Shore excursions

[Belfastman]

We have an October cruise on Riviera in which we have the Olife Ultimate package. Can anyone tell me which shore excursions can be chosen as part of the package and can you book these prior to boarding the ship?

[Mura]

You can book them prior to boarding.  Our TA always has done this for us (but we tell her which ones we want!).  The special cruises (I forget the code letters but someone will say) are not possible to use as an oLife benefit.  Generally the price limit is $199 or less.  We've always been able to book tours that would have cost more than the surcharge on the fair if you opt for oLife.

 

[LHT28]

Yes you can book them prior to the cruise

If the excursions  are the "free"  ones  you MUST  book 14 days prior to the cruise

The  "free excursions"  are  any that  do NOT  have  OS, OE  or  any letters  in the designation

Usually  at the bottom of the page  where the cruise is listed  is the Fine print  or  on your invoice   there are details  of what is included  & rules 

[cbb]

OP--

have you set up an online account for your cruise?  It is easy to do so and from that account then you can purchase shorex online and "they" will deduct that amount from your OBC, provided that it is $199. or less pp as has already been stated.

 

O is very nice about giving you the "freebie" that is the more expensive of the ones you've chosen.  So if you choose some that are $119 and some that are $189, they will give you the $189 ones as your freebies.

 

We feel that the OLife shorex is a wonderful benefit....for us.  When we did ATW16, we did not receive any free shorex; on ATW20 we are given 35pp, which amounts to a significant amount of $--and the cost of the entire cruise is about the same as ATW16.   (there are ports ATW that we only feel safe doing with O-- complete with police escorts outside and inside the bus)

Edited February 24, 2019 by cbb

[Belfastman]

Thank you for your quick replies.

[Belfastman]

1 hour ago, cbb said:

OP--

have you set up an online account for your cruise?  It is easy to do so and from that account then you can purchase shorex online and "they" will deduct that amount from your OBC, provided that it is $199. or less pp as has already been stated.

 

O is very nice about giving you the "freebie" that is the more expensive of the ones you've chosen.  So if you choose some that are $119 and some that are $189, they will give you the $189 ones as your freebies.

 

We feel that the OLife shorex is a wonderful benefit....for us.  When we did ATW16, we did not receive any free shorex; on ATW20 we are given 35pp, which amounts to a significant amount of $--and the cost of the entire cruise is about the same as ATW16.   (there are ports ATW that we only feel safe doing with O-- complete with police escorts outside and inside the bus)

When I look at the online account all the shore excursions are listed as sold out or closed. Do I need to wait until final payment or are they really all sold out?

[Paulchili]

3 minutes ago, Belfastman said:

When I look at the online account all the shore excursions are listed as sold out or closed. Do I need to wait until final payment or are they really all sold out?

That is most unlikely. Probably the bookings have not opened yet.

When is your cruise? The shore excursions usually open around 180 days +/- prior to the cruise.

[Belfastman]

The cruise is in October this year.

[LHT28]

I would  keep checking  or if you used a TA get them to check with Oceania

I would not think  they would be sold out this early 

[cbb]

 belfastman--

i just looked at the Riviera cruises for October, 2019 and they should be open for you to purchase.  The prices for all of the excursions are listed which is usually the sign that you can buy them.

 

get your TA involved if you can't purchase them online.  Unfortunately, if you buy  online and then change your mind about a few of them, you have to call Oceania and talk to a person to make a switch...we've tried to change on line and can't. 

 

Good luck!!!

[LHT28]

you could  ask someone on your roll call to check & see if they can book them or have the same result

Another thought 

if you book in the UK  can you book online or do you  need to book the excursions  through Oceania?/

I seem to recall there was something  people in the UK could not book online  ...

[ORV]

2 hours ago, cbb said:

 belfastman--

i just looked at the Riviera cruises for October, 2019 and they should be open for you to purchase.  The prices for all of the excursions are listed which is usually the sign that you can buy them.

 

get your TA involved if you can't purchase them online.  Unfortunately, if you buy  online and then change your mind about a few of them, you have to call Oceania and talk to a person to make a switch...we've tried to change on line and can't. 

 

Good luck!!!

The cruise I have upcoming in Sept showed with prices for a few weeks before they opened up. They also had the closed or sold out statement on all of them. Ours opened at 240 days out. I'm sure they did this so you could pre shop and figure out what you were going to do. 

[cotto22]

We are also booked for a cruise in October, and every single shore excursion is marked as closed or sold out. I will post on my roll call, but as there are only 6 members so far, I am not sure what results I will get! We would like to do some private tours, but possibly one or two ship tours if they sounded interesting. We just booked the cruise on Wednesday, so I really have not had a chance to even look at the excursions. I am not a happy camper at the moment!

[Paulchili]

3 minutes ago, cotto22 said:

I am not a happy camper at the moment!

Why is that? If it is about the excursions, don’t worry. It’s just too soon to book them - they will show up soon - about 6 months before the cruise (currently it is 7 - 8 months before).

[Mura]

As to Roll Calls, most passengers don't know about Cruise Critic and so are unaware of Roll Calls.  I was booked early on the April 4th TA from NY to Southampton.  I had to cancel, but I still get roll call updates.  In the early days, there were very few participants.  In the past month or two, lots more have joined.

 

Sometimes a Roll Call stays inactive to the end, but usually you do pick up more members as time gets closer.

 

Private tours have been impacted by the oLife "free" tours, of course.  So probably there are fewer people looking for private tours.  We had no trouble setting them up in November 2017 and May 2018, and I had set up a few on the April TA before I had to cancel.

 

Sometimes it helps to be patient.  If you haven't set up private tours yourself before it doesn't hurt to do some research and post your findings on the Roll Call.  Everyone has to start some time ... unless you really don't want to do the work.  I haven't found it that burdensome to set up private tours.

 

Mura

[cotto22]

On the only other Oceania cruise we have been on, I booked several private tours in Ireland and one in Canada that we shared through CC, and we joined one with another couple through CC. It worked out well, so I was planning on doing that again, and I have done some preliminary research. One of the reasons I looked at the ship's offerings was that I started to fill out a form online for Oceania, and there was a box that said that no excursions had been chosen, which i inferred that I could choose them! I then looked to see if there were a date someplace online, and thought I saw 240 days, but truthfully did not do the math. I know we are no where's near the time to make specialty restaurant reservations though! 

  Thanks for the words of wisdom.