Simply More

[Victoria51]

We paid for our cruise on Vista before the new Simply More pricing.  We asked our Oceania agent to see if we could switch over and it was terribly confusing. We had to pay a lot more and I have no idea how he priced it.  We finally gave up asking for explanations.  Anyone else have this experience ….switching to SM …and understanding how it priced out?  Thanks. 

Edited September 21, 2023 by Victoria51

[LHT28]

without knowing more details no one can say

 

What is the price of your cruise now?

What did you pay when you first booked?

What did you pay to upgrade?

 

Did you book with air?

[Victoria51]

Just now, LHT28 said:

What is the price of your cruise now?

What did you pay when you first booked?

What did you pay to upgrade?

 

Did you book with air?

 

[Victoria51]

We had to pay the new brochure rate…so $1600 CND more..but what we never understood was how it adjusted for the free shore excursions, the wine pkg etc.   We are going with friends and they ended up paying a very small amount.  Our friends paid in US and we paid in CND…complicated also as our friends booked with an American Airlines Travel and started with a different price than us. 
We did not book air.

[LHT28]

11 minutes ago, Victoria51 said:

We had to pay the new brochure rate…so $1600 CND more..but what we never understood was how it adjusted for the free shore excursions, the wine pkg etc.   We are going with friends and they ended up paying a very small amount.  Our friends paid in US and we paid in CND…complicated also as our friends booked with an American Airlines Travel and started with a different price than us. 
We did not book air.

So you  now get  beer & wine/Champagne by the glass  with lunch & dinner

 Depending on how long the cruise is  you  get  an Excursion credit   that you can use  to book any excursion you want

 

Yes if you paid in CAD  you get  to pay the upgrade in CAD

 Maybe your friends caught a sale  when they booked or different cabin category

before SM  there were several sales going on

[LHT28]

This explains the amount of Excursion credit  per cabin

 

simply MORE: Shore excursion credit amounts vary by voyage length

7-9 Days: $600 Per Stateroom

10-13 Days: $800 Per Stateroom

14-18 Days: $1,000 Per Stateroom

19-24 Days: $1,200 Per Stateroom

25-30 Days: $1,400 Per Stateroom

31-35 Days: $1,600 Per Stateroom

[Victoria51]

We booked exactly the same category and same shore excursions..booked on the same day with the same agent.  However, my friend gave his booking to American Airline Travel agent.   We did send an email to our agent expressing our confusion as between the 4 of us, MBA & Accountants, we could not make sense of the pricing difference.  
My question is did anyone else make the switch to SM and did they understand the additional cost?
 

[Victoria51]

Yes, gets complicated when original purchase of shore excursions was subject to the 25% disc when you buy 8 or more and we chose the Olife of 4 free excursions etc. Then you give up that 25% and then price out everything full value on SM then apply the “free shore excursions” credit of $1000 USD.  
 

[LHT28]

If you go  back 10 to 15 pages there are lots of discussions on SM

 Seems quite a few switched

 

If you booked under O Life you were not obligated to switch

 

Yes  I do not think SM  made it  less complicated 😲

 

[Victoria51]

Thanks, I will go back and see if I can read some of the other posts.  Yes, I know we were not obligated to make the switch.  We did as our friends made the switch and paid about $144USD.  You seem to be travelling soon on the Vista? Did you make the switch? 

[LHT28]

28 minutes ago, Victoria51 said:

Thanks, I will go back and see if I can read some of the other posts.  Yes, I know we were not obligated to make the switch.  We did as our friends made the switch and paid about $144USD.  You seem to be travelling soon on the Vista? Did you make the switch? 

It was not offered on our cruise as ours is Sept 

The SM starts Oct 1st

I would not  do it anyway  as we do not do ships tours  or drink very much  so would not be worth it to me

[1985rz1]

46 minutes ago, Victoria51 said:

We booked exactly the same category and same shore excursions..booked on the same day with the same agent.  However, my friend gave his booking to American Airline Travel agent.   We did send an email to our agent expressing our confusion as between the 4 of us, MBA & Accountants, we could not make sense of the pricing difference.  
My question is did anyone else make the switch to SM and did they understand the additional cost?
 

 

37 minutes ago, Victoria51 said:

Yes, gets complicated when original purchase of shore excursions was subject to the 25% disc when you buy 8 or more and we chose the Olife of 4 free excursions etc. Then you give up that 25% and then price out everything full value on SM then apply the “free shore excursions” credit of $1000 USD.  
 

Part 1:

When SM came out, we asked our TA to price the new rates for 3 cruises booked under OLife, so we could compare $ for $ whether it made sense for us.  We took into account the price of our OLife excursions, the cost of the basic beverage package included in SM and the cost of the second WiFi included with SM.  We had some SBC included from O (not our TA's SBC) to fold into the calculation.  Our TA found that in one case, we qualified for a new sale price, and the new price saved us several thousands of $, so we switched.  In the cases of other 2, there was a loss, primarily because we would lose some bonus SBC from O, so we didn't switch.  The important point here is our TA was a savvy agent who could lay out the difference.

