Simply more's impact on current bookings?

[Rainbow3fe]

42 minutes ago, shepherd really said:

Mine was worth just over a 30% savings.  Even if it took all day, it would be worth it to me.

Hi,

    Wow. Glad to hear many Oceania passengers are saving money. I researched our next 2 and the cost was higher. I guess it depends on which cruise you booked and which category stateroom. 

 

 

[basor]

Just now, Rainbow3fe said:

Hi,

    Wow. Glad to hear many Oceania passengers are saving money. I researched our next 2 and the cost was higher. I guess it depends on which cruise you booked and which category stateroom. 

 

 

I believe those finding the large savings have sailings included on the Summer Sale - https://www.oceaniacruises.com/special-offers/summer-sale

[shepherd really]

4 minutes ago, Rainbow3fe said:

Hi,

    Wow. Glad to hear many Oceania passengers are saving money. I researched our next 2 and the cost was higher. I guess it depends on which cruise you booked and which category stateroom. 

 

 

My fare went down by $1500 per person based on the Summer Sale and simply more benefits and gratuities added the rest of the value.  I even saved $200 on my excursions  over the Olife excursion benefit.  

Edited July 11, 2023 by shepherd really

[LHT28]

5 minutes ago, Rainbow3fe said:

Hi,

    Wow. Glad to hear many Oceania passengers are saving money. I researched our next 2 and the cost was higher. I guess it depends on which cruise you booked and which category stateroom. 

 

 

I think you have to call to get the  sale prices   do not just go by  the website

[Sthrngary]

45 minutes ago, Rainbow3fe said:

Hi,

    Wow. Glad to hear many Oceania passengers are saving money. I researched our next 2 and the cost was higher. I guess it depends on which cruise you booked and which category stateroom. 

 

 

@Rainbow3fe I am new to Oceania.  I usually go on NCL in the Haven.  I want to give you a perspective from someone new and someone that learns some lessons on booking Oceania over the last year.  

 

When you see a sale next to your cruise; Summer Sale, The Extraordinary Sale, Four Category Upgrade Sale; The prices you see posted on the Oceania Website are not always accurate.  If you use a Travel Agent, have them check.  If you use Oceania direct check.  The short cut I found was going to a third party online company that starts with the name Cruise.  I can say them because it is against CruiseCritic.com posting policy.  Anyway, I look up the price on my sailing and their price was much lower than the posted price on Oceania.  I hope that makes sense.  It was very new to me. 

 

I hit pay dirt by being able to have to promotions sales at the same time. That was also a first for me.  I hope that helps you.  it was a Journey to learn for me.

 

Cruise well and enjoy every moment. 

[MagellanWorld]

Please bear with me, this is my first post. We are booked on Oceania's 2025 200-day World Cruise in a PS2. I'm trying o compare the value of Olife vs. Simply More for this cruise. One of us does not drink and the other drinks only with dinner. OLife Choice includes 72 Free Shore Excursions or $7,200 OBC.  Simply More appears to provide $9,600 in excursion credits, a free hotel night before boarding, and 2 wi-fi (we will only use one). I don't know about early flights from home to embarkation port. Air fares and gratuities are included are included in both. it looks like Simply More is the better deal at the same price. is there something I'm missing? How should I be doing the comparison?           

[Woofa]

 

5 minutes ago, MagellanWorld said:

Please bear with me, this is my first post. We are booked on Oceania's 2025 200-day World Cruise in a PS2. I'm trying o compare the value of Olife vs. Simply More for this cruise. One of us does not drink and the other drinks only with dinner. OLife Choice includes 72 Free Shore Excursions or $7,200 OBC.  Simply More appears to provide $9,600 in excursion credits, a free hotel night before boarding, and 2 wi-fi (we will only use one). I don't know about early flights from home to embarkation port. Air fares and gratuities are included are included in both. it looks like Simply More is the better deal at the same price. is there something I'm missing? How should I be doing the comparison?           

