No Shore Excursions

[portimber]

On our cruise next spring we have a few days where no shore excursions show on the website.  The last two weeks of the trip none of the ports have shore excursions listed.  Is this a glitch?

[LHT28]

Sometimes they may not show up until 6-9 mths out

 Check a similar sailing earlier  to see what is on offer

[Flatbush Flyer]

2 hours ago, portimber said:

On our cruise next spring we have a few days where no shore excursions show on the website.  The last two weeks of the trip none of the ports have shore excursions listed.  Is this a glitch?

Call O every month or so and ask for the most current shore excursions PDF. Often more accurate than the web listing - particularly if you’re doing a multi-segment cruise.

[Cruzing Nancy]

On 5/30/2023 at 5:04 PM, portimber said:

On our cruise next spring we have a few days where no shore excursions show on the website.  The last two weeks of the trip none of the ports have shore excursions listed.  Is this a glitch?

I don’t know if you are the same Kristi that booked a tour in Nuku Hiva with Richard Deane.  If you are, would you please contact me at Nancy Neal 1 @ yahoo dot com.  I contacted him direct and signed up for his tour.  

[pinotlover]

Oceania shore excursions are added to the listings all the time. Some may not appear until 4-6 months out. Some are also cancelled even after originally being offered. It wasn’t that long ago they didn’t appear for booking until around 9 months out.

 

From the multiple complaints on my latest three cruises, in the past nine months, concerning tour descriptions not matching up with the actual tours, I’d be inclined to not book shorexs too early. 

[Redtravel]

I would book early. With Simply more, everyone has credit.

[vtgumby]

34 minutes ago, Redtravel said:

I would book early. With Simply more, everyone has credit.

My thinking also, lots of never ever excursion folks are going to be doing them now because it’s included. If I’d booked a simply more cruise I definitely would vs leaving it unused on the Oceania table.

Simply more is going to benefit tour operators because O is going to have to provide more excursions for the increased volume of people (eventually the entire ship) taking them albeit the pick and choose of which one, two, or three are your ‘free’ ones.
It’s going to be interesting to watch the logistics of this but it looks like a boon to tour providers which is money into the local economy so yay!

[Vineyard View]

Have to agree. We are not shore excursion people at all. I just booked a small group tour in Tunisia last night when they opened up that used a nice portion of our credit. I am looking at doing probably one more and that will be likely all that I book on Oceania. The rest will be DIY or Private. 

[pinotlover]

33 minutes ago, vtgumby said:

My thinking also, lots of never ever excursion folks are going to be doing them now because it’s included. If I’d booked a simply more cruise I definitely would vs leaving it unused on the Oceania table.

Simply more is going to benefit tour operators because O is going to have to provide more excursions for the increased volume of people (eventually the entire ship) taking them albeit the pick and choose of which one, two, or three are your ‘free’ ones.
It’s going to be interesting to watch the logistics of this but it looks like a boon to tour providers which is money into the local economy so yay!

I believe we’ll have to wait and see.

 

On my Viking cruise, we had ship tours provided at every port. Many didn’t interest us, so we took private tours. Most all of them were filled by like souls via our Roll Call. Some people, even with the free provided tours, opted to stay aboard ship and relax.

 

I believe both of these scenarios will continue on Oceania at about the same rate as current regardless of SM. We are NOT going to fly halfway around the world, to visit a possible bucket list port/site, and then take a ship tour we have no interest in! Those that just want to primarily cruise will continue to do so, tour credits or not. Likewise, we may have had the drinks package and still either bought a bottle of wine ,or pay corkage on a bottle . We don’t feel obliged to only drink what the package offers.

 

We have the option of converting our next cruise to SM. Oceania doesn’t offer enough tours we’re interested in to eat up the credits or cover the added costs. We’ll stay OLife for that cruise.

 

For future booking, where SM is the only option, SM merely reflects a portion of the total cost of the cruise. The question becomes:Is Oceania offering the best itinerary and offerings with that cruise. Just because SM is our only choice on O, we don’t feel obligated to take any tours with them or to drink their wine on any given night.

