Carnival Launches Ocean Medallion: Replaces Card Keys, Wallets, and Tickets

By Marianne Schwab | Best Travel Deals Tips Blog

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Carnival Corporation made history at the Super Bowl of trade shows, CES. Carnival launched the Ocean Medallion that replaces card keys, your wallet, and even for your tickets when you cruise.  This will certainly change the way we cruise on the open seas.  We're used to hearing about Carnival launching a new ship, but the news out of CES is about launching their Ocean Medallion, a first-of-its-kind wearable device packed with technology, style and convenience that bridges the physical and digital worlds to deliver a new level of personalized service not previously considered possible.  The medallion is the size of a quarter and can be worn with jewelry, clips, key chains and bands or simply carried in your pocket or handbag.

The Ocean Medallion revolutionizes guest service not only for the cruise industry, but the broader vacation industry as well and enables a personal concierge that bridges the physical and digital worlds to deliver a new level of personalized service not previously considered possible.

Seven top convenient and time-saving benefits of this new technology include:      

• Streamlining and expediting the port embarkation and disembarkation process.
• Allow cruise guests to access their staterooms as they approach the door so that no keycard is needed.
• Locating your friends and family around the cruise ship.
• Enabling cruise guests to purchase merchandise without any transaction, cards or paper.
• Delivering an enhanced dining experiences based on your personal food and beverage preferences.
• Powering interactive gaming and immersive entertainment experiences.
• Significantly enhance interactions with crew members and other cruise guests.

The Medallion also has a GPS-like navigation and information system that works as part of a huge network of 7,000 sensors on board the ship so it knows where you are and "walks you" right to where you need to go. It can also share your location with friends and family on the ship, so they know what you’re up to and where to find you so you can meet up.

And you don't have to be tech savvy to use the Ocean Medallion because it doesn't have a screen, buttons, or anything to confuse you in order for it to "operate" so you don't even have to "think" about it. It's simplicity includes no charging, monitoring, or even turning it on or off.  Carnival says no personal information is stored on the Medallion itself, so there’s no risk that someone might try to hack it and if it’s lost or stolen, the owner or any crew member can deactivate it or replace it instantly.

The device syncs with Ocean Compass, a digital experience portal that serves as a vacation concierge before, during and after vacation. The Ocean Compass is very intuitive and easy to access online, thru smart phone devices, at kiosks in port terminals, on stateroom TVs, on interactive surfaces located throughout the cruise ship and devices carried by crew members. Cruise guests can also use Ocean Compass to select personalized event-based itineraries as well as access to vacation photos captured during a cruise.

This is exciting news for travelers who love to cruise, but technically, it's from the future since the Ocean Medallion won't be available to guests until the platform debuts on Princess Cruises’ Regal Princess in November 2017, followed by Royal Princess and Caribbean Princess in 2018. The new Medallion Class on Princess Cruises will be rolled out over multiple years on the entire Princess Cruises fleet.  This is an amazing innovation that will truly make all the things I love about cruises that much more fun!