Wifi and beverage packages

[Travels with Lisa]

Hi all

We are looking into sailing this winter.  Is wifi included? Also, we are trying to decide if we should go with the “o life” package or book our own air.  Approximately how much is a glass of wine or beer?

thanks in advance! 

 

 

[Clutj]

In 2017, wine was 10-12 and the top Champagne was 16; beer was 6-8.  An important point is that the automatic 20% tip goes on top of each drink bought on board.  But O does not add a tip onto the cost of the basic or premium beverage package (many lines do), or the upgrade to premium if you use your O Life benefit to get the basic one.  Many people find the premium upgrade worth the cost because it adds mixed drinks to the beer & wine only basic package, and expands the timing from meals-only to any time. 
 

The wine selection is only okay.  I have seen better wines listed on Regent’s included package and on some other lines. 

Edited September 11, 2021 by Clutj

[1985rz1]

46 minutes ago, Travels with Lisa said:

Hi all

We are looking into sailing this winter.  Is wifi included? Also, we are trying to decide if we should go with the “o life” package or book our own air.  Approximately how much is a glass of wine or beer?

thanks in advance! 

 

 

One WiFi account is included in all fares.

 

OLife and included air are separate decisions.  You can have OLife with air, OLife without air, air without OLife and cruise only.

 

There are lots of posts and threads on the Oceania board about the pros and cons of the different OLife choices and different opinions about included air. 

 

Basically, the the OBC choice of the OLife options is a wash as you pay $X upfront for $X in non-refundable OBC.

 

The basic beverage package includes only beer and wine with lunch and dinner, not in the lounges and bars.

 

With careful selections, the value of the shorex excursions can be up to double the price of the OLIfe, since the OLife pricing is based on $100 per excursion and you can book excursions up to around $199.

 

You can get a fare credit if you choose not to use the included air.  

[LHT28]

To add to the air discussion  the O air you fly in/out on the same day as the cruise begins/ends

 If you want to fly in earlier or stay on after the disembarkation day you will pay a deviation fee  last count it was $175 PP

 I would  check the cost of doing your own air  & see what the discount  for not using O air is  & weigh your options

[LGW59]

31 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

To add to the air discussion  the O air you fly in/out on the same day as the cruise begins/ends

 If you want to fly in earlier or stay on after the disembarkation day you will pay a deviation fee  last count it was $175 PP

 I would  check the cost of doing your own air  & see what the discount  for not using O air is  & weigh your options

I will say Celebrity air is very user friendly, in my personal experience.  I’ve booked an O cruise but have since removed the air and hotel I can bus class from Boston far more reasonable and less restrictive.

[Flatbush Flyer]

1 hour ago, Clutj said:

In 2017, wine was 10-12 and the top Champagne was 16; beer was 6-8.  An important point is that the automatic 20% tip goes on top of each drink bought on board.  But O does not add a tip onto the cost of the basic or premium beverage package (many lines do), or the upgrade to premium if you use your O Life benefit to get the basic one.  Many people find the premium upgrade worth the cost because it adds mixed drinks to the beer & wine only basic package, and expands the timing from meals-only to any time. 
 

The wine selection is only okay.  I have seen better wines listed on Regent’s included package and on some other lines. 

2017 was 4 years ago.

In any case: if you want the prestige package ($60 pp or $20 pp add-on to O Life basic mealtime beer/wine perk), you’ll get unlimited spirits (except a very few cognacs/scotches) anytime a bar is available. However, the wine is still only the often mediocre “by-the-glass” selections. Prestige is best for spirits drinkers who order doubles of better booze (e.g., double Margarita with ElTesoro Anejo and Cointreau instead of Cuervo/triple sec well swill). Retail, that drink would exceed $20 +18% tip. Two drinks plus a glass of wine at lunch and at dinner and you’re ahead of the game. (I also think you get a discount on LaReserve with Prestige).

However, as O Life goes, excursions are most often the best deal where you can double the perk value by picking the allowable tours close to the $199 max (which BTW, the O Life tours count toward the minimum required for the YWYW 25% discount on all other tours you buy)

 

As for our strategy: we bring our own wine at embarkation- 6-12 bottles- and replenish along the way. The $25 corkage (including tips) for wine consumed outside your cabin is a far better deal than the 300%+\- ship markup on their stuff. As for spirits: plenty of free drinks at captain and O Club events plus officer invited dinners as well as Happy Hours prices.

 

[LGW59]

11 minutes ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

2017 was 4 years ago.

