'Uber-style service'

With excitement high, we begin a roughly two-hour tour which takes us to different areas of the ship and demonstrates Medallion's various innovations.

In the Wheelhouse Bar we are given a taste (figuratively speaking) of one of the platform's more heavily publicised features – food and drink delivery.

We watch a mock-up scenario as a “customer” chooses a drink through Medallion's Ocean Now service and, after seeing how within just a handful of minutes the beverage is selected, ordered and delivered, it's easy to understand why Padgett describes the function as "Uber-style service".

Even from a short demonstration you see how the service would go down a storm with guests – and a certain TTG journalist – who may not be keen to leave their lounger to queue at a busy bar.

Medallion's Guest View programme also helps crew to “almost instantly” know a guest's preferences based on the digital profile they have created.

Personalised cruise programme

Next up, we receive a demonstration of one of the many interactive wall portals onboard – which you imagine will help to usher in an end to reams of printed paper to compile cruising's traditional cruise compass.

Using the screens, guests can choose different activities and events happening throughout their cruise and bookmark them to form a more personalised programme.

The screens can also be used to play games, should the mood take you.

Next to the portal is one of the ship's Ocean Compass screens – making it easier to locate family and friends through real-time tracking and a 3D deck plan.

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'Ocean Originals'

In a stateroom, Padgett shows us how, through your TV, guests can do everything from ordering a drink to being able to access the line's range of “Ocean Original” programmes – and there's a nifty extra feature too.

Guests using platforms such as Apple TV can even watch a programme in their home, pause it and board their ship, and later resume the show onboard at the exact point they reached while sitting on their own sofa.

While inside a cabin we are also shown another handy tool for crew – allowing stateroom attendants to see which passengers are in their rooms and cut out any unnecessary disturbances or awkward moments.

It‘s on the ship‘s bridge where another, perhaps less talked-about but hugely important, aspect of OceanMedallion is shown to us – how the technology can help enhance safety procedures.

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Safety focus

Captain Domenico Lubrano shows how, in the event of an emergency, his crew will know exactly where all guests are and their proximities to the correct muster stations, as well as who is in the right lifeboat if they are needed all through a state-of-the-art system utilising OceanMedallion's tracking technology.

“It will really help us to optimise the time of any situation and gives us more opportunity to reduce the chance of a potentially dangerous situation from escalating – you can find out what the problem is quicker and deal with it more efficiently,” he tells us.

“I have been at sea since 1981 and this is the most amazing thing I have seen.”

'People are seeking out Medallion cruises'

Despite OceanMedallion only currently being active onboard a handful of Princess ships, it is clearly already becoming an important part of the experience, as Roberts informs me.

“We are seeing people seeking out cruises that have OceanMedallion activated and we are seeing people come back again and again to use it.

“When I was onboard Caribbean Princess earlier this year I spoke to a couple who had booked seven further cruises for that ship. I asked if OceanMedallion was the reason they had decided to come back.

“They said it wasn’t the only reason but now they have tried it, if they didn’t have it on their next cruise, they would really miss it.”

After a highly impressive introduction to the world of OceanMedallion, you feel it won't be too long until this becomes a trend.