No more demagnetized SeaPass cards—on Reflection

[paulh84]

44 minutes ago, upwarduk said:

 

The New System

Is this where  you are not given your card at embarkation, but it is waiting in your room for you?

Does this then mean that you have to wait until after 1pm before you can get a drink( assuming you have a drinks package)

 

The 'new system' was actually introduced in Jan 2018 when they changed over to the RFID cards. I've never heard of Celebrity leaving the cards in staterooms as Royal does on some of the newer ships. Even then, you just use a paper document from your check-in docs to get drinks and make purchases prior to receiving your card from the cabin. Celebrity does seem to be slowly adopting parts of Royal's more tech-advanced check-in procedures. I wouldn't be surprised to see them move to cards in the cabins eventually. 

Edited October 25, 2018 by paulh84

[rakes5]

Now if they could just come up with ink that doesn't rub off.

 

Seems we have to get at least one new card, sometimes two, as security can't read it when we are getting back on board in ports.

 

We have been told that it is a combination of some sunscreens and chlorine, which I guess someone thought weren't common items on a cruise. 

[2Long2NxtCrz]

I looked at our cards from our June Harmony of the Seas (RCI) cruise and it does have the 3 digit room number, but not the deck.  So I guess that part of it adds some amount of security in that anyone who finds the card would have to strike it lucky to find the right one the first try, or try every single deck.

 

I suspect they'll figure out a way to remove that eventually.  While I didn't originally want a WOW band, I was actually very grateful for it.  I could wear it swimming and it worked for drinks and purchases and getting into our stateroom, no card to worry about losing while on board and no room number anywhere in sight.  In fact, it listed a muster station, but not the right one because if you didn't buy them in advance you picked by color.

 

You did, of course, have to take your cards when you left the ship.

[Turtles06]

 

2 hours ago, Turtles06 said:

Are these the last three digits of your stateroom number?  (We haven't sailed on Celebrity in a few years, will be remedying that next week! 😃)  RCI does that, and I was flamed on the RCI board a while back for having expressed a similar concern about this. 

 

2 hours ago, Luvcrusn said:

Yes. They were on our cards in December on Reflection before the changeover to the new system. People were also flamed here for that opinion. This new system makes it worse security wise IMHO.

Thanks for the reply.  I don't want to start a whole OT discussion, but I wonder what the legitimate purpose is of having those digits of your stateroom number on your sea pass card.   (No modern hotel key cards that I've ever seen have the room numbers on them, for good reason.)  On any given ship, only a small number of cabins have the same three final digits.

[bEwAbG]

I worked front desk at hotels throughout college (different chains, even), and we weren't even allowed to speak the room number out loud.  We had to write it down on a piece of paper and point to it as a security precaution.  I agree that having it printed on the key is an issue.  I guess they think that it's safer in a more closed environment with cameras everywhere but many crimes are crimes of opportunity.  Anything to minimize the opportunity is a feature.

[rakes5]

On 10/25/2018 at 10:56 AM, Turtles06 said:

 

 

Thanks for the reply.  I don't want to start a whole OT discussion, but I wonder what the legitimate purpose is of having those digits of your stateroom number on your sea pass card.   (No modern hotel key cards that I've ever seen have the room numbers on them, for good reason.)  On any given ship, only a small number of cabins have the same three final digits.

I wondered about this before too.

Having the numbers there has come in handy a few times, when we weren't sure of our room early in the cruise. 

 

Don't get excited, this no longer applies:

But, a number of years ago, we were cruising, on a Royal Caribbean cruise, with our kids, who were in another room. I happened to pick up a phone by one of the elevators to call their room. All you had to do was dial something, and then their room number. When I did, the last name showed up on the display. The room number was also displayed on the cards.

I thought to myself, if someone found my card, all they had to do was go to a phone, dial a few room numbers to figure out our room number. Recently, we have noticed that they no longer display the person's last name on the phone display.