 

Part 2:

I'm not sure exactly what you were trying to say, but under OLife you get a fixed number of included excursions which were included in the OLife fare and which were priced at $100 each above the cruise only fare.  If you exceeded that number by enough to qualify to the 25% discount, it would apply to all.  The ones selected for the OLife excursions counted towards the number needed for the discount.

 

In the case of SM, you get a fixed $ amount to spend. If the number of excursions selected reach the minimum number, you would get a 25% discount on all selected.  The fixed amount go towards the reduced total.

 

Do that clarify it for you?

[Victoria51]

13 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

It was not offered on our cruise as ours is Sept 

The SM starts Oct 1st

I would not  do it anyway  as we do not do ships tours  or drink very much  so would not be worth it to me

 

8 minutes ago, 1985rz1 said:

 

Part 1:

When SM came out, we asked our TA to price the new rates for 3 cruises booked under OLife, so we could compare $ for $ whether it made sense for us.  We took into account the price of our OLife excursions, the cost of the basic beverage package included in SM and the cost of the second WiFi included with SM.  We had some SBC included from O (not our TA's SBC) to fold into the calculation.  Our TA found that in one case, we qualified for a new sale price, and the new price saved us several thousands of $, so we switched.  In the cases of other 2, there was a loss, primarily because we would lose some bonus SBC from O, so we didn't switch.  The important point here is our TA was a savvy agent who could lay out the difference.

 

Part 2:

I'm not sure exactly what you were trying to say, but under OLife you get a fixed number of included excursions which were included in the OLife fare and which were priced at $100 each above the cruise only fare.  If you exceeded that number by enough to qualify to the 25% discount, it would apply to all.  The ones selected for the OLife excursions counted towards the number needed for the discount.

 

In the case of SM, you get a fixed $ amount to spend. If the number of excursions selected reach the minimum number, you would get a 25% discount on all selected.  The fixed amount go towards the reduced total.

 

Do that clarify it for you?

 

[Victoria51]

I feel like our agent did not lay out the 

9 minutes ago, 1985rz1 said:

 

Part 1:

When SM came out, we asked our TA to price the new rates for 3 cruises booked under OLife, so we could compare $ for $ whether it made sense for us.  We took into account the price of our OLife excursions, the cost of the basic beverage package included in SM and the cost of the second WiFi included with SM.  We had some SBC included from O (not our TA's SBC) to fold into the calculation.  Our TA found that in one case, we qualified for a new sale price, and the new price saved us several thousands of $, so we switched.  In the cases of other 2, there was a loss, primarily because we would lose some bonus SBC from O, so we didn't switch.  The important point here is our TA was a savvy agent who could lay out the difference.

 

Part 2:

I'm not sure exactly what you were trying to say, but under OLife you get a fixed number of included excursions which were included in the OLife fare and which were priced at $100 each above the cruise only fare.  If you exceeded that number by enough to qualify to the 25% discount, it would apply to all.  The ones selected for the OLife excursions counted towards the number needed for the discount.

 

In the case of SM, you get a fixed $ amount to spend. If the number of excursions selected reach the minimum number, you would get a 25% discount on all selected.  The fixed amount go towards the reduced total.

 

Do that clarify it for you?

Thanks for all the info.  I feel our agent was not savvy …and hoping our email expressing our concerns on  how it priced out gets answered soon.  

[basenji56]

I have an O life transatlantic cruise booked with the unlimited shore excursion package.  Booked almost all of my excursions before the switchover to the new plan.

 

Realized that I had forgotten one day's excursions in Seville.

 

Tried to book that one and found it was $270 even with my unlimited package.  Usually when I booked the more expensive excursions with the package, the upcharge was around $100.

 

I booked it but plan to cancel and book through Spain Day Tours.  Same excursion--$80.

 

[LHT28]

9 hours ago, Victoria51 said:

I feel like our agent did not lay out the 

Thanks for all the info.  I feel our agent was not savvy …and hoping our email expressing our concerns on  how it priced out gets answered soon.  

Do you have a travel agent  or using an O rep?

 

Either way I would  go to the next level manager or supervisor

If both parties  booked the same  day/excursions  then something is off

JMO

[GeorginaSpica]

11 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

Do you have a travel agent  or using an O rep?

 

Either way I would  go to the next level manager or supervisor

If both parties  booked the same  day/excursions  then something is off

JMO

Yes, chat with the manager to help figure it out.

 

Our cruise is in a couple of weeks so starting soon after the start of SM.  When I first contacted my O rep, he said 'cruise is totally booked at your cabin level so you can't switch'. After reading a bunch here, I called him.  He went to his manager and switched plans with no additional cost (SM made more sense for our group).  

 

[Croooser]

Victoria 51. 

 

We had a 17 day Vista cruise booked prior to SM for next June. We had our TA enquire twice for a price to go to SM. O's response was that we would be repriced to the current SM price for that cruise. We did not think that was reasonable since there have been at least two price increases not related to SM. We sorted all of the confusion out by setting up a spreadsheet to compare prices, increases and inclusions. 

