No internet or smartphone.

[wowzz]

2 minutes ago, purplesea said:

I normally use my laptop to connect with the internet as I find it easier to type than on than a tablet or phone. I do have a smart phone but it is pay as you go and I do not have any data usage on it. I don't need it, so why should I pay for something that I don't need? Like many of you, I too am not afraid of missing out!

But so many places now offer free wifi,  when away from home, you can use it without paying anything. 

[lincslady]

My only fear of missing out (which is probably by now an out of date expression) is things like needing an 'app' to prove vaccination, etc.  Not invitations to parties and so on, which I possibly might have had at the age of 18.  I think I am actually less stressed if I don't need to look at my phone every five minutes,  as so many do.🙂  I believe that emojis like this are no longer 'in', either.

 

Who cares?

[Ardennais]

Large swathes of the population around here have no computer skills at all. They worked in the outdoors, practical stuff where computer skills just weren’t required. My father being a prime example! I would say that most farmers under 50 have adapted but you’d be surprised at the number who still rely on the females in the family to do the techy stuff because very few farm women now stay at home and are more likely to use technology in their jobs. It’s easier to employ a farm secretary to visit once a month to pay invoices, do the VAT etc. They use the NFU/FAW reps to sort out any insurance claims etc. Advisors visit farms to sort our grants etc. Face to face interaction is still valued in the rural economy. 

[Bill Y]

Aren’t we all been hoodwinked by big tech, to buy these things we don’t really need or want, to appeal to our vanity, which probably will have a short useful life? Remember the ad a few years ago “Are you ashamed of your mobile phone”?

 

Just imagine the row if you had to change your car because the “Engine management operating system was no longer supported” on indeed any other computer lurking in the car? Your washing machine does not perform properly so you are told to download the latest software or patch, yes some washing machines connect to the web! You would be invoking the sale of goods act. Yet we put up with that with this from a so called smart devices.

 

Some people are very proud of their company phone that they have been given so they can be monitored/tracked and contacted 24/7. I am glad that I am not longer working.

I don’t need the latest gismo, my old XP laptop can do most of my requirement and in many ways I prefer it to my newer laptop. I prefer to spend my time cruising not playing unnecessarily with distracting gadgets. I too only need a mobile for emergencies and to receive verification codes. But then each to their own.

 

Its mentioned that companies will not be able to afford to keep the old systems going. Human to human contact will still be required, e-mail, and phone. Companies that make it difficult to contact in a meaningful way usually have poor customer service and reviews, if the cap fits etc.

[wowzz]

16 minutes ago, Bill Y said:

Just imagine the row if you had to change your car because the “Engine management operating system was no longer supported

Strangely enough, I was reading on another forum where this sort of thing is actually happening.  Some electronic systems are failing on older cars (10 years or so) and it is not possible to replace them.

Having said that, unfortunately we live in an electronic age.

Renember the furore when calculators first became affordable ? Everyone said they would never replace slide rules and logarithm tables. 

[Eglesbrech]

25 minutes ago, Bill Y said:

Human to human contact will still be required, e-mail, and phone. Companies that make it difficult to contact in a meaningful way usually have poor customer service and reviews, if the cap fits etc.

Good point. Self service is all well and fine until what you want to do does not fit neatly into what the “system” wants you to do. We still need an element of service.

 

 Decent customer service will be selling point.

[HikingPete]

7 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

Possibly, but anyone who cannot afford the internet is unlikely to have enough spare cash to afford a cruise.

Don't forget there are still places in the UK which don't have a reliable internet connection, if they have one at all, and often no data signal either.

 

I often stay at an inn in the Lake District which has only recently managed to get a cable run to their premises. It wasn't cheap... Think remortgage your house, and you're probably about right. They needed a grant in order to be able to pay for it at all. If they weren't running a business I doubt that they would have been able to get it at all. They definitely don't have any mobile phone reception, so a smartphone is no use either, unless they drove/walked a few miles out of the pass to the nearest mast everytime they wanted to use it. 

 

Before that they had a very unstable satellite connection, which was only really used to check the mountain weather each morning and email bookings for their customers. It was sloooooow. I had tried to use it for work once or twice whilst I was there - more often than not what I was trying to access would time out.

