Princess Removed OM Designation on Website ...

I was just poking around the Plan a Cruise area of the website. Found it interesting that Princess has removed the blue Ocean Medallion Cruises banner from the cruise listings for the Royal and the Caribbean Princess sailings. Depending on ship, this is at least thru mid-March or end-April.

It would seem that the rollout is experiencing more burps than anticipated. Well, and I'm guessing Princess is getting tired of fielding calls requesting OBC for not getting the ***** thingie.

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My April 1st on the Regal still shows as a Medallion cruise. Hope its not an April Fools joke.

My April 1st on the Regal still shows as a Medallion cruise. Hope its not an April Fools joke.

I looked only st the Royal and Cafibbean ships ... those were to have been ***** at the start of 2018. Didn't pay attention to the Regal at all, as that already is a work in progress.

I looked only st the Royal and Cafibbean ships ... those were to have been ***** at the start of 2018. Didn't pay attention to the Regal at all, as that already is a work in progress.

Regal was changed from Ocean Medallion to Ocean Preview for the Jan. and Feb. cruises. March still shows Ocean Medallion

I'm booked on the March 18 Circle Caribbean on Caribbean Princess. I just looked at the cruise (did a regular search for cruises on the Princess site) and it is still showing the blue "Ocean Medallion Vacation" banner. I certainly hope that doesn't change as I am looking forward to trying the new system.

I also notice that the cheapest balcony is now $1,100 more per person than the price we booked. We also booked under the Sip and Sail promo so not only is our balcony costing $2,200 less we also have the PBP. Holy cow!

It appears, Thrak, that yours is the first ***** sailing on the Caribbean Princess. Wasn't it to start sooner on that ship? I think the Royal was slated to start just after the New Year ... now not til April, I think.

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Went back and searched cruises on the Royal through January 2019 ... no Medallion cruises. And I know it was to have stsrted before our Februzry 2018 sailing ... all very interesting, to say the least.

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I was just poking around the Plan a Cruise area of the website. Found it interesting that Princess has removed the blue Ocean Medallion Cruises banner from the cruise listings for the Royal and the Caribbean Princess sailings. Depending on ship, this is at least thru mid-March or end-April.

 

It would seem that the rollout is experiencing more burps than anticipated. Well, and I'm guessing Princess is getting tired of fielding calls requesting OBC for not getting the ***** thingie.

 

Removal of banner could be an indication that it may take time to resolve the issues.

Wow, thanks PMS!

I thought I was observant, but no................................. I have two Royal cruises booked as ***** Cruises, one 03/2018 and one 10/2018 and both have the ***** designation removed now!!!!!!! Guess I will be calling Princess tomorrow to find out what is going on. My guess they are getting tired of giving out OBC!!!! But will give it the ole try. I mean, I was thinking all would be well by March!

Pooh

Our 4/27/19 cruise on the Royal was advertised as an Ocean Medallion cruise when we booked it but now that designation is gone when you search for it under Plan a Cruise. It sounds like they don’t think they’ll have all the bugs worked out by even then!

Wow, thanks PMS!

 

I thought I was observant, but no................................. I have two Royal cruises booked as ***** Cruises, one 03/2018 and one 10/2018 and both have the ***** designation removed now!!!!!!! Guess I will be calling Princess tomorrow to find out what is going on. My guess they are getting tired of giving out OBC!!!! But will give it the ole try. I mean, I was thinking all would be well by March!

 

Pooh

Hi Pooh,

Would you mind reporting back what you find out about the Royal?

Thanks!

If anyone has a picture from the princess website that shows a royal cruise in March of 18 with the medallion banner please post it. They are now denying it was a medallion cruise

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If anyone has a picture from the princess website that shows a royal cruise in March of 18 with the medallion banner please post it. They are now denying it was a medallion cruise

 

 

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I wish I kept a photo. Used to show our Royal cruise as Ocean Medallion in Cruise Persinakizer but now it does not.