I am assuming if you booked a world cruise you have a TA.  That is the first place I would check.  Its not clear from your post if you have already gotten a new updated total price if you switch to SM.  I could imagine that there could be a significant price difference one way or the other.  This should be the first number you get.

If you don't need the second internet and if at least one of you will not be drinking Beer, Wine, Champagne with meals then the main difference would seem to be if you feel you can/will use the olife excursions which are capped at $199 per.  Theoretically, SM will allow you to take fewer, more expensive excursions with your money.  You have plenty of time and what we know for sure is that until SM starts and we start getting feedback, we just can't be sure how everything will work out.  I would get the new SM price, then wait for a bit.

Lucky you, enjoy your cruiss.  Jealous...

[Rainbow3fe]

1 hour ago, LHT28 said:

I think you have to call to get the  sale prices   do not just go by  the website

We got a huge discount with the Memorial Day sale and O life, no air. Summer sale has higher prices and since we don't need Wine package we didn't want to pay more.

The other isn't on sale list and it's $400 more pp. We don't use 2 electronics. 

[basor]

6 minutes ago, MagellanWorld said:

Please bear with me, this is my first post. We are booked on Oceania's 2025 200-day World Cruise in a PS2. I'm trying o compare the value of Olife vs. Simply More for this cruise. One of us does not drink and the other drinks only with dinner. OLife Choice includes 72 Free Shore Excursions or $7,200 OBC.  Simply More appears to provide $9,600 in excursion credits, a free hotel night before boarding, and 2 wi-fi (we will only use one). I don't know about early flights from home to embarkation port. Air fares and gratuities are included are included in both. it looks like Simply More is the better deal at the same price. is there something I'm missing? How should I be doing the comparison?           

I believe you are confusing some of the perks that come with your ATW cruise :

 

 

Oceania's Exclusive Prestige Package which includes:

• FREE Prepaid Gratuities—a value up to $8,200
• FREE Onboard Medical Care
• FREE Internet
• FREE Laundry Services
• FREE Visa Package
• FREE Exclusive Shoreside Events
• FREE Visa Package
• FREE Luggage Delivery
• FREE 1-Night Pre-Cruise Hotel Stay
• FREE RT First class airfare

 

If you are booked under OLife than you had the additional choice of  1 of the following :72 Free Shore Excursions or $7200.00 OBC or House Select Beverage Package....1 free WIFI account per cabin

If you switch to Simply More than you will receive : House Select Beverage Package and $11,000 ship board excursion credit and 2 WIFI accounts per cabin

 

You can now look at the cost of the cruise you booked and what the price is for Simply More to make your decision.  If it is, as you state, pricing exactly the same, then you receive more by switching to Simply More.

[Hlitner]

As we posted previously, we really did well by changing to Simply More (we are actually ahead by $2400).  But O does keep some of its past practices.  As part of our Simply More package, O is giving us $2600 of shore excursion credits.  While we do not like cruise line excursions we will certainly use the credits.  But, when we looked at our cruise excursions, we found that O still has two different excursion pricing schemes.  If we book 12 or more excursions (it is a 35 day cruise) we get 25% off of the excursions  So now we have to find 12 excursions that hopefully add up to about the amount of our shore excursion credits.  We have been to most of the ports on our cruise (many times in some cases) so we would normally have little interest in 2 excursions much less a dozen.  So the big challenge for us is finding a dozen excursions that will not cause us to gag (being stuck on a bus with 60 of our friends is not our idea of fun).  

 

As one used to other cruise lines (none of which play these silly excursion games) we are somewhat puzzled as to why O would care if we booked 5 excursions or 12 excursions.  We will do the math and find a way to stay within our shore excursion credit.  We have actually received shore excursion credits on some other lines (HAL now does it with their HIA package) but we have never known another line to specify a minimum number of excursions in order to qualify for a 25% discount.  To be honest, all this smoke and mirror baloney used by O does not endear us to the line.  

