Oceania Shorex questions including O Life choice

[cruisemom42]

I'm considering booking a cruise on Insignia to Iceland/Greenland/Canada next August.  Given the difficulty of rustling up good shorex providers in some of the ports, I am tempted to choose the shorex credit option for my O Life perk. I have a question though -- if I end up finding my own excursions and/or I find the Oceania excursions are mostly not included, can I switch at a later date to a different perk?

 

Second excursion question -- how does the "Your World Collection" savings work?  Do you have to choose and purchase all 6 excursions at once, or will it keep track of them all if you purchase them gradually -- e.g., when they become available and or when other alternatives don't pan out -- and apply the savings when you hit the required number?  I don't know that I'll book six, but it's an 18-day cruise with not that many sea days so it's possible...

 

Thanks in advance.

 

 

[1985rz1]

4 minutes ago, cruisemom42 said:

I'm considering booking a cruise on Insignia to Iceland/Greenland/Canada next August.  Given the difficulty of rustling up good shorex providers in some of the ports, I am tempted to choose the shorex credit option for my O Life perk. I have a question though -- if I end up finding my own excursions and/or I find the Oceania excursions are mostly not included, can I switch at a later date to a different perk?

 

Second excursion question -- how does the "Your World Collection" savings work?  Do you have to choose and purchase all 6 excursions at once, or will it keep track of them all if you purchase them gradually -- e.g., when they become available and or when other alternatives don't pan out -- and apply the savings when you hit the required number?  I don't know that I'll book six, but it's an 18-day cruise with not that many sea days so it's possible...

 

Thanks in advance.

 

 

Yes, you can switch perks...I'm not sure if the deadline is before final payment or before 14 days out.  I think it's 14 days out, for switching, and pre-final payment if you want to opt out completely.  My memory fails.  Your TA is your best source for this question.

 

In principle, O will keep track of your excursions and do the YWC discount when it applies.  However, I've experienced some hiccups in this principle and had to have my TA fix it.  Again, use your TA for these purchases, if the cart looks screwy or if you have problems getting the YWC after an original selection.  Or just have your TA book them for you whenever..  Remember your OLife excursions selections count toward the the YWC minimum

[LHT28]

I believe Solo cruisers only get half  of the O life  excursion  cabin allotment  

I would check  that out  also

[cruisemom42]

8 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

I believe Solo cruisers only get half  of the O life  excursion  cabin allotment  

I would check  that out  also

 

Yup; I understand it's $400 or 4 excursions or the basic drinks.

[Flatbush Flyer]

2 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

I'm considering booking a cruise on Insignia to Iceland/Greenland/Canada next August.  Given the difficulty of rustling up good shorex providers in some of the ports, I am tempted to choose the shorex credit option for my O Life perk. I have a question though -- if I end up finding my own excursions and/or I find the Oceania excursions are mostly not included, can I switch at a later date to a different perk?

 

Second excursion question -- how does the "Your World Collection" savings work?  Do you have to choose and purchase all 6 excursions at once, or will it keep track of them all if you purchase them gradually -- e.g., when they become available and or when other alternatives don't pan out -- and apply the savings when you hit the required number?  I don't know that I'll book six, but it's an 18-day cruise with not that many sea days so it's possible...

 

Thanks in advance.

 

 

If you search here on CC, you’ll find several of my extensive tutorials on O Life - particularly the strategies for combining the tours option with YWYW.

But, here’s the short list items per your questions.

 

Read the T&Cs and Ticket Contract for specs on cancel deadlines. You can change which O Life perk you initially choose but it’s set in stone at some point prior to your cruise. As regards the tours perk, choices must be made at least two weeks prior. There’s no changes allowed after that though, if O cancels the tour, you have a choice: $100 SBC refund to your account (though, while you may have a $199 value tour cancelled, all allowable tours have a base value of $100- just like the SBC perk). 

On page 1 of the ShoreEx PDF, the minimum number of tours required for YWYW 25% off is stated. Your O Life tours count toward that minimum. And you must then add enough prepaid tours (in your initial tours selection precruise) to secure the discount for the entire cruise (yes, you can add more YWYW discounted paid tours once onboard). Also, all cancel deadlines will be printed on your individual tour tix.  But, you must always have the minimum requirement covered to not lose the discount on everything purchased.
 

O Life tours are assigned $0 cost in the perk with the most expensive (<$200) auto assigned to the perk.

 

Do not use the website to buy tours. Do your own spreadsheet first and then call O directly (preferably an agent with whom you have established some relationship) and have him/her verify that you’re on the same page about the charges. Book the tours with the agent once you’ve verified that s/he will send you the “prepurchased shore ex” PDF, which shows you all the associated math - absolutely essential doc if you then have O cancelled tours/replaced once onboard. 

