Flatbush Flyer

Novato - correct? If so, never heard back from you regarding my emailed answer to a question you previously asked. It would be nice to know, at least, that you received it. In any case, as to your new question(s): I too have a booked multi-segment cruise with only one segment on the “extraordinary” list and, despite being given an initial O “no” to my quest for a price adjustment, I was able to eventually get it. To make a long story short, there are a variety of circumstances associated with a current booking that can make or break an adjustment. Sadly, many TAs (including some who sell a lot of O cruises) and even some O staff in Miami do not fully understand (or sometimes just disregard) O’s policy idiosyncrasies when it comes to how booking specifics allow/exclude access to promotions. And getting to a “yes” on a promo request can be as simple as altering some specifics in the nature of your current booking (even after full payment). You or your TA just need to know which items to change and/or which policy allowances/interpretations/et al. you need to remind O staff about. As for the booze question, you may want to use the search feature here on CC. Your question has been asked/answered many times with instructions on how to upgrade the basic mealtime limited booze package you can get with O Life.

Great current example: O has started adding “up close and personal” boat tours from the ship to the Hubbard Glacier. At least for the 8/28 and 9/7 2023 Alaska cruises on Regatta, an email was recently sent out to booked passengers regarding this added HUB-001 tour and it has been added to the most recent tours’ PDF. But, it’s nowhere to be seen on O web accounts’ tour lists for those cruises. Call the O phone rep to add it and s/he can see it on their internal system. As for “only fools argue with FF,” please know that my best buds are no fools and neither are some select folks here on CC.

Excellent point! I hadn’t thought about the air since we would never use O air - particularly for bizclass. Enjoy your cruise!

It has to be actual money (e.g., refundable SBC or cash).

Wrong. See the attached pic of two example voyages (in the “extra…..” brochure - one without the “extra…” and one with the “extra…..” For both, you can do “cruise only” at a lower price. And note that, with the “extra…..” one (on the right), “O Life” gets you only $600/cabin SBC while “cruise only” gets you a cheaper price that is $800 pp lower (i.e., $1000 net savings/cabin). “Cruise only” bottom line is an extra $400 purchasing power on board or $ back in your pocket. Always do the math.

When it’s available, Ultimate is all 3 perks for the same prices as regular O Life (one perk). But, there are occasions when you can’t “double dip” (e.g., BoB discount plus Ultimate O Life, etc).

Yes- included pre or post cruise land stay of several days. Many of the regular add-on land stays included for a selection of cruises. I got the booklet several days ago.

There is one very rare occasion when the O Life SBC has some minimal value (though it is always dollar for dollar with what you paid for it in the fare. And that occasion would be when it’s a better value to use the tours “passport collection” rather than the YWYW package as an add on to the O Life tours option.

It all boils down to stuff vs cash. For example, your booze package dollar cost doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll actually drink that retail value of the wine-by-the-glass and beer at meals. That would require an average retail consumption of $40 pp/day. Admittedly, when we first started cruising on O, we did much shorter cruises of 2 weeks +\- and got the Prestige package. But, then we started doing many longer cruises of 5-7 weeks each and now (with platinum status), find the combo of multiple O Club events, Captain parties, gracious bartenders, invited dinners (and a preference for supplying our own wine), as well as not being willing/able to drink daily for weeks on end, makes for a far better “deal” if we just pay as you go for booze.

Huh? Did you book a cruise on the Extraordinary Savings Sale list or on the Ultimate O Life list? The savings on the former is cash in your pocket while the savings on the latter is non-refundable stuff. Only you can tell if your projected use of the non-refundable stuff would have more than $2000 cash value. Do the math.

If you originally paid the O Life fare (which got you access to Ultimate), you’ll just go back to the single perk since you traded Ultimate for the Extraordinary Savings fare drop.

Other than assist with rebooking your tix, what “assistance” do you think O would provide? Read the O T&Cs. They clearly limit O’s role in “making things right” when it comes to transportation they do not directly provide (I.e., O’s responsibility only involves their ships). And, that said, remember that if there is an air FUBAR, DIYers can deal directly with the airline while you’ll have to do it through your “TA” (in this case of air travel, that would be Oceania).

Actually, you may want to avoid the first cruise after a refit rather than the last cruise before the refit. Ever done a major home renovation? Remember that “punch list?”

Two segments published as an extended journey or two segments you’re custom adding together and discounting by 5%? In any case, If the “CC” price you’re seeing is the same as what you see on the O website (with/without the 5% discount for custom cruise) either there’s no extraordinary break for multisegments OR CC is not really showing the extraordinary pricing.

I wouldn’t worry about the remainder of 2023 price cuts as a sign of really bad financial trouble. Rather, I see it as trying to get things back to normal before 2024 (basically a published clearance sale that we won’t see again for a long time in the future). IMO, the only negative PR side of this is reflected in my post #97 above. Lots of misinformation for folks with existing bookings wanting a price adjustment; unhappy TAs whose commissions will decrease due to the adjustments; and the aforementioned TAs and even O reps who contradict each other about what is allowable to get the better price. Allow me to suggest a possible strategy if you are unsure regarding whether your TA is getting (or relaying) the correct info about price adjusts (e.g., for book onboard price match guarantees) for complex “custom” or “enhanced journey” itineraries [though, remember that they require cabin availability]: You can always call O and do a new “booking hold” on your same complex cruise. If the new “extraordinary” price can be applied to the complex cruise (I.e., price is significantly lower for exactly the same cruise specifics) AND there’s cabin availability AND you have the low price match guarantee AND the price is extremely lower, show a copy of the “hold booking” to your TA and ask for the “price match.” If s/he says “no can do,” you can always cancel the cruise (even if you have to pay a reasonable penalty in the penalty phase) OR use your other “book onboard perk” of allowance of a single itinerary change. Now is this worth all that work? Depends on your needs and expectations as well as the bottom line net savings.