 

Hank

[EJL2023]

14 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

As we posted previously, we really did well by changing to Simply More (we are actually ahead by $2400).  But O does keep some of its past practices.  As part of our Simply More package, O is giving us $2600 of shore excursion credits.  While we do not like cruise line excursions we will certainly use the credits.  But, when we looked at our cruise excursions, we found that O still has two different excursion pricing schemes.  If we book 12 or more excursions (it is a 35 day cruise) we get 25% off of the excursions  So now we have to find 12 excursions that hopefully add up to about the amount of our shore excursion credits.  We have been to most of the ports on our cruise (many times in some cases) so we would normally have little interest in 2 excursions much less a dozen.  So the big challenge for us is finding a dozen excursions that will not cause us to gag (being stuck on a bus with 60 of our friends is not our idea of fun).  

 

As one used to other cruise lines (none of which play these silly excursion games) we are somewhat puzzled as to why O would care if we booked 5 excursions or 12 excursions.  We will do the math and find a way to stay within our shore excursion credit.  We have actually received shore excursion credits on some other lines (HAL now does it with their HIA package) but we have never known another line to specify a minimum number of excursions in order to qualify for a 25% discount.  To be honest, all this smoke and mirror baloney used by O does not endear us to the line.  

 

Hank

I’ve never been on an Oceania excursion with 60 people on a bus. At most 25-30.

[Hlitner]

13 minutes ago, EJL2023 said:

I’ve never been on an Oceania excursion with 60 people on a bus. At most 25-30.

I have never been on any O excursion (and would be happy to never be on any cruise line excursion).  But even 25 would be about 23 more than I prefer.  Just the thought of waiting for 25 folks to go to the bathroom is enough to drive me to the bar :).  Yes, we can play the game and go along with the program.  But our preference (for much of the world) is to simply do our own thing.\

 

So now DW and I will have to spend time sorting through more than a hundred excursions just to use that darn credit.  Normally, we would just get off the ship and rent a car, take a train, grab a local bus, or use our legs.  We understand that many cruisers prefer a guided excursions (even to get to the MDR on a ship) but it is just not our style.  When I see a cruise ship tour group, following a guide who is holding up some kind of sign, I cannot help but think of a herd of cattle following a lead cow who has a bell!  We have been on a few tours when I truly wanted to "moo."

 

Hank

[EJL2023]

11 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

I have never been on any O excursion (and would be happy to never be on any cruise line excursion).  But even 25 would be about 23 more than I prefer.  Just the thought of waiting for 25 folks to go to the bathroom is enough to drive me to the bar :).  Yes, we can play the game and go along with the program.  But our preference (for much of the world) is to simply do our own thing.\

 

So now DW and I will have to spend time sorting through more than a hundred excursions just to use that darn credit.  Normally, we would just get off the ship and rent a car, take a train, grab a local bus, or use our legs.  We understand that many cruisers prefer a guided excursions (even to get to the MDR on a ship) but it is just not our style.  When I see a cruise ship tour group, following a guide who is holding up some kind of sign, I cannot help but think of a herd of cattle following a lead cow who has a bell!  We have been on a few tours when I truly wanted to "moo."

 

Hank

Well if you are $2400 ahead, why bother with the excursions?? Continuous gagging would probably not be good for your health. 

[Hlitner]

1 minute ago, EJL2023 said:

Well if you are $2400 ahead, why bother with the excursions?? Continuous gagging would probably not be good for your health. 

