Medallion App Updated and Working Now

[Astro Flyer]

11 hours ago, caribill said:

Made a booking Thursday via phone with Princess.

 

The agent told me I should use my cell phone to enter needed information "with the easy to use app."

 

10 hours ago, Torfamm said:

 How exciting to hear they’ve developed a new easy to use app!!! Can’t wait till it’s available 😜The current one is pretty miserable. 

And to be guided by their easy to use tutorial with slides their SVP of Sales promoted in his webinar about 6 weeks ago.

 

The tutorial hasn’t been released although with so many problems for so many people with their “easy to use app” a tutorial about how the app is supposed to work isn’t much help when few things work as promoted.

 

In this weeks MC Monday video they promoted being able to see passenger’s celebrations on displays throughout the ship. Here’s a news flash Princess…we don’t care about such cool things when the pre-cruise essentials do not work. Sixteen months of no cruises & still the MC app isn’t even working properly for people who are days away from sailing. We don’t need more MC Monday videos about how it’s supposed to work & to use their time to get the basic functions to work. 🤨

[billco]

1 hour ago, Daniel A said:

I was fine with setting up my Medallion Class cruise for February 2020.  The app worked fine on my devices and it was kind of fun to use some of the features.  I'm not fine with the concept that now Princess is requiring me to purchase a newer expensive device and to use it to reserve seats at dinner, shows, etc.  I liked the medallion itself but they are 'upgrading' us to death.  I certainly appreciate that you like to use the current technology, but not all of us are as enamored with getting rid of devices that still do everything wanted.  To each their own.  I hope you get the app on your watch, I'm sure it will enhance your onboard experience.

 

(BTW, I was posting tongue in cheek earlier.  🙂)

I understand. I'm pretty much an early adopter and an Apple fan, so I usually have pretty recent devices, including iPhone, Mac, iPads, and Watch. I can't speak for Android, but the current requirement to run the Medallion App on an iPhone is IOS 13, which is compatible with iPhones as old as iPhone 6, which was released in 2015. So, I don't see the requirement to purchase a newer device. In fact, the Medallion App will run on iPads and iPad Touch, which are much cheaper than iPhones. 

 

My last Medallion Class cruise was on the Regal in April, 2019 and the App ran pretty good with a few bugs. I won't really know what features work for me until I go on a cruise in September, but I'm buying into the App now, because Princess has bought into it and I have 5 cruises booked.

[AF-1]

I ditto Bilco.  I own iphone, ipod, ipads, etc.  I have not had a major problem with the Medallion Class app.  I too sailed on a medallion class cruise in Feb 2019 and loved using the app and medallion.  No issues here.  I think once the Alaska cruises start up and people show up in Seattle with their app issues; there will be plenty of customer service reps to get people squared away and onto their cruise.  I believe Princess will use the Alaska sailings and all the things that went wrong and turn them into rights before January sailings in 2022.  I sail in Oct on Grand Princess to Cabo.  I am sure people will show up at the port without all the required documents loaded into the app.  We shall see.  Have a wonderful weekend

[Thrak]

I don't do Apple - I'm an Android and PC guy.I had major issues with the app until I put in the time and effort to communicate my issues with to the development team. It took about a week but they fixed my data issues. Since then I haven't really had much of an issue with the app other than the fact it failed to scan an image of my passport. I doubt that will really cause much of a problem for me when boarding as I was able to manually enter all the information.

 

I'm looking forward to Medallion Class cruising but will reserve my rating of the app for a bit longer. It still has issues but they seem to be getting addressed as time goes by. By the time I cruise I "think" they will likely have worked out many of the problems. Of course it would be nice if the various departments at Princess actually communicated with each other so that everybody could be aware of what those problems actually are.  It seems some folks at Princess are pretty much unaware of how other departments actually work and are therefore not really aware of what needs to be done in order for all aspects of cruise preparation to function properly.

 

The MedallionClass app premiered with a grade of F from me and has now progressed up to perhaps a C+.  It's getting better.

