A guide to Princess Cruises Ocean Medallion
Having sailed on the Sky Princess’ inaugural cruise in October 2019 we had had the opportunity to use the Ocean Medallion as it was being birthed and in all honesty it was definitely experiencing some teething problems on that cruise. Who would have guessed that only a few cruises later the brand new Sky Princess would be taken out of service for nigh on 18 months as a pandemic hit the world. Despite some issues with the Ocean Medallion we had generally loved the Sky Princess so when we were invited on one of her UK Seacation cruises not long after resuming service we were excited to see if some of the issues we had experienced with the Ocean Medallion had been ironed out whilst she was out of service.
We already had the Ocean Medallion apps downloaded on our smart phones and we had some experience of using the app from our previous cruise. But as soon as we got our booking information through and logged this on the app we could see that some changes had been made, with enhancements to the check-in process making it easier to do the entire check in process on the app. We found this relatively easy and managed to do the entire process (except for printing out luggage labels) on our phones.
Although the app was not used at check in the medallions were waiting for us at the terminal building and we were quickly on board the ship and able to use the medallion and its accompanying app for a variety of things during our cruise. First, and probably most noticeably the medallion replaces a traditional cruise key card and as such gains you access to your room. This is a really useful feature meaning that you have hands free access which, most importantly, we found to be 100% reliable. The doors are programmed to open as you approach your room and identify you on a little screen outside the door. In fact the occupants full names are permanently displayed on the little screen outside your door, very handy if you are looking for someone you know who may be cruising with you, although we did wonder if this could also be a bit of a privacy issue.
Once you are in your room the Ocean Medallion can be used on the suite TV or on your app to order food or drinks directly to your room. In fact you can use the app to order food and drink anywhere within the ship. We even attended a drinks party in a friends suite and we all ordered drinks to their suite and they arrived promptly and correctly. Although the crew can sometimes have difficulties finding you if you are out and about in a crowded area, they are able to ping you on the app so that you can help them to find you. We loved this feature of the Ocean Medallion and found it worked really well, with nearly everything we ordered being bought to us quickly. The only issues we had with this aspect of the Ocean Medallion was that since we both had a drinks package we had to order our drinks individually to ensure we weren’t charged for them. Although it wasn’t an issue for us, we did feel was a waste of time for the crew, with two separate crew members having to come and find us when one of them could have brought both of our orders at the same time.
The medallion itself can be worn a number of ways, with a variety of accessories available to buy on the app or in a shop centrally located in the atrium. All guests are given their medallion in a handy case so that it can be worn on a lanyard, but we decided to purchase a wristband to wear it like a watch. There are also clips available for those who would rather wear their medallion more discreetly and lovely bangles or a necklace for those who would prefer to wear them as a piece of jewellery. The app and your suite TV both allow you to make these and other purchases to be delivered to your suite and charged to your account. The medallion can also be used to make purchases around the ship, meaning you simply have to present your medallion to a crew device and your purchase can be charged directly to your account, very convenient indeed.
Not only can you make purchases you can also make dinner reservations, both in the main dining rooms and the speciality restaurants. For those that like to be ultra organised, these bookings can be made on the app prior to embarkation, but they can also be made once on board with the available time slots showing up on the app ready for you to make a booking.
Speaking of being organised the medallion app is perfect for planning your day, with activities, shows and events all handily laid out on a daily calendar so at any given time of day you can simply look down the list and see what is on where. The planner also gives you the chance to ‘book into’ an event so that you can see how many other people are thinking of attending that show or activity. This doesn’t mean that you have a reserved seat and there is nothing to stop you from simply turning up to an activity without booking in, but in these covid times it does mean that you might be able to gauge how busy an event might be if you wanted to avoid large gatherings.
One of the other features of the app we loved was the deck plan and public area information that was available on it, specifically being able to look up where the nearest toilet was. There’s nothing more frustrating than coming out of a show, dinner or drinks with friends in one of the bars and wandering around for the next five or ten minutes looking for the nearest toilet. But the app allows you to look on the deck plan to not only identify exactly where you and your friends or family are (if they are registered as on your app) but also allows you to identify the nearest toilets. Being able to locate people is beneficial not only to families and groups of friends travelling together but has also come into its own , allowing the ship to track and trace its guests for covid contact tracing.
If you forget or don’t want to take your smart phone out and about this sort of information can be accessed using the plentiful large smart screens around the public areas on the ship. The screens have the same information as the app, such as deck plans, activities and dining options as well as personalised information which is accessed on the screens simply by tapping your medallion on the clearly identified medallion circle.
Overall, we loved the Ocean Medallion technology as we experienced it on Sky Princess. The technology worked well with very few hiccups, including fast and reliable wifi. For us the best thing about the technology lies in the medallion itself which is so easy and convenient to use to open your cabin door, make purchases and check in and out of the ship, as an upgrade to a traditional cruise card. We loved being able to order food and drink anywhere in the ship, especially if we were in an area where there wouldn’t traditionally be crew wandering around to take our order. However, the way it is set up at the moment doesn’t seem to be wholly efficient with regard to crew time and may need to be tweaked to ensure crew can meet the demands from both the technology and from people wanting to place drinks orders in a more traditional way (which you can still do by the way). We have heard through word of mouth that the technology works less well on some of the older ships but our experience on Sky Princess was pretty reliable and presumably the technology will be built into any new ships and will only improve as technology progresses.
Thank you to Princess Cruises who invited us on this 6 night day voyage and paid for all of our expenses.
If you enjoyed this blog why not take a look at our other Princess Cruise content, including a Sky Princess Dining Guide, a Royal Princess Ship Visit and a Crown Princess Voyage blog.
If you are interested in booking a cruise with these or any other luxury cruise lines then we would recommend contacting a connoisseur at our trusted cruise partners Panache Cruises, either by following this link or calling 0161 513 8204 - please mention that you have been referred to them through Visit With Us.
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