A word of caution about those medallions...

[CruisinFinsUp]

6 hours ago, ldubs said:

 

But would you not also need that person's medallion to be in proximity along with the name and number?  

No.   Bartenders are not using the medallion system.   Bartenders are asking for and keying in cabin numbers.  
 

The medallion system is a tablet that shows the faces and names of all the people in proximity to the bar.  Most of the bartenders don't bother trying to scroll thru all the small pictures to find you during busy times. 
 

The old keycards had a "folio number".  They used to record that.  Now they use cabin number. 

[CruisinFinsUp]

23 hours ago, Yaya_in_Oz said:

I've been on 3 cruises this past year, and in this part of the world they swiped my medallion for everything from water to cocktails. I do check my account most days. It seems odd that another passenger on quite a few occasions was able to get away with ordering drinks and not presenting a medallion.

In our experience, waiters are not using the scanners, or they have a handheld that doesn't scan properly. They ask for cabin number.    Bartenders are also asking for cabin number instead of scrolling through all the little pictures of people on the tablet, who are in proximity to the bar.   Last few cruises we barely presented our medallion anywhere.  

[MissP22]

39 minutes ago, CruisinFinsUp said:

No.   Bartenders are not using the medallion system.   Bartenders are asking for and keying in cabin numbers.  
 

The medallion system is a tablet that shows the faces and names of all the people in proximity to the bar.  Most of the bartenders don't bother trying to scroll thru all the small pictures to find you during busy times. 
 

The old keycards had a "folio number".  They used to record that.  Now they use cabin number. 

If they had to rely on matching faces when it's really busy hardly anyone would get served.😜

[clarky213]

On 7/12/2023 at 10:24 PM, c25andeb said:

A word of caution about those medallions.  We were on the Regal from June 25 - July 7, apparently, all someone has to do to get free drinks is to tell the waiter a cabin number and it gets charged to whoever is in that cabin!  When we got home I saw our credit card statement and knew it was too high.  Someone had charged drinks and bar charges and our cabin got the bill for them.  Princess says it will take 21 days to be resolved, but be advised, it could happen to you too.  A relative of ours ordered a ginger ale and the waiter simply asked "what cabin number?"  Hopefully this keeps someone else from getting charged for drinks they never ordered.

I presume you didn't have a package as if you did, there still wouldn't be any charge for someone elses drinks unless either you had exceeded your 15 drinks limit, or the cost was above the top limit of the package.

[Abercrombie2019]

9 hours ago, Thrak said:

What is your cabin number? C222, D222, E222 B222, etc. all sound the same in a crowded environment

This could be part of the reason why the Sun & Star Princess have dropped the letter in the room description in favor of just using the floor number.  (ie. 11222 instead of B222)

[Yaya_in_Oz]

Perhaps I should have said I did most of the swiping on the black metal stand with the seawitch on it that is screwed into the counters. I tend to just go up to the bar or counter and the person behind it points me to the stand which I swipe and they give me the drink. If I order something at dinner they bring the handheld device and its worked fine. I don't sequester myself somewhere on the ship and order on the app.

There has been the odd mistake like being charged for something thats included in a package but thats easily rectified. I've never had anything appear that has possibly come from another passenger inadvertently or advertently using my cabin number.

[Cruise Raider]

This actually happened to us a lot prior to the medallions.  
True story and honest mistake … we were onboard years ago and they asked for our cabin number when ordering drinks.  We were in #C624 and kept giving them #C642 (not sure of the real cabins numbers but you get the point .. I simply mixed up the number).  We then went to our cabin and couldn’t figure out why we couldn’t get into the door.  We had a good laugh about it and went to the front desk to let them know those charges were ours.  
 

Since they have photos of you at the point of charge, this happens way less than it used to.  Plus, they always ask our names.  However, there are times when they simply have to write your room number down when they are super busy and don’t have a device to scan your medallions.  
 

We check our accounts on the app every couple of days and it seems like incorrect charges happen way less often than they used to.  
 

 

[roxievegas]

The overall theme of this thread is:  The medallion is suppose to be used when charging anything on board the ship - when you order the drink, you should not have to provide your cabin number verbally, it should pick up the info off your medallion.

