rich_cathybrock

Wow.  Glad to hear the last two made it back onboard.  Sending prayers for the ill passenger and everyone onboard, as well as those on the ground.  

10 minutes ago, beg3yrs said:

It's not the Jones Act. It's the PVSA or Passenger Vessel Services Act. The Jones Act has to do with merchandise / cargo, not people. I suppose after indulging on the ship for too many days some passengers could be considered cargo.

Daggone it!  I knew I had the wrong law. 🙂

Definitely time for another cruise, I am getting rusty! TY for clarifying!

On 1/3/2023 at 6:16 PM, Thrak said:

 

When we book a "B2B" we generally mean we are staying on the same ship for multiple sailings. It seems that the "S2S" means they are changing ships. Even if one has to change staterooms it would be much easier than disembarking, schlepping luggage to another terminal, and then going through another embarkation process. Anyway, that was my take on the post in question.

Correct - I believe S2S is deliberately opted in for either to travel two desirable itineraries during one vacation, or to overcome the arcane US Jones act that will not allow you to remain onboard a ship that starts in one US port and ends in another, as might be the case with two "B2Bs" on the same ship.  I have seen several postings from people who were allowed to deposit two cruises that ran afoul of this law, and then have one cancelled later on by the cruise line because it is not allowed.  One poor honeymooning couple literally ended up with flights and a weeklong gap in their once-in-a-lifetime trip.  So "S2S" it is! 🙂

On 8/31/2023 at 8:42 AM, Abercrombie2019 said:

The app worked fine for me for two cruises.  The first real glitch that I've experienced started when my loyalty level switched from Ruby to Platinum.  The website shows me as Platinum, but the app still shows me as Ruby, which is strange, because it will let me make dining reservations for a cruise that is next year. 

 

When is your cruise?  Are you past final payment?  I've copied the dining reservation conditions from Princess.com and pasted them below.  

 

Access Reservations

• Customize your reservations and other dining options.
• Most guests will be able to access once your cruise is paid in full.
• Early access for Captain's Circle Platinum and Elite members as well as guests booked in Reserve Collection and Suites.

Another clear indication that their app is not properly (or at all) integrated with their client manament systems.  Really a shame to punish customers thusly for their loyalty.  Appreciate the insight!

On 9/15/2023 at 1:07 AM, Steelers36 said:

We are aligned a lot in thoughts and experience with this App since June 2021.

 

#2.  I do not think they actually leveraged business SMEs when documenting App requirements.  IDK who was standing in for the guest perspective.  I doubt they spent any quality time engaging with a couple of Maitre D's at the time (now DROs).  They should have formed a business user committee and had them engaged throughout the design and testing phases.  They should have had people close to the guest experience.  I think they really missed on the initial requirements.  Also, the solution design was lacking in a guest focus or understanding what the cruise experience is.  They did have some good high-level concepts like identifying the guest wherever they are, being able to bring items to the guest, guest recognition, touchless service,  Ocean Now ordering, DMW, but they missed the mark on meeting what guests really need or how to make it simpler. 

 

#4.  (First one as you had a numbering issue above).  Princess is never going to have a public forum for reporting website and App bugs and issues.  I could see them using a limited polling for new feature options.  

 

#5.  (First one as you had a numbering issue above).  How do you know they are not using an internal issue tracking log or software application to track and manage bug fixes?

 

#5.  (Last one) & #6.  They appear to have a 1-way integration (from POLAR to Medallion App).  This has been fraught with data conversion issues (data corruption) from the launch.  It is difficult to pin these down as an external observer, but observed happenings indicate this has been a chronic problem.  Certainly not best practices here. 

 

#8.  I used to think of John Padgett as the CTO.  Perhaps he was not and someone else was/is.  He was certainly the lead for the Medallion project, but I think his initial focus was on the technical outfitting of the ships to support the Medallion connectivity and function, plus the Medallion design itself and IDK how much he was engaged in the initial App software because he knew nothing about cruising when he joined Carnival/Princess.  Now he is President of PCL and there should be a CTO (perhaps that is a Carnival Corp position - I have no idea).  As to the aspect of Medallion working for Princess in terms of the ship infrastructure, it has to be termed a general success.  But the OCEAN App software has been something else.

