Excursion pricing

[patty1955]

We're on a TA next year that visits Granada. We wanted to visit the Alhambra but the ship's excursion is sold out (11 months out). I found an private excursion with Spain Day Tour that is a small group and only 35% the cost of Oceania. Now I need to get 12 other people to join us and we're good to go. 

[mauibabes]

Get on the Roll Call for your cruise and let people know of the availability. Sometimes these private tours really snowball. 
Mauibabes

[patty1955]

13 minutes ago, mauibabes said:

Get on the Roll Call for your cruise and let people know of the availability. Sometimes these private tours really snowball. 
Mauibabes

I have but we only have 5 people on our Roll Call

[ORV]

When I've used Spain Day Tours in the past it wasn't my obligation to fill their tour. We just booked with them and then went on the tour. 

[patty1955]

19 minutes ago, ORV said:

When I've used Spain Day Tours in the past it wasn't my obligation to fill their tour. We just booked with them and then went on the tour. 

For the 89 euro tour, they want at least 12 people. If anyone else from our cruise signs up, they'll add them to the  tour but they suggested that I post it to let people know about the tour. We can book a tour for just the 2 of us but it would cost 495 euros each.

[pinotlover]

I have always been able to fill my private tours via CC. Most often end up having to turn people away.

 

This is my personal experience, fwiw. I book tours and advertise them on CC Roll Calls. The 3 cruises booked to every cruise taken rule lives and breathes. After Final Payment date, I’m always scrambling to fill my tours, but always do. Notice all the Oceania constant sales, a lot of folks don’t book until six months prior to sailing and are eager to sign up for private tours. One very good fellow Oceania cruiser doesn’t even advertise his tours until after FPDate. He claims he bypasses all the lookie loos and still fills his private tours with fewer problems . 
 

I wouldn’t worry about the status of tours 9+ months out. Come final payment and the lookie loos bail, availability often follows. Also, unless you’re one of those that really needs Oceania to hold your hand if/when you leave the ship, try browsing your Roll Call right here on Cruise Critic. Opportunity awaits! 🥂

[patty1955]

57 minutes ago, pinotlover said:

I have always been able to fill my private tours via CC. Most often end up having to turn people away.

 

This is my personal experience, fwiw. I book tours and advertise them on CC Roll Calls. The 3 cruises booked to every cruise taken rule lives and breathes. After Final Payment date, I’m always scrambling to fill my tours, but always do. Notice all the Oceania constant sales, a lot of folks don’t book until six months prior to sailing and are eager to sign up for private tours. One very good fellow Oceania cruiser doesn’t even advertise his tours until after FPDate. He claims he bypasses all the lookie loos and still fills his private tours with fewer problems . 
 

I wouldn’t worry about the status of tours 9+ months out. Come final payment and the lookie loos bail, availability often follows. Also, unless you’re one of those that really needs Oceania to hold your hand if/when you leave the ship, try browsing your Roll Call right here on Cruise Critic. Opportunity awaits! 🥂

thank you

[Vallesan]

1 hour ago, pinotlover said:

I have always been able to fill my private tours via CC. Most often end up having to turn people away.

 

This is my personal experience, fwiw. I book tours and advertise them on CC Roll Calls. The 3 cruises booked to every cruise taken rule lives and breathes. After Final Payment date, I’m always scrambling to fill my tours, but always do. Notice all the Oceania constant sales, a lot of folks don’t book until six months prior to sailing and are eager to sign up for private tours. One very good fellow Oceania cruiser doesn’t even advertise his tours until after FPDate. He claims he bypasses all the lookie loos and still fills his private tours with fewer problems . 
 

I wouldn’t worry about the status of tours 9+ months out. Come final payment and the lookie loos bail, availability often follows. Also, unless you’re one of those that really needs Oceania to hold your hand if/when you leave the ship, try browsing your Roll Call right here on Cruise Critic. Opportunity awaits! 🥂

Now that there is a charge to cancel way before final payment do you think there will be any where near the same amount of ‘looking loos’?

[pinotlover]

7 hours ago, Vallesan said:

Now that there is a charge to cancel way before final payment do you think there will be any where near the same amount of ‘looking loos’?

I don’t believe that insignificant cancellation charge will slow them down in the least. Some people book multiple cruises every year, thus having thousands of dollars out in deposits, only to then cancel all but one or two. Maybe losing their entire deposit might slow them down, but not O’s meager charges.

[Hlitner]

As one who cruises on many different lines (most recently on the Vista) we think the thread is too "narrow" and needs to be expanded beyond SM to discuss cruise line excursions.  Folks need to understand that cruise lines do not operate their own excursions.  They contract with various local providers.  On many lines, the shore excursion folks (or Destination Desk on O) are not even staffed by the cruise line, but are also another third party contractor.  Excursions are priced by the shore-based operator to make a profit, marked up by the middle-man contractor (who staffs the onboard excursion desk), and marked up a third time to generate a healthy profit for the cruise line (who gets a cut of everything).   The result is that nearly all excursions (on every line) are overpriced (and often overhyped).

