Princess Cruises has completed a multimillion-dollar upgrade
to its terminal at Port Everglades that will work in tandem with the new Ocean
Medallion technology.
Cruise Terminal 2 at the Fort Lauderdale port now features a
more streamlined departure design, interactive experiences including a giant
LED screen, movie theater, and more comfortable preboarding areas.
With the changes, Princess hopes that rather than rushing to
get through the terminal, passengers will feel comfortable enough to relax
during embarkation and take some time to plan their vacation, making restaurant
or entertainment reservations and leveraging other capabilities of the Ocean
Medallion technology.
Princess will start a limited rollout of the technology to
some guests on the Regal Princess, beginning with the Nov. 13 cruise.
"When our guests arrive at the terminal excited about
their cruise, that's a great opportunity for us to begin immersing them in a
more personalized and hassle-free vacation experience," said John Padgett,
chief experience and innovation officer for Carnival Corp., Princess' parent
company. "We have completely transformed the arrival so that our guests
can board at a pace that's more relaxed and convenient for them."
The terminal has been equipped with Carnival's proprietary
xIoT (Experiential Internet of Things) network, which is activated by the Ocean
Medallion and enables some expedited boarding functions. It also lets
passengers create and play with a digital companion that they can personalize.
Guests can select from among three sea creatures -- Sea Turtle, Seahorse or
Butterfly Fish. They will be displayed on a large portal screen in the
terminal, along with avatars created by other passengers.
Also, Terminal 2 now features Carnival's new MedallionNet, a
"game-changing connectivity service" with exceptional speed and
bandwidth, Princess said.
Guests can relax in the OceanView Theater -- a cinema that
features the Ocean Original travel series seen on network TV on Saturday mornings
and on some cable channels.