SM shore excursions…

[gailellen12]

If doing back to back cruises and you do not use up all your available sm

 excursion dollars on the first cruise Can you transfer them to the next one? I am guessing probably not.  

[Flatbush Flyer]

1 hour ago, gailellen12 said:

If doing back to back cruises and you do not use up all your available sm

 excursion dollars on the first cruise Can you transfer them to the next one? I am guessing probably not.  

There really is no such thing as a “back-to-back” cruise in Oceania’s booking language (which does all its bookings by “segment(s).” There are individual cruises (each with it’s own booking number) that may be adjacent to another segment OR their may be multi-segment cruises of different types (with the distinctions being VERY important- particularly when it comes to Oceania supplied perks.

 

Though Simply More may ultimately play out differently than O Life when it comes to carry-over SBC (of whatever type), you will probably want to get your best fare price(s) when initially booking adjacent segments. And, in almost all cases, that means booking them as an “extended or grand journey” (multiple segments marketed as a single cruise with a single booking number) or as a “custom cruise” where you join two segments - still with an individual booking number. Note however, that the O perks with each of these options can vary significantly from the size of the fare discount to what you get from the O Club.

 

All that said, whether allotted O Life tours (or SM tour SBC) or even initial specialty restaurant reservations, they’re all doled out per segment.
 

Now, if this was O Life and you had a single booking number multisegment cruise, regular SBC would carry over to the next segment. But SM tour SBC may be an unknown (though someone here may be able to report a recent experience). What is a good bet, however, is that separate individual booking numbers will be treated as totally separate entities. But, for me, it’s still just a bet.

 

[gailellen12]

Thanks for the clarification. 

[pinotlover]

I would have my TA get a definitive answer from Oceania on this issue. With out knowing the accuracy of their comments, passengers on our last cruise with multi segments said SM credits would not roll over to other segments. 
 

Now, a tidbit that I will pass along not knowing whether it is a onetime ancedotal occurrence or ordinary. On our recent cruise, we had been waitlisted for a ship’s tour for about six months. Oceania had closed the tour and was no longer adding to the waitlist. As I earlier reported, as a part of Boardamania, the line at Destination Services stretched around 1.5 hours shortly after boarding. Near dinner time, 6:45ish, there was no line so I enquired about our waitlist status. The service rep said “ I know nothing about any waitlist for that tour, but there is plenty of capacity. Would you like to book it?” Talking to other passengers, this seemed to be a common occurrence for multiple tours. Pre bookings showed tours full, but once aboard there was plenty of capacity for most of the tours. We primarily book private tours, but that one tour interested us. My advice, from this one experience, don’t sweat it if O wouldn’t let you prebook tours. Check with Destination Services once aboard for actual availability. Of course, my primary advice is to not book O tours at all. Join your Roll Call and participate in some excellent small group private tours.

[BarbaraM]

We take back to back cruises all of the time-- When we booked our last cruises in January, I asked the same question to the "future cruise consultant" and the destinations desk.  The woman at the desk went back to the head of destinations with no answer.  It was so new at the time that they had not encountered that question yet.  

 

 -- we currently have a bookings for this fall  that are 3 consecutive ("back to back") cruises, each with their own booking number and deposits.  These were also available as a a single cruise in different combinations of the three.  My invoice states back to back savings applied -- Perhaps the OP has the same experience of back to back cruises --  I also have the same question.  With all the reports of canceled port stops and shore excursions canceled -- would love to hear from an actual report than speculation.   It is possible to prebook excursions a year out -- but once on board they typically do not let anyone book for the next cruise until the current cruise is over. 

[gailellen12]

1 hour ago, BarbaraM said:

We take back to back cruises all of the time-- When we booked our last cruises in January, I asked the same question to the "future cruise consultant" and the destinations desk.  The woman at the desk went back to the head of destinations with no answer.  It was so new at the time that they had not encountered that question yet.  

 

 -- we currently have a bookings for this fall  that are 3 consecutive ("back to back") cruises, each with their own booking number and deposits.  These were also available as a a single cruise in different combinations of the three.  My invoice states back to back savings applied -- Perhaps the OP has the same experience of back to back cruises --  I also have the same question.  With all the reports of canceled port stops and shore excursions canceled -- would love to hear from an actual report than speculation.   It is possible to prebook excursions a year out -- but once on board they typically do not let anyone book for the next cruise until the current cruise is over. 

