Will Princess ditch OM

[Shadow9612]

Took the words out of my mouth. Was thinking of Celebrity during the reading of this thread.

Tossing up between a Princess and Celebrity cruise at the moment and was leaning towards Celebrity until I thought of having to use their website.

 

The Celebrity shipboard experience is light years ahead (ie "better") of their website experience.

[NSWP]

And that is probably why they have removed the ***** labels from cruises on the website, so that there are no expectations. Their initial rollout itinerary may have been slightly optimistic too, so not announcing future ship rollouts until they are actually ready to do them is sensible.

 

Spot on. :hearteyes:

[Mud_Shark]

Wasn't there a story a couple years ago about the cruise lines (including I think Princess) outsourcing their IT departments off shore and forcing their current IT employees to train their replacements before they were terminated?

 

I have no idea, but I wonder if that decision has hurt the ***** design and installation plan at all?

 

Don

[leck57]

The Celebrity shipboard experience is light years ahead (ie "better") of their website experience.

 

Yes I know, and it would need to be.

[Coral]

Wasn't there a story a couple years ago about the cruise lines (including I think Princess) outsourcing their IT departments off shore and forcing their current IT employees to train their replacements before they were terminated?

 

I have no idea, but I wonder if that decision has hurt the ***** design and installation plan at all?

 

Don

 

Yes there was.

 

Though this would have to be in addition to normal IT employee. Who knows if they hired a team here or outsourced it.

[Steelers36]

Wasn't there a story a couple years ago about the cruise lines (including I think Princess) outsourcing their IT departments off shore and forcing their current IT employees to train their replacements before they were terminated?

 

I have no idea, but I wonder if that decision has hurt the ***** design and installation plan at all?

 

Don

 

Can't answer your first question directly, but what is typically off-shored is the development or programming. There is still on-shore staff that do the business analysis, design, specifications and manage the project - even if some project work is contracted.

 

The ***** design was over-seen by two guys from Disney's project, so they ought to have known what they were doing. Maybe the physical structure of a cruise ship presented more complexity than expected.

 

I also think Carnival/Princess set a far too ambitious roll-out because they were going all-in, instead of a phased implementation/testing approach they have ultimately flipped to.

 

For their sake, I hope part of the design/implementation "fix" isn't a lto of infrastructure change because they have been prepping ships in advance of getting the functionality.

[pablo222]

Wasn't there a story a couple years ago about the cruise lines (including I think Princess) outsourcing their IT departments off shore and forcing their current IT employees to train their replacements before they were terminated?

 

Carnival offshoring IT:

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2431900

 

 

Carnival developing medallions in Doral (the same building?)

 

"As Carnival designed the Ocean Medallion system inside an unmarked building here in suburban Miami, it built a replica set of staterooms, corridors and other ship facilities to test concepts. Scribbles on a monumental white board in one area contained algorithms and personalization ideas. (“What time you eat dinner. What channels you watch.”)"

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/04/business/media/coming-to-carnival-cruises-a-wearable-medallion-that-records-your-every-whim.html

 

I had these links bookmarked. I know this offends some here. They should look away, and save themselves.

[antsp]

Is fixed the magnetic room card problem that would do, rfid cards for door access and your sorted. I personally don’t wasn’t a crew member greeting me by my name because it comes up on his hand held device. That’s far less personal than someone actually remembering your name.

[pris993]

this scheme is a money matter... that is the only reason they implemented it, .. so they will work on it til it works.

[HappyCruiserettu]

From my recent 1-week experience on the Regal, I'll have to call BS on the person who said the medallion spoke to them. Nothing ever "spoke" to either of us while we were on the ship. Personally, I don't even believe there is any way that the medallion can even transmit sound. Might be possible but I doubt it.

 

I thought the person who first posted the comment about the ***** "speaking" was just being facetious and carrying the perceived capabilities to the absurd.

[Pierlesscruisers]

I thought the person who first posted the comment about the ***** "speaking" was just being facetious and carrying the perceived capabilities to the absurd.

 

Certainly might be the case. But it's right in the league with some of the things I've seen mentioned as things some people "have heard" about the medallion program!

 

Tom

[GottaKnowWhen]

It never worked for anyone. On Royal, they removed all the monitors that it used.

