Simply More Excursion Credit Process

[IWantToLiveOverTheSea]

Could someone please enlighten me, or point me in the direction of where I can find a rundown on how Simply More excursion credit is applied in the online booking system?  I know the basics for my excursion: The two of us each has $400 excursion credit when 5 or more excursions are purchased for our 14 day trip (counting as Oceania does - embark & disembark days = 1).  And although I don't know which excursions I'm going to choose, I did look a little bit online under My Account to make sure a lot of excursions aren't already full.  (They aren't -- we still have around 7 months before the cruise). But I have questions:

 

1.  Can I use my ship board credit (SBC) with the Simply More excursion credit to book excursions on the booking system under "My Account" section?  So if I book $500 worth of excursions, will the system total the "tour" (full) price of the 5 excursions, delete $400, and charge the remaining $100 to my (or possibly OUR) SBC?

2.  The system keeps my and my spouse's picks separate, and applies the requirement for 5 excursions separately, right?

3.  Do I have to book excursions with SM before I board the ship, or can I wait....if I'm willing to wait, given that excursions seem to be quite more in demand since Oceania went to SM?

4.  What happens if we miss a port where we've booked an O excursion using SM credit?  Do we get credit back to use in a remaining port?   If the excursion was "paid" for partly in SM credit and partly with $$, how is that handled? And what about if I want to cancel one excursion (within the usual time frame for canceling) and add another?  Is that possible?  Easy? 

5.  Is there anything else I should know?

[ORV]

1 hour ago, IWantToLiveOverTheSea said:

.  Is there anything else I should know?

Well there's that 25% discount thing if you book enough excursions. 

[basor]

I can only relate to my experience - on our upcoming B2B2B, we booked the required number of excursions to receive the 25% off, the SM OBC was used first and our other OBC was also used to pay for the excursions.  On 2 of the segments we still have a bit of OBC credit left and on another we owed about $20.00 pp and paid with credit card.

Each person is treated individually so each would have to book the required number of excursions to receive the 25% discount but they do not have to be the same excursion.

You can wait and book onboard but your choices may be sorely limited due to the excursion demand since SM,  It is better to book now and then cancel and book a different excursion on board if you change your mind,  Better to have something than nothing,

If you want to make a change to your excursions booked prior to embarkation, it has to be done on the phone with O, not able to do online.

If a port is missed, the OBC used to pay for that excursion is put back in your account to be used on another excursion (if it was SM OBC).  If it was paid by SM and $$$ than the SM OBC is back in your account and the $$ is back in your account as refundable OBC.

[daydreamer62]

My experience with my upcoming cruise (June 1 Vista) 

Our credit would have paid for the 1( expensive ) 'must book' excursion I wanted with a little extra. I booked that immediately to avoid missing out. Then I spent some time looking at others. I found 3 more I wanted to take. The cost was approx   $1200NZ each for those in excess of the credit. The minimum number of excursions to meet the 25% discount was 6.. but what I quickly realised with a bit of maths was that if I chose cheaper excursions for those extra 2 , all the excursions I had booked would be discounted including the very expensive ones so I booked the extra 2  and everything was discounted by 25% and ended up only paying $900 each on top of the credit.. in effect saving us money by doing more excursions .

Edited May 10 by daydreamer62

[ORV]

24 minutes ago, daydreamer62 said:

My experience with my upcoming cruise (June 1 Vista) 

Our credit would have paid for the 1( expensive ) 'must book' excursion I wanted with a little extra. I booked that immediately to avoid missing out. Then I spent some time looking at others. I found 3 more I wanted to take. The cost was approx   $1200NZ each for those in excess of the credit. The minimum number of excursions to meet the 25% discount was 6.. but what I quickly realised with a bit of maths was that if I chose cheaper excursions for those extra 2 , all the excursions I had booked would be discounted including the very expensive ones so I booked the extra 2  and everything was discounted by 25% and ended up only paying $900 each on top of the credit.. in effect saving us money by doing more excursions .

This, a lot of people don't get this. You could book a cheap $49 HOHO bus tour or something similar, even if you don't take the tour, and still pay less for your excursions overall. Just did this in Jan & Feb on our 24 day South America cruise. 

