Ocean Medallion App - Part 3

[fairmontracer]

11 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

Nope. I had issues early on but sent my issues via email to the Medallion folks. I was polite and detailed. They looked at my issues and suddenly the app worked. I'm not saying this worked for everybody but I didn't go through the Princess phone number. The folks who answer that line are rarely people who have even set foot on a cruise ship let alone sailed. In general, you might as well ask for assistance from a house plant.

 

I understand that there are folks who are having extreme issues getting the app to work and I feel sorry for them but it can sometimes be remediated by using the proper channels and not being all "pi$$#d off) when communicating. It also helps to not try to address issues via the "regular" Princess phone staff. For the most part those folks don't know enough to even understand the issue let alone address it in a coherent manner.

Thrak, would you be willing to share the email address you used? I can't seem to find an email address on the website.

[Don9992]

19 hours ago, fairmontracer said:

Thank you in advance for allowing me to vent🙂. Have a cruise booked for Dec 26th and am trying to get us squared away on the OM app. I can log into the app and it shows my picture and the number of days till our cruise, so it knows what our booking number is. When I start the checklist items, it says I need to enter my booking number. When I do, the app says "That booking number has already been claimed". Just spent 60 minutes on the phone with Princess. Their response was that it is a known problem and it may get fixed in the next app release which usually occurs ever 3-4 weeks. So there is a known application problem that is preventing the application from working and it might be fixed before our cruise leaves? What company operates this way? If this was a normal software development cycle, this Tier 1 incident would be worked 24X7 until resolution, then an emergency release published ASAP. The check in process can be done at the terminal, however it is going to be a nightmare if everyone has to do it that way. Venting ended, thanks!

I was getting an error message when I went to the checklist.  After I upgraded to Android 12, I started getting exactly the same response you are.  I can't swear it was the OS upgrade that made the change but that was the timing.

[Steelers36]

1 hour ago, fairmontracer said:

Thrak, would you be willing to share the email address you used? I can't seem to find an email address on the website.

AskOceanMedallion@carnival.com

[Capt Krunch]

Heads at Princess need to roll over this Medallion debacle.  How could any company screw up so terribly and discontinue a registration process that was working so well and replace it with a process that does not work.  I have called Princess several times and they inform me to just check-in at the terminal and forget about using the app.  Since I cannot use the app this is what I will have to do.

[MissP22]

19 minutes ago, Capt Krunch said:

Heads at Princess need to roll over this Medallion debacle.  How could any company screw up so terribly and discontinue a registration process that was working so well and replace it with a process that does not work.  I have called Princess several times and they inform me to just check-in at the terminal and forget about using the app.  Since I cannot use the app this is what I will have to do.

What I can't quite comprehend is why they didn't leave the original check-in process the way it was & also allow for the introduction of the Medallion app on phones & tablets to be initiated if you wanted to use one. At least we would have had a way of completing the required information one way or the other.

Also- what were they doing since cruising was stopped in the beginning of 2020? Certainly it should have been sufficient time to get the system working by now. 

[JF - retired RRT]

2 hours ago, MissP22 said:

Also- what were they doing since cruising was stopped in the beginning of 2020? Certainly it should have been sufficient time to get the system working by now. 

Best guess...they designed it, said "that looks good! We did a great job!" and asked for a raise.

[cltnccruisers]

47 minutes ago, JF - retired RRT said:

Best guess...they designed it, said "that looks good! We did a great job!" and asked for a raise.

I'd bet dollars to donuts it was outsourced. 

[Steelers36]

20 minutes ago, cltnccruisers said:

I'd bet dollars to donuts it was outsourced. 

It just occurred to me that a donut costs more than $1 now.  Using our world-famous Tim Hortons as a guide to pricing.  😋

[cltnccruisers]

12 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

It just occurred to me that a donut costs more than $1 now.  Using our world-famous Tim Hortons as a guide to pricing.  😋

Krispy Kreme is still king down here.  Never broke it down to the per donut cost since we usually get a couple dozen.  😃

[Roberto256]

18 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

Nope. I had issues early on but sent my issues via email to the Medallion folks. I was polite and detailed. They looked at my issues and suddenly the app worked. I'm not saying this worked for everybody but I didn't go through the Princess phone number. The folks who answer that line are rarely people who have even set foot on a cruise ship let alone sailed. In general, you might as well ask for assistance from a house plant.

 

I understand that there are folks who are having extreme issues getting the app to work and I feel sorry for them but it can sometimes be remediated by using the proper channels and not being all "pi$$#d off) when communicating. It also helps to not try to address issues via the "regular" Princess phone staff. For the most part those folks don't know enough to even understand the issue let alone address it in a coherent manner.

