Oceania Cruises Introduces New Promotion Called simply MORE™

Oceania Cruises, sister company to Norwegian Cruise Line, and my favorite cruise line, has, for a number of years offered the same promotion on nearly all of their sailings called OLife Choice.  René has previously written about Delta SkyPennies Auctions for Oceania Cruises including the old promotion.

2 for 1 Cruise Fares

Free Airfare

Free Unlimited Internet

And a choice of one of the following:

Free Shore Excursions (Cruises up to 9 days = 3 excursions each, 10-13 days = 4 excursions each, and 14+ days = 5 excursions each)

Free Beverage Package (at the time of publication, a house beverage package costs $39.95 per person, per day ($79.90 per stateroom) and includes unlimited Champagne, wine and beer with lunch and dinner)

Free Shipboard Credit (Cruises up to 9 days = $300 shipboard credit each, 10-13 days = $400 shipboard credit each, 14+ days = $500 shipboard credits each)

We booked our first cruise aboard Oceania Insignia back in 2015 for a cruise in 2016 and OLife Choice was in place back then, but because cruises weren’t selling like they are now, they also included Pre-Paid Gratuities plus the choice of Free Shore Excursions, Free Beverage Package, or Free Shipboard Credit.  Well a lot has changed since 2015, but up until this month, the OLife Choice program hasn’t been one of them.  Per the Oceania website, OLife Choice fare offers are subject to change as of 7/1/2023 with all of them expiring 9/30/2023.

Oceania Cruises’ simply MORE™

What’s replacing OLife Choice??? it’s a new program called – simply MORE™.  It includes some of the offerings from the old program like 2 for 1 Cruise Fares, Free Roundtrip Airfare, free unlimited WiFi, and the option of free (included) shore excursions but now also includes: Airport Transfers with the included Roundtrip Air and an included House Beverage Package that provides Champagne, Wine and More at lunch and dinner.

My initial thought on simply MORE™ is that it makes sense for Oceania. A lot has changed since they started with OLife Choice fares, not the least of which was the introduction of a massive competitor in Viking Ocean Cruises which introduced its first ocean ship in 2015. Now Viking has 10 nearly identical ships offering an incredibly consistent experience across their fleet including a number of inclusions like those being added with simply MORE™.

While Oceania has long offered included airfare (we pass on this, I’ll explain why in a future post) they haven’t advertised transfers, but Viking does.  Oceania has not included beverages of wine/beer at meals in the past except through purchased beverage packages or occasional promotions. Viking having started in river cruising has always had this inclusion.  So has another Oceania competitor – Azamara.  Oceania has long offered included excursions as a choice, but Viking offers an included one in every port.  I get why Oceania is now featuring this more prominently.

Overall the result of the change to simply MORE™ is likely to be higher standard prices for cruises but with more inclusions.  This will better align Oceania fares with those of their more inclusive competitors.  Unfortunately this takes out some of the a la carte optionality we’ve come to appreciate about the former promotional structure.

The summary above on simply MORE™ is my own, please see the Terms and Conditions as they are extensive and are available here on the Oceania Cruises’ website. – Michael