Once you board, you won’t be bored
And it’s definitely a ship – we discover pretty early on that one of the quickest ways to reveal yourself as a landlubber and infuriate experienced sea folk is to refer to a vessel of this magnitude as a boat.
Sitting at the heart of this newfangled, um, ship is its OceanMedallion technology, which is unique to Princess Cruises and has been designed to make the experience of cruisers who know their tablet from their toaster as connected and hassle-free as possible. The tech consists of two parts: the MedallionClass app and a personalised OceanMedallion. The latter is a metal disc about the size of a 10p coin that’s given to all passengers and worn as a lanyard (on your wrist, as a necklace or in a clip for an additional cost). It’s essentially an all-access pass to personalised convenience.
The wizardry starts before you even set sail: if you go through the boarding process via the OceanMedallion app, the wait time is reduced from around 20 minutes to 60 seconds since your ID and travel documents are already in place. You’re then asked to tap your OceanMedallion on to a tablet at security – up pops your picture and off you go.
Once on board, your OceanMedallion communicates with the ship’s onboard sensors and encrypted network, allowing you to do everything from unlocking your bedroom to making payments. The system doesn’t solely rely on your smartphone to work – tap your Medallion on to any of the many interactive screens around the ship and all the same functions are available.
And what’s the best of all those functions? The ability to order drinks and food on demand to anywhere on the ship thanks to on-board location technology. An in-app timeline tells you when the order has been placed, prepared and is ready to serve, and when the waiting staff approach your profile pops up on their devices as it detects your OceanMedallion. They can then tell who ordered the drink, what you look like and where you’re sitting, as well as any preferences you may have, including allergies. They can even discover that it’s your birthday, which should earn you a free piña colada.
Some may find the tracking ability intrusive but there is another advantage beyond having staff knowing where you are. There’s no incessant door-knocking followed by the word no one wants to hear at 8am: housekeeping.
There are safety benefits too. In an emergency, virtual representations of assembly stations allow the captain to quickly see which ones are full and subsequently track missing passengers and crew.
Some elements of the service are irritatingly gimmicky, however, such as the OceanTagalong, which enables you to create a personal digital companion that comes to life and interacts with you on your device.
You have the ability to order drinks and food on demand anywhere on the ship
However, the OceanMedallion is handy for viewing the daily entertainment programme, navigating the ship and locating friends or AWOL family members. It can be switched off if you don’t want irritating passengers to know your whereabouts but the crew will always be able to see where you are.
Also, be warned: because OceanMedallion works on the ship’s own network you don’t have to cough up extra cash for wi-fi (on the Sky Princess, wi-fi is £8 a day) but the ease of transactions will most likely encourage passengers to part with more cash, especially after a few daiquiris. This is especially true of the on-board casino, which allows you to play on virtual fruit machines and other games on your phone from anywhere on the ship. Making life even easier is the fact the wi-fi is ‘the best at sea’ – it’s certainly great by cruiseship standards.
Despite early versions of the OceanMedallion technology being available on four of its current ships, Sky Princess is the first purpose-built cruise ship with its OceanMedallion tech infrastructure already in place. We’re talking 72 miles of cables, 7,000 sensors, over 4,000 interactive portals and 650 readers for staff. Which makes it a smart city at sea – a tantalising thought for a tech addict like me. I came on board a cynic and disembarked a cruise convert.