Oceania Excursions

[JC3389]

Hi,

 

I know this question is a bit like asking "how long is a piece of string", however we are looking at booking our first Oceania cruise and was wondering the general price of excursions.

 

Does anyone have a very rough guide to average excursion price range ? Would we be better off going with the 8 free excursions or the $800?

 

Any examples of excursions bought and cost would be greatly appreciated:) 

[LHT28]

On the website  can you view the excursions for your cruise  & do they show pricing?

I know  the UK site might be different that what we see in N.A

 Option 2  ask Oceania or your TA for the PDF file of excursions for your cruise

 

https://www.oceaniacruises.com/cruise-destinations

[mauibabes]

If you are going to use Oceania Shore Excursions,  you can get more bang for your buck by taking them versus taking the OBC because you can book excursions valued at up to $199 as a part of the Option package.  You will find many, many postings explaining the value of the three offered amenity packages but each guest needs to determine which one is best for them. If you only book private tours or higher value Oceania excursions ($200+) or you benefit from the drink packages, you should run “your” numbers to determine what is best for you. 
Good luck and enjoy your Oceania cruise. 
Mauibabes 

[1985rz1]

2 hours ago, JC3389 said:

Hi,

 

I know this question is a bit like asking "how long is a piece of string", however we are looking at booking our first Oceania cruise and was wondering the general price of excursions.

 

Does anyone have a very rough guide to average excursion price range ? Would we be better off going with the 8 free excursions or the $800?

 

Any examples of excursions bought and cost would be greatly appreciated:) 

To add on to Maiubabes,  if you choose widely, the 8 excursions (4 per person) can have a potential value of up to almost $1600  ($800 per person).  The SBC of $800 has a value of $800  for which you pay $800 ($400 per person) when you choose OLife.  

[zalusky]

36 minutes ago, 1985rz1 said:

To add on to Maiubabes,  if you choose widely, the 8 excursions (4 per person) can have a potential value of up to almost $1600  ($800 per person).  The SBC of $800 has a value of $800  for which you pay $800 ($400 per person) when you choose OLife.  

Looking at the PrePurchase spreadsheet we got from Oceania where we

 

• Took the Olife Shore Excursion package which gave us 4 excursions up to $199 for free
• We booked 8 total excursions giving us the YWC 25% discount

 

The total raw price of my selected 8 tours was $1272 or $159/tour on average

 

Sorting my tours by price descending I removed the first 4 tours under $200

I then took 25% off of those tours that left a total of $424.50

 

So the next out of pocket code = $424.50 / 8 = $53.50/tour on average

 

Now to be fair I should add in the $400 Olife Excursion price to the out of pocket cost

 

So $424.50 + $400 = $824.50 / 8 = $103.06/tour on average

 

You can see how far ahead in my case.  The question is what would the equivalent price of these tours be if they were private?  It also obviously depends on what you pick as the numbers could be completely different.

 

Booking 1 less excursion would change the game a lot as you lose the 25% discount which happened when they cancelled an excursion on us so we had to find something.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[1985rz1]

11 minutes ago, zalusky said:

You can see how far ahead in my case.  The question is what would the equivalent price of these tours be if they were private?  It also obviously depends on what you pick as the numbers could be completely different.

 

Booking 1 less excursion would change the game a lot as you lose the 25% discount which happened when they cancelled an excursion on us so we had to find something.

Yes, that's the complexity, but seemed to have figured it out.  $103 pp is pretty inexpensive, but it also matters whether you like the tours or just settling for them.  The cost per private tour probably depends on how many are on the private tours.  It's always a challenge.

[msn123]

We are finding that fewer people are on roll calls looking for people to do  private excursions with.  If you take the excursions as your O Life amenity and add extra excursions, prices become much more competitive than they used to be.

[Tyskie]

11 hours ago, msn123 said:

We are finding that fewer people are on roll calls looking for people to do  private excursions 

 

I agree - our roll call is almost non-existent.  The last 2 times we traveled to Europe and cruised (Princess & Celebrity) I would say almost 90% of our tours were private with other passengers (now friends) from our RC.  

