Ocean Medallion App - Part 3

[Steelers36]

12 minutes ago, kamelia said:

I would just like an answer to my question as to why THIS app is SUPPOSED to exclusively support certain functions!  Maybe I’m way off base here, but my take on apps is that they are supposed to be an enhancement, not the second half of the equation.  I cannot use the MedallionClass app exclusively to book a Princess cruise from start to finish, and I cannot NOT use the app to complete the cruise from start to finish. 

 

The inanity of it all really hit home yesterday as I was completing details for “the boss” (DH) who’s flying to Canada tomorrow.  He booked his flights on the airline website.  He could have done that on the app, but chose not to.  On his behalf, I completed the ArriveCAN application on the ArriveCAN website, created a PDF file with the requisite QR code that I then printed a copy of as well as emailed to him so he can take a screenshot to have as a secondary back-up.  I returned to the airline website, which has all of his passport information on file, uploaded PDF files of his vaccination card and the ArriveCAN QR code, and printed off his boarding passes.  He will be able to get there and back without having to upload ANY app to do so.  He COULD, if he chose, upload the airline app, and have the enhanced ability to track his checked bag, be able to access a map with step-by-step instructions to get from his arrival gate to the next departure gate, or even to watch in-flight tv shows or movies, but he doesn’t need any of these functions.  I also thought it was telling that I could upload his credit card and authorize the airline to keep it on file in case he decides to order food or drinks during the flight, but at no time did that require me to authorize the food service company to keep his credit card information in their files. 

 

With the exception of the MedallionClass app, there is not a single app on any of my devices that precludes me from getting done what I want to get done without that app.  If anyone can help me understand how the designers of the MedallionClass app can justify this half-apped approach, I would be sincerely grateful!  🥴

Right on!!!

[Userclown]

1 hour ago, kamelia said:

I would just like an answer to my question as to why THIS app is SUPPOSED to exclusively support certain functions!  Maybe I’m way off base here, but my take on apps is that they are supposed to be an enhancement, not the second half of the equation.  I cannot use the MedallionClass app exclusively to book a Princess cruise from start to finish, and I cannot NOT use the app to complete the cruise from start to finish. 

 

The inanity of it all really hit home yesterday as I was completing details for “the boss” (DH) who’s flying to Canada tomorrow.  He booked his flights on the airline website.  He could have done that on the app, but chose not to.  On his behalf, I completed the ArriveCAN application on the ArriveCAN website, created a PDF file with the requisite QR code that I then printed a copy of as well as emailed to him so he can take a screenshot to have as a secondary back-up.  I returned to the airline website, which has all of his passport information on file, uploaded PDF files of his vaccination card and the ArriveCAN QR code, and printed off his boarding passes.  He will be able to get there and back without having to upload ANY app to do so.  He COULD, if he chose, upload the airline app, and have the enhanced ability to track his checked bag, be able to access a map with step-by-step instructions to get from his arrival gate to the next departure gate, or even to watch in-flight tv shows or movies, but he doesn’t need any of these functions.  I also thought it was telling that I could upload his credit card and authorize the airline to keep it on file in case he decides to order food or drinks during the flight, but at no time did that require me to authorize the food service company to keep his credit card information in their files. 

 

With the exception of the MedallionClass app, there is not a single app on any of my devices that precludes me from getting done what I want to get done without that app.  If anyone can help me understand how the designers of the MedallionClass app can justify this half-apped approach, I would be sincerely grateful!  🥴

PPP! Plain and simple!

[supaflyrobby]

I just got off the Discovery Princess on Sunday and I must say that the Medallion was one of the more frustrating aspects of the cruise. It seemed to only work intermittently, though my wife's seemed to work just fine. After waiting in line at guest services for an eternity due to frustration, they took it off my band and the employee took it to the back to supposedly "reset" the device. It then worked fine for about a day until I had to disembark and then it refused to turn the reader green yet again. They looked up my room number and let me off the ship anyway, but it was still annoying. 

 

As a concept, I think the Medallions are a fine idea, and likely represents a nice step forward for the industry, but like anything else in life a novel idea is only valuable if it works. Clearly this is not the case as I spoke with several other people with identical problems. 

