Booking Shorex - I know better than to use the website, but I couldn't help myself

[AMHuntFerry]

Hi all, just a friendly reminder that booking shore excursions via the O website is asking for a headache. While avoiding the website altogether is probably the wisest choice, I like to fill up my cart with my choices, take a screen shot of my cart, log off the O site, then call the O phone number to purchase the shorex in my cart.

 

However, I just booked a cruise and wanted to book only two shorex using the SM credit and a small amount of OBC, so there is no 25% discount to worry about and no credit card payment. Easy peasy, right? What could go wrong? I put the first shorex into the cart just fine. When I tried to put the second one in the cart, it said "in cart" next to our names, but when I went to the cart only the first one was there. I tried multiple things like logging off/on,  closing/opening browser, using a different browser, etc. I even purchased the first shorex which cleared the cart (got an email confirmation for it). I tried again...Now it wouldn't let me put anything in the cart (and yes, I tried adding a different shorex), so I tried all of the work-arounds again, then I waited one day to see if that helped...nope. Today I called and booked the second shorex...lesson learned (again!).

 

Other friendly reminders: get the shorex description pdf from your TA or O rep at frequent intervals (~ every 3 months works for me). After booking shorex, get the itemized documents showing your bookings and the line-itemized costs.

[ORV]

On a cruise coming up in a few days I wanted to add one more excursion.  We already had enough booked for the 25% discount so I put it in the cart and pushed go. I figured if it didn’t work right I could always call in. Lo and behold it worked great and gave me the discount on it. I almost fell out of my chair. 

[arima22]

4weeks ago I booked 6 excursions for a May 2025 cruise, 6 is the minimum for the 25% discount. The booking process worked fine although my credits were applied all over the board, the total net cost was correct though. I plan to book a couple additional excursions in the near future, hope it works like it did for ORV. Our last cruise I had to call Oceania in order to make additional reservations.

[asnaleah]

We booked our May cruise prior to SM, so the website lost its mind when I tried to buy shore excursions.

[Flatbush Flyer]

4 hours ago, AMHuntFerry said:

Hi all, just a friendly reminder that booking shore excursions via the O website is asking for a headache. While avoiding the website altogether is probably the wisest choice, I like to fill up my cart with my choices, take a screen shot of my cart, log off the O site, then call the O phone number to purchase the shorex in my cart.

 

However, I just booked a cruise and wanted to book only two shorex using the SM credit and a small amount of OBC, so there is no 25% discount to worry about and no credit card payment. Easy peasy, right? What could go wrong? I put the first shorex into the cart just fine. When I tried to put the second one in the cart, it said "in cart" next to our names, but when I went to the cart only the first one was there. I tried multiple things like logging off/on,  closing/opening browser, using a different browser, etc. I even purchased the first shorex which cleared the cart (got an email confirmation for it). I tried again...Now it wouldn't let me put anything in the cart (and yes, I tried adding a different shorex), so I tried all of the work-arounds again, then I waited one day to see if that helped...nope. Today I called and booked the second shorex...lesson learned (again!).

 

Other friendly reminders: get the shorex description pdf from your TA or O rep at frequent intervals (~ every 3 months works for me). After booking shorex, get the itemized documents showing your bookings and the line-itemized costs.

Sorry that the cost of your reminder to “avoid the O Cart for excursion purchases” is to be victimized by it.😳

Your post also serves as a reminder that, no matter how great your TA may be, it’s worth the time and effort to find a well-respected, long-term O phone rep for direct purchase of O excursions. They can work wonders at avoiding the web “fubars” and doing so faster than even the best TA.

As I have mentioned previously: our Plan A is to initially book O cruises onboard or, if timing is not right, with our preferred O rep before transferring to our TA within the 14 day transfer window. We do this with the O phone rep because he gets credit for some of those bookings - well deserved since he always makes sure our tour purchases are problem free. 
 

