Now online - 2024 Collection

[WESTEAST]

Time to peruse before open for bookings May 4th: https://www.oceaniacruises.com/cruise-finder#time_frame=2023-11|2023-12|2024-1|2024-2|2024-3|2024-4|2024-5|2024-6|2024-7|2024-8|2024-9|2024-10|2024-11|2024-12|2024&ship=VIS&sort=featured:desc&page=6&pageSize=10

[TakingFlight]

I'm new to Oceania and my first cruise with O will be in October. I watched the 2024 preview this morning and have a few questions. What's the advantage of booking on or close to the release date of May 4? I understand the advantages for O with this type of marketing--generating excitement in the product leading to increased bookings. But other than the few sailings where one would feel compelled to book right away because the cruise will sell out immediately I don't see the advantages. There are no special discounts for booking the first week that I can see. Do the prices generally increase shortly after the release? Thanks in advance for enlightening me. And I'm interested in what cruise you want to book on the release date!

[LHT28]

7 minutes ago, TakingFlight said:

I'm new to Oceania and my first cruise with O will be in October. I watched the 2024 preview this morning and have a few questions. What's the advantage of booking on or close to the release date of May 4? I understand the advantages for O with this type of marketing--generating excitement in the product leading to increased bookings. But other than the few sailings where one would feel compelled to book right away because the cruise will sell out immediately I don't see the advantages. There are no special discounts for booking the first week that I can see. Do the prices generally increase shortly after the release? Thanks in advance for enlightening me. And I'm interested in what cruise you want to book on the release date!

Some people prefer to book early to get the cabin they want  or as you say on certain sailings  will sell out  quickly

I just wait  & see

YMMV

 

[davencl]

Some cruises will likely sell out within an hour.  Others will have suites sell out within hours or days.  It depends on where one wants to go and if they desire a particular cabin.

[Kate-AHF]

Here is my take on booking at the outset:  You will most often get the best price going forward.  All the cruises I have booked currently (4) cost more now than when I booked them.  O may add an "incentive" on cruises with less interest down the road, but when you do the math, I made out better booking early on the ones that are now "incentivized".  This is not true with other cruise lines we've traveled on (Seabourn,Silversea), but has been the very consistent business model for O.

 

[bapaleg]

How would I know if the one trip I am looking at will sell out soon

[Queen of DaNile]

I watched the video and then looked at the itineraries on the website today. Truthfully did not see anything unique that made me want to tell my TA to book on the 4th.

[PhD-iva]

I saw an itin on Vista that I liked. I cruise solo (regrettably) so I’ll try to snag one of the six Solo Concierge cabins…… will probably go fast. 

[pinotlover]

There are cruises that Oceania only runs once per year that are highly popular. Those will sell out with pre bookings before online sales even start. Others are upgraded cruises from the past that will go quickly.

 

I could tell you now which ones, but my TA, like all others, is in the competition for a couple of them for both us and others. No purpose in expanding competition! 😂 We’ll discuss after lunch on 4 May. By then it’ll be all over except the shouting.

[WESTEAST]

While browsing the 2024 itineraries and in particular Asia, we've noticed that some of the shore excursions which sound very interesting have a heading in the description *** 2024 AROUND THE WORLD - EVENT ***; this particular tour is from the port, Hue (Chan May), Vietnam.  Has anyone come across O tours with this heading?  This cruise is on the Riviera which is not the ship used for the Around the World cruise. Perhaps an omission on the part of Oceania?

[LHT28]

2 minutes ago, WESTEAST said:

While browsing the 2024 itineraries and in particular Asia, we've noticed that some of the shore excursions which sound very interesting have a heading in the description *** 2024 AROUND THE WORLD - EVENT ***; this particular tour is from the port, Hue (Chan May), Vietnam.  Has anyone come across O tours with this heading?  This cruise is on the Riviera which is not the ship used for the Around the World cruise. Perhaps an omission on the part of Oceania?

Maybe the tour is  a special for the ATW  cruise  ??

Is the tour listed on a specific sailing NOT on Insignia?

Just curious    any of these? 

https://www.oceaniacruises.com/oceania-experience/post/world-cruises/top-10-highlights-2024-around-world-early-release-grand-voyages

[WESTEAST]

13 hours ago, LHT28 said:

Maybe the tour is  a special for the ATW  cruise  ??

Is the tour listed on a specific sailing NOT on Insignia?

Just curious    any of these? 

https://www.oceaniacruises.com/oceania-experience/post/world-cruises/top-10-highlights-2024-around-world-early-release-grand-voyages

As mentioned, this tour is listed in an Asian sailing specifically Vietnam and onboard the Riviera.  The ATW cruise is only on the Insignia. The link you provided does not included the tour in question. Expect it is an omission and will be corrected/removed at some point. 

[basor]

I find if you are looking at an itinerary more than a year out and click on ports and excursions, it takes you the generic shore excursion list for all of the ports on that itinerary,    Then you can find the city you are interested in and it will list all excursions for that port but not all will be available for your specific cruise.  If you notice, there are no prices listed and there is a tab to the lower right side that says "cruises visiting this port".  The shore excursion you noted is indeed shown with the wording "Event" and a notation that this is specific to the ATW cruise.  This provides you with an idea of the type of shore excursions that might be available for a specific port but the exact list for a specific cruise will not be available until much closer to the actual sail date.   The ATW event will then drop out of the list.

