New to Oceania: Take OBC or Excursions

[pokyjones]

Looking for advice as we've never sailed on Oceania (RC & Celebrity for most past).  $600 OBC or the six 'free' excursions, but limited to the OLIfe ones.  It's pretty confusing how Oceania does excursions, but looking through the menu I think I understand (certain excursions excluded from OLife).  On a 12 night cruise we're definitely going to do 3+ excursions so that's not an issue.  We also have no worries about booking excursions on our own.  So is it a better 'value' to take the excursions or OBC?  $100+ per excursion these days is not unreasonable to expect so I tend to think the excursion OLife "deal" is best value.  We're not big drinkers so that option isn't being considered.

 

Thanks for any advice to an Oceania newbie!

[basor]

2 minutes ago, pokyjones said:

Looking for advice as we've never sailed on Oceania (RC & Celebrity for most past).  $600 OBC or the six 'free' excursions, but limited to the OLIfe ones.  It's pretty confusing how Oceania does excursions, but looking through the menu I think I understand (certain excursions excluded from OLife).  On a 12 night cruise we're definitely going to do 3+ excursions so that's not an issue.  We also have no worries about booking excursions on our own.  So is it a better 'value' to take the excursions or OBC?  $100+ per excursion these days is not unreasonable to expect so I tend to think the excursion OLife "deal" is best value.  We're not big drinkers so that option isn't being considered.

 

Thanks for any advice to an Oceania newbie!

Just remember that the OBC is not free, you are paying for it....the difference between cruise only and cruise with O Life is the amount of OBC.  If you take the OBC as your O Life perk, it is non-refundable onboard so use it or lose it.   You are way ahead to book cruise only and then purchase your own OBC - this type of OBC is refundable so if you do not use it all, you will receive it back. 

The best value is either shore excursion (any excursion up to $199.00 pp without a letter designation - OS, etc.) or the select drink package (if you enjoy wine or beer during meals - $44.95 pp per day).  Generally both of these are a higher dollar value than the OBC.

 

[Flatbush Flyer]

1 hour ago, pokyjones said:

Looking for advice as we've never sailed on Oceania (RC & Celebrity for most past).  $600 OBC or the six 'free' excursions, but limited to the OLIfe ones.  It's pretty confusing how Oceania does excursions, but looking through the menu I think I understand (certain excursions excluded from OLife).  On a 12 night cruise we're definitely going to do 3+ excursions so that's not an issue.  We also have no worries about booking excursions on our own.  So is it a better 'value' to take the excursions or OBC?  $100+ per excursion these days is not unreasonable to expect so I tend to think the excursion OLife "deal" is best value.  We're not big drinkers so that option isn't being considered.

 

Thanks for any advice to an Oceania newbie!

The O Life SBC is a “wash.” You paid the equivalent in your fare.

The tours, base valued at $100 each, can be used for allowable tours up to $199, thus doubling the perks value. Likewise, those O Life tour choices count toward the minimum number of tours required on your itinerary for the YWYW discount which saves you 25% off on any additionally purchased tours. Overall, the O Life tours option is the best “deal” for most folks.

[LHT28]

There  several threads her on the O Live excursion

  check in the fine print  for details

https://www.oceaniacruises.com/legal/promotion-terms/

OLife Choice free shore excursions vary by voyage and exclude Oceania Select, Oceania Exclusive, Executive Collection, Food & Wine Trails, Wellness Discovery Tours by Aquamar, Go Local and Culinary Discovery Tours.

[mauibabes]

We most often do a mix of Ship tours and Private tours so it will depend on how your tour plan works out to get the most bang for your buck. We always take the Free Excursions because we don’t buy a drink package. We bring a suitcase of our favorite wines aboard (and yes O allows it). We routinely book enough Free tours AND OE or OS tours that we qualify for the Your World Package Discount, (aka 25% off all Tours) and that works for us.  Whatever you do, work with your TA or Oceania Rep to make sure you are booking tour combinations that save you the most. The $300 of SBC vs 3 Free Tours (up to $199 ea) means 💵💰💵💰 IMHO. 
 

ENJOY Oceania and continue to ask questions as there are many Princess and Celebrity cruisers who have seen the light and made the move to Oceania after their first cruise experience.   Oceania is just an amazingly superior product and that has come from people with 50 cruises or with very high perk levels on the other brands. If your experience plays out like it should, there will be no going back.  Just go back into the hundreds of posts by people like DENIE and so many others as they prepared for their first Oceania cruise. 
 

