Apps necessary for Ocean Medallion

[AF-1]

Daniel A,  having just returned from Caribbean Princess and using the ocean medallions;  all you fears are for nothing.  I will explain. There are plenty of waitstaff walking around all the bars and pools to take orders.  You still have the paper room service that you can hang on your door.  Right now the ocean medallion is a cool or wow factor.  But after more and more people use it and get comfortable with it Princess will be using it more.  Have you not been to Disney World in the last ten years.  This is pretty much same system they use there; but now it's on a ship. Regarding your cell phone,  if you wish you can keep it in your room safe.  Like I mentioned; this is a cool or wow factor.  You can still order drinks from waitstaff; and you have all the touch screens at every elevator on every deck to find things, and locate people.  If you are not on one of the above mentioned ships; then you are good to go with paper everything and your cruise ship card.  No problems. Don't worry, be Happy.

[Daniel A]

2 hours ago, AF-1 said:

Daniel A,  having just returned from Caribbean Princess and using the ocean medallions;  all you fears are for nothing.  I will explain. There are plenty of waitstaff walking around all the bars and pools to take orders.  You still have the paper room service that you can hang on your door.  Right now the ocean medallion is a cool or wow factor.  But after more and more people use it and get comfortable with it Princess will be using it more.  Have you not been to Disney World in the last ten years.  This is pretty much same system they use there; but now it's on a ship. Regarding your cell phone,  if you wish you can keep it in your room safe.  Like I mentioned; this is a cool or wow factor.  You can still order drinks from waitstaff; and you have all the touch screens at every elevator on every deck to find things, and locate people.  If you are not on one of the above mentioned ships; then you are good to go with paper everything and your cruise ship card.  No problems. Don't worry, be Happy.

Only time will tell.  Disney is one of the most elitist companies there are.  The last time I went to the Magic Kingdom (last year) We couldn't get lunch until about 3 or 4 PM because I didn't make a reservation on their computerized system using a smart phone and their app months in advance of our visit.  We had to leave the park to eat!  (obviously after lunch we didn't return but what did Disney care?  We already paid the admission.)  This is exactly what I am talking about.  Princess IS on the same road to making customers make life easier for Princess by making all of us data entry operators or you don't get the full package.  A big difference is you can't leave the ship to go out for lunch!

 

As I said, I think it is the camel's nose under the tent flap.

[hobbyfarmer2]

4 hours ago, Daniel A said:

I'm concerned that ordering room service will require an app in the future, waiters at poolside only bringing beverages to those who ordered them on their phones etc.  I have a cell phone and part of the idea of a cruise is to cut that 'electronic leash.'  Next thing, instead of waiting for a MDR table, you needed to order one up through an app. 

 

The Medallion helps Princess keep track of you and your activities, not the other way around.  Can you query your phone for the next Zumba class, or Trivia contest?  I doubt it.  But Princess can keep track of your spending and where you spend your time.  Princess can tell where you are at any given time but can you ask Medallion who is performing in the Wheelhouse or the Piano Bar at any given time?  And I don't mean is the Patter on line - I could carry that around in my back pocket.  Oh, and by the way, when will Princess do away with the printed Patter in favor of a digital one only accessible through your personal electronic device or a public shipboard screen?

 

I think this is the camel's nose under the tent flap.

I think you may be doing something my wife calls "awfulizing".  Why not wait and see instead of anticipating the worst?  The situation might turn out just fine for you.   My view is that it will.  If it doesn't you always have the option of not cruising with Princess.

[rdsqrl]

2 hours ago, AF-1 said:

Daniel A,  having just returned from Caribbean Princess and using the ocean medallions;  all you fears are for nothing.  I will explain. There are plenty of waitstaff walking around all the bars and pools to take orders.  You still have the paper room service that you can hang on your door.  Right now the ocean medallion is a cool or wow factor.  But after more and more people use it and get comfortable with it Princess will be using it more.  Have you not been to Disney World in the last ten years.  This is pretty much same system they use there; but now it's on a ship. Regarding your cell phone,  if you wish you can keep it in your room safe.  Like I mentioned; this is a cool or wow factor.  You can still order drinks from waitstaff; and you have all the touch screens at every elevator on every deck to find things, and locate people.  If you are not on one of the above mentioned ships; then you are good to go with paper everything and your cruise ship card.  No problems. Don't worry, be Happy.