 

So, I can't be all "pi$$#d off) ... but I can denigrate them by referring to them as a houseplant.

 

Do I do this while I am on the call?

 

[barrykel]

1 hour ago, cltnccruisers said:

I'd bet dollars to donuts it was outsourced. 

There have been several reports here that Accenture wrote it. A colleague of mine has worked with them in the past, and he was not at all surprised that they it was so buggy - apparently they like to send their senior personnel with the salesmen to clinch the deal, and then they assign their most junior and least competent developers to actually work on the project.

[cltnccruisers]

3 minutes ago, barrykel said:

There have been several reports here that Accenture wrote it. A colleague of mine has worked with them in the past, and he was not at all surprised that they it was so buggy - apparently they like to send their senior personnel with the salesmen to clinch the deal, and then they assign their most junior and least competent developers to actually work on the project.

Kind of like a company I worked for in the '90s.  "Perception is reality" was their sales motto.  Then we had to try to make their ridiculous perception into a workable reality.  

[barrykel]

1 hour ago, cltnccruisers said:

Kind of like a company I worked for in the '90s.  "Perception is reality" was their sales motto.  Then we had to try to make their ridiculous perception into a workable reality.  

That sort of business practice is, sadly, pretty common - you know what they say "A consultant is someone who borrows your watch to tell you what time it is"

[VibeGuy]

I held for two and a half hours to reach a Navigator.  I have an iPhone 13 Pro Max with all the latest updates and patches, the app is current version, and my bookings are paid in full.  

The app refuses to display the second cruise, but says the voyage is already linked when one tries to enter the booking number.  
 

There are no dining reservations nor venues available for any of the ten nights shown. 
 

My NEXUS card went in fine; that of my husband adamantly refuses to. 
 

The good news is she was able to repro the issue and escalate to the data team given our departure in 15 days.  The bad news is she actually found a couple of other defects in our booking and identity data (what’s in the backend doesn’t match what’s in the app). 
 

As a stockholder I shudder to think what they’ve paid to do this, to date, and how much more they’re going to spend before it Just Works. 

[ElkGroveCruiser]

8 hours ago, barrykel said:

There have been several reports here that Accenture wrote it. A colleague of mine has worked with them in the past, and he was not at all surprised that they it was so buggy - apparently they like to send their senior personnel with the salesmen to clinch the deal, and then they assign their most junior and least competent developers to actually work on the project.

Accenture?  Why else would Princess be sharing space on all the lanyards that are shipped with the Medallions?  Of course it was Accenture, and they should be ashamed!

[Steelers36]

4 hours ago, VibeGuy said:

I held for two and a half hours to reach a Navigator.  I have an iPhone 13 Pro Max with all the latest updates and patches, the app is current version, and my bookings are paid in full.  

The app refuses to display the second cruise, but says the voyage is already linked when one tries to enter the booking number.  
 

There are no dining reservations nor venues available for any of the ten nights shown. 
 

My NEXUS card went in fine; that of my husband adamantly refuses to. 
 

The good news is she was able to repro the issue and escalate to the data team given our departure in 15 days.  The bad news is she actually found a couple of other defects in our booking and identity data (what’s in the backend doesn’t match what’s in the app). 
 

As a stockholder I shudder to think what they’ve paid to do this, to date, and how much more they’re going to spend before it Just Works. 

I realize your voyage is close, but I wonder if all DR's were loaded for booking.  Since cruises are going out less than full lately, I wonder.  I believe there are a lot of unrevealed issues with DMW and we just guess at them.  Certainly one is withholding of tablespace.  Another could be setting up each cabin with its own table and not actually setting up sharing before the cruise.  This could be sort of what is happening as my understanding (high-level) is that dining requests are logged and then a back-end team sorts out table assignment closer to the sail date.  This might help explain why DMW appears full.

 

I know for a couple of voyages we have a year from now almost, and so only Elites & Platinums and prior bookings can use DMW (supposedly), the dining space is pretty much gone.  But there is only one DR made available, so no wonder.

 

[epistax]

I attached a screenshot of what the app looks like when I try to take a photo of my passport 😁. Pixel 5, Android 12.

The app will not let me enter my first name (ie first+middle) as it appears on my passport. Seems wrong.

 

I emailed them to see what happens. Like another in this chat, I was also unable to upload a security picture. However the app did properly load the camera for that.

