Excursion booking

[Laurie17]

I just booked my first Oceania cruise for next June after several Viking cruises.  I am a little confused about the process of booking excursions. First, the prices seem high.  Second, what is a suggested  lead time to book?   Since excursions are already open, do people book that far in advance?   Does the cruise have to be paid in full to book excursions?  Any advice is appreciated 

[mauibabes]

You can normally book a year in advance so you are definitely within the window. Yes people do book a year out, you can cancel a tour and book another or get on Waitlists if a desired tour is initially unavailable. We just had a Waitlisted tour come through on an April trip in Japan. No you do not have to be paid in full to book excursions. While the info available on the website when you are in your account to book then is adequate, you can request a PDF version of the excursions from Oceania that are more detailed. We download it and each read the many pages, 25-100, make notes and highlight interesting points and then sit down together and go through what specific tours interested us and make our decisions. 
O offers a 25% discount when you book a specific number of excursions so we do try to book at least that number to get the overall price down. We often consider Private Tours and sometimes find other travelers on the CC Roll Call and join that group as well. You have your Simply More Excursion Credit so be sure you use it up or it is lost. Your TA or Oceania Rep can assist you to ensure you are getting the best bang for the buck in your selections. 
Hope this helps or gets you started with your planning. 
Mauibabes

[babysteps]

If you would rather DIY excursions, another strategy with SM credits is to choose higher-cost ones so you're only going on 1 or 2 total for a shorter cruise (say 7-10 days - you get more SM credit the longer the cruise is).

 

This is what we did on our June 2024 Istanbul-to-Trieste cruise on Vista. First 2 ports after Istanbul used all our SM credits, and the tours exceeded our expectations. Which were low lol!

 

You can even use the SM credit on a private car or minivan at some ports. You can frontload the SM-paid tours so if there's a tour cancellation or missed port you still have time (and ports) to use up the SM credits. Search this forum, there are several threads with way more detail.

Edited August 7 by babysteps
added in our personal experience

[Firstin87]

Should you choose to cancel an excursion, you can easily do so online, which is quick and convenient.  However much SM $'s you have will be used first, then you pay.  We've changed excursions online before and had no problems, even got the refund of what we paid promptly.  While a year is a long way out, if there is something special you want to do in a port, it's a good idea to book those early, just in case.

[Tranquility Base]

17 minutes ago, Firstin87 said:

Should you choose to cancel an excursion, you can easily do so online, which is quick and convenient. 

Well, that is good news.

Could you expand a bit on how to do that please.

[Cruzin Terri]

I would like the answer to this question as well.

Terri

[WESTEAST]

4 hours ago, Tranquility Base said:

Well, that is good news.

Could you expand a bit on how to do that please.

Would be interested as well in understanding as we have attempted to cancel excursions (more than once) and despite hitting remove or delete, have not been successful.  A call to Oceania and they quickly took care of deleting on our behalf. Also, the only way we have been successful in adding our names to Wait Listed excursions, is to call Oceania.  When the Wait Lists cleared, we've been notified by email (direct or via our TA). 

[alcpa1]

With the implementation of Simply More there has been much confusion about availibility, particularly of accessible tours. Things are getting better.

Get the PDF and book asap. In some destinations tours are on mini busses so space is limited.

You can bypass a TA and call O directly to book tours. That's the easiest way.

[durberville]

11 hours ago, alcpa1 said:

With the implementation of Simply More there has been much confusion about availibility, particularly of accessible tours. Things are getting better.

Get the PDF and book asap. In some destinations tours are on mini busses so space is limited.

You can bypass a TA and call O directly to book tours. That's the easiest way.

Yes. My excursion package was messed up and I couldn’t fix it online.  I thought I had to go through my TA to make any changes but someone here told me to call Oceania directly. Problem solved. 

[Cruzin Terri]

I wish @Firstin87 would respond to the question as to how to cancel an excursion online.

Terri

[ORV]

55 minutes ago, Cruzin Terri said:

I wish @Firstin87 would respond to the question as to how to cancel an excursion online.

Terri

I would bet thinking of another cruise line. I know I only cruise on 2 or 3 and the procedures run together sometimes.