What happens to OBC for shore ex if you are closed out of bookings?

[knitter]

Thanks for all the responses- glad to have learned some things I did not know!

[THartman]

We are on a 30 day cruise on Marina in March.  I booked 10 tours together to get the 25% discount, but the discount wasn't reflected and had to contact O to get it credited.  What  I am wondering is if any of these tours get cancelled, does the 25% discount go away?  Do I go back to full price even if the tour itself is cancelled?  I have a few ports I didn't book an excursion, for this reason.  It may end of being cheaper to add an excursion to get me back to 10 at the 25% discount.  Does anyone know?

[JRIH]

46 minutes ago, THartman said:

We are on a 30 day cruise on Marina in March.  I booked 10 tours together to get the 25% discount, but the discount wasn't reflected and had to contact O to get it credited.  What  I am wondering is if any of these tours get cancelled, does the 25% discount go away?  Do I go back to full price even if the tour itself is cancelled?  I have a few ports I didn't book an excursion, for this reason.  It may end of being cheaper to add an excursion to get me back to 10 at the 25% discount.  Does anyone know?

We have had excursions cancelled in the past and the prices never changed on the remaining ones.

[Jayne E]

9 hours ago, JRIH said:

We have had excursions cancelled in the past and the prices never changed on the remaining ones.

Hopefully, this policy doesn’t change. I used to be able to use both $150 spa certificates. Last cruise in November told no longer. Spouse has no spa interest, so loss of $150 loyalty amenity. 

[Redtravel]

11 hours ago, THartman said:

We are on a 30 day cruise on Marina in March.  I booked 10 tours together to get the 25% discount, but the discount wasn't reflected and had to contact O to get it credited.  What  I am wondering is if any of these tours get cancelled, does the 25% discount go away?  Do I go back to full price even if the tour itself is cancelled?  I have a few ports I didn't book an excursion, for this reason.  It may end of being cheaper to add an excursion to get me back to 10 at the 25% discount.  Does anyone know?

Don’t know what happens if you are on the ship when they skip a port.
With Simply More, we booked our excursions when we  made our booking. Booked excursions before cruise.  Needed 6 pp to get 25% discount.  A few weeks later, the itinerary changed.  One excursion was to a port that was eliminated.  That brought us down to 5pp. Price went up.  Called Oceania and booked an additional excursion. Price dropped.  Result was booking 6 excursions was cheaper than booking 5.   

[aussietwo]

It seems that the Oceania Special Services (Excursions) are really not coping with the demand for ship excursions since the commencement of SM.  We have had one port replaced by another port and a second port has been pushed back by a day.  As a result, we have now gone from the required 7 excursions to qualify for the Simply More Package 25% discount to having 5 tours booked. While the 2 excursions have disappeared from the list the credits have not come back into our account.  When I try to book other excursions there is not enough OBC and I would have to pay on my cc.  Also the two ports impacted are just not showing any tours.  When I contacted Oceania, I was told to contact my TA.  
 

 

 

[Psoque]

Oceania really needs to simplify this shore excursion pricing process.  In its current condition, it is a little too complicated, even for Oceania, to really manage the accounting part of this “feature.” And that was before this Simply More madness.  Until we took our first Oceania cruise last year, we always found the shore excursion pricing to be relatively simply and headache-free with all other cruise lines, especially with Crystal, who (at least in the past) did not charge for the excursions until the day before we took the excursions, making the whole accounting simpler to perform.

[Tranquility Base]

Has anyone used the SM excursion credit to book one of the private vehicles listed in various ports on the Oceania website ?

[patty1955]

We are booked on a Bermuda cruise this Sept. We only have 3 ports,  Newport, RI,  St. George, Bermuda [1 PM-11 PM], Hamilton, Bermuda for a day and 1/2.  There are no excursions available for Newport. We've been to Bermuda before and seen the places of interest. There's only one snorkeling excursions and it's marked "This excursion is closed. If available, please select another time." So, we have $600 credit for excursions and nothing to spend it on.

