NewSalty

There is no comparison to a river ship... They really are completely different beasts. You'll find no lack of alternatives even on the "small" R-Class ship and a seemingly much higher crew-to-passenger ratio. 680 passengers vs. 180. 375 crew vs. 53. I don't know the displacements for the river ships, but going by their relative sizes, I'd estimate the R-Class to be at least 10 times the displacement. River cruising certainly has its' place, but it just doesn't compare with ocean cruising as far as the experience itself. It amazes me that given all the better bang-for-your-buck (bigger cabins, hugely better dining options, more services, entertainment, etc., etc.) that Viking typically commands as high or higher price for their river cruises than their ocean cruises. I guess it really is all about what the market will bear...

I haven't had it happen to me, but others have written on this forum that you do indeed lose the discount if you are unable to book another excursion.

As I understand it, the unlimited option is no longer available under Simply More. It still shows up because there are still sailings which were sold before Simply More.

The short (and not so sweet) answer to the OP's question is No, there is no primer. (At least that I know of...) If you take a look at the Azamara board, there's a really useful "Tips for Azamara Newbies" thread that's pinned. Plus it includes a spreadsheet with tremendously useful info that is maintained by one of the forum participants. I mention this in the hope that the moderator for this forum might set up a similar thread.

Viking apparently pulled out in the last day or so. Azamara, not so much. (We just finished getting off their May transit, they haven't even cancelled the April one yet.)

I purchased a drink package with it one time and it worked fine!

Not sure that the Vista thing is less impact... from my perusings (sic?) of Oceania's offerings, Vista always seems to command a premium.

You can always look at other cruises going to the same port to see pricing. (it might go up, but typically not much) There's even a button on the web page to help with this - "Other Cruises Visiting this Port", or something like that...

So we're booked on the Journey cruise through the Suez (May 3-29). Azamara announced a sale today, which includes a tripling (to 30%) of the quarterly discount on the Journey's cruise right after ours. (Athens-Istanbul) Similarly, the Onward, (which sails our itinerary about a month ahead of us) also had its' post-Suez transit cruise put on the 30% sale. Even more significantly, the actual Onward cruise through the canal is also on the sale. (Note, however, that there is a significant difference - the Onward is on an ATW cruise - Azamara has much less leeway regarding cancellation...) I can't imagine Azamara putting the post-transit cruises on sale if they were considering cancelling them. (Just more unhappy customers...) Neither can I imagine them committing to the canal transit. If they don't go through the canal AND they stick to the May 29th date for the Athens-Istanbul cruise - the only way they can get the ship there on time is drop all but the necessary fueling ports, put the pedal to the metal, and speed around Africa. I sure hope they offer us either cancellation or a full-money-back opt-out.

Certainly agreed. I wasn't arguing that forced purchases was the "right" thing - just offering it up as an explanation for the negativity. Right or not, Simply More is definitely Oceania's attempt to keep pace (or maybe catch up) with Viking. The 2 lines are in an almost identical market, but in 10 years, Viking has grown to 9(?) 930 passenger ships (not including the 3 expedition ships), whereas O has 4x650 and 3x1200 in 20 years. From what I can see from watching their respective websites, Viking has little trouble filling those 4685 cabins on a regular basis and at higher prices than Oceania. NCL has got to be pressuring O to catch up!

Actually, I think you've hit the nail on the head - although maybe not hard enough. One of the essentials of the Simply More program is forcing people into purchasing ship excursions. One of the things I've noticed about most of the folks on the Oceania board is that they prefer to do their own excursions - in fact, the roll calls are one of the main reasons they're here. I think Oceania built up a large following precisely because you used to be able to go "cruise-only". And this is the audience that "You-must-buy-excursions" pissed off the most. Given the high percentage of DIYers on the board, it's no wonder things seem so negative. Personally, I'm fine with Oceania excursions. If we hit a port where we don't like Oceania's excursions - no problem, we'll do or own. But there always seem to be a fair number of ports where Oceania's offering fit well, so Simply More works well for us.

Conversely, I've seen Azamara put excursions on sale prior to the cruise. They did, however, allow you to rebook any excursions you had booked prior to the sale. Of course, this was before the big website changeover, so I don't know if they do this anymore.

One neat little trick is to use a VPN that allows you to pick US-based servers, and then the website will show you prices in $.

FV23 is applicable to ALL cruises' "published" prices, at least per the letter. (Your lawyer's mileage may vary!) It's a $500 per cabin discount for cruises 14 days or less, $1000 for longer cruises. The Past Guest Discounts also apply as they would normally. (Either $100 or $200 pp, depending on how long since your last cruise.) There's also some highly misunderstandable text about final payment dates, which some on this thread have found to mean that you can get a later final payment date. (May not have to do with this "sale"...)

That is true - the letter states it specifically in the fine print on the back.

Nice! I just booked the sailing I was looking at, and got everything I expected from Viking. Transferring to my TA on Monday, hopefully the normal perks will appear... I will say that I had to argue for the $1000 credit instead of the $500 (it's a 22 day cruise.). The reason I mention it is that it seemed to be a "system" error, not an "agent" error. So it may well happen on a regular basis...

Has anyone booked an FV23 voyage direct with Viking (as I believe is necessary), and then transferred the booking to their TA? The reason I ask is that it would open the door for the TA's perks to be added...

According to the Oceania reps (thru my TA), the unlimited excursion package is no longer available under Simply More. (Presumably still available for cruisers who booked before SM) If anyone knows differently, please correct me as it might be useful for one of my upcoming cruises!

Grats are an onboard charge, I don't think there is a way to pre-pay them. The gratuities that you're looking at online are for wine packages, separate from the crew grats. (Although it is unclear exactly how they apply - there's an earlier thread dedicated to speculation on this, which I don't believe ever got resolved...)

We had ours adjusted when they went from $16 to $18 a year or so ago...

Sorry for the duplicates - I've got a crappy hotel WiFi connection that seems to find a way to double everything I write...

The website has a nice feature for finding an earlier cruise for any given excursion - when you have an excursion open, there will be a hyperlink that shows all cruises that visit that port...

The website has a nice feature for finding an earlier cruise for any given excursion - when you have an excursion open, there will be a hyperlink that shows all cruises that visit that port...

One reason you might not be seeing prices is that they don't publish them until 1 year before the sailing. You can get around this by finding the same excursion on a different cruise that sails within the next year. (Although the price could go up before your cruise opens...) I've never seen a chart for the 25% minimum number of excursions, but I think it's usually around 60 to 70% of the total per ports for the cruise. You typical find out what the exact number is when your booked cruise opens for excursions 1 year before sailing. You could probably call Oceania to find the number beforehand as well. The 25% kicks in when you have reserved the requested number of excursions, and applies to all of those excursions, plus any more that you purchase.