Medallions to replace cruise cards?

[SadieN]

I don't see how that will work for late bookings, or back to back bookings, or if you aren't at home for a couple of weeks before the cruise...........

 

I can see it would be useful on board so they could see for example how Anytime Dining is going, peak times etc, line length, there is some Big Brother watching you element to this as well.

Maybe you can put it in a special metal case so it only transmits back when you take it out to open your cabin door or whatever?

 

And as the passenger age on Princess seems to go up with every Princess cruise I go on I wonder how seniors will like this? Many don't like cellphones.

 

Maybe they can just use the things without having to understand them?

 

 

Late bookings would get their Medallion at check in.

 

Just thinking the same thing about blocking the RFID. Many already are using RFID wallets and sleeves. Actually got a sleeve with the Passport Card.

 

Besides seniors not liking smart phones, there's a bunch of pax who completely disconnect for the duration of the cruise.

[caribill]

There were two uses for the Medallion I found on the PDF file on the Princess website that I found most interesting. The first is "Significantly enhances interactions with crew members and guests (for example, a room attendant or bartender will have the ability to assist you with booking Lotus Spa services or specialty dining reservations.)"

 

 

Before the Medallions, staff members know their job (usually well) but usually have very little knowledge of other areas of the ship.

 

 

To have a room steward or bar tender to be able to help with other areas of the ship (Spa services, shore excursion bookings, specialty restaurant reservation changes, etc.) will take a great training effort, especially with those where English is not the primary language.

 

 

I will be surprised if any staff member in contact with a passenger can really deliver on this promise.

 

Heck, I would be happy if the staff, when asked on embarkation day, would say "Yes, there is a dining room open for lunch today. It is on deck 6 near the atrium and will be open until 1:30 PM."

[Grego]

Actually, the RFID medallion is the better compromise to what was also on the table for a solution to tracking each passenger. The "anal probe" would be a permanent solution that could be used not only for cruise travel but in everyday life once you left the ship.;p

 

The big advantage for me using the RFID tag, is that I won't have to make the daily trip to the Purser's desk to have a new cruise card made to replace the one that got wiped out.

[floridalover5623]

I can't wait for Medallions. We've been cancelling our cruise cards over & over on this cruise. I think they've got a batch of cards that don't keep the coding very well and it doesn't take much to cancel the card.

[Musky Ike]

I don't see how that will work for late bookings, or back to back bookings, or if you aren't at home for a couple of weeks before the cruise...........I can see it would be useful on board so they could see for example how Anytime

 

Available at boarding if forgotten or not received.

 

Dining is going, peak times etc, line length, there is some Big Brother watching you element to this as well.

Maybe you can put it in a special metal case so it only transmits back when you take it out to open your cabin door or whatever?

 

Will not transmit, just recognized by gadgets that do. Similar to a cruise card only no physical contact needed.

 

And as the passenger age on Princess seems to go up with every Princess cruise I go on I wonder how seniors will like this? Many don't like cellphones.

Maybe they can just use the things without having to understand them?

 

 

Set to safety only it would be much like the cruise card except touchless. This senior is looking forward to it.

[pablo222]

This is where the rubber will meet the road.

I think where the rubber meets the road will be princess implementing this.

 

Princess' onboard messenger isn't half as good as what other cruiselines have,

no notifications, etc.

 

Nearly every day, there is a new thread here -- anyone else having problems

logging into the princess web site; I can't view it on my iPad, etc.

Hundreds of threads -- cruisecritic should just have a cron job that starts

a new one every day, as a convenience for the posters here.

 

Pre-cruise emails -- they come they go. Some people get them, some people don't.

 

A few years ago, princess had a couple tablets on emerald for drink orders. A

server could enter your order on a tablet in the lido, and by the time they

got to the bar, the drink would be made. That lasted a few months and then

died.

 

On regal and royal they had some stations in the photo area that were supposed

to do face recognition, and let you view 'your' pictures. I have never seen that

working.

 

What reason is there to believe that when princess implements medallions,

it will be any more successful than any of the above?

[Griller]

Set to safety only it would be much like the cruise card except touchless. This senior is looking forward to it.