 

Times have changed.  I too did the math and added the O-life excursion after taking the cruise only option.

[meg1021]

16 hours ago, zalusky said:

Looking at the PrePurchase spreadsheet we got from Oceania where we

 

• Took the Olife Shore Excursion package which gave us 4 excursions up to $199 for free
• We booked 8 total excursions giving us the YWC 25% discount

 

The total raw price of my selected 8 tours was $1272 or $159/tour on average

 

Sorting my tours by price descending I removed the first 4 tours under $200

I then took 25% off of those tours that left a total of $424.50

 

So the next out of pocket code = $424.50 / 8 = $53.50/tour on average

 

Now to be fair I should add in the $400 Olife Excursion price to the out of pocket cost

 

So $424.50 + $400 = $824.50 / 8 = $103.06/tour on average

 

You can see how far ahead in my case.  The question is what would the equivalent price of these tours be if they were private?  It also obviously depends on what you pick as the numbers could be completely different.

 

Booking 1 less excursion would change the game a lot as you lose the 25% discount which happened when they cancelled an excursion on us so we had to find something.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WOW! Thanks for this explanation/illustration. We're booked on our first Oceania cruise this January for 48 days.  Even though we're experienced cruisers, and have done longer itineraries on other cruise lines, I'm a little mad at myself for not consulting message boards before making our choice for O Life.  I'm also a little peeved that Oceania makes it rather difficult to factor in what final cost is to the customer, based on whether you use airfare, O life perk, etc.  We used a TA, but unfortunately didn't ask the right questions to determine the best choice for us. I chose the OBC, figuring that we could use it for whatever, but I see by your example, that we could have made a better choice for ourselves, and all it takes is knowledge of how Oceania actually works, and some basic math skills.  But once again, shame on me for not asking the right questions of the right people.  After choosing the OBC, I started looking at excursion choices/prices, and thought that some secret decoder ring was needed to figure it out!  Then I turned to the message boards, and fortunately, found some good explanations. Oceania seems to position itself somewhere between mass market cruises, which are often a la carte, and all inclusive cruises.  I'm not sure it's for us, but the itinerary we booked is very interesting, and we're going with an open mind, hoping to find competence by the staff and enjoyment of the cruise.  If we ever book a cruise with them again, I would make other choices.  We are currently waiting for Oceania air department to correct our flights.  Our initial request was to pay the deviation fee to fly in before the cruise, and to have a direct flight.  Yesterday airfare came through and they have us flying in on the day of the cruise (completely unacceptable), and not on a direct flight.  If anybody experienced similar issues with them, please advise.  The TA told me their air department missed/overlooked our requests.

 

Thanks again for helping out an Oceania newbie!

[LHT28]

17 minutes ago, meg1021 said:

WOW! Thanks for this explanation/illustration. We're booked on our first Oceania cruise this January for 48 days.  Even though we're experienced cruisers, and have done longer itineraries on other cruise lines, I'm a little mad at myself for not consulting message boards before making our choice for O Life.

 

Not too late to make changes  😉

 

Air

Get your TA to submit the flights you want  & see if there is any upcharge

Once you & Oceania agree on the flights/routing then you will pay the non refundable Deviation fee

If they come back with flights you are not happy with  see what other options they can give  for NON STOP flights

 

[zalusky]

2 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

Not too late to make changes  😉

 

Yes in fact that's what I did as well.  My example above is our first Oceania cruise which I booked online last minute because a cabin opened up on a normally full sailing.  We transferred it later to our TA.

 

When I booked it I also chose the OBC and soon learned that was the worst option.  The shore excursion package costs $400 or $100 for each of the 4 excursions but you can choose excursions up to $199 so you can magnify your savings.   My wife is diabetic and only sips my drinks.  I also am not a wine drinker and prefer cocktails so that math totally failed.

 

As a result of learning the math I asked our TA to switch the package and all was well.

