ATL_Miami_Cruiser

10 hours ago, kknb4082 said:

Thank you all, heartened to hear your comments and that no photo is not a problem. My worry was that I would not be able to print out the cruise tickets if I don't complete the check-in (this is our first cruise, so assumed the process would be like the boarding pass process for airlines).

 

That said, @Até good to hear that I'm not the only person to face this problem! I am aware of racial bias in facial recognition algorithms, and indeed unintended consequences of biases when training AI systems more broadly.

 

In this case, if the system can recognise some faces and some not, in exactly the same device and same environmental condition, the system does need to be looked at. MSC being the large global conglomerate that it is, needs to do better, and I will leave it at that.

My wife had a similar problem with the orange auto detection box not recognizing her face using the web browser check-in and cam on my PC and phone. It would not work in any light, but my photo worked quickly the first time. We rebooted her phone and use the check-in process on the MSC app instead and it worked perfectly.

It depends on the cruise. Last November on a 5-day Caribbean we went there as soon we boarded and it was sold out. In March on a 10-day Panama Canal cruise we were 5th in line and was able to book a cabana and plenty of loungers were available.

39 minutes ago, Userclown said:

Everything I have read indicates that a passport card is sufficient for travel so long as we do not fly internationally. Princess seems to be demanding a passport book. Any opinions?

It greatly depends on the itinerary. The passport card is limited for travel to/from Canada, Mexico, Bermuda and “Caribbean countries”. There are some ports in the Caribbean and Central America Caribbean countries that will only accept passport books. Cruise lines like Carnival do accept the passport card for the majority of their itineraries, but they mainly visit Caribbean ports that don’t have passport restrictions. It’s all up to the cruise line.

14 minutes ago, teenieleek said:

I have made the final payment, I am “green to go” on the app but I cannot reserve Sabatini’s for the embarkation night suite “freebie”.  Nothing appears except “this is not available”.  Anyone have any ideas please?  You can no longer book anything on the website.

We had the same issue several weeks ago after final payment and from our experience it can take up to an hour for the Medallion app to sync with Princesses backend reservation system. I closed the app and checked it every 15 minutes until the reservation options were available.

New 4.9 iOS app update available. Take screenshots of your dining reservations and other items before updating!

The dine my way was an interesting concept but it's poorly implemented and leads to unneeded stress, long lines and loss of pre-cruise dining time coordination with multiple cabins or large groups. Will you consider bringing traditional dining times back to Princess? The same question goes for the problematic Medallion App, will you make this a pre-cruise stress free experience for your guests by taking the anxiety out of the check-in process and return to a web based experience with an easy check-in method where surprise changes/deletions aren't made without us knowing.

1 hour ago, lgonquin said:

Flights are ORD to LAX.  Readily available in both directions. Lots to choose from with plenty of seat selection.  In fact, after I rebooked the same flight for less, I went back in and changed seats back to what we had. 
 

After each change, the seats appear in my Princess reservation and my AA app. 
 

Should I be concerned that those seats will disappear or change once we get closer to sail date?  When do these become “ticketed”?

Thanks good to know. While booking I recall seeing a disclaimer about not guaranteeing the exact seat or class. It may be just a Princess tactic to try to get us to pay sooner or there could be something in the contract with airlines that gives them flexibility with this fare. Based on my understanding of Youtube videos on this topic, once you're ticketed you lock in your reservation with the airline. This is our first time booking with EZ Air so maybe others can chime in on their experience.

13 minutes ago, 2 cruises a year said:

 

Are these Princess Cruises?  I've spent quite a bit of time at quite a few bars on quite a few Princess ships, and have never seen a drink poured that was not measured.  They are very clever, they will pour the jigger and keep pouring from the bottle.  It looks good, BUT they poured the jigger before it was full and the "after" bottle pour is showmanship.  You get neither a short, nor long pour.  For me, it is all fun, we chat up the bartenders and servers.  We take longer cruises, and tip a little extra weekly, not a bribe beforehand, just a nice gesture every week.  The service, nor size of the pour changes after the tip, just the same consistent great service from day one.

