Live from the Regal Princess First Ocean Medallion Cruise November 13 2017

[ceilidh1]

I'm curious about what happens with children in terms of the medallion. I travel with my 2 kids (10 and 6) and, while the 10 year old carries her own cruise card I would NEVER entrust the 6 year old with his! Would this be a problem once the medallion is in place? I am wondering about when dropping him at kids club, etc and then I am walking around with 2 medallions while he has none?

[Go-Bucks!]

The goal of the medallion is to redefine the guest experience and to improve our overall vacation experience.

 

Well....not really. The real goal is to make more money for Princess. They "learn" all your preferences and wants (drinks, etc) and keep you supplied. That is money in their pocket. But I'm not complaining - I own CCL stock, so when they make money, I make money! ;)

 

 

• 
  
• When you board the Regal, you are now brought in to the Piazza and are guided around to the mid ship elevators. The goal is to create a more welcoming experience
  
• 
  
• They did it this way on 11/5 when we embarked.
  
• 
  
• The crew is very excited about them.
  

Oh right. ;p

 

The crew on the Regal was hand picked to be a pioneer on the new technology. They know that they need to be adaptive to the technology and they're all really excited to embrace the technology.

 

Oh sure......I bet EVERYONE isn't "excited to embrace the technology." :')

 

Our internet was still VERY slow on the 11/5 cruise!

 

Question: someone mentioned that life vests aren't necessary at muster drill. We still had to have them on 11/5. Are they now showing a video like Celebrity does?? We can only hope so!

[cruisequeen4ever]

MojoJones, you’re incredible to type all that out to share with us! Thank you! We are on the 12/28 sailing, and though we are not part of the test group, my 🤞 now that the whole ship will have it by then!

 

 

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[MojoJones]

Our internet was still VERY slow on the 11/5 cruise!

 

Question: someone mentioned that life vests aren't necessary at muster drill. We still had to have them on 11/5. Are they now showing a video like Celebrity does?? We can only hope so!

 

No life jackets at today's drill. It was an audio presentation that was actually very well done. It was like they know they have to do it so let's make it at least semi-enjoyable since you're a captive audience.

 

The new internet didn't launch until today. I've had no issues so far today and have been online off and on all day. I do know that there are people who aren't happy about some of the apps not working but even at 10:45 pm, I still see the IT teams working as well as the bigwigs from corporate out and interacting with the guests. They're not hiding in a conference room.

 

Is it a perfect situation? Nope, it's not but you'll get out of it what you put in to it. I won't have a medallion on the 4 day right after this one so I wanted to share what I've experienced.

 

They are having another Q&A session tomorrow night in the Vista lounge with Jan and John. It's open to all guests.

 

There's only 1348 passengers on board. I think the number will be around the same for the four day. I can tell you that I was speaking with the sanctuary manager. I got up there at 11:15 and it was almost booked for the week. Apparently management had them put a bunch of chairs on hold for the vip's. They let me book both cruises while I was there and the four day was almost full as well.

 

Anything else, let us know. We'll try to get the answers if we can.

 

Kris

[MojoJones]

MojoJones, you’re incredible to type all that out to share with us! Thank you! We are on the 12/28 sailing, and though we are not part of the test group, my 🤞 now that the whole ship will have it by then!

 

 

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Don't take what I say as rule of the land as the rollout may change. I don't want to get anyone's hopes up and have them disappointed. Timing may change depending on what the feedback from the first few cruises is.

 

Kris

[cruisequeen4ever]

Don't take what I say as rule of the land as the rollout may change. I don't want to get anyone's hopes up and have them disappointed. Timing may change depending on what the feedback from the first few cruises is.

 

 

 

Kris

 

 

 

Of course; don’t worry. It just gave me a glimmer of hope. [emoji3]

 

 

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[Makin'n'Bacon]

Wonderful info! Thanks for sharing!

We are on the 4 day gives us an idea of what to expect, definitely wouldn't be disappointed if the ship wasn't full especially at Princess Cays.

 

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[mcg1313]

Live From Regal Princess Ocean Medallion Cruise - Day 2 - Nov 14, 2007

 

Had breakfast with one of the " Chosen Ones " who checked in yesterday and was issued a medallion. He said he did not have a clue what it was or why he was chosen. His door unlocked one time and after that stopped working. He was issued a "back-up card" and said his package came with no instructions and no one contacted him with help or instruction. I told him to contact any team member and they would help him. Communication seems to be lacking but I am sure that will improve with time.

We want this technology to succeed so we all can enjoy the many ways it will improve our "come back NEW experience "

 

 

PS foods been great, people friendly , and the ship beautiful.

