Why Princess needs to invest more in tech...

[SoCal Cruiser78]

With Dynamic Dining (DD) on the newest ship...you can wait until each evening on the cruise to decide where to eat, but the time you can eat will depend on what is still available after all the other times that have been booked in advance.

 

This should encourage early booking, as those who book late may have little or no choice in dining options. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.

[Greyt Mom]

I don't need a lot of high tech stuff to keep me cruising Princess, but more bandwidth that would result in a more responsive internet would be wonderful.

 

And another random thought - perhaps some of the younger demographic that is being discussed finds cruising attractive because, they can, indeed, disconnect and not be available 24/7 to the office, etc. Check the e-mail, tell the office no phone, no text, not much communication and get away with it! When I was still working one of the things I loved most was that I was not available to my workaholic executive director who thought all his Sr. Directors needed to be available 24/7, crisis or not. Escape completely - oops, showing my age with that one????

 

As a supposed member of the "new" Princess demographic here are my thoughts:

 

---I work in tech development & support...cruises are awesome bc I have no choice but to unplug.

 

---Arming the employees with tablets will take away from customer service. The employee will be more focused on what the tablet's info is showing and have less eye contact and personal interaction with the passenger.

 

---Both young & old passengers will storm the purser's desk with torches & pitch forks when the tablets freeze up or a server crashes, rendering "all" info inaccessible...the employees will have to do their jobs "old school."

Edited August 28, 2014 by Greyt Mom
final point

[vickie_bernie]

i would love to see Princess implements some of the high tech advances that other lines have introduced.

 

- seeing our bill on the tv on all ships

- being able to book gifts on line without having to fax or call our order in

- being able to send in our stock information for stock credit in a more hightech way other than a fax

- a decent Princess app that offers the ability to do all things we can on their website

- booking of specialty restaurants on line

 

but in the end I am just glad to be on vacation and will survive

[Woobstr112G]

I looked into what the fuss is and I can see why many are unhappy with the concept.

 

First, the way it is now, on both Princess and RCCL.

o There is traditional fixed-time dining where you are assigned to the same table with the same other passengers for the entire cruise.

o Second is anytime dining (My Time Dining (MTD) on RCCL) where you show up when you want and can choose to be seated with others or just the people you show up with.

o The menus are the same in all the main dining rooms each evening.

o Each evening of a cruise segment there will be a new and different menu. Some items will be always available, but must will be different each evening.

o When there is a formal evening, it will be in all the main dining rooms.

 

With Dynamic Dining (DD) on the newest ship.

o there will be five no-extra-charge restaurants plus a larger number of restaurants with a cover charge

o Each of the five will have its own menu which will be the same for the entire cruise. In other words, you have five fixed menus to pick from no matter how long the cruise segment. A seven day cruise has five fixed menus. A 15 day cruise has five fixed menus.

o There will be no dining room with today's arrangement of a different menu each evening.

o You can book which dining room you want to eat in each night of the cruise online in advance. To get your choice of dining time, it is best to choose the menu (and thus the dining room) as soon as you book your cruise. Thus months in advance, you decide what you want to eat each evening and what time you want to do so. Family groups who want to eat together will have to coordinate what type menu they want each evening.

o Since you can book the main evening's entertaining in advance on RCCL, you need to coordinate the time of each evening's dinner with the entertainment options that you have also selected months in advance of the cruise.

o Unlike today's traditional dining, there will no longer be the opportunity to meet people at dinner the first evening and dine with them every evening -- unless everyone agrees to change their existing reservations for the rest of the cruise after agreeing on which menu they want each evening and accepting whatever new reservation times are still available.

o Formal evenings will only be observed in one of these five dining rooms. (I assume you will know at time of booking which evenings will be formal.)

o Of course you can wait until each evening on the cruise to decide where to eat, but the time you can eat will depend on what is still available after all the other times that have been booked in advance.

 

Not sure If I'd like Dynamic Dining.....:):):)

 

Bob

[SoCal Cruiser78]

Not sure If I'd like Dynamic Dining.....:):):)

 

Bob

 

It sure sounds like a lot of work just to get a meal...

