Ocean Medallion App - Part 3

[AF-1]

I think it would be best if Princess would put a step by step Youtube video on how to fill out all the info on the Medallion app;  they should include things like country code for phone, exact details when inputting credit card info.  People could watch the video and see which tings make the app turn green  and then when they actually fill in their information on their own medallion phone app; they hopefully won't get so frustrated.  Cheers

[487]

On 3/24/2022 at 6:05 PM, JF - retired RRT said:

Go through ALL of your info (whatever you've managed to add) & look for errors. Try: phone # (must have country code), full name (with middle name initial, full name, etc), address, home airport, emergency contact name/email/phone #, etc. Look for any glitches.

Thanks for all the suggestions.  I added the country code, rechecked and rechecked all the information I can edit.  Still doesn't take it.  Guess I'll call Princess Monday, hopefully they can straighten it out.  I considered trying to add the passport as new, but was afraid to mess up what I was able to enter. 

[AF-1]

1 hour ago, 487 said:

Thanks for all the suggestions.  I added the country code, rechecked and rechecked all the information I can edit.  Still doesn't take it.  Guess I'll call Princess Monday, hopefully they can straighten it out.  I considered trying to add the passport as new, but was afraid to mess up what I was able to enter. 

If your cruise date is close;  you can show up at the port with a partially filled in medallion app, and Princess reps will have you up and running in minutes and you can board the ship.  Pls don't stress over things you can't fix or can't control.  No one should start their cruise vacations months in advance getting stressed about an app which may or may not work prior to boarding.

Edited March 27, 2022 by AF-1

[487]

1 hour ago, AF-1 said:

If your cruise date is close;  you can show up at the port with a partially filled in medallion app, and Princess reps will have you up and running in minutes and you can board the ship.  Pls don't stress over things you can't fix or can't control.  No one should start their cruise vacations months in advance getting stressed about an app which may or may not work prior to boarding.

Our cruise leaves Apr 2nd, so I've stopped stressing over the app.  Up until Wednesday we couldn't even access it, so I was figuring on doing it old school at the port anyway.  It's more frustrating than anything.  I've moved on to stressing about the covid test.... no reason to expect anything other than negative....it's just that darn little black cloud that hangs around! 🙄  Mostly I'm just excited to be cruising again😄

[derrick22]

6 hours ago, 487 said:

Thanks for all the suggestions.  I added the country code, rechecked and rechecked all the information I can edit.  Still doesn't take it.  Guess I'll call Princess Monday, hopefully they can straighten it out.  I considered trying to add the passport as new, but was afraid to mess up what I was able to enter. 

I found that if there was a space after any of the information it wouldn't take it. The info was all correct and I couldn't figure it out. The spacing corrected it all. Hope this helps.

[JF - retired RRT]

5 minutes ago, derrick22 said:

I found that if there was a space after any of the information it wouldn't take it. The info was all correct and I couldn't figure it out. The spacing corrected it all. Hope this helps.

That's just plain silly. The programmers must be asleep.

Going to say something else, but didn't.

[487]

2 hours ago, derrick22 said:

I found that if there was a space after any of the information it wouldn't take it. The info was all correct and I couldn't figure it out. The spacing corrected it all. Hope this helps.

Thanks, I'll check it out.

[cltnccruisers]

16 hours ago, JF - retired RRT said:

That's just plain silly. The programmers must be asleep.

Going to say something else, but didn't.

White space has been a programming problem for decades.  It usually shows up in a validation process.

[AF-1]

20 hours ago, 487 said:

Our cruise leaves Apr 2nd, so I've stopped stressing over the app.  Up until Wednesday we couldn't even access it, so I was figuring on doing it old school at the port anyway.  It's more frustrating than anything.  I've moved on to stressing about the covid test.... no reason to expect anything other than negative....it's just that darn little black cloud that hangs around! 🙄  Mostly I'm just excited to be cruising again😄

I totally understand your frustration.  We sailed in Oct and had to get covid test at Walgreens.  I was easy and no issues.  Like I mentioned just show up at port. Princess reps will take your passport, negative covid test, and finish your online check in.  Once finished your app will be running and they will issue your medallions.  Cheers and have fun on your cruise

[mpk]

6 hours ago, cltnccruisers said:

White space has been a programming problem for decades.  It usually shows up in a validation process.

