Any issues with cancelled ports?

[stevesol6718]

Riviera just changed the port from Tokyo to Yokohama on next March/April cruises.  Now we are way over an hour from Tokyo and have to take a taxi or a train to Tokyo.  Saving on port fees?

[QuestionEverything]

2 hours ago, stevesol6718 said:

Riviera just changed the port from Tokyo to Yokohama on next March/April cruises.  Now we are way over an hour from Tokyo and have to take a taxi or a train to Tokyo.  Saving on port fees?

SM, connect, saving port fees, reducing time in port, not able to re-book an excursion due to lack of availability, not return of forced payment of SM due to port cancellation - NOT a flattering profile of Oceania as being posted on Cunard, Celebrity sites.

[pinotlover]

7 hours ago, stevesol6718 said:

Riviera just changed the port from Tokyo to Yokohama on next March/April cruises.  Now we are way over an hour from Tokyo and have to take a taxi or a train to Tokyo.  Saving on port fees?

Fly into Haneda not Narita. Haneda is relatively close to the Yokohama port. We took a taxi from the ship to the Yokohama Shinkansen station. Relatively inexpensive and from there, Japan is at your bequest. 

[edgee]

On 5/17/2024 at 11:14 AM, roothy123 said:

From what I've been told, whatever money you paid (whether as part of an excursion in which you used both SM excursion credit and your own money OR an excursion which you paid for in full) would be turned into a refundable shipboard credit (to be used on anything - excursions, spa, drinks, store purchases, etc.)  If you haven't used this credit by the end of the cruise, you can ask that what you paid be refunded to you.  But this is from what I was told by another cruiser.  I haven't yet cruised with SM shore excursion credit, so can't verify whether it's correct.  

We had a distasteful experience with SM. We made last port on our cruise, but our snorkelng excursion was cancelled. Did not find out til we got off of the tender at Grand Cayman. No opportunity to take another tour. Disembarkation port (Miami) was next stop.  Tour cost was paid with Simply More credit. No way to use the $98 pp so $198 of SM credit lost. Reception desk gave us the brush off. Said to talk to Destination Services. Destination said to talk to Reception Desk. Purser confirmed that the SM credit is lost in situations like ours. Could not use for any other purpose on the ship except cooking classes which could not happen since they were full. Have one more booked cruise with O and we might be done. For us Regent is a better and not that much more expensive an option.

[Tranquility Base]

40 minutes ago, pinotlover said:

Fly into Haneda not Narita.

It will often come down to a personal risk & reward assessment.

My choice was non-stop into NRT or 2 flights into HND.

I chose the NRT option.

[Hlitner]

5 minutes ago, Tranquility Base said:

It will often come down to a personal risk & reward assessment.

My choice was non-stop into NRT or 2 flights into HND.

I chose the NRT option.

We would normally opt for the non-stop.  Narita is a fine airport, with good transportation options, but does suffer the disadvantage of being a long distance from Tokyo (and longer distance from Yokohama).  

 

Hank

[pinotlover]

We fly from BNA so always must do at least 1stop. BNA-ORD ORD-HND non stop. sweet!

[Vineyard View]

4 hours ago, edgee said:

Purser confirmed that the SM credit is lost in situations like ours. Could not use for any other purpose on the ship except cooking classes which could not happen since they were full. Have one more booked cruise with O and we might be done. For us Regent is a better and not that much more expensive an option.

So the SM excursion credit could be used for cooking classes? This is the first time I have read this vs excursion application only. Do you know if this is only when an excursion is cancelled? 

[edgee]

1 minute ago, Vineyard View said:

So the SM excursion credit could be used for cooking classes? This is the first time I have read this vs excursion application only. Do you know if this is only when an excursion is cancelled? 

I believe there are zero conditions where they provide any additional uses for SM due to excursions being cancelled. My understanding is that one can use SM credit for classes at any point, assuming they are available. Realistically they would need to be booked before the cruise because they are almost always booked full prior to the cruise IME.

[Vineyard View]

41 minutes ago, edgee said:

I believe there are zero conditions where they provide any additional uses for SM due to excursions being cancelled. My understanding is that one can use SM credit for classes at any point, assuming they are available. Realistically they would need to be booked before the cruise because they are almost always booked full prior to the cruise IME.

