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

[basor]

2 minutes ago, AMHuntFerry said:

Good news! It was my $200 off coupon since we didn't book on our June cruise. We also got our blue book which is way earlier than all of our previous cruises...so fun! (hijack over)

Glad to hear that it was a positive (glass 1/2 full) outcome.....

[oskidunker]

1 hour ago, AMHuntFerry said:

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.

Is that an inside cabin for $1699.00?

[ArtistsWife]

9 minutes ago, AMHuntFerry said:

If the O rep comes back with a "no", ask to speak to a supervisor; they may still say "no" but it can't hurt to ask someone higher up (O reps don't always get things right).

Thank you for reminding me to press on if "no". We really, really want to like O. Will update.

[AMHuntFerry]

1 minute ago, ArtistsWife said:

Thank you for reminding me to press on if "no". We really, really want to like O. Will update.

Just relaying what someone else did. The initial answers (3 times) were "No, because it's waitlisted", but finally got a "yes" but it had to go through a supervisor and be OK'd.

[AMHuntFerry]

5 minutes ago, oskidunker said:

Is that an inside cabin for $1699.00?

 

Yes. OV starts at $2099, Veranda $2399, Suite $3499.

Probably similar cruises to the Extraordinary sale. I'll spot check and see if there are any easy to find cruises in 2024 (Ext. sale only went to Dec 2023 I think).

[basor]

11 minutes ago, oskidunker said:

Is that an inside cabin for $1699.00?

Yes but they corrected that had the wrong cruise - it is for a 13 day Marina cruise not Sirena 16 day cruise.

[oskidunker]

I am tracking a Vista cruise from miami to miami  aroundJan 29. 11 day Caribbean. Would want a  Veranda but price is bit too much

[AMHuntFerry]

1 minute ago, AMHuntFerry said:

 

Yes. OV starts at $2099, Veranda $2399, Suite $3499.

Probably similar cruises to the Extraordinary sale. I'll spot check and see if there are any easy to find cruises in 2024 (Ext. sale only went to Dec 2023 I think).

Bingo! It appears that July 17, 2024 on Riviera (7 days) may be on sale. Starts at $1599, $2049, $2399, $3299. Price on O-site $2299, $2849, $3299, $4499.

The Summer Sale is a real thing! (as long as you're OK with SM)

[AMHuntFerry]

6 minutes ago, oskidunker said:

I am tracking a Vista cruise from miami to miami  aroundJan 29. 11 day Caribbean. Would want a  Veranda but price is bit too much

Balcony for $3599 but don't know what category...usually the lowest non-waitlisted category. The prices appear to be on Cruise Critic's search if you want to watch there.

Just checked O...has same price so not on sale.

Edited July 5, 2023 by AMHuntFerry

[ORV]

52 minutes ago, AMHuntFerry said:

Good news! It was my $200 off coupon since we didn't book on our June cruise. We also got our blue book which is way earlier than all of our previous cruises...so fun! (hijack over)

I got one of those also, but I did buy a FCC while onboard. 

 

 

[oskidunker]

56 minutes ago, AMHuntFerry said:

Balcony for $3599 but don't know what category...usually the lowest non-waitlisted category. The prices appear to be on Cruise Critic's search if you want to watch there.

Just checked O...has same price so not on sale.

Lowest balcony on the O site is $4349

[1985rz1]

We emailed our TA late last night to review our current OLife bookings with the excursion packages for 2024 and let us know how the pricing compares to the SM promotion versions.  She called us early this morning and told us that one (the 18-day Norway-Scotland) was included in the Summer Sale that the SM pricing was 26% less than our original OLife booking.  The SM pricing for other two had substantial savings if we were to add the second WiFi account and the basic beverage package, even when we accounted for the loss in purchasing power for the OLife excursions and the bonus SBCs we'd lose.  If we didn't want to add the basic beverage package to the OLife pricing, but kept the 2nd WiFi account, the SM pricing would be somewhat higher.  So we took the sale upgrade for the Norway cruise and kept our original OLife booking for the other two.

