Let’s see… so far, I’m three days into this ten-day Eastern Caribbean cruise on Princess Cruises’ Enchanted Princess, and things have been… enchanting! The crew has been friendly and welcoming, the ship is simply stunning, service has been on point, and the geek in me thinks the technology onboard is quite amazing.
Since it’s a sea day and there’s not much happening except plenty of R&R, I’m going to spend some time talking about the tech—specifically a little wearable device called the Princess Medallion.
How the Princess Medallion Works on Princess Cruises
The Princess Medallion is the ultimate cruise gadget you didn’t know you needed until you tried it. Launched in 2017, this tiny, wearable disc, about the size of a quarter, quickly became a game-changer for Princess Cruises. It’s all about making your vacation smoother, whether that’s unlocking your cabin door as you walk up (no fumbling with key cards!), ordering a mojito from your deck chair without moving an inch, or being amazed when you walk up to a bar and the crew member addresses you by name even though you’ve never met them before!
The tech behind it—called the OceanMedallion—was developed by Carnival Corporation to deliver a more personalized experience. It uses location-based technology and connects to the ship’s smart system, so everything feels tailored to you.
At first, it was rolled out on just a few ships, but it was such a hit that Princess Cruises expanded it fleetwide. Now, it’s a staple and one of those features that really sets Princess apart.
I absolutely love coming back to my stateroom and, right as I approach, seeing my name and photo on the screen near the door, and having the door magically unlock. I’m not going to lie—this is something that makes me smile every time.
Watch the Princess Medallion Unlock My Stateroom Door
The Medallion, as I mentioned, allows you to order food and beverages from anywhere on the ship, and a crew member will find you based on the location that’s being “pinged” from the device. All you do is open up the Princess mobile app, order a drink or a bite to eat, confirm whether you want it delivered to your stateroom or your current location, and sit back and wait.
I’ve seen this work a handful of times for other guests around the pool and in some of the public areas onboard, so I just had to give it a shot. I headed out to the pool on Deck 16, grabbed a chair, and ordered a Coke Zero, requesting it be delivered to my location.
As I patiently waited for a smiling crew member to come over and say, “Scott, you ordered a Coke?”—nothing happened! I gave it some time… after all, it was a sea day; lots of people were out at the pool. I couldn’t be the only one thirsty for some Coca-Cola, right?
I kept checking the app and seeing the status change from “preparing,” and about 30 minutes later, it changed to “delivered.” Since it’s the Christmas season, I thought surely The Grinch hijacked my cola on the way! With no aspartame-laden beverage in hand, I resorted to the old-fashioned way of ordering and flagged down a crew member.
Later on, when I returned to my stateroom—with that door magically unlocking as I approached—inside my room was… a can of Diet Coke and a glass of ice! I’m blaming myself for possibly being way too excited to try this method of drink delivery and not double-checking to see if I had indeed checked “my location” instead of “my stateroom” for where it should be delivered.
Features of the Princess Cruises Mobile App
Speaking of the Princess app, if you’re someone who likes to plan out every second of the day, the app is perfect for you. Just open it up, click on the daily schedule, and you can mark off what things you want added to your planner. You’ll be notified when it’s time to get moving.
Bingo at 10?
Trivia at 10:45?
Inch of Gold at… never?
You get the picture. You can load up your entire day with just a few taps, never missing out on something you wanted to attend.
It’s also where you make your dining reservations. With three different main dining rooms (walk-in, reservation-only, or early/late seating) and three specialty restaurants onboard, you can use the app to search for available reservation times by day and secure your table.
With unlimited specialty dining included in the Princess Premier package, I encourage you not to be like me and book your reservations way in advance so you’re not frantically checking the app every day to see if you can score a table at the Trattoria. While reservations aren’t required, they’re highly recommended as specialty restaurants book quickly and they don’t have many tables, so walk-ups can’t always be accommodated. More on that in a few paragraphs!
If you’re not very tech-savvy… have no fear. The app is VERY simple to use, and any crew member can help you navigate it and give you a little tour on its use.
Princess Cruises WiFi, WiFi Calling, and Television
One more word on tech stuff… internet access. Both Princess Plus and Princess Premier packages include unlimited Wi-Fi. Plus gets you access for one device, Premier for four. Princess boasts the fastest Wi-Fi at sea and allows for video conferencing, streaming your favorite shows, posting your pics on Facebook, and watching silly TikToks all day long if you want.