In any case: if you want the prestige package ($60 pp or $20 pp add-on to O Life basic mealtime beer/wine perk), you’ll get unlimited spirits (except a very few cognacs/scotches) anytime a bar is available. However, the wine is still only the often mediocre “by-the-glass” selections. Prestige is best for spirits drinkers who order doubles of better booze (e.g., double Margarita with ElTesoro Anejo and Cointreau instead of Cuervo/triple sec well swill). Retail, that drink would exceed $20 +18% tip. Two drinks plus a glass of wine at lunch and at dinner and you’re ahead of the game. (I also think you get a discount on LaReserve with Prestige).

However, as O Life goes, excursions are most often the best deal where you can double the perk value by picking the allowable tours close to the $199 max (which BTW, the O Life tours count toward the minimum required for the YWYW 25% discount on all other tours you buy)

 

As for our strategy: we bring our own wine at embarkation- 6-12 bottles- and replenish along the way. The $25 corkage (including tips) for wine consumed outside your cabin is a far better deal than the 300%+\- ship markup on their stuff. As for spirits: plenty of free drinks at captain and O Club events plus officer invited dinners as well as Happy Hours prices.

 

I thought they included 6 bottles of wine and/or spirits in the suite?  I’d much prefer that and use our $600 OBC for one off drinks etc. all things being equal we prefer to arrange our own shore excursions, time will tell how that works out.

[Kate-AHF]

42 minutes ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

(I also think you get a discount on LaReserve with Prestige).
 

 

As someone who books every La Reserve night available on our sailings, I SO wish this was applicable to us.  This discount is not available if you upgrade from House Select (as your Olife perk) to Prestige.  Those La Reserve discounts only apply to those folks paying the actual $60 per day per person. (Boo, hiss, throw rocks)

 

Now, that said, before the Covid restart - La Reserve would offer "wine tastings and tapas" evenings in addition to the scheduled La Reserve dinners.  The wines available by the glass were quite nice, different than what was available as standard, and most pours were with the Prestige package.  The tapas were also substantial and quite tasty, so if they are still offered post-covid cruising, don't expect to be able to do dinner too.  We really liked these tastings.... as you know the venue is super for that activity and the bar staff more than sufficient.

Edited September 11, 2021 by Kate-AHF
clarity

[LHT28]

24 minutes ago, LGW59 said:

I thought they included 6 bottles of wine and/or spirits in the suite?  I’d much prefer that and use our $600 OBC for one off drinks etc. all things being equal we prefer to arrange our own shore excursions, time will tell how that works out.

Yes the TOP suites (OS OC VS)  get the 6 bottles of wine/spirits  from a select list

 

 

[Robjame]

40 minutes ago, LGW59 said:

56 minutes ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

Expand  

I thought they included 6 bottles of wine and/or spirits in the suite

This is only a certain category of stateroom - a category above what I am able to enjoy - above the PH categories.

(They put us down below, Where we’d be the first to go)

[LGW59]

40 minutes ago, Robjame said:

This is only a certain category of stateroom - a category above what I am able to enjoy - above the PH categories.

(They put us down below, Where we’d be the first to go)

Lol I’m thinking they don’t put you down below, rather you choose to not go above.  If I’m wrong I apologize in advance.

[Flatbush Flyer]

2 hours ago, LGW59 said:

I thought they included 6 bottles of wine and/or spirits in the suite?  I’d much prefer that and use our $600 OBC for one off drinks etc. all things being equal we prefer to arrange our own shore excursions, time will tell how that works out.

Yes - upper suites do get the bar set up. (But, obviously, it’s paid for in the pricier fare and BTW  it’s not the premium wines you’d hope for). 

 

As for tours, we do take that O Life option but often mix it with select private tours (e.g., incomparable Maohi Nui on Bora Bora) and several unique O paid tours (of course, with the YWYW 25% discount). With this combo, we often come away with exactly the tours we want at a better overall price than if we DIYed all tours.

[pinotlover]

We rarely find a sufficient number of OLife qualifying tours that interest us. Rarely more than 3 . We most often take the drinks package and then upgrade.

 

If you’re one that enjoys or prefers 3/4 hours tours on port days, then the tour package may work better for you. We cruise to enjoy the ports as much as possible (6-8 hour tours), most of which aren’t included in the qualifying tours. Each to their own.

 

Some destinations are either wine production areas or wine friendly. Others are wine deserts. It’s not always possible to pick up wine at various ports and do corkage. Location matter.

Edited September 12, 2021 by pinotlover

[Jockocruiser]

Thanks Flatbush and pinotlover!

You both provide concise and excellent - though differing - outlooks. 
The O ShoreEx are like all cruise lines, overpriced.  And I hesitate to do the math as to what my bar bill would be on an individual basis!

 

(Reminds me of the old days when my wife would sit at the end of the bed waiting until they slipped the bill under the door on the last night of the cruise!  Then wake me up to holler about the bar charges! )
 

To the OP, as to the air question, it is a matter of control, flexibility, price, pre/post stays, etc. Back out the air and compare and contrast for the best deal for you.