[AMHuntFerry]

7 minutes ago, oskidunker said:

Lowest balcony on the O site is $4349

Hoo boy, I'm a wreck today when it comes to accuracy. I was looking at Jan 9th.

The Jan. 31st 11 day cruise is $4349 on my TAs site, so still no sale.

[edgee]

3 hours ago, ArtistsWife said:

They need to honor this new program at the price now listed for our pre-booked cruise for late Oct. Rep said he could not cancel and rebook bc all cats waitlisted. We did everything right, book early, paid upfront for excursions.  Waiting to hear from rep but hope O does not disappoint us before we can set sail.

 

I was told it is not a matter of cancelling the cruise and rebooking. Booking remains in place when conversion to Simply More is implemented. Booking number and any discounts/benefits applied previously, eg. shareholder, Amex Platinum card credit would remain on the booking. Also, if you have purchased shore excursions, the new Simply More credit would be applied and you should get a refund of what you have paid up to the amount of the excursion credit allowed for your itinerary. I am looking to see all this I have been told will happen actually be put in place for sold out Vista Panama Canal cruise in November. Not sure what odds are that it actually will.

Edited July 5, 2023 by edgee

[oskidunker]

1 hour ago, AMHuntFerry said:

Hoo boy, I'm a wreck today when it comes to accuracy. I was looking at Jan 9th.

The Jan. 31st 11 day cruise is $4349 on my TAs site, so still no sale.

Am considering Feb 28th 10 day. Misses Martinique but travel agent can get me free gratuities on this cruise. Also flying back on a Saturday will be cheaper. Any thoughts on this?

[ArtistsWife]

27 minutes ago, edgee said:

I was told it is not a matter of cancelling the cruise and rebooking. Booking remains in place when conversion to Simply More is implemented. Booking number and any discounts/benefits applied previously, eg. shareholder, Amex Platinum card credit would remain on the booking. Also, if you have purchased shore excursions, the new Simply More credit would be applied and you should get a refund of what you have paid up to the amount of the excursion credit allowed for your itinerary. I am looking to see all this I have been told will happen actually be put in place for sold out Vista Panama Canal cruise in November. Not sure what odds are that it actually will.

Please update us. I too am hopeful. This is reasonable and fair to encourage future bookings. 

[AMHuntFerry]

12 minutes ago, oskidunker said:

Am considering Feb 28th 10 day. Misses Martinique but travel agent can get me free gratuities on this cruise. Also flying back on a Saturday will be cheaper. Any thoughts on this?

That one is showing $3699, so not a sale either.

If you are wanting Vista in the Caribbean, the Nov. 19, 2023 is a bargain (starts at $3599 for 12 nights). There are also a few summer 2024 Mediterranean itins that are priced right.

[oskidunker]

I will never cruise again over holidays after my Thanksgiving cruise on Princess last year. But Thanks.

[TFree]

2 hours ago, ArtistsWife said:

Many, many thanks. When we booked we were guaranteed the cat. Since SM came out all cats are waitlisted. Will see how this proceeds. We will look for an independent TA for future bookings. We simply want the same deal that people now booking are privy to. 

Just for your information, I wanted to let you know that we had booked with OLife without airfare, and all categories on our cruise are now waitlisted. Nevertheless, after getting approval from a supervisor, we were able to get a price for simplyMore. I saw a report either here on Cruise Critic or on FB that others have had the same experience. In other words, a supervisor can authorize providing a quote for simplyMore, even if the cruise is waitlisted. 
 

Tom & Judy

[1985rz1]

1 hour ago, edgee said:

I was told it is not a matter of cancelling the cruise and rebooking. Booking remains in place when conversion to Simply More is implemented. Booking number and any discounts/benefits applied previously, eg. shareholder, Amex Platinum card credit would remain on the booking. Also, if you have purchased shore excursions, the new Simply More credit would be applied and you should get a refund of what you have paid up to the amount of the excursion credit allowed for your itinerary. I am looking to see all this I have been told will happen actually be put in place for sold out Vista Panama Canal cruise in November. Not sure what odds are that it actually will.

