Ocean Medallion & Beverage Package Compatibility Issues

[Woobstr112G]

Anyone know, via information from Princess or an educated guess, if/when they will fix the compatibility issues between the new Medallion Technology and all inclusive beverage packages?

Bob

[skynight]

"Our Ocean Medallion™ Class ships will offer the Here and Now™, There and Then™ feature which allows you to order what you want, when you want it - in most locations throughout the ship. In order to accommodate this great new way to order beverages, our soda and all-inclusive beverage packages will initially not be offered onboard our Ocean Medallion™ Class ships. We are evaluating our ability to include them in the future."

 

No timeline offered by Princess

[Woobstr112G]

"Our Ocean Medallion™ Class ships will offer the Here and Now™, There and Then™ feature which allows you to order what you want, when you want it - in most locations throughout the ship. In order to accommodate this great new way to order beverages, our soda and all-inclusive beverage packages will initially not be offered onboard our Ocean Medallion™ Class ships. We are evaluating our ability to include them in the future."

 

No timeline offered by Princess

 

Thanks for the information.....:):):)

Bob

[NavyVeteran]

"Our Ocean Medallion™ Class ships will offer the Here and Now™, There and Then™ feature which allows you to order what you want, when you want it - in most locations throughout the ship. In order to accommodate this great new way to order beverages, our soda and all-inclusive beverage packages will initially not be offered onboard our Ocean Medallion™ Class ships. We are evaluating our ability to include them in the future."

 

No timeline offered by Princess

Could you please provide the source of this information? Is it on their website, on Facebook, in a mailing to travel agents, from a Princess representative, or from some other source?

[Tedferg]

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2489800

 

See this discussion of this topic.

[cibaygirls]

I really do hope they do adjust it so that ocean medallion voyages will be able to offer the AIBP. I would be very willing to forgo the order/deliver ahead aspect of for it to be offered.

[jennybenny]

"Our Ocean Medallion™ Class ships will offer the Here and Now™, There and Then™ feature which allows you to order what you want, when you want it - in most locations throughout the ship. In order to accommodate this great new way to order beverages, our soda and all-inclusive beverage packages will initially not be offered onboard our Ocean Medallion™ Class ships. We are evaluating our ability to include them in the future."

 

No timeline offered by Princess

 

I don't understand why this has to be so difficult for Princess. Just allow people to purchase the AIBP or soda and more package and charge up their card. Because they purchased the AIBP or Soda one just zero out the charges at the end of the night. I am surprised they can't figure it out?!?!? Are they worried about someone "else" ordering a drink? It's the same issue they have now. Seems weird to not be able to do this right away.

[Bill B]

I don't understand why this has to be so difficult for Princess. Just allow people to purchase the AIBP or soda and more package and charge up their card. Because they purchased the AIBP or Soda one just zero out the charges at the end of the night. I am surprised they can't figure it out?!?!? Are they worried about someone "else" ordering a drink? It's the same issue they have now. Seems weird to not be able to do this right away.

 

I think they are worried about people with the packages ordering hundreds of drinks per day to be in certain places at certain times... and the passenger not showing up "then and there".

[Thrak]

I don't understand why this has to be so difficult for Princess. Just allow people to purchase the AIBP or soda and more package and charge up their card. Because they purchased the AIBP or Soda one just zero out the charges at the end of the night. I am surprised they can't figure it out?!?!? Are they worried about someone "else" ordering a drink? It's the same issue they have now. Seems weird to not be able to do this right away.

 

I'm guessing it has a lot to do with the ordering of drinks to be delivered wherever you happen to be. It would be easy to order a drink delivered and then hand it off to someone else and order another drink delivered. It would also be easy to keep staff running ragged delivering drinks. They should just do away with their plan to deliver drinks as it seems to be unworkable in the real world. That would likely solve the problem but, of course, I'm just guessing.

[Astro Flyer]

On the Princess FB website I see a question about whether there'll be a fee to deliver drinks & food but Princess hasn't answered that question...it's simply either yes or no.

[Bill B]

They should just do away with their plan to deliver drinks as it seems to be unworkable in the real world.

 

But... isn't he plan to deliver drinks "here and now, then and there" one of the main reasons for instituting medallion system?

 

What they'll probably do is put a daily cap on the number of drinks people with the packages can order - like HAL's 15 drinks per day with their version of the AIBP.

