Ocean Medallion – Our Cruise Experience

Recently, my family and I had a cruise on the Regal Princess, and while we were there, we had the opportunity to try out Ocean Medallion for the first time. During the Christmas holidays and New Year’s celebrations, our group was off on a beautiful two-week Back to Back cruise.

We had a wonderful day together! If you have ever thought about going on a cruise around the holidays, I strongly encourage you to do so.

If you are interested in seeing my Regal Princess cruise images and videos as soon as they are posted, please head over to my Facebook page Life Well Cruised (but make sure you read this first; I’ll remind you at the end:-). I will be posting a comprehensive review in the near future.

I have a lot of information that I’ve been wanting to share with you about the Ocean Medallion programme, and now is the day!

Since the formal introduction of the Ocean Medallion on the Regal Princess isn’t scheduled to occur until February, we thought that we were quite lucky to be able to try it out on our cruise. This made us extremely excited. This indicated that we were making use of it, despite the fact that not all of its features were completely implemented. When travelling by ship, it can be exciting to experiment with the ship’s various new features and programmes; we were eager to do so.

What exactly is this Ocean Medallion thing?

Ocean Medallion is a first-of-its-kind wearable device that, as stated by Princess Cruises, “elevates every moment before, during, and after your Ocean Medallion Vacation.” Medallion makes sailing easier, more personalised, and more pleasurable than it has ever been before, with features such as on-demand food and drinks, interactive games, customised entertainment, and smart navigation.

What exactly does this imply with regard to the Cruiser?

So this is the information that I was looking for. It has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? And the wearable disc certainly has a charming ring to it, but how exactly will this enhance the quality of mine (or your) cruise vacation?

I will describe what we went through, as well as what is still to come, and explain how I believe this will make the Princess Cruise experience better.

What you can anticipate to receive when you purchase an Ocean Medallion.

1.The disc known as the Ocean Medallion

The Ocean Medallion disc will have your name, the ship you sailed on, and the date you set sail printed on it. It is really extremely pleasant to look at!

When we arrived at the port for check-in, we were each given an Ocean Medallion on a lanyard, which also had our cruise card connected to it and was stored in a plastic folder that was custom-made to match the card. The Ocean Medallion discs are available in a variety of hues, each of which represents a different level of allegiance inside the Captain’s Circle. Because they have your name, the ship you were on, and the date you set sail printed on them, they also make a good gift for anyone who might like to collect them.

Guests are now receiving their Ocean Medallions around two weeks before the start of their cruise, as they are starting to be sent out early to select guests. Several travellers have reported receiving their medallions. At the moment, this is the situation for visitors checking in at the port from the United States, while travellers from other countries are receiving them when they check in.

A helpful hint: Make sure you have the Play Ocean app on your phone before you set sail on your vacation. You will be able become “Ocean Ready” once you have completed the necessary steps to set up your profile here. In order to complete this task, your medallion is not required.

It is highly recommended that you submit your profile photo directly from your phone. This photo will appear in many locations (room screen, portals) during the voyage, so you may as well choose a decent one ;-).

2.Hands-Free Room Key

As we got closer to our cabin, we saw that there was a screen or keypad next to our door that “identified” us when we walked up to it. The door to our cabin was then unlocked for us, leaving us hands free!!

This was a fairly convenient solution, especially considering that I often keep my cruise card in the case that I use for my phone and frequently demagnetize it. Either that or in the pocket of my husband, and in the past, we would have to fumble around for a number of minutes before we were finally able to enter our cabin if it were in his pocket.

Since I’ve never been interested in wearing lanyards, I’ve never really had a good answer for this question. This mechanism for automatically unlocking doors is a great addition!

3. MedallionNet (Wifi/Internet)

Even though this doesn’t have anything to do with the Ocean Medallion disc itself, you’ll find that this technology comes with the best internet I’ve ever seen on a ship. At least, that’s what I’ve seen! It is quick, it is available everywhere (even in your cabin), and it is not prohibitively expensive.

The price for unrestricted internet access was $10 per day, which was a 50% reduction; however, you were required to purchase it on the very first day. The price for four devices was only $129, making it an outstanding deal for a family.

