On my cruise this October on the Enchanted my Princess Love Boat Dream looked likeCoral's picture than the OP's picture and the pistachio dome looked a heck of a lot better.
In Brooklyn, the facial recognition scan took less than 5 seconds. No line for those of us who walked off because of the speed of the facial recognition.
There was no card on my October cruise on the Enchanted, but the schedule for the lounge was printed on the bottom of one of information sheets provided on boarding. So, no cutback or semi-cutback, take your choice.
No. You would have to confirm that with the headwaiter the first night. We found a wait staff we liked in during our October cruise and arranged to be seated in their section for the remainder of the cruise.
How is the medallion a "faulty system"? It has worked well for me and others. Do not confuse it with the Medallion app which has not proved to be effective in all cases.
For those who do not want to be "tracked" please note that there aren't thousands of Princess staff onboard tracking your every move. I got no "targeted" advertising on my last two cruises with the medallion. What Princess is collecting is metadata about venue usage.
Exactly, when I vacationed in Japan I respected their tipping norms, which meant that not only was there no tipping, but attempting to tip was considered insulting.
Please note that the OP is from the UK, where the tipping culture is different. Of course, they believe that their way is the only way.
If you are worried about tipping costs during a longer cruise, perhaps you cannot afford to take that longer cruise.
On my recent Canada/NE cruise we were asked for ID and medallion (they did not have the scanner) from Canadian authorities before we were allowed to proceed back to the ship. This has also happened at several Carribean ports.