Simply More credits will be simply less as of 1/1/24

[shepherd really]

Looks like Oceania is reducing the excursion credits across the board for all cruise lengths as of 1/1/24 by about $200 per cabin.  

 

Nice sneaky way to increase their bottom line without increasing fares.

 

Got this from my TA today

 

 

The Shore Excursion Credit amounts vary by voyage length and are available for all staterooms and suites.

• 7-9 days: $400 per stateroom

• 10-13 days: $600 per stateroom

• 14-18 days: $800 per stateroom

• 19-24 days: $1,000 per stateroom

• 25-30 days: $1,200 per stateroom

• 31+ days: $1,400 per stateroom

[EJL2023]

1 hour ago, shepherd really said:

Looks like Oceania is reducing the excursion credits across the board for all cruise lengths as of 1/1/24 by about $200 per cabin.  

 

Nice sneaky way to increase their bottom line without increasing fares.

 

Got this from my TA today

 

 

The Shore Excursion Credit amounts vary by voyage length and are available for all staterooms and suites.

• 7-9 days: $400 per stateroom

• 10-13 days: $600 per stateroom

• 14-18 days: $800 per stateroom

• 19-24 days: $1,000 per stateroom

• 25-30 days: $1,200 per stateroom

• 31+ days: $1,400 per stateroom

The 19-24 days is $600 less than we have for a 20 day cruise. ($1600)

[shepherd really]

17 minutes ago, EJL2023 said:

The 19-24 days is $600 less than we have for a 20 day cruise. ($1600)

Is that two B2B ten-day cruises? On my upcoming 20-day cruise my credit is $1200

 

Edited December 20, 2023 by shepherd really

[Sthrngary]

I always like to see, hear and debate both sides to a story.  So it seems that Oceania is saying, if you want the current SimplyMore Excursion Credits, book your cruise before 1/1/24.  Do I like that, not really however I booked my upcoming cruise in November so it does not affect me.  I get Oceania's message.  

 

For those thinking about booking in the future, this is one reason to consider it now and know if you don't, it will effect your future total value proposition.  Now as sales happen on my cruise and it will reduce my fare, I will makes sure to make sure my Excursion Credit does not change or if it does, I will make sure it is still a value to do the future sale. 

 

I will also be looking to see if the fares stay the same, go up or go down.  Thank you to @shepherd really for bringing this to all of our attention.  It help with past, current and future purchase decision.  

 

Cruise well and enjoy every moment. 

[mc_reeve]

We also booked a 20+ day cruise back in July for August 2024 (our first on O) and we got $1600 credit - looks like that that went down more than $200.  Good for us on this trip - but not so good for future travel.  (Its technically two ~10 day B2B cruises but is also sold as a single 20+ day cruise.)

 

We are a little worried about our first O cruise which we booked based on the itinerary and lots of recommendations from people in our community.  Seems like all the cruise lines are cutting amenities and raising prices.  

[shepherd really]

2 minutes ago, Sthrngary said:

I always like to see, hear and debate both sides to a story.  So it seems that Oceania is saying, if you want the current SimplyMore Excursion Credits, book your cruise before 1/1/24.  Do I like that, not really however I booked my upcoming cruise in November so it does not affect me.  I get Oceania's message.  

 

For those thinking about booking in the future, this is one reason to consider it now and know if you don't, it will effect your future total value proposition.  Now as sales happen on my cruise and it will reduce my fare, I will makes sure to make sure my Excursion Credit does not change or if it does, I will make sure it is still a value to do the future sale. 

 

I will also be looking to see if the fares stay the same, go up or go down.  Thank you to @shepherd really for bringing this to all of our attention.  It help with past, current and future purchase decision.  

 

Cruise well and enjoy every moment. 

Excellent point Gary, this is just another factor in evaluating the value you receive for the price.  Similarly, on a 2025 cruise I am booked on the cost of upgrading air to premium economy has increased from $199 to $499, which also needs to be considered.

[EJL2023]

16 minutes ago, shepherd really said:

Is that two B2B ten-day cruises? On my upcoming 20-day cruise my credit is $1200

 

It is part of a B2B but we booked as a single Grand Voyage. 

[Sthrngary]

7 minutes ago, mc_reeve said:

We are a little worried about our first O cruise which we booked based on the itinerary and lots of recommendations from people in our community.  Seems like all the cruise lines are cutting amenities and raising prices.  

@mc_reeve My first Oceania Cruise was last month.  It exceeded my expectation which was most recently booking the VIP suites on NCL and Celebrity.  Oceania was different in many ways both good and bad.  The good out weighed the bad.  I read and comment on four different cruise brands.  Each and everyone is doing the same thing.  They do it subtly, and small amounts each time.  

 

Now it is up to everyone to make a decision on brand, itinerary, ship and stateroom that best suits their vacation needs.  

 

Cruise well and enjoy every moment. 

[shepherd really]

7 minutes ago, EJL2023 said:

It is part of a B2B but we booked as a single Grand Voyage. 