 

59 minutes ago, ArtistsWife said:

Please update us. I too am hopeful. This is reasonable and fair to encourage future bookings. 

Our TA repriced one of our cruises today from OLife to SimplyMore with a 26% savings (because of the silent  Summer Sale).  There was no necessity to do a physical rebook as we kept same booking number and our original booking date of a year ago. The date of our original deposit did not change  since no transfer was needed with the same booking number. We only lost a modest SBC that we received for an itinerary change. The cruise is not waitlisted, but given that we were repriced and not rebooked and kept the booking date suggest rebooking is not necessary.  It seems most folks who were denied because of waitlisting were by O reps who insisted on cancelling and rebook.  It pays to have a good TA.

Edited July 6, 2023 by 1985rz1

[edgee]

8 minutes ago, 1985rz1 said:

 

Our TA repriced one of our cruises today from OLife to SimplyMore with a 26% savings.  There was no necessity to do a physical rebook as we kept same booking number and our original booking date of a year ago. The date of our original deposit did not change  since no transfer was needed with the same booking number. We only lost a modest SBC that we received for an itinerary change. The cruise is not waitlisted, but given that we were repriced and not rebooked and kept the booking date suggest rebooking is not necessary.  It seems most folks who were denied because of waitlisting were by O reps who insisted on cancelling and rebook.  It pays to have a good TA.

Thanks for that report. I have time set aside for discussing all this with my TA tomorrow. For reassurance I just called Oceania and spoke to a very helpful person who just a few hours ago had clarified with her supervisor that there is no need to rebook in order to move to Simply More and ability to do it does not have a thing to do with whether the ship/category is sold out or not, since reservation number remains the same.

[DurangoWino]

We booked a cruise only trip on Vista for Dec 1st Miami to Miami in A-1 for just over $3000/person.  New fare for same level is now over $3700.  So that’s over $1400 more for two people.  For this cruise we will not do excursions and just pay as we go for drinks.  Future cruises for us will have excursions that we will take so the extra cost of Simply More may not seem so unreasonable, but if you were someone that books your own excursions - or does not do excursions, plus is a non-drinker this is a pretty stiff bump in the cost of your cruise.

 

Hopefully O’s management will see enough of a drop in bookings that they will allow the choice of cruise only and Simply More.

[schmerl]

18 minutes ago, DurangoWino said:

 

 

Hopefully O’s management will see enough of a drop in bookings that they will allow the choice of cruise only and Simply More.

 

That would be wonderful, but I won't hold my breath. 

[oskidunker]

They are now the same price as Viking.

[sunlover12]

12 hours ago, DurangoWino said:

We booked a cruise only trip on Vista for Dec 1st Miami to Miami in A-1 for just over $3000/person.  New fare for same level is now over $3700.  So that’s over $1400 more for two people.  For this cruise we will not do excursions and just pay as we go for drinks.  Future cruises for us will have excursions that we will take so the extra cost of Simply More may not seem so unreasonable, but if you were someone that books your own excursions - or does not do excursions, plus is a non-drinker this is a pretty stiff bump in the cost of your cruise.

 

Hopefully O’s management will see enough of a drop in bookings that they will allow the choice of cruise only and Simply More.

I agree that’s a big jump but not all cruises’ prices went up that much. My 2024 11-day cruise in an PH2 increased $300/person. 

I don’t foresee O going back to the old pricing of cruise only. Included drinks and excursion credit is here to stay. The percentage of cruisers who post on CC is small so we can’t gauge what we read here. Most cruisers won’t have a problem with paying a little more for beer and wine with meals. Some won’t even notice the difference. 
 

Just My Opinion, of course.