Does this mean you cannot book excursions for your second cruise of the back to back a year ahead as you are doing with the first?  Since it is a separate booking number and considered an entity unto itself this doesn’t seem to make sense if I am understanding this correctly 

[Flatbush Flyer]

1 hour ago, BarbaraM said:

We take back to back cruises all of the time-- When we booked our last cruises in January, I asked the same question to the "future cruise consultant" and the destinations desk.  The woman at the desk went back to the head of destinations with no answer.  It was so new at the time that they had not encountered that question yet.  

 

 -- we currently have a bookings for this fall  that are 3 consecutive ("back to back") cruises, each with their own booking number and deposits.  These were also available as a a single cruise in different combinations of the three.  My invoice states back to back savings applied -- Perhaps the OP has the same experience of back to back cruises --  I also have the same question.  With all the reports of canceled port stops and shore excursions canceled -- would love to hear from an actual report than speculation.   It is possible to prebook excursions a year out -- but once on board they typically do not let anyone book for the next cruise until the current cruise is over. 

The more important question is why did you book them separately (even with a multiple segment discount - usually about 5%). If they were advertised as an “extended journey,” the fare discount would be significantly more. The only $ benefit to individual adjacent bookings is multiples of  O Club perks (which usually requires that you are at least platinum to see substantial extra SBC).

[Flatbush Flyer]

18 minutes ago, gailellen12 said:

Does this mean you cannot book excursions for your second cruise of the back to back a year ahead as you are doing with the first?  Since it is a separate booking number and considered an entity unto itself this doesn’t seem to make sense if I am understanding this correctly 

Again, there is no “back to back” phrase in O bookings. They’re either individual segments or multi-segments and the devil is in the detail of what you get (or not) depending on how you book the adjacent segments. 
Thus, if you have booked separate published adjacent cruises - each with it’s own booking number, your perks/reservations/etc are per segment. Once onboard, you could certainly try to have Roll Over of unrestricted SBC. But, there’s no guarantee until you see it in print. 

[BarbaraM]

FF, I understand what you are saying, but I have never had to use your language when booking multiple cruises onboard. We rarely take just one cruise, typically 3 consecutive.  In either case, why we do it this way is personal.  Regarding nonrefundable OBC, it is always rolled over until the end of our last "segment" "cruise" --  we don't have to try , it is automatic.  

 

Re: booking SM excursions -- we are able to do this each "segment" whenever the date opens for booking (365 days before each cruise) , just as we do with specialty restaurant reservations.   We are restricted to those opening dates, while if we booking as one cruise -- we could do it all at once.  We don't mind the restrictions of having to do this 3 times. 

 

 

[Flatbush Flyer]

2 hours ago, BarbaraM said:

FF, I understand what you are saying, but I have never had to use your language when booking multiple cruises onboard. We rarely take just one cruise, typically 3 consecutive.  In either case, why we do it this way is personal.  Regarding nonrefundable OBC, it is always rolled over until the end of our last "segment" "cruise" --  we don't have to try , it is automatic.  

 

Re: booking SM excursions -- we are able to do this each "segment" whenever the date opens for booking (365 days before each cruise) , just as we do with specialty restaurant reservations.   We are restricted to those opening dates, while if we booking as one cruise -- we could do it all at once.  We don't mind the restrictions of having to do this 3 times. 

 

 

Depending on your O Club level (particularly if you’re Platinum or above), how you book those multi-segments (even when booked onboard), affects their discount amount and the O Club perks as well as cruise credits. (And it can affect Roll Over in certain cases). That said the math has to be done by the OCA or by you to figure out which of the available ways is most efficacious. Hopefully you’re considering that in your choices.

FWIW, we pretty much only do multi-segment cruises (soon will pass the 500 nights on O mark).

Edited April 16 by Flatbush Flyer

[Tranquility Base]

3 hours ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

The only $ benefit to individual adjacent bookings is multiples of  O Club perks (which usually requires that you are at least platinum to see substantial extra SBC).

What if the individual cruises are on sale but the Grand Voyage cruise is not ?

[ORV]

38 minutes ago, Tranquility Base said:

What if the individual cruises are on sale but the Grand Voyage cruise is not ?

Exactly, I ran in to this situation on my most recently booked cruise. The two segments were already on sale, but the combined one wasn't. I wanted to get two credits out of it anyway, so it worked for me. I have one booking number, 2 Cruise ID numbers. I have double Oceania Club credits, $500 each segment as well as $250 SBC per segment for booking onboard. 

