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The Regal Princess will set sail this November with a new "Medallion Class" experience. Take a look inside.
[...] Start by imagining a smart home, decked out with sophisticated tech and sensors. But instead of a residence for a few people, it can handle 3,560 guests at any time.
That's exactly what Carnival has done with the Regal Princess, the first ship in its Princess Cruises' fleet to get a massive technological overhaul as part of the Ocean Medallion project, first glimpsed back in January at CES.
Carnival's decision is yet another example of a company investing in cutting-edge tech designed to better serve customers and cater to their more sophisticated needs. From theme parks embracing virtual reality to airlines offering more advanced in-flight entertainment, vacations are increasingly going high tech. Now, Carnival is stepping up its game.
[...] "In theory, this technology will enhance the guest's experience," [The Sunday Times' Sue] Bryant said. "It makes it easier for crew members to recognize a guest and address them by name, for example, which is something that wouldn't normally happen on a big ship with a couple of thousand guests."
Each medallion and a related smartphone app will also streamline the boarding process, open your room's door, remember your wine preferences, let you book reservations for activities, send you invitations to events and allow you to make purchases from anywhere on the ship. It's like a digital concierge and planning guide. There is also an opt-in location service that lets you keep tabs on everyone in your group and shows you where they are at any time.
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday June 06 2017, @02:45PM
Yeah they were already pretty good about that around the turn of the century using mag stripe cards.
Its "all inclusive" but you could ask for extra stuff such as the fancy liquor or strange side trips at ports. I seem to recall billing casino chips to my room too.
In fact in one of the wild party bars they had four networked car racing "VR" video games and my wife and I must have blown $100 racing each other and other people.
It all adds up and on the last morning you get a bill for like $1500 when the cruise officially only cost $1200, LOL. But we knew it was going to happen and we had a lot of fun so who cares.
The day trips at ports are either really cheap in that they were very safe and they affiliated with the cruise line such that you're not going to get stranded so they're an awesome deal, or maybe they are very expensive, its hard to judge. I still sometimes wonder why fundamentally going to some nude beach and having lunch cost $300 per couple, but it was really first class service, a fantastic rental bus, open bar at the semi-private nude beach, great catered lunch, etc. The cost of scuba gear rental and a boat to a reef was kinda ridiculous (maybe $500, I don't remember), but, again it was flawless and perfect and enjoyable.
They also like having a photographer wander around the "cool" ship events and then sell you printed photos for like $20 each which kinda adds up too.
And we blew some money at the duty free shop and that can add up quickly.
I never got sick from catered food in central america but supposedly if you ate street cart food you pretty much died of dysentery.