 

You say they don't transmit, there are a few different categories of RFID tags, but the most common ones are the "passive" type. Passive RFID chips contain no internal power supply. They contain an antenna which is able to have a current induced in it when within range of the RFID reader. The tag then uses that electricity to power the internal chip, which bounces its data back out through the antenna, where it will be picked up by the reader.

 

Isn't that a transmission?

[flamomo]

I wonder if the color on the face of the medallions will match each's cruiser's Captain's Circle status. Such as blue for newbies, silver for Platinum, or black for Elite.

[flamomo]

I am wondering how it will be handled if a passenger loses their medallion while ashore in port, and would not have it for ID upon reboarding.

For that matter, without their medallion, would they even be allowed to re-enter the port, as cruise cards often need to be shown to port security at the gate.

[Griller]

 

Information on it will be encrypted for privacy concerns.

 

 

You certainly sound like a cheerleader there, my privacy concern is Princess having my data, its oppressive and smacks too much of Big Brother watching me.

[Musky Ike]

You say they don't transmit, there are a few different categories of RFID tags, but the most common ones are the "passive" type. Passive RFID chips contain no internal power supply. They contain an antenna which is able to have a current induced in it when within range of the RFID reader. The tag then uses that electricity to power the internal chip, which bounces its data back out through the antenna, where it will be picked up by the reader.Isn't that a transmission?

Communication yes, transfer of location and identifier, yes, transmitter no. My understanding is they would not be internally powered and so not a continually broadcasting beacon. That would be expensive and probably need to be made larger and reusable from cruise to cruise. Princess wants to have locator tags on their "pets" not a black box:)

 

Like the cruise card, only an identifier is transferred, the information is stored elsewhere. Subtle semantics difference for sure. :)

[Musky Ike]

I am wondering how it will be handled if a passenger loses their medallion while ashore in port, and would not have it for ID upon reboarding.

For that matter, without their medallion, would they even be allowed to re-enter the port, as cruise cards often need to be shown to port security at the gate.

 

So no different than losing a cruise card?

[JimmyVWine]

 

What reason is there to believe that when princess implements medallions,

it will be any more successful than any of the above?

 

Mostly because this is not Princess-generated technology and is largely lifted from other guest experience applications. Disney, Universal and others served as the test animals to get many of the kinks out. Not to say that there won't be "glitches". Surely there will. But the overall platform is purchased technology that is already up and running in lots of other situations. If you told me that Princess has its best and brightest working in the basement of their Corporate HQ in Santa Clarita pounding away at designing the platform, I'd laugh at the idea that this will work as intended.

[PescadoAmarillo]

I wonder if the color on the face of the medallions will match each's cruiser's Captain's Circle status. Such as blue for newbies, silver for Platinum, or black for Elite.

I really hope not. Those 'Elites wear their cards on a lanyard around their necks just to brag about their status' claims on Cruise Critic do get wearisome.

 

 

One thing for sure: the number of prior cruises won't be shown in the corner. I always punched a hole in mine at that spot so no one could comment on that.

[JimmyVWine]

I really hope not.

 

I get where you are coming from, but I think that there is a 0% chance that the medallion colors will not correspond to Captain's Circle status.

[Griller]

I really hope not. Those 'Elites wear their cards on a lanyard around their necks just to brag about their status' claims on Cruise Critic do get wearisome. .

 

 

I wear mine on a lanyard so I don't get it near anything magnetic or lose it.

 

No need to be nasty about fellow members

[JimmyVWine]

If you want some good information about the Medallions I would suggest looking up Arnold Donald's (Carnival CEO) presentation of the Medallions at the Consumer Electronic Show (CES). It is just over an hour long and I paused it in a few spots to get a better look at the information screens that they showed. From my understanding of things, the passenger can load up as much or as little info onto the Medallion as they choose.

 

Thanks for pointing us to that. It was a worthwhile hour that explained and expanded on the Ocean Medallion concept in a way that far exceeds any press releases or p.r. materials that Princess has released so far.