[Thought2go]

22 hours ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

with our preferred O rep

I have found mine to be most knowledgeable and helpful. Even post TA transfer- those working for the TAs and cruisers booked through their TAs are very professional.

[Flatbush Flyer]

2 hours ago, Thought2go said:

I have found mine to be most knowledgeable and helpful. Even post TA transfer- those working for the TAs and cruisers booked through their TAs are very professional.

The challenge is wading through their newbies and not-so-helpful phone reps until you connect with the cadre of long-serving experts who are the examplars of good customer service.

[mlmdaisy]

This was a complete mess for me also.  I booked two on the website, but was unable to add more to get the 25% discount.  I accomplished what I wanted by phone (blah) but what I see in my account is totally inaccurate.    I know I paid the correct amount because I can see it on my cc statement.

 

The Oceania people tell me that they sent an invoice to my travel agent, but they did not.  I am so unimpressed with this, and no, I don't ask my travel agent to do everything for me, because I normally enjoy the process once booked.

[sunlover12]

11 hours ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

The challenge is wading through their newbies and not-so-helpful phone reps until you connect with the cadre of long-serving experts who are the examplars of good customer service.

Thank you for saying this. I know there are some very good O phone reps but unfortunately the last time I called to ask about a shore excursion, I got one of the not-so-helpful ones.  Not only could he not answer my question, it sounded like he was eating and there was a barking dog in the background.  Is it too much to ask Oceania to train their employees to be professional phone reps?  It shouldn't be on the customer to have to call back in hopes of getting a knowledgeable and helpful customer service agent. 

[Flatbush Flyer]

On 8/10/2024 at 5:38 AM, mlmdaisy said:

This was a complete mess for me also.  I booked two on the website, but was unable to add more to get the 25% discount.  I accomplished what I wanted by phone (blah) but what I see in my account is totally inaccurate.    I know I paid the correct amount because I can see it on my cc statement.

 

The Oceania people tell me that they sent an invoice to my travel agent, but they did not.  I am so unimpressed with this, and no, I don't ask my travel agent to do everything for me, because I normally enjoy the process once booked.

Call and ask for a copy of the “prepurchased shore ex PDF”- the one with all the math. Since you booked your tours direct, you are due that PDF. If the rep says no, call back until you get one that will send it to you. 

[mlmdaisy]

Thank you.  I will do that.  It’s a small thing but I find it irritating.

[durberville]

30 minutes ago, mlmdaisy said:

Thank you.  I will do that.  It’s a small thing but I find it irritating.

I have the same issue. What shows on the website under my account (shorex prices etc) is different from what I know I paid. The Oceania rep said - “don’t look at that” 😳 “ask for an actual invoice”. I asked my TA to send me the updated invoice from Oceania and everything looks good. Why the heck is the website info (“purchases”) different from our invoices? It is just fodder for confusion!!

Edited August 12 by durberville

[roothy123]

It was pretty easy for me to book my excursions on the website. First I chose my excursions using a pdf copy of the excursions that my travel advisor sent me early on. I printed it (all 31 pages!) and found that using that made it easier to flip around from one port to another, or one page to another. I found that there was one excursion that was not online on the website, so I suppose it pays to check the online version against the paper version in some cases.  And earlier today I noticed that one new excursion has been added online since when I looked about a month ago.So I'll check back in another month to see what's what.

 

In any case, I booked everything on line, then called Oceania to ask them to re-do the prices so I'd be sure to get the 25% Simply More package discount.  The whole call took less than 5 minutes. I received an email outlining the excursions I booked, and what I "paid" for them. A couple weeks later I decided to drop one excursion.  Again, that took less than 5 minutes to call and have Oceania take it off my account.   

 

 

[roothy123]

On 8/11/2024 at 10:31 PM, durberville said:

I have the same issue. What shows on the website under my account (shorex prices etc) is different from what I know I paid. The Oceania rep said - “don’t look at that” 😳 “ask for an actual invoice”. I asked my TA to send me the updated invoice from Oceania and everything looks good. Why the heck is the website info (“purchases”) different from our invoices? It is just fodder for confusion!!