It's a "cool or wow factor" for you.  For some of us, it's just tiresome.    I'm just a bit weary of the starry-eyed rapture over technology "wows"; too many of these wows don't deliver, taking longer than doing things and complicating simple, everyday tasks (like unlocking a cabin door with a cardkey; how lazy are we anymore when getting out a cardkey to open our doors is too much trouble?).   Excuse me for not wanting my vacation to be comprised of mindless wasted time spent staring at and interacting with a screen.  Especially compared to this scenario:  a waiter approaches, I ask for a martini and show my card; she writes down my folio number.  An interaction that takes 30 seconds and doesn't require me to interrupt what I'm doing to haul out a phone. 

 

Of course, maybe they'll add an Ocean Chair app, where you can order a barrel chair for your cabin.  That might be nice. 

[caribill]

5 hours ago, rdsqrl said:

It's a "cool or wow factor" for you.  For some of us, it's just tiresome.    I'm just a bit weary of the starry-eyed rapture over technology "wows"; too many of these wows don't deliver, taking longer than doing things and complicating simple, everyday tasks (like unlocking a cabin door with a cardkey; how lazy are we anymore when getting out a cardkey to open our doors is too much trouble?).  Posts on Cruise Critic have said this is the best feature of the Medallion, especially useful when approaching the cabin with hands full.

 

Excuse me for not wanting my vacation to be comprised of mindless wasted time spent staring at and interacting with a screen.  Especially compared to this scenario:  a waiter approaches, I ask for a martini and show my card; she writes down my folio number.  An interaction that takes 30 seconds and doesn't require me to interrupt what I'm doing to haul out a phone.  And the only difference with the Medallion is that when the waiter approaches, instead of showing your cruise card, you show the waiter your Medallion.

 

Of course, maybe they'll add an Ocean Chair app, where you can order a barrel chair for your cabin.  That might be nice. 

 

See red above

[AF-1]

Raise your hand if you have a car that uses a key fob to unlock your car.  Same procedure for Ocean Medallion. Please don't get frustrated with me on this thread.  I am just reporting how the system works, since I have just returned from a ship that uses this new system.  I do not know the tech level of people who are on this thread; or how much you like or dislike the system; that some of you have not even used yet.  If you read my post above I mention if you don't want to use the ocean medallion you don't have to;  they provide cruise cards for you which will be in your cabin when you arrive.  You can use them the entire cruise if you wish;  just don't get mad at me for reporting how the system works.

[phabric]

I am presently on the Caribbean Princess.  I have set up it on my iPad.  I have not used any of the features.

 

I have the Medallion plus the sail card.  Sometimes, they will look and take the number off the card.

 

I asked a bar attendant, if he like it and he said it is good if not busy but prefers the old way when busy.

 

The 9 yr old loves the wall activities throughout the ship’s.  It keeps her occupied while waiting.

[AF-1]

6 minutes ago, phabric said:

I am presently on the Caribbean Princess.  I have set up it on my iPad.  I have not used any of the features.

 

I have the Medallion plus the sail card.  Sometimes, they will look and take the number off the card.

 

I asked a bar attendant, if he like it and he said it is good if not busy but prefers the old way when busy.

 

The 9 yr old loves the wall activities throughout the ship’s.  It keeps her occupied while waiting.

I was on CB last month;  how do you enjoy using the medallion and the different apps like ocean now or ocean concierge?

[phabric]

I love having it unlocking the door as you get close to the door.  Just wish that you could push the door open as you still need a hand to push down the door handle to get in.  

 

I have not used any of the other apps.

[AF-1]

1 minute ago, phabric said:

I love having it unlocking the door as you get close to the door.  Just wish that you could push the door open as you still need a hand to push down the door handle to get in.  

 

I have not used any of the other apps.

I know what you mean by still having to push handle down to get in cabin;  I like the super fast wifi and being able to stream. I ordered room service one morning from the app; and used ocean now to order drinks one night.  Glad you enjoy it

[hobbyfarmer2]

3 hours ago, AF-1 said:

Raise your hand if you have a car that uses a key fob to unlock your car.  Same procedure for Ocean Medallion. Please don't get frustrated with me on this thread.  I am just reporting how the system works, since I have just returned from a ship that uses this new system.  I do not know the tech level of people who are on this thread; or how much you like or dislike the system; that some of you have not even used yet.  If you read my post above I mention if you don't want to use the ocean medallion you don't have to;  they provide cruise cards for you which will be in your cabin when you arrive.  You can use them the entire cruise if you wish;  just don't get mad at me for reporting how the system works.

You made a great post which was journalistic in character.  It was to the point and did not include any excess optimism or pessimism.

[AF-1]

Thanks hobbyfarmer2.  I appreciate that

[toc1085]

On 3/9/2019 at 6:30 PM, lx200gps said:

We're now about 49 days out from our late April trip on the Royal, which is listed as the third full OM trip for the ship. I entered my personal info on the Ocean Ready app, but after entering our Booking Reference and my details, the app returned a message stating reservation not found. Before I call in to Princess, has anyone else noticed this problem with trying to load their own trips into the Ocean Ready app?

