Ocean Medallion App - Part 3

[bjkTX]

7 hours ago, Tedferg said:

If you are Platinum or above, I think you can do them before final payment.

I booked our dining times last night for a Nov 2023 cruise we just booked - I had already booked them for our Feb 2024 cruise.  We are Elite.

[TenneSea]

Purchased way before the new Plus price increase.  Shows $12 (free) beverage limit, however, it includes new desserts, fitness classes, juice bar and Medallion shipping.

[LawDog61]

Ocean medallion will not accept my Visa card ……it continues to say error in the number.   There is not an input error…...card is fully functional and correct # and expiration entered.   Any ideas?   Thanks

[Thrak]

11 minutes ago, LawDog61 said:

Ocean medallion will not accept my Visa card ……it continues to say error in the number.   There is not an input error…...card is fully functional and correct # and expiration entered.   Any ideas?   Thanks

 

Sounds stupid but check to make sure your phone number entry has the +1 country code entered. I can apparently screw up other stuff that one would think is unrelated. Worth checking.

[1965]

1 hour ago, Thrak said:

 

Sounds stupid but check to make sure your phone number entry has the +1 country code entered. I can apparently screw up other stuff that one would think is unrelated. Worth checking.

Great advice. I can't remember what online form I was filling out, may have been Princess related. After several attempts I sort of stumbled on the +1 country code was missing. After that was added all went smoothly. 

[azbirdmom]

Someone in another group is having the same problem regarding having the new Plus package yet finding a charge when they try to order Medallions.  I've posted what she encountered when she called Princess below in quotes.  Seems like it's another situation where they roll out a new program and fail to have a plan to properly administer it.  BTW I've also written to the email addresses that I used to report app errors just before the restart of cruising.  No response yet, I have no idea if anyone is even monitoring these emails any longer but suffice to say it's ridiculous to expect someone to prepay for something that is supposed to be free.

 

"I called Princess. They said that plus and premiere does include free shipping but….you have to pay the $10 and then ask for it back at boarding.

I asked how was it refunded. They said obc. I said no that won’t work. I paid for the package and expect to have zero charges once onboard. I would need it refunded back to my credit card. They said they didn’t know for sure to ask once onboard. Well we know how that goes.

So he proceeded to tell

Me that their system hasn’t been updated to accommodate the free packages yet. I asked when would that be done and he didn’t know but he could transfer to someone else that could help.

Lady tells me the same thing minus the system update. So I asked about system update and she puts me on hold and comes back and says the new update will not have any changes to shipping that I have to ask for it back once onboard/it will be refunded onboard. I again explain that I do not need onboard credit and tell her I have already paid for free shipping.

She puts in a case to escalate it to have the shipping charge removed. She said I should hear back in 3-5 business days.

We will see how it goes. I have a case number to reference."

Edited March 23, 2023 by azbirdmom

[Steelers36]

1 hour ago, azbirdmom said:

Someone in another group is having the same problem regarding having the new Plus package yet finding a charge when they try to order Medallions.  I've posted what she encountered when she called Princess below in quotes.  Seems like it's another situation where they roll out a new program and fail to have a plan to properly administer it.  BTW I've also written to the email addresses that I used to report app errors just before the restart of cruising.  No response yet, I have no idea if anyone is even monitoring these emails any longer but suffice to say it's ridiculous to expect someone to prepay for something that is supposed to be free.

 

"I called Princess. They said that plus and premiere does include free shipping but….you have to pay the $10 and then ask for it back at boarding.

I asked how was it refunded. They said obc. I said no that won’t work. I paid for the package and expect to have zero charges once onboard. I would need it refunded back to my credit card. They said they didn’t know for sure to ask once onboard. Well we know how that goes.

So he proceeded to tell

Me that their system hasn’t been updated to accommodate the free packages yet. I asked when would that be done and he didn’t know but he could transfer to someone else that could help.

Lady tells me the same thing minus the system update. So I asked about system update and she puts me on hold and comes back and says the new update will not have any changes to shipping that I have to ask for it back once onboard/it will be refunded onboard. I again explain that I do not need onboard credit and tell her I have already paid for free shipping.

She puts in a case to escalate it to have the shipping charge removed. She said I should hear back in 3-5 business days.

We will see how it goes. I have a case number to reference."

I feel like a bobblehead when I read about Princess' failings since I am often left SMH sadly.

[azbirdmom]

10 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

I feel like a bobblehead when I read about Princess' failings since I am often left SMH sadly.

 

No kidding!  And the crazy thing is that they had no problem updating the system to start charging for Medallions when they rolled out the new programs.  Yet they couldn't take the extra step of programming it to charge unless the guest has the newer Plus or Premier package?  Seems like BS to me.

[HiCCCs]

12 minutes ago, azbirdmom said:

 

No kidding!  And the crazy thing is that they had no problem updating the system to start charging for Medallions when they rolled out the new programs.  Yet they couldn't take the extra step of programming it to charge unless the guest has the newer Plus or Premier package?  Seems like BS to me.

