Ocean Medallion App - Part 3

[julie3fan]

1 hour ago, gmcwalker said:

That is true. However when I'm in the Hot Tub and would like a cold drink it is way easier to order a drink through the Medallion than get out of tub and find a server or go to a bar! Lazy yes, but I'm on vacation and love the convivence. 

 

You bring your cell phone in the hot tub with you?  You're a brave soul!

Edited February 13, 2023 by julie3fan

[caribill]

On 2/11/2023 at 9:56 PM, Bill B said:

 

How exactly does the medallion work? I know it replaces the old key cards and it's based on radio frequency. However, how is it used to order drinks etc.? Is it used in conjunction with my phone? Do I order on my phone and use the medallion to 'pay'? If I'm in a bar, do I have to use my phone to order?

 

I don't want to have to carry my phone - it's not welded to my hand, and unlike most people I don't spend 16 hrs./day staring at the screen and start to withdrawal symptoms if I'm accidentally separated from it.

 

 

Basically it is a cruise card and you do not have to use it for anything other than what a cruise card did. The only difference when with its cruise card use is that it will unlock your cabin door without you inserting it into something.

 

Any ordering of anything is not done with the Medallion. Depending on what you are ordering it can be done on your in-cabin interactive TV, on one of a number of public screens around the ship, in person and/or by cabin telephone. (Your digital device that has the App can also be used, but it is not necessary.) The Medallion's part if you ordered anything is to let Princess know where you are at the time what you ordered is delivered.

 

The feature that allows Princess to know where you are can also be used at your option to allow a traveling companion or other people you know to locate you using an interactive TV screen.

[caribill]

7 hours ago, wowzz said:

John - can you provide evidence that this happens on Princess ? 

 

There are many posts on the forum about people having to wait from a few to many minutes to be seated in a dining room even with a reservation.

 

The reason is that other than when a dining room first opens each evening, there is no guarantee that a table will be available when you show up at the appointed time. Princess does not control how long people take to eat dinner, so tables that had been predicted to be available may not be at that time.

 

In addition, compared to when there was traditional dining, you are likely not to have the same table each evening as you will be normally seated when any table becomes available. This means that instead of going directing to a table each evening, you have to check in and when it is finally your turn be led to the table for that evening. This can cause a long line for those with reservations.

 

The first photo below shows part of the line at a dining room for those with reservation. The second photo shows the front of that line along with and the shorter line for those without a reservation.

[caribill]

20 hours ago, PacnGoNow said:

The medallion is not the same as the App.

 

Correct

 

 

20 hours ago, PacnGoNow said:

 The App is just to check you in for the cruise.

 

 The App is also (optionally by you) for use on board for everything from ordering a beverage to purchasing a shore excursion to looking at your on board account.

[caribill]

7 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

However  the main issue I will have with it is the extension they have made for it to be used to undermine the very essence of "Anytime Dining". Princess and most other lines, seem to be selling this up as a major advance in providing us with a slick way to guarantee we dine when we want, where we want. When really all it is doing is enabling them to reduce the number of MDR covers and cut the number of waiters which only benefits the cruise line. I  remember back when AD started, when there were more tables and waiters and you could turn up just when you wanted and be seated.

It is the concept of DMW that has caused the problems, not the App itself.

 

First of all, less staff in the dining rooms has nothing to do with DMW, the Medallion or the App. With the restart last year after the pandemic shutdown, Princess had trouble getting sufficient staff for all of the ships it was putting back in service. Since then staff has been added and most ships have the full staff now for the dining rooms.

 

Second, DMW did away with Traditional Dining. Thus 100% of those who preferred TD had to choose between making a reservation or just showing up when they wanted to. If effect Anytime Dining went from  50% of dining room users (3 fixed seatings were the other 50%) to 100%. With 100% of diners having to check in every evening, lines and waits occur.

 

How useful or easy or hard to use the App has nothing to do with the fact that 100% of the dining room passengers are not Anytime Diners even with a reservation.

[gmcwalker]

2 hours ago, julie3fan said:

 

You bring your cell phone in the hot tub with you?  You're a brave soul!

I put it on the side and wrap in a towel plus it is water resistant to 15 meters. 

[wowzz]

3 hours ago, caribill said:

 

There are many posts on the forum about people having to wait from a few to many minutes to be seated in a dining room even with a reservation.

 

The reason is that other than when a dining room first opens each evening, there is no guarantee that a table will be available when you show up at the appointed time. Princess does not control how long people take to eat dinner, so tables that had been predicted to be available may not be at that time.