 

Thanks....

 I was told that you have to put in the booking number no more than 30 days before sailing. I'm sailing on April 6 and the OceanReady app still won't take my booking number. I've been on the phone 7 times and IT still hasn't been able to fix the issue.

[4cats4me]

On 3/9/2019 at 2:55 PM, Daniel A said:

It sounds to me as if you don't have an iPad or a smart phone Princess is leaving you behind.

 

Everybody has a smart phone or a tablet now, even children, even my 85-year-old mom.  One gets left behind, unfortunately, if they don’t embrace  technology. 

[AF-1]

Toc1085,  check to make sure your ocean ready app uses the same user name and password as when you log into your cruise personalizer.  if these are different the ocean ready app will not accept the booking number.

[pms4104]

6 hours ago, 4cats4me said:

 

Everybody has a smart phone or a tablet now, even children, even my 85-year-old mom.  One gets left behind, unfortunately, if they don’t embrace  technology. 

While (almost) everyone may have such devices, it is disappointing that the tech gurus in charge of the program didn't engineer a self-contained device.    

[AF-1]

pms4104,  I get what you are saying.  Seems like a lot of small issues with the ocean ready app.  One would think that Princess when they set the program up would have told passengers; in order for you to sign into the ocean ready app; you need the exact same password and user id as when you sign into your cruise personalizer;  this would have eliminated a lot of phone calls to Princess ocean medallion tech guru's.  Once on the ship I thought everything worked great with the medallions and the ocean now app

Edited March 17, 2019 by AF-1

[voljeep]

1 hour ago, AF-1 said:

pms4104,  I get what you are saying.  Seems like a lot of small issues with the ocean ready app.  One would think that Princess when they set the program up would have told passengers; in order for you to sign into the ocean ready app; you need the exact same password and user id as when you sign into your cruise personalizer;  this would have eliminated a lot of phone calls to Princess ocean medallion tech guru's.  Once on the ship I thought everything worked great with the medallions and the ocean now app

Once you are 'ocean ready' do you have/need/want to do anything other than download the other apps to use on the ship - guess I'm asking if you have to re-enter any info or just log on with your same user ID and password ?

[AF-1]

31 minutes ago, voljeep said:

Once you are 'ocean ready' do you have/need/want to do anything other than download the other apps to use on the ship - guess I'm asking if you have to re-enter any info or just log on with your same user ID and password ?

Hi you will use same info for the ocean now app.  The ocean concierge app is tied to medallion net.  Ocean now allows you to order drinks from the app and to find a shipmate.  However, all the digital screens will allow you to find your shipmate too.  The nice thing about the app is this; if you choose to find your shipmate who is in the buffet and you are on deck 5 piazza; you can have the app route you to the buffet area;  it will gps you all the way there plus it will tell you if you took a wrong turn.  The ocean concierge app allows you to order room service; check your room folio, and has the daily patters

Edited March 17, 2019 by AF-1

[voljeep]

3 minutes ago, AF-1 said:

Hi you will use same info for the ocean now app.  The ocean concierge app is tied to medallion net.  Ocean now allows you to order drinks from the app and to find a shipmate.  However, all the digital screens will allow you to find your shipmate too.  The nice thing about the app is this; if you choose to find your shipmate who is in the buffet are and you are on deck 5 piazza; you can have the app route you to the buffet area;  it will gps you all the way there plus it will tell you if you took a wrong turn

ocean concierge app is tied to medallion net ? - medallion net is the inTERnet, right ? or does that also include the ship

inTRAnet - which is free... does ocean concierge replace Princess@Sea ?

[AF-1]

Yes it does replace it.  The ships that have medallion net will have the ocean concierge;  it is only available on board the ship; so you can not download prior to boarding

[caribill]

1 hour ago, voljeep said:

ocean concierge app is tied to medallion net ? - medallion net is the inTERnet, right ? or does that also include the ship

inTRAnet - which is free... does ocean concierge replace Princess@Sea ?

"Princess@Sea" is just Princess' marketing name for all things internet and intranet.

 

MedallionNet is the name for the new Internet technology which replaced the old technology which was called PrincessCONNECT.

 

[Gorilla Girl]

AF-1  Thanks for the information.  I am all set up and ready to set sail soon.

 

[AF-1]

Gorilla Girl. Glad to hear you are up and running 

Edited March 17, 2019 by AF-1

[kywildcatfanone]

So if you aren't paying for the ships wifi on your smart phone, you can't use the apps on the ship?  Or can you be connected to the wifi for this set of apps without using a minute or unlimited plan?