[pinotlover]

3 minutes ago, patty1955 said:

We are booked on a Bermuda cruise this Sept. We only have 3 ports,  Newport, RI,  St. George, Bermuda [1 PM-11 PM], Hamilton, Bermuda for a day and 1/2.  There are no excursions available for Newport. We've been to Bermuda before and seen the places of interest. There's only one snorkeling excursions and it's marked "This excursion is closed. If available, please select another time." So, we have $600 credit for excursions and nothing to spend it on.

😂. SM was a price increase. That’s all. Potential faux credits for maybe shore excursions was/is a game! SM was always just a price increase. If one is able to get a couple of ship shorex out of the deal: good for you. Otherwise, we all pay the new price whether we eat meals aboard, drink wine or beer during meals aboard, or take any ship shorex. The price is the price.

[pinotlover]

I will add that it is my understanding that when the “Group Thinks” were held on SM, several of the TA present advised not to allow SM credits to be used for excursion bookings until after Final Payment. Jr, et.al. chose to ignore that recommendation. I believe that issue should be revisited.

[tropicalkerry2002]

Hi Patty1955!

 

Are you on Sept1-8? I am, and there were Newport excursions available in Nov. I was able to book one.

Are you on the roll call? I have a tour booked for Sept 5th,to "Out of the way places", as I have been to Bermuda many Times before, and seen the usual spots. Let me know if You are interested!

 

Patty, I just checked and see several excursions still listed for the ports under Manage My Booking. Good luck!

Edited January 13 by tropicalkerry2002
added info

[patty1955]

4 minutes ago, tropicalkerry2002 said:

Hi Patty1955!

 

Are you on Sept1-8? I am, and there were Newport excursions available in Nov.i was able to book one.

Are you on the roll call? I have a tour booked for Sept 5th,to "Out of the way places", as I have been to Bermuda many Times before, and seen the usual spots. Let me know if You are interested!

We're on the Sept. 18 on the Nautica

[EJL2023]

1 hour ago, patty1955 said:

We are booked on a Bermuda cruise this Sept. We only have 3 ports,  Newport, RI,  St. George, Bermuda [1 PM-11 PM], Hamilton, Bermuda for a day and 1/2.  There are no excursions available for Newport. We've been to Bermuda before and seen the places of interest. There's only one snorkeling excursions and it's marked "This excursion is closed. If available, please select another time." So, we have $600 credit for excursions and nothing to spend it on.

There seem to be many excursions listed for Newport, and perhaps just not finalized pricing yet. Had a cruise with similar situation and then one day pricing was indicated online. Have you received the actual excursion pdf? Perhaps that would be more accurate. Been added to the Waitlist for the snorkeling excursion? As indicated some of those may open up after full payment is due. 

[patty1955]

17 minutes ago, EJL2023 said:

There seem to be many excursions listed for Newport, and perhaps just not finalized pricing yet. Had a cruise with similar situation and then one day pricing was indicated online. Have you received the actual excursion pdf? Perhaps that would be more accurate. Been added to the Waitlist for the snorkeling excursion? As indicated some of those may open up after full payment is due. 

Two months after we booked the cruise, we got an itinerary change. The changed the first port from Maine to RI. According to my original booking, we were never supposed to go to Maine. It was always RI. The excursion pdf shows Maine excursions.

There is no waitlist for the snorkeling excursion. When I called they told me they're not offering that excursion any more even thought it's still listed on the list of available excursions.

[Redtravel]

On 1/9/2024 at 11:06 AM, Redtravel said:

Don’t know what happens if you are on the ship when they skip a port.
With Simply More, we booked our excursions when we  made our booking. Booked excursions before cruise.  Needed 6 pp to get 25% discount.  A few weeks later, the itinerary changed.  One excursion was to a port that was eliminated.  That brought us down to 5pp. Price went up.  Called Oceania and booked an additional excursion. Price dropped.  Result was booking 6 excursions was cheaper than booking 5.   