Well this is good to know!  Thank you for sharing! 

[alcpa1]

On our recent Sirena sailing (March) SM credits could definitely NOT be used for any other onboard expenses.

[edgee]

43 minutes ago, Vineyard View said:

Well this is good to know!  Thank you for sharing! 

I am 100 percent sure that was what I was told on Vista last November. Am I absolutely sure it is accurate? Would be interested if others can confirm🤔

Edited May 19 by edgee

[QuestionEverything]

14 hours ago, edgee said:

We had a distasteful experience with SM. We made last port on our cruise, but our snorkelng excursion was cancelled. Did not find out til we got off of the tender at Grand Cayman. No opportunity to take another tour. Disembarkation port (Miami) was next stop.  Tour cost was paid with Simply More credit. No way to use the $98 pp so $198 of SM credit lost. Reception desk gave us the brush off. Said to talk to Destination Services. Destination said to talk to Reception Desk. Purser confirmed that the SM credit is lost in situations like ours. Could not use for any other purpose on the ship except cooking classes which could not happen since they were full. Have one more booked cruise with O and we might be done. For us Regent is a better and not that much more expensive an option.

Thank you for sharing your experience.

SM is the reason I have no Oceania voyages booked nor contemplated.

As I have posted before, the Ports Are the reason I cruise.

Without a reasonable assurance of being at every port, less "true" weather conditions, a mechanical failure or port incident, I will no longer cruise O.

Regent and NCL posters are also noting more port incidents, so I am wary of Regent - it appears to be a happening in the NCL family of lines.

So many posters here have reported having excursions cancelled, with no replacement available and you lose your own $. Not acceptable.

To each their own, but I do not spend big $ and hassle to fly to get on a ship that I am not confident will deliver the itinerary.

 

[roothy123]

49 minutes ago, QuestionEverything said:

Thank you for sharing your experience.

SM is the reason I have no Oceania voyages booked nor contemplated.

As I have posted before, the Ports Are the reason I cruise.

Without a reasonable assurance of being at every port, less "true" weather conditions, a mechanical failure or port incident, I will no longer cruise O.

Regent and NCL posters are also noting more port incidents, so I am wary of Regent - it appears to be a happening in the NCL family of lines.

So many posters here have reported having excursions cancelled, with no replacement available and you lose your own $. Not acceptable.

To each their own, but I do not spend big $ and hassle to fly to get on a ship that I am not confident will deliver the itinerary.

 

I'm hearing a lot of complaints about a competing cruise line.  Missed ports seem to be very upsetting to many people, plus often they report that excursions have sold out very quickly, resulting in many people asking how to arrange their own non-ship offered excursions.  Some even report that they are unable to book one of the line's free excursions, at least before they get on the ship and are able to talk to someone about it. Things are a little rough out there right now.

Edited May 19 by roothy123

[Hlitner]

9 hours ago, edgee said:

I am 100 percent sure that was what I was told on Vista last November. Am I absolutely sure it is accurate? Would be interested if others can confirm🤔

We recently finished a 35 day Vista cruise and were told (by Guest Services/purser) the same.  Unused SM Shore Excursion credits cannot be used for any other purpose.  If your excursions get cancelled the burden is on the passenger to find another excursion.  If not possible you are out of luck.  Although we enjoyed just about everything on our Vista voyage, the SM situation still leaves a sour taste in my mouth.  If O makes it impossible to use one's SM shore excursion credit (such as when cancelling a booked excursion at the last port) one can make the case that it is legalized (in O's opinion) theft.  O is simply taking the passenger's money, without permission.

 

O does need a policy change.  When SM excursions are cancelled, the related payments should be put into the "refundable onboard account" and reimbursed if not used.  Although we do like O and would consider future cruises (on the Vista or Alura), we have not even looked at future booking...mostly because of the SM program.  One also might want to consider why O feels they must force cruisers into booking excursions.  They are generally overpriced and a major profit-center for the cruise line.  Many cruisers (including moi) would seldom to never book an excursion since we find DIY and private tours a much better option.  O (and some other cruise lines) simply keep increasing the cost of excursions and then forcing passengers to pay for unwanted excursions (yes, you do pay for those SM benefits).   For us, Seabourn is our current favorite line, one reason being that there are no games played with excursions.  You want to book one, fine.  You don't want to book, fine,  

 

Hank

 

 

[roothy123]

Regarding cooking classes: The language on the pdf excursion list I received a couple months ago from Oceania states pretty clearly Simply More shore excursion credit can only be used for shore excursions. 