Now we have chosen some private excursions as well since we have  a 3 week sailing.

[jazznruby]

15 minutes ago, zalusky said:

 

When I booked it I also chose the OBC and soon learned that was the worst option.  The shore excursion package costs $400 or $100 for each of the 4 excursions but you can choose excursions up to $199 so you can magnify your savings.   My wife is diabetic and only sips my drinks.  I also am not a wine drinker and prefer cocktails so that math totally failed.

 

Understanding and accepting that I'm in the minority here concerning this opinion, I have to add my $.02 yet again. We have always chosen the OBC and been happy to have done so. If you KNOW you're going to use the OBC,...for gratuities, La Reserve, bar bill, and yes, the occasional shorex, whatever; and if you're not interested in even the minimum number of O shorex or their booze package, and if, like us, you'd rather avoid sticker shock at the end of the cruise, then the OBC makes perfect sense. Yes, I understand that I'm paying in advance for this option, but again, for us, and I suspect some others, it works. So it's not always the 'worst' choice.

[ORV]

44 minutes ago, meg1021 said:

WOW! Thanks for this explanation/illustration. We're booked on our first Oceania cruise this January for 48 days.  Even though we're experienced cruisers, and have done longer itineraries on other cruise lines, I'm a little mad at myself for not consulting message boards before making our choice for O Life.  I'm also a little peeved that Oceania makes it rather difficult to factor in what final cost is to the customer, based on whether you use airfare, O life perk, etc.  We used a TA, but unfortunately didn't ask the right questions to determine the best choice for us. I chose the OBC, figuring that we could use it for whatever, but I see by your example, that we could have made a better choice for ourselves, and all it takes is knowledge of how Oceania actually works, and some basic math skills.  But once again, shame on me for not asking the right questions of the right people.  After choosing the OBC, I started looking at excursion choices/prices, and thought that some secret decoder ring was needed to figure it out!  Then I turned to the message boards, and fortunately, found some good explanations. Oceania seems to position itself somewhere between mass market cruises, which are often a la carte, and all inclusive cruises.  I'm not sure it's for us, but the itinerary we booked is very interesting, and we're going with an open mind, hoping to find competence by the staff and enjoyment of the cruise.  If we ever book a cruise with them again, I would make other choices.  We are currently waiting for Oceania air department to correct our flights.  Our initial request was to pay the deviation fee to fly in before the cruise, and to have a direct flight.  Yesterday airfare came through and they have us flying in on the day of the cruise (completely unacceptable), and not on a direct flight.  If anybody experienced similar issues with them, please advise.  The TA told me their air department missed/overlooked our requests.

 

Thanks again for helping out an Oceania newbie!

A couple of things to consider. At the point you told your TA that you wanted to do the deviation you should have got an invoice showing the $175 per person charge. Your airfare should have been shown to you at the time you requested the deviation, as long as you booked less than 270 days before the cruise. Did you get an invoice at that time showing any of this?

 

Your flights seem to be coming through at the standard 70-75 day window which is normal for non-deviated flights. I'm almost wondering if your TA might have dropped the ball and is blaming the air dept. 

[ORV]

10 minutes ago, jazznruby said:

Understanding and accepting that I'm in the minority here concerning this opinion, I have to add my $.02 yet again. We have always chosen the OBC and been happy to have done so. If you KNOW you're going to use the OBC,...for gratuities, La Reserve, bar bill, and yes, the occasional shorex, whatever; and if you're not interested in even the minimum number of O shorex or their booze package, and if, like us, you'd rather avoid sticker shock at the end of the cruise, then the OBC makes perfect sense. Yes, I understand that I'm paying in advance for this option, but again, for us, and I suspect some others, it works. So it's not always the 'worst' choice.

It's not that it's a bad choice, there just is no additional benefit to it like there can be in the other two choices, depending of course on a cruisers usage. If it works for you and you understand that you are giving them money up front, then no big deal. One downside would be if a person had to cancel their cruise after final payment and you didn't have the cruise insured. Then you are going to lose that money. 

