Shore excursion packages

[mbtous]

Has anyone dealt with Oceania's packaging of shore excursions?

I am going on my first Oceania cruise & my TA told me that I can't book any individual shore excursions till I'm onboard the ship - but I can book several - as a package deal at a discounted rate - before we leave..

Is this something exclusive to Oceania? I've never encountered anything like this before.

[digby]

We ran into the same thing for our recent South American cruise. I think it is an awful system. We waited until we were on the cruise and had no trouble booking the excursions we wanted.

[neophyte]

I researched the shore excursion package for my April Regatta cruise and found that 10% of the excursions were not my preference for those ports. In other words, they select one out of 3 or 4 of the ship's offerings for the port and there are no substitutions. Also, you save very few dollars from buying the package versus buying the individual excursions. My travel agent has told me that Oceania ASSURED her that the shore excursions do not sell out. So I am planning on booking my choices on board. If anyone has experienced being shut out of a shore excursion, I'd be anxious to know about it.

[kcruisin]

We were on the Bacelona to Rome Cruise last September. We used the ship's excursions exclusively. We were not shut out of any trips we wanted. We were very satisfied with all of the trips except the one from Marseille. They took us out at 8:30am for a half day tour - thus driving us in a bus thru the downtown of Marseille during rush hour. When we finally reached Cassis we had 25 minutes! All the others really were great - especially the Wonderful Positano out of Sorrento.

We are on the 4/25 Regatta - anyone else out there wanting to share private tours or just wanting some information email me at karen.colquitt@comcast.net