[WAvoyager]

10 hours ago, kamelia said:

I would just like an answer to my question as to why THIS app is SUPPOSED to exclusively support certain functions!  Maybe I’m way off base here, but my take on apps is that they are supposed to be an enhancement, not the second half of the equation.  I cannot use the MedallionClass app exclusively to book a Princess cruise from start to finish, and I cannot NOT use the app to complete the cruise from start to finish. 

 

 

One thing to keep in mind is that apps have to peacefully coexist with many, many other apps on a device which may have very limited storage space.

 

Adding in more features means increasing the apps storage requirements.  The additional complexity also means more difficulty (cost) to maintain the app over time.

 

So designers need to look carefully at the features which get built into any app - otherwise they’re doing a great disservice to their users and their stakeholders.

 

I won’t try to justify why Princess chose to include/exclude specific features - there’s a lot of work that goes into those decisions.  I will say that the app appears to be aimed at supporting primarily those features you would need to do once onboard the ship.  I’ve always wondered why they included the pre-boarding checklist items on the app.  But I can see how the other features all logically tie together - and how other features wouldn’t make sense to add.

 

As far as not being able to do things outside the app - everything can be done without the app - either by calling in, at the gate, or once you get onboard.  It would be helpful if they had an alternate electronic method (website)  for doing these things, but I’m guessing it was a cost/resource issue.  Once they decided what was going in the app, making it unavailable on the website means they no longer have to spend time/effort updating the website - and the fallback is still he in person process.

 

Definitely not ideal, but every company deals with those trade offs.  Princess just made some questionable decisions.

Edited June 8, 2022 by WAvoyager

[WAvoyager]

removing duplicate

Edited June 8, 2022 by WAvoyager

[AF-1]

When Medallion program was lunched three years ago;  I think Princess should have started small.  Have the medallion app open cabin door and allowing you to get on and off the ship.  Once that worked to perfection they should have looked at adding one or two additional features such as ordering food and drinks and buying items in gift shop.  Once all that worked they could expand.  Like I mentioned in my post# 3371,  there are plenty of third party apps on my Iphone that work great.

[AF-1]

kamelia;  thank you for your detailed response.  I appreciate your answer

[Tedferg]

4 hours ago, AF-1 said:

When Medallion program was lunched three years ago;  I think Princess should have started small.  Have the medallion app open cabin door and allowing you to get on and off the ship.  Once that worked to perfection they should have looked at adding one or two additional features such as ordering food and drinks and buying items in gift shop.  Once all that worked they could expand.  Like I mentioned in my post# 3371,  there are plenty of third party apps on my Iphone that work great.

Absolutely and don't take away the previous web based system before the App is thoroughly tested.

[Userclown]

18 hours ago, WAvoyager said:

One thing to keep in mind is that apps have to peacefully coexist with many, many other apps on a device which may have very limited storage space.

 

Adding in more features means increasing the apps storage requirements.  The additional complexity also means more difficulty (cost) to maintain the app over time.

 

So designers need to look carefully at the features which get built into any app - otherwise they’re doing a great disservice to their users and their stakeholders.

 

I won’t try to justify why Princess chose to include/exclude specific features - there’s a lot of work that goes into those decisions.  I will say that the app appears to be aimed at supporting primarily those features you would need to do once onboard the ship.  I’ve always wondered why they included the pre-boarding checklist items on the app.  But I can see how the other features all logically tie together - and how other features wouldn’t make sense to add.

 

As far as not being able to do things outside the app - everything can be done without the app - either by calling in, at the gate, or once you get onboard.  It would be helpful if they had an alternate electronic method (website)  for doing these things, but I’m guessing it was a cost/resource issue.  Once they decided what was going in the app, making it unavailable on the website means they no longer have to spend time/effort updating the website - and the fallback is still he in person process.

 

Definitely not ideal, but every company deals with those trade offs.  Princess just made some questionable decisions.

Very informative. Thanks for your input.

[WAvoyager]

2 hours ago, Tedferg said:

Absolutely and don't take away the previous web based system before the App is thoroughly tested.

My guess is that :

 

1) they planned for the app to handle everything it does today

 

2) they planned for some redundancy between the app and the web portal functionality

 

3) Athena pandemic hit, impacting engineering resources, productivity, and availability

 

4) difficulties arose with synching data between ships, app, portal

 

5) they made a decision to focus resources on the app and shipboard development, and eliminate redundant web portal functionality 

 

6) things have proven to be more difficult than expected (that never happens to anyone!), leading to ongoing firefighting

 

 

Although there is the possibility that everyone driving this program are inept, I really think there are other, unexpected wrenches which impacted Princesses plans.  Once you make certain decisions, it’s really hard, if not impossible, to course correct.  25 years of doing this stuff makes me a bit more empathetic to what they might be experiencing.