 

Folks can whine, about excursions, all they want, but the reality is that it is what it is!  It might shock some folks, but there are many cruisers (including moi) who rarely take any excursion.  Yes, on O we did book just enough excursions to use our SM credit, but otherwise, simply did our own thing in most ports of our 35 day cruise through parts of Europe.  For those that want the ease of doing excursions, go forth and enjoy (or be miserable).  For those of us who prefer to do our own thing, life is still pretty good.  

 

The OP mentions they have some limitations that have them favoring panorama type tours, there are options.  Many ports have "Hop on Hop off" buses.  In other ports, folks can book a taxi, use public transit (i.e. the inexpensive #28 Tram is a great way to see Lisbon), or often book a small group private tour, at lower cost then most large bus excursions.  For those who can physically handle it, there are rental cars, trains, local/regional buses, and lots of healthy walking.  

 

The choice is yours, but constantly complaining about SM, but ultimately doing nothing about it (such as booking a different cruise line) is not productive.  Perhaps complaining to "O" will eventually get them to alter their SM program.  One reason (among many) why we favor Seabourn (and even Princess) is that those lines do not include excursions in their pricing.  On Seabourn, we only book excursions when they provide something that we cannot reasonably do on our own or with a small group tour.  For us this might mean booking 1 excursion for about every 30-40 ports (at one point we did more than a dozen longer cruises without booking a single excursion).

 

When we did our Live review of the Vista (our first O cruise and 17th cruise line) we made it very clear that we really enjoyed our time on the Vista and would likely book more O cruises (which we would limit to the Vista and Allura).  We did not like the SM program, but managed to find just enough excursions (the long one on Santorini was truly awful) to use our SM credit.  While the excursions (with the exception of the awful one) were good, we would not have taken a single excursion except for the SM program.

 

Hank

 

Hank

[MEFIowa]

1 minute ago, Hlitner said:

... The choice is yours, but constantly complaining about SM, but ultimately doing nothing about it (such as booking a different cruise line) is not productive....

Haven't booked any O cruise for 2025 or 2026. Doesn't look like we will. The SM price increase a bridge too far for us.

 

And so far the post-SM introduction sales have been underwhelming indeed. Those sales spoiled us. I mean 10 nights on Riviera 12/2021 W. Caribbean in an A4 for $2099 PP 2021 Presidents' Day Sale. Then comes the ESS in 2023 right before SM and we got 10 nights on Rivera in a B3 for $1749 PP and in an A3 for just $1899 PP, 10-11/2023 Med. These were all Cruise Only

 

Our upcoming Sirena B2B cruise has 10 nights with a pre-SM booking and 10 nights with the SM sale booking when SM came out. For our SM F cabin...

 

F $2949 OUR Price SM Summer Sale 2023

-----------

F $3049 Black Friday Sale

F $3349 New Year's Sale

F $3849 Current book price

[Harters]

17 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

The OP mentions they have some limitations that have them favoring panorama type tours, there are options.  Many ports have "Hop on Hop off" buses.

HOHOs can be very helpful for us. We used one at Malaga on our recent Vista cruise. The Costa del Sol is an area well known to us from previous holidays so we werent really interested in any organised excursion. In most other ports, we just ambled round the cities as best we could, at our own pace. Means we can stop for a coffee, or simply a sit down on a park bench, when we need it, rather than being tied to an organised excursion. Two hours walking at our own pace, with stops, is very different to an organised excursion which may also have two hours walking but over which we have no control. 

 

By the by, we did an O excursion at Monte Carlo where, basically, you see the cathedral, the prince's palace and the casino. But we came away having no sense that we'd really visited the place and we'd have got a much better feel if  we'd just gone for a walk.  

[Vallesan]

1 hour ago, pinotlover said:

I don’t believe that insignificant cancellation charge will slow them down in the least. Some people book multiple cruises every year, thus having thousands of dollars out in deposits, only to then cancel all but one or two. Maybe losing their entire deposit might slow them down, but not O’s meager charges.

Yes you could be right. I hope you are.

 

I’m trying to book an October cruise which is ‘waitlisted’ in the category I want. So, in my wisdom, I decided to pay the ‘priority waitlist’ fee of £1000, refundable, and guess what we are No:1 on the waitlist! Probably because there are no other idiots like me out there!

[Hlitner]

29 minutes ago, MEFIowa said:

Haven't booked any O cruise for 2025 or 2026. Doesn't look like we will. The SM price increase a bridge too far for us.

 

And so far the post-SM introduction sales have been underwhelming indeed. Those sales spoiled us. I mean 10 nights on Riviera 12/2021 W. Caribbean in an A4 for $2099 PP 2021 Presidents' Day Sale. Then comes the ESS in 2023 right before SM and we got 10 nights on Rivera in a B3 for $1749 PP and in an A3 for just $1899 PP, 10-11/2023 Med. These were all Cruise Only

 

Our upcoming Sirena B2B cruise has 10 nights with a pre-SM booking and 10 nights with the SM sale booking when SM came out. For our SM F cabin...