 

In addition, compared to when there was traditional dining, you are likely not to have the same table each evening as you will be normally seated when any table becomes available. This means that instead of going directing to a table each evening, you have to check in and when it is finally your turn be led to the table for that evening. This can cause a long line for those with reservations.

 

The first photo below shows part of the line at a dining room for those with reservation. The second photo shows the front of that line along with and the shorter line for those without a reservation.

At what time were the photos taken? I know there are issues when the MDR first opens, as so many Americans dine so early, but I have not read about many issues later in the evening, around 20:00 when Europeans eat.

[caribill]

11 minutes ago, wowzz said:

At what time were the photos taken? I know there are issues when the MDR first opens, as so many Americans dine so early, but I have not read about many issues later in the evening, around 20:00 when Europeans eat.

 

7:15 PM or 8:15 PM (not sure if camera had DST or standard time)

 

Cruise was out of Galveston. I doubt there were many passengers from outside of North America.

[wowzz]

2 hours ago, caribill said:

 

7:15 PM or 8:15 PM (not sure if camera had DST or standard time)

 

Cruise was out of Galveston. I doubt there were many passengers from outside of North America.

Thanks for the update.  I doubt it was 20:15 somehow. I know it's a broad generalisation,  but from my working and travelling in the US, early dining seems to be the norm.

[memoak]

4 hours ago, wowzz said:

Thanks for the update.  I doubt it was 20:15 somehow. I know it's a broad generalisation,  but from my working and travelling in the US, early dining seems to be the norm.

Each to their own but even at home we never eat before 7:30. We act the same on board and we are US West Coasters

[san diego sue]

9 hours ago, caribill said:

 

7:15 PM or 8:15 PM (not sure if camera had DST or standard time)

 

Cruise was out of Galveston. I doubt there were many passengers from outside of North America.

We have been cruising out of Los Angeles and San Francisco. Our dine time has always been between 7 and 7:30 on our  7 cruises since the pandemic restart.We pick our dine time on the Medallion appl. prior to the cruise. We have never experienced lines like your post.After a couple of days , we just go to our assigned table(the first evening if we like our wait staff we ask to remain at that table). In affect it becomes fixed dining. At the door  they  check to make sure the table is available and we then walk to our table. If we can see our table from the door, we just go there.

Edited February 13, 2023 by san diego sue

[damiross]

On 7/2/2021 at 7:57 AM, Rick&Jeannie said:

Apologies!  It absolutely was not meant to put anybody down, I promise.  Just a poor attempt at some humor.  The item about the door however is totally accurate.

I got your joke.  Some people have no sense of humor!

[wowzz]

4 hours ago, memoak said:

Each to their own but even at home we never eat before 7:30. We act the same on board and we are US West Coasters

I'm aware that my comment about Americans dining early was an enormous generalisation.

I still remember on my first ever cruise,  wondering why so many people were queueing outside the MDR at 17:00.  It never crossed my mind that anyone would eat that early !

[BamaVol]

1 hour ago, wowzz said:

I'm aware that my comment about Americans dining early was an enormous generalisation.

I still remember on my first ever cruise,  wondering why so many people were queueing outside the MDR at 17:00.  It never crossed my mind that anyone would eat that early !

US seniors have been trained to dine early by restaurant early bird specials. But seriously, I grew up eating dinner at 5:30 every night. Works for me still.

[caribill]

18 hours ago, caribill said:

 

How useful or easy or hard to use the App has nothing to do with the fact that 100% of the dining room passengers are not Anytime Diners even with a reservation.

 

Typo: meant to say

 

How useful or easy or hard to use the App has nothing to do with the fact that 100% of the dining room passengers are now Anytime Diners even with a reservation.

[cruisingaussies]

We have a Club Mini Suite, which apparently means we dine in a smaller part of the dining room, any time, with no wait.  Has anyone had experience of this, does it work?

[Steelers36]

1 hour ago, caribill said:

 

Typo: meant to say

 

How useful or easy or hard to use the App has nothing to do with the fact that 100% of the dining room passengers are now Anytime Diners even with a reservation.

In a way but plenty of us are getting the TD experience with same time and table each night (means same waiters as well).

 

[julie3fan]

32 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

In a way but plenty of us are getting the TD experience with same time and table each night (means same waiters as well).

 

 

Yes, but not necessarily with the old-style shared table experience.  You might get lucky with a shared table the first night where you enjoy everybody at the table, and they all want to continue at the same time, same table every night, *and* you get the DR manager to assign you the same table the rest of the cruise.  There haven't been too many reports of all that lining up, so I imagine it's not happening very frequently.  Sadly.