Just expect great food, great service, Country Club Casual attire, No formal nights, No Camera in your face, No charge for a bottle of water or cup of coffee, Free Specialty dining, No go carts or rock walls to climb, and great guests to share the experience with.  It is really a family, guests and staff.

 

Mauibabes

[Robjame]

34 minutes ago, mauibabes said:

We most often do a mix of Ship tours and Private tours so it will depend on how your tour plan works out to get the most bang for your buck. We always take the Free Excursions because we don’t buy a drink package.

This is the fallacy of using your OLife for excursions ……or for the drink packages for that matter.  It is only a deal if you would have purchased either. There are no free drinks. There are no free excursions. 
Quite often you can find the same or better excursions for less money from private operators or reliable consolidators like Viator. I only choose Oceania tours when they are unique to Oceania - ie a culinary tour combined with a class in the culinary centre.

 

I choose the drink package because I do drink and my total cost for drinks would be more than the cost of the individual drinks I would buy.

Make  sure you can say that about Oceania excursions. Better and cheaper excursions can often be found in your roll call, being formed by knowledgeable and experienced cruisers.

[honumaui]

What does the beverage package include?

[Robjame]

https://www.theluxurycruisereview.com/oceania-beverage-packages/

 

There are many threads on this.

 

OLife can be use for House Select package. Cost to upgrade to Prestige is $20 per day per person.

[basor]

8 minutes ago, Robjame said:

https://www.theluxurycruisereview.com/oceania-beverage-packages/

 

There are many threads on this.

 

OLife can be use for House Select package. Cost to upgrade to Prestige is $20 per day per person.

That is a great description of the alcoholic beverages onboard.....should be a sticky on this forum!

[DENIE]

2 hours ago, Robjame said:

I choose the drink package because I do drink and my total cost for drinks would be more than the cost of the individual drinks I would buy.

Make  sure you can say that about Oceania excursions. Better and cheaper excursions can often be found in your roll call, being formed by knowledgeable and experienced cruisers.

Agree - we do drink and find value in the beverage package.

 

Also agree on the excursions.  We have shifted from doing ship-sponsored excursions to private.  Our experience is you can frequently find better private options that may cost a little more, but the overall experience is much better than boarding a bus.  Being whisked off in a private car or small van is so much better. Agree with Robjame that you might have some luck sharing tours with folks on your roll call.

[honumaui]

The wine is by the glass. Does that mean just one glass per meal ? How many glasses can you have with each dinner?

[Mura]

I've never taken the drink package because (1) DH doesn't drink but I do, and (2) I don't want to be governed by the "wine by glass" rules.  They DO have a reasonable selection of wines by the glass but I prefer to buy a bottle (or bring my own to the table and pay the corkage fee). But as far as I have ever heard, you can keep on asking for another glass once your run out.  SOME have complained that it can be hard to find a server to bring you that additional glass ... I think that was mostly in Terrace, but perhaps not.

 

 

[pinotlover]

Ha! This is a separate question! If one eats in the Terrace Cafe ( buffet) they are lucky to get a single glass of wine. Ignore claims of unlimited drinks.

 

Consider your itinerary. If one is gone ashore most lunches, buying packages including wine and beer at lunch, is a waist. If, however, you are among those rushing back aboard ship ship for lunch or have multiple sea days. What is your schedule, economics change?

 

Some cruise Embarkment ports are in wine deserts. One is not reasonably going to buy cases of wine there, nor during their cruise. Buying the package makes tremendous sense. Other cruises are in large wine producing areas. Buying locally makes sense.

 

If you only want CA wines and CA flavors, then pay to ship CA wine to the ship. Heaven forbid you do anything local.

[LHT28]

1 hour ago, honumaui said:

The wine is by the glass. Does that mean just one glass per meal ? How many glasses can you have with each dinner?

I have heard in some cases the wait time for drinks is long  but You can have as many as you choose or can get ..to a point I am sure

 A different one with each course if your choose

You are not limited to one per meal 🙂   

[Flatbush Flyer]

1 hour ago, DENIE said:

Agree - we do drink and find value in the beverage package.

 

Also agree on the excursions.  We have shifted from doing ship-sponsored excursions to private.  Our experience is you can frequently find better private options that may cost a little more, but the overall experience is much better than boarding a bus.  Being whisked off in a private car or small van is so much better. Agree with Robjame that you might have some luck sharing tours with folks on your roll call.