You may already know this, but if not: If you qualified for the 25% discount and you called Oceania to apply the discount, you can then gon on the website a little later and get a chart showing excursions you booked and what you "paid" under the "View Purchases" tab.  On there, the "Price" is the retail price, the "Savings" is what you're being charged (i.e., Price minus 25%), and "Total" is the 25% discount.  The chart also shows what $ amount of credit was applied & used (which could include shipboard credit as well as excursion credit) and what credit you have left.

 

 

[Flatbush Flyer]

14 hours ago, roothy123 said:

You may already know this, but if not: If you qualified for the 25% discount and you called Oceania to apply the discount, you can then gon on the website a little later and get a chart showing excursions you booked and what you "paid" under the "View Purchases" tab.  On there, the "Price" is the retail price, the "Savings" is what you're being charged (i.e., Price minus 25%), and "Total" is the 25% discount.  The chart also shows what $ amount of credit was applied & used (which could include shipboard credit as well as excursion credit) and what credit you have left.

 

 

The “prepurchased shore excursions” PDF shows far better math details than anything online. You can get it directly from the O rep who does your tours transactions over the phone.

No matter what anyone else says here, using the web cart to purchase your tours is inviting a snafu. 
As has been mentioned, the shore ex pdf and the website don’t always agree on tour availability and the problems are worse for multi-segment cruises.

 

[pinotlover]

In that: (1) These issues have all existed for years on O’s website; (2) The overall system is rather simple with little or no complexities and can be easily fixed ; It can then only be surmised that Oceania finds the current system to be in their best financial interests and has no interest in improvements to the system.

 

Personally, I have a wonderful TA and no how to use her. I have zero interest in spending any time , on the phone , with any Oceania clerks. If it gives others pleasure, then by all means enjoy yourselves.

Edited August 18 by pinotlover

[MEFIowa]

40 minutes ago, pinotlover said:

... Personally, I have a wonderful TA and [know] how to use her. I have zero interest in spending any time, on the phone, with any Oceania clerks. If it gives others pleasure, then by all means enjoy yourselves.

To each their own, with what works for them.

 

Personally, we have a wonderful O rep and know how to interact with her for positive results. We have zero interest in spending any time--on line, on the phone or in person--trying to find some TA. Either the mythical unicorns who can't be named here or the more mundane ones I might find in my area. If it gives others great pleasure, then by all means enjoy yourselves.

 

After 40 nights and 4 cruises on O (going back to a 1/2021 booking) with 22 more nights and 2 more cruises starting 8/28/24, the O phone rep has worked for us. Nary a single problem on the 6 bookings so far. Though I will say that spending time here and learning from various people with their experiences and expertise has helped.

[ORV]

46 minutes ago, MEFIowa said:

To each their own, with what works for them.

 

Personally, we have a wonderful O rep and know how to interact with her for positive results. We have zero interest in spending any time--on line, on the phone or in person--trying to find some TA. Either the mythical unicorns who can't be named here or the more mundane ones I might find in my area. If it gives others great pleasure, then by all means enjoy yourselves.

 

After 40 nights and 4 cruises on O (going back to a 1/2021 booking) with 22 more nights and 2 more cruises starting 8/28/24, the O phone rep has worked for us. Nary a single problem on the 6 bookings so far. Though I will say that spending time here and learning from various people with their experiences and expertise has helped.

I know better than to discuss this with you as your attitude if completely inflexible on the subject, but I do find it interesting that for something that is interested in squeezing every cruise dime till it cries that you won't take advantage of another avenue to decrease your overall spending and have more money in your pocket. 

 

No need to reply, I know your position. 