 

One thing that people need to keep in mind when they read about being able to get excursions up to $199 and being able to double their money is what actually happens in reality. In a perfect world there would be choices of tours at or very close to this price point that you would want to do. In reality that is not always the case. Sometimes tours are less than $100. On a recent cruise I was on we had one port that all the excursions were the OS-OE types that were in the $300 plus range. You definitely want to check out availability as soon as you can and get them booked. Or if they are not offering anything that would work for you change your OLife choice. 

[meg1021]

50 minutes ago, ORV said:

A couple of things to consider. At the point you told your TA that you wanted to do the deviation you should have got an invoice showing the $175 per person charge. Your airfare should have been shown to you at the time you requested the deviation, as long as you booked less than 270 days before the cruise. Did you get an invoice at that time showing any of this?

 

Your flights seem to be coming through at the standard 70-75 day window which is normal for non-deviated flights. I'm almost wondering if your TA might have dropped the ball and is blaming the air dept. 

Hmm, that's quite possible.  I checked through my emails with her, and on August 22nd (just booked at the end of July), I specifically asked for certain dates and flights.  She did blame the Oceania air department, and I do have everything in writing, as I usually contact her via email.  I'm not quite sure how to proceed.  I sent her a couple of emails yesterday, referencing my initial requests for flight date and preferred flights. Who wouldn't want a direct flight vs connections, especially when flying cross country?  I haven't heard back yet.  Needless to say, I'm very upset by this, and have expressed as much to her.  I haven't heard from her yet today, and have no idea how Oceania handles this, since this is my first experience in sailing with them.  I was not invoiced for the $175/pp deviation fee in August, and didn't really know that I should be concerned about it at that time.  BTW, I called Oceania once regarding information about overland tours.  Once they found out that I had booked with a travel agent, they told me that they couldn't touch the reservation, and that I needed to go through her. I mistakenly assumed that the airfare was handled through her as well.  Thanks for your feedback.

[LHT28]

2 hours ago, jazznruby said:

Understanding and accepting that I'm in the minority here concerning this opinion, I have to add my $.02 yet again. We have always chosen the OBC and been happy to have done so. If you KNOW you're going to use the OBC,...for gratuities, La Reserve, bar bill, and yes, the occasional shorex, whatever; and if you're not interested in even the minimum number of O shorex or their booze package, and if, like us, you'd rather avoid sticker shock at the end of the cruise, then the OBC makes perfect sense. Yes, I understand that I'm paying in advance for this option, but again, for us, and I suspect some others, it works. So it's not always the 'worst' choice.

If you know you will spend the OBC  O Life choice  then it works for you  but remember if you do not use it all it is non refundable

Another option if you do not want sticker shock is to gift yourself the OBC  then if you do not use  the full amount it is refundable  on the last full day of the cruise

https://www.oceaniacruises.com/documents/bonvoyagegifts/26643/Bon-Voyage-Gifts.pdf

[LHT28]

1 hour ago, meg1021 said:

 BTW, I called Oceania once regarding information about overland tours.  Once they found out that I had booked with a travel agent, they told me that they couldn't touch the reservation, and that I needed to go through her. I mistakenly assumed that the airfare was handled through her as well.  Thanks for your feedback.

Yes  your TA must  ask for the air flights  on your behalf  but you can specify  what flight you would like

You usually will get the details  then you have 48 hrs to accept the flights or not

 

[SueMo]

I've been planning excursions for an upcoming cruise on the Marina in March.  In Salaverry, Peru Oceania offers a 4 hour Trujillo excursion for $139 per person;  I have found two tour companies with very good ratings on TripAdvisor that offer 6.5 hour Trujillo excursions for $65 per person with a limit of 14 people in the tour group.  In Guayaqil, Oceania has a 3 hour city tour for $119, while I found an independent comparable 3 hour tour with 9/10 ratings for $30 per person.  In Manta, Ecuador I found an independent tour company offering a tour to Montecristi and Pacoche for $65 per person--the Oceania comparable tour is $129 and one hour shorter.  In just about every port of call I have found Oceania's price to be at least double what I can do on my own.

