Princess Cruise Line Interactive TV?

[Oxo]

There have been discussions on this forum about Princess providing an interactive TV system to check menus for the entire cruise and folio activity at ant time. Many people are indicating that they have used this capability on other cruise lines such as: Carnival, Celebrity, Costa, NCL and RCL to name a few. It is free and does not add any additional costs to use these options.

I personally have used it and find it very advantageous since I don't have to run down to Guest Services to print out my bill to see if it is correct. In addition, I can see what the menu in the MDR is, too. Interactive TV has also many other informative selections.

If Carnival and Costa cruise lines have this capability, why doesn't Princess have this capability, too? Princess is under Carnival Corp. just as Carnival cruise line and Costa cruise line.

Would you like this capability to be provided by Princess?

[Loonbeam]

They have chosen to do it via intranet instead, since so many people have devices these days. Tradeoff of device need versus portability I guess.

 

There have been discussions on this forum about Princess providing an interactive TV system to check menus for the entire cruise and folio activity at ant time. Many people are indicating that they have used this capability on other cruise lines such as: Carnival, Celebrity, Costa, NCL and RCL to name a few. It is free and does not add any additional costs to use these options.

I personally have used it and find it very advantageous since I don't have to run down to Guest Services to print out my bill to see if it is correct. In addition, I can see what the menu in the MDR is, too. Interactive TV has also many other informative selections.

If Carnival and Costa cruise lines have this capability, why doesn't Princess have this capability, too? Princess is under Carnival Corp. just as Carnival cruise line and Costa cruise line.

Would you like this capability to be provided by Princess?

[Love.II.Cruise]

They have chosen to do it via intranet instead, since so many people have devices these days. Tradeoff of device need versus portability I guess.

 

Is this on all Princess ships? Does this include being able to see the MDR menu?

Edited January 2, 2015 by Love.II.Cruise

[ChiefSealthCruz]

I wouldn't use it. I'm in the cabin to sleep, shower and change clothes. I would be more likely to use the princess@sea service on my smart phone, if I remembered to bring it with me. I unplug on a cruise and talk to people.

[RickEk]

Is this on all Princess ships? Does this include being able to see the MDR menu?

 

From what I understand, Princess@Sea will be fleetwide by the end of 2015. I also believe that the ability to see menus will be forthcoming too...

[Pam in CA]

I wouldn't use it. I'm in the cabin to sleep, shower and change clothes. I would be more likely to use the princess@sea service on my smart phone, if I remembered to bring it with me. I unplug on a cruise and talk to people.

Same here. I've used Princess@Sea on the Royal on two different longer cruises and I found it very handy/useful. I'm looking forward to being able to message passengers I'm cruising with.

 

Each line has features that others do or don't have. For instance, all Princess ships have self-service laundries. Not high tech but I don't understand why all cruise lines/ships don't offer this as well. Just saying. :)

[fishywood]

Viewing your shipboard account on your personal device is a much better idea than on stateroom TV. If I happen to be sailing with a roommate of convenience rather than a close family member I would certainly not want them to check out what I have been spending.

 

As for menus, each night as soon as the MDR closes the next night's menu is posted outside the door. Or you can even ask your waiter if you can see it before you leave. (Human interaction...what a concept)

 

And on a related note I hope that the on-demand programming available on Royal and Regal does not spread fleetwide as that would likely signal both the end of the occasional sea day matinee and/or late movie on nights with only pre-dinner shows in the Princess Theater and the likelihood of pay movies as on Celebrity.

[Oxo]

Same here. I've used Princess@Sea on the Royal on two different longer cruises and I found it very handy/useful. I'm looking forward to being able to message passengers I'm cruising with.

 

Each line has features that others do or don't have. For instance, all Princess ships have self-service laundries. Not high tech but I don't understand why all cruise lines/ships don't offer this as well. Just saying. :)

 

For you to have so much IT experience since 1963, I am surprised that you would even think that because Princess provides Interactive TV, that they would do away with Princess@Sea. This has not been suggested.

 

BTW, since you have all that IT experience as a Programmer, how much of an effort would it take to incorporate Princess to provide a daily MDR menu on TV? Just curious.

[Cruisin' Chick]

Viewing your shipboard account on your personal device is a much better idea than on stateroom TV. If I happen to be sailing with a roommate of convenience rather than a close family member I would certainly not want them to check out what I have been spending.

 

As for menus, each night as soon as the MDR closes the next night's menu is posted outside the door. Or you can even ask your waiter if you can see it before you leave. (Human interaction...what a concept)

 

And on a related note I hope that the on-demand programming available on Royal and Regal does not spread fleetwide as that would likely signal both the end of the occasional sea day matinee and/or late movie on nights with only pre-dinner shows in the Princess Theater and the likelihood of pay movies as on Celebrity.

