This top cruise line is now throwing in free tours worth thousands of dollars if you book
How eager are cruise lines to get your business? Eager enough that one major brand is now throwing in multiday land tours worth thousands of dollars for free if you commit to a sailing.
Upscale line Oceania Cruises this week announced that customers who book select 2023 sailings will get a free pre- or post-cruise land tour worth up to $4,600 per person as an add-on.
The free pre- and post-cruise land tours are available with 15 of Oceania's longer sailings scheduled for 2023. The tours range from one to three nights in length and include visits to such iconic destinations as the Taj Mahal in India and Angkor Wat in Cambodia.
The offer is available to customers who book one of the sailings between now and Jan. 8. One of the caveats is that each of the tours has limited capacity and can only be booked subject to availability.
The free add-on land tours include:
- A three-night "India's Crown Jewel" tour that visits Delhi as well as the Taj Mahal, Agra Fort and the tomb of Itmad-ud-Daulah in Agra, India. It's available for free as a pre- or post-cruise add-on to an 18-night voyage from Cape Town, South Africa, to Mumbai, India, starting on Jan. 18, 2023, and a 14-night voyage from Mumbai to Bangkok, Thailand, starting on Feb. 5, 2023. The sailings are on Oceania's 684-passenger Nautica.
- A three-night tour to the temple complexes of Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom in Cambodia. It's available as a free pre- or post-cruise add-on to a 14-night voyage from Mumbai to Bangkok starting on Feb. 5, 2023, and on a 10-night voyage from Bangkok to Singapore starting on Feb. 19, 2023. The sailings are also on Nautica.
- A three-night "Glimpse of Arabia" tour that visits multiple sites in the United Arab Emirates including the waterfront Museum of Islamic Civilization in Sharjah, the Grand Mosque and the Louvre Abu Dhabi in Abu Dhabi. It's available as a free post-cruise add-on to a 21-night voyage from Cape Town to Dubai scheduled for April 5, 2023. The sailing is on Oceania's 684-passenger Insignia.
The three tours above normally range from $1,699 to $1,999 per person.
Additional free tours include a one-night trip to the Nazca Lines in Peru or a three-night trip to the wine country near Santiago, Chile, that can be added to a 24-day sailing from San Francisco to Santiago.
Related: Some cruise fares have dropped as low as $26 per day
There's also a free three-night "Winelands & Wildlife" tour to the wine country near Cape Town that is available with four different sailings that begin or end in the South African city.
Free add-on tours that showcase Singapore, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Rio de Janeiro, Sydney and San Francisco also are available with various 2023 cruises that begin or end in the cities. Some of the latter tours normally cost as much as $2,299 per person — $4,598 for a couple sharing a room.
The free add-on promotion comes as cruise lines look for ways to boost bookings without dropping their base fares.
Related: The ultimate guide to picking a cruise line
Many cruise lines have struggled to get occupancies on ships back to normal levels since they restarted operations during the COVID-19 pandemic. In lieu of discounting fares, many lines have been offering "value-add" freebies to customers including free shore tours, drinks packages, Wi-Fi packages and gratuities.
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