No more Simply More

[clo]

On 9/8/2024 at 7:05 PM, Jancruz said:

Jon you need some new friends..LOL

Jancruz1

I'm with Jon. Cruising is nice but there are other things just as nice or even nicer. A villa in France or Italy with friends, cooking the local food, drinking the local wines. Ah yes.

[clo]

20 hours ago, Jancruz said:

When I take a group I make it very clear this is not a democracy and there are no votes we follow the itinerary or you leave the group

 

I'm beginning to figure out that some people who cruise are perhaps not terribly adventuresome and also like to be ordered around. That sentence is pretty darn dictatorial IMneverHO.

[jonthomas]

9 minutes ago, clo said:

I'm with Jon. Cruising is nice but there are other things just as nice or even nicer. A villa in France or Italy with friends, cooking the local food, drinking the local wines. Ah yes.

Just need to find others of like minds, have no extended family and no fiends or acquaintances that would favour that kind of travel.

 

[surfcitygirl]

On 9/8/2024 at 12:36 PM, mauibabes said:

@terrydtx we did it as a part of a day tour after disembarking using a Tours By Locals guide. We had 8 of us and bags too as he dropped us at the airport late afternoon. Sounds like a great plan. Once you get to BA, if you can add the days, don’t miss a trip to  the Falls. We flew in and out of there with a night in the Park. 

 

[surfcitygirl]

Just now, surfcitygirl said:

We stayed at the same hotel. The falls are a don't miss while in BA

 

[clo]

3 minutes ago, jonthomas said:

Just need to find others of like minds, have no extended family and no fiends or acquaintances that would favour that kind of travel.

 

Oh, I know. But we can dream, can't we?

[Tr1v1alCru1ser]

Well said @Harters.  I make no secret of the fact that I was not a fan of Simply More a) because we rarely drink, and b) most of our cruises now are Caribbean so we don’t need shore excursions.   We did all our major cruises a few years ago, when grats were not included for U.K. passengers until you achieved status.  To remove those now without the equivalent reduction in fare, is simply a price increase.  A 10 day cruise drinks package is $800 plus cabin gratuities + butler tips, is hardly the equivalent of an extra $250 per cabin.  Even I’m at saturation point with sunglasses and handbags 😝

it’s unlikely we’ll get to 40 cruises with them now, even if we did, there's no guarantee there’ll still be offering free cruises with all this chopping and changing.  

 

[ORV]

2 hours ago, Rainbow3fe said:

     If you're unhappy with the new plan, I suggest calling Oceania to address your concerns to a representative. Posting it here will do us no good. If Oceania knows how people feel, they will have a better idea of how to proceed.

        The representative I spoke to yesterday said Oceania is listening to the customer comments. They have not decided whether they're going to continue this way after Jan 1.

       Please don't argue with me about this. I am just relaying his thoughts to you. He felt it was going to be a limited time plan so Oceania could get passenger feedback.

Safe travels

😎🌊

Things that make you go hmmm?

 

The new program doesn’t go into effect until Jan 1st. 

[terrydtx]

52 minutes ago, Harters said:

I sent it to 

 

GuestServicesEMEA@OceaniaCruises.com

 

which is on the UK version of O's website. I know from a recent thread that there's no equivalent email address on the US version of the site. But I presume the sentiments in your email would still get to the right place if you sent it to that address. 

Thank you, I Googled the email address and got this: 

guestrelations@oceaniacruises.com   I sent my response and got back the automated response that it was received and that someone would be getting back to me about my concerns. Will be interesting to see if I hear anything back.

Edited September 10 by terrydtx

[EJL2023]

Seems to me a better option would have been something like the OLife, without the option to opt out and reduce your fare.  You’d perhaps get to select One of the Following:  1). House Select Drink Package. 2) Prepaid Gratuities 3) # of Excursions based upon length of cruise 

 

By not allowing opt out you would not be going all the way back to Cruise only and by allowing either drink package or gratuities it would at least allow customers to cater it more to their own specific wishes…and hopefully have a happier customer base…(yeah I know!! )

 

Perhaps someone has already outlined this but did not feel like reviewing 17 pages. So if already mentioned, sorry.  

