Exploring the Caribbean Princess cruise ship for the first time and awaiting to set sail to the beautiful destinations of the Princess Cays, St. Thomas, and St. Maarten, Megan Patterson (iCruise's Internet Marketing Coordinator) and I were curious about the lanyards dangling around our necks containing these small quarter-size discs called Ocean Medallions. We'd seen the videos and explored the apps but aside from setup, we had yet to use these Princess Medallions provided to us.
An Ocean Medallion is a complementary small wearable technology that holds your information and connects you to a portal all throughout the ship. From accessing your room to making purchases onboard to getting on and off the ship and more, this disc is essentially your access to everything on your cruise.
All you do is set up a profile beforehand through the Ocean Ready app and then receive a Princess Ocean Medallion accompanied with a lanyard for you to carry throughout your entire cruise experience. Whether you wish to purchase a separate wristband or a special necklace or to stick with the lanyard Princess provides for you, the Princess Medallion is a convenient wearable technology that you don't need to charge or turn on/off, and functions as your room key, your pass back onto the ship, your card for purchases, and more.
I've seen wearable bands containing similar technologies before (i.e. Disney's Magic Bands), and while I enjoy being able to simply scan a bracelet as I walk onto a ride (to show that I do indeed have a Fastpass for Avatar's Flight of Passage) instead of rummaging through my bag to find my card, I wasn't really expecting anything more with the Ocean Medallion than what I've already experienced before.
That is, until our stateroom door unlocked for us without us having to scan a thing and our steward greeted us by name without us ever introducing ourselves…
Which leads me to detailing these incredible 5 features we discovered and loved about our Princess Ocean Medallions.
1. Face recognition
During our setup process in the Ocean Ready app, we were asked to take a picture of our faces and we were also asked to upload our passports. At first glance I figured uploading a picture of ourselves was just an extra verification step to make sure that we are who we say we are.
Fast forward to us getting onto the cruise, exploring and getting acclimated to our surroundings. As we walked around, we noticed tablets everywhere we went - from large touchscreens on the walls for guests to use to computer systems for the employees at the bars, restaurants and more.
Every time I caught a glimpse of these tablets, little bubbles of passengers' faces would pop up, and I noticed specifically mine was always there. Admittedly, it took awhile for me to figure it out but the reason I kept seeing my face everywhere I went is because there were built in sensors on the ship that detected my Medallion when I was nearby.
Because I uploaded my picture to my profile, every time my Medallion was near, so was my profile for the employees on the ship to see.
That's why when our steward saw us in the hallway, and when we went to restaurants and other services on the ship, the employees always knew our names before we said anything. They could see our faces and names on their tablets and match them up to us when we'd approach them.
This also then made sense for our keyless room access and why we didn't need to scan anything. The tablet next to our room door could sense when our Medallions were nearby, letting us easily get into our room without having to swipe a card or scan anything. This was very useful when we wanted to bring back food to our room and didn't have the extra hands to scan our Medallions!
2. Making payments
While getting into our room conveniently was a cool feature we experienced, there was so much more that the Medallion made simple.
Before the cruise, we put our card information onto our accounts. This allowed us to utilize MedallionPay, a feature that allows not only face and name recognition, but also for us to make purchases while on the ship. All we had to do is simply show the employee our Medallion or have them select our "face bubble" and they would put the charge to our room. When I wanted to grab a bottle of water before going off ship to St. Thomas, I conveniently just walked up to the bar, requested a bottle and showed my Medallion without having to search my bag for my card or cash.
What was especially nice about making payments on the ship and in the Princess Cays (owned by Princess so our Medallions worked there as well), was that there was no need for us to sort out our payment amongst each other at the end of the trip. The two of us there were each paying for own items - such as bottles of water, souvenirs and more. By showing our Medallions when we'd make purchases, that ensured that each purchase would go to our own individual cards at the end of the cruise instead of one card on the room.
3. Getting on and off the ship
When we arrived at our destinations, we were able to conveniently leave our passports in our room, getting rid of my worry about carrying my passport onto the islands and risking losing it while adventuring the hills of St. Maarten. All of that information was stored on my Medallion, and while of course I needed to bring my passport when initially checking onto the ship, it wasn't necessary to have when getting back onboard after our excursion. All we needed was our Medallions to scan, which was easy to keep hold of on the island as we simply just wore them on us.
4. Internet access
This advanced Medallion technology doesn't just apply to sensors on the ship though; the Caribbean Princess cruise also offers MedallionNet - Princess's fast Wi-Fi access. And while before our cruise, they promoted this reliable Wi-Fi, I remained skeptical of whether or not this was just a marketing ploy.
But once we were signed into the unlimited internet access for multiple devices (my phone, Megan's phone, and my laptop) for the duration of the cruise, we were shocked at how well our internet actually worked. We were able to video chat with friends and family members back home, stream TV shows on Netflix at night, respond to emails and work in Google Docs, and more. Even though we were far away from home, the convenient internet access and ability to utilize the technology that we normally use on a day-to-day basis made us feel more at comfort while onboard.
5. Safety features
Even more comforting than the internet access though was the protection of our information that we had onboard. By having that extra checkpoint of automatically verifying our faces when we went to our reservations or made payments, I felt comforted that even if someone had their hands on my Medallion, the employees aboard would quickly recognize that the Medallion was stolen.
Therefore, not only did I not have to worry about losing my card, but I also didn't need to worry about anyone taking my Medallion and trying to pass it off as their own.
Carnival Corporation (parent company of Princess) recently received the CES 2019 Innovation Award for this Ocean Medallion technology. And I can see why. Overall, the Medallions made cruising very convenient. This was my first cruise and I was truthfully a bit nervous at first about potentially losing my card on the ship, not having sufficient access to the internet to touch base with my friends and family back home, and more. Therefore, I was pleased by how simple cruising on the Caribbean Princess was, as I was then able to devote more time and energy in just enjoying my cruise instead of stressing out over the details.
Currently Princess's Regal Princess and Caribbean Princess cruise ships offer the Medallion Class Experience, but three other Princess ships will be rolling out the same Ocean Medallion technology soon, including the Royal Princess, the Crown Princess and once it launches, the Sky Princess.
To book your Princess cruise, make sure to give us a call or fill out our free cruise quote form today!
About Sarah Pruzansky, Cruise & Travel Writer
Sarah Pruzansky is passionate about everything related to travel, hospitality, environmental science, self-care, and writing. She joined the iCruise team in February 2019 and assists the company in developing blog and web content that shows the benefits of cruising, information on different ports of call and destinations, and other industry tips for those looking to cruise.