Yes Princess and also on Carnival. 9 times out of 10 it's a regular pour, but not always. At Princess bars I've sat next to other guests who've been on the ship for weeks doing B2B's and they've shared with me who their favorite bartender is. I've also had my favorites and always went back to them. Uneven pours happen all the time, I could get my wife and I the same drink and one would be stronger than the other. It may not be intended but it does happen more often than you think.

15 hours ago, lgonquin said:

We booked our air with EZ Air.  I was fortunate to find a price drop on my airfare and rebooked with EZ Air. This occurred after final payment, but within the 45 day window allowed with EZ Air. 
I can see the credit amount on my Payment screen, but how do I collect it?  Or does it become OBC?

 

Thanks for your help!

After cancelling and rebooking close to the final date, what's been your experience with the available seat selection and keeping the same seats? The EZ Air fine print of not guaranteeing a seat selection until ticketed is what made us immediately pay it in full. We knew it would turn the ticket into a fare with restrictions, but it was worth it to us to get ticketed and lock in our premium seats on Virgin Atlantic to the UK.

50 minutes ago, bjkTX said:

We took 11 day cruises in Oct and Dec and never once saw the alcohol being measured - they were straight pours out of the bottle and the few times they used a jigger they almost always poured extra.  So our experience has been different.  We aren't big drinkers (any more) but if anything we thought the drinks were stronger than normal - not watered down.

My experience was the same. The pours are inconsistent across bartenders no matter how they were originally trained and I've definitely received extra at times from friendly bartenders. I drink whiskey on the rocks daily and can see with my own eyes how much is being poured. It may not be a ton more, but it's more than the usual.

Point to site VPN to a private IP has been available on past sailings but very slow. VPN access is a matter of network port availability and destination IP. Port 443 is a common port for SSL/TLS based point to site VPN and is likely open, but they're likely blocking public VPN's like Nord VPN and their range of IP's. I'll need to test next month on Caribbean Princess to confirm.

I've been told by my CVP that they don't get commission and credit for deposits made online. She said that it's ok to book online to hold the cabin, but I would need to call her to make the deposit. I've done this several times and it's worked out for us.

36 minutes ago, MissP22 said:

I may be very well mistaken but isn't much of their problem with the Medallion app caused by the fact that they're trying to get it to work with many different models & vintages of phones?

Seems like a nightmare to me. 

I wish that were the case. There's two major developer toolkits that would be Princesses main focus, Android and iOS. There are different OS version numbers of Android and iOS, but each modern version is based on the same core kernel for each toolkit. So you could have an iPhone 8 or 14 and the same base code would apply to both as long as they are on a modern OS version from a few years back. Android used to be bad at this but over the years is much better now. Tablets also run the same base code but with just some tweaks to the configuration values. So it's practically all the same code per each OS and this is by design to ensure the majority of apps can work across all phones running iOS and Android. If they didn't do it this way all apps on the app stores would be broken several times a year as each new OS version is pushed out. The problem with Princess is that they didn't take the time to properly QA, debug and pursue actual user input before deploying this app. That and they have an older legacy reservation system interfacing with a modern system and the mapping between the two isn't the best. I'm rooting for them it right.

19 hours ago, PescadoAmarillo said:

While I understand what you’re saying, I don’t think my not understanding the system is the reason my husband’s dinner reservations completely disappeared from the app….twice. I went online to double check, and yes, they were gone. Making the reservations again meant his original time and dining room choices were gone. His Hawaii cruises were well booked; it took until his third B2B cruise to get the dining of his choice that he chose to have from the beginning. 
 

The problem is not user error. I’m as technically proficient as most Princess cruisers.  The fact that we are still dealing with this 18 months after DMW was rolled out is the issue. But here’s the thing…cruising Princess should not have a learning curve. If it’s not seamless, effortless and faultless, it’s broken. Guests should not be running out to buy new phones to take a Princess cruise. They should not have to, as the form SVP of Sales callously recommended, get their grandson to check them in.  You and I know that fighting the app is ridiculous, just show up at the pier with a Booking ID, passport and any required COVID information and forget the rest.  But the average new cruiser does not know that. They are stressing. This is wrong. And the fact that it’s been wrong for more than 18 months shows me Princess either doesn’t have the resources or the desire to fix them. 
 

