OLife - OBC - What is the Real Cost To Cruiser

[ABoatNerd]

A fine good morning Oceania folks.

 

I am considering my second Oceania cruise - October 2018 on Regatta 18 day San Fran to Miami panama (cause we are BoatNerd's and love all the shipping!)

 

We are not big drinkers and would bring some wine aboard. We do not buy merchandise nor partake of spa etc. We might buy the odd beer or mixed drink.

 

Question - In the $800 OBC OLife option, a straight me pay Oceania $800 OBC as part of my fare, and they dole it back to me as I spend aboard?

 

We are struggling to determine if the OLife makes any sense to us.

 

Your analysis would be gratefully appreciated.

 

Thank you in advance

[StanandJim]

The OBC appears as a credit in your onboard account, and it is a case of "use it or lose it". They are trying to encourage a more luxe onboard experience, not to discount the fare.

[TERRIER1]

The Olife options also includes free internet. Internet on board is slow and expensive. What I don't understand is that the Olife option "includes airfare". Does this mean if you don't take the Olife for $800 per person you lose the included air?

[ORV]

The Olife options also includes free internet. Internet on board is slow and expensive. What I don't understand is that the Olife option "includes airfare". Does this mean if you don't take the Olife for $800 per person you lose the included air?

 

No, there's a thread somewhere with a discussion on this. There are actually 3 options. You can take the olife with air, olife without air and a cruise with neither.

 

To the OP. I think you would find your best value in the included excursions, and pay for your odd beer and wine as you go.

[rallydave]

No, there's a thread somewhere with a discussion on this. There are actually 3 options. You can take the olife with air, olife without air and a cruise with neither.

 

To the OP. I think you would find your best value in the included excursions, and pay for your odd beer and wine as you go.

 

Actually 4 options. Cruise with air, cruise without air, Olife with air, and Olife without air

[AZjohn]

Question - In the $800 OBC OLife option, a straight me pay Oceania $800 OBC as part of my fare, and they dole it back to me as I spend aboard?

 

Your question is on point. The short answer, yes, you will pay $800 more for the Olife option of $800 OBC (if you decide on the $800 OBC option). Your other two options for that $800 increase in price is either 8 excursions (4 pp) or beverage package (1 pp).

 

The only additional benefit for that $800 price increase for the $800 OBC is the free internet (only one person per couple can use it at one time).

 

Cheers,

John

[Paulchili]

The $800 extra that you would pay for the O Life can get you a lot more than $800.

Unlimited internet is included in the O Life package. Otherwise you pay $27.99/day for unlimited internet or $503.82 for 18 days.

https://www.oceaniacruises.com/value/internet/

You also get 8 excursions. They can be valued up to $199 each - but if you only take the average cost of an excursion as $150 then 8 of them would cost you $1200.

Thus the O Life can return at least $1700 for your $800 investment (or more, depending on which excursions you choose) - not too shabby of a return (I wish I could double all my investments) :D

Edited January 8, 2018 by Paulchili

[sammiedawg]

Oceania has a terrific product but pricing is not straightforward. We’ve done a double digit number of cruises, with more booked. I still run the numbers each and every trip on the four booking options. The answer is not always the same and will certainly be different for others.

 

Oceania Air can be a good value if you fly from a gateway airport. Extra charges apply for non gateway departures and air deviation requests. It is less valuable if you have points or miles to use.

 

In our experience the O life value exceeds the incremental cost difference between cruise only and O life.

O life excursions can be a great value depending on the ports and your personal preference on how to tour.

OBC can be a great value for drinks, gratuities (if not included in your package), bingo games, etc.

[AZjohn]

The $800 extra that you would pay for the O Life can get you a lot more than $800.

Unlimited internet is included in the O Life package. Otherwise you pay $27.99/day for unlimited internet or $503.82 for 18 days.

https://www.oceaniacruises.com/value/internet/

You also get 8 excursions. They can be valued up to $199 each - but if you only take the average cost of an excursion as $150 then 8 of them would cost you $1200.

Thus the O Life can return at least $1700 for your $800 investment (or more, depending on which excursions you choose) - not too shabby of a return (I wish I could double all my investments) :D

Hi Paul,

 

Not to disagree with your "investment numbers";) but, it really is subjective on actual value of these excursions and internet.

