fairmontracer

Does anyone know how to write a review for an excursion that shows up in the Princess website excursion description? It cannot be very straightforward if there are only a handful of reviews per excursion. I just got off a 21 day Med cruise and would like to leave reviews for the excursions we went on. I asked customer service while on board and they said I could go to the website and do it post cruise, however since that cruise has ended, it doesn't exist in my cruise listing anymore.

Thanks

Harry

With regards to the app performance on the ship:

- My wife and I both had my picture. When we went to the Medallion desk, they showed her how to change her picture. Once she did that, we both had her picture! Yes, were both logged into our individual accounts. They couldn't fix it.

- When you get into "Message center" in the app (which is supposedly for captain's messages to everyone), you can't get out of the screen unless you shut down the app. Apparently a known problem.

- When I brought up the Journey View in the app and left it open, my phone got hot and it drained my battery. Their solution: Get out of Journey View when not using it. 

The cruise its self was great though!

For those stressing about their arrival status, or are having problems with the pre-cruise part of the app, all I have to say is "Don't worry about it". Here is our check in experience for a 14 day cruise the just got back last weekend (left and returned from Port Everglades, Ft Lauderdale):

Without going in detail, we basically were unable to do anything using the app to prepare for check in. Since we didn't have an arrival time, we showed up at the terminal around 10:30 am. We went through the Platinum line which really only gives you priority getting to the metal detectors, I don't think there was anyone in front of us. We were in the blue lane, since we couldn't do anything in the app, and walked right up to the long counter with no one in front of us. The rep processed our docs and we were on our way. We just had our travel itinerary (that was not really needed), our passports and vax cards. Interestingly enough, the rep never asked us for our negative Covid results. Ironically, the lines were much longer for the kiosks in the green lane. 

We then waited in the Platinum "lounge" which is just a waiting area in the terminal. The Platinum and Elite all were allowed to board before the rest of the guests though.

2 minutes ago, AF-1 said:

fairmontracer.  the medallion class app message system is not the same as iphone imessage. you will not get a notification when you message a family member using the medallion app.  Yes you can message people on the ship using the ships intranet; but there will be no notification.  You just have to keep checking the app to see if someone has messaged you. The IT people on the ship can not fix it; because it isn't available on the app.  If two people both buy the wifi package then you can use i-message just like onshore

Well, that's good to know, however I don't know why the specific "Medallion App" concierge did not know that. Also, why would you write an app that has a feature to message someone, that doesn't work with the notification feature on a mobile device?

A Question for the app usage while onboard. Our last cruise we used the "message" feature in the app to communicate with each other. The problem was when either of us received a message, we were not notified on our iPhones of a message like every other app. We have notifications turned on for the Medallion Class app. Do others get notifications like I think we should? We stopped by and saw the Medallion app desk and they couldn't fix it, they added it to our list of other app issues in their system. Of course nothing has been done about it. I had to keep checking inside the app for messages from my wife which is a pain. Other than the notification issue, I think the rest of the app worked flawlessly while on board. With regards to our pre-cruise experience with the app, it is useless. There are so many issues we have with it that apparently cannot be fixed, we have given up. We just print everything and just show up, really not that big of a deal. When we are walking up the gangway to the ship I pretty much forget about the app frustration!

I agree with all the above, the pre-cruise experience for us has been useless with the app for the last two cruises. I have pretty much given up on it. It seems to work fine once on the ship though.

However, I would highly recommend you call Princess and do your dine my way reservations ahead of time. If you wait until you are on the ship, you may not be able to dine in the main dining room. This happened to others on our last cruise.

I'm pretty convinced my issue is not the app but the back end database. The app does not work correctly on two iPhones, an iPad, and Android phone or a chromebook. We have been struggling with this for two cruises now. Also when we try and get to the information via the web option, it will not let us log in (although logging into the app and the normal website always work fine). The Princess rep I talked to on the phone yesterday could not get into my bookings to look at my "Ocean Ready", just another reason I think something is wrong on the backend. 