[Tedferg]

6 minutes ago, Thrak said:

It seems some folks at Princess are pretty much unaware of how other departments actually work and are therefore not really aware of what needs to be done in order for all aspects of cruise preparation to function properly.

Yes, a lot of Princess people general public deal with work from home, I wonder if they are employees or contractors. Might make a difference in how invested they are in new technologies.

 

As an aside, my TA is on Eastern time and has to wait until 11 am for Princess to open up ! Also has no special access and spends hours on hold and gets shuttled between departments.

[Astro Flyer]

7 minutes ago, Tedferg said:

As an aside, my TA is on Eastern time and has to wait until 11 am for Princess to open up ! Also has no special access and spends hours on hold and gets shuttled between departments.

During their TA webinars which can be viewed by anyone, they promote their online resources for TAs including One Source, POLAR and Chat. Although my TA hasn’t had much success using chat for problems & ends up like your TA and has to call Princess. Sometimes she gets lucky to get a knowledgeable CSR but more often it’s someone who is inexperienced requiring the CSR to communicate with other departments for solutions.

[Tedferg]

9 minutes ago, Astro Flyer said:

 someone who is inexperienced requiring the CSR to communicate with other departments for solutions.

After two hours on hold the rep wanted to refer TA to customer service, she said no way to further time on hold. I had a rep recently who just did not seem to be with it and seemed disinterested. I forced my issue and he asked me to hold - Music and then 'If you would like to make a call, hang up and redial' 

[Dave from Ont]

23 hours ago, majortom10 said:

Cannot use Medallion App at all on my tablet it keeps crashing at varying stages before I have signed in and have no idea why it is doing it or what is causing it.

I feel your pain. We cannot update our iPad to ISO 14, we have been left behind. Our travel agent has told use when we are 60 -90 days out she will have us come in and do it on her iPad. She has a newer one and the app works on it. We love our travel agent. We call her our travel angel. She has helped us many times when we have been away and something unexpected has happened.

 

[Steelers36]

1 hour ago, billco said:

I understand. I'm pretty much an early adopter and an Apple fan, so I usually have pretty recent devices, including iPhone, Mac, iPads, and Watch. I can't speak for Android, but the current requirement to run the Medallion App on an iPhone is IOS 13, which is compatible with iPhones as old as iPhone 6, which was released in 2015. So, I don't see the requirement to purchase a newer device. In fact, the Medallion App will run on iPads and iPad Touch, which are much cheaper than iPhones. 

 

My last Medallion Class cruise was on the Regal in April, 2019 and the App ran pretty good with a few bugs. I won't really know what features work for me until I go on a cruise in September, but I'm buying into the App now, because Princess has bought into it and I have 5 cruises booked.

 

51 minutes ago, Thrak said:

I don't do Apple - I'm an Android and PC guy.I had major issues with the app until I put in the time and effort to communicate my issues with to the development team. It took about a week but they fixed my data issues. Since then I haven't really had much of an issue with the app other than the fact it failed to scan an image of my passport. I doubt that will really cause much of a problem for me when boarding as I was able to manually enter all the information.

 

I'm looking forward to Medallion Class cruising but will reserve my rating of the app for a bit longer. It still has issues but they seem to be getting addressed as time goes by. By the time I cruise I "think" they will likely have worked out many of the problems. Of course it would be nice if the various departments at Princess actually communicated with each other so that everybody could be aware of what those problems actually are.  It seems some folks at Princess are pretty much unaware of how other departments actually work and are therefore not really aware of what needs to be done in order for all aspects of cruise preparation to function properly.

 

The MedallionClass app premiered with a grade of F from me and has now progressed up to perhaps a C+.  It's getting better.

A tale of two platforms (also Android here on Samsung).  I believe they are focused on Apple and develop on Apple and then Android is an after-thought.  Perhaps moreso because of all the issues, so maybe even less time for Android than they might have thought.  Seems to be more leeway in backwards compatibility on Apple than Android (but IDK all the release levels and dates).  Android is getting the scraps from the table and not an equal seat at the table.

