I liked the lanyards when they had just a plastic card holder at the bottom. Now that it's this huge plastic, dorky thing at the bottom, I'd rather not wear it, so the band is good for me. It's so convenient to just tap at our door. We are not big spenders so we're not constantly taking them off to buy stuff. IIRC, in the shops there was a place to easily tap our band that didn't require it to be removed. We've used them for around 4-5 cruises now and they still work well.
I think the drink servers should carry a portable device to tap our band when they deliver our drinks so that they don't have to leave with our bands and keep track of who's is who's.
We took our first Princess cruise last month. They given you a Medallion on a lanyard that has your name and sail date on it. No cards are used at all so it's also your ID for getting back onboard in port. You can also purchase a Medallion holder if you prefer it on your wrist. The only thing I loved about Princess was that if you approached approximately 6' of your door it would automatically unlock it for you so you didn't even have to tap anything. Not that I'd expect
DCL to adopt this technology because it also had a touchscreen outside our door with our names on it and my photo would appear on the screen once I got close to the door and it unlocked. We could also activate the do not disturb or please service our cabin features through the touch screen so no hang tag to keep falling on the floor.
As a parent, that whole thing would bother me with little ones.
It's a little creepy too that we were sitting in a lounge and our friend ordered a drink and she didn't have to tap or give her cabin # or sign anything but the system somehow knew to charge her folio. She could view the drink charge within 2 minutes of her buying. This also happened with dh ordering a drink at dinner.