[vtgumby]

1 hour ago, pinotlover said:

I believe we’ll have to wait and see.

 

On my Viking cruise, we had ship tours provided at every port. Many didn’t interest us, so we took private tours. Most all of them were filled by like souls via our Roll Call. Some people, even with the free provided tours, opted to stay aboard ship and relax.

 

I believe both of these scenarios will continue on Oceania at about the same rate as current regardless of SM. We are NOT going to fly halfway around the world, to visit a possible bucket list port/site, and then take a ship tour we have no interest in! Those that just want to primarily cruise will continue to do so, tour credits or not. Likewise, we may have had the drinks package and still either bought a bottle of wine ,or pay corkage on a bottle . We don’t feel obliged to only drink what the package offers.

 

We have the option of converting our next cruise to SM. Oceania doesn’t offer enough tours we’re interested in to eat up the credits or cover the added costs. We’ll stay OLife for that cruise.

 

For future booking, where SM is the only option, SM merely reflects a portion of the total cost of the cruise. The question becomes:Is Oceania offering the best itinerary and offerings with that cruise. Just because SM is our only choice on O, we don’t feel obligated to take any tours with them or to drink their wine on any given night.

I hear you but I fear you’re in the minority! 😉

Agreed it’s a wait and see and happily I have no skin in the game but instead a casual observer who would indeed snag a spot on the one or two excursions amidst the many sooner rather than later. You can always cancel if you decide against it but happily there are a few years before it’s ship wide and I’m hopeful they will have it all figured out.

[Vineyard View]

It think it may also be port/country specific for some of us who want to DIY when we travel. I have organized small group tours on different cruise lines including Viking on roll calls. Also privates. All but one went well. 
On this itinerary, Tunisia is a country we were not sure about for DIY for independent. So a max 16 people tour that hits the main historic places we a]want to see is a great option using the credits. Another may be Santorini where there are too many cruise ships in that day to our liking, so we may just stay on the water with one O is offering. That will use up our credits and we will figure the rest out on our own. 
So it may be a mixture of people who don’t do excursions, but find a couple offered that are very small, pricey tours and those tours go to places of interest where they use their credits until gone and then go to normal travels for reasons such as ours. It may be another mix of people who in fact this generates more bookings. I have just read that often the small group tours, and those on Santorini, sell out quickly (there is no Oia on your own offering darn it) because of the elevator debacle and if I DIY or private, I haven’t found a way to avoid that. 

[Classiccruiser777]

6 hours ago, vtgumby said:

My thinking also, lots of never ever excursion folks are going to be doing them now because it’s included.

Not in our case. In about 45 cruises we’ve taken 3 shore excursions in total. We prefer the freedom to go our own way. Simply more is simply a fare increase for us and makes O less attractive.

[pinotlover]

6 minutes ago, Classiccruiser777 said:

Not in our case. In about 45 cruises we’ve taken 3 shore excursions in total. We prefer the freedom to go our own way. Simply more is simply a fare increase for us and makes O less attractive.

Not in many of O cruiser’s case. Vineyard View ignores all the cruisers that cruise for the ship only. He ignored all those that rarely, if ever, even get off the ship in ports.

 

Most importantly he ignored all those that aren’t so senile to understand they’re not in any physical condition to get off the ship for tours. If they do start doing tours, we want to ensure they all go on the ship tours with Vineyards View! 😇 

 

For many, Simply More is merely a fare increase. Probably a fare increase Oceania needs, but a fare increase regardless. In these days of staggering debt, if you don’t take Oceania Air ( a profit center); if you don’t take Oceania shore tours ( a big profit center); and you never buy Oceania’s booze ( a profit center), then Oceania is probably either going to be charging you more upfront, looking to replace you with a different customer base , or both. Life goes on.

[vtgumby]

4 hours ago, Classiccruiser777 said:

Not in our case. In about 45 cruises we’ve taken 3 shore excursions in total. We prefer the freedom to go our own way. Simply more is simply a fare increase for us and makes O less attractive.

