Simply More credits will be simply less as of 1/1/24

[Gracie115]

22 minutes ago, AMHuntFerry said:

It seems like you might have a beef with O. The website is still showing $800.

Just went and looked again...... I did get the $800,  the $600 was the $300 per person on board booking credit.   Sorry for the confusion.  😵

[Pandazoo]

I switched to the new SM after doing the rocket science math of the price of this compared to that etc.  Theoretically came out $200. ahead… but if the excursions are cancelled I’m losing money.  No one informed me that I lose the amount I pay for those excursions if the excursion is cancelled.  To say you can get a credit but only for use for a culinary class is comical as these classes are sold out way before the cruise.  Then O gets to say they were “free” so sorry…

The DW and I are not booking anymore O cruises in the near future. Not necessarily due to the changes mostly looking to return to land tours/travels where we can enjoy more time in the places we visit.

[LHT28]

1 hour ago, Waltershipman said:

Unfortunately all booked up

You can always call & ask to waitlist for  a class or once onboard  go to DS  & ask to be put on the list if someone should cancel

We have had some luck with that method

[Tranquility Base]

2 hours ago, Gracie115 said:

..........  the $600 was the $300 per person on board booking credit.   ........ 

SBC for booking onboard ??

I thought that was $250, ($125 per person) ?

[clo]

2 hours ago, Pandazoo said:

Not necessarily due to the changes mostly looking to return to land tours/travels where we can enjoy more time in the places we visit.

We may do occasional cruises - while we're relatively health - but, yes, like you we want to travel around - maybe trains? - and go places that logistically a ship can't go.

[Vineyard View]

5 hours ago, Gracie115 said:

Good question.  I think they would tell you no but, at least in our case, our remaining "non refundable shore excursion credit" wound up offsetting other expenses.  I expected to walk off with a bill for the total of the Gratuities and it was actually about $80.00 less, and yes the Gratuities were charged at full amount.... go figure, but I'm not complaining.

Game changer from the first SM excursion credits responses from Oceania which was  that the credit can be used exclusively for excursions. So now, maybe culinary classes? Maybe daily gratuities? The locked in SM of excursions only is a fairly big, legitimate issue of contention for many. I hope that Oceania opens up the SM to include those monies for other applications.
That said, lowering the just introduced SM excursion benefits does appear to be an increase in total cost to the consumer, and cost cutting to Oceania. Pretty quick change with such a major revamp on pricing policy. 

[AMHuntFerry]

4 hours ago, Tranquility Base said:

SBC for booking onboard ??

I thought that was $250, ($125 per person) ?

It varies. I've seen variations from $100 to $500 on different cruises.

[Tranquility Base]

2 hours ago, AMHuntFerry said:

It varies. I've seen variations from $100 to $500 on different cruises.

Thanks, but I just want to clarify we are talking about the same ' book on board perk.'

 

I have seen the 'fare reduction on the cabin price' vary.

I believe that depends on the length of cruise and cabin category booked.

However, I thought the SBC perk, which could be applied to current cruise or the future cruise, was fixed at $250.

Am I mistaken on this ?

 

[Gracie115]

2 hours ago, Tranquility Base said:

Thanks, but I just want to clarify we are talking about the same ' book on board perk.'

 

I have seen the 'fare reduction on the cabin price' vary.

I believe that depends on the length of cruise and cabin category booked.

However, I thought the SBC perk, which could be applied to current cruise or the future cruise, was fixed at $250.

Am I mistaken on this ?

 

Our SBC for booking on board was $250 and the fare reduction was $300 per person.

[shepherd really]

3 hours ago, Tranquility Base said:

However, I thought the SBC perk, which could be applied to current cruise or the future cruise, was fixed at $250.

Am I mistaken on this ?

 

I believe you are mistaken.  It seems to bounce around from $100-$300 depending on Oceania's mood.  In January of this year, it started at $300 at the beginning of the cruise and was reduced to $100 in the space of a week.   The Ambassador had to reprint the brochures.  

[rheasue38]

Hi!

 It is now  $250 but does vary.

      Rhea

[edgee]

13 hours ago, LHT28 said:

You can always call & ask to waitlist for  a class or once onboard  go to DS  & ask to be put on the list if someone should cancel

We have had some luck with that method

Certainly wait listing a class or tour is an option with O, but under SM classes and tours are more in demand, as folks are more motivated to book them to use up their excursion credits. All but the most expensive tours and all classes on our late January Vista cruise have been booked for a while, something IME happened to a much lesser degree prior to SM. Considering that many guests on cruises in the next few months booked prior to SM, this issue will only get worse... as time goes on a higher and higher percentage of guests will be booked under SM. O will need to up their capacity for tours and classes, or risk disappointing more and more customers. 

