No more Simply More

[ORV]

2 hours ago, HaveDogWillTravel said:

We have the same TA.  I only get $200 (total not per person) when they didn’t cover grats on my 10 day med sailing this October. And I got no extra OBC on sailings when they did cover grats on one of my future Caribbean sailings. 

So maybe I still need to shop around for the best deal?   I don’t mind spending money but I do like getting the best value for that money. 
 

As a point of reference I have only completed one O 10 day sailing so no status. Three of my future O sailings are in PH suites and two are in a concierge balcony.  
 

 

The amount I mentioned has to do with what we get when there is what is called OCAPP, which is basically provided by Oceania as a pass through to the TA for gratuities. When that is the case those that are Silver(10 cruises or more) get $250 total OBC in lieu of the gratuities.

 

It's really a different situation than what you're getting. 

[HaveDogWillTravel]

Thank you for the explanation @ORV

So when folks get OCAPP there is no additional OBC given by TA’s?  
 

[ORV]

3 minutes ago, HaveDogWillTravel said:

Thank you for the explanation @ORV

So when folks get OCAPP there is no additional OBC given by TA’s?  
 

I think that is going to vary by the TA. I would say every situation is different. 

[JanDom]

Hi,

just have a question.

we are about to book a 14 day cruise for 2015 with O.

In Germany drink package, some money for shore excursion and gratuity are included (yes gratuity already).

if I book before the 30th of September, simply more will be still included on my cruise - right ?

if I book later, no simply more - and I do not know what will happen with the price … correct ?

 

(in germany we can only book simply more - we can’t say with - or without it)

 

thanks 

[Vineyard View]

Our TA is a member. They offer pricing discounts on all the lines we have sailed through them. The pricing discounts are greater than gratuities would be. Some TA provide OBC and gratuities. I don’t think there is one single type of offering across the board. A previous TA offered gratuities only. And our first TA offered nothing….hence no longer our TA’s. 

[Vallesan]

Just now, JanDom said:

Hi,

just have a question.

we are about to book a 14 day cruise for 2015 with O.

In Germany drink package, some money for shore excursion and gratuity are included (yes gratuity already).

if I book before the 30th of September, simply more will be still included on my cruise - right ?

if I book later, no simply more - and I do not know what will happen with the price … correct ?

 

(in germany we can only book simply more - we can’t say with - or without it)

 

thanks 

Same here in the UK. I suggest you look at the ‘conditions of booking’. Here in the UK Oceania will respect price drops so might be worth booking now and if it goes down in price you could get the new price. Otherwise, if your cancellation terms are like ours £150pp, it could be more economical to cancel and rebook. 
 

Personally, booking now in Europe or the UK may give more options than booking after September 30th. In saying that it’s just my guess. I would book now but just can’t find a cruise in Europe that I really like.

[JanDom]

9 minutes ago, Vallesan said:

Same here in the UK. I suggest you look at the ‘conditions of booking’. Here in the UK Oceania will respect price drops so might be worth booking now and if it goes down in price you could get the new price. Otherwise, if your cancellation terms are like ours £150pp, it could be more economical to cancel and rebook. 
 

Personally, booking now in Europe or the UK may give more options than booking after September 30th. In saying that it’s just my guess. I would book now but just can’t find a cruise in Europe that I really like.

Thank you. 
This is what I think also.

If the price drops after September 30th we need to think if we want to change the price - because I think we will loose simply more at this time.

[Harters]

31 minutes ago, JanDom said:

if I book before the 30th of September, simply more will be still included on my cruise - right ?

if I book later, no simply more - and I do not know what will happen with the price … correct ?

Both correct. 

[Jancruz]

6 hours ago, Vineyard View said:

Our TA is a member. They offer pricing discounts on all the lines we have sailed through them. The pricing discounts are greater than gratuities would be. Some TA provide OBC and gratuities. I don’t think there is one single type of offering across the board. A previous TA offered gratuities only. And our first TA offered nothing….hence no longer our TA’s. 

Im sorry she/he wouldnt give you part of her salary..shame on her

Jancruz1

[Vineyard View]

1 hour ago, Jancruz said:

Im sorry she/he wouldnt give you part of her salary..shame on her

Jancruz1

Really?  Lots of discussions around this with a lot of similar posts. Not sure why this would trigger that response to me. 
 

Edited Wednesday at 11:24 PM by Vineyard View

[ak1004]

8 hours ago, Vineyard View said:

Our TA is a member. They offer pricing discounts on all the lines we have sailed through them. The pricing discounts are greater than gratuities would be. Some TA provide OBC and gratuities. I don’t think there is one single type of offering across the board. A previous TA offered gratuities only. And our first TA offered nothing….hence no longer our TA’s. 