Agreed, we are not ship excursion people either BUT now that it has been included will you still not engage? Or just not sail O?

I don’t know what we will do when it comes to booking our next O cruise, we are cruise only people with a few already booked and no desire to go Simply more (and hoping cruise only somehow comes back and yeah, I know, doubtful but I have dreams!) I’m just thinking I wouldn’t leave $2000 of excursion money on the table and that we would find some overpriced ship excursion(s) to partake in but I guess I will cross that bridge when we get there.

No judgements from me, O needs money and this is just their newest idea which I happen to not like.

 

 

[Vineyard View]

13 hours ago, pinotlover said:

Not in many of O cruiser’s case. Vineyard View ignores all the cruisers that cruise for the ship only. He ignored all those that rarely, if ever, even get off the ship in ports.

 

Most importantly he ignored all those that aren’t so senile to understand they’re not in any physical condition to get off the ship for tours. If they do start doing tours, we want to ensure they all go on the ship tours with Vineyards View! 😇 

 

If I said or suggested something that offended you I certainly did not mean to. I don’t really understand this post about me, who btw is a she. But sincerely, I meant to offense to anyone regarding my post on this thread. 

Edited July 27, 2023 by Vineyard View

[pinotlover]

1 hour ago, Vineyard View said:

If I said or suggested something that offended you I certainly did not mean to. I don’t really understand this post about me, who btw is a she. But sincerely, I meant to offense to anyone regarding my post on this thread. 

I wasn’t offended and hope you weren’t.

 

My response is merely to point out that a percentage of Oceania cruisers either don’t or can’t do shore tours. This credit isn’t going to prompt people to do otherwise. For many, it’s merely a price hike. They’ll have to decide whether the new product, at the new price, is something they want.

 

The second paragraph merely lays out why Oceania has to do things differently. 1. Cruise Only obviously isn’t generating the needed revenue.

 

2. Oceania continually needs to run endless “ sales” to fill its ships. They only do that because the current programs aren’t meeting a wide enough audience’s wants. 
 

Something different is required. Whether SM is the answer, only time will tell.

 

[Vineyard View]

Okay good thanks for the clarification Pinotlover! I do my best not to be “that” person, but I know I am not perfect. 
 

Even though we don’t take excursions 95% of the time, it sure seems like Oceania prices are pretty high even compared to some ‘luxury’ lines, but that generally doesn’t impact us. I like that O offers smaller groups, but not enough to switch to those prices out of pocket when i can do my own for way less . My idea of small group is 2-6. That said, I think that the two I used my credit for may be good. I think we will enjoy sailing on a yacht around Santorini before we try to tackle Oia, and Tunisia hits all the high points we would want to see even though it is a super long day. I won’t book anymore through Oceania though. 

BTW meeting up with friends today to enjoy some good Pinot!  Now that’s a good day too! 

 

[Classiccruiser777]

On 7/26/2023 at 11:41 PM, vtgumby said:

Agreed, we are not ship excursion people either BUT now that it has been included will you still not engage? Or just not sail O?

 

We will be far more discriminating in booking O cruises - shopping sales, promotions and repositioning itineraries. Most likely we will be booking more cruises on other lines, fewer on O. 

[Classiccruiser777]

On 7/26/2023 at 7:14 PM, pinotlover said:

Probably a fare increase Oceania needs, but a fare increase regardless. In these days of staggering debt, if you don’t take Oceania Air ( a profit center); if you don’t take Oceania shore tours ( a big profit center); and you never buy Oceania’s booze ( a profit center), then Oceania is probably either going to be charging you more upfront, looking to replace you with a different customer base , or both. Life goes on.

 

Couldn't agree more and I understand management's decision to implement "Simply More." The debt NCLH has accumulated is massive, $14 billion according to the linked article. https://seekingalpha.com/article/4621930-norwegian-cruise-line-return-profitability-horizon