Download speeds are fine, but if you’re looking to upload some large files for work or something—or trying to post a 10-minute vacation video to YouTube—good luck. So far, I’ve had no issues with browsing the web and doing web meetings.
When it comes to phone calls, unlike Carnival Cruise Line, which does not allow Wi-Fi calling, Princess does. So, if your phone and cell service provider support Wi-Fi calling, you can flip that phone on airplane mode and be able to take incoming and make outgoing calls as long as you’re connected to the Wi-Fi network.
Most people don’t watch much TV when they’re on a cruise, so it’s not a big deal to have only a few channels. On Princess, you get Fox News, BBC America, a few sports channels, and a whole bunch of on-demand movies and television shows—including the original Love Boat series! But don’t expect much in the way of live TV.
Okay, so there’s your Princess tech recap! Now let’s talk about the evening.
Captain’s Champaigne Toast
At 6:30 p.m. in the ship’s atrium, everyone gathered for the introduction of the ship’s officers and a toast by the captain himself. Following the intros, the captain gave a rundown of the many different countries the guests on this voyage hail from along with the headcount—there are over 3,900 of us onboard to spend the holiday together.
Then, the captain, along with the hotel director, popped two bottles of champagne and created a Princess signature champagne waterfall while we all raised our glasses in a toast.
The party band then kicked things into high gear and kept the atrium bouncing all night long, especially after dinner when it was a disco party where the atrium was filled with partygoers doing their best YMCA until things wrapped up around 11 p.m.
I spent a good amount of time after the captain’s toast in the casino. While I didn’t win anything substantial, I kept having some small wins that allowed me to build up some points and playing time.
I heard some people had a very lucky streak at the craps table last night but haven’t heard or seen anyone score any big wins on the slots.
As I mentioned before, the casino on the Enchanted Princess is split into a smoking and non-smoking section, with the non-smoking area having a handful of machines and a bar/lounge called The Mix.
Dinner in the Main Dining Room
While I was letting the slot machines live up to their name, “one-armed bandits,” I kept trying my best to score a reservation in one of the specialty restaurants for dinner. Unfortunately, I was unsuccessful, so I decided to walk over to The Catch by Rudi—celebrity chef Rudi Sodamin’s signature restaurant on Princess, which shares a very similar menu to his outposts on Carnival and Holland America Line ships.
Unfortunately, the restaurant was packed! There were no walk-ups being taken, but that was fine—I do have a reservation for Christmas Day dinner there. So, I decided to hit up the ship’s main dining room.
I walked over and was immediately taken to a table where a server and his assistant quickly brought out bread, took my drink order, and made recommendations.
I started out with the crab cake, which was a nice-sized cake with about a 50/50 balance of crab to filling. While there weren’t large pieces of crab in the cake, there were enough bites of it to give it some good flavor and make it an alright starter.
Next up, I went with a pasta course—gnocchi—one of my favorites. A few potato gnocchi were served with a thick Alfredo-like sauce that was rich in flavor. I could have made a meal out of those gnocchi if they were served in a nice Sunday gravy!
For the main course, I went with the duck à l’orange. A nice-sized duck breast, skin on, in an orange sauce served with pickled cabbage and snap peas. The duck was absolutely delicious and was a very generous portion.
No Dessert it’s Showtime!
I actually skipped dessert, even though there were a few things on the menu calling my name. I wanted to head over to the main theater for the evening’s show called Spotlight Bar.
Normally, the 9:30 p.m. shows on ships are the ones you don’t need to get to early as there are always seats available. Not tonight! The theater was packed, but I was able to get a seat way in the back. While it didn’t provide the best view of the stage, it was all about the live band, the vocals, and the bit of dancing I was able to see.
Centered around the stories of patrons coming in and out of a bar, the songs tugged on the emotions of one who let an old romance get away and the pain he felt as she entered with her new beau, while others got you wanting to get up and dance.
The scenery, live music, and dancing were truly much better than I’ve experienced on other cruise lines, so kudos to Princess for this particular show being top-notch.
Before calling it a night, I headed over to my favorite bar on the ship so far, Crooner’s, where Victoria, the bartender, made me one more gin and tonic to cap off a busy day of doing absolutely nothing.
Overnight, we pushed the clocks ahead one hour in preparation for our 10 a.m. arrival in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in the morning, so more from there tomorrow.
As always, thanks for following along!
Princess Patter for Day 3:
