No more Simply More

[ORV]

1 hour ago, as3369 said:

I am new to Oceania and have recently booked our first trip in Jan 2026 on Marina for 24 Day South America / Antarctica.  However, I will definitely consider other cruise line offerings prior to final payment.  A little disappointed that Marina didn't receive full renovations that were done on Riviera.

Have you looked at the cancellation schedule?

[basor]

2 hours ago, elbowroom said:

Apologies if anything is repeated here....

 

" a shore excursion credit and beverage package will no longer be automatically included." I wonder what "automatically" means here.

 

In our case, a long S. East Asian cruise, the highest price was prior to Simply More; it then dropped with its introduction, went up in Jan 2024, but is still less than under the previous system. That might be the exception to a rule, but OLife was more expensive in our case at least. Anyway, until October 1, everything is speculative.

 

OLife gave the customer some choice; Simply More, take it or leave it. That's annoying, as is the supercilious language use in introducing the new scheme. "The change has come following guest feedback highlighting that while they enjoyed the simply MORE inclusions, they would rather global guest inclusions focused on what mattered most. At the top of this list was always included gratuities for all guests." Surely no one believes people will welcome something if it turns out to be more expensive, but then that would be the guests' fault, presumably, for apparently demanding gratuities above everything else, as the announcement would have us believe.

 

On a more serious note, as Silver Oceania guests are aware, the programme adds nothing, it would seem for them, so we're back to the old argument as to whether companies go out of their way to attract new clients rather than concentrating on the faithful, like those who write on CC.

 

We'll see what we see! If it doesn't work, they'll change it...again!

The program adds a $250.00 OBC per cabin for Silver and above...this is the same credit received if a Silver and above booked a cruise that included gratuities either from O or their travel TA.  

[as3369]

14 minutes ago, ORV said:

Have you looked at the cancellation schedule?

yes..up to 181 days will be a penalty of $150pp

[as3369]

19 minutes ago, as3369 said:

yes..up to 181 days will be a penalty of $150pp

On a $28k fare for 2, I'll take the $300 penalty.

Edited Monday at 07:31 PM by as3369

[ORV]

39 minutes ago, as3369 said:

On a $28k fare for 2, I'll take the $300 penalty.

I misunderstood, I thought you mentioned Final Payment, which is at 150 days, between 181 and 151 is $500 per person and at 150 is 25% of full fare. 

[Thought2go]

4 hours ago, as3369 said:

On a $28k fare for 2, I'll take the $300 penalty.

That’s right up there in price for the 11 Day Antarctic Cruise on Ocean Explorer (base price $11,500 x2) that flies you over the Drake. More time in Antartica. 138 passengers. Including Pre/post hotel, meals, transfers.

Edited Monday at 11:52 PM by Thought2go

[as3369]

10 minutes ago, Thought2go said:

That’s right up there in price for the 11 Day Antarctic Cruise on Ocean Explorer (base price $11,500 x2) that flies you over the Drake. More time in Antartica. 138 passengers. Including Pre/post hotel, meals, transfers.

Last year some friend of ours traveled on Arctic World Voyager and had a wonderful experience.  We weren't in the position to join them. One of them traveled with us to the Galapagos on Celebrity Flora in 2021 and said the experience topped that (which to date is my favorite destination and cruise experience).  

[pinotlover]

19 hours ago, basor said:

The program adds a $250.00 OBC per cabin for Silver and above...this is the same credit received if a Silver and above booked a cruise that included gratuities either from O or their travel TA.  

Not technically correct. The $250 additional OBC was  for Silver and above passengers where the TA was a member of a Consortium that was given OCCAP PPG. In some instances, Travel Agents , not part of the participating Consortium, offrred PPG credits to those below Silver as a perk. Those customers didn’t get the $250 additional OBC from Oceania.

[terrydtx]

4 minutes ago, pinotlover said:

Not technically correct. The $250 additional OBC was  for Silver and above passengers where the TA was a member of a Consortium that was given OCCAP PPG. In some instances, Travel Agents , not part of the participating Consortium, offrred PPG credits to those below Silver as a perk. Those customers didn’t get the $250 additional OBC from Oceania.

With the new O program including prepaid gratuities, I wonder if this Consortium is also going to go away, no reason the pay the grats when they are included in the fare.

[basor]

So even better now for Silver and above as all loyalty will receive the $250.00 not just those from a Consortium...our TA is a member 

[basor]

2 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

With the new O program including prepaid gratuities, I wonder if this Consortium is also going to go away, no reason the pay the grats when they are included in the fare.

The Consortium is a group of TA that bind together to increase their buying power across all parts of the travel industry not just Oceania cruising....the consortium is not going away but will adjust what they give to their clients.

[ORV]

8 minutes ago, basor said:

So even better now for Silver and above as all loyalty will receive the $250.00 not just those from a Consortium...our TA is a member 

Well…….

 

im still thinking this through. Are we gaining, are we losing, is it a wash?

[DrHemlock]

12 minutes ago, ORV said:

Well…….

 

im still thinking this through. Are we gaining, are we losing, is it a wash?

Should I stay or should I go?  My thoughts are clashing........

[Harters]

7 minutes ago, ORV said:

Are we gaining, are we losing, is it a wash?

Depends where you are in this.