[kamelia]

Thank you both @AF-1 and @WAvoyager for weighing in on my post #3375!  I keep hoping that the MedallionClass app will finally perform as promised, but over the past 13 months it has been an exercise in perpetual frustration for me.  As a huge fan of Princess Cruises, it concerns me that there are new(er) cruisers who will not be so willing to stick with the growing pains.  

[HleeCruiser]

I have seen reports that the pricing for the internet for Elite level passengers is available at a net price of 50% off.  But when I access the app the price is at full amount of $10 per day not the discounted price of $5.00.  How do I access the Elite discounted price?  Thanks

[Denverite]

1 hour ago, HleeCruiser said:

I have seen reports that the pricing for the internet for Elite level passengers is available at a net price of 50% off.  But when I access the app the price is at full amount of $10 per day not the discounted price of $5.00.  How do I access the Elite discounted price?  Thanks

I have the same problem. Seems the app is recognizing me as a new cruiser with blue banner above the QR code and tiny blue medallion next to photo on the app. It should be black. I have used the Princess chat function twice to no avail and called the ocean medallion help line. They had no clue. Said it would be escalated to supervisor. We leave in 45 days. If no luck we will just purchase at regular rate and get OBC for the reduced rate. Good luck!

[HleeCruiser]

18 minutes ago, Denverite said:

I have the same problem. Seems the app is recognizing me as a new cruiser with blue banner above the QR code and tiny blue medallion next to photo on the app. It should be black. I have used the Princess chat function twice to no avail and called the ocean medallion help line. They had no clue. Said it would be escalated to supervisor. We leave in 45 days. If no luck we will just purchase at regular rate and get OBC for the reduced rate. Good luck!

I was not aware of the color of the medallion by the photo.  Will take a look.  When we were on the Enchanted Princess in January we paid full price and received a refundable OBC for the difference.

 

 

[Tedferg]

1 hour ago, HleeCruiser said:

I have seen reports that the pricing for the internet for Elite level passengers is available at a net price of 50% off.  But when I access the app the price is at full amount of $10 per day not the discounted price of $5.00.  How do I access the Elite discounted price?  Thanks

Some say they had to wait until onboard or if they prepurchase they would get OBC once onboard

[WAvoyager]

On 6/9/2022 at 11:26 AM, kamelia said:

Thank you both @AF-1 and @WAvoyager for weighing in on my post #3375!  I keep hoping that the MedallionClass app will finally perform as promised, but over the past 13 months it has been an exercise in perpetual frustration for me.  As a huge fan of Princess Cruises, it concerns me that there are new(er) cruisers who will not be so willing to stick with the growing pains.  

yeah - sadly I think they’ve really shot themselves in the foot on this one.  It’s understandable how they may have gotten where they are, with the pandemic, mass resignations, no revenue, etc.  But it’s really inexcusable, and will no doubt lead to many lost customers.

 

of course the same can be said for the Alaska cruises on the Crown, Celebrity’s unexpected cruise cancellations so ships can go in for “planned maintenance”,  or Virgin cancelling sailings due to delayed launch of their new ship.  Very few things are working the way they’re supposed to right now.  Some things may have been preventable, but many not.

[grak]

My booked cruise changed ships. The medallion app doesn’t reflect the new booking. I’ve tried accessing with the new booking number but won’t allow me….still has old number and says the cruise was cancelled.  Suggestions?

[WAvoyager]

3 minutes ago, grak said:

My booked cruise changed ships. The medallion app doesn’t reflect the new booking. I’ve tried accessing with the new booking number but won’t allow me….still has old number and says the cruise was cancelled.  Suggestions?

Have you tried linking your new booking in the app?  It may show up on its own eventually, but you can try linking it yourself.

 

Go into the app, click on your profile picture (upper left corner), and then click on the “+” symbol under “My Journeys” (left side)

[grak]

Thanks…I’ll give that a try.