[pascalburns]

it will be interesting,thats for sure,to see how it works.:cool:

[PescadoAmarillo]

I wear mine on a lanyard so I don't get it near anything magnetic or lose it.

 

No need to be nasty about fellow members

I really think you missed the point of my comment. I wear mine on a lanyard too at times.

[Mom33]

You certainly sound like a cheerleader there, my privacy concern is Princess having my data, its oppressive and smacks too much of Big Brother watching me.[/quote]

 

 

You mean you didn't know" Big Brother" has been watching you for years?

There is no privacy anywhere. Cameras are everywhere and Information about your likes and dislikes are recorded wherever you go on the internet.

Watch the ads on the sites you visit, like Facebook for instance, and notice they are for things you have shopped for or from sites you have visited.

The data Princess collects on the Medallion won't make much of a difference.

 

Expressing a positive opinion on the Princess threads is not "cheerleading" anymore than expressing a negative opinion is "griping".

Everyone is entitled to their opinion without name calling. :)

[Thrak]

For the "Big Brother" people: If you have a Facebook account and are worried about this medallion then I either pity you or envy your naivete. The medallion mainly tracks where you are onboard and allows data gathering. Most of the data gathering can already be done with the cruise card but this will add more useful data. It will not "hurt" you in any way.

 

Have you ever been on a B2B and had to sit and wait (and wait, and wait) because some clown thought he was too important to have to exit the ship and then return? Nobody can do a dang thing until someone (finally) tracks the offender down and makes them follow the rules. Have you ever endured the long and drawn out "Will passenger so and so please report" because some person has managed to re-board without a scan or something? Princess staff will know if you are onboard and, if so, where you are.

 

As for the "data safety" crowd: No data is stored on the medallion. It merely contains a unique identifier. All data is on the secure servers with very robust encryption. The medallion is a passive device. The ship polls the area(s) and, if your medallion is in the area, it can be seen by the ship. If you lose the thing then nobody can "get your info" as there is no info on the medallion. A replacement can be issued by passenger services just as they currently replace lost or defective cruise cards. The medallion doesn't rely on a funky and easily trashed magnetic strip. It is not prone to the same erasure as is commonly found with cruise cards.

 

For those who say you can "keep the cruise card" if you like: I don't think so. When asked that specific question in a press conference (available online) Tony Roberts (Princess Cruises Vice President for UK and Europe) never said a darn thing about keeping the card. He deflected it by saying only that the medallion was able to be put into "safety mode" so that passengers in your party can't track you and other features are disabled but Princess staff will still be able to locate you.

 

I am not a "cheer leader" but I am also not afraid of this technology and am looking forward to using it. I am booked on the third ship (Caribbean Princess) to get the medallions. Also, while I am not "old" I will be 64 in another week so I am not some young person who only wants the "new and shiny" thing. I have no misgivings at all in regard to this new tech.

 

Note: I have made disparaging remarks regarding the IT staff that maintain the Princess web site. Do you really think that Princess is investing literally billions of dollars in this new system and then going to trust it to the K-Mart type of staff that seems to handle their web site? They have hired some "big guns" for this project. I've watched literally every release they have made regarding this new technology - I do check to see if there is newer info available - and I don't have any worries.

Edited February 23, 2017 by Thrak

[keithm]

While on the CB in Jan., I happened to talk to a casino employee about CB's upcoming drydock in March. Other than the usual maintenance things like carpet replacement, etc., he said they would be installing the necessary technology to implement the use of the medallion system. He said the medallion would be used to open cabin doors, pay for drinks, etc. In other words, it would replace the cruise card. Anyone else heard about this?

We got a lot of info. about it in the latest "Captain's Circle" we got a few days ago. If you want to "stick" with the cruise card you may do so. Personally I kind of like all the "preferences" the Medallion can absorb. I think it would make the cruise that more smooth. I'm sure the "techies" will love it. The older pax(the rest of us old Pharts) perhaps not so much.

[Thrak]

We got a lot of info. about it in the latest "Captain's Circle" we got a few days ago. If you want to "stick" with the cruise card you may do so. Personally I kind of like all the "preferences" the Medallion can absorb. I think it would make the cruise that more smooth. I'm sure the "techies" will love it. The older pax(the rest of us old Pharts) perhaps not so much.

