Do I have to get a Medallion?

[memoak]

1 minute ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

I use the elbow for that. No additional hand needed, like it's needed to grip the card and take it out of the pocket.

Tried that and spilled coffee all over my hand

[CruzDayz]

I really like this one that I found on Amazon. This is so much easier, I don’t miss the key card at all. 
It’s a dog collar holder. 

 

Edited February 12 by CruzDayz

[Thrak]

2 hours ago, memoak said:

We have clips and I just stick them in my pocket my wife clips it to her bag since she doesn’t have pockets in most of her clothes 

 

Same here. We both have clips but I just stick it in my pocket. My wife clips hers on and it works well for both of us. Whenever I leave the cabin I do "the check": Medallion, Glasses, Phone, Fly... 🤪

Edited February 12 by Thrak

[IndyKid]

13 minutes ago, memoak said:

So if people are moving around they have to chase you down. That is why I see servers calling out names in the piazza for people who decided to go someplace else. Even for a coffee they could have gotten just by standing in line for a few minutes

We used it only for those times when we weren't near a bar such as the buffet or in our room. We would not leave until our drinks arrived,  so that they wouldn't have to chase us down. 

[memoak]

25 minutes ago, IndyKid said:

We used it only for those times when we weren't near a bar such as the buffet or in our room. We would not leave until our drinks arrived,  so that they wouldn't have to chase us down. 

Looking at posts that people waited 15 minutes or more for a drink delivery or ont that never showed up it sounds like it would be faster to walk to a bar or in the buffet just ask a server to get one. On our last cruise the few times we ordered wine and beer from a server in the buffet they were delivered in less than 5 minutes 

[Arizona Wildcat]

1 hour ago, Snaxmuppet said:

It may not have revolutionised the cruise experience for the passengers but I think it highly likely that it revolutionised the understanding of passenger movement and activities throughout the ship and that is the real reason the medallion concept was introduced... for the benefit of Princess... not us.

 

I could not cruise on RC... too loud, too brash, too busy, too much to do, too expensive (after paying to do all those things!), too family orientated.

For RC, depends on the cruise.  On TAs and TPs very quiet unless you sought out a loud venue.  Almost no kids.  We Don't pay to do anything much.

Agree the Medallion is a giant yawner 

[CruzDayz]

1 hour ago, memoak said:

Looking at posts that people waited 15 minutes or more for a drink delivery or ont that never showed up it sounds like it would be faster to walk to a bar or in the buffet just ask a server to get one. On our last cruise the few times we ordered wine and beer from a server in the buffet they were delivered in less than 5 minutes 

I liked it for ordering drinks at Super Bowl. It was a little slow but the place was packed. Fun day. 😊🏈

[Outerdog]

2 hours ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

really? On my cruises it always listed all the names. 

 

They stopped showing last names on the screens recently. Like within the last few months, maybe a little more.

[SCX22]

2 hours ago, Snaxmuppet said:

I could not cruise on RC... too loud, too brash, too busy, too much to do, too expensive (after paying to do all those things!), too family orientated.

 

Try Celebrity, especially the Edge Class ships.  Still part of RC Group, but more mature audience.  Still tries to push the limits and break out of the box like RC.

[charliedalrymple]

I am a tech dinosaur and was very skeptical of the medallion before taking my first post-COVID cruise in December.  After two weeks of using it, I found it very useful once I got used to it and much prefer the medallion (and yes, even the app) to the old key cards. Even old dogs can learn new tricks sometimes.

[karatemom2]

Ultimately, regardless of what your preference may be, Princess has made this transition to the medallion for all onboard access and services. If it is something that you feel strongly about to the point where you just don't want to use it, perhaps Princess isn't a good fit. In fairness to the crew and other passengers who have made the adjustment to the new system, is it really fair to expect that an outdated mechanism like the card should be provided just because one doesn't like the new protocols? As someone pointed out, the check in and check out process when coming onto or exiting the ship is all driven by scanning medallions now - a card would potentially slow everyone down, inconveniencing staff and fellow passengers. It creates issues at the stores, bars and other onboard venues where they are either picking up or scanning your medallion and aren't set up to scan a card any longer. At some point, you need to either accept how the service offered by a vendor has evolved or seek out alternate vendors that offer the product that you prefer. But insisting that they continue to provide a square peg while the entire service has moved on to a round hole seems an effort in frustration and hardly conducive to a relaxing vacation.

[SCX22]

7 minutes ago, karatemom2 said:

As someone pointed out, the check in and check out process when coming onto or exiting the ship is all driven by scanning medallions now - a card would potentially slow everyone down, inconveniencing staff and fellow passengers. It creates issues at the stores, bars and other onboard venues where they are either picking up or scanning your medallion and aren't set up to scan a card any longer.

 

The NFID readers can scan both Medallions and cards.  There is actually a longer delay in getting the  Medallions to register than cards.  I used cards almost exclusively until late last year.

[ontheweb]

3 hours ago, donaldsc said:

 

Almost never.

 

DON

At home sometimes, for instance coming home from the grocery store, but on a cruise, never.

[Torfamm]

5 hours ago, memoak said:

Remember in the old days we had keys to our cabins that actually had the cabin number printed on it

Keys on big, in fact gigantic, key rings!  I do not miss those at all. I am sure that there were people who thought key cards were a silly idea that would never catch on. Having to remember your room number really was a huge change.

 

So many things that seem perfectly routine today were huge adjustments for a lot of people. The whole idea of just having an electronic airline ticket seemed crazy when it was introduced 30 years ago. The idea of not having a paper ticket made lots of us nervous.

