Oceania on board reservations warning

[ELLISV]

Never do this. The benefits are illusory and when they make promises about being able to roll over to other cruises they then rely on the small print that you only see later. Avoid this at all costs as it will prove very costly. There is a large gap between the promise while you are on board and relaxed and hence vulnerable, and the reality of dealing with a very unhelpful Oceania later.

[neepawa]

Details, please.

 

Cheers

 

Don

[ELLISV]

We were promised that if we could not make the cruise we booked for on-board we would be able to roll it over at any time to another cruise in the following year. When we tried to roll over Oceania made it impossible - very short notice that we could roll over only in the same year. All entreaties to roll over to the following year were refused.

[capecodder2]

We have been able to roll it over twice without any problem. Sorry you are having a problem. Are you US Citizens - I see Sydney - Sydney what? Perhaps there are different rules for different countries? Just thinking out loud.

[ELLISV]

Sydney Australia. Oceania in Australia hides behind wholesale travel agents who generally only deal with retail travel agents (except for Fiona Miller of Cruise Office who was lovely and tried valiantly to help) and won't let you talk to them direct to try to get a sensible resolution - all I wanted was to roll-over my 2014 reservation for a 2015 reservation. I named the 2015 cruise and was ready to place a firm reservation. Oceania was intractable!

[Paulchili]

I am not entirely clear whether the problem lies with Oceania or the travel agent (who is blaming Oceania for this problem).

As many others here (from US) have posted that they had no problem with rolling over their deposits to the next year, I am inclined to think that this is a problem with the travel agent (or the agency's policy for Australian citizens).

It is well known on these boards that there are many differences in policies when booking in US vs other countries (UK, Australia, NZ) - including different prices, deposits and cancelation rules.

Edited February 2, 2015 by Paulchili

[BillPizzaiolo]

We've booked our last three Oceania cruises onboard to get the promised discounts. Never had any problem moving the deposits changing

to a different date or cruise. Our TA even got her regular commission and she finished all the details as usual. I am surprised that happened

to you.

 

 

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[LAexNY]

Sydney Australia. Oceania in Australia hides behind wholesale travel agents who generally only deal with retail travel agents (except for Fiona Miller of Cruise Office who was lovely and tried valiantly to help) and won't let you talk to them direct to try to get a sensible resolution - all I wanted was to roll-over my 2014 reservation for a 2015 reservation. I named the 2015 cruise and was ready to place a firm reservation. Oceania was intractable!

 

Is there any reason you saw the need to start two separate threads on this issue?

[ELLISV]

The evidence is that the travel agent has tried but Oceania is intractable

[ELLISV]

Is there any reason you saw the need to start two separate threads on this issue?

 

Mistake - new to this

[Noxequifans]

I believe that the use of the word "warning" is a bit of an overreach. The OP appears to have experienced a problem with their deposit. It is open to question to extend this experience as typical for everyone and thus a warning.

[ELLISV]

When you book on board you are an easy mark. You are not making sure you have everything in writing and you don't read any fine print. It may be different for US residents, but when you get back to Australia and are forced to deal with Oceania's representatives (who won't generally talk to you but only to your travel agent who wasn't on board when you booked) things are no longer so rosy. So yes, this is a warning for anyone contemplating booking on board and paying a deposit that they need to be careful as Oceania is not their best friend!

[Paulchili]

When you book on board you are an easy mark. You are not making sure you have everything in writing and you don't read any fine print. It may be different for US residents, but when you get back to Australia and are forced to deal with Oceania's representatives (who won't generally talk to you but only to your travel agent who wasn't on board when you booked) things are no longer so rosy. So yes, this is a warning for anyone contemplating booking on board and paying a deposit that they need to be careful as Oceania is not their best friend!

 

Again - it may be your travel agent (or their policy) and not Oceania who is NOT your best friend.

[corpkid]

Interesting... we've had everything delivered, as promised, on our last two onboard bookings (including changing cruises).... ????

 

I hope you (and your TA) can work this out. Seems like Oceania isn't isn't in the business of outright breaking contracts based on my experience. Either way good luck and let us know how this turns out (ride your TA for an answer!!!)

[JVilleGal]

Where is Frank del Rio, something is very wrong and it's not Oceania, but rather I think a greedy or incompetent Australian Agent....

 

This does not pass the smell test!