Tip: If you want to, you are able to share the plan over multiple devices; however, only one user can log on at a time. This restriction is in place so that everyone’s experience is optimised. Because I don’t want to spend too much time online when I’m on a cruise, sharing was the right solution for me. My son and I both had access to the same unrestricted high-speed internet connection. While he spoke with his pals and watched movies and games whenever he pleased, I logged on to the internet only a few times a day for a total of around half an hour. Even yet, my spouse’s husband managed to stay abreast of the latest news and events here and there.

4. Portals of the Ocean Compass

There are a number of Ocean Medallion portals located all over the ship. Some of these portals feature interactive maps that can direct you to a specific lounge, dining room, or activity, while others provide a list of activities that can assist you in deciding what you want to do while you are on board. We frequently observed families having fun together while participating in one of the Ocean Medallion activities that could be seen on the screens.

To tell you the truth, I was sceptical that playing video games on a screen could make anyone’s cruise vacation more enjoyable. But it turns out I was mistaken.

On December 30, the day that we boarded the second leg of our B2B trip, I overheard a young girl looking up at her grandma and exclaiming, “I love this cruise, this ship even has games!” I overheard this conversation as we were getting ready to board the ship. The look on her grandmother’s face was priceless. They spent a few minutes together laughing and giggling while playing games not too far from the elevator. The two of them spend some time together.

5. Concierge of the Ocean

The former Princess @ Sea messenger service has been replaced by the new Ocean Concierge service, which is essentially a method to message other passengers on the ship for absolutely no cost or fee!! Therefore, even if you choose not to use the internet while you are on a cruise, you may still take advantage of the opportunity to message your loved ones or make new friends aboard the ship. Keep in mind that there is no indication that a new message has arrived, despite the fact that this feature is rather convenient. Therefore, you need to log in on an irregular basis in order to see if anyone has messaged you. If there’s one piece of advice that I could give Princess Cruises, it would be to provide an opportunity to sign up for notifications.

6. Feature for Locating Other Sailors

My favourite component of the Ocean Medallion experience is definitely the function called “Find Shipmates,” which can be accessed through the Ocean Compass Portals. Locating the other guests in your cabin or at your party can be of great assistance. For instance, if you “lost” your husband or wife, you can now easily find them without a lot of hassle; although, we did overhear some husbands joking about how their wives will now know they’re in the casino, and vice versa.

Now, all you need to do to find the person you are looking for is log in with your Ocean Medallion at any of the portals, select the “find shipmates” option, and then touch on their name. You can also acquire directions to make it easier to discover them by consulting the interactive ship map that will show you exactly where they are located.

You can probably picture how useful this would be if you were travelling with a loved one who experienced some kind of challenge. This should reassure you in some way.

An Interesting Little Story:

On this vacation, I was accompanied by both my husband Frank and my son Ethan, who is 18 years old. I have the tendency to be an anxious and overprotective mother, and I suspect that this trait will stick with me for at least a few more years! On board the Regal Princess, my son was able to make some new friends, and the group appeared to be having a wonderful time. After a few of days, the nighttime hours gradually advanced until they reached 2:00 and finally 3:00. When I opened my eyes the other time, it was 3:30 in the morning.

The last communication we received from him was at approximately 2:30, and it stated that he will be returning soon. I sent a message, but received no response. If you are a mother and you are reading this, I have no doubt that you can picture the knot that formed in my gut while I waited and thought. At three forty-five, I was awake, had dressed, and was on my way out of the cabin to an Ocean Compass portal.

I immediately used the gateway to “find shipmates,” and to my relief, I was able to locate him in the Vista Lounge. I was able to go there by following the instructions on the interactive map, and when I arrived, I found him there with three of his buddies playing cards. Phew!! I was relieved to find out that everything was fine, although I did end up having to drag him back to the cabin (not literally, lol).

When I spoke with other parents of teenagers and young people, I learned that having a method that made it simple to find their children, especially on a ship of that size, provided them a great deal of peace of mind when they were cruising.