I will do my typical pre-cruise venting, thank you in advance. We have a 14 day cruise booked leaving on June 18th. The app is doing the same thing it was last cruise. When I select "choose medallion" the screen goes all white and never changes, even after being on the screen for hours. App is then hosed and I have to shut down app and restart. Trying to choose arrival time presents me with the multiple future cruises we have booked, I select the next appropriate cruise and get a "loading" circle that never stops. I have called Princess twice, I was supposed to get a return call but never did. I have also emailed but didn't even get the "we will get to you in order of sailing" response. The app for us has been useless for both cruises with regards to the pre-cruise experience. Like last cruise, we just plan on getting to the port early with all our printed information and let them sort it out. Not that big of a deal.

I called today to confirm our Dine my Way booking since the app only says "you already have a reservation, would you like to cancel it and start over?" without giving me the ability to see what the reservation is! Turns out the reservation is where we wanted at the time we wanted but only for the first few days of the cruise, then we had no reservations. I called (the medallion dine my way people answered on the first ring) but it took over 30 min for the person to find us a private table in the same dining room at the same time each night. They have to check day by day, who programmed this? As it turned out we are now at the same table each night and the same time, except one night were the time is different. Personally I think they should default to the old MDR dining at a table size of your choice. I have to believe they have many upset people each cruise that don't bother with reservations till they get on board and nothing is left.

On 3/8/2022 at 11:03 AM, tcdcruiser said:

I have spoken with Princess 3 times over that last 10 days with this Medallion / Ocean Ready issue and I am about to call again in a few minutes....does anyone have any advice for this issue.

 

The Issue

• Successfully dowloaded the app on my iPhone (current OS).  The app shows my cruise starting in 18 days BUT when i start the Travel Checklist process the app replies "You do not have any booking.  Select Link Booking to add one". 
• Then when I add the known booking number the app goes into an endless "loading" loop.  The last 3 Princess tech persons seem clueless.

 

Any help appreciated. Thanks

Good luck! I had the exact same issue on our last cruise and am having the same issue on our upcoming June cruise. The last cruise I sent an email and got the same "we will get to it in order of sailing date" answer as others have. About a week and half before the last cruise, some (but not all) features started to work. It was too close to the sailing date to order the medallions and we could not complete any health questions. I sent an email asking for help on the next cruise but really don't care. We will just worry about it at the terminal. It is something on the backend system, not the app because it happens on every different device we have including the web version. It's just pathetic that it keeps happening. 

I thought I would give an update to the issues we were having pre-cruise and the app performance during our December 25th 7 day cruise. The app pre-cruise issues were pretty much fixed about 2 weeks before the cruise and we got in the "green lane". However when we got to one of the manned podiums, the person could not pull us up in the system. We ended up having to go to a desk for the next level support and they figured it out. This really should not have happened, however in reality it only added about 20 minutes to the check in process. All was forgotten when we were walking down the ramp into the ship!

The app worked great on the ship with the exception of the notifications that you can send between people. These notifications were working, however we could only see the message or notification if we were in the app. The app never notified us like a text message or other apps do. We talked to the app desk they had setup but they couldn't fix it.

Now on to the next cruise which is our first B2B in June. It looks like we are starting over with the same problem as the last cruise. The app again says "You do not have any journeys. Select Link Booking to add one" When I try and link the booking, it says "This booking has already been claimed". Since the phone call to a rep didn't help at all last time, I resent the message from the previous cruise to the askoceanmedallian email and asked they fix the problem for good this time. 

For what its worth, with all the problems we have had with the app, we are now in the green lane and ready to go with 10 days until the cruise. Somebody fixed something on the backend and all of a sudden the app started to work on our devices. I had called their technical support about a month ago, sent an email to the Medallion support email and responded to an email they sent be after a terrible review I gave on the Google Play store. One of these must have prompted the fix. Even the "customize your medallion" is green even though we never actually got to order them. 

2 hours ago, fairmontracer said:

We have a cruise leaving in 2 weeks. Up until this last weekend, the app would not recognize our booking number on 5 different devices so we could not enter any info. As of this weekend, we are magically in the green lane! I still cannot order Medallions, I still get the white screen of death. Per a phone call with Princess this morning, it is too late to order them anyway. I also cannot pre-purchase internet service because, again, it is too late. I believe it is less expensive if I pre-order it though. Things are better with the app but it is still a totally unacceptable user experience. 

