Simply More Pricing for Shore Excursions

[snorkelphile]

I notice that now there are two prices for shore excursions, a "tour price" and a "simply more" price and sometimes an "unlimited" price.  Sometimes they are all the same, but often the "simply more" and "unlimited" prices are lower.  Can anyone explain this?  I assume the simply more price applies to bookings under the new program and which is the amount that would count against the included shore excursion credit. What is the "unlimited" price? Why are there differences in price?  How does that make sense?

Edited July 3, 2023 by snorkelphile

[1985rz1]

Just now, snorkelphile said:

I notice that now there are two prices for shore excursions, a "tour price" and a "simply more" price.  Sometimes they are the same, but often the "simply more" price is lower.  Can anyone explain this?  I assume the simply more price applies to bookings under the new program and which is the amount that would count against the included shore excursion credit.  But it surprises me that there would be a difference in price, and especially that it would be lower.  How does that make sense?

It appears the SimplyMore excursion package is equivalent to the old YWC package: when when you book a specified number you get a 25% discount.  The number of cruises needed depend on the cruise and in the past some cruises didn't have that option.

[AMHuntFerry]

We will probably have to wait until someone receives a shorex pdf for a SM booking; this pdf is where the discount info is located.

Until then we can guess that it is similar to the old a la carte, YWC, and UPC packages.

Old system (briefly):

UPC - pay ~$110 per port and get certain shorex for no additional charge, other shorex have an additional fee. (Can the SM-OBC be used to purchase the UPC pkg? We shall see).

YWC - purchase a minimum number of shorex (# varied by cruise length) and get 25% off a la carte price (exceptions included exec. car shorex). (Do we get this automatically now with SM, or does the minimum still apply?)

A la carte - Pay full price for shorex if fewer than the YWC minimum are purchased. (Will anyone pay a la carte with SM, or will this be similar to the "brochure fare" that no one pays?)

 

Edited July 3, 2023 by AMHuntFerry

[ak1004]

5 minutes ago, AMHuntFerry said:

UPC - pay ~$110 per port and get certain shorex for no additional charge, other shorex have an additional fee. (Can the SM-OBC be used to purchase the UPC pkg? We shall see).

YWC - purchase a minimum number of shorex (# varied by cruise length) and get 25% off a la carte price (exceptions included exec. car shorex). (Do we get this automatically now with SM, or does the minimum still apply?)

A la carte - Pay full price for shorex if fewer than the YWC minimum are purchased. (Will anyone pay a la carte with SM, or will this be similar to the "brochure fare" that no one pays?)

 

 

I would assume that the minimum still applies, otherwise what's the point to have 2 different prices?

[Flatbush Flyer]

30 minutes ago, snorkelphile said:

I notice that now there are two prices for shore excursions, a "tour price" and a "simply more" price and sometimes an "unlimited" price.  Sometimes they are all the same, but often the "simply more" and "unlimited" prices are lower.  Can anyone explain this?  I assume the simply more price applies to bookings under the new program and which is the amount that would count against the included shore excursion credit. What is the "unlimited" price? Why are there differences in price?  How does that make sense?

Use the search feature here on CC for my comprehensive posts on strategies for O Life, YWYW and the Passport collection. SM is still offering the two tour “packages” but are now calling the YWYW one SM.

[Flatbush Flyer]

17 minutes ago, ak1004 said:

 

I would assume that the minimum still applies, otherwise what's the point to have 2 different prices?

Minimum still applies for YWYW 25%.

[EJL2023]

17 minutes ago, ak1004 said:

 

I would assume that the minimum still applies, otherwise what's the point to have 2 different prices?

Per call with my Oceania Rep the minimum still applies.  For my 10 day cruise I just upgraded to Simply More, the minimum is 5 and any excursion purchased using the SM Shore Excursions credit applies to the minimum just as in the past with OLife 

[AMHuntFerry]

20 minutes ago, ak1004 said:

 

I would assume that the minimum still applies, otherwise what's the point to have 2 different prices?

Someone in another topic has used the shopping cart to compare SM vs OLife. The min. still applied but it was a higher min (in their case one more).

Edited July 3, 2023 by AMHuntFerry
Well, there's ^ your "someone" ;)

[EJL2023]

32 minutes ago, AMHuntFerry said:

We will probably have to wait until someone receives a shorex pdf for a SM booking; this pdf is where the discount info is located.

Until then we can guess that it is similar to the old a la carte, YWC, and UPC packages.

