Simply More credits will be simply less as of 1/1/24

[S4POPO]

1 hour ago, MEFIowa said:

 

For us, looks like it may be the end-of-the-line, given how we started on O in 2021 (10 nights) with "cruise only" and thankfully booked our 2022 (10 nights) and 2023 (20 nights) also "cruise only". The SM program essentially raised prices by $800 or so with no real value for us (we'd rather set up our own excursions). We have a 20-night B2B on Sirena in the Baltic later in 2024, but NO plans for any O cruise in 2025 or 2026.

 

The "product" we want is "cruise only". That's gone.

 

I'm so glad I booked the 2024 cruise in early 2022, the day it opened! Between SM and the price increases, the price shown today is so beyond ours.

I respect your opinion.  What competitors are you considering?  What's a comparable product that offers cruise only?

[oskidunker]

Maybe Viking?  I am not willing to go back to Princess to-pay less and to get a bad experience. I will cruise less or not at all rather than throwing money away on an overcrowded, monstrosity of a ship on a mass market cruise line .

[Sthrngary]

8 minutes ago, oskidunker said:

Maybe Viking?  I am not willing to go back to Princess to-pay less and to get a bad experience. I will cruise less or not at all rather than throwing money away on an overcrowded, monstrosity of a ship on a mass market cruise line .

@oskidunker Taking Princess as a brand out of this debate.  I love your strategy of cruising less, which means you pay a bit more, but get the experience you desire.  The alternative create posts with lost of complaints instead of sharing how great your vacation was.  I support your strategy 100%.  

 

Now we all make a decisions.  Based on the brands, ships, frequency of sailing, and Itineraries.  Which one is right for my next investment in a vacation.  We the consumer have 100% control over that opinion.

 

Cruise well and enjoy every moment.

[Vallesan]

I guess the crux of the matter is how much are you prepared to pay for Oceania ‘as it is’?

As it ‘was’ is really not relevant because it ‘is no longer’ …. it’s changed! 

Personally when we book a cruise  I usually have a rough budget in mind. I only like small ships, no larger than the Riviera. I work out the ‘value’ of a cruise for us, which is obviously very personal. 

 

I look at Oceania, my preferred brand, Seabourn and Silversea.

 

I don’t like Viking’s early full payment terms.
 

I do like the inclusivity of Seabourn and love the staff and atmosphere onboard. We cruised with them in Europe in September with included business class flights only because it was great value but that’s not always the case.

 

I love the all inclusivity of Silversea and especially the butler service! But I don’t like Silversea not honouring discounts after you book with Port-to-port. Living in the UK  I don’t like  door-to-door as I don’t like being charged in the region of £1000-1500 pp for a short flight and 50 free miles transfer with Blacklane. So I will only book with them now if the port-to-port price is one I just can’t refuse!

 

So, for me Oceania ‘is what it is’ and it usually still works for me but, if it no longer works for you you need to look at other lines to see if the value they offer is better for you.

 

 

[GeezerCouple]

25 minutes ago, Sthrngary said:

@oskidunker Taking Princess as a brand out of this debate.  I love your strategy of cruising less, which means you pay a bit more, but get the experience you desire.  The alternative create posts with lost of complaints instead of sharing how great your vacation was.  I support your strategy 100%.  

 

Now we all make a decisions.  Based on the brands, ships, frequency of sailing, and Itineraries.  Which one is right for my next investment in a vacation.  We the consumer have 100% control over that opinion.

 

Cruise well and enjoy every moment.

 

I'm not sure if oskidunker meant what you stated above (bolding added) when they said "cruise less or not at all..."

 

37 minutes ago, oskidunker said:

Maybe Viking?  I am not willing to go back to Princess to-pay less and to get a bad experience. I will cruise less or not at all rather than throwing money away on an overcrowded, monstrosity of a ship on a mass market cruise line .

 

We are definitely in that category, except that we do *NOT* mean cruise less WITH OCEANIA and PAY MORE (FOR LESS or the same).

 

We also love land travel, although it's not really the same thing of course.  We often mix the two.  If we'll be in Italy for a cruise, why not spend extra time before/after (or both!) the cruise?  Win/win!

 

One of the many goals for us with cruising is to find new places we may want to spend more time.  We've still got quite a list of places to see or to spend more time.

And IF a cruise is needed for certain locales (and that does happen), then... probably NOT Oceania.

We were both more than slightly appalled when Oceania made OFFERS to some passengers and then YANKED BACK THOSE OFFERS WITHOUT NOTICE.

How could we ever trust a company who did that, had it noticed, and then... left it that way!??

This is *separate* from their decision to continue the sailing into Suez/Red Sea/etc.

