Medallion receivers everywhere. Customer convenience or sales and marketing genius?

[BoopTennis]

13 minutes ago, Doug R. said:

I was on the Regal in January with the medallion enabled. Magnets still stick to doors.

Thx!

[bemis12]

16 minutes ago, stoneharborlady said:

Maybe, but its none of their business to track me to the bathroom.  

 

Your phone tracks you there too.  FYI

[Haboob]

6 hours ago, BoopTennis said:

So the doors are not metal anymore?  Magnets won’t stick to them now?

 

11 minutes ago, Doug R. said:

I was on the Regal in January with the medallion enabled. Magnets still stick to doors.

 

The doors' stiles and rails were metal, but the big center section was "plasticky" when tapped.

 

Pure speculation:  I never tried a magnet on the center section, but it apparently has the unusual property

of passing 5GHz radio (WiFi) but not 2.5GHz radio (Medallion BLE beacons).  Embedding a metal mesh

(like in microwave oven windows) with a carefully chosen spacing could accomplish that, and might

even give Doug's magnets something to stick to, too.

 

[Idahoan58]

14 minutes ago, stoneharborlady said:

Maybe, but its none of their business to track me to the bathroom.  

You realize the government can track that information through your personal electronic devices right? Also grocery stores track you purchasing patterns through your debit and credit card. I work in data analytics and you would be surprised how information about your everyday life is being tracked by companies.

 

Do you really care if princess knows where you are on the ship?

 

If you did you wouldn’t own any electronic devices, no credit or debit cards, and would operate completely on cash. You wouldn't even have a bank account. Additionally, you would be against cruise cards, because they can tell you every time your stateroom has been opened.

 

Your being tracked anyways so why not just embrace the medallions and enjoy the conveniences they offer? 

[Lscruiser]

I don't like the medallion.   I don't like the fact that a LOT of personal information is available to any crew member on the ship.  I sat down at a bar on the Royal and the bartender told me my name, birthdate, where I lived, and what my loyalty status was.  It opened my cabin door before I even got around the corner to see it (at least 10 feet away) so who knows who might have been in that hallway just outside the door?   And, how do you dispose of it when you get home?  Like any electronic device that contains personal information, I didn't want to throw it away.  I eventually soaked it in water and then attached a strong magnet to it.  It did not seem crushable.   I would much prefer at least the option of a ship card.  

[Idahoan58]

49 minutes ago, Lscruiser said:

I don't like the fact that a LOT of personal information is available to any crew member on the ship.  I sat down at a bar on the Royal and the bartender told me my name, birthdate, where I lived, and what my loyalty status was.  

That information is available to them regardless of the medallion. I was on a carnival cruise last October and the waiter showed me a piece of paper he had that had my name, birthday, and where I lived. When I was in college I worked at the Holland America lodge in Denali and I had access to all the guest information. 

 

As far as destroying the medallion, I threw mine away at the airport. I don’t care if people know my birthday and where I live. That information is easily accessed through google anyways. If knew your name i could tell you your address, how many kids you have, if your married or divorced, your criminal record, finical history, etc. I don’t know need a medallion to access that information about you. All I need is your name.

 

As far as it automatically opening the door 10+ feet away I don’t like that either. I wish you had to be within a foot or two of it. That part did scare me a little bit.

[dearinger]

2 hours ago, Lscruiser said:

I don't like the medallion.   I don't like the fact that a LOT of personal information is available to any crew member on the ship.  I sat down at a bar on the Royal and the bartender told me my name, birthdate, where I lived, and what my loyalty status was.  It opened my cabin door before I even got around the corner to see it (at least 10 feet away) so who knows who might have been in that hallway just outside the door?   And, how do you dispose of it when you get home?  Like any electronic device that contains personal information, I didn't want to throw it away.  I eventually soaked it in water and then attached a strong magnet to it.  It did not seem crushable.   I would much prefer at least the option of a ship card.  

 

As someone who originally developed this hardware (not for Princess), no personal information is stored on the medallion. In fact, I imagine it is just a hash code string that is then matched to your Princess account when it is presented against a reader. When you take your medallion to PSD, due to issues they are just validating the hash code it is presenting matches against your account. This hardware is actually very passive, it is the other side of it (the readers everywhere) that are active and constantly reading the pings that are coming from the device. 