 

Problem - medallion is not working correctly and information is not getting applied correctly by the drink server.  Not a problem when you have the plus package, but is a problem if you do not.  We will not have the drink package on our next cruise and I will check our account daily to make sure we are not being charged for someone elses drinks.  I should not have to do that.

[9tee2Sea]

new to Princess and the Medallion.  Since reading about the semi invasive nature of the Medallion, can I keep it in an IRFD wallet and just present it when ordering a drink?  I really don't like being tracked while on ship.  Also, can I remove the Door name on my own?  

[gah_cruise]

20 minutes ago, 9tee2Sea said:

  I really don't like being tracked while on ship.

Dont forget about the cctv cameras

Edited July 14, 2023 by gah_cruise

[capriccio]

34 minutes ago, roxievegas said:

Problem - medallion is not working correctly and information is not getting applied correctly by the drink server. 

On last week's cruise the source of our problem was not the Medallion.  It was the fact that servers were short cutting the process by not confirming what they were told by swiping the Medallion.  Bars all seemed understaffed and the only one that consistently swiped the Medallion was the coffee bar at the International Cafe.  Plus the waitstaff in the MDR only used the old process (pen and paper).

[CrazyTrain2]

In general RFID technology (Medallion) should be more secure than cruise cards (magnetic strips) but either system can be defeated and useless if they are only using room number and name for purchases.  Step 1 for ALL Passengers should be to remove your name from your room. RFID is pretty simple technology - A radio signal is sent out in a short area.  The radio signal powers the RFID chip and the chip sends back a number.  That number is linked to your Folio.

 

RFIDs are much harder to copy/duplicate than a magnetic strip.  Also the RFID system tracks your movements throughout the ship for tracking how often you pass through high revenue areas of the ship - casino, shopping, etc.  Traffic location data feeds into algorithms that helps maximize sailor spend through better ship design and product merchandising.  Now you know why certain events are placed in certain parts of the ship - to drive traffic to high revenue areas.  Other lines use facial recognition from the ships cameras to get similar data, but RFID is more accurate and cheaper in the long run.  Keep in mind the RFID and your folio are synched with PERFECT demographic data - the line knows age, gender, address (zipcode), previous sailing history and now your exact movements on the ship.

 

After a few cruises, the line may know more about you than you do.  Imagine if you received a mailer  or video clip completely customized to you.  A picture of your favorite bartender Marco (AI generated) handing you your favorite drink (AI Generated).  "Marco has a Mai Tai waiting for you on board".  Heck, I can even have the AI Generate voice so AI Marco can look and sound like "Mrs. {insert your name here}, I have a cold, refreshing Mai Tai waiting on Deck 11 for you, won't you join me?"

[azbirdmom]

We were on the same cruise.  In our experience bartenders were asking for our room number and then responding with our name.  None of this happened to us luckily.  Our friends did have a few more drinks than us and would both order them at the same time.  They were bumping up against the issue where one of them exceeded the limit and the other didn't because only one of the tabs was getting the drinks added.  They got that sorted out at PS and then alternated who ordered after that.

 

You mentioned that you didn't check your wife's folio.  If you use a single credit card for both, both folios will appear on the card owner's Journey Account on the Medallion app.  The other person can only see their own charges.  We check our folios daily just to make sure that errant charges don't appear (not only drinks).  It didn't happen on this cruise but has in the past so this is just a bit of housekeeping that we add to our daily routine.

[KillerSnake]

9 hours ago, walkingsoon said:

1- keep your medallion in a faraday pouch

2- remove your name from your cabin door

3- check your account

I just purchased a medallion holder that has the RFI ID blocking screen "built in" to help protect your WiFi Credit / Debit Card ( tap and pay ), Passport card, etc...I will need to double check if the cover over the medallion has it as well.

[memoak]

We have been on 54 Princess cruises since 1992 and the only time we have had issues with charges were when they were using cruise cards. Sine medallion’s have been used we have not had any issues. When one of us goes to the casino bar or flags Dow a server we always give our cabin number and say please charge one to each account 

[ldubs]

5 hours ago, CruisinFinsUp said:

No.   Bartenders are not using the medallion system.   Bartenders are asking for and keying in cabin numbers.  
 

