Oceania newbie has question about reserving shorexes online

[YoPhilly]

I just read an Oceania brochure and it mentioned being able to reserve shore excursions online 120 days prior. We've done this on Princess many times, but here's the difference: it appears that one has to actually purchase and pay for the Oceania shorexes upfront.

 

So what happens if I decide to cancel a shore excursion? What is O's refund policy? (With Princess there's no charge if canceled 24 hours prior to the excursion.)

[lcand1923]

Yes, Oceania charges your credit card at the time you reserve the excursion.

 

I was told by someone in their Shore Excursion office that it is safest to cancel the shore excursion 72 hours prior to the start of the excursion. I believe the Web Site says 48 hours and mentioned that to the person I was speaking with and she replied, "It CAN differ according to the individual Shore Excursion, so you are better off thinking in terms of 72 hours."

 

Here is our experience with the cancellation of pre-booked Shore Excursions on Oceania:

 

If Oceania cancels the excursion prior to cruise departure, they will issue a credit to the credit card used to book the excursion.

 

If you cancel the excursion prior to cruise departure, you have to call the Shore Excursion office. Oceania issued the refund via check to our travel agent who then issued a check to us.

 

If you cancel the excursion after cruise departure, Oceania will issue an Onboard Credit to your shipboard account.

 

(Oceania shows a cancellation schedule in the onboard newspaper "Currents". It will tell you the latest time that you can cancel shore excursions for an upcoming port.)

[hondorner]

...If you cancel the excursion after cruise departure, Oceania will issue an Onboard Credit to your shipboard account...

All I can add to that detailed explanation is that if you end up with a credit balance on your shipboard account as a result of the cancellation, Oceania does not have the ability to issue a credit to your credit card from aboard the ship. Therefore, they will give you cash for the credit balance at the end of your cruise. This happened to us when we canceled a pre-booked cruise once we were on board that was almost $500 for the two of us. Once we on board, we discovered the excursion involved a lot more strenuous activity than was apparent on the web site when we booked it.

[YoPhilly]

Thanks for your replies.

 

...I was also looking at sample menus on O's website.....mmmmmmmm!!!:)

[RJB]

Be smart. Look for as many private tours as possible as O is very weak in this area. You can meet some very nice people on this board and others that might want to join you. Much better and also less money:)