[LHT28]

18 minutes ago, SueMo said:

I've been planning excursions for an upcoming cruise on the Marina in March.  In Salaverry, Peru Oceania offers a 4 hour Trujillo excursion for $139 per person;  I have found two tour companies with very good ratings on TripAdvisor that offer 6.5 hour Trujillo excursions for $65 per person with a limit of 14 people in the tour group.  In Guayaqil, Oceania has a 3 hour city tour for $119, while I found an independent comparable 3 hour tour with 9/10 ratings for $30 per person.  In Manta, Ecuador I found an independent tour company offering a tour to Montecristi and Pacoche for $65 per person--the Oceania comparable tour is $129 and one hour shorter.  In just about every port of call I have found Oceania's price to be at least double what I can do on my own.

Some people are more comfortable taking ships tours

 

 I would get a group from your roll call & go with a private guide

 

It is  a personal choice 

JMO

[1985rz1]

1 hour ago, SueMo said:

I've been planning excursions for an upcoming cruise on the Marina in March.  In Salaverry, Peru Oceania offers a 4 hour Trujillo excursion for $139 per person;  I have found two tour companies with very good ratings on TripAdvisor that offer 6.5 hour Trujillo excursions for $65 per person with a limit of 14 people in the tour group.  In Guayaqil, Oceania has a 3 hour city tour for $119, while I found an independent comparable 3 hour tour with 9/10 ratings for $30 per person.  In Manta, Ecuador I found an independent tour company offering a tour to Montecristi and Pacoche for $65 per person--the Oceania comparable tour is $129 and one hour shorter.  In just about every port of call I have found Oceania's price to be at least double what I can do on my own.

Is there a minimum number of people required for the independent tours?

[SueMo]

It depends on the tour company.  Some will charge a flat rate for an excursion that can accommodate up to X persons, so the per person rate decreases as the number of participants grows to the X limit.  (Can you tell I was a math teacher?). Some offer graduated rates depending on the number of participants.  Some will allow individuals to book online until they get a sufficient number (this is the case for tours booked through TripAdvisor or Viator, so this is a good option if you are only 1-2 in your group).   I've had excellent results through participation on my roll call, either joining a group formed by somebody else, or initiating the formation of a tour.  It does take a little time to do the legwork, which isn't everybody's thing, but for me is worth it.

[Happy Trails1]

On 11/3/2022 at 5:44 AM, SueMo said:

I've been planning excursions for an upcoming cruise on the Marina in March.  In Salaverry, Peru Oceania offers a 4 hour Trujillo excursion for $139 per person;  I have found two tour companies with very good ratings on TripAdvisor that offer 6.5 hour Trujillo excursions for $65 per person with a limit of 14 people in the tour group.  In Guayaqil, Oceania has a 3 hour city tour for $119, while I found an independent comparable 3 hour tour with 9/10 ratings for $30 per person.  In Manta, Ecuador I found an independent tour company offering a tour to Montecristi and Pacoche for $65 per person--the Oceania comparable tour is $129 and one hour shorter.  In just about every port of call I have found Oceania's price to be at least double what I can do on my own.

We try to do the same. We are comfortable with planning our time and using public transport and/taxi's along with private tours if we feel we’d like to educational info. It really paid off for us in Trieste, Italy. Oceania had a bus tour to Venice with free time to explore that was about 8 hours in total time. The price was $350 each. We took a train from the easy to access Trieste station to Venice (2 hours each way) and wandered the city for 5 hours and returned via train - our cost was 60 euro TOTAL! Our seat mates at dinner were so mad at what they had paid. 
 

