Sirena Sept. 2 overbooked-offer to switch

[susiesan]

For the first time ever I received an offer to switch to a different cruise as mine must be overbooked. it's Sirena Sept. 2 10 night Canary Island Explorer. I'm surprised at this since the Canary island itineraries aren't that popular. I won't be taking the offer. I'm in a B 1 veranda cabin. Why would anyone just cancel and get a refund at this point, the cruise is a month away?

 

Limited Time Opportunity to Enhance Your Vacation! We would like to present a completely VOLUNTARY OPPORTUNITY to switch your reservation to a voyage listed below with added benefits or cancel and receive a FULL REFUND! This offer is intended for those guests with flexibility in their travel plans. The number of volunteers will be limited so this offer is on a first-come, first-served basis!

		RECEIVE FOUR EXTRA DAYS AND $1,160.00 PER STATEROOM CASH BACK ALLURE OF FRANCE & IBERIA   September 26, 2023 | 14-Days | Riviera  VIEW ITINERARY

	RECEIVE TWO EXTRA DAYS, AN UPGRADE TO  CONCIERGE, AND $1,160.00 PER STATEROOM CASH BACK CARIBBEAN WANDERLUST   November 19th, 2023 | 12-Days | Vista VIEW ITINERARY

 

 

[MEFIowa]

We had an offer before our E. Caribbean cruise on Sirena in 11/2022. We really wanted to take it, which was the same cruise but on Riviera and in a higher-level cabin in 1/2023, but who can change their airline and other plans 4-6 weeks out? When work vacations were scheduled 6 months or more in advance?

[LHT28]

you do not have to accept it  if you do not want to switch

Some people have more flexible  schedules  & if you have O air   it will cost you nothing to switch

 

[shepherd really]

Different strokes, that 14-day itinerary on the Riviera is much more appealing to me then a 10-day Canary Island cruise on the Sirena.  I'd have taken it.

[pinotlover]

Not sure where you believe the Canary Isle itineraries aren’t popular. Our Sirena cruise in 10/23 was totally waitlisted for months. I believe they and Morocco are very popular.

[EJL2023]

4 minutes ago, pinotlover said:

Not sure where you believe the Canary Isle itineraries aren’t popular. Our Sirena cruise in 10/23 was totally waitlisted for months. I believe they and Morocco are very popular.

In fairness, I don’t think someone saying “more appealing to me” is the same as saying that the itineraries are not popular. 

[pinotlover]

2 minutes ago, EJL2023 said:

In fairness, I don’t think someone saying “more appealing to me” is the same as saying that the itineraries are not popular. 

Read the OP’s first two sentences in Post #1. 🥂

[EJL2023]

8 minutes ago, pinotlover said:

Read the OP’s first two sentences in Post #1. 🥂

Sorry, obviously I thought you were referring to someone else’s post. My bad. 

[sunlover12]

I agree with pinotlover that the Canary Islands itinerary is popular.  I was also on that Sirena cruise last fall. We were waitlisted and got a confirmed booking a couple months later. It was sold out.

 

A couple of days ago I got a similar email as susiesan for my August Nautica cruise in the Mediterranean. The offer was $3799 cash back per stateroom for switching to Riviera in the Mediterranean in October, or cancel and get a full refund.  The itinerary was very different from Nautica's so we are not interested. However it's a great deal if you're not choosy about the itinerary and your plans are flexible. 

[julia]

So, what's with these overbookings?!  Let's say, theoretically, that a particular cabin is double-booked and neither party can change (and the ship is sold out).  What happens then??

[EJL2023]

21 minutes ago, julia said:

So, what's with these overbookings?!  Let's say, theoretically, that a particular cabin is double-booked and neither party can change (and the ship is sold out).  What happens then??

My guess is they keep on enhancing the offer until the number needed bite. Don’t really know for sure though. And they always have ominous #24 of the Ticket Contract if all else fails. Obviously extremely unlikely but all cruise lines no doubt have most scenarios covered. But in reality I’m sure it only takes a few to bite at an offer and they are good. 

Edited July 31, 2023 by EJL2023

[pinotlover]

Typically specific cabins aren’t overbooked. Oceania has, in the past, got caught selling too many Guarantees and had to change its game plan. Perhaps all the historical data, on which the booking algorithms are based, aren’t working as well post Pandemic. 
 

As far as the Nov 19th cruise, I wouldn’t touch it. We missed three ports, purportedly because of weather, last October between Bilboa and Lisbon and that was almost a month before this cruise. Second, my recommendation to avoid AMSTERDAM airport at all costs. This is late in the season, but still AMS!

 

 

Edited July 31, 2023 by pinotlover

[LHT28]

38 minutes ago, julia said:

So, what's with these overbookings?!  Let's say, theoretically, that a particular cabin is double-booked and neither party can change (and the ship is sold out).  What happens then??

They will not double book  a cabin

Those  that are GTY   they will will keep making offers to those with confirmed cabins so those with a GTY  will have a cabin

 

 Those that are waitlisted     too bad if no one takes an offer to move

[susiesan]

I am not taking the offer as I have my own air and hotels arranged. I could never get the same business award seats to/from Europe on such short notice. And I am definitely not interested in the Caribbean cruise having just been on one on Marina last December.

 

I have never been to the Canary Islands and wouldn't switch no matter how good the offer. This will be my 6th Oceania cruise and I was surprised that I got one of these offers.

[LHT28]

1 minute ago, susiesan said:

 This will be my 6th Oceania cruise and I was surprised that I got one of these offers.