[skynight]

I don't understand why this has to be so difficult for Princess. Just allow people to purchase the AIBP or soda and more package and charge up their card. Because they purchased the AIBP or Soda one just zero out the charges at the end of the night. I am surprised they can't figure it out?!?!? Are they worried about someone "else" ordering a drink? It's the same issue they have now. Seems weird to not be able to do this right away.

I think it probably has to do with the words I highlighted in bold, which was buried in the January 3rd Carnival Corp. press release.

 

"Personalize Dining: Checking out menus from personal devices is a convenience, but even better, the Ocean Medallion lets you place orders for delivery to anywhere you plan to be, whether it's poolside, your cabin, the ship's theater or the casino. (Charges might apply for food and drink.) The Medallion makes it easy to communicate dietary restrictions -- which you can do ahead of your cruise -- just once, and chefs at restaurants across the vessel will all have the info, wherever and whenever you're dining."

[Bill B]

I think it probably has to do with the words I highlighted in bold, which was buried in the January 3rd Carnival Corp. press release.

 

"Personalize Dining: Checking out menus from personal devices is a convenience, but even better, the Ocean Medallion lets you place orders for delivery to anywhere you plan to be, whether it's poolside, your cabin, the ship's theater or the casino. (Charges might apply for food and drink.) The Medallion makes it easy to communicate dietary restrictions -- which you can do ahead of your cruise -- just once, and chefs at restaurants across the vessel will all have the info, wherever and whenever you're dining."

 

What does it have to do with those words?

[Astro Flyer]

I think it probably has to do with the words I highlighted in bold, which was buried in the January 3rd Carnival Corp. press release.

 

"Personalize Dining: Checking out menus from personal devices is a convenience, but even better, the Ocean Medallion lets you place orders for delivery to anywhere you plan to be, whether it's poolside, your cabin, the ship's theater or the casino. (Charges might apply for food and drink.) The Medallion makes it easy to communicate dietary restrictions -- which you can do ahead of your cruise -- just once, and chefs at restaurants across the vessel will all have the info, wherever and whenever you're dining."

Checking the Carnival Corporation list of press releases which includes Princess, I am unable to locate a statement about a food or drink delivery charge might apply.

 

Could you please post a link to the press release with that statement...thanks.

[Bill B]

Checking the Carnival Corporation list of press releases which includes Princess, I am unable to locate a statement about a food or drink delivery charge might apply.

 

Could you please post a link to the press release with that statement...thanks.

 

Read sknight's post again. It doesn't say anything about delivery charges, it says "Charges might apply for food and drink".

[Astro Flyer]

Read sknight's post again. It doesn't say anything about delivery charges, it says "Charges might apply for food and drink".

Thanks...my bad! :o

 

It'd be helpful if Princess would also disclose if there's a delivery fee with *****.

[reedprincess]

From Princess via their Facebook page :

"Hi Cheryl, our Ocean Medallion Class ships allow you to order what you want, when you want it – in most locations throughout the ship. In order to accommodate this great new way to order beverages, our soda and all-inclusive beverage package will initially not be offered onboard our Ocean Medallion class ships.

 

We will honor any packages previously purchased. Medallion Class voyages will be eligible for promotional offers that include a beverage package - like our popular Sip n Sail.

 

We look forward to welcoming you onboard!"

[Woobstr112G]

From Princess via their Facebook page :

"Hi Cheryl, our Ocean Medallion Class ships allow you to order what you want, when you want it – in most locations throughout the ship. In order to accommodate this great new way to order beverages, our soda and all-inclusive beverage package will initially not be offered onboard our Ocean Medallion class ships.

 

We will honor any packages previously purchased. Medallion Class voyages will be eligible for promotional offers that include a beverage package - like our popular Sip n Sail.

 

We look forward to welcoming you onboard!"

 

I wish they would give a clear and concise answer as to why.......

Bob

[Bill B]

I wish they would give a clear and concise answer as to why.......

 

It's very difficult for them to use corporate 'double talk' speech, and put a positive spin on -

 

"We screwed up big time by not taking our existing beverage packages into consideration when planning the Ocean Medallion system. We now realise the potential for abuse by beverage package holders is virtually unlimited; and as the packages stand, we would be powerless to stop the abuse. Therefore, we have suspended sales of the packages until we can either: modify the packages, or modify the system... and get ourselves out of the hole we have dug ourselves into."

 

:cool:

Edited May 2, 2017 by Bill B

[VibeGuy]

I have a hypothesis as to what the problem is.