I realize not everyone has the same tolerance for the risk of not getting back to the ship on time, but if you can, you can sure save a lot. Not taking the ship excursions allows us to be able to travel more with our finite travel budget. 💸

[sunlover12]

3 hours ago, Happy Trails1 said:
 

I realize not everyone has the same tolerance for the risk of not getting back to the ship on time, but if you can, you can sure save a lot. Not taking the ship excursions allows us to be able to travel more with our finite travel budget. 💸

I was just on a private excursion post-cruise in Barcelona and there was a problem with the van. It broke down when we were 3 hours driving time back to Barcelona. This was with a well known tour company. At first, the guide didn’t know how the problem was going to be resolved but after several urgent phone calls she found a bus that would transport us. Needless to say, we were quite late in returning. 

If you’re on a ship excursion, they will wait for you. Things like this happen and if you’re on a private excursion, they will not wait for you. Always have a back-up plan for how you will be returning to the ship. It could be an expensive taxi ride. 

[mauibabes]

@meg1021, @jazznruby

a thought for you both.  Meg, your TA did drop the ball because they did not read and reject what was being offered to you and did not notice the Air Dept did not accommodate your request. As others said, I would fire off an email, ALL CAPS AND BOLD PRINT with the flights you want and instruct her to make it happen with O. A friend on a CA to Buenos Aires trip in January had this happen and it was fixed by a TA call in less than 5 minutes. 
Jazz, while you can make whatever selection OBC or other O Life amenity, it is an issue of Oceania VALUE versus Choice. In my mind it is about Bang for the Buck and IF you are using Oceania excursions, and qualify for the YWYW discount, it is the only way to go. If you don’t like Check out sticker shock on board, gift yourself the OBC as was suggested. I am a believer that there can never be too much OBC in our account because my DW can always find something to bring home or have shipped home (Paintings etc.) and the OBC can be used for those purchases. That $2000+ dollar Graham Denison or Noel Suarez or others works of art can become bargains (kind of 🤪) with a chunk of OBC.  By the way, if you are a Shareholder, an extra $50, $100 or $250 helps too. Not giving stock trading advice but if you are an Oceania loyalist, you need to be a Shareholder. We bought ours solely to get the SBC on every cruise and that has paid for the cost of the stock already. JMHO 

Mauibabes

[meg1021]

On 11/1/2022 at 9:05 PM, zalusky said:

Looking at the PrePurchase spreadsheet we got from Oceania where we

 

• Took the Olife Shore Excursion package which gave us 4 excursions up to $199 for free
• We booked 8 total excursions giving us the YWC 25% discount

 

The total raw price of my selected 8 tours was $1272 or $159/tour on average

 

Sorting my tours by price descending I removed the first 4 tours under $200

I then took 25% off of those tours that left a total of $424.50

 

So the next out of pocket code = $424.50 / 8 = $53.50/tour on average

 

Now to be fair I should add in the $400 Olife Excursion price to the out of pocket cost

 

So $424.50 + $400 = $824.50 / 8 = $103.06/tour on average

 

You can see how far ahead in my case.  The question is what would the equivalent price of these tours be if they were private?  It also obviously depends on what you pick as the numbers could be completely different.

 

Booking 1 less excursion would change the game a lot as you lose the 25% discount which happened when they cancelled an excursion on us so we had to find something.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I just booked our excursions this morning on the phone with an Oceania Rep, using this example, and she agreed that it's the best choice, but when I gave her the specific excursions, in the end, she said that using the Your World discount, and available OBC would result in a better deal for us.  She threw lots of $ amounts at me, and I requested an itemized receipt to look over.  What I received instead was an invoice that just told me how much my credit card had been charged, which doesn't help.  Is there some specific terminology that I should use to request this itemized list?  You had mentioned a spreadsheet in your post.  Maybe ask for that??

 

Also, we are waitlisted on one of the tours.  Does anybody have any thoughts on whether we should just let that ride, or if we should book an excursion that was our second choice?  If we book an alternate excursion, would that automatically remove us from the waitlist for the excursion that is currently our first choice?  Any experience with this or thoughts??  Thanks in advance for the help.

 

Once again, let me reiterate, this is overly complicated for first time Oceania cruisers.  Some user friendly tools should be added to the website to illustrate how each O Life choice would affect your cruise price!!