 

Yep, many programmers not handling it thoughtfully.

 

My favorite example is the handling of credit card numbers.  Credit cards group the digits separated by spaces for easy reading and verification.  Many sites ban spaces, and force the user to enter the credit without spaces.  That greatly increases the chance of error.  What they should do is allow spaces and display them the same way, but make a space-less version internally for processing.  Very easy in scripting or code to do this.

[WAvoyager]

12 minutes ago, mpk said:

 

Yep, many programmers not handling it thoughtfully.

 

My favorite example is the handling of credit card numbers.  Credit cards group the digits separated by spaces for easy reading and verification.  Many sites ban spaces, and force the user to enter the credit without spaces.  That greatly increases the chance of error.  What they should do is allow spaces and display them the same way, but make a space-less version internally for processing.  Very easy in scripting or code to do this.

My biggest pet peeve is sites which require you to type telephone numbers in a specific format.  Who wants to type in “(“, “)”, “+”, and “-“??? 

[brisalta]

I have a cruise booked on the Ruby due to embark in about a month.  I was green status in the Medallion app then late yesterday it turned to blue status. I took a look and the previously check marked "Passage Contract & COVID-19 Risk Notification or Acceptance" confirmations no longer had check marks.  I am not sure if Princess have suddenly changed the verbiage of the agreement or if it is just another Medallion app glitch. On the other hand is this related to the Covid-19 currently on the Ruby and the verbiage has changed due to that?

[PacnGoNow]

10 minutes ago, brisalta said:

I have a cruise booked on the Ruby due to embark in about a month.  I was green status in the Medallion app then late yesterday it turned to blue status. I took a look and the previously check marked "Passage Contract & COVID-19 Risk Notification or Acceptance" confirmations no longer had check marks.  I am not sure if Princess have suddenly changed the verbiage of the agreement or if it is just another Medallion app glitch. On the other hand is this related to the Covid-19 currently on the Ruby and the verbiage has changed due to that?

A lot of them are orange status now that the mask mandate was changed to recommended. Sad

[julia]

All I can say is that I've "changed lanes" so dang many times that I have whiplash!  Went from blue, to green, and now yellow!

This is, without a doubt, the silliest thing I've ever dealt with.  The sheer amount of wasted manhours, by both Princess personnel and passengers, is staggering. This entire MC app experience will be a factor in choosing whether or not to sail on Princess in the future.  I'm staying in the yellow lane until we board...  I'm done.

[gmcwalker]

To Every One who is worried about the medallion app and using it. Do not stress over it as it is not required at the port.  It just makes it easier for all and not all can use it due to various reasons. 

The medallion piece which is different, you should get 10 days or more before your cruise. 

I have been on 3 cruises since Sept. and I did not have any problems at all.

If you do the Princess staff is there to check you in no matter what as long as you have all your required documents, it will just take a few minutes longer.

Once you are on board there is a dedicated Medallion Staff to help you for the intra-ship Medallion system. Also for the Medallion Wi-Fi!

There is no need to stress over your vacation once you have booked. I highly suggest you spend your time researching things to do on your cruise rather than worrying about a new system like I did the first time. 

Who wants to worry about going on vacation???

Aloha gmc

[WAvoyager]

Also - if this recent change is due to an updated COVID related policy, it’s not an app issue, and it really should be expected given the fluctuating health and safety requirements.

 

I know almost no one will see it this way, but if the latest issue is due to changing requirements, the alternate would be constantly changing documents to sign, and resign.  And they would Either be done online multiple times, or they would make everyone read and sign at the port, and we’d ALL have to wait through longer line to embark.

[AF-1]

9 hours ago, gmcwalker said:

To Every One who is worried about the medallion app and using it. Do not stress over it as it is not required at the port.  It just makes it easier for all and not all can use it due to various reasons. 

The medallion piece which is different, you should get 10 days or more before your cruise. 

I have been on 3 cruises since Sept. and I did not have any problems at all.

If you do the Princess staff is there to check you in no matter what as long as you have all your required documents, it will just take a few minutes longer.