Hmm.  One reason we decided to book O was that some folks here convinced us that we would not "gag" on the cuisine!  But you do have a good point.  If we gag on the excursions than we may not make it to dinner 🙂

 

Hank

[YourWorldWithBill]

17 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

Hmm.  One reason we decided to book O was that some folks here convinced us that we would not "gag" on the cuisine!  But you do have a good point.  If we gag on the excursions than we may not make it to dinner 🙂

 

Hank

Hank, a few years ago I traveled like you do, but the older I get, the more I'm willing to be one of the cattle, just herded along, led by a ring in my nose on the excursions. Hmmm, maybe I should get one of those nose rings. 

[Vineyard View]

Hiltner,  can’t you just use the SM excursion credit for small (16 people or less) excursions that Oceania offers and therefore use up your credit?  I am asking because I honestly don’t care about a further discount I book a lot of excursions, because I will not do that. I would like to use my SM credit for possible small excursions as we are same as you -not ship excursions people. I asked this on another thread so not trying to repeat, but the answer may help here. So for example, if I have $1,000 credit, and I find 1-2 excursions that are more private that sound like they could be great options, and this covers them or most of them financially, then I would view this as positive. 

[Hlitner]

1 minute ago, YourWorldWithBill said:

Hank, a few years ago I traveled like you do, but the older I get, the more I'm willing to be one of the cattle, just herded along, led by a ring in my nose on the excursions. Hmmm, maybe I should get one of those nose rings. 

ROFL.  Being in my mid 70s I keep suggesting to DW that a time will come (if we live long enough) when I can no longer "do this stuff."  But we can still manage 10 or so miles a day, and remember how to get back to the ship :).  As to the nose ring....well lets just say that it has existed for a few decades/

 

Hank

[Vineyard View]

3 minutes ago, YourWorldWithBill said:

Hank, a few years ago I traveled like you do, but the older I get, the more I'm willing to be one of the cattle, just herded along, led by a ring in my nose on the excursions. Hmmm, maybe I should get one of those nose rings. 

No judgement. But we just cannot do that. I think it could be great if this could pan out to offer different variables of excursion types with SM. 

[Flatbush Flyer]

52 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

I have never been on any O excursion (and would be happy to never be on any cruise line excursion).  But even 25 would be about 23 more than I prefer.  Just the thought of waiting for 25 folks to go to the bathroom is enough to drive me to the bar :).  Yes, we can play the game and go along with the program.  But our preference (for much of the world) is to simply do our own thing.\

 

So now DW and I will have to spend time sorting through more than a hundred excursions just to use that darn credit.  Normally, we would just get off the ship and rent a car, take a train, grab a local bus, or use our legs.  We understand that many cruisers prefer a guided excursions (even to get to the MDR on a ship) but it is just not our style.  When I see a cruise ship tour group, following a guide who is holding up some kind of sign, I cannot help but think of a herd of cattle following a lead cow who has a bell!  We have been on a few tours when I truly wanted to "moo."

 

Hank

Your “herd” insult aside, one of the other posters offered an almost good suggestion. Some of the O tours, designated as OE (Oceania Exclusive) are limited to no more than 10 and often pan out at 4-6. They’re often the same as some of the identical larger group tours (though at a higher price).

[LHT28]

2 hours ago, Rainbow3fe said:

We got a huge discount with the Memorial Day sale and O life, no air. Summer sale has higher prices and since we don't need Wine package we didn't want to pay more.

The other isn't on sale list and it's $400 more pp. We don't use 2 electronics. 

Well problem solved 

just stick with what you have booked already

 

Our cruise  went up $500 pp  for "nothing more"   

[Rainbow3fe]

39 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

Well problem solved 

just stick with what you have booked already

 

Our cruise  went up $500 pp  for "nothing more"   

True . No thanks SM. 🙃 I wouldn't pay $1,000 for some average wine with dinner.

[ak1004]

1 hour ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

Your “herd” insult aside, one of the other posters offered an almost good suggestion. Some of the O tours, designated as OE (Oceania Exclusive) are limited to no more than 10 and often pan out at 4-6. They’re often the same as some of the identical larger group tours (though at a higher price).

