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Ocean Medallion


RestonCruiser
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So sorry to hear about your experience. We are on the same cruise and our medallions have not arrived. Perhaps we should be thankful! The video promos re: how they are supposed to work look really intriguing. I guess we’ll all find out soon.

So on Friday afternoon the FedEx truck arrived and delivered our Ocean Medallions for our Regal Crossing on April 15. Very attractive box included engraved medallions with our names, ship, and date. Included was a nice note thanking us for being Pilots on the upcoming cruise. There were no instructions anywhere to be found.

 

On one of the inserts were pictures of six different apps that can be downloaded from Google Play or the Apple App Store. The first app in Ocean Ready and is where you expedite the boarding process by entering all your information, including passport info, etc. I downloaded the app and my frustrations began. I could not for the life of me figure out the sign-in. It asked for your Ocean Credentials. As you will remember, there were no instructions included in the box. I spent a couple of hours trying to figure out the sign in and also searching google to see if I could learn any additional information. I must say all this effort was for naught so I called the Princess number for assistance. The young lady told me she would transfer me to the Medallion help desk. I held the line and finally got a message saying they were either closed or there was no one to help me. Not giving up that easy, I called back to the Princess number and insisted I needed to talk with someone. She was very polite and asked if she could put me on hold and see if she could locate someone to help. After several minutes, she connected me to a very nice young man and the frustration continued to build. He finally admitted the Ocean Ready is having severe problems but he would do his best to help me sign in. He told me the Ocean Ready app is required to use the other 5 apps. After about 30 minutes of him telling me exactly what to do with no positive results, he finally told me he could not help.

 

With my frustration at a high level and after wasting now about three hours, I told him I would just throw all this medallion stuff in the trash can. He did chuckle a little and said I understand. Never did he say the technology was not ready for deployment and I asked him this question several times. He did say that we should bring the medallions with us on the 15th as maybe something would be working by then.

 

So my question --- has anyone used the Medallions or any of the six apps available to make your life and cruise easier? I admit I am not very high tech, but this is ridiculous. I would love to hear any thoughts or comments. I am sure I will get flamed for this note but I really am frustrated. Maybe I will Come Home New from the cruise but I am surely leaving home feeling old and frustrated.

 

 

So no

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We were on the 2-day roll out of the ***** on the Regal Princess in November. We had tried to book this voyage weeks before hoping to experience the *****, but the ship was sold out. Our Princess vacation planner called to tell us there were cancellations so we booked it.

 

Princess had a contest last summer and the prize was to be on your sailing to be able to experience the first ever ***** experience.

 

I wonder if the lucky prize winner was on with you.

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We had the Ocean Medallion in February. It opened the doors, and to be fair it opened them consistently, at least for us. It also worked in the casino. But yeah, most of the promised stuff wasn't there yet.

 

We also sped through the line to get aboard, but that seemed more a function of the special ***** line then the ***** technology.

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It definitely is not ready. Someone sold management a tool for their marketing and a few benefits for the passenger. Obviously it was not ready. It may not be ready for next Fall. I get on the Regal this Sunday and only a third will even have it. The entire ship was rewired for the new and great fast internet. However, the entire ship must be rewired again for the Medallion as I understand it. How can they make money with this much work? The staff in January and the Captain said Princess is coming out with a new ship for the next 5 years. Instead of spending so much money on redoing the present I would think it would be much better to start with the completely new ships. In the long run someone has to pay for the past and present problems and it will probably be the customer in the long run. The staff only smiled when I asked in January if it would be complete by April. The internet speed would be a sufficient and significant improvement unless the whole Medallion program is not workable. If that is the case cut their loses and drop it. Mike

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It is utterly mind boggling to me that Princess can't seem to get any of this stuff working. I have often disparaged the IT staff that handles their website but I had hoped they had hired "real" IT people for the Medallion project as they have committed such an incredible amount of money and hype to the project. I guess they are instead sticking with their previous IT hiring policy. I think their IT staff must be composed of people who failed as Walmart greeters and couldn't find any other job so Princess picked them up as "IT Professionals". Its sad. Very sad. I was so looking forward to trying out the Medallion and freely admit to having been a "fanboi" of the project. I am so very disappointed by the apparent incompetence displayed by the Princess IT people.

 

Thrak, Don’t let it get you upset sit down and have a double Scott :whiskey-glass:

Your friend The Captain,

Tony

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Marketing is layering passenger fluff (DineOcean, PlayOcean, etc) onto a passenger-tracking

app that mostly benefits ship operations to get passengers to wear the medallions.

 

*BUT* someone should have explained the 1st Law of Project Management to them...