[IWantToLiveOverTheSea]

40 minutes ago, ORV said:

This, a lot of people don't get this. You could book a cheap $49 HOHO bus tour or something similar, even if you don't take the tour, and still pay less for your excursions overall. Just did this in Jan & Feb on our 24 day South America cruise. 

I found the perfect excursion, should I need a 5th: Kayak in the Lagoon Rental, $25 tour price, or $18.75 with Simply More (in this case less)!  

[EmsMom]

I recently booked SM excursions for our upcoming December cruise.  I had booked 5 excursions using our SM credit but still owed more than our SM credit.  There were 10 excursions required for the 25% discount.  I figured out that by booking the 5 additional excursions I was able to save money.    I put the excursions I wanted in my cart on the O website and then called O so they could apply the discount.   Their math matched mine so it worked well. We usually don’t do ships excursions but being that we will be doing several all day safari  excursions in Africa I thought the O excursions would be safer as far as getting back to the ship and safer in general.  

[IWantToLiveOverTheSea]

50 minutes ago, EmsMom said:

I recently booked SM excursions for our upcoming December cruise.  I had booked 5 excursions using our SM credit but still owed more than our SM credit.  There were 10 excursions required for the 25% discount.  I figured out that by booking the 5 additional excursions I was able to save money.    I put the excursions I wanted in my cart on the O website and then called O so they could apply the discount.   Their math matched mine so it worked well. We usually don’t do ships excursions but being that we will be doing several all day safari  excursions in Africa I thought the O excursions would be safer as far as getting back to the ship and safer in general.  

Good job.  I typically (pre SM) I would do a mix of O excursions, third party excursions, or DIY days.  But in certain areas of the world, I would probably pick more O excursions more than usual. And while a lot of people dislike ship excursions, there are certain occasions where they offer a lot more than I could find on my own.  Up in the Canadian maritimes in early September, we went to a port in which I could find absolutely nothing - no tour providers, taxis, public transportation, or anything to walk to. I was glad there were ship excursions offered.

 

But I'm curious - is there a reason you had the TA call in your excursions?  I've seen some comments about the website being a little unpredictable, and I wondered if that was true.  

[AMHuntFerry]

2 hours ago, IWantToLiveOverTheSea said:

Good job.  I typically (pre SM) I would do a mix of O excursions, third party excursions, or DIY days.  But in certain areas of the world, I would probably pick more O excursions more than usual. And while a lot of people dislike ship excursions, there are certain occasions where they offer a lot more than I could find on my own.  Up in the Canadian maritimes in early September, we went to a port in which I could find absolutely nothing - no tour providers, taxis, public transportation, or anything to walk to. I was glad there were ship excursions offered.

 

But I'm curious - is there a reason you had the TA call in your excursions?  I've seen some comments about the website being a little unpredictable, and I wondered if that was true.  

Same in Alaska...even if you can find a tour operator when the cruise ships descend, they aren't going to be any cheaper. Even then, an alumni group may steal your Hubbard Glacier small boat up close tour (grrr!).

[durberville]

4 hours ago, ORV said:

This, a lot of people don't get this. You could book a cheap $49 HOHO bus tour or something similar, even if you don't take the tour, and still pay less for your excursions overall. Just did this in Jan & Feb on our 24 day South America cruise. 

Yes. By booking one more excursion (in our case 7) to get the 25% discount,  we are paying less than we would have paid for 6. 

[Flatbush Flyer]

12 hours ago, IWantToLiveOverTheSea said:

Could someone please enlighten me, or point me in the direction of where I can find a rundown on how Simply More excursion credit is applied in the online booking system?  I know the basics for my excursion: The two of us each has $400 excursion credit when 5 or more excursions are purchased for our 14 day trip (counting as Oceania does - embark & disembark days = 1).  And although I don't know which excursions I'm going to choose, I did look a little bit online under My Account to make sure a lot of excursions aren't already full.  (They aren't -- we still have around 7 months before the cruise). But I have questions:

 

1.  Can I use my ship board credit (SBC) with the Simply More excursion credit to book excursions on the booking system under "My Account" section?  So if I book $500 worth of excursions, will the system total the "tour" (full) price of the 5 excursions, delete $400, and charge the remaining $100 to my (or possibly OUR) SBC?