Once you start doing more O cruises, you may find that the combination of multiple opportunities for free booze (e.g., captain’s welcomes and o club parties (at least, one each per segment)), as well as officer invited dinners plus happy hours and bringing your own unlimited wine (for which the $25 corkage fee is a relative bargain), find you spending far less than what you’d need from the booze program.

 

As for the O excursions: we too mix them with private tours. What some folks posting here seem to forget is that, in some exotic locations, O sews up the best providers. And, in this attempt at a Covid recovery, many private tours are more costly than ever (if they even still exist).

[basor]

1 hour ago, honumaui said:

The wine is by the glass. Does that mean just one glass per meal ? How many glasses can you have with each dinner?

As many as you want......we often sit outside Terrace and get to know the servers and they remember what wine we like so they usually grab the bottle and glasses when they see us sit down.  Then, often, they leave the bottle on a side table close and refill our glasses when they see they are empty....you can also change wines with courses if you like and don't forget Port is considered a wine so can have an after dinner glass while you enjoy the beautiful scenery!

[Flatbush Flyer]

3 hours ago, DENIE said:

Agree - we do drink and find value in the beverage package.

 

Also agree on the excursions.  We have shifted from doing ship-sponsored excursions to private.  Our experience is you can frequently find better private options that may cost a little more, but the overall experience is much better than boarding a bus.  Being whisked off in a private car or small van is so much better. Agree with Robjame that you might have some luck sharing tours with folks on your roll call.

It used to be that the “be all to end all” was private excursions. 
However, in the current world of guided tours, recognize that many of the best providers (particularly in ports off the beaten path) have gone belly-up AND/O has cornered the best of what’s left.

That said, avoiding any O tour that says “panoramic” (a.k.a. “Bus” tour)  and using the right O Life YWYW strategy may provide you quite the “Aha!” experience. 

Do the math. 

 

[DENIE]

39 minutes ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

It used to be that the “be all to end all” was private excursions. 
However, in the current world of guided tours, recognize that many of the best providers (particularly in ports off the beaten path) have gone belly-up AND/O has cornered the best of what’s left.

That said, avoiding any O tour that says “panoramic” (a.k.a. “Bus” tour)  and using the right O Life YWYW strategy may provide you quite the “Aha!” experience. 

Do the math. 

 

I do understand that.

 

We just cruised on the Riviera in June (Rome to Barcelona). None of the private tours we booked were cancelled or altered. They were amazing.

[jeanine]

Cruising the South Pacific from Tahiti to Singapore next month! We have on previous cruise arranged or joined cruise thru the roll call! This cruise will be Oceania arranged excursions!

 

[Flatbush Flyer]

11 hours ago, DENIE said:

I do understand that.

 

We just cruised on the Riviera in June (Rome to Barcelona). None of the private tours we booked were cancelled or altered. They were amazing.

You were lucky - even for Europe with its traditionally robust tourism industry.
 

Right now, try getting private tours in exotic locations like Vanuatu where most of the best sail/snorkel tour operators have packed it in. 

I’m not opposed to private tours. We use them often because we do longer cruises of approx 3-7 weeks and mix key private tours with the combo of an O Life and YWYW package (which, done correctly, can equal about 1/3 total discount on retail ship tours (plus a far reduced amount of your research/logistical effort)).  

[DENIE]

5 hours ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

You were lucky - even for Europe with its traditionally robust tourism industry.
 

Right now, try getting private tours in exotic locations like Vanuatu where most of the best sail/snorkel tour operators have packed it in. 

I’m not opposed to private tours. We use them often because we do longer cruises of approx 3-7 weeks and mix key private tours with the combo of an O Life and YWYW package (which, done correctly, can equal about 1/3 total discount on retail ship tours (plus a far reduced amount of your research/logistical effort)).  

Oops....I should have clarified.  The private tours went as planned, but we did have issues with some of the smaller group tours (to be fair, they were also by a different 3rd party company).  They were typically the same tours offered by Oceania, but smaller in size and not as expensive. 

 

It was Tours by Locals that went as planned, and we had the comfort of email our personal guide right up until we departed for Europe.

 

 

[pinotlover]

We did all private tours this summer with everything going smoothly. It was the big tour operators and ship tours that had the problems. Bus driver shortages, no show tour guides, etc. Some of the ship tours had to be cancelled and combined last minute because of problems.

[DENIE]

11 minutes ago, pinotlover said:

We did all private tours this summer with everything going smoothly. It was the big tour operators and ship tours that had the problems. Bus driver shortages, no show tour guides, etc. Some of the ship tours had to be cancelled and combined last minute because of problems.