 

I try to unplug too, even though it was nice having an Internet package that I shared with my teen on our last cruise. Hubby stayed away from the Internet Cafe -- he had no interest and he certainly didn't take his work cell phone (he doesn't have a personal one).

 

As for menus, if we really want to pre-chose our entrees, we know we can check out the menus outside the MDR each afternoon. But most of the time, we don't even check until we get there for our seating at night.

 

And if we really want to check out spending during the cruise, we have the receipts. And we can get a printout from the kiosk to check to make sure there aren't mistakes (I don't think we've had any on over ten cruises).

 

What I would like to see available on the in-cabin TV is the photos the ship's photographers take. Most of the time we don't think to check the gallery while the photos are out so that would be something we can do on our own schedule.

[OCruisers]

While we have no interest in using it, Princess should provide it to keep up with the times.

LuLu

[paul929207]

So far I have always left my cell phone turned off and in the safe in my cabin. No plans to change..

[Terre]

My cell phone stays in the safe as well and I have no desire to keep up with it while I'm trekking around the ship. I'm on a cruise to get away from phones and computers and would prefer to keep the interactive TV. Besides, I'm not too tech savvy and probably wouldn't be able to figure it out!

Edited January 3, 2015 by Terre

[Pam in CA]

Just FYI, Princess DOES offer interactive TV and has for a year and a half. It's being rolled out and will be available on all ships by the end of 2015. As the saying goes, "Where's the beef?"

[hollydog]

I agree with Cruisin' Chick about the photos. We've done two Celebrity cruises and loved being able to browse through our photos at our leisure, instead of fighting the crowd in the photo display area.

[Love.II.Cruise]

Just FYI, Princess DOES offer interactive TV and has for a year and a half. It's being rolled out and will be available on all ships by the end of 2015. As the saying goes, "Where's the beef?"

 

Well, apparently for a year and half NOT ON ALL ships. Where's the beef? I'd like to know if it is on my next cruise. :rolleyes: But apparently I like to watch paint dry on a Star Princess dry dock. :cool:

[Oxo]

Just FYI, Princess DOES offer interactive TV and has for a year and a half. It's being rolled out and will be available on all ships by the end of 2015. As the saying goes, "Where's the beef?"

 

OMG! Where did you learn this? It is totallly different than what you said in the other posting. LOL

[RickEk]

Viewing your shipboard account on your personal device is a much better idea than on stateroom TV. If I happen to be sailing with a roommate of convenience rather than a close family member I would certainly not want them to check out what I have been spending.

 

As for menus, each night as soon as the MDR closes the next night's menu is posted outside the door. Or you can even ask your waiter if you can see it before you leave. (Human interaction...what a concept)

 

And on a related note I hope that the on-demand programming available on Royal and Regal does not spread fleetwide as that would likely signal both the end of the occasional sea day matinee and/or late movie on nights with only pre-dinner shows in the Princess Theater and the likelihood of pay movies as on Celebrity.

 

From all indications, the movie selections on the on-demand TV's are complimentary. They didn't charge anything when we experienced them on Sapphire Princess. And they did have movies scheduled in the afternoons in the Princess Theater...

 

For you to have so much IT experience since 1963, I am surprised that you would even think that because Princess provides Interactive TV, that they would do away with Princess@Sea. This has not been suggested.

 

BTW, since you have all that IT experience as a Programmer, how much of an effort would it take to incorporate Princess to provide a daily MDR menu on TV? Just curious.

 

If they can put Patters on the site, they can easily put menus. As mentioned before, I think this is a feature that will eventually be rolled out.

[Pam in CA]

OMG! Where did you learn this? It is totallly different than what you said in the other posting. LOL

No it's not. :) It's been on the Royal Princess since June 2013, the Regal, the Sapphire and, I believe, the Crown. I don't know about other ships. The TVs are interactive with on-demand movies, TV shows and rebroadcasts of talks and lectures. Princess@Sea is available on these ships via Intranet on your smartphone, tablet or computer. Both are a work-in-progress and being rolled out to all ships. That's not inconsistent with what I posted earlier. Your poll refers strictly to interactive TV, which Princess does have.

[dmwnc1959]

What I would like to see available on the in-cabin TV is the photos the ship's photographers take. Most of the time we don't think to check the gallery while the photos are out so that would be something we can do on our own schedule.

 

 

I have a question about this, and maybe I don't have all the facts straight, so maybe someone can correct me if I am wrong.