So I happened to try the app on my Chromebook and was actually able to purchase the internet. When I mentioned the Chromebook to one of the Princess agents in the past, they told me it was not supported with the app.  It looks like the only missing thing is the medallions, we can get them at the terminal. I will be glad when we are actually on the ship!

We have a cruise leaving in 2 weeks. Up until this last weekend, the app would not recognize our booking number on 5 different devices so we could not enter any info. As of this weekend, we are magically in the green lane! I still cannot order Medallions, I still get the white screen of death. Per a phone call with Princess this morning, it is too late to order them anyway. I also cannot pre-purchase internet service because, again, it is too late. I believe it is less expensive if I pre-order it though. Things are better with the app but it is still a totally unacceptable user experience. 

11 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

Nope. I had issues early on but sent my issues via email to the Medallion folks. I was polite and detailed. They looked at my issues and suddenly the app worked. I'm not saying this worked for everybody but I didn't go through the Princess phone number. The folks who answer that line are rarely people who have even set foot on a cruise ship let alone sailed. In general, you might as well ask for assistance from a house plant.

 

I understand that there are folks who are having extreme issues getting the app to work and I feel sorry for them but it can sometimes be remediated by using the proper channels and not being all "pi$$#d off) when communicating. It also helps to not try to address issues via the "regular" Princess phone staff. For the most part those folks don't know enough to even understand the issue let alone address it in a coherent manner.

Thrak, would you be willing to share the email address you used? I can't seem to find an email address on the website.

Thank you in advance for allowing me to vent🙂. Have a cruise booked for Dec 26th and am trying to get us squared away on the OM app. I can log into the app and it shows my picture and the number of days till our cruise, so it knows what our booking number is. When I start the checklist items, it says I need to enter my booking number. When I do, the app says "That booking number has already been claimed". Just spent 60 minutes on the phone with Princess. Their response was that it is a known problem and it may get fixed in the next app release which usually occurs ever 3-4 weeks. So there is a known application problem that is preventing the application from working and it might be fixed before our cruise leaves? What company operates this way? If this was a normal software development cycle, this Tier 1 incident would be worked 24X7 until resolution, then an emergency release published ASAP. The check in process can be done at the terminal, however it is going to be a nightmare if everyone has to do it that way. Venting ended, thanks!

On 6/22/2021 at 12:04 AM, dog said:

Good idea. They had my BD wrong by one day and Princess had to make the correction 

They had my birthday wrong by one day as well! That, however, is just the tip of the iceberg with regards to the list of data problems I am currently having with both the Princess website as well as the phone app.

The website is still not 100% for me at least. I was finally able to login using my login ID however when I go to my "profile information" it lists my wife's login ID under the "Login ID" field! I logged out, then back in and it still shows my wife's login ID. Other than that everything seems to be correct. 

1 hour ago, Grislap said:

This morning, after--what, 3 weeks I think?--I am finally able to log in to the website! Three days ago I followed someone's advice (sorry, I forget who said it on this lonnnggg thread). I clicked on the "need help?" link at login. I think the next step was "forgot password," but it might have been "reset password." In any case they sent an email that allowed me to create a new password. I did that, and then got to a screen that said I needed to re-enter a bunch of basic information (name, address, etc). Unfortunately, when I finished that and submitted it, I got a notice saying it was successful and they would log me in shortly, but it stayed stuck on that notice.

So I tried again. My new password still worked, but I had to refill that info again, and then the same thing happened again. And again. Then I tried again a couple of times two days ago, and again a couple of times yesterday. I did not have high expectations when I tried again this morning. But this time, when I re-entered the info and submitted it, it finally worked. I was able to see all of my information, from previous cruises through the current booking, including OBC. Everything was as it should be. I even crossed my fingers, logged out, and tried it again. Got in again.

I notice that the site now says a lot of what we used to enter on the website we will now have to enter via the Medallion app. "Coming soon!" it says, hopefully. I see it is currently unavailable on Google Play. I deleted the app from my phone, and assume--um, hope--that when it is available again on Google Play it will function well and also not mess things up with the website functions....

Thanks! I have been trying for weeks to login on the website with the same issues you were having. Just tried it again (having to fill in the address, contact info, etc) and it worked! My future cruises are there including the one that was supposed to leave in 24 days but was cancelled like a month ago. I can also get into the app but there is not much useful information there unless you are getting ready to get on a cruise or already on the ship.

