New RCL app allows you to walk onto cruise

[Mrs. W]

I hope the app works as planned. I love the idea of just walking on the ship after checking in via app. My RCL Cruise is next year and the article says 50% of its fleet will be able to utilize the app by the end of 2018. I’d love to test it out next year on our cruise.

 

[cgolf]

Really torn on this. We do have smartphones, but rarely use them for mor than phone calls. Like others have said we also shut off and lock our phones in the safe once the sail away starts. Only use the iPad at night to wind down before bed, but no wifi. We also do our best to avoid news and tv, only exception is important sports games.

Sadly though this is the way the world is going and we will just need to deal with it. Expecting to see a lot of tech stuff on the celebrity edge when we sail in 2019.

 

[cyclenut]

No way NFC would work the distances that the hotel room keys work.

Looks like you're right. Obviously I'm surprised, but the capabilities of technology marches on.

https://www.cntraveler.com/stories/2015-09-09/your-hotel-key-is-the-smartphone-you-already-own

This article is more than a year old, but ti confirms the use of Bluetooth as the underlying technology. I think NFC would be more secure, but perhaps it is just not ubiquitous enough.

 

[SteveMP]

Looks like you're right. Obviously I'm surprised, but the capabilities of technology marches on.

https://www.cntraveler.com/stories/2015-09-09/your-hotel-key-is-the-smartphone-you-already-own

This article is more than a year old, but ti confirms the use of Bluetooth as the underlying technology. I think NFC would be more secure, but perhaps it is just not ubiquitous enough.

I agree NFC would be more secure. I work in IT and we often have to rollout technologies that may not be the best solution, but we have to be careful not to sisenfranchise certain groups of users, such as those with older phones and browsers. The range of BT actually contributed to one of the issues I had at the hotel. As I was nearing my room the button turned green and right as I went to push it, it turned grey. Once I hit the button while grey, the app would not work no matter what until the front desk resent a new actuvation code. I am guessing they ar using a code hopping technology that has trouble stncing after missing part of the algorithm. We used to see this in some of the early car alarms and garage openers with rolling codes. NFC could force people to rest their phone on a pad on the door.

 

[cyclenut]

I agree NFC would be more secure. I work in IT and we often have to rollout technologies that may not be the best solution, but we have to be careful not to sisenfranchise certain groups of users, such as those with older phones and browsers. The range of BT actually contributed to one of the issues I had at the hotel. As I was nearing my room the button turned green and right as I went to push it, it turned grey. Once I hit the button while grey, the app would not work no matter what until the front desk resent a new actuvation code. I am guessing they ar using a code hopping technology that has trouble stncing after missing part of the algorithm. We used to see this in some of the early car alarms and garage openers with rolling codes. NFC could force people to rest their phone on a pad on the door.

You and I both work in IT but I have limited knowledge of wireless technology. What I did understand is that NFC is more secure and I assumed (incorrectly) that they were using a more secure method. It would have been less expensive too, but it would have also been more complicated to support. Payment processing uses NFC, which is why ApplePay requires you to almost touch the phone to the pay system.

I've avoided getting a smartwatch, but as some of these things like smart room keys start to become more the norm, I may break down and do it.