 

We understand that O sets the price and that they should do what works best for them. However, we decided to look at options. We cancelled and are now booked on Seabourn for a little bit more pp/day for an itinerary that we like a little bit better.

 

We recognize that any individual booking is insignificant to the cruise line. And we don't resent their pricing decision. Probably worked out well for us since it nudged us to consider alternatives and now we will try a new, to us, cruise line - Seabourn.

 

We are on a Vista TA without SM in November and on Marina next fall with SM and plan on keeping those.

 

Will be interesting to see how we feel Seabourn compares.

[Victoria51]

10 hours ago, 1985rz1 said:

 

Part 1:

When SM came out, we asked our TA to price the new rates for 3 cruises booked under OLife, so we could compare $ for $ whether it made sense for us.  We took into account the price of our OLife excursions, the cost of the basic beverage package included in SM and the cost of the second WiFi included with SM.  We had some SBC included from O (not our TA's SBC) to fold into the calculation.  Our TA found that in one case, we qualified for a new sale price, and the new price saved us several thousands of $, so we switched.  In the cases of other 2, there was a loss, primarily because we would lose some bonus SBC from O, so we didn't switch.  The important point here is our TA was a savvy agent who could lay out the difference.

 

Part 2:

I'm not sure exactly what you were trying to say, but under OLife you get a fixed number of included excursions which were included in the OLife fare and which were priced at $100 each above the cruise only fare.  If you exceeded that number by enough to qualify to the 25% discount, it would apply to all.  The ones selected for the OLife excursions counted towards the number needed for the discount.

 

In the case of SM, you get a fixed $ amount to spend. If the number of excursions selected reach the minimum number, you would get a 25% discount on all selected.  The fixed amount go towards the reduced total.

 

Do that clarify it for you?

 

[MRGACRUZR]

On 9/20/2023 at 10:37 PM, LHT28 said:

This explains the amount of Excursion credit  per cabin

 

simply MORE: Shore excursion credit amounts vary by voyage length

7-9 Days: $600 Per Stateroom

10-13 Days: $800 Per Stateroom

14-18 Days: $1,000 Per Stateroom

19-24 Days: $1,200 Per Stateroom

25-30 Days: $1,400 Per Stateroom

31-35 Days: $1,600 Per Stateroom

Here's the interesting part. Say your per cabin is 800. You can't spend the 800 on a single price excursion, such as a cabana. They will only allow you to use 400. When buying excursions, instead of being per cabin, it's really 400 each, not combinable. Crazy

[Vineyard View]

We had $1,000 excursion credit. When booking excursions, it was $500/ea. I didn’t have an issue with that as we would take excursions together. I used it up in two excursions as we are not inclined to take them. I don’t think you are able to use it for reserving a cabana, only excursions. Maybe I am misunderstanding. 

[AMHuntFerry]

5 hours ago, MRGACRUZR said:

Here's the interesting part. Say your per cabin is 800. You can't spend the 800 on a single price excursion, such as a cabana. They will only allow you to use 400. When buying excursions, instead of being per cabin, it's really 400 each, not combinable. Crazy

Did you call O? Sometimes the online cart is finicky (and not in a good way), so if you haven't called you may be able to get what you want. Since it's a new system and everyone is learning the ropes (i.e., you may get an answer from a rep that is incorrect), it may help to call again (and again) or ask for a supervisor. If you are working with a TA, have them go to bat for you.

[MRGACRUZR]

7 hours ago, AMHuntFerry said:

Did you call O? Sometimes the online cart is finicky (and not in a good way), so if you haven't called you may be able to get what you want. Since it's a new system and everyone is learning the ropes (i.e., you may get an answer from a rep that is incorrect), it may help to call again (and again) or ask for a supervisor. If you are working with a TA, have them go to bat for you.

Actually they called me after i emailed my rep about the cart being weird. I put the excursion in my cart. It said it was in my cart but when i went to the cart it said i had nothing in my cart. It appears this new Simply More has got them confused too. The O rep I'd been dealing with was explaining it to me with the supervisor in the background explaining it to him. There are so many "gotchas" in this program.

[MRGACRUZR]

9 hours ago, Vineyard View said:

We had $1,000 excursion credit. When booking excursions, it was $500/ea. I didn’t have an issue with that as we would take excursions together. I used it up in two excursions as we are not inclined to take them. I don’t think you are able to use it for reserving a cabana, only excursions. Maybe I am misunderstanding. 

You can use it to reserve a cabana but, you can only use one person's portion of the suite total.  You will probably have to call because the system can't handle the nuances of the new Simply More.

[shepherd really]

Let's unpack this a bit,

 

Simply more benefits are per stateroom, per O

Amenities are per stateroom

 

O's IT is consistently inept and CS reps are mostly poorly informed by management that is unable to anticipate many scenarios. 

 

So, until we get a definitive answer about whether this "you can only use half the Simply more credit" for excursions is fact or fiction, I'm going with the most likely explanation.  IT screwed up again, most of the CS reps are clueless and the geniuses that came up with SM didn't game out every situation.