Why ? The ship is wait listed  so  they make offers  so they can clear the lists

We do not know how many GTY cabins  they have on the books

 

[Sthrngary]

7 minutes ago, susiesan said:

I am not taking the offer as I have my own air and hotels arranged. I could never get the same business award seats to/from Europe on such short notice. And I am definitely not interested in the Caribbean cruise having just been on one on Marina last December.

 

I have never been to the Canary Islands and wouldn't switch no matter how good the offer. This will be my 6th Oceania cruise and I was surprised that I got one of these offers.

@susiesan I am glad you got this offer and very happy you shared it with all of us.  You opened up conversation that is interesting.  Why this could have happened or what could have caused Oceania to do a special offer like this.  This kind of information for me is a gold mine.  

 

I especially like the notion that Oceania might be doing to many Guarantees.  After not enough guest just after covid, followed by everyone using FCC to book, the huge loans all brands had to get to stay in business. It sure seems like the job is to fill the ships even if they have to do big sales.  Add to this, some of those sales were incredible and means much less folks would cancel prior to final payment.  

 

None of what I just said has any factual basis.  I don't know anything and don't claim to.  I do know that what I outlined seems to make logical sense.  Just saying. 

 

Cruise well and enjoy every moment. 

[susiesan]

59 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

Why ? The ship is wait listed  so  they make offers  so they can clear the lists

We do not know how many GTY cabins  they have on the books

 

I'm surprised because when I have read about others getting these offers to switch they were usually involving the suites and higher priced cabins. I'm in a veranda booked a year ago. maybe because I paid a very low cost compared to the current rate they can resell my cabin for twice as much as I paid. 

[pinotlover]

4 minutes ago, susiesan said:

I'm surprised because when I have read about others getting these offers to switch they were usually involving the suites and higher priced cabins. I'm in a veranda booked a year ago. maybe because I paid a very low cost compared to the current rate they can resell my cabin for twice as much as I paid. 

They obviously have guarantees sold in your cabin category they need to clear. Wouldn’t put too much in it beyond that. I’ve gotten the offers in A2 before. We didn’t take the offers either. Enjoy your cruise.

[MEFIowa]

38 minutes ago, susiesan said:

I'm surprised because when I have read about others getting these offers to switch they were usually involving the suites and higher priced cabins. I'm in a veranda booked a year ago....

 

30 minutes ago, pinotlover said:

They obviously have guarantees sold in your cabin category they need to clear. Wouldn’t put too much in it beyond that. I’ve gotten the offers in A2 before. We didn’t take the offers either....

We were in a B2 on Sirena when we got the offer a couple months out. Too late for us to change our plans so we said no though we wanted to take it and would've if we could have.

[FetaCheese]

7 hours ago, julia said:

So, what's with these overbookings?!  Let's say, theoretically, that a particular cabin is double-booked and neither party can change (and the ship is sold out).  What happens then??

I do not believe O would book exact same cabin twice.  Offers to switch to a different voyage, in my opinion, would be so that GTY fare pax will be on the cruise they booked. 

 

I'm booked in a GTY in September, and have not been assigned.  Voyage is fully waitlisted, top to bottom, since soon after it was on the ESS.

[GeezerCouple]

8 hours ago, julia said:

So, what's with these overbookings?!  Let's say, theoretically, that a particular cabin is double-booked and neither party can change (and the ship is sold out).  What happens then??

 

I *very* seriously doubt that "a particular cabin is double-booked"! 

(I suppose it could happen occasionally, but quite by mistake.)

 

The extras would be the "guarantees" that need to be accommodated (or they might be offered "a better deal", also).

(Any "wait lists" will probably be staying home on a cruise like this...)

Some pax may find they've been put in a different cabin of the same or better category, plus some extra "incentives".

 

As passengers take the "better offers", the cruise line can shift remaining passengers around, and perhaps upgrade some people to make it all work out.

If they keep sweetening the deal, they'll end up with the needed cabins and suites.

 

We had a remarkable offer once.  We were already PH.  It was still PH, for a longer cruise AND a *very* nice cash refund.  Nowadays, we are much more flexible, but then, we were not.  It wouldn't have been our favorite itinerary, but the sweetened offer was... SO sweet... we may have jumped ship. 😆

And then later gone on something like our initially planned cruise.

 

GC

[Mura]

It's quite a while ago -- Marina was new -- and it's the only time we ever received such an offer, but we jumped at it. We gave up an Alaska cruise for a Med cruise on the new ship (which I was dying to try anyway), got a ton of on board credit -- and we already had quite a bit -- AND an upgrade from a PH to an OS.

 

It always depends on what you want to do, of course.  In our case it was an easy choice.  But if the choice were something else, we might well have said, "no thanks".

[the mice]

10 hours ago, pinotlover said:

As far as the Nov 19th cruise, I wouldn’t touch it. We missed three ports, purportedly because of weather, last October between Bilboa and Lisbon and that was almost a month before this cruise. Second, my recommendation to avoid AMSTERDAM airport at all costs. This is late in the season, but still AMS!

 

 

Not relevant to the OP's decision, but the Nov. 19th cruise is in the Caribbean (very end of hurricane season).  The cruise from AMS is in September.  We did AMS-LIS in Sept. 2017 and missed St Jean-de-Luz because of weather, but otherwise we had mostly fine weather.  

And we just flew into AMS Schiphol on May 31 this year and it was fine.    As always, YMMV.