The medallion system is a tablet that shows the faces and names of all the people in proximity to the bar.  Most of the bartenders don't bother trying to scroll thru all the small pictures to find you during busy times. 
 

The old keycards had a "folio number".  They used to record that.  Now they use cabin number. 

 

Interesting.  Bartenders on our last 3 Princess cruises used the medallion.  I was not the only customer but I would not call it super busy.   

[9tee2Sea]

1 hour ago, KillerSnake said:

I just purchased a medallion holder that has the RFI ID blocking screen "built in" to help protect your WiFi Credit / Debit Card ( tap and pay ), Passport card, etc...I will need to double check if the cover over the medallion has it as well.

After reading about all the Medallion tracking, I just purchased my set as well ( RFID Pouch).  

[Tedferg]

Why you don’t need an RFID-blocking wallet | CSO Online

 

There are many articles that debunk the need for RFID protection for credit cards.

 

The Medallion might be a different case in that several Medallions might respond in a crowded bar and bartender might not check photo ID.

 

BTW do you know that MSG fears in Chinese food is also a falsehood. Look it up, apparently a professor spread this scare as a prank,

[memoak]

57 minutes ago, 9tee2Sea said:

After reading about all the Medallion tracking, I just purchased my set as well ( RFID Pouch).  

You do realize that there are tons of cameras all over the ship that can be used to track you as well. In the casino alone pretty much every square foot can be seen on camera 

[9tee2Sea]

2 minutes ago, memoak said:

You do realize that there are tons of cameras all over the ship that can be used to track you as well. In the casino alone pretty much every square foot can be seen on camera 

of course I know there is  on ship tracking via cameras ( I would hope so).  I just have an issue with Big Brother tracking my every movement ( how long I stay in the bathroom, times I leave my state room, what i do on my sea days).  If they can track me, how come I can't track my cabin steward to see where they are?  At least maybe give passengers an option to turn off tracking ( Like on cell phones).  Maybe this technology is the wave of the future ( facial recognition, tracking movements), but if I feel better just trying to hold off as long as I can.  

[ldubs]

14 minutes ago, 9tee2Sea said:

of course I know there is  on ship tracking via cameras ( I would hope so).  I just have an issue with Big Brother tracking my every movement ( how long I stay in the bathroom, times I leave my state room, what i do on my sea days).  If they can track me, how come I can't track my cabin steward to see where they are?  At least maybe give passengers an option to turn off tracking ( Like on cell phones).  Maybe this technology is the wave of the future ( facial recognition, tracking movements), but if I feel better just trying to hold off as long as I can.  

 

Men-in-black are sitting in a room somewhere on the ship watching your every movement and how long you stay in the bathroom.  😀  Too bad they aren't using this instead to improve customer experience.  They could even gather info on which places are more popular with customers at given times.   

[MissP22]

39 minutes ago, memoak said:

You do realize that there are tons of cameras all over the ship that can be used to track you as well. In the casino alone pretty much every square foot can be seen on camera 

[MissP22]

32 minutes ago, 9tee2Sea said:

of course I know there is  on ship tracking via cameras ( I would hope so).  I just have an issue with Big Brother tracking my every movement ( how long I stay in the bathroom, times I leave my state room, what i do on my sea days).  If they can track me, how come I can't track my cabin steward to see where they are?  At least maybe give passengers an option to turn off tracking ( Like on cell phones).  Maybe this technology is the wave of the future ( facial recognition, tracking movements), but if I feel better just trying to hold off as long as I can.  

Tell us just what things you're afraid of them finding out?

(other than your bathroom visits)

[Steelers36]

8 minutes ago, MissP22 said:

I wore something just like that for Hallowe'en decades ago in my youth.

 

[mtnesterz]

33 minutes ago, 9tee2Sea said:

At least maybe give passengers an option to turn off tracking ( Like on cell phones).

A solution to that would be to go to Passenger Services and ask for a Cruise Card instead of the Medallion. Since you are new to Princess, all the Medallion broadcasts is a code, that connects to your account, like a car's license plate, not your name or credit card info.