 

As far as I can see, O is giving some credit to customers who already have included gratuities because of their loyalty status. But it is not giving credit to customers who have included gratuities because of where they live in the world.  So, in the former example, folk are getting credit in respect of something they currently get for free. Whereas, in the latter, folk are getting nothing, even though their cruise price already reflects the cost of gratuities. 

[Mrs f.]

20 hours ago, basor said:

The program adds a $250.00 OBC per cabin for Silver and above...this is the same credit received if a Silver and above booked a cruise that included gratuities either from O or their travel TA.  

We have a 27 day cruise booked (Silver).  $250 definitely doesn't equate to gratuities paid

[basor]

20 minutes ago, Mrs f. said:

We have a 27 day cruise booked (Silver).  $250 definitely doesn't equate to gratuities paid

It has been years since loyalty people received an OBC that matched the actual cost of the gratuities!  You receive the gratuities plus $250.00....

[ORV]

40 minutes ago, Mrs f. said:

We have a 27 day cruise booked (Silver).  $250 definitely doesn't equate to gratuities paid

But that's the part that's hard to figure. If it was 27 days or 7 days you have it covered, just like you have since you've turned Silver. You are not out any additional money, but we are getting $250 extra in OBC. What we will see is less Ocapp, but if we do then will we get $250 + $250?

 

But in essence what this does is dilute the value of that Silver benefit, because if you weren't Silver and took that 27-day cruise then you would be out real money. So as I said, the real value to us that are Silver is hard to figure. 

[Vallesan]

Whichever way you look at Silver members getting an OBC instead of paid gratuities it’s still a CREDIT which can be spent! Before, irrespective of the length of cruise, the gratuities were ‘included’ now you get an ‘extra’  onboard spend. Am I missing something here?

[ORV]

9 minutes ago, Vallesan said:

Whichever way you look at Silver members getting an OBC instead of paid gratuities it’s still a CREDIT which can be spent! Before, irrespective of the length of cruise, the gratuities were ‘included’ now you get an ‘extra’  onboard spend. Am I missing something here?

Just that many of us frequently already got $250 OBC when there were included gratuities, which has been more often than not. My question is what will happen to those?

Edited Tuesday at 06:10 PM by ORV

[SophieM]

12 minutes ago, ORV said:

Just that many of us frequently already got $250 OBC when there were included gratuities, which has been more often than not. My question is what will happen to those?

I think only the shadow knows. 

[MEFIowa]

Such a fascinating thread.... Of course, the change announcement had to come when we were on board Sirena in the Baltic with no FCC on the 1st half of our B2B. When the FCC arrived for the 2nd part, she only briefly mentioned it during her presentation with no details.

 

But what seems to be missing in the discussion is the actual price of the cruise as we've seen under (1) Cruise Only, (2) Simply More, and now (3) post-SM. When SM came out in July 2023 cruise prices seemed to rise about $600-800 per passenger per cruise. One could make the case that by O "adding" excursion credits and the basic drink package, one was essentially seeing the price rise accordingly. Whether you got much out of it, however, depended upon how you like to cruise on O.

 

SO IF prices remain elevated (at SM levels) and essentially all you get are gratuities paid, this is nothing but a generalized price increase. Certainly for 7-10-12-15 day cruises. No suprise. When they've got a debt load monkey on their back, profitability is the only way to pay it down.

[Vallesan]

11 hours ago, ORV said:

Just that many of us frequently already got $250 OBC when there were included gratuities, which has been more often than not. My question is what will happen to those?

If the OBC came from your TA maybe you will still get it. If it came from Oceania then your guess is as good as mine!

[HaveDogWillTravel]

On 9/23/2024 at 10:09 AM, terrydtx said:

BTW my TA pays for our gratuities so getting them included from Oceania means nothing. 

Thank you for this post (and many others…. they are very helpful).  I am new to using TA’s. I have what many would consider a great O TA, but they do not always include the full price of gratuities.  Sometimes the invoice shows gratuities are paid and sometimes I get OBC that covers part of them but not all. I am told on the sailings that the gratuities aren’t shown as fully paid that it is because on that cruise they aren’t “allowed?” Or “able?” To (sorry I don’t recall the exact words)

I have no complaints regarding my TA. They are incredibly responsive, helpful and wonderful to work with. As I said I’m new to using TA’s but did get burned bad on my one previous experience with a different one. 
 

Are you saying that you always get the entirety of the gratuities paid on all sailings with O?  

[HaveDogWillTravel]

16 hours ago, ORV said:

Just that many of us frequently already got $250 OBC

We have the same TA.  I only get $200 (total not per person) when they didn’t cover grats on my 10 day med sailing this October. And I got no extra OBC on sailings when they did cover grats on one of my future Caribbean sailings. 

So maybe I still need to shop around for the best deal?   I don’t mind spending money but I do like getting the best value for that money. 
 

As a point of reference I have only completed one O 10 day sailing so no status. Three of my future O sailings are in PH suites and two are in a concierge balcony.  
 

 

Edited Wednesday at 10:42 AM by HaveDogWillTravel

[terrydtx]

44 minutes ago, HaveDogWillTravel said:

Are you saying that you always get the entirety of the gratuities paid on all sailings with O?

Our cruise next March on Marina is our first O cruise, so I am not sure how the gratuities will be paid by our TA, OBC is what I assume.