 

Today almost everyone has adapted to online check-in for cruises, purchasing shore excursions etc.  I think all the resistance to using apps isn't much different from when we were all first expected to use websites.

Edited February 13 by Torfamm

[Torfamm]

5 hours ago, memoak said:

I don’t get the connection of the medallion and the app. The medallion opens your door, lets you charge products, gamble and get on and off the ship. The app lets you see menus, orders some beverages and food be delivered, see you folio etc. I don’t see how the they are connected. You could have the app and a cruise card and there would be no difference except for the locating of shipmates

There would also be no ability to have food delivered to wherever you might be or for staff to find you to follow up on a concern or offer you something special.

[Wanderfully]

Interesting question Indykid. What other cruise lines have changed to Medallion type service instead of key cards? 

I realize of course they all have apps. But how many switched away from key cards and which lines?

[startedwithamouse]

58 minutes ago, Wanderfully said:

Interesting question Indykid. What other cruise lines have changed to Medallion type service instead of key cards? I realize of course they all have apps. But how many switched away from key cards and which lines?

Which cruise line was the first to use key cards?  Did others follow or are any still using metal keys?

 

Medallion is just the first to do this. If the cruise lines didn't have a 1.5 year pause for a global pandemic, and their stocks were higher than pre pandemic levels, you'd see more invest in the rollout of the Magic Band technology. 

[startedwithamouse]

7 hours ago, SCX22 said:

The find your shipmates feature to me is superfluous, most people always have phones with them so all everyone has to do is get on the messaging App and send texts to each other.

And the other person would need to be answering their phone or texts. 

 

Medallion lets you locate them in real time, without disturbing them. 

 

If someone says I'm in the DaVinci restaurant, okay, but where? Medallion lets you know exactly where they are.

 

The Princess Theatre, Vista Lounge, Explorers Lounge - the dot will be in the exact place the person/people you are looking for are. 

 

[SCX22]

4 minutes ago, startedwithamouse said:

And the other person would need to be answering their phone or texts. 

 

Medallion lets you locate them in real time, without disturbing them. 

 

If someone says I'm in the DaVinci restaurant, okay, but where? Medallion lets you know exactly where they are.

 

The Princess Theatre, Vista Lounge, Explorers Lounge - the dot will be in the exact place the person/people you are looking for are. 

 

Makes me wonder how people function off Princess ships.  Are people this helpless?

[startedwithamouse]

7 hours ago, SCX22 said:

The Medallion will unlock your cabin door but, you have to be extremely lazy to not want to pull out a key in what ever form to unlock a door.  If you're too lazy to do that, just get rid of the locks all together. 

 

So this woman in the Princess Cruises brochure is extremely lazy?

 

 

[SCX22]

3 minutes ago, startedwithamouse said:

 

So this woman in the Princess Cruises brochure is extremely lazy?

 

 

What happens is she’s on another cruise line.  She’s so helpless that she can’t open her door? What happens if she has her hands full at home and is trying to unlock open her front door?

Edited February 13 by SCX22

[CruzDayz]

1 hour ago, startedwithamouse said:

 

So this woman in the Princess Cruises brochure is extremely lazy?

 

 

Haha, I put a napkin over my plate of assorted cookies. 😊

[SCX22]

1 hour ago, startedwithamouse said:

Medallion is just the first to do this. If the cruise lines didn't have a 1.5 year pause for a global pandemic, and their stocks were higher than pre pandemic levels, you'd see more invest in the rollout of the Magic Band technology. 

 

This is really getting to the crux of my peeve with the Medallion.  This technology is costing Princess money.  Let's be generous in saying that a cruise card has a total cost of 25 cents to Princess (probably less since they are buying in bulk).  Let's be conservative and go with the figure proposed earlier in this thread that a Medallion has a total cost of $1.25 to Princess (if you factor in the stickers, lanyards, and packaging for the ship to home order, probably more).  By switching back to a cruise card Princess saves 500% per passenger on cruise IDs.  They also only have to maintain IT services for the App (no problem with Princess having an App as all cruise lines have them) and not the ancillary App technology that goes with the Medallion; another cost savings.  With all the cost savings maybe Princess can use the money to make Alfredo's free an unlimited to all passengers again.

 

Princess already only has a finite number of monetary resources and I don't think the Medallion is a good use of what they have.

 

There's a YouTube video titled "The $2,000,000,000 Mistake of MyMagic+" which outlined the problem with the Disney MagicBands.  The problems presented, IMO, extend to the Medallion.

[memoak]

4 hours ago, Torfamm said:

There would also be no ability to have food delivered to wherever you might be or for staff to find you to follow up on a concern or offer you something special.

I have never used delivery or room service on board except for being quarantined for Covid 

 

[MacMadame]

9 hours ago, SCX22 said:

The Medallion will unlock your cabin door but, you have to be extremely lazy to not want to pull out a key in what ever form to unlock a door. 

That's me! Unapologicly lazy. I'm on vacation and I want to be lazy. I hate rooting through my purse to find my hotel key and open my door. Especially if it takes more than a few tries.

 

I look forward to not having to do that on my cruise. And ordering a cold drink and a snack from anywhere while I'm at it.

 

8 hours ago, SCX22 said:

The removal of locks was hyperbole to drive home my point.

It's just the Slippery Slope fallacy.

 

7 hours ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

I use the elbow for that. No additional hand needed, like it's needed to grip the card and take it out of the pocket.

Hips work too!

 

2 hours ago, SCX22 said:

Makes me wonder how people function off Princess ships.  Are people this helpless?

why are you determined to convince us to work harder on vacation when we don't have to? 🤣 It's a vacation! If it's easier to find my dh or open my cabin door, I won't complain.

Edited February 13 by MacMadame