be spent on the executive collection cars or vans.  That would be a way to spend the SM credit.

doesn't look like it, on my booked cruise they don't provide a Simply more price for the executive cars and vans.  It says N/A.

Edited September 3, 2023 by shepherd really

[LHT28]

17 minutes ago, the more ports the better said:

Seabourn includes alcohol but not excursions and is comparable or better than O pricing in many cases.  They could be the sweet spot.  Smaller ships 450 passengers but the accommodations are lovely.

 

In our case, when sailing with O, we will probably spend the simply more excursion credit on one or two OE excursions and do independent on everything else.

 

Does anyone know if the the SM excursion credits could be spent on the executive collection cars or vans.  That would be a way to spend the SM credit.

It seems like it 

If they have the private cars  then you can probably book it

The ones I checked do not have a lower prices than the  basic price  but  if you are looking to spend the credit   try it

[basor]

2 hours ago, shepherd really said:

doesn't look like it, on my booked cruise they don't provide a Simply more price for the executive cars and vans.  It says N/A.

I believe that means they don't qualify for the 25% discount when purchasing several excursions.  They only offer the base price

[shepherd really]

2 hours ago, basor said:

I believe that means they don't qualify for the 25% discount when purchasing several excursions.  They only offer the base price

Possibly, I'm sure we will have a definitive answer in another month or so.  If that's the case if traveling with a group, it might not be a bad way to "burn" the excursion credits by pooling them. 

[basor]

7 minutes ago, shepherd really said:

Possibly, I'm sure we will have a definitive answer in another month or so.  If that's the case if traveling with a group, it might not be a bad way to "burn" the excursion credits by pooling them. 

I just checked one of our upcoming cruises for the pricing on private car/van and it shows a tour price and then a "simply more excursion package" price of NA .  When I click on the "?" next to the words "Simply more excursion package) is says "minimum of 5 excursions for 25% off) .  So the private cars/vans can be purchased using the SM SBC but will not count towards the minimum needed for 25% off.  I also checked my upcoming cruise before 01OCT and it shows the same situation under OLife options - not applicable for 25% off,

Edited September 3, 2023 by basor

[shepherd really]

4 minutes ago, basor said:

I just checked one of our upcoming cruises for the pricing on private car/van and it shows a tour price and then a "simply more excursion package" price of NA .  When I click on the "?" next to the words "Simply more excursion package) is says "minimum of 5 excursions for 25% off) .  So the private cars/vans can be purchased using the SM SBC but will not count towards the minimum needed for 25% off.  I also check my upcoming cruise before 01OCT and it shows the same situation under OLife options - not applicable for 25% off,

If that is the case, then my "pooling" idea may also provide a lifeline to the now fairly inactive roll call forums.    I'd be happy to do a private tour in a van or minibus with two or three other couples.  It's like Hamburger Helper for the excursion credit 🍔 

[EJL2023]

14 minutes ago, basor said:

I just checked one of our upcoming cruises for the pricing on private car/van and it shows a tour price and then a "simply more excursion package" price of NA .  When I click on the "?" next to the words "Simply more excursion package) is says "minimum of 5 excursions for 25% off) .  So the private cars/vans can be purchased using the SM SBC but will not count towards the minimum needed for 25% off.  I also checked my upcoming cruise before 01OCT and it shows the same situation under OLife options - not applicable for 25% off,

I can confirm, we utilized the Private Van excursion option on a cruise this past May and the option does not include the 25% discount and we did have the minimum purchase requirement to meet the discount for the other excursions. This was under the old Your World Collection program.  

[ORV]

I think the question is "can you use the SM credits for the Private Van or Car excursions?" With or without the 25% discount. A sub question would be if you can do they count toward your total that you need to get the 25% discount?

[basor]

4 minutes ago, ORV said:

I think the question is "can you use the SM credits for the Private Van or Car excursions?" With or without the 25% discount. A sub question would be if you can do they count toward your total that you need to get the 25% discount?

Question -  Yes

Sub-question - No