Old system (briefly):

UPC - pay ~$110 per port and get certain shorex for no additional charge, other shorex have an additional fee. (Can the SM-OBC be used to purchase the UPC pkg? We shall see).

YWC - purchase a minimum number of shorex (# varied by cruise length) and get 25% off a la carte price (exceptions included exec. car shorex). (Do we get this automatically now with SM, or does the minimum still apply?)

A la carte - Pay full price for shorex if fewer than the YWC minimum are purchased. (Will anyone pay a la carte with SM, or will this be similar to the "brochure fare" that no one pays?)

 

With regard to the YWC I believe the minimum required is based upon the # of port days and not the actual cruise length.  

[Redtravel]

Spoke to TA yesterday to book a cruise. I asked if there was a cruise only option.  TA said no. Everyone booking must take simply more. Only option is with or without air.  
 

That limits what type of cruise that I would book with Oceania.  Having cruised for many years, we have taken many excursions.  As we aged, we have slowed down. My spouse has mobility issues.  Now, we only book ship excursions that are slow paced to see new places or book a private guide for just the two of us.  Now, if we book Oceania, we are paying for shore excursions whether or not we want to take them.  That limits us to only booking cruises that have ports that are either new to us or have an excursion that we haven’t taken previously.  

 

We love Caribbean cruises in the winter for the warmth.  Last winter when we sailed on Marina,  we had such a great time that we booked a Caribbean cruise on Vista winter 2024 cruise only.  Still have that booking and am looking forward to it.  With simply more including shore excursions, the present price for that cruise has increased.  Looks like we will be looking for a different cruise for winter 2025.   

 

We are looking at a summer 2024 that has some ports that are new to us.  It includes a $1000 shore excursion credit.  With Olife I knew how to book excursions. Now, I am clueless.  I can see excursions for ports. No prices are showing.  Has anyone tried to book excursions using a simply more credit?  If so, how does it work?

[pinotlover]

39 minutes ago, Redtravel said:

Spoke to TA yesterday to book a cruise. I asked if there was a cruise only option.  TA said no. Everyone booking must take simply more. Only option is with or without air.  
 

That limits what type of cruise that I would book with Oceania.  Having cruised for many years, we have taken many excursions.  As we aged, we have slowed down. My spouse has mobility issues.  Now, we only book ship excursions that are slow paced to see new places or book a private guide for just the two of us.  Now, if we book Oceania, we are paying for shore excursions whether or not we want to take them.  That limits us to only booking cruises that have ports that are either new to us or have an excursion that we haven’t taken previously.  

 

We love Caribbean cruises in the winter for the warmth.  Last winter when we sailed on Marina,  we had such a great time that we booked a Caribbean cruise on Vista winter 2024 cruise only.  Still have that booking and am looking forward to it.  With simply more including shore excursions, the present price for that cruise has increased.  Looks like we will be looking for a different cruise for winter 2025.   

 

We are looking at a summer 2024 that has some ports that are new to us.  It includes a $1000 shore excursion credit.  With Olife I knew how to book excursions. Now, I am clueless.  I can see excursions for ports. No prices are showing.  Has anyone tried to book excursions using a simply more credit?  If so, how does it work?

For all of us, in the end it’s itinerary and total cost. Fairly simple. We did a Viking cruise. Wine and beer is included for all. There were Teatotallers amongst us. Why were they there? Itinerary and total cost.

 

We primarily did private tours, as we always do, even though ship tours were included. We did the cruise because of the great itinerary and the cost was competitive.

 

I believe going forward this concept will continue. Is it possible that the implementation of SM will make some of its cruises not competitive for some cruisers? Absolutely. I also believe, that in the long run , Oceania will price its products to compete. Or, quite possibly they believe this new strategy will help bring in a new demographic that doesn’t take cruises to primarily sit on the ship watching the waves go by. Oceania has a mountain of debt to service. I’m guessing they don’t believe same ole, same ole, was going to get it paid. 🙄 We get a new program, designed to bring in new cruisers, to help pay the bills. Marketing obviously believes it will increase revenues while realizing some customers will be lost.

 

Having owned, built, and sold successful businesses in the past, one learns they must often dump marginally profitable customers at times to concentrate on newer more profitable ones. 

[oskidunker]

Let me understand this. We booked a 10 day Caribbean cruise. It includes excursions. They give us $400 ea. cant you just use the money to pay tips or alcohol? 

