We recently sailed on the Royal Princess, the newest of the MedallionClass™ Princess cruise ships. Today I'd like to share with you what I've learned about ordering the Medallion.
Rather watch a video about it? Check it out right here:
Otherwise, read on...
You receive an email inviting you to get OceanReady®. You'll know the cruise is getting closer because you can only get OceanReady® 45 days from sailing. If you want to wait until the cruise is even closer, you have up until 12 days before your sail date to confirm a shipping address.
Before you venture into the OceanReady® waters be sure the details in the Princess Personalizer are complete.
Visit ocean.com to create a profile.
You will also need to take a couple photos. One is your security photo. This photo is the one used as your official photo for the ship. It's the security photo for embarkation, disembarkation, muster drill, and is the one crew will need to be able to see that you really are you. This photo should be a current one that looks like you, and could even be a selfie.
You also need a profile photo that can be your photo or something else. This photo will be the one showing up on the screen when you're entering the cabin, on the portals around the ship, and in the OceanCompass app.
You will also need to link your voyage. The booking number is needed for this part.
While I was able to do some of my setup in ocean.com, most of it happens in the OceanReady® app.
Travel documents need to be uploaded. (We used our passports.) You can scan them or take a photo within the app and will need to confirm the documents.
You can let them know where you want the Medallion delivered. At this time only US residents can have them delivered. Otherwise you'll be picking your Medallion up at the port.
You can also order Medallion accessories. For a fee, of course.
If you've done everything correctly you'll find green check marks. If not, you'll find orange.
If you've done everything correctly you'll find green check marks. If not, you'll find orange.
While we could have used the app to show our boarding passes, we went ahead and printed them as a backup.
We also printed our boarding passes from the Personalizer as an additional backup.
Go through all those sometimes frustrating steps and a box from a Florida address will arrive on your doorstep.
With a pretty MedallionClass™ box inside.
Inside that pretty box is where we'll find Medallions color-coded to our loyalty level.
Medallions have passenger name, sailing date, and ship names on the front.
Under those Medallions we find some paperwork telling us how to place them in their casings and lanyards.
Under than paperwork we have three boxes. That big box in there? It's just an empty filler box.
Lanyards and plastic cases for the Medallion with inserts not color-coded according to loyalty level are in the two smaller boxes.
The lanyards weren't as sturdy and nice as those we received on our last MedallionClass voyage on the Caribbean Princess.
Pop the case apart and place the Medallion in it. Attach the lanyard, if you'd like.
We're not lanyard people so hubby just used his in the plastic case and I used a clip from my Caribbean Princess trip.
Now it's soap box time. Take a look at all the excess garbage created from just two Medallions about the size of quarters. As someone who tries to be a good steward of resources, I find this junk to be unnecessary and environmentally irresponsible.
It would have so much more sense to stick the Medallions in their little sleeve, stick it in a bubble wrap envelope, and drop it in the mail.
While I would like to say all that work of getting OceanReady® and ordering the Medallion and unpacking the box and tossing all the junk made our embarkation process so much easier, it wasn't the case. Our particular voyage was the first time the Vancouver cruise port was hosting a Medallion ship. All the workers were dressed in Medallion shirts but not one of them was set up to expedite anything. It was just like a regular old check in.
I'll be on several more Medallion voyages on the Royal Princess in the next few months so I hope to have a more expedited check in next time around. I'll keep you posted.