 

@Steelers36 sorry about the numbering. 

Thank you for the validation!  My bad for trying to pen lessons learned on a CC thread!  I cranked that post out in a fit of pique and really should have hauled it into Word and back for a spell / numbering check. 🙂  The App is a hot mess, and really spoiled what was once a fun part of cruising - the planning!  

#2.  Agree few or no SMEs were engaged. Excellent point!  

#4.1 Not looking for a public forum, just a meaningful poll on their website to elicit feedback so they can actually start identifying where the pain points are - simple voice of the customer.  

#5.1 I called Princess dozens of times for ongoing issues with the App (could access my cruise from the App or the web site for months) while prepping for the Island this October.  The people I spoke with were cruise counselors, not techs.  No one ever said hold on, we are connecting you to the support group.  After the 5th call in as many days, I asked for an incident # and some kind of follow up and was told they "would let the developers know" so that's that.  I can only assume this was logged in my traveler profile (if at all) and therefore lost in the mix.  I finally found the solution by pouring through CC threads.  Who in their right mind would have a web portal that YOU CANNOT BE LOGGED into when accessing your booking?  I thought I must be going nuts.  So stretch assumption - they are not logging these issues in a meaningful way.

I cannot imagine how many first time Princess cruisers would have given up after the 3rd call and canceled.  When I say they are bleeding money, it is for this.  All that time they spent on the phone with me, they weren't selling cruises or tours or drink packages.  The cost to support this debacle has to be hundreds of times the cost to fix it because they are losing revenue trying to support the unsupportable.

#5.2 and #6. Wholeheartedly agree!

#8. Right again on Padget and I am still scratching my head about how this debacle got him promoted.  Maybe that's what we are doing wrong!  Classic Peter Principle, that!

@charliedalrymple thank you for your service!  

@CrazyLlamayou are correct about the medallions.  No confusion there.  I get that people think this is a huge privacy concern, but if anyone has a smartphone, they are already digitally tracked within 1.3 meters even when the phone is off whether they realize this or not.  In addition to aiding with statistical info and people flow, the medallion also has safety features that can be used in emergencies and help identify who is onboard (and not) and is the polar opposite technically from the app for which I too would have been sacked!  I believe a few other lines are looking at similar RFID technology - you'd think they would pool resources like they did when responding to the Covid event to develop a standard app platform for "shipboard life" that could be leveraged by all of them, rather than a piecemeal approach that, rather than giving anyone an edge is about to break them all, right?

7 hours ago, SCX22 said:

 

Your points are valid, but your suggestions cost money, and it's money that Princess doesn't have right now.  Princess started the Medallion functionality on the Regal and Royal Princess pre-pandemic.  It was a period where it was only supposed to the test the waters.  The pandemic came along and because their fleet was sitting idle, someone at Princess thought that it would be a good idea to install the technology fleetwide. The restart came around and the technology was activated fleetwide and the problems hit the fan.  The problems were being remedied piecemeal and there was a domino effect in where fixing one problem caused (is still causing) other problems.

 

It's for this reason I'm for Princess ditching the technologies that come with the Medallion and going back to the cruise card and focusing on a Princess Cruises App like the other cruise lines.  A simple App where you can make dining/excursion reservations, look at the day's events/your folio, and check-in for your cruise.  Princess doesn't have the money to invest in building the sophistication they want and the seamlessness that passengers with the Medallion or the Medallion App at this moment.  They can try this again when they have the money to pour into it.