I found this link to a press release which show some the Royal was supposed to roll out then Ocean Medallion in January 2018. http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=140690&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=2283431. Maybe this will help?

My cruise on the CB for 11th April 2018 is still showing as an ***** cruise. My TA contacted Princess a few days ago, as I was not sure whether the medallions would be sent out to me in Spain, where post is very erratic. She was told I would probably have to get them at checkin.

It appears, Thrak, that yours is the first ***** sailing on the Caribbean Princess. Wasn't it to start sooner on that ship? I think the Royal was slated to start just after the New Year ... now not til April, I think.

 

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Nope. The first Medallion cruise for Caribbean Princess was always scheduled for March 18, 2018. I knew we were taking our chances as far as the crew and ship being ready for the Medallion but we (or at least "I") have been really looking forward to trying it out.

I got two emails yesterday from Princess. The first one was wishing me a happy birthday and the second was telling me that our cabin was not selected for the medallion on our Feb 25th voyage. Thanks a lot. We picked this voyage with the thought that after 4 months of ringing the system out we would have a real good chance of enjoying the ***** experience.......but noooo!

Looks like we have to still go since our deposit is non-refundable and our cancellation would cost half of the fare. At least we go to the one port in Jamaica that we haven't been to and enjoy watching the chosen few that have their medallion thingies. :p

We are booked on the Royal for January 29th and when I booked it last weekend, it showed ***** for the voyage and I was excited!! I had already loaded the Ocean Ready app and signed up for the account. Then this morning when I tried to login, it showed that there were no itineraries available for ***** on my bookings. And there it is, no ***** on our cruise it seems.

I had wondered how that would work. I know it has to be extremely expensive to make and mail out all of these Medallions. I guess we will have to wait for another cruise in the future to check it out. Oh well.....it will still be an amazing voyage!

"We booked a 20 day cruise on the Royal Princess for February of 2018 as soon as the schedules for that month were available. We try to always cruise in February and we like the Royal Princess very much. I don't recall if our cruise was advertised as an Ocean Medallion cruise at the time we booked it. It would have made no difference in our selection of that cruise if it had been so advertised. We book cruises based solely upon the season, itinerary, and ship.

Once we became aware that the Royal would begin its Ocean Medallion roll out a couple of weeks before our cruise we were hoping that we would not be inconvenienced by any bugs in a new technology system. While we find the ***** concept interesting, we would still be very content with Princess if it never happened.

There is no intent on our part to try to get any onboard credit if we do not get the Medallion on our cruise as we did not book our cruise solely to try out the Ocean Medallion technology.

If anyone has a picture from the princess website that shows a royal cruise in March of 18 with the medallion banner please post it. They are now denying it was a medallion cruise

 

 

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Dear Bill:

Called Princess and got a representative that seemed to know and be informative. Basically it is what we know. They are having a longer time getting the glitches out of the program on the Regal and getting it going. Knowing that, they don't want to go through the disappointed customers for Royal that they do Regal (I translate that into OBC), they have taken the Royal off of the ***** program until things get worked out. For my March, 2018, cruise, the banner was taken off and she agreed by the way, but that doesn't mean that if things turn around and things start moving faster and smoother that the Royal won't be put back online to be ***** cruises. I.E., they have learned from the Regal fiasco. She even reiterated that initially Royal was supposed to go ***** online on January 19th, 2018, so my rep. wasn't denying anything.

Pooh

Basically it is what we know. They are having a longer time getting the glitches out of the program on the Regal and getting it going. Knowing that, they don't want to go through the disappointed customers for Royal that they do Regal

Gee, I just watched this video earlier this week.

In in, John Padgett says it takes a couple weeks in the shipyard to set up the ship,

and then a couple weeks onboard to install the software.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=54667386&postcount=4

I thought the video was current, and it certainly seems like his time estimates are wildly inaccurate.