[WESTEAST]

1 hour ago, basor said:

I find if you are looking at an itinerary more than a year out and click on ports and excursions, it takes you the generic shore excursion list for all of the ports on that itinerary,    Then you can find the city you are interested in and it will list all excursions for that port but not all will be available for your specific cruise.  If you notice, there are no prices listed and there is a tab to the lower right side that says "cruises visiting this port".  The shore excursion you noted is indeed shown with the wording "Event" and a notation that this is specific to the ATW cruise.  This provides you with an idea of the type of shore excursions that might be available for a specific port but the exact list for a specific cruise will not be available until much closer to the actual sail date.   The ATW event will then drop out of the list.

Appreciate your explanation basor - thank you!

 

[LHT28]

5 hours ago, WESTEAST said:

As mentioned, this tour is listed in an Asian sailing specifically Vietnam and onboard the Riviera.  The ATW cruise is only on the Insignia. The link you provided does not included the tour in question. Expect it is an omission and will be corrected/removed at some point. 

possible 

There are also some Grand Voyages listed   but I have not checked the brochure to see what  they include

[ak1004]

On 4/27/2022 at 8:15 PM, pinotlover said:

There are cruises that Oceania only runs once per year that are highly popular. Those will sell out with pre bookings before online sales even start. Others are upgraded cruises from the past that will go quickly.

 

I could tell you now which ones, but my TA, like all others, is in the competition for a couple of them for both us and others. No purpose in expanding competition! 😂 We’ll discuss after lunch on 4 May. By then it’ll be all over except the shouting.

what do you mean by pre booking? How does it work? Is it on first come first served basis? Or some agents get preference depending on their relationship with Oceania?

[pinotlover]

12 hours ago, ak1004 said:

what do you mean by pre booking? How does it work? Is it on first come first served basis? Or some agents get preference depending on their relationship with Oceania?

I won’t get into the details, but how many hundreds of times has it been said on this Board that there are advantages to using a TA that specializes with or does extensive work with Oceania?

 

Operationally, do you actually believe that my TA, that may have 50-75 bookings to do, actually will be getting on the computer on 5/4 at 09:00 and entering those bookings one at a time? 😂😂😂

 

Additionally, if all those TA and  DIYers all  did try to log in at 09:00 to input all that data, what do you believe happens to the system? Can you say CRASH?

 

What all goes on behind the curtain is a bit of voodoo magic and politics, but when 100 passengers are vying for 30 PH3s, 1st come 1st isn’t high on the list.

 

DIYers demand control. They don’t want anyone in the middle. Good Luck to them next Wednesday. 🥂

[ak1004]

@pinotofuI'm using TA as well. We actually changed our TA now to someone who does a lot of volume and specializes in luxury lines.

 

That said, our previous TA actually did book us one of our O cruise on the day they were released, right at 9:00. And she actually called them. I assume they have more staff on that day, but of course I don't really know.

 

But keep with the mystery. I suspect it is much simpler than you describe. We never had any issues to get a cabin we wanted no matter when we booked.

[pinotlover]

31 minutes ago, ak1004 said:

@pinotofuI'm using TA as well. We actually changed our TA now to someone who does a lot of volume and specializes in luxury lines.

 

That said, our previous TA actually did book us one of our O cruise on the day they were released, right at 9:00. And she actually called them. I assume they have more staff on that day, but of course I don't really know.

 

But keep with the mystery. I suspect it is much simpler than you describe. We never had any issues to get a cabin we wanted no matter when we booked.

Some cruises are very easy to get on. Some cruises are very difficult. Good Luck!

[ak1004]

1 minute ago, pinotlover said:

Some cruises are very easy to get on. Some cruises are very difficult. Good Luck!

 

True. Will you tell us on Wednesday which ones are the difficult ones?

 

Honestly, I don't think it would be an issue even if you revealed the big secret now 🙂 - CC members are very small percentage of the total passenger anyway.

 

btw, I find the pricing of many cruises very attractive. Some of them are actually cheaper than 2022. For example, Vista starts around $350/per night for most European cruises, it was more expensive in 2022. Would you agree?

[KS&JW]

22 minutes ago, ak1004 said:

 

True. Will you tell us on Wednesday which ones are the difficult ones?

 

 

Cruises that only happen once a year.  

[ak1004]

2 minutes ago, KS&JW said:

Cruises that only happen once a year.  

Can you give some examples please? I assume it's more exotic places, not Europe?

[mauibabes]

Australia Circumnavigation for 1, 

Mauibabes

[pinotlover]

12 minutes ago, mauibabes said:

Australia Circumnavigation for 1, 

Mauibabes

It’ll be sold out and waitlisted by noon. Will probably actually be sold out by pre bookings.

 

Watch the two Riveria cruises in late March and 1 April to Japan. Will be interesting if the expanded capacity of the Riveria provides much relief from the almost instant sellout of the Nautica.
 

No longer ran, but previously the single annual Nautica cruise to Archangel sold out Day 1. 

[KS&JW]

1 hour ago, ak1004 said:

Can you give some examples please? I assume it's more exotic places, not Europe?

Others listed above, plus Cape Town to Cape Town, the South America cruises that go to Antartica. 

Edited April 29, 2022 by KS&JW