Do you suppose at their annual Board of Director's Meeting they report how much income they made from these kinds of charges where the passenger never gets the OBC or refund because something prevented them from the point of payment?? It just shouldn't be acceptable to say, "Go ahead and pay for something you've already paid for and we'll reimburse you the difference!!" Not what we should expect from a premier cruise line Princess claims to be.

[kamelia]

17 minutes ago, HiCCCs said:

Do you suppose at their annual Board of Director's Meeting they report how much income they made from these kinds of charges where the passenger never gets the OBC or refund because something prevented them from the point of payment?? It just shouldn't be acceptable to say, "Go ahead and pay for something you've already paid for and we'll reimburse you the difference!!" Not what we should expect from a premier cruise line Princess claims to be.

Kinda' like the "improved loyalty perk" of discounts on shore excursions and Medallion Net wifi - once you pay us, we'll give you the money back as onboard credit to spend on the ship.  I'm not liking the direction Princess corporate seems to be heading, not as an Elite passenger nor as a shareholder.  Short-term gains at what risk to the long-term bottom line?

[azbirdmom]

Well this is interesting. At the beginning of a presentation that Princess gave to TAs today they shared a slide comparing the Plus and Premier programs to competitors programs. Missing is the Medallion shipping. Wonder if they are quietly eliminating it?  It’s still in the T&C. 

[bjkTX]

I decided a few days ago to just order the darn medallions and if they charge me the $10 as it indicates on the form so be it - I'll deal with it.  It's been 6 days and the charge hasn't his my credit card.  Don't know if they don't charge until it ships but it could be it shows up on the order - but doesn't actually get charged.  We'll see.

[HiCCCs]

1 hour ago, bjkTX said:

I decided a few days ago to just order the darn medallions and if they charge me the $10 as it indicates on the form so be it - I'll deal with it.  It's been 6 days and the charge hasn't his my credit card.  Don't know if they don't charge until it ships but it could be it shows up on the order - but doesn't actually get charged.  We'll see.

When I have ordered extra "goodies" with my Medallion they always charge right away. However, shipping was never part of the charge. I'm disappointed to hear Princess seems to be intentionally getting us to pay for perks and then just to have it get applied to OBC.

[Roberto256]

On 3/19/2023 at 1:38 PM, kamelia said:

Just for jollies, I went to the Accenture website and did a search for Princess.  There were only five hits, two for a gentleman whose biography no longer mentions either Princess or Carnival, one for someone no longer listed as a current employee, and two related to the Carnival Guest Experience Case Study issued April 9, 2019.

 

I'm not disagreeing with you.   I can't find anything current that says Accenture is still working on the medallion app for princess/carnival corp.

I just happened to see a headline this morning.

 

I found this from November 2022.   God knows what it means.

"Travel into the metaverse"

https://www.accenture.com/us-en/blogs/compass-travel-blog/travel-into-the-metaverse

It discusses carnival, on the Accenture website.

 

My interest was piqued after I saw this headline, this morning:

"Accenture slashes 19,000 jobs worldwide"

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/03/23/business/accenture-job-cuts-19000/index.html

 

This is undated, but I think it is from 2019, again on the Accenture website:

"Reimagining guest experiences on the high seas"

 

https://www.accenture.com/us-en/case-studies/travel/carnival-cruise

 

[laynp]

First Time Princess Regal cruise (18 months away) when should I load the Medallion app on my iPad or iPhone to get familiar with using it?

 

[Honolulu Blue]

10 minutes ago, laynp said:

First Time Princess Regal cruise (18 months away) when should I load the Medallion app on my iPad or iPhone to get familiar with using it?

My suggestion is to download it as soon as you can find the time.  You won't be able to do a whole lot with the app at this point. but you can go through what you can do and find out about its quirks, frustrations, and good features.  Good luck and have fun!

[azbirdmom]

4 hours ago, Roberto256 said:

 

I'm not disagreeing with you.   I can't find anything current that says Accenture is still working on the medallion app for princess/carnival corp.

I just happened to see a headline this morning.

 

I found this from November 2022.   God knows what it means.

"Travel into the metaverse"

https://www.accenture.com/us-en/blogs/compass-travel-blog/travel-into-the-metaverse

It discusses carnival, on the Accenture website.

 

My interest was piqued after I saw this headline, this morning:

"Accenture slashes 19,000 jobs worldwide"

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/03/23/business/accenture-job-cuts-19000/index.html

 

This is undated, but I think it is from 2019, again on the Accenture website:

"Reimagining guest experiences on the high seas"

 

https://www.accenture.com/us-en/case-studies/travel/carnival-cruise

 

 

I'm wondering if Open Network Exchange replaced them?

