Are the app developers working for the competition?????

[TopofWorld]

Hi ev1. Just here to vent because I can not really believe that the Princess app is for real. A few days ago the system was down, reservations were not shown etc etc. Now the app is up and running so I thought I explore a bit. Tried Dining Reservations.  It said they are doing some updates and I should try later. This was more than 6 hours ago. I then tried Specialty Dining from the menu. It said Dining has moved to the Medallion app and I should get it from Google Play Store. This when already working from within the app on my tablet. Coupling my app mishaps with otherbforum posts convinced me that either the Princess IT has a weird sense of humor, or they are working for the competition. Honestly, worked for 30plus years as an IT expert in many posts. Such shoddy work would be grounds for firing us. Rant over. Thanks for putting up with me. 

[Guest ldtr]

1 hour ago, TopofWorld said:

Hi ev1. Just here to vent because I can not really believe that the Princess app is for real. A few days ago the system was down, reservations were not shown etc etc. Now the app is up and running so I thought I explore a bit. Tried Dining Reservations.  It said they are doing some updates and I should try later. This was more than 6 hours ago. I then tried Specialty Dining from the menu. It said Dining has moved to the Medallion app and I should get it from Google Play Store. This when already working from within the app on my tablet. Coupling my app mishaps with otherbforum posts convinced me that either the Princess IT has a weird sense of humor, or they are working for the competition. Honestly, worked for 30plus years as an IT expert in many posts. Such shoddy work would be grounds for firing us. Rant over. Thanks for putting up with me. 

Did you try clearing the cache on the app on your tablet?

[TopofWorld]

Yes, also rebooted the tablet. Same result. I will wait a couple of days, then delete the app and reinstall. Never a boring moment....

[PacnGoNow]

1 hour ago, TopofWorld said:

Yes, also rebooted the tablet. Same result. I will wait a couple of days, then delete the app and reinstall. Never a boring moment....

Did you try the App from your smartphone?  Sometimes it behaves itself.  They have been running updates for the last 2 weeks and of course one change generates another error response.

 

We don’t know when the fix is.  It’s working pretty well on my iPhone, for now anyway.

 

 

 

[Cmildenb]

Did you try turning it off and then on again? /s 🤣

[TopofWorld]

Thanks ev1....my point actually was that a customer should NOT have to delete/reinstall an app, reboot the tablet, clear cookies and cache, try it on different devices etc etc etc. Life is complicated enough without shoddy apps....

[OzKiwiJJ]

2 hours ago, TopofWorld said:

Thanks ev1....my point actually was that a customer should NOT have to delete/reinstall an app, reboot the tablet, clear cookies and cache, try it on different devices etc etc etc. Life is complicated enough without shoddy apps....

I agree, and I'm another ex-ITer with 30+ years experience.

[ontheweb]

Just remember the man who developed it, became the President of Princess. It is obviously a high priority. 🤣🤣🤣

[SargassoPirate]

Come Feel The Love 😄

[Roberto256]

4 hours ago, TopofWorld said:

Thanks ev1....my point actually was that a customer should NOT have to delete/reinstall an app, reboot the tablet, clear cookies and cache, try it on different devices etc etc etc. Life is complicated enough without shoddy apps....

No offense.

But, you seem to have overlooked clicking your heels together.

 

Based on the posts here, there are many, many people who will cruise on princess ... no matter what!

 

Why spend money on making something good ?

[TopofWorld]

49 minutes ago, Roberto256 said:

No offense.

But, you seem to have overlooked clicking your heels together.

 

Based on the posts here, there are many, many people who will cruise on princess ... no matter what!

 

Why spend money on making something good ?

Maybe because they respect their customers, IT values and takes pride in its work, business partnership is a 2-way street... just saying😀😀😀

[Pickels]

I work in IT, have for over 50 years, [yeah, might be time to retire], whenever we need to roll out an update to an app, it's first tested in Development, then sent to the QA team, who do more testing, [try to break it], if there's any issue, it goes back to the Development team for correction.  When it's again tested in QA and accepted, then, and only then does it get rolled out to Production.  I don't think Princess IT fully tests the updates before they roll it out.

[PacnGoNow]

1 hour ago, Pickels said:

I work in IT, have for over 50 years, [yeah, might be time to retire], whenever we need to roll out an update to an app, it's first tested in Development, then sent to the QA team, who do more testing, [try to break it], if there's any issue, it goes back to the Development team for correction.  When it's again tested in QA and accepted, then, and only then does it get rolled out to Production.  I don't think Princess IT fully tests the updates before they roll it out.