 

Your TA can also get the total math doc for you and even do the booking work. But, YWYW confuses a lot of folks - including most TAs.

 

O onboard accounting of your purchases has changed. You can get printouts of your account but the former complete details of each purchase now requires a supervisor to print them (at least right now on Marina).

 

So, that’s the basics. Again, many of my previous “tutorials” have even more detail.

 

[kjbacon]

We did Iceland and Greenland last summer and you are in for a treat! Before you decide to book your own excursions, be mindful that the weather there is very unpredictable so check the last minute cancellation policies.

[ATXBecky]

We, also did Iceland/Greenland last August. We missed 1 port in Greenland and 1 in Iceland due to weather.  We didn't book our own excursions because they sell out really early so we were glad not to go through dealing with cancellations. It is an amazing trip even after missing 2 ports. 

[cruisemom42]

5 hours ago, kjbacon said:

We did Iceland and Greenland last summer and you are in for a treat! Before you decide to book your own excursions, be mindful that the weather there is very unpredictable so check the last minute cancellation policies.

 

1 hour ago, ATXBecky said:

We, also did Iceland/Greenland last August. We missed 1 port in Greenland and 1 in Iceland due to weather.  We didn't book our own excursions because they sell out really early so we were glad not to go through dealing with cancellations. It is an amazing trip even after missing 2 ports. 

 

Thank you both. It's a nice itinerary and I am strongly leaning toward booking it. I've been looking for one with more than a token stop in Greenland for ages.  

 

And yes, I've read about the unpredictable weather -- as you say, another good reason for not going private in some of these ports.

[LHT28]

10 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

I'm considering booking a cruise on Insignia to Iceland/Greenland/Canada next August.  Given the difficulty of rustling up good so don't know that I'll book six, but it's an 18-day cruise with not that many sea days so it's possible...

 

Thanks in advance.

 

 

What date  I am not seeing an 18 day cruise  then ?

[cruisemom42]

15 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

What date  I am not seeing an 18 day cruise  then ?

 

Oops, sorry -- must've been tired last night. It's 17 days, departing Revkjavik Aug 13 on Insignia. Four stops in Greenland plus cruising the Sound.

[LHT28]

16 minutes ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

Oops, sorry -- must've been tired last night. It's 17 days, departing Revkjavik Aug 13 on Insignia. Four stops in Greenland plus cruising the Sound.

Looks good

So if you get 4 excursions  & the YWC  is  min 6  you only need 2 more   at least that is the  way  some have explained

[Flatbush Flyer]

11 hours ago, LHT28 said:

Looks good

So if you get 4 excursions  & the YWC  is  min 6  you only need 2 more   at least that is the  way  some have explained

The YWYW minimum requirement number is per person.

[LHT28]

36 minutes ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

The YWYW minimum requirement number is per person.

so then it is 6  correct?  Or do solo cruisers have to book double  ?

[cruisemom42]

22 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

so then it is 6  correct?  Or do solo cruisers have to book double  ?

 

According to what I'm reading on the site, it would be 6 for me.

[LHT28]

5 minutes ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

According to what I'm reading on the site, it would be 6 for me.

I agree

but I am not  an expert 🤔

We rarely take ship's tours

[Flatbush Flyer]

33 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

so then it is 6  correct?  Or do solo cruisers have to book double  ?

I don’t know much about solo policies. That said, I do know: 

 

The basic O Life tours number you see advertised for a specific cruise is “per cabin” based on double occupancy (and they must be split evenly). The specific YWYW minimum tour number cited for a specific cruise is “per person.” 
So a cruise with the O Life SBC option set at $800 (per cabin) could be done instead as 8 excursions (per cabin) split evenly to 4 tours per person. If the YWYW minimum on that cruise is published as “6,” that is “per person.” So in this case, each person in the cabin would need to add 2 paid tours to their 4 O Life tours to get the YWYW 25% discount on the non-O Life ones purchased pre-cruise. One can then add more YWYW discounted tours once onboard.

[LHT28]

3 minutes ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

I don’t know much about solo policies. That said, I do know: 

 

The basic O Life tours number you see advertised for a specific cruise is “per cabin” based on double occupancy (and they must be split evenly). The specific YWYW minimum tour number cited for a specific cruise is “per person.” 
So a cruise with the O Life SBC option set at $800 (per cabin) could be done instead as 8 excursions (per cabin) split evenly to 4 tours per person. If the YWYW minimum on that cruise is published as “6,” that is “per person.” So in this case, each person in the cabin would need to add 2 paid tours to their 4 O Life tours to get the YWYW 25% discount on the non-O Life ones purchased pre-cruise. One can then add more YWYW discounted tours once onboard.

Exactly