I Put The Cruise Industry's Best Tech to The Test

ad (invite) - I've just disembarked the Sky Princess where I put Princess's Ocean Medallion technology to the test. I had heard a LOT about their apps, wearables and tracking technology before the cruise but was skeptical about how much it would actually improve my cruising experience.

Disclaimer: My cruise on the Sky Princess was as part of a press trip, meaning that I travelled with journalists and travel agents. Princess have no control over my content and I wasn't paid, other than my subsidised cruise fare. YouTube defines 'paid promotion' as 'accepting anything of value' so I have to tick that disclosure box. :-)

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[EmmaCruises]

** A little explainer about the 'paid promotion' popup box - YouTube defines paid promotion as 'accepting anything of value from a third party to make your video'. I was invited on board by Princess to join them on a press trip with journalists and other people. I'm never paid beyond this but the gifted cruise fare means I need to tick this box. All opinions are my own and no cruise line has control over my content. ** 🎉🎉

[larry]

Emma, I have no problems with you being sponsored by the cruise lines. In fact, I welcome it especially as they do not control your comments. This way, the general public gets a good overview of your cruise and you get to cruise more. You mentioned the good and not so good things so that's great. My wife and I love cruising and being in Australia, our international borders have been shut for almost 2 years now. Keep up the great and informative vlogs.

[brucelindgren]

It’s “flashlight” in Canada as well as the US. (To be a torch, it has to be on fire!)

[curiousfirely]

Oh my goodness, I loved seeing the option to 'order' a sharps bin! As a diabetic, it's always tricky figuring how to dispose of my sharps while travelling. I usually just 'pack them out', and dispose of them at home. Having a sharps bin in my room would be fantastic!

[phoenixbloomfield]

I actually think these would be a major security risk - the medallion has your name engraved, and the cabins display your name on the screen and open up when you just get close to the door. If you ever lost your medallion it would be incredibly easy for someone else to pick it up and wander the ship until a door opened or they saw your name on the screen.

[LaLidoLoca]

Great presentation of the tech! I really like the medallion on my Majestic Princess cruise. Wrist band definitely the way to go. It does freak me out that the door unlocked before you get there. I was always still a couple doors away when I would hear it click.

[postaldee]

I'm an American and I like to use the word "torch" just to see the confused faces! 🤣🤣🤣

[lindadunham]

Knowing where a handicap toilet is very important for mobility hindered.

[matthewbanta]

It's called a flashlight in the US and Canada because the first ones on the market used to flash on and off to save the batteries. The name stuck even after that feature was no longer needed. Kind of like how a movie is sometimes called a "flick" because on early projectors the film used to move around while showing each frame making the picture flick up and down.

[Treetopflyer]

I’m not too happy about needing to use an app. The first thing I do when I get to my cabin is put my phone in the safe and there it stays until I disembark. I’m a slave to my phone when not on vacation and I really want nothing more than to disconnect on a cruise.

[FatherRichardGonzales]

The "Ocean Medallion" reminds me of the Walt Disney World "Magic Band." If you are staying on Disney property the Magic Band opens your hotel room, it is your admittance into the theme parks, you can also charge items to your credit card via the Magic Band. If Princess is using the Ocean Medallion, I would think Disney would implement their Magic Band technology to their cruise ships. ✨👍✨

[jimross]

Wow, Princess should have this as their how to use explanation. It is really well done. I learned a lot of nice know information that only experience can teach someone. So, I know I'm always saying I really enjoy your content but damn it, I do. You may not have been a natural at this but it sure seems that you are.

[PaulandCaroleLovetoTravel]

Great video showcasing the tech. LOL yes that was a bit of a shock with the £2000 bill, glad it was sorted very promptly! Our Paul and Carole Cruises will be live soon!

[kenelrod]

We were on Sky Princess (pre-Pandemic) and I’m a huge fan of the medallion. Full disclosure, we have only cruised on Princess but they are an amazing (Americanism) brilliant (Britishism) cruise line. The medallion worked flawlessly and performed as advertised. We got the clip-on medallion holders which I liked because I could clip it inside my pocket. I don’t like advertising that I’m on a cruise when we are in port and with the medallion in my pocket, we never had to worry about that. Emma…it‘ s a flashlight…even Apple says so on the phone. Next you’ll be telling me Z is pronounced Zed. Really? And I’m team Coke. So I guess we have irreconcilable differences.

[ruk--]

I'm going to weigh in on the app side of things, because I work in the field of building these kinds of apps...you can generally measure the quality of an app by how helpful the error messages are in my opinion. Lazy, generic error messages that don't make it clear what has gone wrong are a good indicator of lazy planning and execution of creating the app.

That knocks on to your photo looking wonky. They have done a very basic resize. It's not that hard to do a crop, resize and retain aspect ratio in one.

Of course, this could all be planned in - they needed to get certain functionality to market by a certain time and will enhance it over time. For this reason products are always released as Minimum Viable Products that get built on.

On top of that every software product carries what is known as technical debt - this is the amount of work that is needed to do things properly after releasing the easy option to release the app with the features needed in the timeline required.

But generally you want your error messages to be one of the things you get right from the start if you're planning properly and diligently. The hard work is setting up the system to report errors and that has been done. The lazy bit is not having relevant error messages to the fault that has happened. These are easy to customise and help customers, cruise line staff and the people who created the app.

[perrikennedy]

I took my first Princess cruise this month! I didn’t love the cruise line (too traditional for me) but I LOVED the Ocean Medallion tech. Tap a few buttons and someone brings me a cocktail no matter where I am? Brilliant! Team Diet Coke here but I really appreciated being able to order mocktails on the app. So now I’m team Key West Cooler.

[nedkelly]

Something they should add to the cruise bracelet would be a 130Db alarm that goes off when a passenger is not within 100 meters of the ship at reboarding time.

[devilinwest]

Always wondered what my home town looks like from one of the cruise ships. Sorry bout the rain.

[tammibrant]

Toilets are important, I'm with you Emma, I find all of the toilets everytime I am on a ship because I know I'll be running there regularly :)

[HEDGE]

I am a very loyal Princess cruiser. I’ve used the Ocean Medallion and the cruise card and honestly each have their pros and cons. I really don’t mind either way; I’m just happy to be on a Princess ship.