 

And thats before we get to those people who aren't as tech savvy as us, or those who find a smartphone an unnecessary expense for their purposes but still have the collateral to go on holiday.

[Eglesbrech]

28 minutes ago, HikingPete said:

Don't forget there are still places in the UK which don't have a reliable internet connection, if they have one at all, and often no data signal either.

It’s not brilliant here and when you get into parts of deepest highland Perthshire, or the Highlands, Argyle etc it is non existent, that’s why some villages still have a telephone box. Visitors think it is a quaint bit of history, it’s not, it’s a way to make calls.

 

Successive governments have promised improvement to con activity but the cost you describe in the Lakes is probably why it has never been delivered.

[Bazrat]

6 hours ago, majortom10 said:

Perhaps you do but there are many that havent got ipads, tablets or smartphones and use either a desktop or laptop which is no use for Apps so these people should not be excluded.

Yet again your using the word excluded, like I said previously you can get the information you require by the use of a telephone, if your point is everything should be governed by the slowest than nothing will ever change

[majortom10]

5 minutes ago, Bazrat said:

Yet again your using the word excluded, like I said previously you can get the information you require by the use of a telephone, if your point is everything should be governed by the slowest than nothing will ever change

But you seem oblivious that not everybody has a smartphone/ipad/ tablet and those that dont will either be ignored or have a second rate experience. Princess now expect everything to be done prior to cruise and even booking tables in MDR on their Medallion App. Yes you can leave it until u board but everything will be booked up and you will have a second rate cruise experience because you dont use Medallion App.

 

[Guest ccpm]

3 hours ago, Eglesbrech said:

Good point. Self service is all well and fine until what you want to do does not fit neatly into what the “system” wants you to do. We still need an element of service.

 

 Decent customer service will be selling point.

On recent performance P&O are never going to make it then.

[Bazrat]

6 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

But you seem oblivious that not everybody has a smartphone/ipad/ tablet and those that dont will either be ignored or have a second rate experience. Princess now expect everything to be done prior to cruise and even booking tables in MDR on their Medallion App. Yes you can leave it until u board but everything will be booked up and you will have a second rate cruise experience because you dont use Medallion App.

 

You telling me that you can spend thousands on a cruise but not get a smartphone tablet etc, you must realise that every time they have to send paper copies out it costs money and so they charge higher for fares.

[Ardennais]

2 hours ago, Bazrat said:

You telling me that you can spend thousands on a cruise but not get a smartphone tablet etc, you must realise that every time they have to send paper copies out it costs money and so they charge higher for fares.

You miss the point. Not everyone is tech savvy, nothing to do with affordability. As noted in a previous post, many many people have no idea how to use apps etc. 
 

A very well known builders merchants emails us up to 10 delivery notes a day and have done so for the past 5 years or so. They now don’t have to pay for paper or ink but the customer has to pay for paper and printing (not every delivery note needs printing of course but monthly statements need printing). Have they cut their costs? Yes. Have they passed on those savings to the customer? No. I don’t object to having things emailed, less paper, more environmentally friendly, but let’s not pretend that the businesses involved have passed the savings on to their customers. 

[wowzz]

3 hours ago, majortom10 said:

But you seem oblivious that not everybody has a smartphone/ipad/ tablet and those that dont will either be ignored or have a second rate experience

But those individuals are in such a minority, that I don't think the P&O marketing department, or indeed any other marketing department will be worried.

You need to plan for the future,  rather than stay rooted in the present.

 

[majortom10]

15 minutes ago, wowzz said:

But those individuals are in such a minority, that I don't think the P&O marketing department, or indeed any other marketing department will be worried.

You need to plan for the future,  rather than stay rooted in the present.

 

Sorry but they are not such a minority as you think and you are just assuming that with no proof whatsoever.

[majortom10]

4 hours ago, Bazrat said:

You telling me that you can spend thousands on a cruise but not get a smartphone tablet etc, you must realise that every time they have to send paper copies out it costs money and so they charge higher for fares.

But they dont stop bombarding your cabin with art auctions or jewellery sales so they are not bothered about cost or damaging the environment when it suits and makes them money that is hypocritical.

[terrierjohn]

4 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

Sorry but they are not such a minority as you think and you are just assuming that with no proof whatsoever.

