Effect of Simply More on Sales & Sale Prices: Will be critical to us

[MEFIowa]

For those of us who book "cruise only", I strongly suspect that our interest in O in the future will be heavily influenced by what future sales look like. Having first booked and then rebooked 4 cruises to take advantage of sales, I can do the math and see that in the absence of any sales or significant sales, O will have priced itself beyond us. Each of these is 10 nights.

 

- Riviera A4, 12/2021: $2099 PP (Presidents' Day Sale 2021, originally booked as a C)--W. Caribbean

- Riviera A3, 10/2023: $1899 PP (Extraordinary Savings Sale 2023, originally booked as a C)--Adriatic & Aegean

- Riviera B3, 11/2023: $1749 PP (Extraordinary Savings Sale 2023, originally booked as an F)--Aegean & C./W. Mediterranean

- Sirena C1, 9/2024: $2849 PP (2022 Sale, originally booked as a G)--Baltic

 

We do our own airfare and our own excursions and bring our own alcohol on board to drink in our cabin.

 

The current "Simply More" w/out airfare for the Baltic cruise in 2024 is $3199 for a G and $3699 for a C1. That's $850 more PP for our C1.

[grifdoglover]

Yes that is pretty much $400. For beverage pkg. and $400. For excursions.  You may still bring alcohol on board and you didn’t mention if you buy any O excursions.  I am sure there will still be sales as all cruise lines do this to fill cabins.  This change has been much discussed and analyzed on this forum.  It still gets down to itineraries, dates, size of ship etc. as well as price.  You may find a similar itinerary on another line but suppose it’s a giant ship and you prefer smaller?  I found my next cruise on Vista with Simply More  an increase but my husband drinks and we found the excursions similar in price to private so it worked out.  I think we will all do the usual math in the future.  I am envious of your travels looks like you are able to do one a month!  Enjoy your journeys!

[AMHuntFerry]

I think the effect of SM may be dwarfed by the new (Aug-Oct) itinerary prices and the next price-change opportunity after October 31st. Inflation has hit everything so it makes fiscal sense for O to have higher prices to compensate. However, they will still have sales, but the type of sales-type may evolve with the new management (and will give us new forum topics!).

[MEFIowa]

7 hours ago, grifdoglover said:

... You may still bring alcohol on board and you didn’t mention if you buy any O excursions....

I wrote this "For those of us who book 'cruise only'" and this "We do our own airfare and our own excursions and bring our own alcohol on board to drink in our cabin."

[MEFIowa]

52 minutes ago, AMHuntFerry said:

... However, they will still have sales, but the type of sales-type may evolve with the new management (and will give us new forum topics!).

Thinking the last "cabin-upgrade sale" used to be the Labor Day. Can't remember if there was a Thanksgiving Day sale or not. Thinking that was more other things like OBC, etc. So I guess I may not find out until Presidents' Day 2024?

[pinotlover]

Do we need a 5th thread on SM?

 

Maybe this should be merged with one of the other 4 threads on Simply More! 

[MEFIowa]

2 minutes ago, pinotlover said:

Do we need a 5th thread on SM? Maybe this should be merged with one of the other 4 threads on Simply More! 

I think this is the only one focused on actual real-world pricing that looks at SALES. I pay a final price. That is unlikely to be list. And I'm looking for and at sales. My next 3 cruises booked 2022 and then upgraded over time by sales.

 

I do not care about OLife or OBC, which is the focus on the other threads. People who paid for OLife comparing it to SM. I don't pay for OLife and I don't care about SM. Just the final bottom-line price I pay for the cabin I actually sale in.

[AMHuntFerry]

11 minutes ago, MEFIowa said:

Thinking the last "cabin-upgrade sale" used to be the Labor Day. Can't remember if there was a Thanksgiving Day sale or not. Thinking that was more other things like OBC, etc. So I guess I may not find out until Presidents' Day 2024?

In the past, they were ~September, ~February during Wave-season (2023 was missing), and ~May if I recall. What is the investing/stock market phrase..."past results are no indicators of future..." sales.

[edgee]

7 hours ago, MEFIowa said:

For those of us who book "cruise only", I strongly suspect that our interest in O in the future will be heavily influenced by what future sales look like. Having first booked and then rebooked 4 cruises to take advantage of sales, I can do the math and see that in the absence of any sales or significant sales, O will have priced itself beyond us. Each of these is 10 nights.

 

- Riviera A4, 12/2021: $2099 PP (Presidents' Day Sale 2021, originally booked as a C)--W. Caribbean

- Riviera A3, 10/2023: $1899 PP (Extraordinary Savings Sale 2023, originally booked as a C)--Adriatic & Aegean

- Riviera B3, 11/2023: $1749 PP (Extraordinary Savings Sale 2023, originally booked as an F)--Aegean & C./W. Mediterranean

- Sirena C1, 9/2024: $2849 PP (2022 Sale, originally booked as a G)--Baltic

 

We do our own airfare and our own excursions and bring our own alcohol on board to drink in our cabin.

 

The current "Simply More" w/out airfare for the Baltic cruise in 2024 is $3199 for a G and $3699 for a C1. That's $850 more PP for our C1.

We really need the 2nd wifi. At 30 bucks a day savings over old cruise only, we are changing 3 long cruises totaling 52 cruise days to Simply More. Gives us good value.

[MEFIowa]

28 minutes ago, edgee said:

We really need the 2nd wifi....

OMMV from yours, for if you "really need the 2nd wifi" then why are you taking a vacation? Sounds more like work? Or at least being bothered a lot with things that aren't related to your cruise. I let my wife take her CP and I leave mine at home. I don't watch any TV or movies.

