Simply More Excursion Package - Less Flexibility to Cancel than A La Carte?

[EJL2023]

1 hour ago, Trbd4739 said:

 

 

Which excursion disappeared?

Meant for durberville instead?

[roothy123]

On 7/3/2024 at 2:06 PM, Smokeyham said:

I'm reading up on excursions for a cruise on Nautica in April, 2025. Looking at the Simply More Excursion Package I see that we will receive a 25% discount if we book 12 more excursions.

 

However, under "Book Your Excursions" I see the following statement:

"All excursion packages have the added convenience of being fully refundable until sail date and must be purchased in advance of sailing to enjoy the maximum savings. Packages will be non-refundable thereafter. Á la Carte excursions will remain fully refundable up until 36 hours before the excursion."

 

This seems like a real loss of flexibility, but I was wondering if anyone else has experience or a viewpoint on this.

Thanks

From what I've heard, the Simply More excursion package option is just like Oceania's previous package option, except that with that option, you didn't receive any complimentary shore excursion credit.  (But I'm not talking about OLife, for which you paid upfront and then chose from a somewhat limited list of excursions).  Therefore, to me, the requirement to purchase and maintain a required number of excursions under Simply More to get 25% off doesn't seem all that new/unreasonable to me.  But yes, it does limit your flexibility pre-cruise.  But at least my (very responsive) travel agent told me that once onboard, if Oceania must cancel an excursion I've chosen, I won't be penalized.  So that's a good thing.  I always loved Oceania's "a la carte" approach to excursions, as many of us long time cruisers did.  But I also understand that what's perceived to be "free excursions" can be a great marketing too.  It can also get more Oceania cruisers on board to take Oceania excursions, which might result in more vendors and choices opening up to Oceania in the future.  

 

As for the number required, we're on a 14 day cruise (as counted by Oceania, so 15 calendar days with embark/disembark days).  We have full day stops in 8 ports and must each purchase 5 excursions to get 25% off.  We get $400 each in excursion credit. I'm a big excursion lover, though previously I've mixed and matched Oceania with private excursions with walk off/DIY sightseeing to fill my wanderlust needs.  My husband enjoys staying on board the ship more than I do.  We both have a good chunk of shipboard credit we received from Oceania's loyalty program plus our travel advisor. I've booked 6 excursions and used all of my excursion credit and most of my shipboard credit.  My spouse has booked 3 excursions (full price) and has used most of his excursion credit.  A few weeks pre-cruise, we'll review our choices (via the online "Pre-Purchased" summary) and make changes if we want and can. Right now, very few excursions are full, but we don't travel until winter, so things will no doubt change.

 

I won't say I love Simply More, as I'm now paying "more" for other people's alchohol & excursions.  But at least I can use the excursion benefits.  And the program IS simpler compared to the previous mish mash of options (Olife choices, excursion package choices, restrictions on what excursions could be made, etc).

[pinotlover]

I wish people were required to learn even simple math.

 

2-3X- 25% is never less than X!

 

Let X equal the retail price of private tours, then look at the ridiculous huge (2-3 times) mark ups Oceania adds on!

 

It’s like having the price of gas at $3.00 a gallon, then having a station charge $6.00 / gal with an advertised 25% off, and watching people flock to that station for the 25% off!😂😂😂 For those short on math that equals $4.50/ gal. What a deal! But, But 25% off 😂😂

[MEFIowa]

52 minutes ago, pinotlover said:

I wish people were required to learn even simple math....

Though SM changed the math. We preferred the old "cruise only" and have a 10-night "cruise only" coming up. But we also added a SM 12-night cruise to the front end to create our 22-night B2B.

 

So, we'll do ALL of our own excursions on the "cruise only" part, but since SM forced us to PAY upfront a much higher price we're going to use up ALL of the SM excursion credit. And using the 25% discount can mean either more or better excursions you've already paid for. And that SM excursion credit can't be used for other things anyway.

 

Since you've prepaid the SM excursion credit, the initial "X" is essentially 0.

 

Of course, we only take O excursions that meet our needs and still have our own excursion for the SM part, too. We tend to use the O excursions for the simpler, smaller ports, not the "big" or "important" ones.

 

But then we're the type that bought the Turkish public transportation cards and used their light rail and buses to get all over Istanbul for cheap. Including taking the #38 bus out 4 miles to the old walls of Constantinople and then walking most of it back till we stopped at a light rail station.

[durberville]

6 hours ago, Trbd4739 said:

 

 

Which excursion disappeared?

OS-Hand-Rolled Sushi experience - Miyako Japan. (Was so looking forward to it). 

[durberville]

Just to add how confusing the shore excursion issue is…called Oceania about the missing excursion. The rep insisted that it was still showing under my booking on her end, and not to worry about it. She had me click through to another page where it did indeed still appear. Okay….was about to hang up and then asked her why it was gone from the offerings under “shop for shore excursions” and she then says “Oh it HAS been cancelled”. 😳

I asked why I wasn’t informed. She had no answer. 🤷‍♀️ I had her book a replacement in that port and added one more in another port, but I’m now totally confused. 😂 The online “purchased” statement lists prices totally different to the invoice I received when I first booked the excursion package…she said “Oh don’t go by that”😳….I will have to get an actual updated invoice, I suppose. 😵‍💫

 

Long story short…check your shore excursion bookings a few times before your trip.