I could say the same about your assumption of the numbers MT. However I think the main point is that on line systems are only going to increase, so the sooner we accept them,  and learn how to use apps and when to use mobile data and when not to, the better.

[terrierjohn]

6 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

But they dont stop bombarding your cabin with art auctions or jewellery sales so they are not bothered about cost or damaging the environment when it suits and makes them money that is hypocritical.

I hope that if their My Cruise system is successful that all their on board advertising and notifications will be via that, rather than in paper form.

[wowzz]

9 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

Sorry but they are not such a minority as you think and you are just assuming that with no proof whatsoever.

As far as I am concerned,  the definition of a minority  is less than 50%. So we are just arguing over percentages. 

At the end of the  day, unfortunately,  those who cannot/will not  use new technology are a dying breed, and P&O (plus many others)  have decided that it is not economically viable to actively manage that market. 

Do I agree with that policy- not necessarily.  Do I understand it - yes, absolutely. 

 

[wowzz]

7 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

I hope that if their My Cruise system is successful that all their on board advertising and notifications will be via that, rather than in paper form.

Reading the posts on the Princess forum, all the paper "tat" has, thankfully, now disappeared.

How will I now find out where I can buy a priceless piece of artwork at auction?  

[Bazrat]

10 hours ago, majortom10 said:

But they dont stop bombarding your cabin with art auctions or jewellery sales so they are not bothered about cost or damaging the environment when it suits and makes them money that is hypocritical.

They will do away with the paper when people start embracing new technologies, unless you wish nothing to change

[zap99]

18 hours ago, Bill Y said:

Aren’t we all been hoodwinked by big tech, to buy these things we don’t really need or want, to appeal to our vanity, which probably will have a short useful life? Remember the ad a few years ago “Are you ashamed of your mobile phone”?

 

 

Just imagine the row if you had to change your car because the “Engine management operating system was no longer supported” on indeed any other computer lurking in the car? Your washing machine does not perform properly so you are told to download the latest software or patch, yes some washing machines connect to the web! You would be invoking the sale of goods act. Yet we put up with that with this from a so called smart devices.

 

 

Some people are very proud of their company phone that they have been given so they can be monitored/tracked and contacted 24/7. I am glad that I am not longer working.

I don’t need the latest gismo, my old XP laptop can do most of my requirement and in many ways I prefer it to my newer laptop. I prefer to spend my time cruising not playing unnecessarily with distracting gadgets. I too only need a mobile for emergencies and to receive verification codes. But then each to their own.

 

 

Its mentioned that companies will not be able to afford to keep the old systems going. Human to human contact will still be required, e-mail, and phone. Companies that make it difficult to contact in a meaningful way usually have poor customer service and reviews, if the cap fits etc.

A little while before I retired I got a new young clever boss. ' I tried to phone you last night, but you were unobtainable'. When I leave at the end of the working day I turn off my phone and Chuck it in the glove box. In the morning when I got to the office , I take it out and turn it on....' What if I need to contact you?........oh, sorry I thought you had an MBA, but I'll explain the procedure again. When I leave at the end of the working..............

🤔

[zap99]

14 hours ago, ccpm said:

On recent performance P&O are never going to make it then.

Just waiting to disembark Britannia. The topic of conversation that is predominant is the utterly useless and frustrating 'App'.

[Son of Anarchy]

10 minutes ago, zap99 said:

A little while before I retired I got a new young clever boss. ' I tried to phone you last night, but you were unobtainable'. When I leave at the end of the working day I turn off my phone and Chuck it in the glove box. In the morning when I got to the office , I take it out and turn it on....' What if I need to contact you?........oh, sorry I thought you had an MBA, but I'll explain the procedure again. When I leave at the end of the working..............

🤔

Also not long before I retired, my boss walked over to me, showed me a document and asked what a particular word meant.  I said it means try  looking up the Oxford Dictionary....however as it has been mis-spelt I shall do that for you...  They used to bang on about how they got a wonderful degree.  At least by walking over they increased the step count on their Fitbit.

[majortom10]

2 hours ago, Bazrat said:

They will do away with the paper when people start embracing new technologies, unless you wish nothing to change

Bet you still get piles of crap delivered to your cabin benefitting Princes and ways to make them money.