Astro Flyer Posted July 6, 2011 #1 Share Posted July 6, 2011 In May on the Sapphire we experienced for the 1st time portable handheld cruise card readers at the gangway. They appear to be the same ones they've been testing for the muster drill but they were using it all of the time when we departed & returned to the ship. They worked very well to expedite the process at the gangway so wondering if this has been implemented on any other Princess ship or if it's just an expansion of the testing for these handheld portable card readers? :confused: If they haven't been implemented fleetwide, hopefully they will be soon because based on our experiences they worked great without any problems & they made for a smoother, more expeditious process. :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vexorg Posted July 6, 2011 #2 Share Posted July 6, 2011 They were using them at the gangways on the Ruby Princess in March, so I'm guessing they're probably fleetwide by now. They still had the old readers, but they were not in use at any time during that trip. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pam in CA Posted July 6, 2011 #3 Share Posted July 6, 2011 Interesting. On my last two HAL cruises, they've used handheld scanners for disembarkation in port and re-embarkation. It makes exiting and returning to the ship a lot faster. I was wondering when Princess would implement this as the system is obviously mature and usable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul929207 Posted July 6, 2011 #4 Share Posted July 6, 2011 We did not have it on the Ocean Princess in April and May Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fnewman Posted July 6, 2011 #5 Share Posted July 6, 2011 For sure it is just an interim step. I suspect you will soon see cruise cards with RFI chips embedded. With those you will just be able to walk by a detector with the card in your pocket! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katisdale Posted July 6, 2011 #6 Share Posted July 6, 2011 Hand held was used on the Emerald in May. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robgvic Posted July 6, 2011 #7 Share Posted July 6, 2011 Hand held used on the Crown on the TA in MAy even to take the photo. I saw the old machines close by and wondered if it was just a wifi connection to them where everything was stored. Good idea Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovevacadays Posted July 6, 2011 #8 Share Posted July 6, 2011 I thought the process was very smooth and fast with the hand-helds on our cruise in April on the Sapphire. I'm sure it will happen fleetwide. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nml Posted July 7, 2011 #9 Share Posted July 7, 2011 They were NOT used on the Caribbean in June. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hulagirl Posted July 7, 2011 #10 Share Posted July 7, 2011 I liked the new way they took the pictures with them when we boarded the Crown in May. You can look straight ahead when they take your picture which certainly helps to eliminate the double chin look. It did make it so much quicker getting back on the ship. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seabreeze8 Posted July 7, 2011 #11 Share Posted July 7, 2011 The handheld scanners were used on our Baltic cruise in May and it worked great. Glad that they finally implemented it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Princess Cruiser27 Posted July 7, 2011 #12 Share Posted July 7, 2011 The hand held scaners were in use on the Ruby Princess back in November. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare 4cats4me Posted July 7, 2011 #13 Share Posted July 7, 2011 These were in use in March when we were on the Sapphire. I reported back about it after writing my review, and at that time they were not running very efficiently. In fact, it held us up for a while on the gangway before embarking in San Pedro. We thought the other machines had broken and that these hand-held things were the substitute system. It was also problematic while disembarking in PV Glad to hear the system is working well now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itzmered Posted July 7, 2011 #14 Share Posted July 7, 2011 they did not use them on the Golden a couple of weeks ago. Sounds like it would have been nice. Very very long lines to get back on the ships at port Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Essiesmom Posted July 7, 2011 #15 Share Posted July 7, 2011 I can't remember what ship/line it was on last year, but they were using them to 'take roll' at the muster drill...EM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astro Flyer Posted July 7, 2011 Author #16 Share Posted July 7, 2011 I can't remember what ship/line it was on last year, but they were using them to 'take roll' at the muster drill...EM They did a few at the muster drill on the Golden last November but did everyone on May's Sapphire cruise. You posted on the thread about a Ruby Med cruise about Rick Steves' Med Ports book which was news to me so I ordered it for our future cruise...thanks for the info! :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
captainron Posted July 7, 2011 #17 Share Posted July 7, 2011 ...were used for boarding and disembarking from Star Princess on our SYD/LAX voyage in Oct 09, so this is not something new here, and yes it was also used for muster drill, but not for a final count... only for a randon sampling of passengers who had attended. Yes they do indeed expedite the process and rather than have six people standing around at the top of the gangway only two of which are "beeping" or "dinging" your card for you, it would cut the pax processing time in almost 1/4 of the time. Ciao for now!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caribill Posted July 7, 2011 #18 Share Posted July 7, 2011 Very very long lines to get back on the ships at port Usually the lines are slow moving due to passengers getting ready for the security x-ray of their belongings and then going through the metal detector, not the couple of seconds it takes to ding the cruise card. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sea Day Cruiser Posted July 7, 2011 #19 Share Posted July 7, 2011 Just got off the Grand a week ago and there was no sign of anyone using hand held scanners anywhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KruzPrincess Posted July 7, 2011 #20 Share Posted July 7, 2011 Are you all saying that they now take attendance at muster? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ONT-CA Posted July 7, 2011 #21 Share Posted July 7, 2011 Are you all saying that they now take attendance at muster? Hope not! We're so well trained we could give the presentation. But then we would have to be there to do that... We wonder if these scanners are a prelude to the bars and dining rooms using them in taking and processing orders. No line-ups at the Purser's desk waiting for someone to have a $3.99 drink deleted from their account. If it's on your account it's because your card was used to purchase it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1 HappyCruiser Posted July 7, 2011 #22 Share Posted July 7, 2011 Are you all saying that they now take attendance at muster? Not yet since it didn't matter if they scanned you or not, but that was just in the past. Who knows what they might do latter this year. We might even have to go to another muster. ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loonbeam Posted July 7, 2011 #23 Share Posted July 7, 2011 Before I left they were talking about doing this as apparently there is a rarely enforced coast guard rule (or some agency) that all passengers and crew must be documented as attending one muster per embarkation. I didn't hear for sure whether they actually decided to down the road. I could see why they would, in the event of an incident and inevitable lawsuits they would have an active defense. Hope not! We're so well trained we could give the presentation. But then we would have to be there to do that... We wonder if these scanners are a prelude to the bars and dining rooms using them in taking and processing orders. No line-ups at the Purser's desk waiting for someone to have a $3.99 drink deleted from their account. If it's on your account it's because your card was used to purchase it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robgvic Posted July 7, 2011 #24 Share Posted July 7, 2011 They were scanning cruise cards at the drill on the Crown in May Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul929207 Posted July 7, 2011 #25 Share Posted July 7, 2011 Hope not! We're so well trained we could give the presentation. But then we would have to be there to do that... We wonder if these scanners are a prelude to the bars and dining rooms using them in taking and processing orders. No line-ups at the Purser's desk waiting for someone to have a $3.99 drink deleted from their account. If it's on your account it's because your card was used to purchase it. Someone said that they used them for the muster drill on our last cruise, but no one questioned the fact that we did not hear the announcement, so did not attend. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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