Booking Next Cruise Onboard--What I learned

[Vallesan]

26 minutes ago, ak1004 said:

 

This quote was from an FCC before they introduced the $150 admin fee. I assume it's worded differently now.

 

We used another FCC in October. Were able to combine it with 5% early bird discount, so save just over 10%. 

 

Somehow cruises we book never go on sale. If this one will and the savings are larger than the FCC savings, we will switch. But I think there is still value. And the one time switch is still valuable.

 
I have no idea if the wording has changed since October either because our FCcs were prior to October too. But, if the wording hasn’t changed it should!

[Harters]

We're considering a cruise for next year (Vista, departing on 3 June), but are not yet in a position to commit to it. The price on O's website for an A1 Concierge is £5149 ($6544), including gratuities and free car parking at Southampton (the company we've used before would charge £130). We'll make enquiries with a couple of the major UK cruise specialist TAs and go on our cruise in a few weeks, armed with their quotes. We''ll then be in a position to  make a comparison with any onboard offer and, if better than the TAs, will hopefully be in a position to commit. 

[Vallesan]

37 minutes ago, Harters said:

We're considering a cruise for next year (Vista, departing on 3 June), but are not yet in a position to commit to it. The price on O's website for an A1 Concierge is £5149 ($6544), including gratuities and free car parking at Southampton (the company we've used before would charge £130). We'll make enquiries with a couple of the major UK cruise specialist TAs and go on our cruise in a few weeks, armed with their quotes. We''ll then be in a position to  make a comparison with any onboard offer and, if better than the TAs, will hopefully be in a position to commit. 

You know that if you book onboard you can still transfer to your chosen TA within two weeks and also benefit from their discount.

 My TA is roughly 10% off Oceania’s price

 

Edited January 28 by Vallesan

[ORV]

On 1/26/2024 at 4:29 PM, ORV said:

Let me check the details a little closer.  But I believe it’s from when you booked. 
 

I don’t think one change applies to FCC  but I’ll check in to that. 

I was wrong about the one change on the FCC. Once booked you can change it once, 181 days PRIOR to sailing.   
 

and for the named cruise it is also 181 days PRIOR to sailing. 
 

I’ll try to get exact penalty details later

[Harters]

19 minutes ago, Vallesan said:

My TA is roughly 10% off Oceania’s price

I think that, before it was deleted, you'd given me a nod and a wink as to which TA that is. It and our usual TA are the ones we'll be contacting. 

 

I've never really understood by CC bans naming TAs, not least as it has its own very helpful article recommending the best  British ones - 

https://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/articles.cfm?ID=3850

 

Edited January 28 by Harters

[Vallesan]

Yes I did! I got a ‘warning’ for that!

Anyway once you get the  onboard prices with the perks etc. you can still take of roughly 10%.

Edited January 28 by Vallesan

[ak1004]

1 hour ago, ORV said:

I was wrong about the one change on the FCC. Once booked you can change it once, 181 days PRIOR to sailing.   
 

and for the named cruise it is also 181 days PRIOR to sailing. 
 

I’ll try to get exact penalty details later

 

That makes sense.

 

In this case booking on board is even more beneficial. Before the $150 admin fee was introduced, one of the benefits was that you could make one change and still keep the on board booking perks. Now you can still do the change within the same period of time (before the penalties start), but you also avoid the $150 admin fee.

[Tranquility Base]

When utilising the ' best price ' provision of the book on board system, and re-faring to a lower fare, does your booking keep the fare discount that was initially given onboard ?

 

Note: I am not talking the SBC provision, just the cabin fare discount amount.

 

[osandomir]

39 minutes ago, Tranquility Base said:

When utilising the ' best price ' provision of the book on board system, and re-faring to a lower fare, does your booking keep the fare discount that was initially given onboard ?

 

Note: I am not talking the SBC provision, just the cabin fare discount amount.

 

In our experience it depends… With some sales the promotional fare is combinable with the onboard booking discount - the current New Year sale is an example, but with some other sales it was not.

[Snaefell3]

1 hour ago, osandomir said:

In our experience it depends… With some sales the promotional fare is combinable with the onboard booking discount - the current New Year sale is an example, but with some other sales it was not.

O's "combinabilty game":  The better the sale, the longer the not-combinable list.

[osandomir]

3 hours ago, Snaefell3 said:

O's "combinabilty game":  The better the sale, the longer the not-combinable list.

I think that current sale is a pretty good one. Also I have noticed that the “best” sales mostly include the cruises that are not booking well.

[babysteps]

The New Years sale was combinable with onboard booking for our June 2024 Vista cruise that we booked Dec 2023 onboard Insignia (and it was on Holiday Savings sale at booking). We asked our TA to check and ended up with a small additional savings. 

 

One thing to keep in mind is that most sales prices are limited to (new) space available, so some existing bookings can't take advantage. But we always ask ☺ 

[Sthrngary]

When I started considering Oceania some two plus years ago, I thought the sale I got was fantastic.  It was a four category upgrade and I upgraded initially to a Penthouse.  I in a million years never thought a future sale would be combinable with the upgrade sale.  The extraordinary sale came up and I almost did not call my travel agent to check.  So glad I did, it was combinable but I did lose my AMX perks. A fair trade all the way around. 