If you are interested more in this time of beacon technology you can google GoogleBeacon or Apple iBeacon, after taking apart a friends medallion this is pretty much the same thing + NFC. 

[Lscruiser]

Thank you for this information!  I won't worry about disposal anymore.  

[Steelers36]

On 5/21/2019 at 11:15 AM, partybarbie said:

DH and I recently took our first Medallion cruise on the Royal Princess. The following is a brief exchange of what happened to us at Crooner's Bar:

 

DH has just boarded ship.  He approaches a Bartender at Crooner's.

 

Bartender:  Good afternoon Mr. xxxxx.  Would you like a Dos Equis?

 

DH:  Why yes I would? (DH is wondering how the bartender knew he liked Dos Equis.)

 

About 10 minutes later, I go to Crooner's for a cocktail. 

 

Bartender:  Mrs. xxxxx, would you like another cocktail?

 

Me:  No thank-you.  I'm going to see if my husband boarded the ship yet.

 

Bartender:  He was just here madam.  He ordered a Dos Equis and said he was going to the cabin.

 

Me (a little stunned):  Lol, thank-you. 

 

I will admit, at first, this did creep us out a little bit, however it comes in very handy if you are trying to locate someone.  😉

Yes, but I got a chuckle out of the first place you looked for him - you knew where he would likely be!!  Wife's intuition beats technology!!  ;)

[partybarbie]

2 hours ago, steelers36 said:

Yes, but I got a chuckle out of the first place you looked for him - you knew where he would likely be!!  Wife's intuition beats technology!!  😉

 

LMAO, That is so true!  🙂

[voljeep]

2 hours ago, steelers36 said:

DH has just boarded ship.  He approaches a Bartender at Crooner's.

 

Bartender:  Good afternoon Mr. xxxxx.  Would you like a Dos Equis?

 

DH:  Why yes I would? (DH is wondering how the bartender knew he liked Dos Equis.)

i'm wondering this also ... unless he stopped at the piazza bar and drank a cool one on the way to Crooners to get a 'roadie' ... or maybe something in one of the pre-cruise apps ?

[Nightrythm]

8 hours ago, Lscruiser said:

I Like any electronic device that contains personal information, I didn't want to throw it away. 

 

It does not contain personal information. It contains a code, or a registration number, if you prefer. When you approach a reader on the ship, the reader connects that number with the file in the database. So on land, far from any readers connected to the company's database; no one will know anything about you, even if they read the code off the device.

[GUT2407]

Probably a bit of both

[caribill]

15 hours ago, Lscruiser said:

  It opened my cabin door before I even got around the corner to see it (at least 10 feet away) so who knows who might have been in that hallway just outside the door?  

 

If you had reported this while on the ship, Princess would have sent someone to adjust the sensitivity of the signal receiver that unlocks the door.

[Fatbaldguy]

Wife and I sailed on Royal from LA to Vancouver.  Wife calls me a curmudgeon; so I of course INSISTED upon check-in of having a card.  At first was told that it was not possible, but a supervisor granted my 'request'.  Was then told that either medallion or card would both work.  Thank goodness I held firm;  neither medallion would open stateroom door...  guest services was overwhelmed with others facing same...

Kept my medallion in safe for entire voyage: gave steward an excuse on day 5 for not cleaning room, untill I called his bluff...

 

I absolutely believe medallions are Princess' way of joining Walmart and McDonalds in beginning to cut staff.. And that view was bolstered following a 15 yr bar staff crew member lamenting the reduction of servers that has already begun.  Soon, the bar servers of the past will be GONE, replaced by drink deliverers, as self ordered drinks by app will be one's only option.  AKA self service checkouts at Walmart.  

My medallion had company in my safe: cell phone was snuggled up next to it...

 

That said, we thought Royal was a beautiful ship: spectacular Piazza, good buffet.  Can't comment on MDR food, as on first night, after waiting for 40 minutes without service, got up and walked out... Back to Grand class,  but kind of thought that might be the case when Princess plunked another 500 cabins on and actually REDUCED the size of some public spaces...

