Get ready for Ocean Medallion Class™

[chamima]

i don't think Princess does this. not any of their ships i've seen anyways.

I know a few Norwegian ships do, but that about the only ones I can recall seeing.

 

 

The Royal and the Regal do this.

It's supposed to be energy saving but we, like many, many others, just put an old hotel card in the slot thus circumventing any savings.

[floridalover5623]

i don't think Princess does this. not any of their ships i've seen anyways.

I know a few Norwegian ships do, but that about the only ones I can recall seeing.

It's only on the Royal class ships for now.

[srpilo]

And of course you remember the Promotional video for the Royal Princess which said there would be two "glass" pianos near each other in the atrium.

Yeah exactly :)

I think everyone needs to take a deep breath...

 

 

Sorry to all the predictors but a promotional pre-launch video in no way constitutes a official announcement from Princess on any subject.

Srpilo

[pablo222]

Sorry to all the predictors but a promotional pre-launch video in no way constitutes a official announcement from Princess on any subject.

 

Even if you believe an 'official announcement' from Princess, I think you are going to have

a hard time finding a fondue restuarant; or a late-night on deck night club on regal/royal.

[ar1950]

Even if you believe an 'official announcement' from Princess, I think you are going to have

a hard time finding a fondue restuarant; or a late-night on deck night club on regal/royal.

 

A couple of years ago on the Regal one night they did have the "night club" up on the deck in the Retreat Pool area. We went up and it was windy, cool/cold weather and there were probably 3 or 4 couples up there. Not exactly a popular idea it would seem.

[IECalCruiser]

A couple of years ago on the Regal one night they did have the "night club" up on the deck in the Retreat Pool area. We went up and it was windy, cool/cold weather and there were probably 3 or 4 couples up there. Not exactly a popular idea it would seem.

The Retreat Pool area is now enclosed on the Majestic and has been renamed the Hollywood Pool Club. Don't know what that area will be like on the fourth Princess Royal class ship to start sailing in 2019.

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[pablo222]

A couple of years ago on the Regal one night they did have the "night club" up on the deck in the Retreat Pool area. We went up and it was windy, cool/cold weather and there were probably 3 or 4 couples up there. Not exactly a popular idea it would seem.

 

I think originally, there was supposed to be a fee for this venue.

 

File the idea next to "Limelight Studio" on grand.

[srpilo]

Even if you believe an 'official announcement' from Princess, I think you are going to have

a hard time finding a fondue restuarant; or a late-night on deck night club on regal/royal.

 

Exactly .. I rest my case :)

 

Srpilo

[UpcountryTravelers]

I guess those extra coffee cards will be useless when the medallions go into use.:rolleyes:

Joanie

 

Yep. May as well as trash them.

[UpcountryTravelers]

Because people with many old coffee cards from past cruises both unused & partly used would not be in their system. There's no easy way to get the information in the database.

 

Coffee card are very much "maybe" items as it stands now. I would expect them to be completely invalid on Medallion cruises.

[caribill]

Coffee card are very much "maybe" items as it stands now. I would expect them to be completely invalid on Medallion cruises.

 

AIBP will be on Medallions, but I have not heard that coffee cards would be.

 

AIBP does not require punches. Specialty coffees do with the coffee card and the punches can be shared, so you do not have to be the Medallion owner to use a punch.

 

If two people with coffee cards would have that info on Medallions, then sending one person to get two coffees would require that person taking both Medallions. (Hmm, would the lights go out in a cabin if both medallions are removed?)

 

 

Also interesting is how exchanging an Elite bar setup for two coffee cards would work.

 

In any event, I would expect Princess to honor all unused punches on past Coffee Cards.

[floridalover5623]

Coffee card are very much "maybe" items as it stands now. I would expect them to be completely invalid on Medallion cruises.

You can't be serious. Do you actually think they would irritate literally thousands of people with old unused coffee cards?

If the Medallions are to be used for obtaining coffee without issuing any cards, Princess would have to continue honoring the old ones forever just like when they changed the older FCC's a while ago, although they did have a dated expiration.

[Evangaline]

You can't be serious. Do you actually think they would irritate literally thousands of people with old unused coffee cards?

.

 

I'm not sure cruise lines are opposed to irritating thousands of people. They seem to do it all the time.

 

Sometimes I wonder if they don't do it on purpose, like, "Hey, what don't we do this messed up thing and see how crazy they get." okay maybe not. But there was this dunce cap at Norwegian who decided one fine day that passengers would no longer be able to bring food back to their cabin. He eventually backed down because cruisers got so angry it was scary.

Edited July 5, 2017 by Evangaline

[floridalover5623]

I'm not sure cruise lines are opposed to irritating thousands of people. They seem to do it all the time.

