New Unveiling Announcement Coming August 25

[transam84]

I am excited about the electronic check-in and the enhanced connectivity. The robo-bar does sound cool as well as luggage tracking. I do hope it all comes together and works properly, although I am sure it will not be without incident. We all know how unpredictable technology can be. :rolleyes: We will be on the Nov 18 sailing of quantum and it should be interesting to say the least. The ship looks amazing, and I am very excited to have the opportunity to be on the first sailing out of Bayonne. :D

[Irene7]

Sounds like they just stole Disney's MagicBand and changed the name to WOWband.

__________________

UCF_Knight

 

 

That was my first thought as well! Virtual technology and now this.

[Mich455]

Personally don't like the idea of having to wear a blue band but like the look of everything else. Especially the robot bar

 

 

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[Kosi]

Very Neat!

[Kosi]

I too would worry being on some of the first cruises out.. I bet there are a lot of problems with all the technology things.. anyway. Though.. once it is down.. how great it will be! Hope it is all worked out for end of Jan!

[fred30]

You can be sure there will be some sort of a check-in. This will probably be were they will give us our SeaPass or Bands. With the photo, paperwork and credit info already completed in advance hopefully all they will have to do is verify we look like our photo and give us our ID.

 

Prior to this we will still have to go through the scanners as is done on all cruises.

Edited August 25, 2014 by fred30

[EatSleepCruise]

I though today's announcements actually provide some of us eager QOS cruisers with some new information.

 

I am most excited about the wearable technology. Disney has had the magic bands for a while and they work great. I wonder how they will work with things like the drink package?

 

Also, internet at sea is huge, especially for us CCers. Streaming and posting video while sailing the Caribbean, count me in!

[UCF_Knight]

An example of Royal Caribbean's incompetence which makes me wonder why they are trying to be have a "smart ship" when the rest of the company is so "technology dumb":

 

At 11:23 AM EDT today I received the following email:

"Join now! Our next Quantum reveal starts at 10am EST"

 

 

A few problems there:

a. The email was sent after the event was over

b. The email said the event started at 10am EST, when it was 10 am EDT (9 am EST)

c. The link inside the email redirected to "http://quantumoftheseas.royalcaribbean.com/quantumoftheseas/"

Unfortunately, that address can't be resolved by DNS. Tried on both my corporate and mobile networks. The site does not have a functioning DNS entry.

Edited August 25, 2014 by UCF_Knight

[koxler]

I love many of the ideas and can't wait to try them out. I'm still waiting to hear the pricing for the internet connectivity. The big question is my mind is whether they can price it at a value that makes me say "Yes". Trust me when I say $0.65 a min isn't what I have in mind. :)

[AttilaTheFun]

An example of Royal Caribbean's incompetence which makes me wonder why they are trying to be have a "smart ship" when the rest of the company is so "technology dumb":

 

At 11:23 AM EDT today I received the following email:

"Join now! Our next Quantum reveal starts at 10am EST"

 

 

A few problems there:

a. The email was sent after the event was over

b. The email said the event started at 10am EST, when it was 10 am EDT (9 am EST)

c. The link inside the email redirected to "http://quantumoftheseas.royalcaribbean.com/quantumoftheseas/"

Unfortunately, that address can't be resolved by DNS. Tried on both my corporate and mobile networks. The site does not have a functioning DNS entry.

 

I had the exact same issue happen, but the email (at least in Gmail) says it was sent at 9:30am, so I'm wondering if it was a Gmail delivery issue of why I got it around 11:30am. The link also did not work for me and I thought the EDT thing was wrong too. Glad I'm not the only one :)

[hcps-osullivax]

Dont want to toot my own horn here, but I am pretty excited about the announcement of the bracelets. I started this thread a little over a year an a half ago discussing how great it would be if RCI decided to use RFID Bands.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1767314

[Steeler Nation At Sea]

You can be sure there will be some sort of a check-in. This will probably be were they will give us our SeaPass or Bands. With the photo, paperwork and credit info already completed in advance hopefully all they will have to do is verify we look like our photo and give us our ID.

 

Prior to this we will still have to go through the scanners as is done on all cruises.

 

Disney mails the magic bands. In fact, with a linked ticket or reservation, you are able to use the same bands over and over on subsequent trips. Amenities that you may have are encoded by date.

 

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[UCF_Knight]

Disney mails the magic bands. In fact, with a linked ticket or reservation, you are able to use the same bands over and over on subsequent trips. Amenities that you may have are encoded by date.

 

Disney sends MagicBands for free for every on-site resort stay and for every annual pass purchased. Doesn't matter if you only stay 1 night for $85 at All Star Sports, every person in the room can customize their MagicBand (both for color and with a name on the inside). They are then shipped out to your house in a real cool box around 30 days before your scheduled stay. They do this for each and every person for each and every resort stay. My family has 6 sets of MagicBands now (1 each for being annual passholders and 5 each for 5 different resort stays).

