O Life Excursions

[paphoslady]

We will be sailing on Sirena in September 2020 and have just had notification that excursions for our cruise can now be booked. We chose the 4 free excursions when we booked but have no idea which excursions are included, is it all of them?

Sorry this is our 1st cruise with Oceania so all new despite the fact that we have cruised many times with other lines.

[StanandJim]

1 hour ago, paphoslady said:

We will be sailing on Sirena in September 2020 and have just had notification that excursions for our cruise can now be booked. We chose the 4 free excursions when we booked but have no idea which excursions are included, is it all of them?

Sorry this is our 1st cruise with Oceania so all new despite the fact that we have cruised many times with other lines.

The Oceania Website for the United States has a key on the Excursion Page (the page where the Excursions are described) which outlines which Excursions are a part of Olife (Typically there is a cost threshold).

 

These details may vary for a UK client, so it might be best to check with your Agent, as to how it works on your side of the Pond. 

 

Happy Cruising, whatever you decide.

Edited January 20, 2020 by StanandJim

[schmerl]

Only excursions up to $199 are included. No excursions with OE or OS in the label are included. 

Edited January 20, 2020 by schmerl

[Jay23]

That is correct.  No OE or OS excursions are include for us in the UK as for guests the US side of the pond.   

 

To the OP..... If you have any problems with the booking, consult with your TA.  They can do it for you.   J

[paphoslady]

Thank you for your replies, very helpful!

[mklions]

Looking to book a Baltic cruise next summer on Marina. The offer showing gives us 6 free shore excursions. Reading the above posts I believe this is up to a value of $199 each. My question is can you use OBC to pay for a excursion that exceeds the $199 limit?

millions.

[pinotlover]

The $199 threshold is a rule of thumb only, not a policy. The actual rule is OE and OS tours can’t be booked as part of OLife.

 

Therefore, the answer to your question about adding on funds to supplement the $199 is NO! You can use your OBC credit to book those cruises in their entire amount.

[schmerl]

20 minutes ago, pinotlover said:

The $199 threshold is a rule of thumb only, not a policy. The actual rule is OE and OS tours can’t be booked as part of OLife.

 

I know the OE and OS are not included but we were told without a doubt that the included O Life excursions were limited to the $199 threshold. 

[Hawaiidan]

On 1/21/2020 at 1:13 AM, paphoslady said:

Thank you for your replies, very helpful!

Also  since both people have to go on the selected tour   you really only have 2 different tours for 2

[drkitkat123]

We have found tours up to about 249 dollars to be included. Can’t remember if that was usd or aud.

[drkitkat123]

But the bottom line is you have to go on the website, go to each stop on your cruise, chose which tours you want to do (non oe and os),  and then book online or get your ta to book... they are not chosen for you.

[arima22]

58 minutes ago, Hawaiidan said:

Also  since both people have to go on the selected tour   you really only have 2 different tours for 2

Not correct- both people do not have to go on the same tour.  When you select an excursion the first thing you do is select the time you wish to start (most often there is only one start time, but there can be multiple times).  Then another box is shown to select for each party in your stateroom- you and partner.  you can select one or both of the persons for that tour/time.  If you look at your invoice, the free excursions are listed by person, not by stateroom.

 

Regards to $199- a very few rare times there are O'life included tours that are in the $200-225 range.  we have taken 2 of those a couple of years ago- each included a special lunch.  Better to use the Oceania definition of OS or OE not included in the O'life free tour program.

Edited January 26, 2020 by arima22

[Hawaiidan]

1 hour ago, drkitkat123 said:

We have found tours up to about 249 dollars to be included. Can’t remember if that was usd or aud.

That might be  Australian dollars      After 9 cruises  no way USD     150  is what I remember 

[Paulchili]

50 minutes ago, arima22 said:

Regards to $199- a very few rare times there are O'life included tours that are in the $200-225 range.  we have taken 2 of those a couple of years ago- each included a special lunch.  Better to use the Oceania definition of OS or OE not included in the O'life free tour program.

Exactly right

[Baandb]

A related question...

* We are looking at an upcoming cruise where there is a 25% YWC ("Your World Collection") discount for selecting 6 or more excursions

* We are also considering whether to take the OLife option of 4 complementary excursions (vs on taking board credit)

 

To quality for the YWC discount - doe we simply need to take 6 or more excursions including the 4 x OLIfe excursions - or do we need to take 6 on top of the OLife excursions (ie 10 excursions in total)?