[Dani24]

On 5/21/2019 at 12:39 PM, Mike45LC said:

 

I was a captive audience to CNN's HLN (I think that is what it is called) and a "true crime story" was on.  There was a cold case that was solved by running old DNA from the crime scene against the DNA databases that one of the private ancestry  genetic companies maintains.  The criminal's brother (I think it was the brother) had sent in a DNA sample for fun, and the database kicked out the brother's info as a closely related match to the criminal.  So the authorities ran a family background on the guy who did the genetics check, and found the criminal.  Thanks, Bro!!

 

I'll bring an extra roll of aluminum foil for my next cruise.

 

 

I've resolved that issue by choosing to just never murder someone. So far, so good!

But "yay" for those creeps that do get caught, like the Golden State Killer who was found last year thanks to a distant relative submitting their DNA to GEDMATCH. In fact, that inspired me to submit mine to GEDMATCH too. I would be proud to have my DNA solve a cold case and bring a grieving family a little closure.

[Fouremco]

1 hour ago, Fatbaldguy said:

Soon, the bar servers of the past will be GONE, replaced by drink deliverers, as self ordered drinks by app will be one's only option.  AKA self service checkouts at Walmart.  

Cutting back on bar tenders is common across many cruise lines trying to reduce costs, the majority of which have no Medallion  or similar program. Besides, delivering drinks is one thing, but actually mixing the drinks is a very different story. There are some "robot bartenders" on the market, but I don't think that you'll see them on a ship any time soon. 

[Dani24]

 

 

 

 

 

4

On 5/21/2019 at 7:32 AM, jondfk said:

Personally, I see many positives.  And I can imagine scenarios where the feedback is two way.  For example, we often find ourselves a bit frustrated when we arrive at a favorite place, let's say Crooners for a pre dinner drink only to find the place 'sold out' every seat taken.  We always have a backup venue, but if we could click on the app and know when we leave our cabin that there's no space in Crooners we could go directly to Adagio instead for example.

 

In my mind Princess already knows everywhere I've been.  They know I signed up for Sanctuary for certain days, they know I always get a coffee between 0530 and 0600.  They know we have two cocktails for dinner (rarely 1 and never 3).  They know I hit vines for a favorite glass of vino as I walk into the dining room.  Having them use a bit of this info to improve the service provided strikes me as a reasonable compromise for allowing them track my movements onboard.

 

Given that we're all tracked by hundreds of companies on a day to day basis the incremental data being sucked up by Princess isn't even a drop in the bucket.  At least that's what I tell myself 😁.  If there was any doubt, I'm being shown an at right this very minute on cruise Critic that is selling me  . . . Ocean Medallion, that's no accident, they're tracking what threads are appealing to me. 

 

I think it would be great if I could pull up a venue on the app, like the theater or Anytime Dining, and see (courtesy of Medallion data) whether it's full or there might be seats left. Then I could save myself the time of walking all the way over there only to find no seats or a wait, when I could have just headed over to my second choice instead. This could be used to show really good "wait time" estimates for various things, like the Pub Lunch, or which formal night photographer backdrop is free, or how ridiculous the line is for Puppies in the Piazza or whatever. It gives me more freedom to choose where to go and what to do, with less frustration.

 

[caribill]

11 hours ago, Fouremco said:

Cutting back on bar tenders is common across many cruise lines trying to reduce costs, the majority of which have no Medallion  or similar program. Besides, delivering drinks is one thing, but actually mixing the drinks is a very different story. There are some "robot bartenders" on the market, but I don't think that you'll see them on a ship any time soon. 

Been on a ship for several years

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/blog/robot-bartenders-shake-things-up-at-sea/

[Fouremco]

6 hours ago, caribill said:

Been on a ship for several years

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/blog/robot-bartenders-shake-things-up-at-sea/

LOL. You're quite right. I should have said that "I don't think that you'll see them on a ship any time soon as a replacement for regular bartenders." Royal Caribbean has them on a very small number of ships as a high-tech curiosity, not as a money-saving replacement for its regular bartenders. As Business Insider concluded in an article last year reporting on RCI's robo-bartenders: "The entire process took longer than quickly grabbing the attention of a human bartender somewhere else. The robot bartender as it exists today is a novelty — not an effective alternative."

[donaldsc]

Assume that they are going to sell all your personal information to other companies so that they can bombard your with more unwanted e-mails.  Whether that is a good or a bad thing is up to you.