 

Royal Caribbean looks like they will not be sending any of these WOW Bands out for free, though. I found this on their website:

 

"RFID WOW BANDS

In addition to Royal Caribbean’s traditional SeaPass cards, Quantum of the Seas also features WOWbands. For a nominal fee, these ready‑to‑wear wristbands require just one tap, so you can quickly and efficiently navigate the ship and make onboard purchases, as well as access Royal iQ and staterooms."

 

So sounds like Royal Caribbean is planning on charging a fee for the bands. "Nominal" to them usually means about $20.

 

At Disney, only if you are not an Annual Passholder and you are not staying at a Disney resort do they make you purchase a MagicBand if you want one. Even then, all park tickets now have an RFID chip built in so you don't really need to even have a MagicBand to take advantage of all of the MyMagic+ features. Any park ticket can be used at the tap-to-enter park entry and FastPass return scanners.

 

I wonder if Royal Caribbean will go to RFID based SeaPass cards like Disney has with all of their park admission tickets, or if you have to purchase a WOW Band to take advantage of these new features.

Edited August 25, 2014 by UCF_Knight

[smoosh21]

Disney sends MagicBands for free for every on-site resort stay and for every annual pass purchased. Doesn't matter if you only stay 1 night for $85 at All Star Sports, every person in the room can customize their MagicBand (both for color and with a name on the inside). They are then shipped out to your house in a real cool box around 30 days before your scheduled stay. They do this for each and every person for each and every resort stay. My family has 6 sets of MagicBands now (1 each for being annual passholders and 5 each for 5 different resort stays).

 

Royal Caribbean looks like they will not be sending any of these WOW Bands out for free, though. I found this on their website:

 

"RFID WOW BANDS

In addition to Royal Caribbean’s traditional SeaPass cards, Quantum of the Seas also features WOWbands. For a nominal fee, these ready‑to‑wear wristbands require just one tap, so you can quickly and efficiently navigate the ship and make onboard purchases, as well as access Royal iQ and staterooms."

 

So sounds like Royal Caribbean is planning on charging a fee for the bands. "Nominal" to them usually means about $20.

 

At Disney, only if you are not an Annual Passholder and you are not staying at a Disney resort do they make you purchase a MagicBand if you want one. Even then, all park tickets now have an RFID chip built in so you don't really need to even have a MagicBand to take advantage of all of the MyMagic+ features. Any park ticket can be used at the tap-to-enter park entry and FastPass return scanners.

 

I wonder if Royal Caribbean will go to RFID based SeaPass cards like Disney has with all of their park admission tickets, or if you have to purchase a WOW Band to take advantage of these new features.

 

My guess is that they would. They would have you tap the card against the door lock to get in room versus having a swipe functionality

Transit cards in many cities work this way now.

[UCF_Knight]

My guess is that they would. They would have you tap the card against the door lock to get in room versus having a swipe functionality

Transit cards in many cities work this way now.

 

My guess is they would as well. It wouldn't make much sense for them to put an RFID reader and a magnetic stripe reader on every door lock. However, what "makes sense" isn't always what happens.

[juiceman]

Personally don't like the idea of having to wear a blue band but like the look of everything else. Especially the robot bar

 

 

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In this article it states you can still get a SeaPass card, if you prefer.

 

http://www.seatrade-insider.com/news/news-headlines/quantum-has-robot-bartenders-blazing-fast-broadband-rfid-for-bag-tracking-and-in-place-of-room-keys.html

[Lloyd555]

CruiseDivaNJ on Twitter asked Royal Caribbean what the cost would be and they replied $2.00, and that WOWbands will be available in guests' staterooms and they can complete the purchase at any Royal iQ station.

Edited August 25, 2014 by Lloyd555

[nelblu]

You can be sure there will be some sort of a check-in. This will probably be were they will give us our SeaPass or Bands. With the photo, paperwork and credit info already completed in advance hopefully all they will have to do is verify we look like our photo and give us our ID.

 

Prior to this we will still have to go through the scanners as is done on all cruises.

 

When I check on-line now, you must provide a credit card, but yet they swipe card at pier check-in---makes no sense, and wonder if the same procedure will be followed.

[brfan]

When I check on-line now, you must provide a credit card, but yet they swipe card at pier check-in---makes no sense, and wonder if the same procedure will be followed.

 

When you check in online you only provide the last 4 digits of the credit card so they would need to swipe it unless they change it and you now have to provide the entire credit card number with expiry, etc.

 

Oh and I received the email invitation for the reveal at 4:44 pm...now must find the nearest time machine. :D