 

We are in the same situation. Our previous TA offered nothing.. no longer with us. Our current TA offers 10-12% rebates. We don't force her, it's her choice. And she provides great service too. Just got is $2,000 OBC from SB, in addition to her agency rebate.

 

Some people say that great perks and great service cannot co exist.. some TAs will tell you the same.. don't believe them. If they don't want to provide perks, it's their choice. Our choice is clear.

[Vineyard View]

2 minutes ago, ak1004 said:

 

We are in the same situation. Our previous TA offered nothing.. no longer with us. Our current TA offers 10-12% rebates. We don't force her, it's her choice. And she provides great service too. Just got is $2,000 OBC from SB, in addition to her agency rebate.

 

Some people say that great perks and great service cannot co exist.. some TAs will tell you the same.. don't believe them. If they don't want to provide perks, it's their choice. Our choice is clear.

100% 

[JanDom]

3 hours ago, ak1004 said:

 

We are in the same situation. Our previous TA offered nothing.. no longer with us. Our current TA offers 10-12% rebates. We don't force her, it's her choice. And she provides great service too. Just got is $2,000 OBC from SB, in addition to her agency rebate.

 

Some people say that great perks and great service cannot co exist.. some TAs will tell you the same.. don't believe them. If they don't want to provide perks, it's their choice. Our choice is clear.

 

If we have luck we will get some OBC of 100-300$ but nothing else.

tried some TA here but all the same …

[JanDom]

11 hours ago, Vallesan said:

Same here in the UK. I suggest you look at the ‘conditions of booking’. Here in the UK Oceania will respect price drops so might be worth booking now and if it goes down in price you could get the new price. Otherwise, if your cancellation terms are like ours £150pp, it could be more economical to cancel and rebook. 
 

Personally, booking now in Europe or the UK may give more options than booking after September 30th. In saying that it’s just my guess. I would book now but just can’t find a cruise in Europe that I really like.

Is there an Information about price drops somewhere?

[Vallesan]

3 hours ago, JanDom said:

Is there an Information about price drops somewhere?

Took a Quick Look and I can’t find any price ‘guarantees’ apart from those given if you book onboard. I’m sure someone else will find the information, if it’s on the website!

Edited yesterday at 06:46 AM by Vallesan

[Harters]

19 hours ago, Vallesan said:

Personally, booking now in Europe or the UK may give more options than booking after September 30th.

Agreed. Probably.

 

My TA is currently offering discount on O's price, a price match guarantee (provide written evidence of a cheaper deal and they will match it). And, interestingly, what I think may be a new offer - "Free door to door executive transfers" - presumably home to airport (I assume only if they've arranged flights), or home to port. The latter could potentially save an overnight hotel cost and the cost of parking at the port. Last year, they had an offer of free parking at the port. 

[Vallesan]

8 minutes ago, Harters said:

Agreed. Probably.

 

My TA is currently offering discount on O's price, a price match guarantee (provide written evidence of a cheaper deal and they will match it). And, interestingly, what I think may be a new offer - "Free door to door executive transfers" - presumably home to airport (I assume only if they've arranged flights), or home to port. The latter could potentially save an overnight hotel cost and the cost of parking at the port. Last year, they had an offer of free parking at the port. 

Why do you think that? 
 

I must admit I’ve never seen that offer in the past but may have missed. Not much of an offer if you don’t take their flights. As you know from the North West Ocenia, and other cruise lines, flights usually involve a change of plane in Europe or a direct flight from London. The ‘chauffeur’ offer usually involves a 50 mile round trip. Neither would look very attractive to me!

[Harters]

27 minutes ago, Vallesan said:

Not much of an offer if you don’t take their flights

Indeed. But our experience with the TA booking flights has been good, so I'm not averse to using them in the future. Although it may not be much benefit for European cruises - we don't live too far Manchester airport so can get to most destinations without going via London. And, in that case, I'd to use our very reliable local taxi firm. Could be a good bet for cruises from Southampton though. 

[osandomir]

12 hours ago, Vineyard View said:

Really?  Lots of discussions around this with a lot of similar posts. Not sure why this would trigger that response to me. 
 

I agree. The commission sharing is a pretty common practice within the industry. Though, it’s definitely not universal. Some people would prefer to book directly and have control of their bookings, but still use TA to get some price reduction. TAs get majority of the commissions anyway and many prefer it that way rather than loosing that customers altogether. And that type of customers still often are capable to plan and do a lot of things on their own, so it’s less work for TAs.

[ak1004]

So here is another way to look at the whole SM saga.

 

Forget for a minute that SM ever existed.

