Medallion App Texting

[awinte2]

Reaching out to cruisers on ships or just off.  Have you used the Medallion App to converse with friends or family on board the ship.

My iphone 6 is not compatible to the Medallion App and do not want to spend a lot on a new phone .  My husband  will have the app on his Android so we can use it for everything else.   

Appreciate and thankyou for all replys.

[cr8tiv1]

If it works....yes, you can chat with friends and family.  You can also chat with Customer Service desk.  Instead of buying a new phone, how about investing in a tablet device?  It will accomplish the same without the cost of a new phone.  There are many devices available:  Samsung, Apple, Amazon, etc.  

 

As far as I know, there is no notification that you received a text.  

[Daniel A]

I don't know if the new version of the app fixed this problem but on my last Medallion Cruise in February of 2020, you could text somebody through the app but there was no tone or other indication that the person had received a message.  So, unless the person you were texting had their eyes constantly glued to the app, they wouldn't know you wrote to them until they may have checked for a message at a later time.

 

On that cruise in 2020, I sent a text to a friend using that feature asking him where he was.  I never got a response from him, but a couple of weeks ago, I got an e-mail from him saying he was now on another cruise.  It seems that he finally saw my message about 21 months later...😂

 

Hopefully, somebody who has cruised with the new app can let us know if that issue had been addressed by now.  

[Roberto256]

57 minutes ago, Daniel A said:

On that cruise in 2020, I sent a text to a friend using that feature asking him where he was.  I never got a response from him, but a couple of weeks ago, I got an e-mail from him saying he was now on another cruise.  It seems that he finally saw my message about 21 months later...😂

 

Don't leave us hanging!

 

Where was he?

 

🙂

 

[Steelers36]

1 hour ago, Daniel A said:

I don't know if the new version of the app fixed this problem but on my last Medallion Cruise in February of 2020, you could text somebody through the app but there was no tone or other indication that the person had received a message.  So, unless the person you were texting had their eyes constantly glued to the app, they wouldn't know you wrote to them until they may have checked for a message at a later time.

 

On that cruise in 2020, I sent a text to a friend using that feature asking him where he was.  I never got a response from him, but a couple of weeks ago, I got an e-mail from him saying he was now on another cruise.  It seems that he finally saw my message about 21 months later...😂

 

Hopefully, somebody who has cruised with the new app can let us know if that issue had been addressed by now.  

No, there is no notice by sound or vibration.  If you go to the message section, it indicates.  The solution IMO is to use WhatsApp or similar if you have MedallionNet package.  If only using ship's MC App, then nothing to do other than check from time to time, but doesn't help if someone wants to reach you quickly and get a response.  (I realize Apple folks have the iMessage feature).

 

[CalLuvsCrusingToo]

We were able to text, but we had to remember to LOOK & see if we were still on ship Wifi after Every thing we did. 

Like if I sent a text to spouse?  I would have to Check & see IF I was still on ship wifi,

or was it off? 

This happened all the time.  (needed ship wifi On & in airplane mode)

So I would send text.  If I didn't get one back?  Would need to check if ship wifi was off?

Same thing if I requested drink.... had to make sure I wasn't Off ship wifi, so drink Server

could find me.

We have Iphones.

Not sure if you can understand this explanation.... but that about sums up what we experienced.

 

[kikiw]

I only used it twice to message guest services and a friend. I had a notification icon and tone pop up on my Samsung phone telling me I had a new message both times. This is with the latest version of the MC app as of last week.

 

Also as a sidenote, while I was connected to the ship wifi but not the outside internet, I was still able to send and receive whatsapp messages (but not photos/video). Not sure how that got through.

Edited November 22, 2021 by kikiw

[Thrak]

I would hate for Princess to add a "ringtone" or "notification sound" to messages sent via the app. I don't want to spend my cruise listening to a bunch of obnoxious notification sounds. I don't even want a vibration alert. My wife's phone vibrates loudly enough that I can easily hear it in the back of the house when her phone is sitting on a coffee table in the front part of the house. Nope, nope, nope. Check for your messages or miss them until later. Don't disrupt the rest of the passengers with some obnoxious notification.