I wouldn’t worry about the remainder of 2023 price cuts as a sign of really bad financial trouble. Rather, I see it as trying to get things back to normal before 2024 (basically a published clearance sale that we won’t see again for a long time in the future). IMO, the only negative PR side of this is reflected in my post #97 above. Lots of misinformation for folks with existing bookings wanting a price adjustment; unhappy TAs whose commissions will decrease due to the adjustments; and the aforementioned TAs and even O reps who contradict each other about what is allowable to get the better price. Allow me to suggest a possible strategy if you are unsure regarding whether your TA is getting (or relaying) the correct info about price adjusts (e.g., for book onboard price match guarantees) for complex “custom” or “enhanced journey” itineraries [though, remember that they require cabin availability]: You can always call O and do a new “booking hold” on your same complex cruise. If the new “extraordinary” price can be applied to the complex cruise (I.e., price is significantly lower for exactly the same cruise specifics) AND there’s cabin availability AND you have the low price match guarantee AND the price is extremely lower, show a copy of the “hold booking” to your TA and ask for the “price match.” If s/he says “no can do,” you can always cancel the cruise (even if you have to pay a reasonable penalty in the penalty phase) OR use your other “book onboard perk” of allowance of a single itinerary change. Now is this worth all that work? Depends on your needs and expectations as well as the bottom line net savings.

I wouldn’t worry about the remainder of 2023 price cuts as a sign of really bad financial trouble. Rather, I see it as trying to get things back to normal before 2024 (basically a published clearance sale that we won’t see again for a long time in the future). IMO, the only negative PR side of this is reflected in my post #97 above. Lots of misinformation for folks with existing bookings wanting a price adjustment; unhappy TAs whose commissions will decrease due to the adjustments; and the aforementioned TAs and even O reps who contradict each other about what is allowable to get the better price. Allow me to suggest a possible strategy if you are unsure regarding whether your TA is getting (or relaying) the correct info about price adjusts (e.g., for book onboard price match guarantees) for complex “custom” or “enhanced journey” itineraries [though, remember that they require cabin availability]: You can always call O and do a new “booking hold” on your same complex cruise. If the new “extraordinary” price can be applied to the complex cruise (I.e., price is significantly lower for exactly the same cruise specifics) AND there’s cabin availability AND you have the low price match guarantee AND the price is extremely lower, show a copy of the “hold booking” to your TA and ask for the “price match.” If s/he says “no can do,” you can always cancel the cruise (even if you have to pay a reasonable penalty in the penalty phase) OR use your other “book onboard perk” of allowance of a single itinerary change. Now is this worth all that work? Depends on your needs and expectations as well as the bottom line net savings.

I wouldn’t worry about the remainder of 2023 price cuts as a sign of really bad financial trouble. Rather, I see it as trying to get things back to normal before 2024 (basically a published clearance sale that we won’t see again for a long time in the future). IMO, the only negative PR side of this is reflected in my post #97 above. Lots of misinformation for folks with existing bookings wanting a price adjustment; unhappy TAs whose commissions will decrease due to the adjustments; and the aforementioned TAs and even O reps who contradict each other about what is allowable to get the better price. Allow me to suggest a possible strategy if you are unsure regarding whether your TA is getting (or relaying) the correct info about price adjusts (e.g., for book onboard price match guarantees) for complex “custom” or “enhanced journey” itineraries [though, remember that they require cabin availability]: Call O and do a “booking hold” on your same complex cruise. If the new “extraordinary” price can be applied to the complex cruise (I.e., price is significantly lower for exactly the same cruise specifics) AND there’s cabin availability AND you have the low price match guarantee AND the price is extremely lower, show a copy of the “hold booking” to your TA and ask for the “price match.” If s/he says “no can do,” you can always cancel the cruise (even if you have to pay a reasonable penalty in the penalty phase) OR use your other “book onboard perk” of allowance of a single itinerary change. Now is this worth all that work? Depends on your needs and expectations as well as the bottom line net savings.

They’re sent to you in the “Blue Book” (vacation planner) - which BTW is no longer blue.

Steve may be wonderful. But, read your fine print. Better still, talk with the issuing company to verify everything.

You should also have PreExisting Condition explained to you. The insurance definition is vastly different than the healthcare one. In travel insurance, there’s a “look back period” of several months (different policies gave different time spans). You can have a healthcare PEC that may not be an insurance PEC. For insurance: if you have a new diagnosis or a change in an existing diagnosis (due to treatment, meds change, etc) during the “look back period,” that’s a PEC. However, if you have a long term healthcare PEC but no changes, events, etc. during the “look back period,” you do not have an insurance PEC.

See my post #97.

Got it today in NorCal- Saturday.

You’re missing the point of my previous post regarding total trip coverage and things like PECs. Call a broker- actually call two or three and let them interview you to determine what is in your best interests.

If your non-refundable trip costs are more than $500 and the policy you choose requires total trip coverage, you could have certain claims denied (e.g., most PEC waivers would require full trip cost coverage - some even including the reimbursable costs).