[Vallesan]

18 minutes ago, ORV said:

I know better than to discuss this with you as your attitude if completely inflexible on the subject, but I do find it interesting that for something that is interested in squeezing every cruise dime till it cries that you won't take advantage of another avenue to decrease your overall spending and have more money in your pocket. 

 

No need to reply, I know your position. 

Yes I agree. We usually book through an O rep then transfer to an agent and save 10% on average!

[ORV]

23 minutes ago, ORV said:

something

somebody

 

 

too late to edit.

[MEFIowa]

21 minutes ago, ORV said:

... but I do find it interesting that for something that is interested in squeezing every cruise dime till it cries that you won't take advantage of another avenue to decrease your overall spending and have more money in your pocket.... 

I did try one of those "mythical TAs", the one with the tall guy who makes the videos of the ships and cabins. Called them. But they weren't interested in our business since I was trying to book cruise only during a sale. And I've ended up booking 4 of our 6 cruises on sale. (As for the other two, one booked on ship. Another booked when the 2024 itinerary opened in early 2022 and it went on sale.) Some very deep indeed. Those deep sale prices came from O, not a TA. And I've routinely rebooked cruises using multiple sales to move up for better pricing.

[MEFIowa]

6 minutes ago, Vallesan said:

... 

 

17 minutes ago, Vallesan said:

... We usually book through an O rep then transfer to an agent and save 10% on average!

....

 

I don't think we'll book any further cruises at then published book prices. Only off of deep sales. Most likely shorter-term flash-types, nearer when a cruise will happen. Seems like there is a LOT of pricing regret as O waits till AFTER final payment date and then has a sale, without then offering to reduce your fare to that sale price. OBC is worth pennies on the dollar as opposed to serious dollars, actual cash back, on the barrelhead.

[MEFIowa]

19 minutes ago, Vallesan said:

.... save 10% on average!

I do find it hard to get people who are making the TA claims to provide their real-world pricing data for specific cruises.

 

Take our 10-night Athens to Barcelona on Riviera (11/9-19/2023). No TA used.

 

- Booked it originally 4/22/22 as a C for $1994 PP.

- THEN rebooked it 5/25/22 as a B4 for $2249 PP. (On sale)

- Finally rebooked it 4/13/23 as a B3 for $1749 PP. (On sale)

 

So, 10% off the original C would've made it $1795. Which is $46 MORE than I ended up paying for the superior B3 cabin.

[Vallesan]

6 minutes ago, MEFIowa said:

 

....

 

I don't think we'll book any further cruises at then published book prices. Only off of deep sales. Most likely shorter-term flash-types, nearer when a cruise will happen. Seems like there is a LOT of pricing regret as O waits till AFTER final payment date and then has a sale, without then offering to reduce your fare to that sale price. OBC is worth pennies on the dollar as opposed to serious dollars, actual cash back, on the barrelhead.

We’ve booked onboard and then passed over to our agent for a further discount. We’ve booked at sale prices and still got the agents discount. We’ve gone back to our agent if there’s a sale after we booked and got the reduced price. The only thing we haven’t done is to try and get a reduction after ‘final payment’ because there has never been a reduction on our booked cruise. 
To me it seems to be a no brainer!

[basor]

58 minutes ago, ORV said:

I know better than to discuss this with you as your attitude if completely inflexible on the subject, but I do find it interesting that for something that is interested in squeezing every cruise dime till it cries that you won't take advantage of another avenue to decrease your overall spending and have more money in your pocket. 

 

No need to reply, I know your position. 

As you said, it is worthless to try and have this discussion as no matter what proof is provided, there is always a retort back dismissing the facts.  I think some just don't like to admit that perhaps they are not the King/Queen of best cruise pricing possible.  We have always booked onboard and got discounts, transfer to TA and get additional discounts, TA has continued to get price reduced when sales occur (and it is't always us that finds the sale) ..and , before the retort comes back, we do not book suites and we do not book multiple expensive cruises a year so not a cash cow for our TA....