Ship shore excursions

[Go-Bucks!]

My friend and I will have alot of OBC for the 2019 WC. We would like to use a good portion of the OBC to get ship shore excursions. We usually do private tours or just go it on our own, but because this cruise has so many ports, it will be too expensive to purchase all the tours out of our pockets but have a ton of OBC sitting there not getting used.

 

We usually sail on Princess where you can book tours precruise, but pay onboard so we can use OBC. But it is my understanding that Oceania tours must be paid for when booked - is that correct? If so, then I imagine we can't use OBC to book tours online precruise. Right?

 

If we book them on the ship, can we use OBC to pay for them then? If so, will the excursions be all booked up by then as other passengers do it ahead of time online?

[Mura]

That sounds right. You can use OBC when you book on board, but pay up front when booking before departure.

 

But given the length of the cruise, you could still wait to book many tours once you are on board. I would book tours further down the itinerary rather than the earliest tours if I wanted to use OBC in this situation.

 

Mura

[RJB]

That sounds right. You can use OBC when you book on board, but pay up front when booking before departure.

 

But given the length of the cruise, you could still wait to book many tours once you are on board. I would book tours further down the itinerary rather than the earliest tours if I wanted to use OBC in this situation.

 

Mura

Question is how many O Life tours do they get? If they are still giving the O Life option. They were pretty good last summer and should be looked at. 2019, wow hope I still am able to cruise by then. Long time away.

[Go-Bucks!]

Question is how many O Life tours do they get? If they are still giving the O Life option. They were pretty good last summer and should be looked at. 2019, wow hope I still am able to cruise by then. Long time away.

 

 

We took the OLife choice of the 72 shore excursions (36 for each of us), so I think we'll do as Mura said and book them for the first 36 ports that we want ship tours, then book the later ones while on the ship. Good plan! Thanks for the help. :D

[cbb]

On ATW16, many of the shorex were booked by worldies BEFORE they boarded so those that waited until boarding were disappointed. .

 

Sometimes Destination Services could not add buses/vans due to lack of guides & vehicles even if you were put on a waiting list. In some ports O had already purchased the best that the port offered.

 

Some of the reasons we purchased some shorex were: concerns about personal safety, English skills of the guides, vehicle safety issues, and distance to sights like Beijing & Hanoi.

 

Also, don't forget to keep watching O's website to see what ATW19 will offer for Overlands--too many worldies on '16 missed seeing Taj, Angkor, Great Wall, because they didn't know they were offered.

 

I don't know if their TA didn't know about them or they didn't use a TA.

[ORV]

One issue I ran into on a Grand Voyage is that Destination services would not let you book any tours on board except for the ones of the current segment you are on. Of course you could book them in advance before the segment, if you paid for them on line or chose excursions on Olife.

 

They said it's a computer issue, we had to wait until the first day of the next segment to book any of the tours on that segment.

 

I would imagine it would be the same way on a segment or multiple segments of the WC.

[Go-Bucks!]

On ATW16, many of the shorex were booked by worldies BEFORE they boarded so those that waited until boarding were disappointed. .

 

Sometimes Destination Services could not add buses/vans due to lack of guides & vehicles even if you were put on a waiting list. In some ports O had already purchased the best that the port offered.

 

Some of the reasons we purchased some shorex were: concerns about personal safety, English skills of the guides, vehicle safety issues, and distance to sights like Beijing & Hanoi.

 

 

"These are our criteria for ship tours too. In Europe we will do our own thing seeing as we've been there many times."

 

 

Also, don't forget to keep watching O's website to see what ATW19 will offer for Overlands--too many worldies on '16 missed seeing Taj, Angkor, Great Wall, because they didn't know they were offered.

 

I don't know if their TA didn't know about them or they didn't use a TA.

 

Haven't heard of Overlands, but sounds fun. How soon before a cruise do they start to show excursions?