 

 

[Paulchili]

7 hours ago, Baandb said:

A related question...

* We are looking at an upcoming cruise where there is a 25% YWC ("Your World Collection") discount for selecting 6 or more excursions

* We are also considering whether to take the OLife option of 4 complementary excursions (vs on taking board credit)

 

To quality for the YWC discount - doe we simply need to take 6 or more excursions including the 4 x OLIfe excursions - or do we need to take 6 on top of the OLife excursions (ie 10 excursions in total)?

 

 

O Life included excursions (not OE or OS) DO count towards YWC. Anything above the 4 will be at 25% off (including OE & OS).

BTW - the 4 is per cabin or 2/pp. If you choose O Life, excursions are a much better value than taking OBC.

[srdancer]

There is another alternative. You can book cruise only and pay a flat rate pp and have unlimited excursions - same restrictions - no OS or OE. With this plan there is a deep discount on the OS and OE  excursions. This is appropriate if you plan to take all or mostly ships tours. We did this for our cruise to Cuba - the 25% off deal was not offered - and paid around $90 pp for a tour that had a $249 pp list price. This was in addition to 5 includes tours. (We were more comfortable doing ships tours in Cuba.) We saved about $400 doing it this way. Need to do the math.

[arima22]

8 hours ago, Baandb said:

A related question...

* We are looking at an upcoming cruise where there is a 25% YWC ("Your World Collection") discount for selecting 6 or more excursions

* We are also considering whether to take the OLife option of 4 complementary excursions (vs on taking board credit)

 

To quality for the YWC discount - doe we simply need to take 6 or more excursions including the 4 x OLIfe excursions - or do we need to take 6 on top of the OLife excursions (ie 10 excursions in total)?

 

 

To give you an example of the process.  This past weekend the excursions became available for our Sept. 2020, 14 day cruise. 

I did a test run to see how the process works.  We have 4 included (free) excursions for each of us.  The YWC discount of 25% requires 7 excursions total per person.  I selected 7 excursions from those available (non OE or OS) Putting them in the "shopping cart."  Went to the cart page where you then select the Oceania Excursion Package you desire- the default comes up as the standard full retail.  You then select either the "unlimited" - in this case it is $1319 and then the qualifying tours for all ports are free,or discounted for OE and OS.  Or you select the YWC for the 25%- when you do, you will see the automatic calculated total price of the tours you select in addition to the free tours.  Then you can expand the drop down box for each person to see the entire detailed list of tours selected with the computer program giving you the most expensive tours as the free tours and taking the 25% discount on the others.

 

I did this only as a test of the program- and went out of the system before the excursion payment page -as we are still working on private tours for the ports- you can always change the O'life package selected up until a couple of weeks prior to the cruise.  So...if we get enough private tours organized, I can switch later to the beverage package or the OBC.  On some past cruises I have used the free tours but never paid for an Oceania tour- using a combination of private tours and the free tours. 

Edited January 27, 2020 by arima22

[Paulchili]

20 minutes ago, arima22 said:

I can switch later to the beverage package or the OBC. 

While this correct in principle I would NEVER choose OBC as an O Life option.

You are essentially pre-paying $100  times X that you then HAVE to use or lose. If you don't like the excursions or drinks package of O Life just get a fare without O Life and pay as you go once onboard

Edited January 27, 2020 by Paulchili

[Baandb]

1 hour ago, srdancer said:

There is another alternative. You can book cruise only and pay a flat rate pp and have unlimited excursions - same restrictions - no OS or OE. With this plan there is a deep discount on the OS and OE  excursions. This is appropriate if you plan to take all or mostly ships tours. We did this for our cruise to Cuba - the 25% off deal was not offered - and paid around $90 pp for a tour that had a $249 pp list price. This was in addition to 5 includes tours. (We were more comfortable doing ships tours in Cuba.) We saved about $400 doing it this way. Need to do the math.

 

 

Thanks everyone for the useful responses.

 

PS:  Good hint around the maths.  We ran some calculation to see the hypothetical difference if we took an excursion at every port (11 in total) - and were surprised to find that the "unlimited" fixed price option was slightly more expensive than the 25% option!

At this stage we are looking to do a combination of private and ship excursions