2.  The system keeps my and my spouse's picks separate, and applies the requirement for 5 excursions separately, right?

3.  Do I have to book excursions with SM before I board the ship, or can I wait....if I'm willing to wait, given that excursions seem to be quite more in demand since Oceania went to SM?

4.  What happens if we miss a port where we've booked an O excursion using SM credit?  Do we get credit back to use in a remaining port?   If the excursion was "paid" for partly in SM credit and partly with $$, how is that handled? And what about if I want to cancel one excursion (within the usual time frame for canceling) and add another?  Is that possible?  Easy? 

5.  Is there anything else I should know?

I recently posted an extensive explanation of the order in which SM tour use various sources of SBC (tour, general and even cash). If you use the search feature here, it’s a good place to start.

[Hearthosesteeldrumsplayin]

Okay, can someone please tell me about this extra 25% off excursions package?  Where do you find this information?  We have a 2025 cruise (so excursions not yet available) and this sounds like something we might be interested in.  I have been looking on the website, and it alludes to the 25% off, but I can't find any specific information.  Do I have to wait until the shorex list is available?

[Queen of DaNile]

"Shore Excursion Package

This package is available on voyages with at least seven port days and provides flexibility to custom-design a collection of excursions by selecting the exact number of excursions desired. Choose from a wide variety of excursions and save 25% off a la carte prices when a minimum of shore excursions is reserved, based on the number port days on your voyage."

 

 

[FetaCheese]

2 hours ago, Hearthosesteeldrumsplayin said:

Okay, can someone please tell me about this extra 25% off excursions package?  Where do you find this information?  We have a 2025 cruise (so excursions not yet available) and this sounds like something we might be interested in.  I have been looking on the website, and it alludes to the 25% off, but I can't find any specific information.  Do I have to wait until the shorex list is available?

Look on page 1 of your Shorex doc.  This should be included with confirmation email, along with many other documents.

 

Will say how many shorex needed to book to obtain 25% discount on those, plus all others booked.

[EmsMom]

16 hours ago, IWantToLiveOverTheSea said:

Good job.  I typically (pre SM) I would do a mix of O excursions, third party excursions, or DIY days.  But in certain areas of the world, I would probably pick more O excursions more than usual. And while a lot of people dislike ship excursions, there are certain occasions where they offer a lot more than I could find on my own.  Up in the Canadian maritimes in early September, we went to a port in which I could find absolutely nothing - no tour providers, taxis, public transportation, or anything to walk to. I was glad there were ship excursions offered.

 

But I'm curious - is there a reason you had the TA call in your excursions?  I've seen some comments about the website being a little unpredictable, and I wondered if that was true.  

To answer your question regarding why I called O to book the excursions.  I don’t have a TA so I called O myself. When you book the excursions on the website it will not automatically apply the discount even though I had the required number of excursions.   When I called I gave the agent the excursion numbers and he put them in the system and applied the discount.  It seems it would be more expedient for the website to automatically apply the discount once the minimum number of excursions are entered.  I originally entered enough excursions to cover my SM credits and it did automatically apply them and showed the balance I owed once the credit was used up.   But when I entered the additional excursions I needed to get the discount it would not calculate the excursions with the discount.  

[IWantToLiveOverTheSea]

1 hour ago, Hearthosesteeldrumsplayin said:

Okay, can someone please tell me about this extra 25% off excursions package?  Where do you find this information?  We have a 2025 cruise (so excursions not yet available) and this sounds like something we might be interested in.  I have been looking on the website, and it alludes to the 25% off, but I can't find any specific information.  Do I have to wait until the shorex list is available?