Princess we are rooting for you.

 

John McGibbon

[cruzrbachoua]

following..cant wait to hear more!

[jkeller527]

I believe so - we downloaded it before we got our medallion and it just hooked into our princess website account.

SocialOcean hasn't worked yet on the ship's Wi-Fi yet so can't confirm the messaging options but I think that is how they are selling it

 

Sandra and Chris

We are after you How did you download the app before you left and attach to account

[Boomie1]

Sailed her recently 10/26 to 11/6 Internet was terrible. Hopefully the Ocean Medallion will vastly improve the ship’s internet availability. Please let us all know how it is

 

 

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[baronessk]

I personally think this roll-out has been a disaster and am happy I cancelled this cruise. If I was Jan, heads would roll. I'm sorry but you do not spend 6 months promoting and marketing the cruise to EVERYONE as a Medallion Inaugural cruise, and then only have 100 staterooms ready, and now they are not even functioning. I am still excited to do a Medallion cruise, but VERY happy to wait until the ship actually functions as a Medallion ready cruise ship, and Princess should have waited as well. No wonder the ship is half empty!!!

[CineGraphic]

No wonder the ship is half empty!!!

 

I think they kept the ship half-empty on purpose.

This way they can concentrate their manpower on solving the problem at hand, instead of serving thousands of non-medallion passengers, and they didn't water down the brand any further with fire sale prices for the affected sailings.

Why fill the ship with a bunch of grumpy people who didn't get the medallion!?

[baronessk]

I think they kept the ship half-empty on purpose.

This way they can concentrate their manpower on solving the problem at hand, instead of serving thousands of non-medallion passengers, and they didn't water down the brand any further with fire sale prices for the affected sailings.

Why fill the ship with a bunch of grumpy people who didn't get the medallion!?

 

If that were true, then why did several CC Members post about having trouble cancelling the cruise (including me) after being told we would not be sailing as Medallion???

[Host CJSKIDS]

I personally think this roll-out has been a disaster and am happy I cancelled this cruise. If I was Jan, heads would roll. I'm sorry but you do not spend 6 months promoting and marketing the cruise to EVERYONE as a Medallion Inaugural cruise, and then only have 100 staterooms ready, and now they are not even functioning. I am still excited to do a Medallion cruise, but VERY happy to wait until the ship actually functions as a Medallion ready cruise ship, and Princess should have waited as well. No wonder the ship is half empty!!!

 

Should have posted this to

 

The ship being half empty has nothing to do with Princess wanting it to be empty. It was a sold out voyage early on but then Princess changed the itinerary from departing on Sunday at around 4:00 pm to departing around 9:00 PM. Then they changed it from going to Princess Cay to going to Nassau. As the original booking price was high for a 2 day due to the Medallion roll out, many canceled once those 2 changes were made.

 

Next came the Hurricanes that damaged islands. No matter what, many people canceled not knowing which islands were damaged and what was going to happen. (This has gone on with many cruise lines from what I have been told my senior executives.)

 

Now bring in the fact that this Medallion cruise was not going to be a full roll out and not a Medallion sailing and many more cancellations came about!

 

You are one of the people who canceled because it all bothered you!

 

Princess did change the departure time from Port back to an earlier time in the afternoon but not until a few weeks ago.

 

Princess did lower the price of the 2 day quite a bit this last month. For many like me, it was $199 per person for either inside or deluxe balcony or for some very lucky they got prices like $99 per person. It just didn't seem to do the trick. If I had been given that $99 price, I would have jumped on it.

[Host CJSKIDS]

If that were true, then why did several CC Members post about having trouble cancelling the cruise (including me) after being told we would not be sailing as Medallion???

 

Some also reported being able to cancel. I think it was how persistent one was and after some canceling it seem like Princess too a hard line at not canceling it.

[denamo]

No life jackets at today's drill. It was an audio presentation that was actually very well done. It was like they know they have to do it so let's make it at least semi-enjoyable since you're a captive audience.

 

 

Kris

 

Truly hoping this will be the case for all Princess cruises going forward. Most of our cruises have been on another line that several years ago eliminated taking your life jacket to muster. So much more convenient after muster is over not having to cart the life jacket back to the cabin!

[MojoJones]

I'm curious about what happens with children in terms of the medallion. I travel with my 2 kids (10 and 6) and, while the 10 year old carries her own cruise card I would NEVER entrust the 6 year old with his! Would this be a problem once the medallion is in place? I am wondering about when dropping him at kids club, etc and then I am walking around with 2 medallions while he has none?