The same thing happened to me. This is why I take screenshots every week to prove they are there in the app. It was the only proof I had to show that the app had a major defect.

17 hours ago, ldtr said:

When was the last issue of the reservations disappearing?  

 

On the other hand the only problem I have had with the App is that it does not pick up my captains circle status correctly when I am off ship.    Picks it up correctly while on ship.  But then changes back when off ship.  I suspect that back when I first registered it created another CC number in the medallion DB, same as with a bunch of other people.

 

Other then that which only impacts the 50% discount for internet, I have not had any problems.  When I book a new cruise all of my data for that cruise populations reducing the entire pre-cruise process to making a decision about if I want my medallion shipped, picking my arrival time (which most ports are not following anyway), make my reservations, etc.  A lot less work then the old system.

 

So I have not been fighting the App it works fine and has made things for me easier.  Now I am using it no android phones (Samsung 8, and Samsung 21) and make sure that all of my apps are up to date and have plenty of memory.  The App is rather resource intensive and can act rather strange on phones that are resource limited.

 

I just thought of something that might be impacting his use, based upon what I recall of your cruising style (adding or changing cruises at pretty much anytime).  With the medallion if you book back to back cruises the medallion shows them as one logical cruise, so if you book reservations it will book them across the complete B2B cruises.  In most cases that is very handy.  What I have not tried is if you have a cruise booked, have all of your reservations made, then at a later date book the next cruise adding a B2B.  I can see where that could impact the system.  We have booked our consecutive cruises all at the same time without any problems.  Have not tried adding another cruise at a later date.

My reservations disappeared on the second day of our 2022 Thanksgiving cruise. It occurred while I was attempting to update the app over the ships WIFI. The staff onboard believes it was done by a crew member on the ship, but this guy in this video had the exact same issue 8 months ago. I work in IT and can tell you this app is full of bugs that shouldn't exist.

iOS Medallion app version 4.8.1 is now available.

7 hours ago, Guindalf said:

I hope this question hasn't been asked a thousand times, but here goes.

 

We're booked on our first Princess cruise (usually Celebrity cruisers) to Alaska on the Discovery in September. There are various options for jewelry or just plain holders for the medallion, but are there third party options we should look at?

 

Am I wrong in my impression that they are the same size as AirTags?

 

What about fancy jewelry? Is it worth getting something nice?

 

TIA

These worked great for attaching it to a watch and held the medallion well. On our last cruise we used them with our Apple Watch and everyone kept asking us where we got them because they were so much easier to carry and use.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B095C337PT/

17 hours ago, Aunt Barty said:

UPDATE: I was able to get in on my tablet using log in with booking number. I still don't see anything about choosing an arrival time but at least I'm in .  .  .   😐
The app crashes on open on my Galaxy S8. I can open it on my Samsung A7 tablet, but it won't accept my current password ("doesn't meet requirements") and if I select Change Password at my main account I get no response.
I'm pretty tech forward and would love having access to the features the app provides, but I'm also able to shrug it off, as long as my travel experience isn't impacted.
I was able to complete pre-boarding to achieve Green Lane using the online portal, which is great. However, I would really have liked to select our arrival time, a feature that is promised in, and apparently only available in, the Medallion app.
Does anyone know how I can do this outside of the app?
(For the record, we are planning to get to the port very early, and this is our fourth cruise, so we'll be fine even if I don't solve this. It's just, dammit! I want to be able to use the app.)

Also try reaching out to askoceanmedallion@carnival.com I did that once and received a response within a day. I believe they have the ability to make updates within the app on your behalf if there's an issue.

1 hour ago, Roberto256 said:

That is sad on so many levels.

 

I was going to ask what happened to 'the fastest internet at sea' ?

But I looked, and princess seems to no longer make that claim, although my

recollection is that they did recently.

 

They now have 'the best wi-fi at sea' !

 

"MedallionNet Wi-Fi sets the industry standard for internet at sea."

 

What has happened since this press release?

 

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/carnival-corporations-medallionnet-to-set-industry-apex-for-wi-fi-bandwidth-capacity-at-sea-powered-by-ses-networks-300603933.html

 

400mb download should be nothing for a connection this awesome.