 

F $2949 OUR Price SM Summer Sale 2023

-----------

F $3049 Black Friday Sale

F $3349 New Year's Sale

F $3849 Current book price

While we also would prefer no mandated SM, apparently there are plenty of other O fans who are OK with the program.  Just yesterday, we looked at a few future (25-26) O cruises (on the Vista and Allura) and they were all waitlisted!  Not a big deal for us, since we will simply book on other lines (we like many cruise lines).  But for us, O, remains a challenge because our desired voyages always seem to book up!

 

Hank

[MEFIowa]

4 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

... Just yesterday, we looked at a few future (25-26) O cruises (on the Vista and Allura) and they were all waitlisted!....

Here I suspect the key words are "Vista and Allura". The newest "hot" ships. I let others pay much higher prices to sail on them.

 

Our upcoming London to Stockholm on Sirena starting 8/28/24 is Available from A1 down to F with G being Guaranteed. Final payment was 5/30/24. Just last week.

[pinotlover]

37 minutes ago, MEFIowa said:

 

Our upcoming London to Stockholm on Sirena starting 8/28/24 is Available from A1 down to F with G being Guaranteed. Final payment was 5/30/24. Just last week.

Actually quite typical after final payment date. Some people book everything two years out, while others do so 3-5 months pre cruise. Except for the rare cruise, both typically make the cruise.

[MEFIowa]

1 minute ago, pinotlover said:

Actually quite typical after final payment date. Some people book everything two years out, while others do so 3-5 months pre cruise. Except for the rare cruise, both typically make the cruise.

Though the follow-on cruise, Stockholm to Copenhagen, also on Sirena, is WAITLISTED for every cabin level. Final payment there due June 11th. Will be interesting to see what, if anything, opens up. The earlier cruise has been essentially available at the A1-F levels all the time so far.

[Hlitner]

32 minutes ago, MEFIowa said:

Here I suspect the key words are "Vista and Allura". The newest "hot" ships. I let others pay much higher prices to sail on them.

 

Our upcoming London to Stockholm on Sirena starting 8/28/24 is Available from A1 down to F with G being Guaranteed. Final payment was 5/30/24. Just last week.

I will repeat some thoughts, from previous posts, about why we are limiting ourselves to only the Vista and Allura (and might also consider the Marina).  DW and I cruised on the "R" ships when they were actually part of Renaissance (where we met the British marine architect who designed those R ships).  While we did like the ships (in another ear), we were very unhappy with the normal (including balcony cabins) cabin bathrooms (especially the showers).  

 

Since that time, we have cruised on dozens of other ships, grown to be old as dirt, and have raised our standards for what we except on ships.  The R bathrooms do not come close to our own standards, unless we were to book some of the larger (and much more expensive) suites.  More than 10 years ago, we decided we would not consider cruising on the R ships (whether with Azamara, O or Princess (at the time)).  "O" is not an inexpensive cruise line, and for the price we would pay, we simply expect more (kind of like our own version of SM).

 

We have two upcoming cruises on Seabourn, and those two bookings actually cost us about the same price as cruising on O.  But on Seabourn, we get a suite (many of their so-called suites are more like deluxe cabins) with a large bathroom (separate shower, full size tub, double sink, lots of storage, etc).  In December we have a Silversea booking (which is actually less costly then a normal balcony cabin on O) on an all suite ship that is essentially all-inclusive (tips, excursions, all drinks, etc).  We are "equal opportunity cruisers" who are constantly seeking out the best value (and itineraries) and continue to think that the "R: ships (on both O and Azamara) provide an awful value in terms cost/benefit.

 

Hank

 

Hank

[MEFIowa]

1 minute ago, Hlitner said:

I will repeat some thoughts, from previous posts, about why we are limiting ourselves to only the Vista and Allura (and might also consider the Marina)....

Though having spent 30 nights on Riviera since 12/2021, I do think she's got the bigger therapy pool on the Spa Deck area compared to Marina. I have enjoyed that on 20 of our 30 nights in Concierge cabins. Love Riviera!

[Vallesan]

5 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

 

……We have two upcoming cruises on Seabourn, and those two bookings actually cost us about the same price as cruising on O.  But on Seabourn, we get a suite (many of their so-called suites are more like deluxe cabins) with a large bathroom (separate shower, full size tub, double sink, lots of storage, etc).  In December we have a Silversea booking (which is actually less costly then a normal balcony cabin on O) on an all suite ship that is essentially all-inclusive (tips, excursions, all drinks, etc).  We are "equal opportunity cruisers" who are constantly seeking out the best value (and itineraries) and continue to think that the "R: ships (on both O and Azamara) provide an awful value in terms cost/benefit.

 

Hank

 

Hank

Unfortunately both Seabourn and Silversea, despite their new ‘Essentials’ pricing, have increased their prices to an extent that I no longer find them comparable to Oceania. Sad really, but who knows there might be sales!