[Rick&Jeannie]

I was on the Regal Transatlantic a couple of weeks ago.  I tried to message customer service.  It wasn't a particularly pressing issue but after a few minutes I got tired of waiting for a response and left the cabin.  Found myself near the CS desk so I stopped to talk.  Amazingly, there was no one in line!  Anyway, they had never received the message.  I showed them my phone with the message showing as "sent".  They confessed that "we've been having some trouble with the app".  It was all I could do to keep a straight face and not burst out laughing.

[paul929207]

12 hours ago, Thrak said:

I would hate for Princess to add a "ringtone" or "notification sound" to messages sent via the app. I don't want to spend my cruise listening to a bunch of obnoxious notification sounds. I don't even want a vibration alert. My wife's phone vibrates loudly enough that I can easily hear it in the back of the house when her phone is sitting on a coffee table in the front part of the house. Nope, nope, nope. Check for your messages or miss them until later. Don't disrupt the rest of the passengers with some obnoxious notification.

I am with Thrak. The text should only give a vibration or nothing..

[Daniel A]

@Thrak and @paul929207 have a valid point.  I hadn't considered the annoyance of alert tones in the theater or MDR or even on the lido or the Sanctuary.  My tablet doesn't have a vibrator option so that wouldn't be a solution either.  That said, there's no reason why they couldn't have a message alert notification screen that would show the next time the user looks at the device.

 

One of the most annoying things for me is hearing that stupid Twitter whistle so I can empathize with their objection to any kind of an alert sound, including vibration.

[awinte2]

12 hours ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

I was on the Regal Transatlantic a couple of weeks ago.  I tried to message customer service.  It wasn't a particularly pressing issue but after a few minutes I got tired of waiting for a response and left the cabin.  Found myself near the CS desk so I stopped to talk.  Amazingly, there was no one in line!  Anyway, they had never received the message.  I showed them my phone with the message showing as "sent".  They confessed that "we've been having some trouble with the app".  It was all I could do to keep a straight face and not burst out laughing.

21 hours ago, cr8tiv1 said:

If it works....yes, you can chat with friends and family.  You can also chat with Customer Service desk.  Instead of buying a new phone, how about investing in a tablet device?  It will accomplish the same without the cost of a new phone.  There are many devices available:  Samsung, Apple, Amazon, etc.  

 

As far as I know, there is no notification that you received a text.  

Well I obviously will not be missing much if I don't have this texting capability.  Was on Norwegian 2 years ago and they had something similar that was hit and miss at the best of times. 

Thankyou all again for your  replies.

[Steelers36]

2 hours ago, paul929207 said:

I am with Thrak. The text should only give a vibration or nothing..

 

1 hour ago, Daniel A said:

@Thrak and @paul929207 have a valid point.  I hadn't considered the annoyance of alert tones in the theater or MDR or even on the lido or the Sanctuary.  My tablet doesn't have a vibrator option so that wouldn't be a solution either.  That said, there's no reason why they couldn't have a message alert notification screen that would show the next time the user looks at the device.

 

One of the most annoying things for me is hearing that stupid Twitter whistle so I can empathize with their objection to any kind of an alert sound, including vibration.

In the general hub-bub of the public areas and with the noise of a theater show, a vibration in one's pocket would hardly be disturbing.  Now, pulling the phone out in the theater with a lit-up screen to read/reply would not be so nice, but that is up to the user and not a necessary thing to do. 

 

That said, we will stick with WhatsApp. 

[Roberto256]

18 hours ago, Thrak said:

I would hate for Princess to add a "ringtone" or "notification sound" to messages sent via the app.

If the message is something like:

 

"Your loved one is in the medical center with an acute medical issue.  We need your immediate approval to treat..."

 

Sound, or courtesy for others?

 

[Steelers36]

23 minutes ago, Roberto256 said:

If the message is something like:

 

"Your loved one is in the medical center with an acute medical issue.  We need your immediate approval to treat..."

 

Sound, or courtesy for others?

 

You really think they would text that via MC App???  

[billco]

On 11/22/2021 at 7:26 PM, Rick&Jeannie said:

I was on the Regal Transatlantic a couple of weeks ago.  I tried to message customer service.  It wasn't a particularly pressing issue but after a few minutes I got tired of waiting for a response and left the cabin.  Found myself near the CS desk so I stopped to talk.  Amazingly, there was no one in line!  Anyway, they had never received the message.  I showed them my phone with the message showing as "sent".  They confessed that "we've been having some trouble with the app".  It was all I could do to keep a straight face and not burst out laughing.

