OLife Choice

[NikonD7200]

7 Days|Feb 17,2019 - Rivera

 

"

Special Offer

With OLife Choice*, our limited-time inclusive package, enjoy Roundtrip Airfare* plus choose one:

FREE - 4 Shore Excursions
FREE - Beverage Package
FREE - $400 Shipboard Credit
Amenities are per stateroom"

 

We are non-drinkers so the FREE- Beverage package is likely a waste. Between 4 Shore Excursions and $400 Shipboard Credit which is better value. Does the ship board credit cover any type of additional charges IE: tipping etc. We do plan on taking shore excursions not sure if it is any 4 we pick or 4 the cruise selects?

[LHT28]

2 minutes ago, NikonD7200 said:

We are non-drinkers so the FREE- Beverage package is likely a waste. Between 4 Shore Excursions and $400 Shipboard Credit which is better value. Does the ship board credit cover any type of additional charges IE: tipping etc. We do plan on taking shore excursions not sure if it is any 4 we pick or 4 the cruise selects?

 

You  can choose  from the excursions offered

not included in the "free"  excursions are those  with OS, OE etc

you can use your OBC for gratuities, excursions, shopping onboard  and the spa

 

[Paulchili]

If you do not drink and don’t mind ship sponsored excursions then the 4 excursions is the best value.

You can choose any excursion as noted above by Lyn. They are usually valued up to $199. Look at excursions offered on your cruise and if there are 4 excursions that you would take and if they are over $100 each then choosing them is a better value than $400 OBC. If you don’t like the offered excursions then take the OBC OR just take the cruise with air without O Life.

[NikonD7200]

Thankyou both, appreciate it.

[ORV]

Also look at the cost of the cruise with Olife added and see if it's less than $400. You can take it with or without the flight. A lot of people new to Oceania don't realize this. 

[pinotlover]

If you don’t have Pre Paid Gratuities, then the OBC can go towards paying those. Oceania shore tours are horrendously overpriced. Check your Roll Call or do a little search to evaluate tour options. 

 

Non drinkers , without PPG, can be better off taking the OBC so to pay those gratuities, and then booking the ship tours of choice with the remaining dollars. The remaining group tours wound be out of pocket. Oceania ship tours are normally priced about 2X what one will pay for an identical tour arranged privately or via their Roll Call.

[roothy123]

4 hours ago, ORV said:

Also look at the cost of the cruise with Olife added and see if it's less than $400. You can take it with or without the flight. A lot of people new to Oceania don't realize this. 

Good point.  And if you're using O's website, unless I'm missing something, the website won't always allow you to take off the O Life and get a credit (reduction in price) for OLife.   I answered the question about whether any in your party needed air with a "No."  Then I unchecked each of the 3 boxes for drink package, excursions, and credit, but the price didn't change.  However, I asked my TA to ask about that, and sure enough, O took off $$.   There IS a cruise only price usually listed, but you have to work a little harder to get it, I guess. 

[Paulchili]

9 minutes ago, roothy123 said:

Good point.  And if you're using O's website, unless I'm missing something, the website won't always allow you to take off the O Life and get a credit (reduction in price) for OLife

The answer to this is very simple, I believe. The price without O Life is exactly the amount of OBC offered - i.e if the OBC In O Life is $400/pp then the price without O Life is $400 less. What is not clear is the price of “free” air which can vary greatly. However, the amount of credit for air can easily be calculated on the website by first choosing with air and then without air.

Edited January 31, 2019 by Paulchili

[rallydave]

13 hours ago, Paulchili said:

The answer to this is very simple, I believe. The price without O Life is exactly the amount of OBC offered - i.e if the OBC In O Life is $400/pp then the price without O Life is $400 less. What is not clear is the price of “free” air which can vary greatly. However, the amount of credit for air can easily be calculated on the website by first choosing with air and then without air.

And,  the fact that the price difference with or without OBC is the amount of OBC, if anyone chooses to not take the O life option or OBC, because the OBC is non-refundable, ALWAYS take the cruise without O Life as you will pay less up front and should you not use up all of your OBC, you lose the balance so you choose how much to spend on board and reap the savings.

[Paulchili]

1 hour ago, rallydave said:

ALWAYS take the cruise without O Life as you will pay less up front and should you not use up all of your OBC, you lose the balance so you choose how much to spend on board and reap the savings.