 

I think most (large majority) would agree that O excursions are really expensive to what is charged if booking yourself. I personally would also say the O's slow and sometime absent internet would never be worth $500.

 

For our cruise I looked at it as little better than a wash. OBC will be used for gratuities (real $ numbers that will be spent) and a good excuses to get my wife and I two over priced massages while on board:D.

 

My personal experience of "free" internet will be extremely slow or non-functional and will not have any high expectations with it. If I get a couple e-mails, great, if not, so be it. Thus very little $ value I give it.

 

Cheers,

John

[bob brown]

I am surprised that Oceania, considering it is a "premium" cruise line, does not upgrade its internet service, at least to the level of the newest "mass-market" cruise lines. I recently cruised on RCI's Anthem of the Seas, a three year old ship, and even it had improved its internet to pretty decent speed...:confused:

[Paulchili]

Hi Paul,

 

Not to disagree with your "investment numbers";) but, it really is subjective on actual value of these excursions and internet.

 

I think most (large majority) would agree that O excursions are really expensive to what is charged if booking yourself. I personally would also say the O's slow and sometime absent internet would never be worth $500.

 

For our cruise I looked at it as little better than a wash. OBC will be used for gratuities (real $ numbers that will be spent) and a good excuses to get my wife and I two over priced massages while on board:D.

 

My personal experience of "free" internet will be extremely slow or non-functional and will not have any high expectations with it. If I get a couple e-mails, great, if not, so be it. Thus very little $ value I give it.

 

Cheers,

John

 

John,

You are absolutely right in saying that these are individual choices and they depend on what people want or get in return.

If someone doesn't want/need internet and does all their own excursions, O Life makes no sense to them.

We get PPG and lots of OBC as part of status - so don't need any more OBC; we don't drink - so don't need a beverage package. Our trips tend to be long (this one 2 months) so not having internet is not an option. This cruise is partly in Japan where private excursions are not easy nor cheap.

So doing an O Life package for this cruise was the best choice for us. In reality, the math works out that way FOR US just about all the time - for one reason or another. It's the exception rather than the rule that we choose cruise only fares.

As always, YMMV :)

Cheers,

Paul

[ORV]

John,

You are absolutely right in saying that these are individual choices and they depend on what people want or get in return.

If someone doesn't want/need internet and does all their own excursions, O Life makes no sense to them.

We get PPG and lots of OBC as part of status - so don't need any more OBC; we don't drink - so don't need a beverage package. Our trips tend to be long (this one 2 months) so not having internet is not an option. This cruise is partly in Japan where private excursions are not easy nor cheap.

So doing an O Life package for this cruise was the best choice for us. In reality, the math works out that way FOR US just about all the time - for one reason or another. It's the exception rather than the rule that we choose cruise only fares.

As always, YMMV :)

Cheers,

Paul

 

Absolutely, everyone's needs and wants are different. I also find that for us each cruise has to be evaluated as to which way we go. Since the Olife has come out we have always taken some version of it.

[PhD-iva]

Hi Paul,

 

Not to disagree with your "investment numbers";) but, it really is subjective on actual value of these excursions and internet.

 

I think most (large majority) would agree that O excursions are really expensive to what is charged if booking yourself. I personally would also say the O's slow and sometime absent internet would never be worth $500.

 

For our cruise I looked at it as little better than a wash. OBC will be used for gratuities (real $ numbers that will be spent) and a good excuses to get my wife and I two over priced massages while on board:D.

 

My personal experience of "free" internet will be extremely slow or non-functional and will not have any high expectations with it. If I get a couple e-mails, great, if not, so be it. Thus very little $ value I give it.

 

Cheers,

John

 

John, I agree with everything you said here. Most pax with some initiative can find better AND cheaper third-party excursions than what Oceania offers. The Olife included excursions IMO were crowded (large buses) and overpriced. Internet service was frustrating and worthlessly-slow on our June 2016 Baltic cruise on the Marina. Other than that, everything was fabulous and wonderful!

[Paulchili]

John, I agree with everything you said here. Most pax with some initiative can find better AND cheaper third-party excursions than what Oceania offers. The Olife included excursions IMO were crowded (large buses) and overpriced. Internet service was frustrating and worthlessly-slow on our June 2016 Baltic cruise on the Marina. Other than that, everything was fabulous and wonderful!

