Fatbaldguy

Wife and I sailed on Royal from LA to Vancouver.  Wife calls me a curmudgeon; so I of course INSISTED upon check-in of having a card.  At first was told that it was not possible, but a supervisor granted my 'request'.  Was then told that either medallion or card would both work.  Thank goodness I held firm;  neither medallion would open stateroom door...  guest services was overwhelmed with others facing same...

Kept my medallion in safe for entire voyage: gave steward an excuse on day 5 for not cleaning room, untill I called his bluff...

I absolutely believe medallions are Princess' way of joining Walmart and McDonalds in beginning to cut staff.. And that view was bolstered following a 15 yr bar staff crew member lamenting the reduction of servers that has already begun.  Soon, the bar servers of the past will be GONE, replaced by drink deliverers, as self ordered drinks by app will be one's only option.  AKA self service checkouts at Walmart.  

My medallion had company in my safe: cell phone was snuggled up next to it...

That said, we thought Royal was a beautiful ship: spectacular Piazza, good buffet.  Can't comment on MDR food, as on first night, after waiting for 40 minutes without service, got up and walked out... Back to Grand class,  but kind of thought that might be the case when Princess plunked another 500 cabins on and actually REDUCED the size of some public spaces...

Just got off the late arriving Serenade... Coffee, much to our dismay, is no longer Seattle's Best, but some vile brew called Royal Caribbean Blend! None of the awesome smoothness one gets from SB. AND, to even further add to the insult, there was no 1/2&1/2 on board: they had non-dairy International delight individual portion cups instead...YUCK ( unless one IS INTO unknown ((coconut oil?)) synthetic substitutes...). Soooo go to pay for coffee on deck five, you say.... Pay for a cup as they have cream, you say.... ..... Nope; get a cup of 75% cream and 25% coffee..... Arghhhhhh!!!!!! But the rest of the story: they ran out of their version of 1/2&1/2 on the last day and had none on 1st day either. COFFEE LOVERS BEWARE!!!!!