7. Tagalong Avatar

During the process of establishing your profile on the Play Ocean app, you will have the opportunity to design a unique Tagalong avatar. You have the option of selecting a turtle, a seahorse, or an angelfish, which you can then personalise with the colours and patterns of your choice. When you travel by one of these Ocean Compass gateways, you will frequently see your Tagalong (mine was a cute turtle). These were quite adorable, and they appeared to be a part of the activities that were being displayed on the TV. Although we did not make much use of this amenity throughout our voyage, I did observe other adults and children enjoying themselves while using it.

8. Room Service at the Ocean Medallion Hotel

Breakfast could be ordered directly from our phones while we were on our trip, and it would be brought to us at the time of our choice the following morning at the specified hour. On the other hand, this feature was not yet operational during our cruise; nevertheless, we were informed that in the future, Ocean Medallion passengers will be able to choose a variety of room service options in addition to breakfast and will not be restricted to just that. The fact that Princess Cruises is one of the cruise companies that continues to offer complimentary room service is already one of our favourite aspects of this line, and this further enhances the overall experience.

9.The Ocean Resort Casino

I have frequently wished that I had an interest in casinos. It appears to be an incredible amount of fun, and the energy is fantastic! On the other hand, casinos have never really been my thing. However, those who prefer gambling seemed to appreciate the fact that they could play casino games and place bets on their smartphones or tablets from virtually any location on the ship.

Bingo on Deck, Roulette on Deck, Tipsy Tentacles Slots, and Queen’s Sea Poker were some of the games you could play. Ocean Casino is obviously designed to be entertaining.

10. Accessories for the Ocean Medallion

These are wonderful. The Ocean Medallion discs are possible to be worn on a necklace in the form of a pendant, which comes in either gold or silver. In addition, there were bracelets that were either golden or silver and had a thick bangle design, or they had a sporty design (think classic Fitbit). Due to unfortunate circumstances, these were not offered on our voyage (seeing that it wasn’t really an OceanMedallion ship at the time). If they were, you can bet that I would have picked either a necklace or bracelet for myself. Decisions, decisions…

The Future of Ocean Medallion: What Lies Ahead?

What have we failed to see? Due to the fact that Ocean Medallion was still in the process of being adjusted and tested, several features, including the following, had not yet been implemented:

*The opportunity to place an order for your go-to beverage directly from your mobile device. Yes!! Isn’t that amazing? You and your pals will be able to relax in your lounge chair while you order your favourite cocktails, and a waiter will deliver them to you because he or she will be aware of your location. This is a feature that I really wish I had access to. Waiting in line at a pub is an experience that nobody enjoys.

In addition to being available on the site, I was informed that the “Find your Shipmates” feature will also be available on your mobile device. I really got dressed to go into the hallway corridor at 3:45 in the morning, so obviously this is going to be a wonderful experience for me. Putting joking aside, the usefulness of this to many people will not be in question.

*Original material from Ocean View streamed directly to your phone or other device, so you can view it anywhere on the ship. Some of the shows, like Ocean Treks with Jeff Corwin, appear like they could be incredibly intriguing to watch.

*Place your order for room service directly from your hotel phone. On the cabin telephone, there will no longer be any more calling and waiting. Because of these minor luxuries and time-saving innovations, you will have more time to just take pleasure in the company of your loved ones while on your cruise.

To recap. Even though we did not have access to all of Ocean Medallion’s features, we were nevertheless able to recognise the value of this cutting-edge technology. There is a very strong chance that by the time you travel with Princess Cruises on an Ocean Medallion ship, you will be able to sail with all of the perks that come along with being a member of the programme.

Whose cruise ships will be the next to be promoted to the Ocean Medallion level?

Following in the footsteps of the Caribbean Princess and the Regal Princess, the cruise liners Crown Princess, Royal Princess, and Sky Princess have all attained the status of Ocean Medallion Ships!!

Have you ever had the chance to enjoy Ocean Medallion while sailing aboard the Caribbean Princess or the Regal Princess? Please share your thoughts with me in the comments section below. Have I neglected to mention one of your favourite elements of the Ocean Medallion game? Please let me know if you’re going to be cruising in the near future!!

Happy Cruising