 

It's pretty ugly now -- just the mounting hardware.

 

 

The face recognition for finding your photos has worked well on the last two Celebrity [RCCL] ships we sailed. It will be quite common everywhere very soon.

 

 

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[Shadow9612]

The face recognition for finding your photos has worked well on the last two Celebrity [RCCL] ships we sailed. It will be quite common everywhere very soon.

 

Agreed.

 

With celebrity, I still recommend searching for hard copy photos incase face recognition misses a photo.

[antsp]

Who knows what the future is, I know it' bevn aacknowledged to the UK market that no ***** cruises will happen on the Royal in 2018

[dides]

Who knows what the future is, I know it' bevn aacknowledged to the UK market that no ***** cruises will happen on the Royal in 2018

 

Really? I still see references to travel agents being able to win a spot on Medallion Mega Fam on the Royal - 300 travel agents getting the full rundown on Medallion on a British Isles cruise in May 2018

[indygirl99]

Really? I still see references to travel agents being able to win a spot on Medallion Mega Fam on the Royal - 300 travel agents getting the full rundown on Medallion on a British Isles cruise in May 2018

 

 

That reference was in August before the roll out even started. Lots has changed since then.

[dides]

That reference was in August before the roll out even started. Lots has changed since then.

 

That was a link about it - not the last reference. There was a mention on fb a week ago "This is your last chance to be able to win a place on our Medallion Mega Fam by completing the Asia Academy course online!"

Edited December 10, 2017 by dides

[lx200gps]

Who knows what the future is, I know it' bevn aacknowledged to the UK market that no ***** cruises will happen on the Royal in 2018

 

And further to comments made earlier in this thread, we recently received an Email from Princess informing us that our November 2018 Caribbean sailing on the Royal will now NOT be an ***** cruise. They stated:

The creation of Ocean Medallion Vacations is an all-encompassing project that is currently being activated onboard another Princess ship. We had hoped to have it launched in time for your cruise aboard Royal Princess. However, we have identified refinements and enhancements that require more time for us to fully realize our aspirations to elevate the guest experience by way of this new technology. We hope you’ll experience Ocean Medallion on a future cruise with Princess. We apologize for any disappointment this news may cause for you.

This is perfectly fine with us, we have exactly zero interest in any "elevated guest experience" enhancement this ***** is supposed to offer. A simple plastic cruise card works perfectly for us. And I'm a techie who was writing computer code in my childhood 40 years ago when computers filled an entire room ;o)

Princess is only doing this because they have somehow determined it will save them money. That's not always a good thing for customers....

[pablo222]

This is perfectly fine with us, we have exactly zero interest in any "elevated guest experience" enhancement this ***** is supposed to offer. A simple plastic cruise card works perfectly for us. And I'm a techie who was writing computer code in my childhood 40 years ago when computers filled an entire room ;o)

 

Perhaps the much faster internet that is being installed along with the medallions would have interested you?

[lx200gps]

Perhaps the much faster internet that is being installed along with the medallions would have interested you?

 

Fair point, I stand admonished. Yes the superior Internet speed is one benefit we WILL enjoy

[satxdiver]

All the angst over the ***** reminds me of my past as a IT consultant working on upgrading corporate computer systems. The old ones were unhappy and the younger ones were ready for the new systems. Time doesn't change much.

[LeeW]

Today I received an email update from Princess regarding our May 1 cruise on the Royal - no ***** until the glitches are resolved.

 

Darcy

 

 

Got the same email for a November 2018 cruise.

[pablo222]

The old ones were unhappy and the younger ones were ready for the new systems. Time doesn't change much.

 

I thought the old ones were going in and out out their cabins with magnetic strip cards,

and the young ones were locked out in the hallways with their rfid medallions repeating

"..the new system is better. the new system is better..."

[Sea Hag]

Naw. They'll stick with it and get the kinks unkinked and the bugs exterminated.

[gremlinbangles]

Fair point, I stand admonished. Yes the superior Internet speed is one benefit we WILL enjoy

Just got off the Regal. The internet speed was great. Got knocked off a few times but otherwise speed was just lime being home. Was able to text real time also in airplane mode. We were very happy.

 

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