[Dave from Ont]

3 hours ago, Daniel A said:

I was fine with setting up my Medallion Class cruise for February 2020.  The app worked fine on my devices and it was kind of fun to use some of the features.  I'm not fine with the concept that now Princess is requiring me to purchase a newer expensive device and to use it to reserve seats at dinner, shows, etc.  I liked the medallion itself but they are 'upgrading' us to death.  I certainly appreciate that you like to use the current technology, but not all of us are as enamored with getting rid of devices that still do everything wanted.  To each their own.  I hope you get the app on your watch, I'm sure it will enhance your onboard experience.

 

(BTW, I was posting tongue in cheek earlier.  🙂)

Funny we were on a cruise in February 2020 that got cut short because of a large norovirus outbreak. We too had downloaded the medallion app and it worked great. We used it for a few different things. Agree that we are not happy having to buy newer devices just so we can use this new app. Our current older iPad does everything else we need to do.

[Astro Flyer]

2 minutes ago, Tedferg said:

After two hours on hold the rep wanted to refer TA to customer service, she said no way to further time on hold. I had a rep recently who just did not seem to be with it and seemed disinterested. I forced my issue and he asked me to hold - Music and then 'If you would like to make a call, hang up and redial' 

Ugh! 🤨 I’d primarily attribute such negative experiences to Princess management for being understaffed & for poorly training staff.

 

I think it was a bad decision to make major app changes by moving most functions from the Cruise Personalizer before the app was ready. And for their marketing spin in an effort to convince clients that these changes will work as touted which unfortunately is too often incorrect.

 

Four & a half years ago the CCL CEO began to promote MedallionClass and the app is now worse than our previous experiences. Being their first ship built with MC technology on the Sky in November 2019 it was promoted as working better but too many things were not better than other MC experiences. I am very disappointed by all of their unfulfilled promises & hope that things will improve greatly before our Fall 2021 cruise. 

[t&atravel]

Apple release history.   Hope the upload works 😉

[Daniel A]

3 minutes ago, Dave from Ont said:

Funny we were on a cruise in February 2020 that got cut short because of a large norovirus outbreak. We too had downloaded the medallion app and it worked great. We used it for a few different things. Agree that we are not happy having to buy newer devices just so we can use this new app. Our current older iPad does everything else we need to do.

I was using DW's iPad mini and my kindle fire.  I'm waiting for the dust to settle before I even go through the angst that others are experiencing.  Two concepts the techies working for Princess never learned are:  1.  If it ain't broke don't fix it.  2.  KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid!

[voljeep]

1) use the shoved down our throat APP that may or may not work with your device and only on days when the lunar cycle is in Uranus, spending hours updating, deleting, re-installing

 

2) spend hours on the phone with whoever is the lucky person to have received your call

 

now we are "i" folks - she's got an 11 and a mini ipad, I've got a 4s ( just got off the 4s on a 30 minute call with our attorney that went fine - the call that is, not the results of the call, yet )

 

2 OM cruises, we had medallion in hand on both - so at least we had that going for us - did most on the website personalizer and finished up on the app during a champagne and bacon night by the pool, no problems

 

I just had a EGD - Surgical treatment of an esophageal stricture is rarely necessary. It is performed if a stricture can't be dilated enough to allow solid food to pass through. ( biopsies all clean and good ), so maybe the 'APP' will slide down easier the next time I take a bite out of it

[Steelers36]

5 hours ago, billco said:

Hmmm. Not sure we really feel the same way. I would like to use my Apple Watch to access Medallion App features that are on my iPhone. I am fine with the Medallion App and looking forward to my upcoming Medallion Class cruise.

Just curious as to which features you'd like to see on the watch.  I think I would need a mag glass attached to my regular glasses to make out much.  And not making fun of Apple - I could potentially own an Android smart-watch too.  I do own one smart-watch - it is for golfing and gives me distances from where I am on the course to front-mid-back of green, plus hazards.  But when I think of apps I used on my phone, IDK about trying to read an email and such on a watch face.  Hearing from a real user might be informative.  (Sorry to others if going off the topic rail here).