 

I am the author of this thread so allow me to now connect to the topic of "what I learned when I booked my next cruise on the ship".  I am looking daily (my thing, I have a lot of time on my hands) for new sales as the come up.  Way to far in advance now, but as 2024 moves forward, I am sure Oceania will have some sales especially if the itinerary is not booking quickly.  However, since my cruise is in October NOT November, in 2025 for the Mediterranean, my chances to reduce the fare goes down.  Less people cruise the Mediterranean in November so that is the sweet spot. I choose to go earlier due to specific places the ship was sailing.  The ship I did sale on in 2023  was the newly refurbished Riviera.  That added a possibility of a sale because the Vista the newest ship was getting a premium because it was new.  This time, I am on the Vista. This again reduces applicable sales even though the Vista will be a couple of years old when I eventually sail her. . 

 

So now, I do not have a lot of hope I will catch a combinable sale.  That for me falls into the notion of "Realist Expectations".  However, if I catch one that works, It will exceed my expectations.  How it combines with the benefits I have already received on the ship booking approach, is yet to be determined.  If the math works, all I want to know is my options as we all do.  The important part is, I would have never booked the cruise at the price I did if I would not felt the fare was acceptable.  

 

Cruise well and enjoy every moment. 

[MEFIowa]

6 minutes ago, Sthrngary said:

... Way to far in advance now, but as 2024 moves forward, I am sure Oceania will have some sales especially if the itinerary is not booking quickly.  However, since my cruise is in October NOT November, in 2025 for the Mediterranean, my chances to reduce the fare goes down.  Less people cruise the Mediterranean in November so that is the sweet spot....

O opened 2023 with a 20th Anniversary Sale and then had at least another 5-7 major sales that year. O opened 2024 with the Holiday Sale. So pretty good bet we'll see another year of sales. Always worth it to track each one as they come along. And who knows, maybe we'll both again get to use something like the ESS!  We've got our 22-night Baltic B2B on Sirena starting August 2024. The 12-night start is essentially all available now, while the 2nd part is essentially all waitlisted. I'm hoping the 1st may go on a serious sale soon! We booked the 2nd part in 2022 before SM.

[Humane]

On 1/24/2024 at 8:02 PM, Sthrngary said:

I had no intention of booking a cruise while onboard, NONE.  However, my friends, wife and I had such a good time, we did book another 10-Day Mediterranean Cruise on the Vista for October 2025.  The port we missed was Florence so our next cruise will go there.  Also we will go back to Rome which is great because we never got to go to the fountains. The rest of the new itinerary will be new. 

 

Before I do anything, I study the rules and love the process of due diligence.  I went to future booking desk a few day before the end of the cruise.  I had a list of very specific question which I asked in front of my friend so he would clearly see where I was going with those questions. Here are some things I learned and I hope it will be helpful to so.  I am not selling to book on a cruise but this was a first for me so I figured it might be a first for some reading this. 

 

1. My Travel Agent Got the Booking Automatically:  Even though I booked on the ship (Riviera), my travel agent got the booking.  Since my agents, agency had a promotion to pay for my gratuities, the computer on board recognized it and provided it in the booking.  I thought that was cool. 
2. Benefits of Booking On the Ship: Unless I really wanted to book another cruise, the benefits were just ok in my opinion.  For a concierge level stateroom, the benefit was $400.00 off the stateroom with $250.00 of On-Board Credit for the stateroom.  You could take the OBC on the cruise you were currently on or save it for the cruise you are booking.  The issue is, if you take it now, and cancel the booking they charge you for the $250 so I save it for the next cruise. 
3. Making Changes and Staying on the Same Cruise Booked:  I initially booked the Concierge Stateroom one for me and one for my friends.  I did it because of their budge.  Yesterday, I upgraded my wife and I to a PH2 with a specific cabin number.  My benefit went from $400 to $600 for the stateroom, same On-Board-Credit, the agency now is paying a higher gratuities fee, when I booked originally, the SimplyMore Excursion Credit was $800.00. It has since gone down but I was grandfathered in for the $800.00.  Also, when I booked, there was a 5% discount for booking so early.  It applied to my new booking.  So it was as if I booked the Penthouse while onboard. 
4. Upgrade to the Prestige Drink Program: While my agent was moving me to the PH category, I asked her to do the upgrade for the Prestige package.  In the past before the SimplyMore(tm) program, you could only do this onboard. I wanted to do it now if it was possible because if the price went up, I would be locked into the lower price. It was $30.00 per per day per person. 
5. Change Cruise Once with No Fee:  So if we wanted another cruise instead of what we booked, we could do it once with no fee or penalty. 
6. New $150.00 Admin Fee: The agent must have told me five times about the new admin fee of $150.00.  No issue for me but my friend was with me and I wanted him to understand also. 
7. American Express Platinum Perks:  The AMX perks were not possible with the Travel Agencies payment of my gratuities.  No issue, the gratuities were more then the AMX perk.
8. Booking Excursions:  It was made clear to me to let my Agent book my excursions using the SimplyMore(tm) $800.00 credit.  The reason was, if I did it from my computer, Oceania's system would take my $250.00 On-Board-Credit first instead of starting with the excursion credit.  As we all know, all you can use the Excursion Credit for is excursions.  However the On-Board-Credit which came from booking the the ship could be used for anything. 
9. Lower Deposit:  Not that is matters but the deposit given was a reduced amount. 
10. Documents Provides: First, you could not use your stateroom account for the deposit.  You had to give them your credit card. The documents give were clean and easy to understand. 