Maybe we’ll get an answer.  On Vista, we skipped St. Barts today. It was a tender port.  Captain said that the high winds made tendering dangerous. In stead we have a sea day.

[ORV]

2 minutes ago, Redtravel said:

Maybe we’ll get an answer.  On Vista, we skipped St. Barts today. It was a tender port.  Captain said that the high winds made tendering dangerous. In stead we have a sea day.

Did you have a tour booked in St Barts?

[Redtravel]

6 minutes ago, ORV said:

Did you have a tour booked in St Barts?

 

6 minutes ago, ORV said:

Did you have a tour booked in St Barts?

No. Didn’t book a tour.  We booked cruise only before SM. If I hear anything about canceled excursions, I will post.  

[pinotlover]

A thorough reading of opinions on not being able to book a shorex under SM

[Tranquility Base]

Does this sound like a workable strategy to try to minimise loss of any SM Excursion Credits ?

 

Interested in 3 excursions....all similar price.

SM covers the cost of two excursions.

Book the earliest two in the itinerary first (uses the SM), leaving the later one to use normal credits or credit card.

Definitely try to avoid any late in the cruise  tender ports using SM.

 

 

[daydreamer62]

I would think that sounds logical but I'm not sure logic plays much part. I've booked 7 excursions. I booked 3 first which used all my credit with an extra $100 cost paid by cc. Then I decided to book the minimum to get the 25% discount. That discount came off all 7 excursions and when I look at the invoice it just totalsc all the excursions, took off the credit and charged me the balance rather than state excursion 1,2 and 3 were 0 cost and 5,6 and 7 were paid by me.. so if one is cancelled I'm not sure how they will work out what portion is  non refundable credit and what portion is a credit back to me..... It will be interesting to see..I hope that issue doesn't occur!!!

[AMHuntFerry]

17 hours ago, daydreamer62 said:

I would think that sounds logical but I'm not sure logic plays much part. I've booked 7 excursions. I booked 3 first which used all my credit with an extra $100 cost paid by cc. Then I decided to book the minimum to get the 25% discount. That discount came off all 7 excursions and when I look at the invoice it just totalsc all the excursions, took off the credit and charged me the balance rather than state excursion 1,2 and 3 were 0 cost and 5,6 and 7 were paid by me.. so if one is cancelled I'm not sure how they will work out what portion is  non refundable credit and what portion is a credit back to me..... It will be interesting to see..I hope that issue doesn't occur!!!

Ask for the "Pre-Purchased Shore excursions and Onboard Items" pdf. It will have each shorex line item with retail price, discounts, and final price, then a total for each column.

[daydreamer62]

2 hours ago, AMHuntFerry said:

Ask for the "Pre-Purchased Shore excursions and Onboard Items" pdf. It will have each shorex line item with retail price, discounts, and final price, then a total for each column.

Yes I have that. It shows the full price of each, them the 25% discount off each . It totals  each at that point . Then the grand total is shown with the SM credit is deducted from that grand total not which separate excursions are being accounted for by the credit

[shepherd really]

39 minutes ago, daydreamer62 said:

Yes I have that. It shows the full price of each, them the 25% discount off each . It totals  each at that point . Then the grand total is shown with the SM credit is deducted from that grand total not which separate excursions are being accounted for by the credit

Yes, cash and credits are fungible.

[aussietwo]

5 hours ago, daydreamer62 said:

Yes I have that. It shows the full price of each, them the 25% discount off each . It totals  each at that point . Then the grand total is shown with the SM credit is deducted from that grand total not which separate excursions are being accounted for by the credit

SM will be used up first (as was the case when you purchased).  As you have paid cash for the balance any cancelled tour amount will become refundable OBC.