And there you have it!  The ubiquitous decision to scrub something expensive when it fails.  It takes guts - most C-level will never admit to their mistakes.  Point is, they never had a plan to actually build and support this - they are a leisure company, not a technical services organization, and this was never thought through, pandemic aside.  If they do nothing, they will continue to bleed money and lose clients, a poor long-term proposition as eventually they will spend 1000 times more than this costs, so no decision at all IMPO.  Royal made a similar albeit far less reaching error with their Quantum class ships a few years back - the idea was brilliant - restaurant style dining to replace main dining with a "simple" app to reserve the various venues.  The food variety was brilliant, the implementation abysmal, and they and the Anthem now have a series of disparate "themed" main dining restaurants with varying decor from casual to luxurious where we can now eat.  Again, nobody thought through the support model and costs associated with implementing a technical solution within a leisure product.  A shame -  I love both ships but the dining is just darned weird now!
 

Many thanks to all in this thread who have served - the nation and indeed the world is in your debt. 

I wholeheartedly agree that this hits couples who both honored the US hard, and the change is an unfortunate sign of the times.  After reading all this, I will refrain from the stock purchase on principle at this time.  

This thread is the most fun since the smoking stuff got pinned to the top, and I agree completely with the OP and my fellow techies for the sage advice!

1 - IT people prefer Samsung - it is easier to root a Samsung than it is to Jailbreak an iPhone. 😁

2 - They had requirements, they just ignored some of them and built others poorly:

• All consumer functionality available on their legacy website (reservations, tours, buy OBC, prepay gratuities, upload docs and get your boarding cards, etc.)
• Everything else they shoehorned in to create the Medallion App. Anyone watch Pentagon Wars clips on youtube?  It's the best scope creep comedy and is based on a government project run off the rails by conflicting product Sponsors over more than 30 years that led to a multimillion-dollar unusable piece of military equipment!  The Medallion app may be running a close second if something doesn't change and quick.

3 - They need two sets of devs to handle each of the iOS and Android App builds (different skill sets) and a solution architect responsible for oversight, integration with the web portal,  They need a first line of techs to provide ongoing support for the apps and their web services and they ought to implement an online support request form and build in some SLAs to ensure all requests are remediated within a reasonable timeframe.

4- They need to leverage polls on the princess site to capture user feedback so they can prioritize on remediation and new needs, and work towards continuous process improvement to transform the app from an obstacle to a facilitator of the cruise experience.

5 - They also need a dedicated support line and an ITIL V5 incident management system (effectively a separate tracking tool from their cruise booking systems) so they can assess and manage what is broken in totality rather than their current approach of adding these issues to a cruise tracking db where this info never makes its way back to the developers. They also need to stop using passing what are effectively technical support calls to PVCs, which is not only ineffective for getting resolutions, but unnecessarily increases hold times for those trying to book a new cruse.  I would love know what their ACD's abandon rate is - I estimate it is over 40% during peak call times, Every one of those hangups is a lost opportunity.

4- They seem to invest more in the iPhone app than the Samsung app, which appears to be less stable and fails more often from what I can gather.  Maybe it's just us geeks who see this as a challenge and try harder when most others just give up.

5 - Their devs are noobs who don't appear to follow change management best practices.  When they make changes, locally stored data needs to be refreshed as part of the update to avoid the ubiquitous "clear cache and cookies", all of which can be done by the App's update routine if it is actually built and tested properly.  I get visions of a room full of 19 year olds drinking Mountain Dew, eating Kit Kats and playing foosball with the occasional odd nap between development cycles and a max productivity of 3.5 hrs/week.

5 - There is little to no integration between the two apps and their back-end, If there was, reservations wouldn't disappear because they would reload via push whenever the app was opened.

6 - There is no integration between their app and the consumer web site, which was a breeze to use in its day, but which now requires a degree in aeronautics to navigate.  Most users, myself included, can NOT access our cruises when logged in unless we specifically select the option to manage another booking and reenter credentials used to log in in the first place.  The link to do this is buried in content on a page when it belongs on the top shelf navigation.  This basic pre-cruise functionality  should be integrated with the rest of the UI so it is transparent and seamless for customers,  If they aren't going to change it, the link should be renamed  "click this because our mobile app doesn't work right, so maybe try this in your copious spare time since we are sure you will get it right---eventually---.so we don't have to".