[Sthrngary]

2 hours ago, shepherd really said:

I believe you are mistaken.  It seems to bounce around from $100-$300 depending on Oceania's mood.  In January of this year, it started at $300 at the beginning of the cruise and was reduced to $100 in the space of a week.   The Ambassador had to reprint the brochures.  

Based on the above onboard booking facts, I booked two staterooms. The above document just received on my cruise mid-November 2023 should help this discussion.  The matrix shows Stateroom Types Booked, related number of days and amount of discount given.  Each stateroom, will also receive $250.00 of OBC. When booking I had the booking given to my Travel Agent.  Their agency provided free gratuities but did not allow AMX Perks.  Those two were not combinable.  

 

I hope this information is relevant and helps the discussion.

 

Cruise well and enjoy every moment. 

[Pandazoo]

@edgee Just like O shortens port times and cancels excursions they can do it now with no reimbursement to passengers….brilliant for them.

[Sthrngary]

4 minutes ago, Pandazoo said:

@edgee Just like O shortens port times and cancels excursions they can do it now with no reimbursement to passengers….brilliant for them.

@Pandazoo For my "Word Salad Fans", here is comes. I have NO skin in this game.  But again I read and post on four (4) different cruise social media boards, for four (4) different brands.  I find the study to be interesting with my coffee in the morning.  Full disclosure, I took my first Oceania Cruise last month and enjoyed it very much.  However I also enjoy Crystal Cruises, the Haven on NCL and the Retreat on Celebrity.  All for different reasons and at different times.

 

The majority of boards are talking about reduced time at ports, issues with guest reimbursement to passengers on multiple fronts including excursions. This is NOT an Oceania Issue ONLY.  That said, the core of this issue is when leveraging the quantity discount for excursions providing a reduced cost.  Followed by a excursion cancellation outside of the guest control.  This is a flaw in Oceania policies in my opinion.  Yet is it the current rules to the Oceania game.  If you know the rules, you can figure a way to win the game.  

 

On the reduction of the amount of SimplyMore excursion credit being reduced on January 1, 2024.  Again, thanks to the folks here on CruiseCritic.com, new rules so you can play the game the best you can.  If the rules, policies, procedures once you know them don't suit a guest, they book elsewhere.  Simple as that.  I am glad I booked my next Oceania Cruise before January 1, 2024 and will make my future decisions at the time of booking by the rules then.  

 

Cruise well and enjoy every moment. 

[LHT28]

1 hour ago, edgee said:

Certainly wait listing a class or tour is an option with O, but under SM classes and tours are more in demand, as folks are more motivated to book them to use up their excursion credits.

I agree 

Maybe that is why they are lowering the SM credits  

I will not book  with SM 

 

[Psoque]

My problem with Oceania especially, and with other cruise lines (probably all of them…though I haven’t really looked at ALL of the cruise lines) that they create a pricing model that really makes it really hard for us to know exactly how much a cruise would cost at the end of the cruise.  By creating a complicated maze of combinable/non-combinable promotions/discounts/credits and ever changing terms of yet another wave of promotions, it really takes some effort to really understand exactly what the out of pocket pricing is.  I guess you can call it a “clever business strategy,” but these “strategies” are putting a customer at a disadvantage.  And if consumers do not complain, nothing will change.  And there are channels other than Cruisecritic to actually complain about this that are more effective.  And just switching to another cruise line will not help because it seems all cruise lines are doing this in their own “clever” ways.

[Sthrngary]

33 minutes ago, Psoque said:

My problem with Oceania especially, and with other cruise lines (probably all of them…though I haven’t really looked at ALL of the cruise lines) that they create a pricing model that really makes it really hard for us to know exactly how much a cruise would cost at the end of the cruise.  By creating a complicated maze of combinable/non-combinable promotions/discounts/credits and ever changing terms of yet another wave of promotions, it really takes some effort to really understand exactly what the out of pocket pricing is.  I guess you can call it a “clever business strategy,” but these “strategies” are putting a customer at a disadvantage.  And if consumers do not complain, nothing will change.  And there are channels other than Cruisecritic to actually complain about this that are more effective.  And just switching to another cruise line will not help because it seems all cruise lines are doing this in their own “clever” ways.

@Psoque WOW, what a great post.  Thank you.  Extremely well said.  It is a maze and confusing.  In my heart with no proof, I think every brand does this intentionally.  Kind of like looking at a Ford or Chevy Truck.  Very difficult to do an apple to apple comparison.  Done on purpose. 

 

Cruise well and enjoy every moment. 