If there are still folks who won't have medallions in February on Regal, that is way more than

'a couple weeks'...

I found an old press release posted here by one of our posters.

"Medallion Class vacations debut in November aboard the Regal Princess at Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, followed in spring 2018 by the Caribbean Princess. The Royal Princess, which underwent its transition during its dry dock last fall in Paloma, Italy, will make its first Medallion Class voyage in January 2018."

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=52628944&postcount=1

So, Royal was certainly planned for January, 2018, which I think was disputed by a poster here or

in another thread.

First as a retired IT professional, I have little confidence in Princess IT group. Therefore while they are using a different group (contractors?) to implement the *****, I have the same non-level of confidence in them as well. It appears I have not been far off with my assessment. The ***** is a major shift for the ship in many ways. I always have expected glitches from my own experience. However it is now appearing that they over promised (no surprise here) and are under delivering this new technology. I will believe it when I see it actually working. In the meantime Princess is sitting there with egg all over their face.

We are scheduled on the CB the end of next year. I am not counting on ***** being installed and working.

Just found out today that our Royal Cruises are no longer going to be Ocean Medallion. We booked four legs (40 days). I blog and booked these dates to write about the roll out. Now although I am disappointed it won't ruin my cruise. What is frustrating is that we find this out two days after final payment has gone thru for the last day. So we are locked in.

As Carnival investors I am disappointed in the whole roll out and what a fiasco it has been.

Sure problems arise but this has been one thing after another. I love Princess but it is really putting a sour taste on how things are happening.

I almost think Princess should just automatically apply the on board credit to ALL cruises that were told would be Ocean Ready and are not. This would return faith in Princess and how they are rolling this out.

my two cents

Vickie

Just found out today that our Royal Cruises are no longer going to be Ocean Medallion. We booked four legs (40 days). I blog and booked these dates to write about the roll out. Now although I am disappointed it won't ruin my cruise. What is frustrating is that we find this out two days after final payment has gone thru for the last day. So we are locked in.

 

As Carnival investors I am disappointed in the whole roll out and what a fiasco it has been.

 

Sure problems arise but this has been one thing after another. I love Princess but it is really putting a sour taste on how things are happening.

 

I almost think Princess should just automatically apply the on board credit to ALL cruises that were told would be Ocean Ready and are not. This would return faith in Princess and how they are rolling this out.

 

my two cents

Vickie

Agree with your comments completely... We are on a sailing in Feb 2018 and made our payment yesterday before noticing that the ***** references were removed. I called Princess and was told to call back between 9am and 5pm PST Monday as they didn't know why the Royal was removed from ***** and there wasn't anyone available that could address my concern. ODD! Needless to say I will be calling back on Monday.

Agree wholeheartedly with satxdiver and vickie_bernie above.

Princess needs to circle their wagons, strategize a policy for pax booked on a now non-***** sailing ... and apply it without peeps having to call over and over til they get satisfaction. Well, and the answer Grumpy69 got is totally unacceptable. Whether everyone is empowered to hand out OBC isn't so much the issue as is the "I know nothing" answer. There needs to be a standard and clear response to queries.

We were on the Regal that ended in FLL on 05 NOV and you could tell from the vibe on the ship that the ***** rollout was going to have serious problems. We are currently on the Royal and the ***** is a dead issue and not talked about as if it almost doesn’t exist. The captain did make a passing comment during the captains circle party that the “***** will happen sometime in the future”.

There may be ***** contractors onboard but we don’t see them. Last spring when we were on the Royal for a 38 day cruise they were all over the place laying wire for the *****. In the next fourteen months we have 82 days scheduled on the Royal and they might all be ***** free. I would think that the Regal would have to be 100% ***** and operating at a high level before they even look at the Royal.

I wonder what the trade publications are saying about the series of setbacks with the ***** rollout? I would think some key people responsible for the ***** rollout would lose their jobs.