Imagine speeding your corporate group through immigration, granting them hands-free access to their cabin, communicating with all attendees without dependence on onboard Internet, and knowing exactly where they all are along with the shortest route to get to them.
This “friction-free” cruise experience is not just a dream, as Princess Cruises moves to implement the OceanMedallion wearable device across its complete fleet by the end of 2021.
The complimentary device is said to elevate the guest experience by enhancing guest-crew interactions, eliminate friction points, and enable interactive entertainment to deliver a high level of service and personalised attention on a large scale.
OceanMedallion will make its Asian debut onboard the Grand Princess, which will be homeported in Singapore for the first time for the 2020-2021 cruise season. Grand Princess is one of the MedallionClass ships in the Princess Cruises family.
“I like to think these are smart ships, like the smartphones that have changed the way we live today,” said Stuart Alison, senior vice president, Asia Pacific Commercial & Operations with Princess Cruises.
“The smartphone does everything and takes a lot of the friction points out of our life. Who goes to the bank anymore? Banking can be done on the smartphone now. We apply the same principle behind the OceanMedallion to make someone’s cruise experience friction-free. We want our customers to get on the ship and start enjoying themselves as much as possible.”
Overall, Alison believes that the expedited embarkation process, messaging capability and tracking function of the OceanMedallion will be especially beneficial for corporate groups.
“The Ocean Medallion was used at our internal marketing summit recently in the Caribbean. It allowed delegates to add fellow event attendees onto the device, and to see where they are. Participants were also able to access personalised service onboard,” he shared.
“This technology can revolutionise group travel,” he said, adding that his team is still discovering the full-scale of what the OceanMedallion is able to do for groups.
The Ocean Medallion is presently only available in English but work is underway to implement more languages.