We don't agree with the decision, but that is a good - albeit unexpected - example of why we get travel insurance with CFAR (Cancel for Any Reason), which now also includes INTERRUPT For Any Reason.  IF we decide something isn't working right or isn't safe, we'll just leave, and get 75% cash back.

 

And even without that CFAR, IF we felt unsafe, "we're outta there!"

As I put it elsewhere, "They may have our money, but we do NOT have to give them our time... or possibly our bodies!"

The payments are sunk costs.  See "Sunk Cost Fallacy":

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/sunkcost.asp#:~:text=A sunk cost is money,phenomenon of the sunk cost.

It may "feel funny" to acknowledge that and act accordingly, as it would to us.

But we don't need to make a difficult situation even worse.

GC

[jonthomas]

for me it is not about how we like O, or how we like others...

 

its about the way lines raise their prices...

 

raise the rate, fine...but dont start fudging with the new SM that you have just rolled out and want people to swallow....give them time to digest it before you change it again...

 

yes some need a longer time to digest than others...but  only a couple of months  of SM is just too short  to already introduce a change....bad policy decisions...

[Waltershipman]

9 minutes ago, jonthomas said:

for me it is not about how we like O, or how we like others...

 

its about the way lines raise their prices...

 

raise the rate, fine...but dont start fudging with the new SM that you have just rolled out and want people to swallow....give them time to digest it before you change it again...

 

yes some need a longer time to digest than others...but  only a couple of months  of SM is just too short  to already introduce a change....bad policy decisions...

On the other hand so far for an upcoming booking have only found excursions to our liking and are not booked  that do not even use the full SM benefit so far have used $475 of 800

[jonthomas]

7 minutes ago, Waltershipman said:

On the other hand so far for an upcoming booking have only found excursions to our liking and are not booked  that do not even use the full SM benefit so far have used $475 of 800

 yup there is that too....we are forced to hurry and book tours, or they will be gone...all before final pay, then some will cancel cruise and the tours may become available.... forcing the consumer into a very poor way to deal with this SM policy.

 

Someone in charge  needs to act fast to rectify a very poorly thought out policy.

[AMHuntFerry]

Let's look at this from a different angle. Let's say I'm a consumer looking at booking a cruise but I'm not ready to commit before January 1st which is the next schedule base-fare option to increase (and also coincides with the "end" of the Holiday Sale and the possible SM shorex-OBC lower amounts). I like specific examples, so I'll do that...

Let's say I'm a new-to-O cruiser looking at one of O's less expensive cruises, a 7-day ~$2000 per person cruise that is not part of the sale, and assume it is at my maximum spending budget (or comfort. For those who prefer more expensive cruises, just substitute your respective $-amounts). Currently that cruise comes with $300 per person SM shorex-OBC; in 2024 it goes down to $200. If O has chosen to lower the SM shorex-OBC instead of raising the price by $100 per person (putting it out of my budget/comfort), then that is a positive to me since I'm not thrilled with the SM program anyway. We will never know if this is the case (what if it goes up $100...we won't know if the alternative was to go up $200 and keep SM credit the same).

Anywhoo...it's just a thought. For those of us that don't particularly like SM, if this change keeps prices down then it's a good change. In the long run it just changes one cell in my spreadsheet, and as has been mentioned, the total price (including the rest of the onboard and non-O spending) is what most people care about.

[EJL2023]

I think what we are all missing is that when they lower the shore excursion credits they will also be lowering the price of the cruise accordingly!! ……………so they are actually listening to us by lowering the credits which people went on and on about when introduced so you don’t feel obligated to take so many of those crappy excursions and will now lower the cruise price!!!…dang, where is that sarcasm button???

[AMHuntFerry]

9 minutes ago, EJL2023 said:

I think what we are all missing is that when they lower the shore excursion credits they will also be lowering the price of the cruise accordingly!! ……………so they are actually listening to us by lowering the credits which people went on and on about when introduced so you don’t feel obligated to take so many of those crappy excursions and will now lower the cruise price!!!…dang, where is that sarcasm button???

I wasn't so insane as to propose a decrease, but I think a stable fare is a definite possibility as I keep track of these things enough to do a pretty thorough (or thorough enough for my purposes/interests) of the actual (vs. perceived) effect of the introduction of SM. I'll do the same with this change. Being analytical rather than emotional tends to be fiscally beneficial.

[EJL2023]

7 minutes ago, AMHuntFerry said:

I wasn't so insane as to propose a decrease, but I think a stable fare is a definite possibility as I keep track of these things enough to do a pretty thorough (or thorough enough for my purposes/interests) of the actual (vs. perceived) effect of the introduction of SM. I'll do the same with this change. Being analytical rather than emotional tends to be fiscally beneficial.