 

The photographers on the ship are contracted by the cruise line, are employees of an 'outside company', and don't actually belong to Princess Cruises, so neither would the pictures they take. And as I understand it, the pictures they are taking are also copyright protected.

 

So maybe they have chosen not to allow their product to be displayed in the privacy of someones stateroom to keep dishonest passengers from 'stealing' by 'taking pictures of the pictures' with their own cameras? With some of these LCD HDTV's and high-end cameras, you could still come out with a pretty decent image that way, and then not buy their product from the photo gallery.

 

:D

[Loonbeam]

That would make a certain amount of sense, although photos of a digital image have their own issues unless you have some really decent equipment.

 

Could be handled by a giant watermark tho.

 

I have a question about this, and maybe I don't have all the facts straight, so maybe someone can correct me if I am wrong.

 

The photographers on the ship are contracted by the cruise line, are employees of an 'outside company', and don't actually belong to Princess Cruises, so neither would the pictures they take. And as I understand it, the pictures they are taking are also copyright protected.

 

So maybe they have chosen not to allow their product to be displayed in the privacy of someones stateroom to keep dishonest passengers from 'stealing' by 'taking pictures of the pictures' with their own cameras? With some of these LCD HDTV's and high-end cameras, you could still come out with a pretty decent image that way, and then not buy their product from the photo gallery.

 

:D

[dmwnc1959]

And on a related note I hope that the on-demand programming available on Royal and Regal does not spread fleetwide as that would likely signal both the end of the occasional sea day matinee and/or late movie on nights with only pre-dinner shows in the Princess Theater and the likelihood of pay movies as on Celebrity.

 

 

I'm not quite sure this would happen. If I remember correctly, even on Allure of the Seas - which has the best interactive in-stateroom TV system I have seen, as well as PPV movies - they still ran a movie in the main showroom in the afternoons.

 

:D

[dmwnc1959]

That would make a certain amount of sense, although photos of a digital image have their own issues unless you have some really decent equipment.

 

Could be handled by a giant watermark tho.

 

 

I have used my iPhone 6 Plus to take screen grabs at home off of my LG brand LCD HDTV, and they are certainly of a good enough quality. Not saying that I would do the same on a cruise ship, and looking back I have some TV screen grabs even from Royal Princess (with an iPhone 5) that were sharp enough, but I imagine there are those dishonest enough that would instead of paying gobs of money for a dozen pictures from the photo gallery, despite the resolution or quality of the screenshots.

 

 

Edited January 3, 2015 by dmwnc1959

[MarkSeattle]

I can skip the MDR menu or onboard account on the TV. They'd probably need a set top box to make it any good vs. the antiquated ones on some lines and hotels, and I don't see the cost/power/tech support trade off being worthwhile unless they sell a bunch of movies I guess...

 

They rolled Princess@Sea out on the Emerald the first night of the Dec 21 cruise. I think it's a great start. I've always left my phone in the safe, but found it easier to carry it around in the afternoons and evenings than the Patter to see what was going on in the ship. I used it to review my onboard account a couple of times too. Also, every port has free wifi somewhere, so I may start carrying my phone off the ship too without needing to worry about international data plans or roaming.

 

Adding the menus to the free wifi would be a great addition, although they still need to do some work on the level of detail shown (e.g. It will say performer A in the Princess Theater at 7pm, but the details don't say if he's a commedian, singer, etc.).

 

There was no hint of the text messaging other passengers I've seen mentioned, and not sure how that would work as you don't have to log in to use Princess@Sea unless you want to view your onboard account. That would be useful if traveling with a group though. I think they'd need an app instead of the browser only interface.

Edited January 3, 2015 by MarkSeattle

[RickEk]

I can skip the MDR menu or onboard account on the TV. They'd probably need a set top box to make it any good vs. the antiquated ones on some lines and hotels, and I don't see the cost/power/tech support trade off being worthwhile unless they sell a bunch of movies I guess...

 

 

The on-demand video has a box that they attach to the back of the TV. Pretty sure it's a form of IPTV.

[dmwnc1959]

This...:D

 

 

I've always left my phone in the safe, but found it easier to carry it around in the afternoons and evenings than the Patter to see what was going on in the ship. I used it to review my onboard account a couple of times too. Also, every port has free wifi somewhere, so I may start carrying my phone off the ship too...

 

 

However, the paper version of the Princess Patters made a nice souvenir of sorts.

 

And on my last cruise, I found that I left the Olympus in my stateroom more often and used my iPhone as the primary camera. It made it so much easier to upload pictures straight from there to Flickr without having to download them to my Netbook first.

 

;)