Uh, no…it doesn’t appear there are those all-critical testing periods.  Seems as if, testing is during the rollout period.  SMH

[hobbyfarmer2]

Some outfits cut down on QA by having customers do in service testing a bit.  This is not an uncommon practice in non mission critical or non life threaening applications.  I would put MC in this category.  I personally don't think this is a great idea but cash strapped orgs often have restricted choice when it comes to development.  I also made a very long career in IT starting out as a coder before banishment to operations management.  Apologies in advance, but I find this all rather uninteresting.  The app worked great for us onboard last Nov but it seems Princess It has set the churn level a bit high perhaps. 

[Pickels]

34 minutes ago, hobbyfarmer2 said:

Some outfits cut down on QA by having customers do in service testing a bit.  This is not an uncommon practice in non mission critical or non life threaening applications.  I would put MC in this category.  I personally don't think this is a great idea but cash strapped orgs often have restricted choice when it comes to development.  I also made a very long career in IT starting out as a coder before banishment to operations management.  Apologies in advance, but I find this all rather uninteresting.  The app worked great for us onboard last Nov but it seems Princess It has set the churn level a bit high perhaps. 

We sailed on The Regal Princess in 2019 and I was able to setup/use the Medallion with absolutely no issues; back then, it worked like a charm!

[Rick&Jeannie]

There seems to be a big difference between operation/reliability of the app pre-cruise vs using it while on board. For most people it works fairly well while on the ship. Pre-cruise it is atrocious! I cannot believe that there is *any* type of testing by Princess cruise-savvy people happening!

[deltahog]

55 minutes ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

There seems to be a big difference between operation/reliability of the app pre-cruise vs using it while on board. For most people it works fairly well while on the ship. Pre-cruise it is atrocious! I cannot believe that there is *any* type of testing by Princess cruise-savvy people happening!

Do you need to buy the wifi package for the app to work on the ship?  Seems like it would work for all customers regardless.

[Rick&Jeannie]

5 hours ago, deltahog said:

Do you need to buy the wifi package for the app to work on the ship?  Seems like it would work for all customers regardless.

No, the app does all of its functions using the ship intranet...no need for internet. No charge to connect to the intranet. 

[rj59]

Until recently, talented developers could get rich through stock options by working at tech companies, and then work from home if they wanted. If you work for a cruise ship IT, you're not going to get rich through salary or stock appreciation, especially since tech companies have billions in cash, versus billions in debt for cruise companies. The financial motive also plays a huge part, since they tried to put so much into the app, including gambling, and they have to deal with limitations, like poor bandwidth and wifi at sea, with a app demanding huge resources. Now they have to deal with tiered privileges--only some people get access to OceanNow delivery, and regular room service. The only solace I take is that many of its functions I use are easier on the stateroom tv, and its useless activities calendar usually has a Princess Patter to show things in a format I can actually use. The only usable apps are on Royal/Celebrity, which have useful functions that are easy to use and that don't try to do too much, and menus and activities are designed to be readable on a small phone screen. The last time I use mine on board Princess is when I start the endless safety video, mute it, and set my phone on the table during embarkation lunch until it's finished. Unfortunately, the app and services weren't really tested or thought through--like what would happen when 3000 people are ordering drinks and slices of cake and fries delivered all over the ship, with frustrated, overworked crew trying to track people down (I saw some idiot having a slice of cake delivered to him in the buffet). Or the effect on app usage if most people have an unlimited wifi plan and are sucking up most of the available bandwidth, so app functions have to try to compete. 

[Steelers36]

The Ocean IT resources are not working for the competition.  They are the ones who couldn't get hired by the competition.

[TopofWorld]

55 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

The Ocean IT resources are not working for the competition.  They are the ones who couldn't get hired by the competition.

Best comment by far.....

[Rick&Jeannie]

[Guest Snaxmuppet]

8 hours ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

Yup... it's called chatGPT!

[bigbenboys]

On 8/25/2023 at 12:33 AM, TopofWorld said:

Thanks ev1....my point actually was that a customer should NOT have to delete/reinstall an app, reboot the tablet, clear cookies and cache, try it on different devices etc etc etc. Life is complicated enough without shoddy apps....

Celebrity's app is not any better.

[TopofWorld]

A quick update. Deleted the app and reinstalled it, rebooted the phone (Samsung S23 Ultra), cleared the app cache, cleared the app data, and the app still refuses to get Dining Reservations working. Next step is to go back to uni, learn programming and app hacking and code/work around the problem 😀😀😀. Just kidding, I will probably try to recharge the old phone I had and see if the app works there - just to satisfy my curiosity as to where the problem lies.

Happy cruising ev1