 

Sometimes I wonder if they don't do it on purpose, like, "Hey, what don't we do this messed up thing and see how crazy they get." okay maybe not. But there was this dunce cap at Norwegian who decided one fine day that passengers would no longer be able to bring food back to their cabin. He eventually backed down because cruisers got so angry it was scary.

I do remember that fiasco a short while ago.

I still say that if they intend on switching to Medallions to replace the old style coffee cards they'll have to cycle the old previously sold cards out before cutting the cord.

I'm sure everyone on this board has many of them saved for future cruises.

[chamima]

I do remember that fiasco a short while ago.

I still say that if they intend on switching to Medallions to replace the old style coffee cards they'll have to cycle the old previously sold cards out before cutting the cord.

I'm sure everyone on this board has many of them saved for future cruises.

 

 

We're going on a cruise in the fall with the AIBP and I was planning on getting 2 coffee cards (for future cruises) in place of the Elite little bottles we usually get in the cabin.

If they do away with the coffee cards what will happen to that?

[Pierlesscruisers]

Here it is with the first medallion cruise still 4 months away and people are already dreaming up wild scenarios about what the new medallions are and are not going to be able to do, what is going to become obsolete, what is not going to become workable, and who knows what other things are going to pop out of the woodwork! Coffee cards will/won't work, stateroom lights will/won't work. I'm really a bit surprised that someone hasn't asked if the medallions will let cruisers tele-transport their luggage to/from the airport! :o:confused:

 

The fact is, the medallion is coming whether we like it or not. This is not the first cruise line to have such a device and 3-4 years from now there will still be people who swear by the medallion and others who will swear at it! But in either case, most of us will still be cruising. My only wonder is by that time, what other lines will have changed to a similar system and which ones will be getting ready to!

 

Tom

[MrMan]

Here it is with the first medallion cruise still 4 months away and people are already dreaming up wild scenarios about what the new medallions are and are not going to be able to do, what is going to become obsolete, what is not going to become workable, and who knows what other things are going to pop out of the woodwork! Coffee cards will/won't work, stateroom lights will/won't work. I'm really a bit surprised that someone hasn't asked if the medallions will let cruisers tele-transport their luggage to/from the airport! :o:confused:

 

 

 

The fact is, the medallion is coming whether we like it or not. This is not the first cruise line to have such a device and 3-4 years from now there will still be people who swear by the medallion and others who will swear at it! But in either case, most of us will still be cruising. My only wonder is by that time, what other lines will have changed to a similar system and which ones will be getting ready to!

 

 

 

Tom

 

 

 

It's change. This is an issue to the .00009 percent of customers who care. For the remainder it's not even on their radar or have more significant things to be concerned about. If coffee cards changed colors there would be 10 pages of but, but, but....... Change is hard for some be it better or not better, and it's difficult for some to comprehend or understand how the change could be good, especially when it comes to technology (why do I need a smart phone when my flip phone works just fine?)

[dolfansam]

Here it is with the first medallion cruise still 4 months away and people are already dreaming up wild scenarios about what the new medallions are and are not going to be able to do, what is going to become obsolete, what is not going to become workable, and who knows what other things are going to pop out of the woodwork! Coffee cards will/won't work, stateroom lights will/won't work. I'm really a bit surprised that someone hasn't asked if the medallions will let cruisers tele-transport their luggage to/from the airport! :o:confused:

 

 

 

The fact is, the medallion is coming whether we like it or not. This is not the first cruise line to have such a device and 3-4 years from now there will still be people who swear by the medallion and others who will swear at it! But in either case, most of us will still be cruising. My only wonder is by that time, what other lines will have changed to a similar system and which ones will be getting ready to!

 

 

 

Tom

 

 

 

I think it will be fun to get a display case to show off the medallions. I will admit I was not to crazy about a wrist band when I was on Anthem. I thought I would just using the card anyway, but I ended up loving the convenience of it. When your hands are full, the Windjammer was always packed so I ate in my room many times, you just tap the door and you are in. You don't have to put everything down search for your card, punch your card in the door, open the door, pick your stuff up and bring it in the room.

 

Yes there were sometimes it would not work as well, such as making purchases in the shops. There were times I would have to take it off to get the sensor to read it. But it worked, I did not have to go and get my room card because it would not read the bracelet while I was wearing it. It was not all the time, but only a few instances.

 

I say go into this with an open mind. Give it a try and you may actually like it. For those worried about losing it and someone using it for purchases, no need to worry because your picture will still come up when someone attempts to use it.

 

 

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[Pierlesscruisers]

I say go into this with an open mind. Give it a try and you may actually like it. For those worried about losing it and someone using it for purchases, no need to worry because your picture will still come up when someone attempts to use it.