[GeezerCouple]

26 minutes ago, Sthrngary said:

@Psoque WOW, what a great post.  Thank you.  Extremely well said.  It is a maze and confusing.  In my heart with no proof, I think every brand does this intentionally.  Kind of like looking at a Ford or Chevy Truck.  Very difficult to do an apple to apple comparison.  Done on purpose. 

 

Cruise well and enjoy every moment. 

 

Not quite the same.  That (the car/truck example) would be similar if one were trying to price compare, say, Oceania and Viking.

 

Using the Ford/Chevy example, the problem as described here is more like... one can't figure out how much the car (or truck) will actually cost before committing to it.

 

It's looking like Oceania's new pricing is even worse than it seemed.

Having credits that can't be used?

Question:  Is it possible (not, "has it happened") that IF enough pax took the Simply More-or-Less option, there simply would NOT be enough excursion spaces possible for everyone to use all of their credits?

(Or maybe that *has* already happened?)

 

GC

[Waltershipman]

5 minutes ago, GeezerCouple said:

 

Not quite the same.  That (the car/truck example) would be similar if one were trying to price compare, say, Oceania and Viking.

 

Using the Ford/Chevy example, the problem as described here is more like... one can't figure out how much the car (or truck) will actually cost before committing to it.

 

It's looking like Oceania's new pricing is even worse than it seemed.

Having credits that can't be used?

Question:  Is it possible (not, "has it happened") that IF enough pax took the Simply More-or-Less option, there simply would NOT be enough excursion spaces possible for everyone to use all of their credits?

(Or maybe that *has* already happened?)

 

GC

Thats has happened at least in part as many excursions to our liking were alteady booked. The less vigorous excursions book out out the quickest 

[edgee]

5 minutes ago, Waltershipman said:

Thats has happened at least in part as many excursions to our liking were alteady booked. The less vigorous excursions book out out the quickest 

Looks like O introduced SM without increasing number and variety of tours available. I  occasionally cruise Regent where tours are included. Regent makes a larger volume of tours available in ports than O does, presumably because a much higher percentage of guests take ship tours...encouraged by their all inclusive model. While O's inclusiveness is not near as comprehensive, the need to move a little more in Regent's direction in terms of expanded tour offerings seems obvious.

[GeezerCouple]

13 minutes ago, Waltershipman said:

Thats has happened at least in part as many excursions to our liking were alteady booked. The less vigorous excursions book out out the quickest 

 

I understand that the more popular excursions will sell out the fastest.

 

My question is:  Has it happened (yet!?) that ALL excursions were sold out, so some pax had the credits but *no* way to use them?

You know, sort of like, "All dressed up and no place to go...!?" 😠

 

(Yes, I understand that's it's not really useful to only had excursions one doesn't like, but that's a different question.)

Thanks.
 

GC

[Waltershipman]

7 minutes ago, edgee said:

Looks like O introduced SM without increasing number and variety of tours available. I  occasionally cruise Regent where tours are included. Regent makes a larger volume of tours available in ports than O does, presumably because a much higher percentage of guests take ship tours...encouraged by their all inclusive model. While O's inclusiveness is not near as comprehensive, the need to move a little more in Regent's direction in terms of expanded tour offerings seems obvious.

I called O and was told no additional tour space available 

Agree with your post particularly when excursions can be booked out very very far in advance

[Psoque]

In my (possibly limited) experience, Oceania is the most complicated of all of the cruise lines we have dealt with in terms of finding out both a) the actual cost of the cruise (how it is priced) and b) what do you get onboard.  We have been on about 20 cruises in the past on a smattering of various cruise lines, and I’ve never encountered this complicated way of pricing the cruise (especially when OLife was being sold), how was misleadingly described online and in the brochures, and how convoluted the pricing of shore excursion was calculated.  I think the situation is very slightly better with Simply More, but still, it can be simpler.  I am convinced that Oceania is intentionally keeping it complicated to keep many of their customers blissfully unaware.  It’s a shame because the onboard product is not bad at all (though they can always improve, especially if it wants to match what they claim on their advertisements.).

[Waltershipman]

4 hours ago, edgee said:

Certainly wait listing a class or tour is an option with O, but under SM classes and tours are more in demand, as folks are more motivated to book them to use up their excursion credits. All but the most expensive tours and all classes on our late January Vista cruise have been booked for a while, something IME happened to a much lesser degree prior to SM. Considering that many guests on cruises in the next few months booked prior to SM, this issue will only get worse... as time goes on a higher and higher percentage of guests will be booked under SM. O will need to up their capacity for tours and classes, or risk disappointing more and more customers. 

In a call yesterday with O i was told rhat classes cannot be paid with SM credits.  Comments on CC indicate otherwise. Will certainly find out See you on the 31st