Project O.C.E.A.N.

Well this sounds like its straight out of the TV show spooks or 24.  Project Ocean was actually announced by Princess Cruises a few months ago, and I must admit I didn’t fully understand it at the time and possibly dismissed it as a bit of a gimmick that probably wouldn’t take off.  On my recent trip on Majestic Princess I had this explained to me in a lot more detail, and I can say I totally get it and really want to try it out for myself.  It is all about personalising your Princess Cruise down to the very last detail so you can do what you went away to do, which is enjoy yourself.

It all starts with the Ocean Medallion, which looks like one of these new smart watches that everyone is wearing, that arrives at your door a few weeks before you set sail.  When this arrives, you link this up with your cruise personaliser and I believe you will be asked some questions about what you plan to do on your cruise as well as some of your general interests which will be quite straight forward, and once completed you are ready to go.

When you board your cruise, this is when the fun begins and the medallion comes alive.  The first thing you will notice, is no room keys, as you walk up to your stateroom your room will automatically recognise your arrival and the stateroom door will unlock.  So, if you like me, with more pockets than sense and each one stuffed with rubbish, it means an end to 10 minutes outside your stateroom wondering if you left it on the bus or not.  Especially after a few lemonades.  You will also notice that when purchasing said lemonades from the bar that the bar staff will automatically know your tipple from the preferences you gave them on the personaliser, and they automatically get added to your bill, as the medallion will be recognised by sensors around the bar, so no need to hand over your room key to add to your bill.

These sensors around the bar are also placed all around the ship, and what I think is particularly clever, is there is an app you can put on your smartphone called Ocean Compass, where you can order items on the ship such as a drink or some food or something from one of the shops and the crew will bring this out to you no matter where you are on board.  The medallion, communicates with these sensors and tells the staff exactly where you are and they can bring this right to you.      So, when I am watching movies under the stars and fancy a Baileys hot chocolate I don’t have to miss my film and can order one right to where I am.  Or if you would like to order a drink ahead of time, say you are just leaving your cabin and heading to one of the bars, then this can be done so that when you arrive someone is there waiting for you with your drink.  Perfect for me as I find nothing worse than queuing at a busy bar especially on formal nights when is can be 3 deep and you feel like you’re at Wigan Peer.

For families as well, if you want to know where your kids are, the app will let you locate them straight away and know where they are always, giving you more peace of mind.

I am a big technology geek self admittingly and I love things like this where technology makes life easier, and I said at the start I do think something like this would let me spend more time doing what I went on my cruise to do, which is enjoy myself.