 

That was my understanding as well. On our 5-day Thanksgiving cruise it was very slow and we only sailed the gulf with stops at Cozumel and Costa Mya. I think they made that “fastest” claim back in 2018/2019 when they had a good amount of satellite capacity. Now with all the mega ships launched there’s a smaller allocation of bandwidth available to Princess and the upgraded SES satellites are delayed until later in this year.

https://spacenews.com/o3b-mpower-service-debut-pushed-later-into-2023/

5 hours ago, PaperSniper4 said:

Already selected the Medallions we wanted about a month ago. Also booked out MDR table and Crown Grill. We opted for the basic Medallion; no lanyards, bracelets, etc. So unless I hear differently from Princess, I will be anticipating seeing them in the mail.

 

Unlike a lot of folks here, I've had "luck" with the app for booking our MDR meals and specialty dining. Only issue I had was upon checking those reservations about a week later, they were changed from a private to a shared table. Might have been my mistake when booking, but I don't think so, as we always want a "private" table for two. (I know, I know; ship definition of a table for two is not the same as my definition of table for two, but that's a tale for another place). The Princess app is somewhat cumbersome IMO, but then so is Princess.com. Actually, any cruise line's site is cumbersome! <g> I was in IT for many years, and while my code was not always perfect, it beat the pants off most cruise line web sites IMO!😉

 

Doug

The table reservation issue was definitely not your mistake. It happened to me as well and I discovered that bug in the app where if you choose the "book at the same time and day" option and select private table, it will show you your time and private table selection after you hit the confirm button. BUT as soon as you exit the dining screen and then go back in to see your MDR dining selections it will reflect a shared table on each day. I also notified Princess execs of this issue. The work around is to make individual MDR dining reservations for each day and select private table. That's the only way it sticks. My advice to all is to take screenshots of your reservations each month leading up to your cruise, luckily I did that and it was the only evidence I had that proved my dining reservations were deleted a day after boarding the ship.

2 hours ago, jsn55 said:

And apparently this has been going on for YEARS.  Who knows what kind of cool stuff I missed on the cruise because there was no information?  I suspect you've not had a response to your communication to the exec team?

I received a response from John Padgett and he apologized for the dining reservations deletions and said they were aware of the app issues and are working to resolve them and reduce the size of the app. Currently the app is around 400mb in size and nearly impossible to download using the ships wifi if version updates or reinstallation is needed. Only time will tell if they get all these issues sorted out. 

4 hours ago, jsn55 said:

Since I have no trouble using a computer, I should have no trouble looking for info on a cabin TV.  If I spend an hour of concentrated effort to access every bit of info on my cabin TV, then the presentation is wrong.   I'm the pax, I should not need any kind of tutoring to use Princess system.  What you've stated is all true ... and you're illustrating my whole point perfectly.  Pax should not have to come up with 'workarounds' to achieve their goals.  Pax should not have to be concerned about the difference between the medallion and the medallion app.  Pax should not be forced to use an app if they are unfamiliar with their phone.  Actually, pax should not be forced to do anything on a cruise, the cruise is supposed to take care of the pax.

I totally agree with you! Guests are paying money for a relaxing vacation experience and when Princess gets the basics wrong (dining reservations, event listings, etc.) the onus should be on Princess to correct it and not put this hassle and anxiety on its guests to fix. During my last cruise after all of my dining reservations went missing on Thanksgiving day for the entire cruise, I wrote the Princess executive team and express this very issue to them and told them the app needs work.. Things that should be sacred such as dining times should not be a gamble while on vacation. I have over 25 years IT experience and I've never seen an app released from a major brand without proper QA testing and customer input.

iOS Medallion app version 4.8 is now available. Not sure what this version fixed or changed, but before you update take screenshots of all of your dining selections and anything else that's important in case anything goes missing!

18 minutes ago, SomewhereGirl said:

 

I'm going to guess this statement didn't come from an employee authorized to speak to the media.

Agreed it does sound very odd as an official statement. At timestamp 3:00 the reported states "This representative said" which could mean anyone at the company.

The dreaded Vista class propulsion issue. If it is the azipod issue I hope the manufacturer fixed the design before installing them on other ships built after the Panorama.