Sirena - May 20, 2022 Barcelona to South Hampton

[NorthWildwood]

Has anyone taken this cruise?  It was offered in 2020, but I am not sure if it sailed due to Covid?  My question...what are the best excursions to take Oceania Select, Ground Level?  On previous Oceania cruises we were able to arrange our own excursions.  This was of course, before COVID.  Thinking that we may not be able to tour on our own due to restrictions and have to go with the ship excursions, we are looking for less time on a bus with less people.  Any input.  Thank you.

[Flatbush Flyer]

7 hours ago, NorthWildwood said:

Has anyone taken this cruise?  It was offered in 2020, but I am not sure if it sailed due to Covid?  My question...what are the best excursions to take Oceania Select, Ground Level?  On previous Oceania cruises we were able to arrange our own excursions.  This was of course, before COVID.  Thinking that we may not be able to tour on our own due to restrictions and have to go with the ship excursions, we are looking for less time on a bus with less people.  Any input.  Thank you.

Take the excursions option for your O Life perk. The allowable selections are the ones under $200 (no OS, no OE, etc). Book the most expensive of those allowable ones (many of which are not “panoramic” bus tours) valued at $200 and you will have doubled the value of the O Life SBC perk option (e.g., if your cruise O Life amenity is 8 tours or $800 SBC, those 8 tours can be worth $1600 if you choose the $200 tours).

 

And your O Life tours count toward the minimum number of tour bookings required (for your itinerary) to get the 25% YWYW discount on any other tours you add to your cart (e.g., the more expensive OS/OE ones).

 

We usually use this strategy to which we may also add some non-O private tours that are highly desirable (e.g., Maohe Nui on Bora Bora). And FWIW, the Oceania website “cart” is highly intuitive and auto-selects (from your total order), the most expensive of the allowable O Life perk tour to be assigned a $0 cost.

 

BTW, I find it much easier to peruse the tour offerings with a PDF vs the web-based discussions that require multiple screens. So just call Oceania and ask for a PDF of your cruise’s tours. Once you’ve got enough total tours (O Life and paid) to qualify fir YWYW 25% off, use the website tours section (under manage my booking) to fill your cart. Note as well that, if you’ve got O Club SBC (e.g., Platinum = $500 SBC/cabin), the cart will use that SBC before giving you what amount will be on your credit card.

Finally, if one of your O Life tours is cancelled by O once you are onboard, your account will be credited the original O Life perk value of $100 in non-refundable SBC. 

[Paulchili]

9 minutes ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

Finally, if one of your O Life tours is cancelled by O once you are onboard, your account will be credited the original O Life perk value of $100 in non-refundable SBC.

..or you can switch it to a different O Life tour (better deal).

O Life tours have to be booked no later than 14 prior to the cruise. After that they cannot be cancelled but may be changed (at the discretion of the excursion dept and availability)

[Jay23]

Nothing sallied in Europe in 2020.

[MalcolmCruiseCritic]

We were booked on probably an identical Oceania cruise from Barcelona to Southampton / London due to sail on April 30th this year.  It was cancelled about 10 days ago and the price for the matching 'O Life' one in 2022 is about US$1,000 more per person for the cheap cabins. 

[LHT28]

50 minutes ago, MalcolmCruiseCritic said:

We were booked on probably an identical Oceania cruise from Barcelona to Southampton / London due to sail on April 30th this year.  It was cancelled about 10 days ago and the price for the matching 'O Life' one in 2022 is about US$1,000 more per person for the cheap cabins. 

A lot can happen in a year  maybe prices will come down ..wait for  a sale

[CintiPam]

We sailed Barcelona to Southampton in May 2017 on Marina, a terrific itinerary with most of the same ports you will be visiting. We chose four OLife excursions, three small private tours and several DIY days when the sights we wanted to see were close to the port. I recommend a private wine tour for Bordeaux. The weather was superb the entire time. I love sailing and visiting Europe in May and October.

 

From Southampton we spent a day visiting friends in Winchester whom we met on an earlier Oceania cruise, then London for a few days and then flew home from Edinburgh, my first visit to Scotland but on my bucket list since high school days reading historical novels. The train ride from London to Edinburgh is lovely and fast.

[Hanoverian]

"Cruise Industry News" reports that Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines has cancelled all sailings until the end of June "..... in light of the current restrictions in England as a result of the pandemic."   Hardly surprising, and most certainly the death knell for our B2B  May 12 and June 3 sailings into and out of Southampton.  On to 2022.