 

And if 4-6 is still too many, there is always an option to book those "Executive Collection" tours where you have a private car and driver.

 

Problem solved. Really don't see what's the issue.

[Hanoj]

2 hours ago, Hlitner said:

I have never been on any O excursion (and would be happy to never be on any cruise line excursion).  But even 25 would be about 23 more than I prefer.  Just the thought of waiting for 25 folks to go to the bathroom is enough to drive me to the bar :).  Yes, we can play the game and go along with the program.  But our preference (for much of the world) is to simply do our own thing.\

 

So now DW and I will have to spend time sorting through more than a hundred excursions just to use that darn credit.  Normally, we would just get off the ship and rent a car, take a train, grab a local bus, or use our legs.  We understand that many cruisers prefer a guided excursions (even to get to the MDR on a ship) but it is just not our style.  When I see a cruise ship tour group, following a guide who is holding up some kind of sign, I cannot help but think of a herd of cattle following a lead cow who has a bell!  We have been on a few tours when I truly wanted to "moo."

 

Hank

Aren’t some of the excursions “car for a day” or “car for 1/2 a day?” If you’re disinclined towards the O excursions (and you have good reasons), then try to use the credits to defray costs for something you might incur doing your own thing. Don’t be “bought” by something you don’t value. Sure, it’s included, but if I applied this rationale to the now included SM beer and wine at lunch and used to occasionally have one beer which I charged to my onboard account, how many “free” beers would I need to consume to get my money’s worth? Also, by not joining the ship tours it may contribute to less crowding (or time at potty stops) for other guests. 
 

As it’s often repeated “there’s no such thing as ‘free.’”  If something is free, the customer is the product.

[Hlitner]

16 minutes ago, Hanoj said:

Aren’t some of the excursions “car for a day” or “car for 1/2 a day?” If you’re disinclined towards the O excursions (and you have good reasons), then try to use the credits to defray costs for something you might incur doing your own thing. Don’t be “bought” by something you don’t value. Sure, it’s included, but if I applied this rationale to the now included SM beer and wine at lunch and used to occasionally have one beer which I charged to my onboard account, how many “free” beers would I need to consume to get my money’s worth? Also, by not joining the ship tours it may contribute to less crowding (or time at potty stops) for other guests. 
 

As it’s often repeated “there’s no such thing as ‘free.’”  If something is free, the customer is the product.

Good Advice :).  The problem (for us) is that we have been to all the ports (many times at some) including having even rented apartments in some of the places.  Most of the excursions, small group or otherwise, would just not be attractive to us since these are all ports we would normally just do on our own,  However, I did notice a few excursions that are about food/wine and those might be a good option.  

 

We booked this cruise primarily to experience "O" and get ourselves over to Europe (where we will spend a few weeks post cruise just doing a driving trip).   When we originally did the booking we had not planned on any excursions.  But Simply More has changed the situation with the $2600 shore excursion credit.  If it was an option we would happily spend that money on decent bottles of wine.  But no way are we going to leave unspent OBC...even if it means booking some excursions that we simply skip.  It is a matter of principle.  We once left unused OBC on a cruise and promised ourselves......never again.

 

Hank

[Rainbow3fe]

     I wish everyone would stop moaning and groaning about Oceania's Excursions.  We had some wonderful experiences using ship tours in South Africa in January. 

    There were terrible storms with high seas.  We sadly had some issues.

     We had booked an OS excursion to Tala Game Preserve in Durbin and it was canceled. We were angry because other passengers had booked a private tour and went anyway.  It turned out that the flooding there was so bad that the vehicles couldn't get through to view the animals.  They had a dreadful experience and were upset at spending all that money.

     Sometimes it's better to book through the cruiseline.

      We explore both private and ship options. It also depends on the country we are visiting.  In Europe and The Caribbean we don't take ship excursions.  In other placed we weigh our options.  

    Not sure if this was helpful to people deciding about Simply More.