[billco]

"The main area I'd like to see is improvements in intraship communication. It can be tough to find someone aboard. I could see having some sort of app that you download to your smartphone ahead of time and use it to send messages over the ship's intranet between handsets."

 

Take a look at the Ripple Cruise Communicator app. Designed to address this concern...app is $0.99...no extra cruise ship charges.

I've installed the app on all our iPhones and iPads. Works great at home. Can't wait to try it on our next cruise.

[Cruise Junky]

Not sure If I'd like Dynamic Dining.....:):):)

 

Bob

 

I think people that still do traditional dining would have issues with it. Anytime, not so much.

[hawkeyetlse]

It sure sounds like a lot of work just to get a meal...

It sounds pretty much exactly like what we do to get a restaurant meal on land.

[Iamcruzin]

I've installed the app on all our iPhones and iPads. Works great at home. Can't wait to try it on our next cruise.

Just read a review. I was able to connect to the wifi on Celebrity and text through i Messages. I was able to text anyone who had an iPhone through i Messaging even my S.I.L. in Florida and my Kids in NY. Didn't matter if we were in port or at sea. We were also able to text another couple on the ship who also had an iPhone. His wife had an android phone and it didn't work for her. My phone was in airplane mode with WiFi on and data roaming was off as well. My sister in law was not able to do the same on a Princess cruise. Her family all have iPhones. I would be very interested how this app works and would appreciate it if you would report back after you test it out.

 

http://www.cruisewithgambee.com/2014/08/17/ripple-cruise-communicator-review/

[Iamcruzin]

Not sure If I'd like Dynamic Dining.....:):):)

 

Bob

Sounds like a lot of work.

[Iamcruzin]

I think people that still do traditional dining would have issues with it. Anytime, not so much.

I just want to show up anytime. If I have to start planning my meals and making reservations ahead of time I may as well just sign up for late traditional.

[Loonbeam]

How it works..

 

When you connect to a wi-fi network, you get assigned an IP address that expires after a certain length of time (when last on Princess it was 30 mins).

 

When you connect via iMessage or ripple or similar, the application queries the iMessage service to get the IP of the other device or in the case of Ripple must scan for the other ip if it doesn't require a short internet connection to configure.

 

After that - the devices communicate directly using the wifi-routers, but not the Princess servers.

 

However, when the IP lease expires, the connection will break until a new IP is obtained and the devices synch again.

 

IF Princess doesn't mask the IPs (which they really should), then I suppose Ripple could rescan ips to re-synch, which could be interesting when more people start using it.

 

Just read a review. I was able to connect to the wifi on Celebrity and text through i Messages. I was able to text anyone who had an iPhone through i Messaging even my S.I.L. in Florida and my Kids in NY. Didn't matter if we were in port or at sea. We were also able to text another couple on the ship who also had an iPhone. His wife had an android phone and it didn't work for her. My phone was in airplane mode with WiFi on and data roaming was off as well. My sister in law was not able to do the same on a Princess cruise. Her family all have iPhones. I would be very interested how this app works and would appreciate it if you would report back after you test it out.

 

http://www.cruisewithgambee.com/2014/08/17/ripple-cruise-communicator-review/

[Loonbeam]

In some ways, I kind of like it. They do it on the Breakaway at NCL so I will check it out in Jan.

 

 

It stops the whole "So what night is this entree so I can plan my specialty dining" issue. And if you want to be flexible, you can.

 

I strongly suspect that after a time there will be one or two 'featured' specials in each venue.

 

Sounds like a lot of work.

[Iamcruzin]

How it works..

 

When you connect to a wi-fi network, you get assigned an IP address that expires after a certain length of time (when last on Princess it was 30 mins).

 

When you connect via iMessage or ripple or similar, the application queries the iMessage service to get the IP of the other device or in the case of Ripple must scan for the other ip if it doesn't require a short internet connection to configure.

 

After that - the devices communicate directly using the wifi-routers, but not the Princess servers.