[terrydtx]

We are booked on the Marina for a 10 day Baltics cruise next Aug. We are in a A1 Concierge cabin. We are looking at the O Life options and trying to decide which one is the best value. Since  the wine and beer with meals package is the O life beverage option, it has about a  $800 value.  Are the shore excursions just a cash value credit or ones that have to be chosen from a specific list like Viking Ocean? If any excursion can be chosen this could be the best value. The $600 OBC seems to be the least value.

 

We are not doing the inclusive air option because we only fly internationally business class and Oceania is ridiculous on the added cost plus fees for this option so we are taking the $1100pp cost reduction on the O Life fare cost. We are doing a cruise with HAL 4 days after the O cruise RT from Venice.  We can use HAL air to book business class air RT from San Antonio to Copenhagen and returning from Venice for around $3300pp. This would be about $2000pp less than what O wants. O quoted us $4500pp plus $175pp for a deviation fee for business class on the same route as we can get with HAL. The ridiculous part is the $4500 is on top of the O Life with air fare so when we add the $1100pp discount for O Life without air to the $4500 plus $175 we would be actually paying $5775pp for airfare.

Edited September 12, 2021 by terrydtx

[Robjame]

3 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

We are not doing the inclusive air option because we only fly internationally business class and Oceania is ridiculous on the added cost plus fees for this option so we are taking the $1100pp cost reduction on the O Life fare cost.

One of the things that has not been discussed yet is there is no hurry to make this decision. It does not have to be done at time of booking. By leaving it on until your final payment, you retain the option.

Who knows what air fare are going to be a year from now.

Of course if you can lock in a great price or are using reward points, that is a different matter.

[terrydtx]

4 minutes ago, Robjame said:

Who knows what air fare are going to be a year from now.

Of course if you can lock in a great price or are using reward points, that is a different matter.

You are right, we are basing our air estimate on what prices were this year for similar flights.  We will not be able to book or look at air with HAL Air until October, 330 days out.  Good to know we can change our O Life option up to final payment. We chose the Bev package when we booked last January and based on info so far here we may do the shore excursion option since several of the ones we are looking at are well over $100 each.

[Robjame]

3 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

You are right, we are basing our air estimate on what prices were this year for similar flights.

Like you, we travel Business but these prices are out of sight for us right now.

‘Oceania usually offers Premium Economy @ $149 at the beginning of booking for overseas flights. A good price. This is offered for a specific number so it is time sensitive. We have out TA reserve this as well, figuring I could suffer premium economy if Business was out of the question. Again cancellable at time of final payment.

[Flatbush Flyer]

25 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

We are booked on the Marina for a 10 day Baltics cruise next Aug. We are in a A1 Concierge cabin. We are looking at the O Life options and trying to decide which one is the best value. Since  the wine and beer with meals package is the O life beverage option, it has about a  $800 value.  Are the shore excursions just a cash value credit or ones that have to be chosen from a specific list like Viking Ocean? If any excursion can be chosen this could be the best value. The $600 OBC seems to be the least value.

 

We are not doing the inclusive air option because we only fly internationally business class and Oceania is ridiculous on the added cost plus fees for this option so we are taking the $1100pp cost reduction on the O Life fare cost. We are doing a cruise with HAL 4 days after the O cruise RT from Venice.  We can use HAL air to book business class air RT from San Antonio to Copenhagen and returning from Venice for around $3300pp. This would be about $2000pp less than what O wants. O quoted us $4500pp plus $175pp for a deviation fee for business class on the same route as we can get with HAL. The ridiculous part is the $4500 is on top of the O Life with air fare so when we add the $1100pp discount for O Life without air to the $4500 plus $175 we would be actually paying $5775pp for airfare.

As I have posted a zillion times: Even O’s air dept. will tell you not to buy bizclass from them. You end up paying for the economy tix in the cruise fare in order to get the bizclass quote for their contracted carriers on crummy connection flights. 
As for the tours: The allowed O Life list is pretty much anything up to $199/tour. So, for example, your O Life $800 SBC option initially translates to 8 tours option equivalent. But, being able to book <$200 tours for each of your 8, effectively gives you a $1600 perk. AND those O Life tours count toward the minimum number (on your cruise) of purchased tours required for the YWYW 25% discount on any you pay for. 
Mix the right ship tours with the right private tours on a long trip and you’ll see the value of O Life.

[LGW59]

32 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

We are booked on the Marina for a 10 day Baltics cruise next Aug. We are in a A1 Concierge cabin. We are looking at the O Life options and trying to decide which one is the best value. Since  the wine and beer with meals package is the O life beverage option, it has about a  $800 value.  Are the shore excursions just a cash value credit or ones that have to be chosen from a specific list like Viking Ocean? If any excursion can be chosen this could be the best value. The $600 OBC seems to be the least value.

