One of the services offered by the medallion is to place an order wherever you are on the ship, and to be delivered (fairly) quickly. A drink, a snack, but also “goodies”, a pillow more suitable for your cabin… the list could be endless. However, it is quite limited, as can be seen in the MedallionClass application (with a more classic equivalent available on television, in the cabin). The categories are: drinks, coffees, food, merchandising, room services, plus a support request, via a chat channel. The service itself is free, but some items require payment. It’s even the majority: all drinks (unless you have purchased a drinks package), goodies, coffees… for food, some are free, some are paid for, often when it comes to dishes specialty restaurants. This part is only accessible between 5:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., the opening hours of these same restaurants.
Placing an order is a bit like on a website. We go through the items, we put what we want to order in a basket, and at the end we validate the order, with an amount to pay if necessary, directly added to your onboard account and therefore to the final invoice. The delivery location is deduced from your real location. It is possible to force a delivery to the cabin, even if you are not there at the moment. Once the order has been placed, you are told that it can take up to 30 minutes. The status of the order evolves directly, in preparation then in delivery, until it is completely processed.
I was able to test the system quite a few times, and see how it works. If it worked overall, the waiting time is often quite long, from time to time beyond the 30 minutes announced. But sometimes it bugs! On several occasions, my order has been taken into account, has been processed, and even marked delivered… but I don’t know where or to whom! In any case, not to me, nor in my cabin. By contacting customer service, we get a sibylline comment… “the system has crashed, it happens”. I also had an order that just disappeared. It was never treated, and just as I was getting impatient, it disappeared from the app…
The application’s response times also deteriorated sharply with the loss of the internet connection. While we had to wait a few seconds for the application to be ready, there, a succession of steps as long as each other requires us to wait sometimes more than a minute before being able to interact (personal record: 3 min 40 seconds between the launch of the application and the moment when I was able to start using it!): without doing anything, first the application announces that we are off-line (the menu is limited to a few features without much interest), then we learn that we are off-ship, then, finally, online. This last status triggers a reloading of the application which then presents all the menus available on board. If you switch your phone to another app and back to the MedallionClass app, most of the time everything starts all over again (off-line, off-ship, online). Long and painful!
It should be noted that despite the announcement of a free delivery service, there are, for example, pizzas that cost $3, whereas they are free everywhere on board the ship. A roundabout way to still charge for the delivery, because by picking it up yourself, it costs nothing. But $3 is still a good price for a pizza delivered to the cabin! And these pizzas are good. Which is not the case with all you can eat on board!
Last point about this medallion which replaces the keycard to access your cabin: there is a magic effect to enter in your cabin which opens automatically when approaching. However, the medallion should rather be worn around the neck, so that it is close enough to the height of the sensor (a screen at human height next to the cabin door). The reaction time could be quite high, the time to detect the presence of the gadget, then to verify access… longer than taking out a card and opening the door with it.