Strange, mine is also a single cruise that I rebooked just days after SM was implemented during the summer sale.

I'm glad you made out, confused as to why we ended up with different SM credit amounts, but happy for you. 

Edited December 20, 2023 by shepherd really

[EJL2023]

3 minutes ago, shepherd really said:

Strange, mine is also a single cruise that I rebooked just days after SM was implemented during the summer sale.

I'm glad you made out, confused as to why we ended up with different SM credit amounts, but happy for you. 

Yeah, not really sure we booked in August and no sale. Was kind of odd as we looked at it as either a Grand Voyage or do the B2B and it was a much better deal to do the Grand Voyage and this was even with one of the legs on the B2B being included in a sale.  
 

We have been thinking of upgrading our stateroom and now wondering if we do that after 1/1/24 if they will then whack us on the Shore Excursion credit. 

[shepherd really]

22 minutes ago, EJL2023 said:

Yeah, not really sure we booked in August and no sale. Was kind of odd as we looked at it as either a Grand Voyage or do the B2B and it was a much better deal to do the Grand Voyage and this was even with one of the legs on the B2B being included in a sale.  
 

We have been thinking of upgrading our stateroom and now wondering if we do that after 1/1/24 if they will then whack us on the Shore Excursion credit. 

I think it is safe to assume that Oceania will do what is best for Oceania.  

[edgee]

Shore excursion credit game continues with deck stacked against the guest. Credit money disappears if tours are cancelled and value is unusable unless there is another port coming up on that cruise where you have not already booked a tour. Further, advertising is deceptive as value of tour credit is per guest, not per cabin. If one guest chooses to not take a tour in a port, the unused cruise credit cannot be used by other guest in the cabin.

[pinotlover]

Simply More was merely a price increase. All this wrangling is just over the actual cost of that increase. Every sale changes the math. 
 

This current pricing means the credit will pay for a couple lower priced tours each. Whoopee. Back to my Roll Call to book the better tours. We don’t need Mother Oceania to hold our hands to go ashore .

 

Problems are already arising from people  using the funny/monopole credits. Only months away from another policy change requiring cruisers to make Final Payment before you can spend the Monopoly money. Too many people spending the funny money, tying up excursions months in advance, and then cancelling the cruise. When they do it on the expensive tours it jams up the system. Oceania should have figured that out before rolling out SM.

[clo]

17 minutes ago, pinotlover said:

Simply More was merely a price increase. All this wrangling is just over the actual cost of that increase. Every sale changes the math. 
 

This current pricing means the credit will pay for a couple lower priced tours each. Whoopee. Back to my Roll Call to book the better tours. We don’t need Mother Oceania to hold our hands to go ashore .

 

Problems are already arising from people  using the funny/monopole credits. Only months away from another policy change requiring cruisers to make Final Payment before you can spend the Monopoly money. Too many people spending the funny money, tying up excursions months in advance, and then cancelling the cruise. When they do it on the expensive tours it jams up the system. Oceania should have figured that out before rolling out SM.

So I'm curious. In light of quite a few things recently, are you considering no longer 'buying their product"?

[osandomir]

21 minutes ago, clo said:

So I'm curious. In light of quite a few things recently, are you considering no longer 'buying their product"?

The “product” is pretty much the same or so. It’s the price hike that people are concerned with. The excursion credit and ability to use it is just a part of the equation. I’m sure most people would make their decision based on the total cost of the cruise and on how much the experience would meet their goals.

[clo]

15 minutes ago, osandomir said:

The “product” is pretty much the same or so. It’s the price hike that people are concerned with. The excursion credit and ability to use it is just a part of the equation. I’m sure most people would make their decision based on the total cost of the cruise and on how much the experience would meet their goals.

Sorry. I was asking @pinotlover specifically. And also anyone else who wouldn't switch from Oceania without something more than things like this.

[osandomir]

16 minutes ago, clo said:

Sorry. I was asking @pinotlover specifically. And also anyone else who wouldn't switch from Oceania without something more than things like this.

Oops, I didn’t know anyone is prohibited to post on this forum. And I didn’t suggest that anyone needed to consider switching from O based on the recent changes. It’s still an excellent “product” for many. BTW, despite of all this changes we’re continuing booking O cruises and have no plans to switch to another line.

[Tranquility Base]

10 hours ago, shepherd really said:

 

The Shore Excursion Credit amounts vary by voyage length and are available for all staterooms and suites.

• 7-9 days: $400 per stateroom

• 10-13 days: $600 per stateroom

• 14-18 days: $800 per stateroom

• 19-24 days: $1,000 per stateroom

• 25-30 days: $1,200 per stateroom

• 31+ days: $1,400 per stateroom

I had a look at an example of a 30 day Grand Voyage made up of 2 segments.

Currently the SM credit is $2,000.

Under these new rules the new amount would be $1,200.

[MEFIowa]

9 hours ago, clo said:

So I'm curious. In light of quite a few things recently, are you considering no longer 'buying their product"?