 

But occasionally Oceania offers excursions that are basically cooking classes, so maybe that's what's being talked about here.  We have one such excursion on our next cruise - go to a market with a local chef, learn about local food and how it's cooked, go to cooking class venue, cook it, eat it! 

[QuestionEverything]

roothy123 and Hlitner - thank you very much for your posts.

Your points are well taken and speak to the many posters who have expressed dismay in the port shortened time, cancelling of ports, cancelling of excursions and no available excursions many months before departure.

Oceania has made a deliberate choice to operate this way. I note the many posters who report being ignored by guest relations and excursions desk.

This is NOT customer service Oceania. Others have posted of the lack of corporate and onboard communications as well as arrogant communication.

The point of cruising is to see ports, with a few exceptions where people make the onboard experience their #1.

I have had my fill of Oceania cancelling ports, giving no or a vague explanation and now with SM, not receiving the return of my $ for a product not delivered is frankly unethical and wrong.

Thank you for your frankness and analysis. Regards, and safe travels to you both.

[MEFIowa]

It wasn't hard to see that SM was a general price increase disguised to look like something else when it came out in the summer of 2023. The cruises I was looking at rose in price by $800 PP when it came out. People wrongly seem to think that there was some inherent value in SM when the fare increases that came along with it dwarfed the monetary "value" of the purported benefit. So, for example, you can have a beer and wine at lunch or dinner (hardly a big deal), but if you were off the ship at lunch doing an excursion, guess what, no benefit at lunch that day. And the excursions were tied to O, at their control, so obviously they were going to do it in a way that made them money. This was always about O increasing its profit.

 

Does one try to take solace in their attempt to raise fares in a rather devious manner? It isn't as if generalized inflation hasn't hit the US, Canada, Europe, Australia, etc. So, the fare was going to increase one way or another. They chose the more hidden route.

[Woofa]

While I know that few are happy with the new fares (I don't like using the term SM, they are simply the current fares,) as suggested above the prices were going to go up one way or another (as everything has.). 

Whether or not this prices O out of our future plans remains to be seen (our second O cruise is on Marina in November and we still have cruise only,) but I would prefer to look a little more positively at the outcome.  The new higher fares do allow us to have some wine with our meals ( current threads suggest the level of champagne has gone up as well) and perhaps add in a few excursions as well. Certainly, O could have just added in a set excursion option for every port. This would most certainly have been easier for O.  Instead, they allowed us options. True, not everyone is going to be able to use up their credits getting fewer ( or one) higher priced excursions but it can happen. Personally I prefer this possibility to one pre chosen bus tour in each port.

We will choose to look at the changes in as positive a way as we can as the truth is, what other options do we have?  I know many have suggested they will stop cruising and if things continue to go up we will as well.  Others have suggested changing to other cruise lines but our recent online check confirms what we found two years ago when we chose O for our first cruise.  Excepting special sales which greatly limit availability, and understanding that cruise fares vary greatly by itinerary, season, cabin size and level and other factors like newness of the ship, I have not found one "premium line", " luxury line" or "ship within a ship" which can compete with O's veranda level (and below) pricing across the board.  When looking for the lower fared cabins, most don't even come close.  (Once you get to PH and above on the newer ships on desired itineraries it can change.)

True, you may find ones that suit you better and by all means, take them.  We are fortunate to have a few posters on these threads who spend their time researching and give all of us the benefit.  I plan to use the information they post when looking for future vacations.

So, are all things to our liking?  No.  But our first cruise on O convinced us that at least for now, O was a good choice for us.  O is just a business, trying to do what they believe is right to keep the majority of their ships sailing full and keeping them in business in a very difficult post Covid world.