 

We cruise for the ports and excursions we plan for in advance. So our upcoming 20 nights in the Med (2 x 10 on Riviera) has only 2 sea days (1+1). I refuse to be bothered with tech on vacation. I've got things to see and do.

[edgee]

36 minutes ago, MEFIowa said:

OMMV from yours, for if you "really need the 2nd wifi" then why are you taking a vacation? Sounds more like work? Or at least being bothered a lot with things that aren't related to your cruise. I let my wife take her CP and I leave mine at home. I don't watch any TV or movies.

 

We cruise for the ports and excursions we plan for in advance. So our upcoming 20 nights in the Med (2 x 10 on Riviera) has only 2 sea days (1+1). I refuse to be bothered with tech on vacation. I've got things to see and do.

I do not post on this site to be judged; thank you, merely stating a fact.

Edited July 4, 2023 by edgee

[osandomir]

1 hour ago, MEFIowa said:

OMMV from yours, for if you "really need the 2nd wifi" then why are you taking a vacation? Sounds more like work? Or at least being bothered a lot with things that aren't related to your cruise. I let my wife take her CP and I leave mine at home. I don't watch any TV or movies.

 

We cruise for the ports and excursions we plan for in advance. So our upcoming 20 nights in the Med (2 x 10 on Riviera) has only 2 sea days (1+1). I refuse to be bothered with tech on vacation. I've got things to see and do.

I think that you would need to accept that you are in minority on the Oceania ships regarding the usage of technology and staying connected. Imagine that others are able to enjoy their vacation no less than you do.

[grifdoglover]

Some people have family situations that need to be connected to technology even while on vacation…and yes even jobs that may require you be available…the one person at a time was archaic.

[ak1004]

Everyone is different. Could be work family elderly parents etc. 

 

Let's not judge people without knowing their situation. 

[MEFIowa]

The first world irony and entitlement: "We really need the 2nd wifi...."

 

Key words: "really" and "need" and "2nd".

 

One keeps in mind the difference between "needs" and "wants".

 

And then ponders the existence of the 1st. Which is an ontological reality in this scenario.

[vlthom]

In our case, we enjoy taking longer trips, but it means that we need to stay in touch with things at home and DH must do some work occasionally.  This requires some decent internet usage, plain and simple.  Our friends admire the fact that we may vacation 6 weeks or more at a time, but we only do so with some tradeoffs where internet is needed.  There are often sea days or other downtimes when we do this.  Having 2 log-ins would be useful - perhaps not imperative but we could make better use of our time when we need to be connected if we had the 2 log-ins.  Having sailed on both Viking and Regent where every passenger has wifi usage, I can say that the additional load on their bandwidth didn’t seem to make any difference. The wifi seemed about the same as what we get on O with only one login per cabin.

[EJL2023]

15 minutes ago, MEFIowa said:

The first world irony and entitlement: "We really need the 2nd wifi...."

 

Key words: "really" and "need" and "2nd".

 

One keeps in mind the difference between "needs" and "wants".

 

And then ponders the existence of the 1st. Which is an ontological reality in this scenario.

Seems to me you have hijacked your own thread simply because of someone’s desire for a second wifi??

[SellaVee]

1 hour ago, MEFIowa said:

The first world irony and entitlement: "We really need the 2nd wifi...."

 

Key words: "really" and "need" and "2nd".

 

One keeps in mind the difference between "needs" and "wants".

 

And then ponders the existence of the 1st. Which is an ontological reality in this scenario.

Is it really any of your business?  Maybe keep in mind what is your business, and what isn't.  Just a suggestion.

Edited July 5, 2023 by SellaVee

[golfguyhhi]

SellaVee,

 

Did you know that if you hover your curser over a poster's ID, a dialog opens, and it contains, in the lower right corner, the word 'ignore'.  If you click on that word, you will be forwarded to a part of CruiseCritic that allows you to choose that poster and add them to a list of posters whose posts will no longer show up for you.

I have 3 posters so far that I will never see again.

Try it -- it's fun!!!

[LHT28]

15 minutes ago, golfguyhhi said:

I have 3 posters so far that I will never see again.

Try it -- it's fun!!!

Only 3  😲

 I 've  lost count  LOL

[ORV]

15 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

Only 3  😲

 I 've  lost count  LOL

But you miss all the fun. 

[ak1004]

1 hour ago, LHT28 said:

Only 3  😲

 I 've  lost count  LOL

 

I hope I'm not one of them..

 

But if I am, you won't see this post anyway.. kind of catch 22..

 

(Sorry, couldn't resist) 😁

[cruiserchuck]

So the sales are continuing even with SM.  I have received emails from two TAs today that mention a Summer Sale with up to 40% savings.

[ak1004]

12 minutes ago, cruiserchuck said:

So the sales are continuing even with SM.  I have received emails from two TAs today that mention a Summer Sale with up to 40% savings.

 

Don't see the Summer Sale on the website. Are those savings real? Does the email have any sample sailings with prices so we can compare and see how does it compare to their website?

[AMHuntFerry]

20 minutes ago, ak1004 said:

 

Don't see the Summer Sale on the website. Are those savings real? Does the email have any sample sailings with prices so we can compare and see how does it compare to their website?

I just checked my TAs website and found one cruise that may be included in a current silent sale (i.e., not on O's website). It is the Sirena TA in Nov. 2023. Lowest price on O site is $3099, on my TA's site is $1699. I have no info about the limitations associated with the sale fare; I'd need to get that from my TA and I don't want to waste her time. So, if you have a TA and want to find out about the sale, you may have to contact them to find out (and they may not have access to the sale). That said, there is mail coming from O today regarding "special OClub" something or other, so maybe that will have sale info.