Are You A Medallion Man?

You will be if you are cruising with Princess.  Starting on the Regal Princess from November 13th, Princess are set to launch a “brand new digital development.” This is called the Ocean Medallion which is a first-of-its-kind wearable device making cruising simpler, and more personal and enjoyable than ever. The what?

Well, this all starts at home after you have booked your cruise. There is a digital portal (cruise personaliser) where you will log in and enter all your personal details  like before, but also your preferences which now customise’s your cruising experience. Once this is all filled in you are basically ready to join the ship, no more printing off bits of paper! Medallion holds your unique digital identity and communicates with thousands of readers onboard and in port. Embarkation is essentially sped up. Staff will know when you are approaching. They will have tablets which show your photos and can verify it is you. The same technology unlocks your cabin door it also tells them your favourite drink and where to find you.  Once on board you can also opt to choose your own “tagalong” which you can personalise yourself, for example a picture or something which is personal to you. That way when you approach, staff can see you are a family or whatever “tagalong” you have to confirm it is you.

Princess also state that if you want anything you just ask, so for example you want to order a round of drinks in your favourite bar after dinner, the drinks will be waiting for you OR you want something from the shop you pop it down and staff will bring it you.

Princess are investing heavily in this new technology. For the ship to become ready it needs 72 miles of cable and 7,000 sensors installed. On top of that there will be 4000 high resolution screens which the medallions can interact with whenever you are approaching one.

Princess state the best thing about these Medallion’s is that you can choose how much you want to interact with them.Regal will be the first followed by  Royal in January, Caribbean in March and Island in May.

So, this brings me to the question is it right for you? Is this so groundbreaking every cruise line will be bringing one out and where does the personal information go?  Regarding the safety aspect, Princess say, and I quote – “All information provided before and during your cruise will be encrypted and is not stored on your Ocean Medallion. The most advanced software security models, tools, and methods are fundamental to Ocean Medallion Class. However, any guest is also welcome to opt out of all services at any time.”  Will this be so groundbreaking then? I think it is the shape of things to come, it is very much based on the wrist bands you have with Disney parks which works fantastically well. Is it for you? It will be for the families and groups of people travelling. I guess the older generation may struggle with it at first but yes fundamentally I think it will be fine, at the end of the day if you don’t want to use it you can opt out.

Will be very interesting to see how it works. If you are one of the first people to try it on the Regal, I would love to hear from you and get your comments.

Till next time x