Once you are on board there is a dedicated Medallion Staff to help you for the intra-ship Medallion system. Also for the Medallion Wi-Fi!

There is no need to stress over your vacation once you have booked. I highly suggest you spend your time researching things to do on your cruise rather than worrying about a new system like I did the first time. 

Who wants to worry about going on vacation???

Aloha gmc

Agree with you 100%.  People should not stress over the medallion.  If your green good, if not, it will get fixed at the port.  Cheers

[pompeii]

For anyone like me who doesn't like the Journeyview Activity interface on the app to try and keep track of the ship's schedule of activities, you can find the old "patter-style" list version by typing in shipname.princess.com and it will bring up a list that is much easier to read.  Replace shipname with your vessel's name, ie mine was grand.princess.com.  

 

I didn't find this out until halfway through my latest cruise, when I stopped by the Ocean Medallion desk to complain that my Activities timeline wouldn't load.  The guy said let me show you something much easier, and put a shortcut to that site on my home screen.  Much much better!!

[brisalta]

On 3/23/2022 at 9:04 AM, julie3fan said:

 ...so even though I retired almost 20 years ago, I marked I was celebrating my retirement.

 

Nothing wrong with celebrating every day of retirement. 😉

[brisalta]

On 3/25/2022 at 10:09 AM, WAvoyager said:

I tried to update on 3/23, but update wasn’t working - guess we know why.  3/19 update, and then realizing you need to update your update within a day or two….  Their QA is really bad!

 

(Wish my company was okay with Princesses standards!  🥴)

 

You actually think they have QA?  We the customers are the QA!!!

[brisalta]

On 3/26/2022 at 1:25 PM, Tedferg said:

After initially using the App I have stayed away from it  because of all reported problems and no perceived value. Decided to go to pier with paperwork as before. My curiosity got the better of me, so I tried to complete the final step and fill in payment details. Everything seems to go OK, Save and Continue. Card Owner Name is Grayed Out and still Red ! for that item on personal info. I did not put card info in for Shoreside. Could that be the problem?

 

I do not have card info for Shoreside and I am OK.

[brisalta]

On 3/26/2022 at 4:35 PM, Tedferg said:

OK problem solved; I went through inputting info one more time and after 'Save Continue' I noticed the card details showing just last digits. There was a 'Select' button, clicked that and everything Green 🙂

 

Strange that after inputting details and saving that there is an extra step to SELECT the card you just entered??????

 

The impression I get is that they have a development team that are not top tier and not really that experienced  in any sense of the word.

I did some investigation and found that the tools they have used are not really appropriate for software development except in the MS world. Nothing like a software project being crippled by inappropriate tool choice.

Edited March 29, 2022 by brisalta

[brisalta]

On 3/27/2022 at 7:08 AM, 487 said:

Thanks for all the suggestions.  I added the country code, rechecked and rechecked all the information I can edit.  Still doesn't take it.  Guess I'll call Princess Monday, hopefully they can straighten it out.  I considered trying to add the passport as new, but was afraid to mess up what I was able to enter. 

 

I remember one voyage pre-Medallion app at port side check in the IT systems crashed when they scanned my passport. They rebooted the system and tried again and crashed the system again. Fortunately one of the ships IT people that actually understood programming and had access to the code spent several minutes debugging the system and found the problem in the code. Some stupid limit created by a programmer who probably never seen a passport and understood the various fields encoded in the OCR fields.

[brisalta]

On 3/28/2022 at 1:05 PM, WAvoyager said:

My biggest pet peeve is sites which require you to type telephone numbers in a specific format.  Who wants to type in “(“, “)”, “+”, and “-“??? 

 

The ironic thing is that minimal work is needed these days to provide the correct field parsing and masking as that functionality is now in libraries.

[Tedferg]

Regarding having to click 'Select' after Inputting / Saving credit card details. I now think it allows you to add multiple cards and SELECT which one to use. That is what confused me, since I had entered and saved card details, I thought I was finished but the screen stayed visible with the 'Add Card' button. I wonder if it is a 'feature' to allow DH and DW to insert cards and chose which card between profiles.