 

Giveaway AIBPs book no associated revenue and either all of the costs of the liquor get charged back through various general ledger accounts to the marketing department as an operating expense or there's a per-diem revenue stream transferred to food and beverage. I'm not privy to the specific process at Princess, but let's assume that I know something about accounting for prepaid consumption-based offers and their associated promotional pricing. Nevertheless this is all speculative.

 

Purchased AIBPs also do the same thing - revenue from the sale booked to one place, drinks get charged somewhere else.

 

With the change from Personalizer the magic that books the revenue and communicates that event to the general ledger probably has to be replaced and, inevitably, this is the kind of complex IT task (moving information between two siloed systems) that gets delayed or done poorly.

 

When faced with this problem, nerds told management that the only way to make this work at launch was some laborious process in IT and someone onboard has to do something on a per transaction basis. A couple of accounting clerks onboard each ship, and probably someone running a manual process every day onshore to fix the prepaid ones.

 

So someone made a smart decision to stop digging the hole deeper and not sell any more outside a sip and sail promo. For now.

 

Odds are good that this gets fixed, probably before the sailings start, or gets fixed shortly after the first few.

 

I don't think the problem is a change in direction; I suspect the AIBP is profitable on most types of sailings and guests like it.

 

I just think the code doesn't work right and the estimates to repair it extend beyond the launch of the service enough that digging the hole deeper by letting more people buy doesn't make sense.

[Bill B]

VibeGuy,

 

What you say makes sense. However, accounting and IT problems are probably only part of a 'bigger mess' -

Because the beverage packages allow the holders unlimited beverages and the Ocean Medallion allows those package holders to place orders from almost anywhere on the ship at any time and have them delivered, as well as to place orders in advance and have them delivered to a different place, the potential for abuse is... UNLIMITED.

 

I'm sure when they came to this realization, many people in Santa Clarita looked like - :eek: :o

 

Undoubtedly, Princess is currently trying to figure out how they will go about honoring the unlimited packages they have already sold, and how they will limit future beverage packages on Ocean Medallion voyages... as well as any accounting and IT problems that may have manifested themselves.

[skynight]

Checking the Carnival Corporation list of press releases which includes Princess, I am unable to locate a statement about a food or drink delivery charge might apply.

 

Could you please post a link to the press release with that statement...thanks.

It is buried in here:http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=7442#FAQs

[sunsetbeachgal]

I find it very strange that Princess would introduce this new technology with all of the publicity and fanfare, only to find out that they haven't figured out how to incorporate the beverage packages with it. Sounds like someone didn't think things through very well!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[Woobstr112G]

It's very difficult for them to use corporate 'double talk' speech, and put a positive spin on -

 

"We screwed up big time by not taking our existing beverage packages into consideration when planning the Ocean Medallion system. We now realise the potential for abuse by beverage package holders is virtually unlimited; and as the packages stand, we would be powerless to stop the abuse. Therefore, we have suspended sales of the packages until we can either: modify the packages, or modify the system... and get ourselves out of the hole we have dug ourselves into."

 

:cool:

 

I'd accept that as at least it would be an answer......

Bob

[Woobstr112G]

I have a hypothesis as to what the problem is.

 

Giveaway AIBPs book no associated revenue and either all of the costs of the liquor get charged back through various general ledger accounts to the marketing department as an operating expense or there's a per-diem revenue stream transferred to food and beverage. I'm not privy to the specific process at Princess, but let's assume that I know something about accounting for prepaid consumption-based offers and their associated promotional pricing. Nevertheless this is all speculative.

 

Purchased AIBPs also do the same thing - revenue from the sale booked to one place, drinks get charged somewhere else.

 

With the change from Personalizer the magic that books the revenue and communicates that event to the general ledger probably has to be replaced and, inevitably, this is the kind of complex IT task (moving information between two siloed systems) that gets delayed or done poorly.

 

When faced with this problem, nerds told management that the only way to make this work at launch was some laborious process in IT and someone onboard has to do something on a per transaction basis. A couple of accounting clerks onboard each ship, and probably someone running a manual process every day onshore to fix the prepaid ones.

 

So someone made a smart decision to stop digging the hole deeper and not sell any more outside a sip and sail promo. For now.

 

Odds are good that this gets fixed, probably before the sailings start, or gets fixed shortly after the first few.

 

I don't think the problem is a change in direction; I suspect the AIBP is profitable on most types of sailings and guests like it.

 

I just think the code doesn't work right and the estimates to repair it extend beyond the launch of the service enough that digging the hole deeper by letting more people buy doesn't make sense.

 

I'm sure it is. I know that they've money on me during my last three cruises wherein I purchased an AIBP......:D:D:D

Bob