Hopefully you are right, personally, at this point no difference to me. And also, my post had nothing to do with your post as had not even seen it when I posted. 

[Waltershipman]

1 hour ago, jonthomas said:

 yup there is that too....we are forced to hurry and book tours, or they will be gone...all before final pay, then some will cancel cruise and the tours may become available.... forcing the consumer into a very poor way to deal with this SM policy.

 

Someone in charge  needs to act fast to rectify a very poorly thought out policy.

Im any event i booked the cruise apparently long after excursions were 1st available to be booked and was unable to fill my full SM credit. I dont mind actually and will make other on shore plans i was just happy to think i had most of on shore activities taken care of. Oh well I was mistaken apparently. 

[Gracie115]

On 12/20/2023 at 2:06 PM, shepherd really said:

Looks like Oceania is reducing the excursion credits across the board for all cruise lengths as of 1/1/24 by about $200 per cabin.  

 

Nice sneaky way to increase their bottom line without increasing fares.

 

Got this from my TA today

 

 

The Shore Excursion Credit amounts vary by voyage length and are available for all staterooms and suites.

• 7-9 days: $400 per stateroom

• 10-13 days: $600 per stateroom

• 14-18 days: $800 per stateroom

• 19-24 days: $1,000 per stateroom

• 25-30 days: $1,200 per stateroom

• 31+ days: $1,400 per stateroom

It's happening before 1/1. We just booked a 12 night on board last Friday and we recieved $600 not $800

[Waltershipman]

7 minutes ago, Gracie115 said:

It's happening before 1/1. We just booked a 12 night on board last Friday and we recieved $600 not $800

Can SM be used for cooking classes and any infonon booking them

 

Thanks

[AMHuntFerry]

4 minutes ago, Waltershipman said:

Can SM be used for cooking classes and any infonon booking them

 

Thanks

Oops...more in a second

Edited December 21, 2023 by AMHuntFerry
CC is updating too quickly for my slow clicking

[AMHuntFerry]

12 minutes ago, Gracie115 said:

It's happening before 1/1. We just booked a 12 night on board last Friday and we recieved $600 not $800

Just curious....which cruise?

[AMHuntFerry]

5 minutes ago, Waltershipman said:

Can SM be used for cooking classes and any infonon booking them

 

Thanks

There has been a post of someone who booked a cooking class online and was able to use their SM credits (I'm not energetic enough at the moment to battle CC's search engine).
Go to your online account to book cooking classes. They will not be with shorex, but are under one of the other tabs (of course I'm blanking on the name of the tab at the moment). Cooking classes show up online at unpredictable times....sometimes a year out, sometimes of few months out, so keep checking (annoying, but ??). You can also call O to book (if available yet).

[Gracie115]

29 minutes ago, AMHuntFerry said:

Just curious....which cruise?

Allura 12 night Nov 16, 2025

[Waltershipman]

24 minutes ago, AMHuntFerry said:

There has been a post of someone who booked a cooking class online and was able to use their SM credits (I'm not energetic enough at the moment to battle CC's search engine).
Go to your online account to book cooking classes. They will not be with shorex, but are under one of the other tabs (of course I'm blanking on the name of the tab at the moment). Cooking classes show up online at unpredictable times....sometimes a year out, sometimes of few months out, so keep checking (annoying, but ??). You can also call O to book (if available yet).

Many thanks

[Gracie115]

34 minutes ago, Waltershipman said:

Can SM be used for cooking classes and any infonon booking them

 

Thanks

Good question.  I think they would tell you no but, at least in our case, our remaining "non refundable shore excursion credit" wound up offsetting other expenses.  I expected to walk off with a bill for the total of the Gratuities and it was actually about $80.00 less, and yes the Gratuities were charged at full amount.... go figure, but I'm not complaining.

[Waltershipman]

6 minutes ago, Gracie115 said:

Good question.  I think they would tell you no but, at least in our case, our remaining "non refundable shore excursion credit" wound up offsetting other expenses.  I expected to walk off with a bill for the total of the Gratuities and it was actually about $80.00 less, and yes the Gratuities were charged at full amount.... go figure, but I'm not complaining.

Just went to website and culinary classes under other options to use SM credits 

 

Many thanks

[AMHuntFerry]

13 minutes ago, Gracie115 said:

Allura 12 night Nov 16, 2025

It seems like you might have a beef with O. The website is still showing $800.

[Waltershipman]

12 minutes ago, Waltershipman said:

Just went to website and culinary classes under other options to use SM credits 

 

Many thanks

Unfortunately all booked up

[Gracie115]

19 minutes ago, AMHuntFerry said:

It seems like you might have a beef with O. The website is still showing $800.

Yes it does...... interesting.  I will have my TA, who has now taken over the reservation look into this.  Thanks