[Harters]

3 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

Will be interesting to see if I heard anything back.

Yeah but I'm not holding my breath either.

[terrydtx]

24 minutes ago, EJL2023 said:

Seems to me a better option would have been something like the OLife, without the option to opt out and reduce your fare.  You’d perhaps get to select One of the Following:  1). House Select Drink Package. 2) Prepaid Gratuities 3) # of Excursions based upon length of cruise 

 

By not allowing opt out you would not be going all the way back to Cruise only and by allowing either drink package or gratuities it would at least allow customers to cater it more to their own specific wishes…and hopefully have a happier customer base…(yeah I know!! )

 

Perhaps someone has already outlined this but did not feel like reviewing 17 pages. So if already mentioned, sorry.  

This is more like the Old O'Life program, that was also a failure because if you took one of their O'Life choices the price cost for it was reflected in the cruise price. SM added so much more for a very small increase in the price of the cruises. Viking Ocean, who I consider Oceania's biggest competitor, has always provided wine and beer with meals and one included shore excursion in every port. The dropping of SM now, will make Oceania much less competitive with VO.

Edited September 10 by terrydtx

[EJL2023]

16 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

This is more like the Old O'Life program, that was also a failure because if you took one of their O'Life choices the price cost for it was reflected in the cruise price. SM added so much more for a very small increase in the price of the cruises. Viking Ocean, who I consider Oceania's biggest competitor, has always provided wine and beer with meals and one included shore excursion in every port. The dropping of SM now, will make Oceania much less competitive with VO.

The SM increase was fairly small when introduced but I’d say they have definitely priced those perks into the total cost now based upon the quarterly increases since its inception.  We booked a cruise in February and the price on a PP basis has already gone up by $800 for an A CATEGORY.  So, at this point we know whichever scheme they use, the cost of the perks are going to be included in the fare…I just think this option allows more for each consumer to tailor it more to their specific needs or likes.  O gets their pricing and customer gets perhaps something they actually value.  Just my opinion.  

Edited September 10 by EJL2023

[Cruising Maryland]

39 minutes ago, ORV said:

Things that make you go hmmm?

 

The new program doesn’t go into effect until Jan 1st. 

I think that it starts for cruises booked as of 10/1. 

[EJL2023]

1 minute ago, Cruising Maryland said:

I think that it starts for cruises booked as of 10/1. 

To me some of the wording is a bit conflicting.  It states no more SM after 9/30.  States new program effective for new bookings on 10/1 or later with a sail date of 1/1/25 or later.  So if you book on 10/2 for a sail date prior to 1/1/25 you get SM, OR not a darn thing?!? 😁

[Harters]

27 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

The dropping of SM now, will make Oceania much less competitive with VO.

That is what I find so weird about the change. I recall the discussions here when SM was being introduced. Viking as a significant competitor was often mentioned as the reason behind O's move. To move away from that, and effectively move even further back in time is strange. Does it mean O has given up wanting to compete  for that customer base and is content to work for the demographics of twenty years back? Well before my time, so I've no idea what that demographic actually was. 

[ORV]

It is my understanding that you can’t book any SM after 9/30But there are no cruises under the new program until 1/1/25

 

Some how there is a fault in that thinking. 

[SATaxman]

Just now, ORV said:

It is my understanding that you can’t book any SM after 9/30But there are no cruises under the new program until 1/1/25

 

Some how there is a fault in that thinking. 

I thought that too.