Dave - you should specify that YOU always take the cruise without O Life.

We usually DO take the O Life with excursions as we can almost double the value. In other words, if O Life offers 4 excursions then we pay $400 more for the cruise but get excursions that are valued between $700 - $800 by choosing the most expensive ones we like.

Some places private tours are difficult (Africa, Myanmar, etc) or expensive (Japan) and ship tours are perfect in places like that.

We don’t mind O excursions and usually do a combination of ship’s tours and private ones.

As always, YMMV 🙂

Edited January 31, 2019 by Paulchili

[rallydave]

15 minutes ago, Paulchili said:

Dave - you should specify that YOU always take the cruise without O Life.

We usually DO take the O Life with excursions as we can almost double the value. In other words, if O Life offers 4 excursions then we pay $400 more for the cruise but get excursions that are valued between $700 - $800 by choosing the most expensive ones we like.

Some places private tours are difficult (Africa, Myanmar, etc) or expensive (Japan) and ship tours are perfect in places like that.

We don’t mind O excursions and usually do a combination of ship’s tours and private ones.

As always, YMMV 🙂

Agree Paul, just trying to help newbies who take the OBC and don't realize it isnonrefundable and better to take the lower priced cruise to save.  Also, understand you take the free (included) excursions and used the "value" rather than cost savings as most can be gotten for below the $100/excursion allowance due to excursions being extremely overpriced.  Thanks Paul as always and have a great day.

[ORV]

Actually I guess it depends on where you are cruising but I've noticed in the last year or so that Oceania excursion prices are becoming fairly reasonable and in line with other cruise lines. Of course you'd have to be cruising on Oceania and look at the prices of the excursions to realize that. 

 

Blanket statements like excursions on Oceania are double and entertainment is no good are basically like stereotypes. Maybe a little truth but by and large wrong. 

 

I do agree that taking the OBC for your Olife perk never really makes sense. Perhaps someone could explain it to me if I'm wrong. 

 

 

[Paulchili]

54 minutes ago, rallydave said:

Agree Paul, just trying to help newbies who take the OBC and don't realize it isnonrefundable and better to take the lower priced cruise to save

No worries Dave.

Fair winds and following waves to you as well.

Edited January 31, 2019 by Paulchili

[LHT28]

1 hour ago, ORV said:

I do agree that taking the OBC for your Olife perk never really makes sense. Perhaps someone could explain it to me if I'm wrong. 

 

 

 

I guess it depends on the situation

some people do not get loyalty OBC or PPG  & maybe do not drink or take ship excursions so that perk may not work for them

it is  those cases  the OBC would offset the gratuities ....they are going to pay them anyway  so may as well pay upfront via the O Life perk

 

Sometimes  we just take the cruise only fare ..book our own air  & we get enough OBC  to have a few drinks

we have the PPG loyalty perk

so it works for us

I think next cruise  we did O air & took the O Life OBC   when I did the math it did not make much difference  in the bottom line

 

cruising  should not be that complicated

[Paulchili]

1 hour ago, LHT28 said:

cruising  should not be that complicated

Maybe the math will keep our aging brains a little sharper?

[Kingofcool1947]

On 1/30/2019 at 8:59 AM, NikonD7200 said:

7 Days|Feb 17,2019 - Rivera

 

"

Special Offer

With OLife Choice*, our limited-time inclusive package, enjoy Roundtrip Airfare* plus choose one:

FREE - 4 Shore Excursions
FREE - Beverage Package
FREE - $400 Shipboard Credit
Amenities are per stateroom"

 

We are non-drinkers so the FREE- Beverage package is likely a waste. Between 4 Shore Excursions and $400 Shipboard Credit which is better value. Does the ship board credit cover any type of additional charges IE: tipping etc. We do plan on taking shore excursions not sure if it is any 4 we pick or 4 the cruise selects?

 

The shore excursions are ridicoulsly overpriced.

Good luck, and enjoy.

King

Edited January 31, 2019 by Kingofcool1947

[StanandJim]

56 minutes ago, Kingofcool1947 said:

The shore excursions are ridicoulsly overpriced.

Say what you will but for the nervous, the unsure and the infirm those Excursions are a Godsend.

