Ocean Medallion

I'm beginning to wonder if folks are booking voyages to experience the OM rather than the cruise itself. Yeah, I get it that there is the major disappointment in not having this unique system fully operational.

We had a voyage on the Regal a couple of months ago which was booked when we thought the system would be up and running, but no. Did it spoil our experience? Nope. We just did what we usually do before the OM and had a great time. Our next voyage booked on the Regal Princess is this year's New Year's Eve voyage and we should be able to use the OM then. In the meantime, we have a 10-day on the CB in a couple of weeks and it will be fine.

we 'were' booked on the inaugural b2b - 2b4 days cruises in Nov 2018 - when we got notice that we weren't OM on either and coupled with the cancellation of Grand Turk on the 4 day ( sub to Princess Cay) - we cancelled both for FULL refunds of everything.

booked a 5 day Crown for the same period...

just recently off the Regal (3/25) as the result of a fantastic move over offer from ironicaly a 5 day Crown to Turks which was sold out the week before

Quite honestly, it made 0 difference that we weren't OM on that cruise either as the newness/novelty had worn off for us...

meh

Like many engineering projects, I think the biggest mistake was allowing marketing to enhance the features before the product rolled out. But the system shows promise .. and having a digital ship is the right direction to go. Regal is the focus group, especially since only limited cabins have gone live. And there is always staff as a back-up.

Internet was very good for our entire journey and for a week, 4 devices for $20 a day .. which is higher than I would like, but my son was thrilled to keep up with his iPhone chats (ocean conceirge had a messenger which might allow iPhones to get free messages without the plan .. but not sure). Would be nice if it was free or cheaper, but seems like an essential upgrade for those of us who don't want to come back to work after a week or longer and not know what is going on ... or to not have the ability to weigh in on in progress work ..

We had the non-medallion room with the card needed to keep lights on .. any old hotel key card works really well.

The big digital screens were nice and the kids loved playing the games. The schedules were well organized, touch screens and scroll down for more, to the right to see future on that day and a day tab to see next days activities. And showed the time. I think the ship map one was different from the

The only thing is the app had some missing info, like live links to the maps ..

if they can control lines and even send up kitchen and wait staff to the buffet during peak periods .. great.

We did not have to bring an old cruise card to use on our Royal cruise. The cabin steward already had an old cruise card in the slot when we first embarked.

LOL! I hope you took it with you for next time . We each keep one tucked in with our travel "stuff."

Energy saving technology widely in use across Europe, Latin America and other continents, yet just now coming to America.

In one hotel I was at in Asia when the lights went out (when room key was removed from slot), so did power to all of the room electrical outlets go off including the one that the room fridge was plugged into.

we 'were' booked on the inaugural b2b - 2b4 days cruises in Nov 2018 - when we got notice that we weren't OM on either and coupled with the cancellation of Grand Turk on the 4 day ( sub to Princess Cay) - we cancelled both for FULL refunds of everything.

booked a 5 day Crown for the same period...

just recently off the Regal (3/25) as the result of a fantastic move over offer from ironicaly a 5 day Crown to Turks which was sold out the week before

Quite honestly, it made 0 difference that we weren't OM on that cruise either as the newness/novelty had worn off for us...

meh

We were on the 2-day roll out of the OM on the Regal Princess in November. We had tried to book this voyage weeks before hoping to experience the OM, but the ship was sold out. Our Princess vacation planner called to tell us there were cancellations so we booked it. (Living in south Florida makes these decisions easy couple with the opportunity to go to Nassau made the decision easy.) As result of not having a full rollout of the OM, the TA's canceled all their bookings which left us on board with only about 1,000 other passengers! Nice for us, lousy for our other stockholders. We knew we weren't going to experience the OM since the cabins online where at the forward part of the ship and we had our favorite cabin aft, but the experience of the voyage was great and we had a chance to meet Jan S., Mickey Aronson and have the "run of the ship".
I'm sure we will have the OM experience in December......or else there will be a huge problem with the program.

Restoncruiser-----We will be on the TA with you leaving this weekend. We are not in the preview group and at first were disappointed, but after reading your experience so far I think we may be the lucky ones. We are anxious to see how the OM system onboard is working for those who have it. Regardless, we plan to have a great cruise! See you onboard!

From what I could tell on our April 1-8 Eastern Carribbean, there were few Medallions and the only cabins equipped with the new technology (an iPad type device to replace the scan card and your mailbox) were in the forward section and maybe only on 14 and 15 very furthest section, the only sections I walked through. Did not seem the Medallion people were either giddy with excitement or angry.

Again high speed WiFi was nice .. got a bit slower as more and more people jumped on. Pricing was $10 a day for 1 device, $30 a day for 4, with discount to $20 a day for 4 as you added more days .. so cheaper than advertised in our final few emails. I think my son might have streamed a movie or two, but definitely email and surfing on my phone was pleasant.

My guess is that the OM will never be exciting, unless you like to be called by name or have a drink ready, but maybe it will help with tracking people on the ship to quickly adjust food or number or staff to help say escort people to their seats in theater. With the ship at 3950 people last week, including lots of 3rd and 4th people in bunks, there were still never crowds or lines of any appreciable length, but we did avoid trying to be the first ones off at port.

The WiFi is completely free for elites and platinum, speed difference is like the difference between the old dial up and very fast WiFi. On the Regal in January it was fully operational whereas I would be surprised if the Medallion is operational by the Fall. The WiFi is much more important for the average passenger than the Medallion which is basically a side light and of more interest to the ship than the passengers. Mike

We had OM and were on April 1-8 Eastern Caribbean midship Baja.

We got one free connection with OM for the whole trip by logging in with cabin and birthdate. My son was in a regular cabin and was able to connect without logging in and have access to a few Apps (FB, whatsapp) and iMessage for no charge.


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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

We were on the 2-day roll out of the OM on the Regal Princess in November. We had tried to book this voyage weeks before hoping to experience the OM, 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 OM experience.

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

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 OM line then the OM technology.

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

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
Your friend The Captain,
Tony

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%."

I am on the Regal in 5 weeks. I am pretty sure I will not be selected as I am in an IC gty with no assignment. I am fine with the old tried and true method of using a cruise card... We shall see....

Tracie - Welcome Back! Enjoy your cruise (and watch for my yet-to-be-written email).

Jeannie- I miss you. Can’t wait for an update.

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

what are the remaining 100 doing ?

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 OM and he was a slick talking guy who talked a real good game. .

Yes we were on the 2-day preview and at that OM presentation - this was actually captured on video and can be watched online https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voTqRz9o94E&t=63s