[Grislap]

1 hour ago, grak said:

My booked cruise changed ships. The medallion app doesn’t reflect the new booking. I’ve tried accessing with the new booking number but won’t allow me….still has old number and says the cruise was cancelled.  Suggestions?

This happened to me, although I don't believe my app said the old cruise was cancelled. Instead, it kept the old booking number and the cancelled ship. This was last September, when Princess cancelled the Sapphire for our Alaska cruise and replaced it with the Royal. 

First the bad news (followed by much better news). Between September and early May (our cruise began May 28) I tried chats, emails and phone calls. In fact I had three phone calls that lasted three hours each. Every time I left with the sense they would fix it. When they made it possible to put key information into the web version of the personalizer, I was able to get all the key documents uploaded. The website had my correct booking number and ship, but even the website personalizer did not, so I couldn't order the medallion because it had the expired booking number and ship attached to it. Finally, just in time to order the medallion, they did indeed at least correct that. But my phone app still showed the old booking number and ship when we showed up at the terminal in Vancouver on May 28. I was concerned this could cause a major problem.

They pointed us to the corner counter, where someone worked with technical issues. It took about twenty minutes of him trying things and working with their tech people in Florida. Finally, it was fixed, and we were able to board.

 

So the very good news? They'll fix it at the terminal. It wasn't worth all the wasted hours I put into trying to get it fixed ahead of time. We just brought copies of all the key documents, and at the gate they finally had someone who knew what he was doing. Why in the world couldn't they have solved this in twenty minutes months ago, I'll never know, but if this happens to us again I'll know it's not worth worrying about, and will spend more of that time getting excited for the trip. 

[Summerdaze33]

We are booked on a Princess cruise that departs in 2 weeks. However, I cannot get the Medallion App to allow me to choose our boarding time. It just keeps saying we have to wait until closer to departure.

How much closer to departure do you have to be? Their online help only tells me that I should keep trying, that I should uninstall and reinstall app, re-login, .... nothing helpful.

Has anyone else experienced this issue with the Medallion App? When have you been able to choose your boarding time? TIA

[PacnGoNow]

4 hours ago, grak said:

My booked cruise changed ships. The medallion app doesn’t reflect the new booking. I’ve tried accessing with the new booking number but won’t allow me….still has old number and says the cruise was cancelled.  Suggestions?

How long ago did your ship change?

If it just happened give the app about

2-3 days to correct itself.

 

Does it read correctly on the website?

Check your booking and the travel summary…does that look correct?

 

If its been more than 3 days, then I would contact the IT team for help.  Tell them

your full name

booking number

sail date and new ship

 

Explain exactly what happened and the app is not reflected correctly.

 

Send an email to:

 

A360ad7@carnival.com
 

Let us know how it turns out.

[insidecabin]

On 6/9/2022 at 11:29 AM, AF-1 said:

When Medallion program was lunched three years ago;  I think Princess should have started small.  Have the medallion app open cabin door and allowing you to get on and off the ship.  Once that worked to perfection they should have looked at adding one or two additional features such as ordering food and drinks and buying items in gift shop.  Once all that worked they could expand.  Like I mentioned in my post# 3371,  there are plenty of third party apps on my Iphone that work great.

 

Those two features are not part of the app they are a separate system that uses the medallion unique  ID( a single number) as the trigger( open door) or bring up your mug shot for security. 

 

Same at the bars the medallion  just sticks a number into the POS system that brigs up your account(they could type in the number or just use cabin number)  it has nothing to do with the app.

 

[JF - retired RRT]

16 hours ago, Summerdaze33 said:

We are booked on a Princess cruise that departs in 2 weeks. However, I cannot get the Medallion App to allow me to choose our boarding time. It just keeps saying we have to wait until closer to departure.

How much closer to departure do you have to be? Their online help only tells me that I should keep trying, that I should uninstall and reinstall app, re-login, .... nothing helpful.

Has anyone else experienced this issue with the Medallion App? When have you been able to choose your boarding time? TIA

Just show up when you're ready...they won't refuse you boarding just because you don't have a boarding time. Do what you can with the app and then forget about it.

I can't get DMW to respond. Oh well. I'll figure it out when I'm on the ship.

[ElmaLee]

I have the app on both Android and Apple devices.  I’ve paid the balance of my cruise so I should be able to make dining reservations.  Android device says Dine My Way not available - check back later.  Apple version allows me to make reservations.