 

(My first cruise, only 99 days to this out 😆)

[Grego]

15 hours ago, barrykel said:

That sort of business practice is, sadly, pretty common - you know what they say "A consultant is someone who borrows your watch to tell you what time it is"

........and keeps the watch"

[san diego sue]

So before my cruise in October, I was cursing the Appl. Somehow right before cruising it worked, Green Lane, yay. On board worked as soon as I figured it out, and I loved it.

Have 4 cruises booked, all Green lane , yay.

Decide to book a last minute  cruise for next month. Go to Medallion Appl. Everything is in there for it.Just had to put in dining preferences and credit card. All went in, Green lane, Yay.

Then it all changed:

Yesterday go into my Princess personalizer. My husband's  information says incomplete. What?

No Green lane.

Appl says he  doesn't have credit card info anymore. I used mine so no big deal , I'll add him back on. Well, I check the appropriate box with his name, then save button won't light up. I delete my CC. I enter it again, still can't add him. I removed that credit card 5 times and reentered it, same problem, save button for adding him, doesn't work. Then after I deleted my credit card, my information is still there. Several tries, nothing. Then I go into all my other bookings Blue lane on all of them, same problem.

Ready to scream and look forward to being on hold with help line today for hours.Late last night I decide to try and delete card again and add a different one. Everything worked, all save buttons worked.

what? All cruises Green Lane. My original card is the one I have used on all my cruises in the past and now the Appl. hates it. I am not going to look at the Appl.again.  Once on board I will change the credit card to the one I prefer.

[billco]

44 minutes ago, san diego sue said:

So before my cruise in October, I was cursing the Appl. Somehow right before cruising it worked, Green Lane, yay. On board worked as soon as I figured it out, and I loved it.

Have 4 cruises booked, all Green lane , yay.

Decide to book a last minute  cruise for next month. Go to Medallion Appl. Everything is in there for it.Just had to put in dining preferences and credit card. All went in, Green lane, Yay.

Then it all changed:

Yesterday go into my Princess personalizer. My husband's  information says incomplete. What?

No Green lane.

Appl says he  doesn't have credit card info anymore. I used mine so no big deal , I'll add him back on. Well, I check the appropriate box with his name, then save button won't light up. I delete my CC. I enter it again, still can't add him. I removed that credit card 5 times and reentered it, same problem, save button for adding him, doesn't work. Then after I deleted my credit card, my information is still there. Several tries, nothing. Then I go into all my other bookings Blue lane on all of them, same problem.

Ready to scream and look forward to being on hold with help line today for hours.Late last night I decide to try and delete card again and add a different one. Everything worked, all save buttons worked.

what? All cruises Green Lane. My original card is the one I have used on all my cruises in the past and now the App. hates it. I am not going to look at the Appl.again.  Once on board I will change the credit card to the one I prefer.

Just got back from 2 cruises, 3 weeks on the Regal Princess. Loved the Medallion and App with very few issues. Same on our cruise on the Majestic in September. Just booked a cruise on the Discovery Princess. Had to delete and resubmit my CC account. No problem. Went to Dine my Way to choose dining. Gives me three choices of dining rooms, but doesn't say where they are - Ketchikan, Juneau, and Skagway. Are they kidding?

Edited November 24, 2021 by billco

[Steelers36]

4 hours ago, billco said:

Just got back from 2 cruises, 3 weeks on the Regal Princess. Loved the Medallion and App with very few issues. Same on our cruise on the Majestic in September. Just booked a cruise on the Discovery Princess. Had to delete and resubmit my CC account. No problem. Went to Dine my Way to choose dining. Gives me three choices of dining rooms, but doesn't say where they are - Ketchikan, Juneau, and Skagway. Are they kidding?

You would think Princess would post deck plans since cruises are being sold.  Someone at HQ must know which one is where. 

 

 

[cltnccruisers]

17 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

You would think Princess would post deck plans since cruises are being sold.  Someone at HQ must know which one is where. 

 

 

Are you talking about having deck plans on the app?  Ocean Compass has a page for Explore the Ship.  Selected Sky but then it just sits on deck 5, loading, loading, loading.......

 

[cltnccruisers]

Curious - how is the QR code used for embarkation?

[Steelers36]

3 minutes ago, cltnccruisers said:

Are you talking about having deck plans on the app?  Ocean Compass has a page for Explore the Ship.  Selected Sky but then it just sits on deck 5, loading, loading, loading.......

 

No, I am talking about official deck plan for Discovery that indicates which DR is which.  @billco was interested in knowing - perhaps because he would like to select a particular DR location. 

 

Other cruise booking sites have a deck plan, but they are just labeled "Dining Room".  Princess has nothing posted.

[Steelers36]

4 minutes ago, cltnccruisers said:

Curious - how is the QR code used for embarkation?

From reports thus far, it is not being used.