Edited July 21, 2023 by oskidunker

[LHT28]

13 minutes ago, oskidunker said:

Let me understand this. We booked a 10 day Caribbean cruise. It includes excursions. They give us $400 ea. cant you just use the money to pay tips or alcohol? 

Depends

Do you have the SM  deal?

 It is  for purchasing excursions ONLY

[cruisinsusin]

2 hours ago, Redtravel said:

 

 

We are looking at a summer 2024 that has some ports that are new to us.  It includes a $1000 shore excursion credit.  With Olife I knew how to book excursions. Now, I am clueless.  I can see excursions for ports. No prices are showing.  Has anyone tried to book excursions using a simply more credit?  If so, how does it work?

We booked  B2B May-June 2024 cruises earlier this year and switched to simply more as it was more advantageous cost wise. We had received the pdf of the shore excursions when originally booked with O-life and received an updated pdf under simply more- prices were listed in both pdfs and were the same before and after, at least for our cruises. Under simplymore, the cost of each excursion was substracted from the excursion credit and we paid for anything above the credit. For our cruises, once we booked 5 excursions, they were all 25% off.

[the mice]

Our experience was exactly the same as @cruisinsusin.   Prices same under Olife as SM. The SM 25% off kicked in once we booked the number of excursions required for the discount, same as Olife's YWC discount booked 

[EJL2023]

1 hour ago, the mice said:

Our experience was exactly the same as @cruisinsusin.   Prices same under Olife as SM. The SM 25% off kicked in once we booked the number of excursions required for the discount, same as Olife's YWC discount booked 

Same here and in my pdf it actually stated that the SM package pricing was same as the previous Your World. 

[oskidunker]

So on a cruise with 5 ports would you have to book 5 excursions to get 25% off?

[Classiccruiser777]

I thought "Simply More" was to simplify things...

[cruisinsusin]

I think it varies by cruise. Our cruise is 10 days with 8 ports.

[LHT28]

12 minutes ago, oskidunker said:

So on a cruise with 5 ports would you have to book 5 excursions to get 25% off?

Go to MY ACCOUNT on O website  then click on Manage this  booking

 Under  Excursions tab  it will tell you how many you need for the discount  to kick in

[Pittsburgher2017]

I’m using the shopping cart to figure this out. We have a 20 day cruise with a minimum of 10 excursions to get the Simply More discount. However if you go over the minimum of 10, the rest are not at the discounted price. Does that make sense?

[EJL2023]

35 minutes ago, Pittsburgher2017 said:

I’m using the shopping cart to figure this out. We have a 20 day cruise with a minimum of 10 excursions to get the Simply More discount. However if you go over the minimum of 10, the rest are not at the discounted price. Does that make sense?

Excursions do some wonky stuff sometime. If you already know which ones you want I’d just call Oceania and have them do it. Much easier and quicker. 

[Flatbush Flyer]

2 hours ago, Pittsburgher2017 said:

I’m using the shopping cart to figure this out. We have a 20 day cruise with a minimum of 10 excursions to get the Simply More discount. However if you go over the minimum of 10, the rest are not at the discounted price. Does that make sense?

Never use the Cart. It is very glitchy - particularly in the display of prices in the checkout list. If you do the math yourself, the bottom line price in the Cart MAY be correct. But, there are no guarantees it will work. Also, the Cart does not generate the all important “pre-purchased shore excursions” PDF (the one with all the purchase math displayed).

 

Do your your buys over the phone with an O Rep. 

[flyer79]

I booked 5 excursions on an SM booking.   I did 3 a week or so ago and the final 2 today.   The pricing did not adjust after I added the 4th and 5th excursions and I paid the full price less my credits.

 

I did a quick call to Oceania and they adjusted it right away to the discounted excursions prices.  Asked if I wanted a refund or just credit the overpay to my account.

 

No explanation of why it didn't[ happen automatically but everything was handled quickly and easily.

[ORV]

5 hours ago, flyer79 said:

I booked 5 excursions on an SM booking.   I did 3 a week or so ago and the final 2 today.   The pricing did not adjust after I added the 4th and 5th excursions and I paid the full price less my credits.

 

I did a quick call to Oceania and they adjusted it right away to the discounted excursions prices.  Asked if I wanted a refund or just credit the overpay to my account.

 

No explanation of why it didn't[ happen automatically but everything was handled quickly and easily.

Yeah, that's a pretty known glitch in the reservation system. Most regulars recommend calling in or if you have a competent TA have them take care of it. It will give you the proper discount if you put them all in at once, but if you piecemeal it then it doesn't work right.