 

Now take a look at prices say 2 years ago.

 

In May 2022 when 2024 itineraries came out we booked 10 nights on Vista for $450 CAD per day in FV. If you book a similar cruise now for 2025, it's around $600 CAD, but now it included gratuities and second Wifi (around $50 CAD value), so the real increase was around $100 CAD per day or 20%.

 

Now you look at other lines (SS, SB, Crystal etc) and decide if O raised prices more or less than others in 2.5 years.

[edgee]

21 hours ago, ORV said:

I think that is going to vary by the TA. I would say every situation is different. 

Absolutely.  My TA sends me a rebate check about 3 weeks before my cruise. Depending on cruise line it amounts to 8 to 10% of the cruise cost in addition to the OCAPP on most Oceania cruises. 

[MEFIowa]

52 minutes ago, ak1004 said:

So here is another way to look at the whole SM saga. ... Now take a look at prices say 2 years ago. In May 2022 when 2024 itineraries came out we booked 10 nights on Vista for $450 CAD per day in FV....

Though I think any price comparison works best for an R- or O-class ship. Vista was going to be the hot new ship. She had high initial prices built into her. Not sure they are still as high relative to the Rs and Os, especially as Allura is set to be the new high price point.

 

And one can't rely on normal book prices, but has to take into account sales. Certainly the SALE prices I've been seeing in 2024 have been unimpressive to say the least when compared to 2022 sale prices. Here you may be seeing price increases closer to 100% for current SM cruises on sale versus older cruise only sale prices.

 

 

[terrydtx]

1 hour ago, ak1004 said:

So here is another way to look at the whole SM saga.

 

Forget for a minute that SM ever existed.

 

Now take a look at prices say 2 years ago.

 

In May 2022 when 2024 itineraries came out we booked 10 nights on Vista for $450 CAD per day in FV. If you book a similar cruise now for 2025, it's around $600 CAD, but now it included gratuities and second Wifi (around $50 CAD value), so the real increase was around $100 CAD per day or 20%.

 

Now you look at other lines (SS, SB, Crystal etc) and decide if O raised prices more or less than others in 2.5 years.

Doing the same with our 18 day Marina cruise next March. We booked this in early 2023 with O'Life choosing the House Wine and Beer package with no air, for $366pp per day in an A3 cabin. When they came out with SM our TA was able to change our booking to add it for no additional cost. Today the same A3 cabin is selling for $420pp per day with SM or $972 more than when we booked originally which is a 15% increase. Taking into account not only US but global inflation, that is not much of an increase. We saw Celebrity raise prices in the same time period by 30-40% which is why we left. In the same time we have seen international air fares rise by huge amounts. In 2022 we flew BC to Italy for under $2500pp, last year BC cost us $3800 to Italy.

 

All travel has gotten more expensive, but it looks like Oceania has been reasonable with their pricing, but no one knows if this will change next week when SM ends. 

Edited 17 hours ago by terrydtx

[ak1004]

6 minutes ago, MEFIowa said:

Though I think any price comparison works best for an R- or O-class ship. Vista was going to be the hot new ship. She had high initial prices built into her. Not sure they are still as high relative to the Rs and Os, especially as Allura is set to be the new high price point.

 

And one can't rely on normal book prices, but has to take into account sales. Certainly the SALE prices I've been seeing in 2024 have been unimpressive to say the least when compared to 2022 sale prices. Here you may be seeing price increases closer to 100% for current SM cruises on sale versus older cruise only sale prices.

 

 

 

But 2022 was right after Covid. They needed those sales to fill ships. Now the situation is different. So comparing the current prices on sailings that sell well to sale prices in 2022 is also not exactly apples to apples.

 

Anyway, this was just an exercise to give a small example by how much prices increased. What is really important is to compare to what other lines charge.

 

In the same way, if I could fly business class with Air Canada from Toronto to Europe for $2,500-3,000 CAD and now the average price is around $5,000, does it mean I will stop flying? No, but I will constantly compare prices and fly with whoever gives me the best deal.

[MEFIowa]

20 minutes ago, ak1004 said:

But 2022 was right after Covid. They needed those sales to fill ships....

The "best" year for sale prices was 2023. O had major sale after major sale. Nothing compared to that ESS around May-June 2023. Right before SM. Which started with a sale. By 2023 passenger numbers were rising significantly. (O had big sales in 2021, too. The 02/2021 Presidents' Day sale was quite good. Rebooked a cruise I selected in 01/2021 under it and saved a fortune on an A4.)

 

Will be interesting to be able to compare new "cruise only plus gratuities" after 01/2025 with "cruise only per SM" prices prior to 07/2023.