 

Hi there,

 

I went and asked one of the Ocean Navigators about this. According to what I was told, both of your children would receive their own medallion. They won't give them to small children as the medallion piece itself may present a choking hazard.

 

Kris

[DaveyCaper]

Current Ocean Medallion Update:

 

As I type this - it is 11:26 am. We have not been able to get into our cabin by ourselves since about 5 pm yesterday. When we need to get in, we have to call the passenger services desk and someone comes up and uses an old style steel key to let us in (as I joked to one of them - "that new technology - a steel key"). This is certainly been annoying but are taking it in good humour and have enjoyed the short cruise.

 

We went down to passenger services and asked about disembarkation since we are one of the few with big luggage (we are switching over to a 10 day on the Royal Princess tomorrow) and they said that they are recommending that passengers take their own bags off - though we can request tags after the ships leaves Nassau. No disembarkation information has been given to us otherwise.

 

A man just came to our door ans said now we need new cruise cards which will supposed to make them work on the door. Stay tuned :)

[dides]

We are after you How did you download the app before you left and attach to account

We heard about the app being available to download for free from apps stores for phones. When you open it it prompts you to enter your name and princess login email address. Then you need to create a new password to link this to your new ocean account.

 

Sandra and Chris

[MojoJones]

No wonder the ship is half empty!!!

 

Let me preface what I'm about to say by stating that I am not a Princess cheerleader but I try to present an unbiased view....

 

With that said, one of the reasons the ship is sailing so empty is that the travel agent / press preview has been pushed back until the spring. Was the timing of that push back ideal being four weeks before sailing? No, it wasn't. I've spoke with several people who are on from corporate and the rate of cancellations was not as many as we would like to believe. It's easy to jump online and tell the world that you cancelled because the technology was going to be delayed. However, think about all of the people who do not know about cruise critic and are happily sailing along with us on this gloriously empty ship.

 

Personally I'm glad that it's not full. I will state that the staff has gone above and beyond to answer any questions I have had. We were told that there would be extra staff onboard and there definitely are, Everyone's glad to help and if they do not have the answer they will state that they do not know and not give bad info out, It's that level of service that Jan is wants the guests to receive. I can only imagine what it would be like ship were full and all 3600 passengers tried to line up for a question. The lines would be never ending and would be something else to complain about.

 

Kris

[Host CJSKIDS]

Let me preface what I'm about to say by stating that I am not a Princess cheerleader but I try to present an unbiased view....

 

With that said, one of the reasons the ship is sailing so empty is that the travel agent / press preview has been pushed back until the spring. Was the timing of that push back ideal being four weeks before sailing? No, it wasn't. I've spoke with several people who are on from corporate and the rate of cancellations was not as many as we would like to believe. It's easy to jump online and tell the world that you cancelled because the technology was going to be delayed. However, think about all of the people who do not know about cruise critic and are happily sailing along with us on this gloriously empty ship.

 

Personally I'm glad that it's not full. I will state that the staff has gone above and beyond to answer any questions I have had. We were told that there would be extra staff onboard and there definitely are, Everyone's glad to help and if they do not have the answer they will state that they do not know and not give bad info out, It's that level of service that Jan is wants the guests to receive. I can only imagine what it would be like ship were full and all 3600 passengers tried to line up for a question. The lines would be never ending and would be something else to complain about.

 

Kris

 

Kris,

Thanks for that info, it certainly makes sense!

 

How is your cruise going? Are you able to get into your room?

[kept]

This is very exciting and we appreciate this work and reports.

Are the medallions magnetic that they will stick to your cabin wall or a steel bracelet?

Is your Tag Along the same for every ***** cruise in the future?

It says ***** people can get a drink delivered anywhere on the ship. Even on your balcony? hmm. Lol.

Keep up the good work, Loretta.

[richsea]

In that case, should your millions of airline miles make me pay more attention to your post - quite the opposite. Why did you feel the need to qualify your opinion with the addition of all your travel experience - seems the same as those who you are maligning.

Great post. I was thinking the same thing.

[dides]

We had a quick scan of the cabins in the first trial and think it covers forward cabins on Baja, Marina and Lido only. Specifically B301-337, B302-336, L201-301, L202-302, M201-243, M202-238. Feel free to correct me though!

 

The medallion itself is just a wristband for us at the moment ( which sometimes pings off randomly). But we are hoping something gets fixed with the door opening aspect today.

 

Just managed to login to SocialOcean for the first time this morning on the ship's Wi-Fi.

 

MedallionNet is awesome- fastest we have experienced at sea and no worries about logging off with our platinum loyalty access.

 

And our team won the morning trivia!

Happy days!

 

Sandra and Chris

Edited November 14, 2017 by dides