 

[kamelia]

4 hours ago, Roberto256 said:

 

I'm not disagreeing with you.   I can't find anything current that says Accenture is still working on the medallion app for princess/carnival corp.

I just happened to see a headline this morning.

 

I found this from November 2022.   God knows what it means.

"Travel into the metaverse"

https://www.accenture.com/us-en/blogs/compass-travel-blog/travel-into-the-metaverse

It discusses carnival, on the Accenture website.

 

My interest was piqued after I saw this headline, this morning:

"Accenture slashes 19,000 jobs worldwide"

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/03/23/business/accenture-job-cuts-19000/index.html

 

This is undated, but I think it is from 2019, again on the Accenture website:

"Reimagining guest experiences on the high seas"

 

https://www.accenture.com/us-en/case-studies/travel/carnival-cruise

 

I was just speculating, and I'm open to others' interpretations of what they think it might have meant.  Agree or disagree, I always learn something from another perspective. 

 

Thank you for posting the link to the "Travel into the metaverse" article as it didn't come up in my search on the Accenture website and I missed it.  It certainly is a far cry from what was promoted as the original intent of the Ocean Medallion - "had we had this technology, we would have been able to locate and rescue the passengers who were trapped on the Costa Concordia."  The way I read this article, I'm now a little clearer about what its purpo$e is the other 99.9999% of the time.  🤔

[Roberto256]

4 minutes ago, kamelia said:

It certainly is a far cry from what was promoted as the original intent of the Ocean Medallion - "had we had this technology, we would have been able to locate and rescue the passengers who were trapped on the Costa Concordia." 

Thank you for posting.

 

To me, that seems wildly optimistic.  You have to assume that all networking and servers are not flooded and still working, and that the passengers had their medallions with them.   Given Princess's difficulty with simple tasks, I wouldn't want to bet MY life on the medallion.

 

I always assumed the purposed of the medallion was to monitize customer behaviour.   That's what carnival said in 2017.

 

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/os-carnival-te2-orlando-20170109-story.html

[jsn55]

34 minutes ago, azbirdmom said:

 

I'm wondering if Open Network Exchange replaced them?

 

WOW!  There might be hope for this dreadful medallion idea yet.  

 

[julie3fan]

7 minutes ago, jsn55 said:

WOW!  There might be hope for this dreadful medallion idea yet.  

 

 

43 minutes ago, azbirdmom said:

 

I'm wondering if Open Network Exchange replaced them?

 

 

Other than the fact the article referenced is from 14 months ago, and the medallion app doesn't appear to have improved since then.

[bjkTX]

2 hours ago, laynp said:

First Time Princess Regal cruise (18 months away) when should I load the Medallion app on my iPad or iPhone to get familiar with using it?

 

I agree with the previous response - load it and get familiar with it - since it seems to undo itself every now and then by the time it actually matters what you enter you should be very familiar with it!  Joking - mostly.  I already had it loaded for cruises we took last year and used it months ago to do a cruise for Feb 2024.  I'd do it now so if you run into issues figuring it out you'll have plenty of time to get it straightened out.  Other that set dining times that seem to come and go I really have never had any issues with it - but others have.

 

[DHP1]

Why am I getting this error message?  I have contacted Princess several times in the last few months, and nothing. Is it because my cruise is not until summer 2024?

 

[lstone19]

14 minutes ago, DHP1 said:

Why am I getting this error message?  I have contacted Princess several times in the last few months, and nothing. Is it because my cruise is not until summer 2024?

 

 

As I posted upstream, I am getting the same thing. Our cruise is April 2024 on the new Sun Princess. Which ship are you on? And are you on any sort of special fare not available to the general public? I'm on an interline fare (special fares for guests in or retired from the travel industry - airline in my case) so wondering if that's a factor. I have done online chat and sent an email to the Medallion support people (askoceanmedallion@carnival.com) and while both acknowledged the problem, there has been no fix yet. I also get an error when I try to go to DineMyWay.

 

EDIT: I just saw from your signature you're also on Sun Princess. I wonder it that's the cause.

Edited March 24, 2023 by lstone19
Added comment

[HiCCCs]

20 minutes ago, lstone19 said:

 

As I posted upstream, I am getting the same thing. Our cruise is April 2024 on the new Sun Princess. Which ship are you on? And are you on any sort of special fare not available to the general public? I'm on an interline fare (special fares for guests in or retired from the travel industry - airline in my case) so wondering if that's a factor. I have done online chat and sent an email to the Medallion support people (askoceanmedallion@carnival.com) and while both acknowledged the problem, there has been no fix yet. I also get an error when I try to go to DineMyWay.

 

EDIT: I just saw from your signature you're also on Sun Princess. I wonder it that's the cause.

We're on the Sun.....and we're getting it, too. They haven't finished building it yet....I'm guessing that might be the issue. But, it's evidence how much we want to sail!!!!

 

Cruise on, folks! 🥰