 

I should have gone to the Oceania Ambassadors desk and ask if there were any other special benefits.  I don't know if that would have benefited me but someone made that comment online.  Next time I will try that. I hope my explanations help someone.

 

Cruise well and enjoy every moment.

Thanks for the tip.  Feedback on excursion credit: I just called Oceania to double check that my excursion credits were used first for excursions, and they said that for booking excursions - the excursion credits are always used first.  I had no problem booking online and they were credited properly.  

[Tranquility Base]

On 1/30/2024 at 1:49 PM, osandomir said:

In our experience it depends… With some sales the promotional fare is combinable with the onboard booking discount - the current New Year sale is an example......

Thank you.

Yes, the new invoice shows book onboard discount still remains. 

[Harters]

We've just received a letter advising of the "Pre-Cruise Savings Programme" which indicates that if we book within 30 days of our forthcoming cruise we would "enjoy the exclusive benefits that come with Oceania Cruises onboard savings offer". Specifically:-

 

"Additional savings on the cruise fare - save up to £1100 per stateroom

 

Reduced deposits - as low as £250 perperson

 

Best price guarantee - if we release a better offer on the sailing you have booked, we will honour the lower price

 

We work with your travel advisor - when you book your future cruise, your travel advisor will be immediately credited for your booking

 

Indulge with US$250 shipboard credit per booking to enjoy, certain restrictions apply."

 

Interesting but not a help to us this time. We are thinking about a 2025 Vista cruise but with the several comments about noise from adjacent cabins, we are holding off making a decision until we actually experience Vista in a few weeks. 

 

 

[Sthrngary]

12 minutes ago, Harters said:

Interesting but not a help to us this time. We are thinking about a 2025 Vista cruise but with the several comments about noise from adjacent cabins, we are holding off making a decision until we actually experience Vista in a few weeks. 

 

@Harters Whether you book or not, it always should be a personal experience.  That said, I am booked on the Vista for October 2025 for a 10 day Mediterranean Cruise. I also read the comments on noise.  I also read comments on there being no noise.  To support my point, I read comments about some food choices that are bad.  I also read some comments what were good about the same food choices. 

 

The kind of comments on Social Media is just the way it is.  That said, I find it very helpful towards planning a future cruise on a brand or specific ship.  If there is a potential chance that something will not be to my liking, knowing it upfront allows me to take certain liberties to avoid them.  Not knowing is where the disappointment comes from in my life. 

 

Someone once said to me, "Will you be making your purchase decision on the entirety of the product or service.  Or will you be making it on 2% that you might not like?" 

 

I am no Brand Fan for Oceania.  I like the brands style for my age and itinerary.   Not everything was fully to my liking but using the quote above, nothing especially on a cruise is ever perfect. FYI, a good deal on a cruise is only a good deal if you want the itinerary as a key factor.  Just my two cents. 

 

Side Note: I am about to take my Adult Daughter to Europe for 10 days.  Not a cruise.  We are thinking about going to the UK.  I have been on business many moons ago.  I hope that comes to be.

 

Cruise well and enjoy every moment. 

[Harters]

15 minutes ago, Sthrngary said:

We are thinking about going to the UK.

If you do visit, please try and spend some time outside of London. See the country where most of us live our lives. 🙂

[flgolf]

What was the reply to # 4 could you upgrade the beverage package before boarding?

[EJL2023]

On 1/24/2024 at 11:08 PM, Redtravel said:

As cruise progressed the offer $250 dropped to $100 OBC.  We didn’t book. We have a spring cruise booked. It will be using Simply More. While we have used the credit for excursions, we seldom drink. We wonder what will be the vibe if most people have included drinks. On Vista last week, there were people who drank too much. It wasn’t pretty. There were some very loud obnoxious people onboard. 

Are you sure you are not confusing the $100 OBC for a FCC offer for the higher Booking Onboard $250 OBC? We just did an onboard booking on 2/3 and received the $250 and we did the booking on the last day of the cruise. Just doesn’t seem to make sense to have different rules for different cruises on something like the OBC going down on one cruise and not others. 

[Sthrngary]

47 minutes ago, flgolf said:

What was the reply to # 4 could you upgrade the beverage package before boarding?

@flgolf Yes.  I did it on my 2025 cruise for my wife and myself. Just ask your travel agent. 

 

Cruise well and enjoy every moment.