Yes, that was pretty much our experience on the group tours.  We got combined, cancelled, and one appeared to have "merged" us with a land-based tour as we made two other stops to pick up people at hotels.  Our San Gimignano/Volterra all day small group tour was cancelled, but we scrambled and went back on board and Oceania had a mid-afternoon 4 hour tour to Lucca.  It was fine, but not as much time as we would have liked to spend (no free time to wander).

[MEFIowa]

On 9/1/2022 at 11:28 AM, pokyjones said:

Looking for advice as we've never sailed on Oceania ... $600 OBC or the six 'free' excursions, but limited to the OLIfe ones.  It's pretty confusing how Oceania does excursions, but looking through the menu I think I understand (certain excursions excluded from OLife). ...

Just for excursions, study all the ones O lists. Then do a thorough Google search for yourself of tours/excursions in and around your ports of call. Only you will know what is best for you, most interesting, worth your time and money.

 

BUT when wife and I did W. Caribbean in 12/21, we did ALL of our own excursions. The prices were better and the excursions were better. They all went off without a hitch (e.g., a trip to Livingston & then up the Rio Dulce in Guatemala ending in Mayan river villages).

 

We're doing the same, all our own excursions, for our upcoming 11/22 E. Caribbean cruise on Sirena.

 

So, for us it is Cruise Only Fare (no airfare, excursions, drink packages, OBC, etc.).

[Flatbush Flyer]

9 minutes ago, MEFIowa said:

Just for excursions, study all the ones O lists. Then do a thorough Google search for yourself of tours/excursions in and around your ports of call. Only you will know what is best for you, most interesting, worth your time and money.

 

BUT when wife and I did W. Caribbean in 12/21, we did ALL of our own excursions. The prices were better and the excursions were better. They all went off without a hitch (e.g., a trip to Livingston & then up the Rio Dulce in Guatemala ending in Mayan river villages).

 

We're doing the same, all our own excursions, for our upcoming 11/22 E. Caribbean cruise on Sirena.

 

So, for us it is Cruise Only Fare (no airfare, excursions, drink packages, OBC, etc.).

Scanning the O shore excursions PDF for your cruise definitely does give a good overview of what activities are available at a port (as does checking third party vendors like Viator). And, with a little added effort, a savvy researcher can easily figure out the name of the actual tour company they’re using.
 

Nonetheless, when it comes to ship vs private tours, there is no “one size fits all.”

 

Our normal practice is to consider a mix of ship and private tours - particularly on long cruises which may have 30+\- port days with a fair number of unusual small ports (e.g., Rapa Nui, Vanuatu et al.)

In that situation, the research to identify, vet and then do the logistics for each small cruise ship group you want to arrange can be more time consuming than it is worth- especially if O’s Destination Services has already contracted with the best existing (perhaps only a couple do) tour providers at a very small/unusual port.

 

Of course, some private tour providers (e.g., Maohi Nui on Bora Bora, Sicily with Mario in Messina, Errantis Nordica in Stockholm, etc) are definitely worth the effort.  And, if you have access to certain “in country” sources (hotel concierges for your FF clubs- even if you’re not staying there; Cultural Attachés at US embassies/consulates and maritime Port Agents [if you have access] ; and/or Travel Coordinators of large regional Cultural Clubs in major metro areas) you don’t have to wade through the ads and ramblings of neophyte reviewers on Trip Advisor who suggest that “Spaghetti Factory has the best Italian food ever!”

 

As for O ship tours: their RETAIL prices are certainly not often the “best price” available for a similar private tour. But the combination of the O Life tours option (with which the right choice of allowable ones doubles each of your allocated one’s $100 value to $199 [e.g., savings of up to approx $800 on an 8 tour O Life perk] while also counting toward the minimum number of tours on YWYW for your itinerary) AND the YWYW 25% discount on added paid ones does represent savings and convenience that should be considered in your bottom line calculations of the “big picture” of your overall plan for activities at port stops.

 

In essence, the right mix of ship tours’ bottom line savings/credits (via O Life and YWYW) may offset the price difference of that Kauai helicopter ride if you use the ship tour rather than DIY.
 

Of course, if you DIY for every tour, you may find more $ still in your pocket when you are done. But, the “bigger picture” requires consideration of the value of all the time you had to put into the research/logistics for an “only private tours” scenario AND any extra cancel/refund efforts should you then miss a port (a not uncommon occurrence these days!). AND, again, if your next cruise has 24+\- port days and/or you’re doing 3+\- similar long cruises each year, the efficacy of total DIY will require that “bigger picture” consideration.