If I can ever find Flatbush's info, I'll try to remember to post a link here.  But basically, I don't know how soon you can get a pdf copy of excursions for your cruise, or when excursions are posted in your "Your Account" section of the website. But I'll find and attach the first page of my pdf excursion document. It doesn't explain everything but will at least be a start, with descriptions of terminology, how to get 25% off excursions, etc.  Your booking invoice tells you what SM credit you have, broken down by traveler. The pdf document will tell you minimum number of excursions you must book to be able to get 25% off (any; your choice, except I think car/driver excursions, if offered, are off the table). For my 14 day cruise, 5 are required, and I have $400 credit from SM.  But both these things vary by length of cruise.  So in a nutshell, pre-cruise you're making up a package of the minimum number of excursions required, applying SM credit  and paying any difference.  You need to do this at least 7 days before your sail date. What you've paid for the whole package can be refunded pre-cruise, but it's not specifically stated whether you can switch from one excursion to another after the sail date.  But availability may make this difficult, simply due to the number of people reporting very full excursions on both Oceania and the other cruise line we sometimes use. 

 

Once you find excursions posted on the website, you can play with that to get an idea of what's possible.  But many people say the onboard system for excursions is glitchy for pricing, so it has been recommended that you pick excursions and then call Oceania or have travel agent call to book excursions. I'm finding the pdf and website agree pretty closely (7 or so months pre-cruise?) and availability is quite good.  But what I owe and how it's calculated is a little confusing. When I finally pick excursions (maybe in a month or so?), I'll have my travel agent call Oceania to do the actual bookings. The onboard system does count your excursions separately from your travel partner's.  But I've heard you can probably get away with using a partner's excursion ticket.  And I've heard that you get 25% off any excursions, regardless of how booked, after the required number is chosen (and remains unchanged).  But I don't know if the "regardless of how booked" part is accurate. If you have shipboard credit (for example, from O's loyalty program), you can use that on excursions as well.

 

I'll attach something later.

[IWantToLiveOverTheSea]

steeldrums, here's most of page 1 of the pdf version of excursions. Sorry the copy is so bad. The other pages of the lengthy document are just the excursions listed in a more readable/printable format.

 

Emsmom, thanks for the info.  I entered my required number of excursions and everything looked good to me, although I didn't go back and run the numbers to make sure, push the button to purchase, or add more excursions above the minimum.  So thanks for the explanation and the alert! 

[ORV]

You can also find out the required number of excursions needed by logging in to your cruise, click on book shore excursions and look for the little ? in a circle. Hover you pointer over it and it will tell you the amount needed. 

[Flatbush Flyer]

1 hour ago, IWantToLiveOverTheSea said:

steeldrums, here's most of page 1 of the pdf version of excursions. Sorry the copy is so bad. The other pages of the lengthy document are just the excursions listed in a more readable/printable format.

 

Emsmom, thanks for the info.  I entered my required number of excursions and everything looked good to me, although I didn't go back and run the numbers to make sure, push the button to purchase, or add more excursions above the minimum.  So thanks for the explanation and the alert! 

NEVER book O excursions on their website.

As aforementioned, PDF, website and phone rep usually have different info because each resource is a different department and tour info changes throughout the 365 days prior to cruise.

The web is particularly glitchy re: tour availability for multi-segment cruises!!!

USE THE O PHONE REP.

 

[1985rz1]

5 hours ago, Hearthosesteeldrumsplayin said:

Okay, can someone please tell me about this extra 25% off excursions package?  Where do you find this information?  We have a 2025 cruise (so excursions not yet available) and this sounds like something we might be interested in.  I have been looking on the website, and it alludes to the 25% off, but I can't find any specific information.  Do I have to wait until the shorex list is available?

Yes, you have to wait until the Shorex list is available.  It will be specified on page 1 of the Shorex pdf, which your TA can send to you.

[ORV]

3 hours ago, ORV said:

You can also find out the required number of excursions needed by logging in to your cruise, click on book shore excursions and look for the little ? in a circle. Hover you pointer over it and it will tell you the amount needed. 

I double checked this and actually it shows the number without all that rigamarole. I guess people were having too much trouble with it. 

[Hearthosesteeldrumsplayin]

Thanks all for helpful information!  I will contact TA to see when the listing of excursions will become available for my cruise and go from there!  As always, CruiseCritic helpful users to the rescue!