 

"The first half of any project takes 90% of the predicted time.

The second half takes the other 90%."

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Yes, you are too harsh. Glitches and some problems are one thing, but a colossal "snafu" is different. If I'm correct, Padgetts was on the stage with Jan Swartz during the 2-day roll out of the ***** and he was a slick talking guy who talked a real good game. .

 

Yes we were on the 2-day preview and at that ***** presentation - this was actually captured on video and can be watched online

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the article referenced 300 IT employees of which 200 were outsourced..

 

what are the remaining 100 doing ?

 

Firefighting I expect - that was our experience of our failed outsourcing to Capgemini in Mumbai

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In interviews with CCL CEO Donald that I’ve read, he was noncommittal about whether ***** would even be implemented fleetwide on Princess. He said that decision would be made based on passengers feedback yet every ship that’s gone in for shipyard maintenance has been wired for ***** despite being unable to deliver as promised.

 

Whoever is ultimately responsible for this failed implementation they shouldn’t be making future decisions. But as posted, the basic premise in Management 101 is that the blame goes to lower level personnel & when successful those at the top take all of the credit.

 

Our cruises on the Royal are 15 months after ***** was promoted as being available on the ship. We received an email that it now won’t be available until sometime in the future after our cruises.

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What is the major stumbling block. Is it that they cannot get the signals to transmit throughout the entire ship with a high degree of integrity and reliability that is needed?

 

At a guess, repeat: guess, the problem is the opposite.

 

The technology is based upon having hundreds (thousands?) of sensors spread

throughout the ship and assuming you're at the sensor where you medallion is

received the loudest. My suspicion is they're having problems when the medallion's

radio signal bounces off smooth metal surfaces and is louder at the sensor down

the corridor than at the sensor right next to you.

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No doubt, i'm an old timer. Worked for the largest United States utility for 30 years. When I started it was paper and pencil, literally. Over the years I was dragged along as we made six separate attempts to go digital. Anything from flat out failures to glitches lasting over 11 years that will never be fixed. Each time it's due to penny pinching trying to get several, cheaper, software programs to mesh or just communicate to each other. For some reason companies just refuse to go to one company and write software from the ground up for what is wanted.

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Another Management 101 lesson is to let sunk costs sink and not take more resources down with them. I hope that one was also learned. (Maybe Princess kept just one magic pipe around that could be used for that purpose). :rolleyes:

 

But $1B!!! I literally choked on my beverage when I read that. Even eliminating butter pats altogether can’t make up for that cost. How much additional revenue/ cost reduction was Jan Swartz counting on when she raised her hand for this one?

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I am boarding the Regal for 14 days Sunday, April 13 as I mentioned previously for a TA to Copenhagen. Since I was on the Regal for two weeks in January I will be able to judge how much progress was made in 3 months. As I mentioned it doesn't seem to be much. The tech aspects are a bit beyond me but I can tell you it is very labor and part intensive. A new pad must be wired and installed by each door whose function seems to be to announce your name and unlock the door. At the present rate it will be years and for what - tracking the passengers. There is a point where you simply admit a mistake was made and give up instead of throwing good money after bad. Without having knowledge of the contracts involved it would seem that management made a grave mistake. If the contract cant be broken and if there is no escape then they are in for big trouble. If it is of great value I would simply commit it to the new fleet rather than trying to retrofit the ships already built. Mike

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There is a point where you simply admit a mistake was made and give up instead of throwing good money after bad.

You would be correct if the object was to track pax and unlock your door. These are by products and selling points. The object is to save Princess overhead in bookkeeping costs for all future cruises and to remove money from pax pockets in a more efficient way. No need to swipe that card anymore, no thought about that $12 drink. Do you think that tracking info is just for your family's use, or marketing will look at pax flow and what areas paxs avoid

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My suspicion is they're having problems when the medallion's

radio signal bounces off smooth metal surfaces and is louder at the sensor down

the corridor than at the sensor right next to you.

 

Were the designers not aware the ship was made of metal, when they started the project?

 

They should have just asked here...

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I completely agree with the various comments. I didn’t mean to imply it was only to track what the passengers do but it helps to have them buy that $12 drink if no need for them to do anything but order. There are many uses for it to more easily part them from their money. Speaking of Facebook do you suppose Princess can sell the individual data they obtain to advertisers etc?

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Yes we were on the 2-day preview and at that ***** presentation - this was actually captured on video and can be watched online

 

Yep, that's the guy. He was like the husband sitting on the end of the bed on the wedding night telling her how good it was going to be.;p

 

We commented during his talk about the fact we had heard all this kinda talk before and then they move on to the next opportunity/target.

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