 

However, when the IP lease expires, the connection will break until a new IP is obtained and the devices synch again.

 

IF Princess doesn't mask the IPs (which they really should), then I suppose Ripple could rescan ips to re-synch, which could be interesting when more people start using it.

 

I wonder if Celebrity is different because they sell and promote Apple products and some how there was a glitch. It wouldn't surprise me after dealing with their website. The sad part is I paid for WiFi and couldn't connect most of the week or got thrown off. I never logged in to the internet account when I was texting but for some reason I always had a WiFi connection to send texts. My phone was in airplane mode with WiFi enabled so there wasn't any data service being used. I never used up the minutes I paid for because I could never get service even using their computers.

Edited August 28, 2014 by Iamcruzin

[caribill]

I just want to show up anytime. If I have to start planning my meals and making reservations ahead of time I may as well just sign up for late traditional.

 

Except on RCCL with Dynamic Dining traditional will no longer exist.

[Loonbeam]

Or they could just have a longer lease on the IPs depending on how their system is set up. Also as long as you ATTEMPT to log in to the net server, you should get a new IP to connect to that server.

 

I wonder if Celebrity is different because they sell and promote Apple products and some how there was a glitch. It wouldn't surprise me after dealing with their website. The sad part is I paid for WiFi and couldn't connect most of the week or got thrown off. I never logged in to the internet account when I was texting but for some reason I always had a WiFi connection to send texts. My phone was in airplane mode with WiFi enabled so there wasn't any data service being used. I never used up the minutes I paid for because I could never get service even using their computers.

[Greyt Mom]

And what would the skywalk be? Oh yeah, a gimmick

 

Princess could have the robot "multitask" by being a really expensive beer bottle opener, manning the tenders to/from shore and walking/rolling across the Skywalk often so the "Glass Bridge to Nowhere" gets some use... :rolleyes:

[Woobstr112G]

Sounds like a lot of work.

 

It does, doesn't it.....:):):)

 

Bob

[Thrak]

Originally Posted by PescadoAmarillo

I have been accosted enough on cruises for using technology to grow a thick skin, but it does humor me to consider that if I were in the library looking up some information for the next port, people would commend that, but do it on an iPad and I get, "Can't you ever unplug?"

 

I think the right answer would be: "Can't you ever mind your own business?"

 

Oh, I don't think my wife would let me get away with that reply.

 

You could always reply, "Oh, sorry. I was just looking up criminal records of passengers on this cruise. What was your name again?"

 

As long as you aren't talking loudly in an improper venue or getting constant texts and calls with a loud and annoying ring tone it really isn't anybody else's business when you are using your mobile device. I'm not "connected" or "plugged in" onboard but I do use a table for reading. Like you, I would be quite annoyed with the rude question you were asked.

Edited August 29, 2014 by Thrak

[caribill]

As long as you aren't talking loudly in an improper venue or getting constant texts and calls with a loud and annoying ring tone it really isn't anybody else's business when you are using your mobile device.

 

Unless you are using it at trivia.

[pablo222]

Unless you are using it at trivia.

 

On one cruise, there were folks who brought reference books.

 

They were certainly sports...

[SoCal Cruiser78]

Message deleted.

Edited August 29, 2014 by Ryndam2002

[Thrak]

Unless you are using it at trivia.

Using tech assistance at trivia in so very wrong. Of course using the same questions on each segment of someone's b2b2b gives them a huge and unfair advantage over the "one segment" passengers as well. For some reason that seems to be OK.

[caribill]

Of course using the same questions on each segment of someone's b2b2b gives them a huge and unfair advantage over the "one segment" passengers as well. For some reason that seems to be OK.

 

On one cruise I finally went to the library, found a Trivial Pursuit game, and brought it to the trivia host to use. The B2B2B2B2B.... couple that had been winning every time did not win again.

[notentirelynormal]

On one cruise I finally went to the library, found a Trivial Pursuit game, and brought it to the trivia host to use. The B2B2B2B2B.... couple that had been winning every time did not win again.

 

Love this!