 

Yep! Well, said.

 

Tom

[latserrof]

 

 

I was on an NCL cruise a couple months ago, met a couple of Australian women -- a large blonde and a petit brunette. At one port, the brunette mistakenly took the blonde's cruise card instead of her own and went ashore. Later the blonde went ashore using the brunette's. Each was later able to reboard using the other's cruise card, no questions asked.

Edited July 5, 2017 by latserrof
grammar

[XBGuy]

For those who are concerned about fraudulent charges made on a lost medallion, I would suggest that Princess would install procedures similar to those used by credit card issuers when a credit card is lost or stolen, or maybe this is a better example, the loss of a hotel key card.

 

If a passenger loses his/her medallion, he/she should report the loss to the Guest Services Desk as soon as possible. A new medallion will be issued to the passenger and the old, now lost, one will be marked as "lost" on the ship's system. This will effectively disable the lost medallion. If it is presented on the ship for goods or services, it will not be honored, and the clerk/bartender/service provider will have been instructed to confiscate the lost medallion. He/she might even be trained to summon ship's security.

 

Of course, it is then the responsibility of the passenger who lost the medallion to start carefully monitoring his/her folio immediately. Any suspicious activity should be reported to the Guest Services Desk as soon as possible. If Princess is reasonable assured that a charge is fraudulent, they will remove it. If the passenger does not report suspicious transactions before leaving the ship, my opinion is that they have no recourse. Princess provides the capability for passengers to conveniently review their folio as often as they would like. Excuses such as "I forgot" or "I didn't have the time," just will not fly.

 

Also, I really don't understand why the medallion can't be used as a replacement for the coffee card. It seems to me that having it on the medallion system is just one less thing to carry around. The issue of continuing use of the old coffee cards seems trivial to me, also. They can keep a hole-puncher in the coffee bar for use with the old cards for a few years. Eventually, they will go away. Maybe people are concerned that there will be unused coffee credits on their medallion system record at the end of the cruise. In that case, I guess there are three possible remedies:

 

1. Those coffee credits could be maintained in the history of the passenger's medallion record and available for use on subsequent Princess cruises. There is nothing in any of the medallion announcements that indicates that this capability is there. However, technically, it would be pretty easy to implement. Also, I suppose that many people will be distressed because they can't sell the unused coffee credits on E-Bay and they could give them to their friend who is taking a Princess cruise.
   
2. After the cruise, Princess could send a refund check to the passenger for the unused coffee credits. This seems unlikely, to me. I really think we are talking a trivial amount here. There would be disputes between passengers and Princess about the value of the unused credit. Finally, there is a cost for Princess to do this.
   
3. Princess could just establish a policy that unused credits are lost at the end of the cruise. This is probably the easiest solution. Of course, there would be a uproar here on Cruise Critics, but, heck, who's kidding who, we all love obssessive over things like this.
   

[Roberto256]

I think it will be fun to get a display case to show off the medallions

 

This company will embed the medallion in clear lucite for your display case:

 

https://socaltrophy.com/index.php?l=page_view&p=lucite_embedments

[floridalover5623]

We're going on a cruise in the fall with the AIBP and I was planning on getting 2 coffee cards (for future cruises) in place of the Elite little bottles we usually get in the cabin.

If they do away with the coffee cards what will happen to that?

Who knows? Anything posted today is pure speculation as to what Princess will do later this year.

Why not call the Princess reps.? I'm sure they'll have numerous answers to provide about the Medallions. ;);):D

[LeeRB]

Who knows? Anything posted today is pure speculation as to what Princess will do later this year.

Why not call the Princess reps.? I'm sure they'll have numerous answers to provide about the Medallions. ;);):D

 

 

I tried that already, my vacation planner there hadn’t gone to class on the Medallion Class yet she suggested I call back sometime around early to mid-August, she may know something then; and I am booked on the Nov 13 Regal sailing. The final payment on that cruise is due in mid-August.

 

All I wanted to know was how far in advance they would be sending out the medallions at that point. I am on the Nov 5th sailing of the Royal as well as the 5th; and am concerned about the medallion not arriving before I left for the first of the two cruises. I honestly think their vacation planners have been kept in the dark as much as everyone else about what is going on with specifics about OCEAN Medallion Class. All she seems to know about it so far is will give me the greatest cruise experience I have ever had; but can’t tell me why.:(:confused:

[JF - retired RRT]

All I wanted to know was how far in advance they would be sending out the medallions at that point. I am on the Nov 5th sailing of the Royal as well as the 5th; and am concerned about the medallion not arriving before I left for the first of the two cruises.

If what you're talking about is a B2B, they'll likely treat it the same as they currently do with the cruise cards.