 

9 hours ago, osandomir said:

The “product” is pretty much the same or so. It’s the price hike that people are concerned with. The excursion credit and ability to use it is just a part of the equation. I’m sure most people would make their decision based on the total cost of the cruise and on how much the experience would meet their goals.

For us, looks like it may be the end-of-the-line, given how we started on O in 2021 (10 nights) with "cruise only" and thankfully booked our 2022 (10 nights) and 2023 (20 nights) also "cruise only". The SM program essentially raised prices by $800 or so with no real value for us (we'd rather set up our own excursions). We have a 20-night B2B on Sirena in the Baltic later in 2024, but NO plans for any O cruise in 2025 or 2026.

 

The "product" we want is "cruise only". That's gone.

 

I'm so glad I booked the 2024 cruise in early 2022, the day it opened! Between SM and the price increases, the price shown today is so beyond ours.

[pinotlover]

9 hours ago, clo said:

So I'm curious. In light of quite a few things recently, are you considering no longer 'buying their product"?

We have never cruised Oceania exclusively. We have two OLife cruises booked into early 2025, I believe. We have no intention to book any of the remaining available SM cruises. 

 

When Oceania finally gets around to releasing new cruises/itineries in March or April we’ll look at the total package and costs at that time. I firmly believe the new SM program will continue to evolve between now and the new Release. The defined program then will probably be different than what’s in effect now or with this new change. 
 

Since we’re not booking anything new, and definitely not converting our O’Life cruises to SM, all these changes are just noise for us and don’t matter. Ask me in April.

[Waltershipman]

10 hours ago, edgee said:

Shore excursion credit game continues with deck stacked against the guest. Credit money disappears if tours are cancelled and value is unusable unless there is another port coming up on that cruise where you have not already booked a tour. Further, advertising is deceptive as value of tour credit is per guest, not per cabin. If one guest chooses to not take a tour in a port, the unused cruise credit cannot be used by other guest in the cabin.

Plus tours seem to sell out which unless substituted means no simply more benefit

[edgee]

2 minutes ago, Waltershipman said:

Plus tours seem to sell out which unless substituted means no simply more benefit

Yes. We had our snorkle excursion cancelled in Grand Cayman. Last port on that cruise. Two hundred bucks in shore excursion credit was therefore unused.

[Waltershipman]

1 minute ago, edgee said:

Yes. We had our snorkle excursion cancelled in Grand Cayman. Last port on that cruise. Two hundred bucks in shore excursion credit was therefore unused.

Indeed on our upcoming Vista cruise  we wanted to book a short bus tour that was sild out. Having been to the port before we simply lost the benefit as nothing else fit our needs.  So we will likely find another other party of 2 from the ship hire our own person and explore.  In the end fun yet no benefit of SM. Then again we booked for the cruise not so much for shore excursions. We do like the beverage portion as not being big drinkers we are willing to pay for cocktails here and there 

 

All the best

[pinotlover]

3 minutes ago, Waltershipman said:

Plus tours seem to sell out which unless substituted means no simply more benefit

As I posted above, the current issue is the idiotic plan of allowing people to book  tours with the funny money (SM credits) with no skin in the game. Then the old 3-1 rule kicks in at FP and chaos occurs, especially with the more expensive tours. It would have been better to not allow SM credits to be used until after FP. Separate the wheat from the chaff. The lookie loos rarely spent their personal money early, but funny money is different. This current new Oceania plan reduces the amount of funny money they can spend, thus making the trip cost go up. Not the best solution , imo.

[Sthrngary]

From someone who has only cruised Oceania once, I am NOT alone on that, this topic and some others (Like drink packages) is what took so long to understand initially.  Not so much SimplyMore(tm), more about number of excursion needed to gain a discount on all of them, providing value proposition for the excursion you take. Then losing that benefit at no fault of the guest thereby losing the value proposition (money savings). 

 

I have no real skin on this game.  Whether Oceania is simply nickle and diming us pre-cruise with the SimplyMore program requirements especially with cruise excursion amounts, or when they change it on January 1, 2024.  Or, folks that like just doing a true Cruise Only fare taking all the other items and doing it for themselves.  It does not matter.  What matters to me is how to take what ever the current rules/conditions and requirements, and leverage them to the best of my ability understanding the consequences of my decisions. Whether I like the new rules, condition or plans are mute if I book the trip.  I accept the 40 page contract, the conditions of the fare and realize it is ALWAYS benefiting the cruise brand.  All the Cruise Brands not just Oceania.

 

Whether we like the changes, don't like the changes matters not.  We the consumer have the right to simply choose another brand, ship or program.  We hold all the cards.  The debate is very interesting, both sides make a point.  No change is ever a change everyone will like.  Oceania job is the blend Business Changes with Clients Expectations.  If it is not balanced, they see it in their sales and they shift strategies.  Time will tell what happens to this debate.  

 

Very interesting topic and I thank everyone for stimulating lots of thought. 

 

Cruise well and enjoy every moment.