Some people would never leave the ship at all  if it were not for ship sponsored trips

 

 

[pinotlover]

Stan&Jim;

 

The exact same thing can be said about Oceania ‘s pre and post hotels and transfers. Unless Mother Oceania holds their hand , every step of the way, some would never leave home much less the ship. Even so, it still isn’t a reflection on how horribly expensive those options are vis a vie other options. For some , money is no consideration only ease. One of the Ladies we have traveled on different cruises always has O book her business class airfare. Saving a couple K isn’t as important to her as the convenience of having O do it all for her. Same with these other amenities. We all have different priorities!

[Kingofcool1947]

 

 

1 hour ago, StanandJim said:

Say what you will but for the nervous, the unsure and the infirm those Excursions are a Godsend.

Some people would never leave the ship at all  if it were not for ship sponsored trips

 

 

 

Agree.   Very true.    

Enjoy.

King

Edited January 31, 2019 by Kingofcool1947

[NorthCoastCruisers]

It you are sailing Feb. 17 you only have days to book your excursions and get them free - they must be 14 days prior to sailing.

[Mura]

Since oLife came into play we've done more "free" excursions than we did in the past.  Ideally we prefer independent, smaller tours.  But that takes some work even if you save money in the end.

 

With the "free" excursions (not entirely free since your basic fare goes up if you opt for them) we've found it easy to pick excursions in the $150-199 price range which make opting for them cost effective.  It wouldn't be cost effective if you take one of the cheapest excursions, that's for sure.  And in general the tours we opted for have been quite good, some excellent.

 

Blanket statements advising people NEVER to this or ALWAYS to this are probably not all that helpful.  It's a question of what works for the individual passenger (or couple).  And none of us agree on absolutely everything, do we?

 

For us taking the free tours is usually the only option we consider since DH barely drinks at all and we don't go to the bars.  Either we've been in suites (recently) that provide the 6 bottles OR we've brought our own liquor on board for consumption in the suite.  We don't mind paying the corkage fee in a restaurant for wine we've brought on board, but we will also buy a bottle from the ship's list when necessary.

 

Between our gold status on O and our TA's contributions we usually have more OBC than we can use (even with last minute shopping on board).

 

Mura

[Paulchili]

1 hour ago, Mura said:

Blanket statements advising people NEVER to this or ALWAYS to this are probably not all that helpful.  It's a question of what works for the individual passenger (or couple).  And none of us agree on absolutely everything, do we?

Well said. A lot of people do things I would never do and vice versa - and we all think that only we are right.

As they say - to each their own.

[Mura]

I won't say +1 Paul, but clearly we agree!

 

Mura

 

[sailfar]

We always take the excursion choice.  Especially if they are more than $100.  On long cruises. there are usually ports cancelled and we get our money back immediately in the form of OBC.  We have seen people lose hundreds of dollars in private tour costs, especially when an overnight destination is cancelled.  Also if you read the roll calls on cruise critic, you will see all the stress and changes people are subjected to.

 

I laugh when I see people brag about how small their vehicles are. I don't like traveling in those small seated tight uncomfortable vehicles.  Recently we traveled on Oceania excursions in France and were on two brand new buses supported as the guide announced, by the French taxpayers.  They floated thru the air with wonderful suspension, they had a bathroom on board, and a great sound system. THERE WAS A BACK DOOR AND ONLY 25 ONBOARD.  It took us no time to get on and off.   We had  guides with

PH.D'S. And we just had to click on the Oceania site without all the research time and stress!

[KS&JW]

14 hours ago, sailfar said:

We always take the excursion choice.  Especially if they are more than $100.  On long cruises. there are usually ports cancelled and we get our money back immediately in the form of OBC.  We have seen people lose hundreds of dollars in private tour costs, especially when an overnight destination is cancelled.  Also if you read the roll calls on cruise critic, you will see all the stress and changes people are subjected to.

 

I laugh when I see people brag about how small their vehicles are. I don't like traveling in those small seated tight uncomfortable vehicles.  Recently we traveled on Oceania excursions in France and were on two brand new buses supported as the guide announced, by the French taxpayers.  They floated thru the air with wonderful suspension, they had a bathroom on board, and a great sound system. THERE WAS A BACK DOOR AND ONLY 25 ONBOARD.  It took us no time to get on and off.   We had  guides with

PH.D'S. And we just had to click on the Oceania site without all the research time and stress!

 

This post just proves that everyone wants something different.