[PescadoAmarillo]

I don’t know…we have two iPhones (XS and XS Plus), two iPads (Air 2) and an Apple Watch 6 between us, all running the latest iOS. I’d say we’re in the top 10% of Apple user savviness and I have had a LOT of trouble with this app. In fact, there was something corrupt in my booking, because it took individual attention to even get into the app, and I’ve had at least 2 issues a week since. I think people who haven’t had issues have been very lucky, and the rest of us….haven’t. 
 

BTW, the masks are off today in the app! That’s a pretty significant ( ut really basic) thing to screw up. Yeah, I definitely think the app issues are NOT due to user error.

 

 

[Steelers36]

1 hour ago, t&atravel said:

Apple release history.   Hope the upload works 😉

 

 

Nice detailed list.  Would be interesting to see for Android, but probably reads quite similar.  Good sourcing!!

[PescadoAmarillo]

4 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

Just curious as to which features you'd like to see on the watch. 

I’d like the option of having my Apple Watch be my medallion. I wouldn’t mind placing orders and such with my iPhone, but would love not having something else to keep track of. 

[Steelers36]

3 minutes ago, PescadoAmarillo said:

 

BTW, the masks are off today in the app! That’s a pretty significant ( ut really basic) thing to screw up. Yeah, I definitely think the app issues are NOT due to user error.

 

 

 

Same for me (Android).  Health notice is much more realistic now.

[Steelers36]

5 minutes ago, PescadoAmarillo said:

I’d like the option of having my Apple Watch be my medallion. I wouldn’t mind placing orders and such with my iPhone, but would love not having something else to keep track of. 

I will send you an email later with some snippets of news.  Also look for my upcoming post on MedallionNet pricing.  It will be on the ordering internet thread.

[t&atravel]

33 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

Nice detailed list.  Would be interesting to see for Android, but probably reads quite similar.  Good sourcing!!

When you pull up the app in the apple app store there is a button for “version history”.  That’s where the list is from. Does the Android store not have something similar?

 

 

[joepeka]

14 minutes ago, t&atravel said:

When you pull up the app in the apple app store there is a button for “version history”.  That’s where the list is from. Does the Android store not have something similar?

 

 

The Google Play Store does not have a similar version history option that I can find. All it shows is the currently available version and some high-level details about it (version number, release date, size, requirements, etc.).

[katisdale]

MC app is somewhat improved on my end BUT whenever I go to it it turns off my hearing aids. I am beyond frustrated with that!!! I will not be able to use the app on the ship if this continues as not hearing is not only annoying but dangerous. I would miss emergency announcements, people saying "watch out" etc. I am not happy.

[t&atravel]

9 minutes ago, katisdale said:

MC app is somewhat improved on my end BUT whenever I go to it it turns off my hearing aids. I am beyond frustrated with that!!! I will not be able to use the app on the ship if this continues as not hearing is not only annoying but dangerous. I would miss emergency announcements, people saying "watch out" etc. I am not happy.

I’m assuming your hearing aids are bluetooth enabled?  If so, Go to the medallionclass app in your phone settings and turn off the bluetooth.  See if this fixes it.

[billco]

1 hour ago, Steelers36 said:

Just curious as to which features you'd like to see on the watch.  I think I would need a mag glass attached to my regular glasses to make out much.  And not making fun of Apple - I could potentially own an Android smart-watch too.  I do own one smart-watch - it is for golfing and gives me distances from where I am on the course to front-mid-back of green, plus hazards.  But when I think of apps I used on my phone, IDK about trying to read an email and such on a watch face.  Hearing from a real user might be informative.  (Sorry to others if going off the topic rail here).

Good question. Maybe notifications. Perhaps Ocean Compass to navigate the ship or locate someone. Or if Siri works, I could ask what time a show or activity starts. I use Siri on my watch a lot at home to turn on lights, unlock doors, open gate and garage door, set temperature. Perhaps during the next cruise I will think up things I wish I could do from the watch.

Edited July 16, 2021 by billco