7 - 40 years in IT and still going strong!  I have been trying to make these recommendations for the past 2 years, and am staggered that nobody in Princess gets just how bad this is, or they would fix it already!  Every error is lost revenue opportunity for them - no wonder they keep fiddling with drink packages and paid Alfredo's meals - something has to subsidize this madness. If business can file corporate taxes online, why can't this just be fixed, or scrubbed and replaced with a fully integrated modern solution. 

8 - I agree the devs may be people turned down for jobs elsewhere, but the real problem lies with their leadership team - their CTO should be put on notice, and their Board needs to wake up and commit to funding a project to correct or replace this disaster before it sinks them and us! 

Just now, Thrak said:

 

If you own the stock then you can get the OBC from ownership while your husband can get the military OBC.

Ha!  Who knew?  Now I just have to convince DH to let me be the one who owns it!  Thank you!😀

I was actually going to buy CCL stock just to get this benefit.  I recently learned Princess longer combines the Carnival shareholder OBC with Military OBC.  I cannot imagine who decided this was a good idea since there are completely different rationales for having earned each award.  Honoring someone's past service should not be conflated with a benefit that can be bought.  I will pass on the Carnival stock and gladly keep the benefit my husband earned the hard way!

@strobellayjam I was unable to find any bracelets that have the depth necessary to insert a medallion, even if the diameter was sufficient.  One seller replied to a message to advise that none of her bracelets including the one with the correct diameter would be useable.  As I have some of the casual silicone wristbands, and also have belt clip holders with carabiner clips, I opted for a pendant holder with a couple of really cool necklace-style ID badge holders that I can also use for work later.  I believe I have now invested 300% of what I would have spent on Princess to buy theirs, but I have a variety that has sated my OCD for this need! 

We haven't sailed since March of 2020, and I realize how badly I need this cruise fix now. 🙂

Thank you @taglovestocruise!  This helps!  I get it, but the "obstruction" is really just lifeboats looking forward. I thought it meant half the front of the balcony had a lifeboat in front of it, kind of like some outside views do.  Ugh...now this has me rethinking....

I have a courtesy hold on the Ovation for a JS - #7232, which is the only one left on an Alaska sailing that really works for us.  I always check cruisedeckplans to see if location is good, check for obstructions etc.  They do not list it as obstructed, however my confirmation says it is 50% obstructed!😱

Has anyone stayed in this cabin who can give me some insight please?  Scouring for info as I have a limited time to make a deposit.  TIA for any and all help as always!

6 hours ago, Aussie lost in space said:

snwg - Just some further information for you....if you search, in either Etsy or on Amazon with key words -  "Floating locket bracelet" to hold charms or air tag, you will find literally 100's.  So many different styles in various materials.  If you are more keen on a necklace, then substitute the 'bracelet' part of the search.  You need to ensure it is a 30mm diameter one as that is the size required for the medallion.  I've sized it up against the air tag holders and it is the same diameter.   Pandora have also recently released a version too,  if you prefer a known 'brand name'.  😉

Happy hunting.

Thank you SO much for this.  I found then, however tripped over a (unfair IMHO) negative review from a customer who bought a 30mm diameter and flamed a seller because her medallion didn't fit.  Evidently, you need 30mm on the interior.  I will try your seller and let you know.   Thank you so much!

10 minutes ago, suzyed said:

I just ordered the very same thing only in the silver color!  I also ordered a 30" Sterling Silver chain on Etsy (I have a nickel allergy)!
I also ordered this one:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BBLSJLSB/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1

I have been scouring Amazon and Esty for an hour.  I love this pendant as it can be used without the medallion, too, however I see in a lot of the reviews that the medal interferes with the medallion.  Has anyone confirmed being able to use this onboard?

20 hours ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

No...you're not getting into "the web version".  Not talking about the tabs across the top of the Cruise Personalizer.  From the Summary tab scroll down just a bit...