[Steelers36]

54 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

In a way but plenty of us are getting the TD experience with same time and table each night (means same waiters as well).

 

 

15 minutes ago, julie3fan said:

 

Yes, but not necessarily with the old-style shared table experience.  You might get lucky with a shared table the first night where you enjoy everybody at the table, and they all want to continue at the same time, same table every night, *and* you get the DR manager to assign you the same table the rest of the cruise.  There haven't been too many reports of all that lining up, so I imagine it's not happening very frequently.  Sadly.

Sorry... I should have qualified my remarks.  I was writing about a Private table as opposed to a Sharing table.  The latter is more of a problem if you expect the same tablemates for the voyage.

 

I am not sure how often that worked out in "the before times".  I have read about couples not showing up, etc.  And then folks have SD plans and so forth.  Of course, sometimes a diverse group "clicks" and it can work well.  Regardless of that, it is impossible for the DMW App to put a diverse group together and have it booked for an entire voyage at the same table. 

 

[caribill]

2 hours ago, cruisingaussies said:

We have a Club Mini Suite, which apparently means we dine in a smaller part of the dining room, any time, with no wait.  Has anyone had experience of this, does it work?

 

It worked real well for us on a recent cruise.

 

We showed up when we wanted (although it usually was about the same time for most evenings) and were always seated essentially immediately. At most there were two people ahead of us in line.

 

We did want a table for just the two of us and for all the breakfasts, lunches and dinners we are there, we had the same table except for two times. And we had the same great waitstaff for every meal but one.

 

It is Anytime Dining that works as it should!

[cruisingaussies]

34 minutes ago, caribill said:

 

It worked real well for us on a recent cruise.

 

We showed up when we wanted (although it usually was about the same time for most evenings) and were always seated essentially immediately. At most there were two people ahead of us in line.

 

We did want a table for just the two of us and for all the breakfasts, lunches and dinners we are there, we had the same table except for two times. And we had the same great waitstaff for every meal but one.

 

It is Anytime Dining that works as it should!

Thanks, that is very good to know.

And apologies, I realise I've committed the sin of a thread creep 😳 although the conversation was leaning towards dining questions!

[wowzz]

7 hours ago, BamaVol said:

US seniors have been trained to dine early by restaurant early bird specials. But seriously, I grew up eating dinner at 5:30 every night. Works for me still.

Never finished work until 17:30 or so, then a commute of 90 minutes, so I was never home before 19:00, let alone eating dinner !

[BamaVol]

33 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Never finished work until 17:30 or so, then a commute of 90 minutes, so I was never home before 19:00, let alone eating dinner !

There have been years in my life when work schedules dictated meal times.  But after retirement, I do what feels best for me.  There is no universal right time for lunch or dinner, just as there is no food that cannot be eaten at a particular meal.  I had chicken fajitas for. breakfast yesterday.  As surely as someone thinks 5:30 is too early for dinner, someone else thinks my breakfast is inappropriate.  Everyone else can dine when they’d like as long as there’s an empty table for me when I’m ready. 

[luckyinpa]

10 hours ago, cruisingaussies said:

We have a Club Mini Suite, which apparently means we dine in a smaller part of the dining room, any time, with no wait.  Has anyone had experience of this, does it work?

 

on regal i got an upsell to a suite so i got the chance to try this so i did twice. both times the service was very slow. even to get initial drinks. 1st time we were sandwiched in between other people and continued to experience poor service. decided to try another nite. got a slightly better table but still bad service. even heard the table next to us complaining. i truly dont see the allure of it and i'd never pay for club class. 3rd time in MDR we sat with the non suite people and had better service.  i guess in the end it's luck of the draw who serves you.  but you are all sandwiched 'up front' so as long as you are ok with that you wont be disappointed. the one or 2 off the menu things u could get didnt interest us so there really was zero value, which is exactly what we paid 😉

[wowzz]

We had a club minisuite on Regal last year, and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Strolled in around 20:00 each night, and always sat in the same general area with the same wait staff. We were on first name terms after a couple of visits.

After the first two nights, the waiters would go and get our preferred choice of wine before we even ordered it. Food service was extremely fast - in fact we quite often asked for a delay between courses.

The same people seemed to be eating each nighy, so it became a convivial social event as we chatted away.

The additional main course choice was OK, but we normally ate off the standard menu, but I did tend to do a lot of "mix and matching". Also, it was a far better breakfast experience than eating in the MDR. 

So, in our opinion, a far, far better experience than the MDR. 

BUT - the premium price over and above a standard minisuite is quite substantial, and, in all honesty, unless there was a special offer, we would probably not book it again.