 

We are not doing the inclusive air option because we only fly internationally business class and Oceania is ridiculous on the added cost plus fees for this option so we are taking the $1100pp cost reduction on the O Life fare cost. We are doing a cruise with HAL 4 days after the O cruise RT from Venice.  We can use HAL air to book business class air RT from San Antonio to Copenhagen and returning from Venice for around $3300pp. This would be about $2000pp less than what O wants. O quoted us $4500pp plus $175pp for a deviation fee for business class on the same route as we can get with HAL. The ridiculous part is the $4500 is on top of the O Life with air fare so when we add the $1100pp discount for O Life without air to the $4500 plus $175 we would be actually paying $5775pp for airfare.

Had we kept the O air, bus class would have been $4200 and one night hotel in Monte Carlo was $998!!  Though the cruise only is IMO a great price esp compared to the Beyond cruise we canceled, no thanks to O air and hotel.

[Flatbush Flyer]

7 minutes ago, Robjame said:

Like you, we travel Business but these prices are out of sight for us right now.

‘Oceania usually offers Premium Economy @ $149 at the beginning of booking for overseas flights. A good price. This is offered for a specific number so it is time sensitive. We have out TA reserve this as well, figuring I could suffer premium economy if Business was out of the question. Again cancellable at time of final payment.

We recently priced United Polaris multi-city fares to go SFO to CPT (Lufthansa for the connection from Frankfurt) next May with return from NYC - also United bizclass. Initially, the searched fare was more than $9000 pp.

 

So, using ITA Matrix, I started looking at different ways to do the same itinerary and same hardware. Then I called United to book what could not be done online (no booking fee in that case and they can sell the Lufthansa tix at Lufthansa sale prices that do not show on the United search engine).

Final outcome: one way to Frankfurt on United Polaris connecting to Lufthansa bizclass to CapeTown. Tix were <$2500 pp. Will soon add the NYC-SFO one way return United bizclass for $750 - $1000 pp. 

Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

[AMHuntFerry]

More key points regarding the shorex option:

https://www.oceaniacruises.com/legal/promotion-terms/

"OLife Choice amenities are per stateroom, based on double occupancy and subject to change. OLife Choice free shore excursions vary by voyage and exclude Oceania Select, Oceania Exclusive, Executive Collection, Food & Wine Trails, Wellness, Go Local  and Culinary Discovery Tours. Voyages up to 9 days receive 4 free shore excursions; 10-13 days receive 6 free shore excursions; 14+ days receive 8 free shore excursions. If shore excursion amenity is selected, all excursions must be chosen at least 14 days prior to sailing."

 

Specifically, it is often assumed that the number of excursions is per person when it is actually per cabin. Also, there are excursions that, even though they are less than the ~$199 (with recent exceptions above $200), do not qualify for the OLife excursions. The cancellation rules for the various types of shorex plans vary and are in your legal docs for your cruise.
 

[Kate-AHF]

7 hours ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

We recently priced United Polaris multi-city fares to go SFO to CPT (Lufthansa for the connection from Frankfurt) next May with return from NYC - also United bizclass. Initially, the searched fare was more than $9000 pp.

 

So, using ITA Matrix, I started looking at different ways to do the same itinerary and same hardware. Then I called United to book what could not be done online (no booking fee in that case and they can sell the Lufthansa tix at Lufthansa sale prices that do not show on the United search engine).

Final outcome: one way to Frankfurt on United Polaris connecting to Lufthansa bizclass to CapeTown. Tix were <$2500 pp. Will soon add the NYC-SFO one way return United bizclass for $750 - $1000 pp. 

Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

 

For the last few months, TAP has been (A321 Neo) has been oh-so-reasonable for bizclass.  That's what I booked for IAD to VCE OCt 2021.  3 hour layover in Lisbon.  Would have been even less expensive if we spent a night in Lisbon.  Air Lingus has also had good bizclass pricing, but not with the good connections once in Europe.  United, even though I've got a shocking about of future fly credits at the moment- we can't even touch the cost.  Hoping to use them for next spring or fall, and prices become more.... "doable".  I didn't want to say "realistic", because I'm hoping this is not the new normal.

 

I'll let you know if we love it or hate it.  Never taken a narrow-body over the Atlantic before.  We really could care less about anything but the actual lie-flat seat in business.

[terrydtx]

1 hour ago, Kate-AHF said:

 

I'll let you know if we love it or hate it.  Never taken a narrow-body over the Atlantic before.  We really could care less about anything but the actual lie-flat seat in business

Anything less than a lie flat seat in business class is really only Premium Economy. 

[Robjame]

On 9/12/2021 at 11:28 AM, Flatbush Flyer said:

So, using ITA Matrix, I

@Flatbush Flyer

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