 

 

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[hondorner]

Where is Frank del Rio, something is very wrong and it's not Oceania, but rather I think a greedy or incompetent Australian Agent....

 

This does not pass the smell test!

 

 

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Sorry, neither Mr. Del Rio or Oceania has anything to do with the behavior of travel agents or Australian regulations.

 

I am disturbed that the OP started both of her threads with Never do this or Don't do this -- without considering that that most of us have no problem at all. Such is the basis of misinformation.

[DaisyUK]

Sorry, neither Mr. Del Rio or Oceania has anything to do with the behavior of travel agents or Australian regulations.

 

I am disturbed that the OP started both of her threads with Never do this or Don't do this -- without considering that that most of us have no problem at all. Such is the basis of misinformation.

 

 

Surely if it was Oceania (and not an Australian travel agent) who accepted the booking on board, then it has everything to do with Oceania? (if, indeed, it was booked in this way)

[hondorner]

Surely if it was Oceania (and not an Australian travel agent) who accepted the booking on board, then it has everything to do with Oceania? (if, indeed, it was booked in this way)

 

Any booking by an Australian, once it is received at cruise line headquarters, automatically falls under Australian rules. It's entirely possible that the onboard representative was not familiar with the details of an Australian booking, or even that the guest was from Australia. In either case, nothing changes. Perhaps the warning should be for Australians to be familiar with the restrictions before making an onboard booking, instead of telling us all to not do it!

[bbwex]

We made a deposit for our next cruise while we were on our last cruise. There are discounts which are not bad. You can make the one change without fees, etc., but they do give you a date by which that has to be done. (Not sure that everything is the same for our friends down under.) I will say that we know we might want to put this particular cruise off for a year, and the cutoff date to change comes before the relevant new schedule comes out. So there clearly can be some issues with making the "free change," and though the lovely woman on our last cruise was helpful, she could not do anything about the obvious issue that our change date is about a month or two too early to make this one easy for us.

[JVilleGal]

Sorry, neither Mr. Del Rio or Oceania has anything to do with the behavior of travel agents or Australian regulations.

 

 

 

I am disturbed that the OP started both of her threads with Never do this or Don't do this -- without considering that that most of us have no problem at all. Such is the basis of misinformation.

 

 

 

Well actually because this story paints Oceania in a bad light FDR should look into what "his" company rightly or wrongly is being accused of in a very public forum.

 

It may or may not have something to do with Australian consumer laws but the point is the OP was given bad info on one of his ships and Oceania has the ability to make this right and still lawfully do business with Australian travelers!

 

I personally think this has to do with the OP being mislead by someone Down Under while that person points fingers at O. JMHO

 

 

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[ronrick1943]

J VilleGal, you said it all, I agree with you 100%. "O" is selling a product, and if the rules and laws are what they are---then the "O" sales Agent selling on the ship should point that out before the sale....period. FDR has everything to do with it.

Rick

[Mumofnine]

We booked our upcoming (September) cruise whilst onboard our April cruise last year.

Have since made 2 changes, first one free of charge as per onboard booking rules and second change with a small amendment fee.

Both amendments were handled promptly and without problems.

[JVilleGal]

We booked our upcoming (September) cruise whilst onboard our April cruise last year.

 

Have since made 2 changes, first one free of charge as per onboard booking rules and second change with a small amendment fee.

 

Both amendments were handled promptly and without problems.

 

 

Seems to show that a fellow Australian had a completely different outcome than the OP. Just seems that the TA for the OP may be up to now good.

 

Time for Oceania to investigate what actually happened to the OP.

 

 

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[StanandJim]

J VilleGal, you said it all, I agree with you 100%. "O" is selling a product, and if the rules and laws are what they are---then the "O" sales Agent selling on the ship should point that out before the sale....period. FDR has everything to do with it.

Rick

 

I agree with you to a point, but the Oceania Ambassador cant be expected to cover every aspect of every issue for every client in every conversation, either.

 

Is personal responsibility no part of ANY equation, any longer?

 

On a separate subject , RonRick, welcome back! :D I guess that the grass was not as green in those other pastures as you had been led to believe.

 

I guess that Oceania will have to "do". ;)

Edited February 3, 2015 by StanandJim

[critics0001]

It is convenient to book on board but I learned that that changes are not that easy and the "discounted" price is cheaper by going directly to a TA after the cruise. Since then I would never book on board.