About a month ago I got a notification by Princess that I needed to change my password. I did that, and ever since, when I log in I get a screen that says "Your account is missing some additional information" and wants me to input my address, phone and email. I have cruised with Princess many times so they obviously already have that information. The screen also has a pre populated userid field (that cannot be changed) with my wife's userid in it! I have tried completing the form anyway to see what happens and the page says "logging in" but never goes anywhere. I have tried on three different computers with two different browsers. I call Princess once a week and, even after talking to tech support, I get "we are having problems with our website, please try again later". Luckily my wife's account works fine so I can check for FCC's there. I work in IT and having your main web presence down for a month is totally unacceptable, especially if it was a scheduled change.  

Refund update. Regal Princess sail date 3/15, cancelled by Princess when they shut down on 3/12.

Received FCC on 6/1/20, amounts were correct.

Received CC refund on 6/8/20.

The only odd thing, they refunded $1,873.60 to my credit card. This was the correct amount to the penny. However they also posted a separate credit to my card for the amount of $14.95. I have no idea what this one is for.

I was scheduled to be on the Regal leaving 3/15. I was cancelled by Princess on 3/13 (the day they shut down operations). Chose the cash refund as well as the FCC. I have been checking my Princess account pretty much daily and the FCC was finally credited today. A couple of interesting things about it: 1) The cost of the actual cruise was $900. It appears they refunded the $100 FCC that I used to originally book the cruise, right after the cancellation. The FCC they applied today to my account was for $900 so I have a total of $1000 FCC now. Seems like the would only own me $900 total. 2) The FCC states it must be used by 5/1/2022, this is good because I was under the impression it would only be good for a year.

I was booked on the Regal for a March 15th, 7 day cruise out of Ft Lauderdale. I got cancelled automatically when Princess announced the stop in operations on March 12th. I have not gotten a FCC nor credit card refund yet. I should be getting both since I chose option 2. I have gotten a couple of emails from Princess though. This is the latest one. It doesn't really say much and the comment about "refunding millions of dollars" means nothing. If a cruise ship has 3000 rooms and people pay an average of $2000 a room, that is $6M from one ship for one cruise! Doing some really rough math, Princess has 17 ships. If we assume an average of 1500 rooms per ship and from March 12th to July 30 is 20 weeks of cruises cancelled, that means they need to refund 510,000 cabins!

We want you to know that we hear you and understand your frustration with the time it is taking to receive your refund. Rest assured we’ve received your request, and it’s in our queue.

As of Friday, May 15 we have refunded millions of dollars of cruises and we continue working through our back log. Our reservation and payment systems were not designed to handle this volume of refunds in a short period of time, and it is taking longer than we wanted.

As we respect our guest’s money and time, we have increased the number of team members supporting this enormous effort and have made modifications to our systems. These modifications have increased our capacity to process these refunds and we should be issuing at a faster rate beginning this week.

Thank you for your patience in these extraordinary circumstances. We hope you and your loved ones are staying healthy and safe during this difficult time.

On 5/1/2020 at 2:01 PM, fairmontracer said:

No, March 15th

Princess update from their website last Wednesday (4/29):

Updated April 29, 2020

"Refund processing has begun on cancelled voyages in departure date order. FCC processing begins after you make your choice for this option. This is not an automated process and we are working to ensure attention to detail so that each booking is processed accurately. Our team managing this is also working from home, so we ask for your grace and patience in affording us time to manage this with excellence but know that our team is working to expedite the process as quickly as possible. Please stay healthy and safe."

From an email I received from Princess on Friday (5/1):

"We know you’re waiting for your refund and may be frustrated by how long it’s taking. We hear you and are doing everything in our power to get it to you as soon as possible. Rest assured we’ve received your request, and it’s in our queue.
We ask for your continued patience in affording us the time to work through the refunds properly. Because we are not able to use our usual automated process, our team is manually handling a large volume of requests while working from home. We want to try to make sure each and every guest's booking is handled accurately, and as efficiently as possible and this is taking more time."

No time frames mentioned. Their comment "Refund processing has begun" is a bit concerning. Did it just begin?

No, March 15th