[Redtravel]

Just saw this thread. Since I have no future O bookings, I usually don’t look at O on cruisecritic. I could have predicted that simply more would die.  
I have been on many cruises including Oceania.  When Celebrity went to including alcoholic drinks, I left. I seldom drink. I hear that they eventually reversed to booking cruise only. Too late, we had moved on.  I liked Olife.  Depending upon the destination, I might pick the 3 excursions. If not, the OBC. Usually I booked cruise only , no Olife, and did my own  thing.  We usually do a winter Caribbean cruise.  Having previously done many excursions, we now just enjoy the warm weather. Often stay onboard.  In January we sailed on Vista . Having booked previous winter, we were booked as cruise only.  We didn’t rebook a winter O cruise. Simply more wasn’t for us in the Caribbean. Instead we reviewed options and chose to book on another cruise line that didn’t include excursions.   Going forward, Oceania might get my future bookings if the price adjusts downward.  We did do a Med cruise in May on Marina with Simply More.  Since we were stopping in some new ports, excursions worked for us.   My spouse enjoyed some beer. The included wines weren’t my choice. I still stuck with Diet Coke or water.   I will be looking for mail explaining the changes.  If O keeps the prices the same while deleting simply more, they might lose bookings.  Each change affects bookings. Change creates stress.

[Rainbow3fe]

4 hours ago, jonthomas said:

Some of us have reached a point when bargains on Celebrity no longer matter.

 

Would rather travel less.

🌊😎Oh yes, I agree. Our one Celebrity cruise was so disappointing that we could hardly wait to return to Oceania. 

      I'll only address the most annoying Celebrity issues.

   Food was a poor quality.  The menu read nicely but food was awful even in Aqua Blu and specialty restaurants.  

     The Buffet was a shopping mall style Food Court. Food was terrible.  We had pizza for lunch daily because it was fairly tasty. 

     Can you imagine that they really charged extra for certain flavors of ice cream?

     Enough about them. 

     We love Oceania and will continue to cruise with them. We decided to check Regents prices in the future to see if there's something interesting that pops up.

    Safe travels

       

 

[FetaCheese]

28 minutes ago, EJL2023 said:

To me some of the wording is a bit conflicting.  It states no more SM after 9/30.  States new program effective for new bookings on 10/1 or later with a sail date of 1/1/25 or later.  So if you book on 10/2 for a sail date prior to 1/1/25 you get SM, OR not a darn thing?!? 😁

Was asking myself the same question. YWI date scheme is confusing to me.

[Jancruz]

4 hours ago, Cruzin Terri said:

How does one become part of your group? Just asking!

Terri

Terri, I cant answer you but maybe someone else can..

Jancruz1

[Jancruz]

4 hours ago, ORV said:

Just another reason why we love you. 

Oh Orv you make me blush..I love you and Teresa too..

Jancruz1

[Rainbow3fe]

3 hours ago, clo said:

I totally agree with you. Sites like this give people an opportunity to complain without any consequences. In other situations I've been known to go to the top pretty darn quickly. If someone cares a lot about this decision I'd suggest they speak up. And do so strongly. We've only traveled with O a couple of times and LOVED it. But I'll be looking around at others now.

      We have 3 upcoming O cruises booked. 

 We won't necessarily be looking elsewhere but will check out Regents.

Edited September 10 by Rainbow3fe

[sunlover12]

1 hour ago, EJL2023 said:

Seems to me a better option would have been something like the OLife, without the option to opt out and reduce your fare.  You’d perhaps get to select One of the Following:  1). House Select Drink Package. 2) Prepaid Gratuities 3) # of Excursions based upon length of cruise 

 

By not allowing opt out you would not be going all the way back to Cruise only and by allowing either drink package or gratuities it would at least allow customers to cater it more to their own specific wishes…and hopefully have a happier customer base…(yeah I know!! )

 

Perhaps someone has already outlined this but did not feel like reviewing 17 pages. So if already mentioned, sorry.  

I agree with you. Oceania should have priced in some form of included perks in the fare. In my opinion, going back to Cruise Only no longer classifies them as a premium cruise line. They're getting to be more like the megaship cruise lines where everything is ala carte.  I don't understand what management was thinking.

 

As a customer who does drink wine with meals and goes on ship excursions, this new offering is not in my best interest. I've been fairly loyal to Oceania over the years but now I'll have to look at other lines.