Where's the beef? I am not seeing Simply More pricing.

[osandomir]

As I was briefly able to check last night our booked cruises didn’t go up a lot when I compared new prices to MOST RECENT OLife prices. So it shouldn’t be too much difference for those who booked with OLife Beverage Package recently, as the current price which is comparable to the previous OLife price will include both Beverages and Excursion credit. Though, it’s different for those who don’t need either of these and booked Cruise only.
 

In our case, given we booked a while ago before the price increased couple of times and we chose OLife Excursions (potentially double the value) it wouldn’t make sense for us to switch for Simply more at a current price to receive “Free drinks” and additional WiFi login.

 

Again, my observation is related just to those particular cruises that we have booked on the previous terms.

[vtgumby]

1 hour ago, ak1004 said:

 

Just out of curiosity, if you consider the new prices too high, which "nice ships" would you consider for future sailings? As non drinkers, we are running out of options if we don't want to pay for "stuff we don’t want". Viking already included drinks and excursions, and their prices were higher than O.

Windstar

We did a 28 day Tahiti to LA on O in April, fabulous. We then did a TP with Windstar a month later so did direct to direct comparisons. O gets it for food and entertainment while W nails cabins, 288 sf on their motor yachts and the extra room is lovely along with large bathrooms and rainfall showers, the opposite of O. Normal cabin too, not suite. W also gets it for the whole ‘family’ thing, they know your names within a day (kinda freaky) and officers go out of their way to say hi, nothing we’ve cared about but absolutely notice when we’re on W ships. Both have quality linens and pool blankets, both offer good wines although we felt O’s sommeliers pushed wine tastings a bit and both have wonderful people, genuine smiles and mood, not like they’re being forced.

They both offer nice options, free on one and a charge on the other (WiFi and laundry) so that should be factored in as necessary.

We aren’t one line cruisers and find O and W to be on par, ship excursions aren’t our thing so zero thoughts but why having them wrapped into the fare isn’t a deal for us…if we were ship excursion people I’d probably be giddy with delight over SM.
I like they both allow you to bring alcohol on, nice perk.

 

We survived Covid pricing, we’ll survive SM and who knows, if the price makes sense we may be there too but still happy for the two we have already booked and hoping an aforementioned cruise only option does reappear.

Time will tell.

Meanwhile, happy cruising to us all!

[ak1004]

14 minutes ago, vtgumby said:

Windstar

We did a 28 day Tahiti to LA on O in April, fabulous. We then did a TP with Windstar a month later so did direct to direct comparisons. O gets it for food and entertainment while W nails cabins, 288 sf on their motor yachts and the extra room is lovely along with large bathrooms and rainfall showers, the opposite of O. Normal cabin too, not suite. W also gets it for the whole ‘family’ thing, they know your names within a day (kinda freaky) and officers go out of their way to say hi, nothing we’ve cared about but absolutely notice when we’re on W ships. Both have quality linens and pool blankets, both offer good wines although we felt O’s sommeliers pushed wine tastings a bit and both have wonderful people, genuine smiles and mood, not like they’re being forced.

They both offer nice options, free on one and a charge on the other (WiFi and laundry) so that should be factored in as necessary.

We aren’t one line cruisers and find O and W to be on par, ship excursions aren’t our thing so zero thoughts but why having them wrapped into the fare isn’t a deal for us…if we were ship excursion people I’d probably be giddy with delight over SM.
I like they both allow you to bring alcohol on, nice perk.

 

We survived Covid pricing, we’ll survive SM and who knows, if the price makes sense we may be there too but still happy for the two we have already booked and hoping an aforementioned cruise only option does reappear.

Time will tell.

Meanwhile, happy cruising to us all!

Thanks for sharing! Looks very attractive. Small ships, casual dress code, just the right inclusions, interesting itineraries.

 

but the ships are over 30 years old. Isn’t it a concern? Heard about some maintenance issues recently.

 

Also the prices in some cases are almost as high as O new prices, without the inclusions.

[roberts2005]

If you decide to switch to simply more, will the onboard booking credit transfer over or do you lose it?

[LHT28]

1 hour ago, roberts2005 said:

If you decide to switch to simply more, will the onboard booking credit transfer over or do you lose it?

Best to contact  your TA  or O rep  for the correct answer

 All other info will be speculation at this point

 

[mamaclark]

Just booked Tokyo-Singapore for April with SM. Thrilled! Special thanks to LHT28 for so patiently answering questions, including mine.

Edited July 2, 2023 by mamaclark

[cruisemom42]

There really isn't one perfect cruise line out there. Occasionally one line comes along that hits the sweet spot for a while, then things change again. 

 

I suggest it's better (and less frustrating) to cruise multiple lines, with the understanding that they are not all going to offer the same product. But it could be that you enjoy X better on one line, and Y on another, so you are satisfied with both, especially if you aren't limited to just one choice.

 

I'll probably continue to take the occasional cruise on whichever smaller-ship line offers me an itinerary that excites me at a price I consider reasonable after doing my own assessment of what's included and what isn't.

[curmudgeon98]

22 hours ago, ak1004 said:

Thanks for sharing! Looks very attractive. Small ships, casual dress code, just the right inclusions, interesting itineraries.

 

but the ships are over 30 years old. Isn’t it a concern? Heard about some maintenance issues recently.

 

Also the prices in some cases are almost as high as O new prices, without the inclusions.

The Windstar power ships all had pretty major rebuilding in the past several years.  Far beyond the typical dockyard refit, they cut the ships in half and lengthened them with a new section.  They were Seabourn ships originally.  

[Robato Wild]

You can't tell how much of the new fare prices are attributable to Simply More. It was the end of a quarter anyway, so $100, $200 and $300 increases are normal. 

[AMHuntFerry]

2 hours ago, Robato Wild said:

You can't tell how much of the new fare prices are attributable to Simply More. It was the end of a quarter anyway, so $100, $200 and $300 increases are normal. 

You can if you have data for multiple years. There are certain cruises that never go up in price from when they are released until they sail (I rarely say "never" but in this case I do); they are often part of the super-duper sales. So, if you have the multi-year info for those cruises you can see how SM affected them. If the other cruises that you don't have multi-year data for have the same pattern, then bingo, you know SM's effect. I posted it elsewhere if you are interested. In short, SM without air raised the cruise only fare (no OLife and no air) by whatever the SM shorex-OBC is worth. The SM with air prices went up $100 for the shorter cruises and more for longer cruises (e.g., a 19-day in my data set went up $200) which is the quarterly increase that I think you are referring to. So yes, there were quarterly increases as well as SM increases.