 

DON

[XBGuy]

32 minutes ago, donaldsc said:

Assume that they are going to sell all your personal information to other companies so that they can bombard your with more unwanted e-mails.  Whether that is a good or a bad thing is up to you.

 

DON

 

It makes you wonder if they have been doing that, all along.

 

The cruise lines know 

 

• Every ship I have been on.
• Every port I have visited.
• Every T-Shirt, piece of jewelry, cap, sweater, shawl, candy bar, bottle of liquor, carton of cigarettes--you get the gist--that my wife or I have ever purchased in one of the ship's stores.
• Every specialty coffee I've ever purchased or how many times I have purchased a specialty coffee promotion.
• Every "winning" bid that I have placed in an art auction.
• Every beer or cocktail I have ever ordered in a bar.
• Every ship-sponsored port excursion I've taken.
• How much I've lost in the casino.
• How many Specialty Dinners I have had.
• Every haircut and massage I have received in a spa.
• How often I have ordered flowers for the cabin.
• Every bottle of wine I have ordered with dinner.
• Every Room Service request I have made.
• How many photographs I have ordered.

Obviously, this list is incomplete.

 

All this information has been acquired over the years without the use of any ground-breaking technology, such as the Medallion.  For reasons that nobody understands it appears that cruise lines never took advantage of the trove of information about their customers that they had right in their pockets.  The way I see it, the minute they printed the passengers folio, they tossed it.

 

Will that change in the future?

 

Maybe, but I don't think the Medallion gives them any more usable marketing information than they ever had. 

[dearinger]

1 hour ago, donaldsc said:

Assume that they are going to sell all your personal information to other companies so that they can bombard your with more unwanted e-mails.  Whether that is a good or a bad thing is up to you.

 

DON

If you live in the EU, you are able to make a GDPR request to see what data they have on you or request it be deleted. 

Sadly, we have nothing like that in America and it appears our data can be shared with “select business partners” according to the terms and conditions. 

[MissP22]

9 minutes ago, XBGuy said:

The cruise lines know 

 

• Every ship I have been on.
• Every port I have visited.
• Every T-Shirt, piece of jewelry, cap, sweater, shawl, candy bar, bottle of liquor, carton of cigarettes--you get the gist--that my wife or I have ever purchased in one of the ship's stores. Practically zero
• Every specialty coffee I've ever purchased or how many times I have purchased a specialty coffee promotion. Not using the coffee cards. 
• Every "winning" bid that I have placed in an art auction. Zero.
• Every beer or cocktail I have ever ordered in a bar. Zero.
• Every ship-sponsored port excursion I've taken. Zero since 15 years ago.
• How much I've lost in the casino.Zero.
• How many Specialty Dinners I have had. 4 since 6 years ago & those were BOGO.
• Every haircut and massage I have received in a spa.  Zero
• How often I have ordered flowers for the cabin. Zero
• Every bottle of wine I have ordered with dinner. Zero
• Every Room Service request I have made. Zero
• How many photographs I have ordered. Zero

And yet they keep sending me special offers to book more cruises. You would think that after years of spending nothing aboard they ships they would give up on sending me any more emails. 😁

[satxdiver]

The Medallion only has a binary number stored on it.  The ship readers see the binary number and then reference into the database to get your information.  The database will change on each sailing since it will have new pax.  Under the old system with the cruise cards, any crewmember can swipe the card in a reader and all your information including picture will appear on the screen.  Now with the Medallion swiping the cruise card is not necessary.  As to whether Princess sells the information to some other company, I hardly think Princess is going to share their customer base with any other cruise line even a CCL cruise line.  They certainly do not want RCL, HAL or other cruise lines trying to steal their cruisers.  

 

One of the major reasons for gathering location information on the ship's pax is to assess bottlenecks, heavy use areas or very lightly used areas to better control the flow of pax.  It is called data mining in the IT world and all modern companies do it to assist in their planning. 

 

I assume that all the pax who lock up their Medallions in the cabin safe do not carry modern smartphones with them as their location is constantly saved by the cellphone company.  Police will sometimes get a warrant to recover an individual's locations in the investigation of a crime or locating a person of interest.  In a concise statement, big brother is watching and recording your every movement.