 

As has been pointed out before - this model works very well for many that want to, wish to or can book their own excursions and don't want or need internet.

Not everyone is in that category - for any number of reasons.

Hence - different options work for different people. Which is wonderful - options and choices are always good :)

[potterhill]

My personal experience of "free" internet will be extremely slow or non-functional and will not have any high expectations with it. If I get a couple e-mails, great, if not, so be it. Thus very little $ value I give it.

 

 

 

Cheers,

 

John

 

 

 

Before they started giving it away I bought on a couple cruises using our sbc. It worked great. Now it’s a pain. Best when people are at dinner or in the middle of the night. I for one, would prefer to pay. Most people won’t.

 

Mo

 

 

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[AZjohn]

...Our trips tend to be long (this one 2 months)....

Paul, can I just say how envious I am :D

Some day when I grow up and retire I'll be hanging with you;)

[AZjohn]

Before they started giving it away I bought on a couple cruises using our sbc. It worked great. Now it’s a pain. Best when people are at dinner or in the middle of the night. I for one, would prefer to pay. Most people won’t.

 

Mo

 

 

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Hi Mo,

I would also prefer to pay IF O had decent speed (streaming speed). I think there are some people who think that cruise ships can't have high speed internet but, there are many cruise lines now (not O) who have upgraded their systems to 2018 standards. And I agree that if it's a paid high speed service and not free, there would be less people using up the bandwidth.

I'm not sure but, have a feeling that O is giving their current internet service away for free because they are not investing in current wifi technology infrastructure so it really cost them nothing as far as marketing "free internet".

JMO as my other post ;)

Cheers,

John

[Wizpharm2]

Hi Mo,

 

I would also prefer to pay IF O had decent speed (streaming speed). I think there are some people who think that cruise ships can't have high speed internet but, there are many cruise lines now (not O) who have upgraded their systems to 2018 standards. And I agree that if it's a paid high speed service and not free, there would be less people using up the bandwidth.

 

I'm not sure but, have a feeling that O is giving their current internet service away for free because they are not investing in current wifi technology infrastructure so it really cost them nothing as far as marketing "free internet".

 

JMO as my other post ;)

 

Cheers,

 

John

 

 

 

Due to work, I always buy the unlimited internet package. I have done so on 4 major cruise lines in the 18 months....only on one line, was I able to stream something like a TV show or sporting event... and that was usually at night when most users were partying or sleeping.

 

 

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[Paulchili]

Some day when I grow up and retire I'll be hanging with you;)

 

John - no need to wait. Come and join us now :D

[travelberlin]

To the OP, we like to do our tours independently. We find the tours offered by the ship, not a good value for money. We also think that the products in the shops are not something to look for.

If you do not drink much, you might be better off without OLife. If each one of you drink 2 glasses of wine at lunch and dinner, and want to be in touch with relatives and friends via internet, I would recommend the OLife.

Ivi

[ORV]

Hi Paul,

 

Not to disagree with your "investment numbers";) but, it really is subjective on actual value of these excursions and internet.

 

I think most (large majority) would agree that O excursions are really expensive to what is charged if booking yourself. I personally would also say the O's slow and sometime absent internet would never be worth $500.

 

For our cruise I looked at it as little better than a wash. OBC will be used for gratuities (real $ numbers that will be spent) and a good excuses to get my wife and I two over priced massages while on board:D.

 

My personal experience of "free" internet will be extremely slow or non-functional and will not have any high expectations with it. If I get a couple e-mails, great, if not, so be it. Thus very little $ value I give it.

 

Cheers,

John

 

As I mentioned before we all have to make decisions that work for us, but I find it slightly ironic that you wouldn't want to use the Oceania excursions because they are overpriced, but would spend your OBC on spa services which to me are even more overpriced. Then again I don't place much value on spa services. Of course the ones we get for free I have no trouble using. To each their own though.

[ABoatNerd]

OP here.

 

Thank you all kindly for all the excellent analysis and advice.

 

It was the link, noted by many, to the $ value of shore excursions as part of OLife that convinced me to proceed with the OLife option.

 

Normally we arrange private tours - except our panama cruise is stopping at small ports in El Salv and Nicarag - so suppliers of private tours are really absent.

 

We will use the Oceania excursions in these locations.

 

I am new to Oceania (1 cruise) so I am learning alot about this product.

 

Many thanks to all.