 

 

I keep hoping this will show up in the mail soon. I haven't seen anything in writing or in a video yet that confirms one can "stick" with the cruise card. As of today, the info on the Princess web site FAQ says:

Will I be able to opt out of or turn off this new technology?

If you do not want to take advantage of the full Ocean Medallion Class experience, you can switch your privacy setting to "Safety Only" and enjoy the cruise the same great way you do today.

 

Looking forward to the arrival of the magazine for further info as your post indicates that they directly contradict the info on the web site.

[Griller]

For the "Big Brother" people: If you have a Facebook account and are worried about this medallion then I either pity you or envy your naivete. The medallion mainly tracks where you are onboard and allows data gathering. Most of the data gathering can already be done with the cruise card but this will add more useful data. It will not "hurt" you in any way.

 

Have you ever been on a B2B and had to sit and wait (and wait, and wait) because some clown thought he was too important to have to exit the ship and then return? Nobody can do a dang thing until someone (finally) tracks the offender down and makes them follow the rules. Have you ever endured the long and drawn out "Will passenger so and so please report" because some person has managed to re-board without a scan or something? Princess staff will know if you are onboard and, if so, where you are.

 

As for the "data safety" crowd: No data is stored on the medallion. It merely contains a unique identifier. All data is on the secure servers with very robust encryption. The medallion is a passive device. The ship polls the area(s) and, if your medallion is in the area, it can be seen by the ship. If you lose the thing then nobody can "get your info" as there is no info on the medallion. A replacement can be issued by passenger services just as they currently replace lost or defective cruise cards. The medallion doesn't rely on a funky and easily trashed magnetic strip. It is not prone to the same erasure as is commonly found with cruise cards.

 

For those who say you can "keep the cruise card" if you like: I don't think so. When asked that specific question in a press conference (available online) Tony Roberts (Princess Cruises Vice President for UK and Europe) never said a darn thing about keeping the card. He deflected it by saying only that the medallion was able to be put into "safety mode" so that passengers in your party can't track you and other features are disabled but Princess staff will still be able to locate you.

 

I am not a "cheer leader" but I am also not afraid of this technology and am looking forward to using it. I am booked on the third ship (Caribbean Princess) to get the medallions. Also, while I am not "old" I will be 64 in another week so I am not some young person who only wants the "new and shiny" thing. I have no misgivings at all in regard to this new tech.

 

Note: I have made disparaging remarks regarding the IT staff that maintain the Princess web site. Do you really think that Princess is investing literally billions of dollars in this new system and then going to trust it to the K-Mart type of staff that seems to handle their web site? They have hired some "big guns" for this project. I've watched literally every release they have made regarding this new technology - I do check to see if there is newer info available - and I don't have any worries.

 

 

What it comes down to is I do not want to be electronically tagged like a criminal on bail, with someone able to track my every move. Its an invasion of privacy.

[Thrak]

What it comes down to is I do not want to be electronically tagged like a criminal on bail, with someone able to track my every move. Its an invasion of privacy.

 

They only want to know where YOU are in an emergency or if they need to find you for some reason. They will be tracking things like how many people show up for the early show or the late show. Perhaps how many people leave during a performance. How many people go to MUTS? If people complain about chair hogs maybe they will check to see how many people are actually in the area as opposed to empty loungers with towels on them. (I would love that.)

 

 

They have neither the time nor the inclination go care at all what you are doing as an individual. I think it's good that parents can find their kids and know if they are actually where they are supposed to be. I personally don't care if my wife can use the TV or a touchscreen around the ship to find out where I am. It doesn't bother me a bit. Of course I won't be spending time in some other woman's cabin and need to hide or anything. However, if that did bother me, I could have the thing put into safety mode and she wouldn't be able to track me.

 

 

You are on a ship at sea. They essentially know where you are anyway. It's not like you maybe ran out to the store or something.

 

If it really bothers you then just don't book cruises on a ship with the new tech. It will take a long time for all of the Princess ships to get it and much longer for the rest of the CCL fleet to do the same.