 

The real bonus though is that I get TWO bottles of that delicious Oceania Club wine, one for each segment. 

[Flatbush Flyer]

58 minutes ago, Tranquility Base said:

What if the individual cruises are on sale but the Grand Voyage cruise is not ?

A common occurrence!
With the understanding that O’s mantra is “no double dipping,” the technically correct answer is that your multisegment fare cannot be disaggregated for the purpose of a sale on one segment. It’s one of the perceived downsides of booking a published multi-segment cruise.

Of course, you could rebook under the right circumstances. But, that would be at the current prices and perks (as well as loss of the base discount you had on the multi-segment cruise you had originally booked). But, that’s seldom a better deal than the cost of an original booking done 1 year +\- prior.

All that said, there are other options worth pursuing. One that has worked for me on occasion (depending in part on your TA’s “O connectivity” (e.g., O elite level of the connoisseurs club)) is to ask for all/part of the sale savings as non-refundable SBC (so that no cash changes hands).

[Flatbush Flyer]

42 minutes ago, ORV said:

Exactly, I ran in to this situation on my most recently booked cruise. The two segments were already on sale, but the combined one wasn't. I wanted to get two credits out of it anyway, so it worked for me. I have one booking number, 2 Cruise ID numbers. I have double Oceania Club credits, $500 each segment as well as $250 SBC per segment for booking onboard. 

 

The real bonus though is that I get TWO bottles of that delicious Oceania Club wine, one for each segment. 

It’s called a “custom” cruise and, though the fare base discount of an “extended journey” (published multi-segment) will often be better than a “custom” cruise’s approx. 5% discount, the extra O Club perks may make it the better deal.

[pinotlover]

O has done one new alteration in aligning cruise segments. That is:

 

1 + 1 can= 1, or sometimes;

 

1+1 can  = 2, but, they have eliminated;

 

1 + 1 = 3.

 

In the latter case it can now only be booked as individual segments.

[Tranquility Base]

4 hours ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

With the understanding that O’s mantra is “no double dipping,” the technically correct answer is that your multisegment fare cannot be disaggregated for the purpose of a sale on one segment. It’s one of the perceived downsides of booking a published multi-segment cruise.

Of course, you could rebook under the right circumstances. But, that would be at the current prices and perks (as well as loss of the base discount you had on the multi-segment cruise you had originally booked). But, that’s seldom a better deal than the cost of an original booking done 1 year +\- prior.

Sure, I understand.

(Even though I had to google one of your big words 👨‍🎓)

 

However in my case the two single segments were both heavily discounted on sale, whereas the combined multi segment never was.

I only wanted to do one segment so it was never a consideration, however if I had wanted to do both I certainly would have booked separately.

The cruise was one year away. 

Edited April 16 by Tranquility Base

[TRLD]

18 hours ago, pinotlover said:

I would have my TA get a definitive answer from Oceania on this issue. With out knowing the accuracy of their comments, passengers on our last cruise with multi segments said SM credits would not roll over to other segments. 
 

Now, a tidbit that I will pass along not knowing whether it is a onetime ancedotal occurrence or ordinary. On our recent cruise, we had been waitlisted for a ship’s tour for about six months. Oceania had closed the tour and was no longer adding to the waitlist. As I earlier reported, as a part of Boardamania, the line at Destination Services stretched around 1.5 hours shortly after boarding. Near dinner time, 6:45ish, there was no line so I enquired about our waitlist status. The service rep said “ I know nothing about any waitlist for that tour, but there is plenty of capacity. Would you like to book it?” Talking to other passengers, this seemed to be a common occurrence for multiple tours. Pre bookings showed tours full, but once aboard there was plenty of capacity for most of the tours. We primarily book private tours, but that one tour interested us. My advice, from this one experience, don’t sweat it if O wouldn’t let you prebook tours. Check with Destination Services once aboard for actual availability. Of course, my primary advice is to not book O tours at all. Join your Roll Call and participate in some excellent small group private tours.

Problem is that now under the new fare structure you pay for the credits if you use them or not.

 

As far as waitlists go I was waitlisted for an excursion at Nuka Hiva. We to cancel the waitlist when I boarded and excursion first said that they could confirm immediately before I told them that I wanted to cancel.