I was also on the Regal TA and the 7 day cruise before that. I used Crew Chat several times. It does feel very dated compared to today's messaging and the response wasn't immediate, but I did get answers within a few minutes that saved several trips to passenger services desk. 1. I complained that someone was pushing the red and green buttons on our cabin door - person in cabin down the hall. Steward knew about it. 2. Request for vegetarian and table for two at MTP luncheon had been ignored. 3. Movie on TV was out of sync - Andy the CD answered. Had very few issues with the App. Particularly enjoyed ordering items from the cabin.

Edited November 28, 2021 by billco

[MissP22]

Surely a vibration couldn't be that annoying, could it?

How many nearby people might actually hear it?

[Daniel A]

15 minutes ago, MissP22 said:

Surely a vibration couldn't be that annoying, could it?

How many nearby people might actually hear it?

I think one reason why some people take a cruise for their annual vacation is so they can escape the constant pinging, ring tones, and scratchy whirring that electronic devices surround us with during our routine daily lives.  Some weenie in an office somewhere who has never been on a nice quiet relaxing cruise came up with the bright idea of making it so that almost everybody on board will be carrying those devices even on vacation.

[MissP22]

36 minutes ago, Daniel A said:

I think one reason why some people take a cruise for their annual vacation is so they can escape the constant pinging, ring tones, and scratchy whirring that electronic devices surround us with during our routine daily lives.  Some weenie in an office somewhere who has never been on a nice quiet relaxing cruise came up with the bright idea of making it so that almost everybody on board will be carrying those devices even on vacation.

Oh, I can see why people don't like a ringing alert for a message but a simple vibration?

If the phone were on a table it might be able to be heard but not in someone's pocket. 

 

[Daniel A]

11 minutes ago, MissP22 said:

Oh, I can see why people don't like a ringing alert for a message but a simple vibration?

If the phone were on a table it might be able to be heard but not in someone's pocket. 

On the Lido, many of those phones would be vibrating on the deck as most bathing suits do not have pockets.  In the theater, as someone posted earlier, the light from the phone would be an annoyance to those nearby when the person reads and responds to the texts.

[MissP22]

On 12/5/2021 at 9:27 AM, Daniel A said:

On the Lido, many of those phones would be vibrating on the deck as most bathing suits do not have pockets.  In the theater, as someone posted earlier, the light from the phone would be an annoyance to those nearby when the person reads and responds to the texts.

On the deck is would vibrate/ring only once & it would be over. How anyone could hear it over the aggravating MUTS speakers is a wonder.

 

In the theater it's easy enough to turn down the brightness so as to not blind others around you which I often when shooting dozens of photo's. 

 

In any event, I now have the WhatsApp app installed on my phones & from what others have posted it seems to work without having to rely on their texting app.

[Steelers36]

18 minutes ago, MissP22 said:

In any event, I now have the WhatsApp app installed on my phones & from what others have posted it seems to work without having to rely on their texting app.

This!

[Roberto256]

On 11/22/2021 at 7:37 PM, Thrak said:

I would hate for Princess to add a "ringtone" or "notification sound" to messages sent via the app.

 

I think you are either going to have to hope for courteous people, or stay home.

 

With medallion net internet, many passengers will have their phones connected to the internet much of the time.

The phone will be generating the same notifications that they do on land.

 

Any notification from the medallion app will be lost in the noise...

And even that pre-supposes that the global innovators could even get a notification to actually work.

 

[billco]

2 hours ago, Roberto256 said:

 

I think you are either going to have to hope for courteous people, or stay home.

 

With medallion net internet, many passengers will have their phones connected to the internet much of the time.

The phone will be generating the same notifications that they do on land.

 

Any notification from the medallion app will be lost in the noise...

And even that pre-supposes that the global innovators could even get a notification to actually work.

 

I get a haptic alert on my Apple Watch when somebody texts me or some other notification. No one else is disturbed. I get enough info on the watch to tell if it merits looking at my iphone. 

[Steelers36]

2 hours ago, Roberto256 said:

 

I think you are either going to have to hope for courteous people, or stay home.

 

With medallion net internet, many passengers will have their phones connected to the internet much of the time.

The phone will be generating the same notifications that they do on land.

 

Any notification from the medallion app will be lost in the noise...

And even that pre-supposes that the global innovators could even get a notification to actually work.

 

LOL - They would probably notify the sender that a message was sent.