 

IMPO this is great info, but their UI is the real problem.  It was clearly designed to "push users" to the App, else this link would be on the top navigation bar on the page where it clearly belongs until and unless Princess can debug the app, which I don't believe will happen in my lifetime. 🙂

This is basic stuff - having an app that is prohibitive to sales and requires thousands of hours in labor to support it is silly.  I can only assume the recent changes to the Premier packages is funding this madness.  I really, really, wish they would just fix the app or disinvest from it already....sorry...spent the last 8 hours trying to plan for an upcoming sailing, and now I need another vacation! 🙂

Apologies for the double-post, but I just called Princess, and they confirmed all is OK - they are evidently having issues on the medallion app / medallion website just now and have been all morning. 

I recommended they post a banner on the web site - this is naturally going to scare a lot of passengers, especially if they are traveling this week.  I totally feel for you if you are boarding tomorrow - this kind of thing is so easily avoided with some basic communications from their web team.

The medallion app is a full "fail" right now.  I am watching it "check" and then "uncheck" the Personal Info & Documents and then the "Choose your Wearable" boxes over and over again, all the while remaining in the "Yellow" lane in the time it has taken me to post this.   Can't get in on the web at all - "info is incomplete or a balance is due - contact your agent."  Really poor form to scare people like this.  They told me to try again later.  Surreal...

3 hours ago, Fortunate 2 travel said:

I’m seeing a major glitch on my app.  Went from Green lane to Yellow.  It shows the check marks for the personal information and medallion.   

Me too, exactly the same thing.  Web site says I cannot access booking until paid in full, which I did TWO WEEKS ago.  This is seriously concerning.  Was green lane, now it say information is missing which makes no sense since we are all checked in as of last week and even printed luggage tags.  What the heck is going on?

@We_like_to_cruiseThank you so much for the incredible overview of what looks to have been an amazing vacation!  Appreciate all the info!

We are looking forward to joining the Island Southampton to Rome later this year, and I feel like we have already sailed her with much thanks again to you!

Reading this thread brought tears to my eyes.   

Two years ago, hip pain went from a bad limp to staggering on a cane and I "lived" with it getting a little worse each day.  I barely made it onto the plane for a week in a Swim-Out room at an AI last September.  The clincher was stepping into that pool and being weightless. It was the first time I had no pain in so long I didn't realize how bad it actually was! 

When we returned, I went to an Osteo specialist to "tell him" I needed cortisone shots to be able to dance at my son's wedding which was later that week.  He told me my ONLY option was a to have both hips replaced.

They cannot be done at the same time - I asked - it is never a good idea.  My first hip was replaced in December; the 2nd replacement is slated for March. 

The recovery is miraculous, and based on that experience, even with another surgery pending, we can finally plan our first cruise since 2019 for later this year.  For me, reality is that I could not have gone before now regardless of the pandemic.   

Like so many others who have been kind enough to share in this thread, the replacement is a game-changer.  Nobody does it until all other options are exhausted, and everyone who does says the same thing "Why the heck did I put this off for so long?". 

I look forward to beeping at airport security and when boarding the cruise - 40% of all passengers have some kind of metal prosthetic, and it is no big deal!  Time to get back to living!  Go get that hip fixed please.  Don't wait until the decision is made for you - trust me - the timing never works out! 🙂

Wow!  Even better - in that case I will load up with $1500 and have a "fall back" in case i need to double down! 🙂

Thanks so much!

Just now, negn said:

I believe there is a 3% charge when using charging to your account.  

Thank you @negn

That's good to know!

Now I need to be sure I can use the OBC instead to save on those transaction fees...

I think this is interesting, too. 

Can someone clarify:  If I buy $1500 worth of OBC before I cruise, I can use that OBC in the casino before I run up a bill against my cc on file?

I ask because some cruise lines charge a credit card fee (up to 8%) to add cash to your account against your credit card onboard (other than for their Hosted guests, who of course have the requisite win/loss statements!🤪). 

I prefer not to get hit with a fee, so if I can use the pre-purchased OBC, I will.  Am I correct in assuming that can be done?

Thanks all!