 

[MEFIowa]

4 minutes ago, Woofa said:

... Whether or not this prices O out of our future plans remains to be seen (our second O cruise is on Marina in November and we still have cruise only,) but I would prefer to look a little more positively at the outcome....

Our B2B on Sirena in the Baltic in Aug-Sep 2024 is half SM and half cruise only. Booked the cruise only in 2022 when the itinerary came out. Added the additional part under the SM sale in the summer of 2023. Will be interesting to see how many lunches we get to have beer or wine at since this is a highly port-intensive cruise, which we wanted, and we're off the ship every day we can, first thing. Of course, we booked some O excursions to use up the credit. Mostly unimpressive choices. But then in Stockholm I want to see the Vasa ship museum and my wife the ABBA museum. 😉

[edgee]

3 minutes ago, Woofa said:

is just a business, trying to do what they believe is right to keep the majority of their ships sailing full and keeping them in business in a very difficult post Covid world.

True, but there are honest, straight forward ways to do business and there are tough, borderline deceptive, hidden agenda/hide the ball ways of doing business. Oceania tends to lean toward the latter. I will still cruise O if the itinerary and ship is right (no small ships or "noisy thin walls" Vista), but am gradually moving toward more cruises on other lines.

[Vineyard View]

Woods, you raise some valid points. So if one were to take the simple fact that SM is a price increase, which it was…..it still leaves the many unexplained missed ports that so frequently are discussed on CC. 
We sail for ports, not multiple sea days. I respect that others do the opposite. 
Roothy, I have seen the dialogue about the other line….that is quite new, as historically that is not the case with them skipping ports. And talk about price increases!  They take the cake on that one post Covid, without offering anything new/additional/different. (Nice to ‘see’ you here! That you enjoyed your O trip catches my attention)
 I agree no line is perfect, but the long standing dialogue of missed ports with Oceania is troubling. Added to that NCL and R, it becomes a pattern that is not attractive. 

[Vineyard View]

5 minutes ago, MEFIowa said:

Our B2B on Sirena in the Baltic in Aug-Sep 2024 is half SM and half cruise only. Booked the cruise only in 2022 when the itinerary came out….. But then in Stockholm I want to see the Vasa ship museum and my wife the ABBA museum. 😉

It will be interesting to see how that rolls out for sure with two different bookings/rules. 
We were on another line years back, and walked to the Vasa museum on our own. I  hadn’t planned on spending as much time as we did there….it was fascinating. A great museum. You will love it. 

[Vineyard View]

12 minutes ago, edgee said:

True, but there are honest, straight forward ways to do business and there are tough, borderline deceptive, hidden agenda/hide the ball ways of doing business. Oceania tends to lean toward the latter. I will still cruise O if the itinerary and ship is right (no small ships or "noisy thin walls" Vista), but am gradually moving toward more cruises on other lines.

I am sincerely interested in what lines you are considering.
I have also looked, which is how we ended up booking O (medical forced cancellation)

We always book a balcony, so in looking myself at lines in the same or similar category as O, as well as the next level up, what I have seen is - 

Viking is now very pricey for the same product we sailed multiple times

Azamara you need to book a suite to have a decent size shower.

Windstar - no balconies

Seabourn - we loved and is actually less expensive than Viking is now

Regent/SS - paying for included excursions

Explora - limited itineraries and a special kids area to attract families 

Atlas - limited itineraries  

Oceania - skipped ports not uncommon 

 

We remain torn between sailing, full land trip, or combo next Spring. 
 

Edited May 19 by Vineyard View

[roothy123]

27 minutes ago, Vineyard View said:

I am sincerely interested in what lines you are considering.
I have also looked, which is how we ended up booking O (medical forced cancellation)

We always book a balcony, so in looking myself at lines in the same or similar category as O, as well as the next level up, what I have seen is - 

Viking is now very pricey for the same product we sailed multiple times

Azamara you need to book a suite to have a decent size shower.

Windstar - no balconies

Seabourn - we loved and is actually less expensive than Viking is now

Regent/SS - paying for included excursions

Explora - limited itineraries and a special kids area to attract families 

Atlas - limited itineraries  

Oceania - skipped ports not uncommon 

 

We remain torn between sailing, full land trip, or combo next Spring.