EMBARKATION - The Medallion did speed up the initial check-in process. Note: There was no clear signage or direction given that you need to pick up a boarding number card upon entering the waiting area. Being a first-time Princess cruiser, I found out only by looking around and seeing others holding cards. They kindly directed me to a small desk off to the side back at the waiting area's entrance. I wasn't the only person working their way back through the crowd to pick one up. Also, the waiting area contained too few seats to accommodate everyone. This meant many, many people were left to stand all over the place for a good amount of time until one group was called and then try to capture a vacated seat. It's more than possible that a good number of people arrived earlier than their assigned time and were admitted into the terminal. At the entrance to the terminal, our Princess app QR code was never scanned to verify our check-in time. No one going through the door with us was asked to verify their check-in time. And that is probably where the problem started. Not a good job of crowd management.

MEDALLION/PRINCESS APP -- The medallion was great for opening our stateroom door and beverage service. I loaded the Princess app on my phone and iPad. It was very handy for checking our onboard account. When I found charges from embarkation day on our account (should have been covered by our Beverage Package), the Crew Chat function in the Journey section took care of having them deleted. Eliminated the need to stand in line at Guest Services. We didn't order food or beverages for delivery through the app. I was unable to book reservations through the app for the MDR or Speciality Dining.

CABIN - Our cabin was a Deluxe Obstructed View Balcony upgrade obtained through the bidding process. E406 is a wonderful cabin with a slightly over-sized balcony. There is no obstruction, but a bit of a peekaboo with the Sky Walk above. It never presented an issue for us and we used our balcony a lot. Very few people spend much time on the Sky Walk. Read more