ceo of princess cruise lines

Carnival Corp. Names John Padgett as President of Princess Cruises

• October 12, 2021

Carnival Corporation has announced John Padgett as the new president of Princess Cruises, effective immediately.

Padgett will oversee all performance and operational functions of Princess Cruises and its global fleet of 14 ships.

He will report directly to Jan Swartz, group president of Holland America Group, which includes the company’s Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, Seabourn and P&O Cruises Australia brands. Swartz has served as president of Princess Cruises since 2013, guiding the brand’s strategic growth, Carnival said, in a statement sent out.

Since July 2014, Padgett has served as chief experience and innovation officer for Carnival Corporation, responsible for guest experience innovation, development, creation and operations integration, according to a press release.

Specifically for the Princess Cruises brand, Padgett has been a key player in the development and implementation of the Princess MedallionClass experience delivering a more personalized, simplified and connected onboard experience for all guests and crew that is now available on the entire Princess fleet.

“John is the mastermind behind our state-of-the-art OCEAN platform and was a key player in our fleet transformation, working closely with Princess team members in virtually every area of our operation to enable the MedallionClass experience for all our guests,” said Swartz. “John’s vision, drive and performance, combined with his commitment to providing the best guest experience in the industry, have helped position Princess for success well into the future. We warmly welcome John to the role and look forward to his stewardship as we navigate this fast-changing, dynamic environment.”

“Carnival Corporation’s cruise brand portfolio, global fleets, destinations and most importantly dedicated shipboard and shoreside teams have provided an unmatched platform to drive guest-focused innovation,” said Padgett. “The opportunity to lead the iconic Princess brand and to help take the cruise content — including hotel, food and beverage, entertainment, merchandise and destination experiences — to new levels is an absolute honor.”

Prior to becoming chief experience and innovation officer for Carnival Corporation, Padgett worked for 18 years with Walt Disney Parks and Resorts where he spearheaded the invention, development and implementation of guest engagement innovations that include the MagicBand, FastPass+ and Disney’s Magical Express, among others.

Padgett earned a master’s degree in business administration and a bachelor’s degree in finance from Virginia Tech and holds over two dozen patents and multiple innovation awards.

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From its modest beginnings in 1965 with a single ship cruising to mexico, princess® has grown to become one of the premiere cruise lines in the world. today, its fleet carries more than a million passengers each year to more worldwide destinations than any other major line., princess cruises®.

Considered one of the most recognized cruise lines in the world, Princess is continually evolving.

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Princess Cruises CEO and Leadership

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• The Princess Cruises executive team is 25% female and 75% male .
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• 9% of the management team is Black or African American .

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Dragojlo Tomic are a Chief Executive Officer at Princess Cruises.

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Andrew Carney is a Chief Engineer at Princess Cruises and is based in Throston, England, United Kingdom. He has worked as Fourth, Third, Second,First, Maintenance, Ventilation and Staff Engineer officer at P.O Company; Commissioning Engineer & Consultant at CSMART - Marine Simulator Training Centre; and Fleet Chief Engineer - Maritime Quality Assurance at Carnival Corporation. Andrew studied at Durham University between 2008 and 2011, South Shields Marine And Technical College between 1985 and 1989, and NORTHUMBRIA UNIVERSITY between 1999 and 2000.

Staff Chief Engineer

Antonello Leone is a Staff Chief Engineer at Princess Cruises and is based in Monfalcone, Gorizia, Italy. He has worked as Inspector at Princess Cruises & Carninval Corp. Shipbuilding, First Engineer Officer at Princess Cruises, and Direttore Di Macchina / Chief Engineer at Delcomar S.r.l.. Antonello attended ITN Carlofore, Technical Nautical School between 1988 and 1993.

Staff/ Chief Engineer PCL

Antonio Fasciano is a Staff/ Chief Engineer PCL at Princess Cruises and is based in Los Angeles, California. He has worked as Mozzo/ Giovanotto di Macchina at Geo Italia; Giovanotto di Macchina at Star Group, L.P.; and Chief Engineer at Ecolmare. Antonio attended Instituto Tecnico Nautico Statale F. Caracciolo Bari - Italy.

Deputy Chief Engineer

Antonio Manna is a Deputy Chief Engineer at Princess Cruises and is based in Italy. He attended Nautical School - Domenico Millelire - La Maddalena Island - ITALY between 1986 and 1991.

Experienced Head Engineer with a demonstrated history of working in the leisure, travel & tourism industry. Skilled in Negotiation, Customer Service, Strategic Planning, Public Speaking, and Teamwork. Strong professional with a Diploma focused in Marine Engineering from Istituto Tecnico Nautico Cristoforo Colombo .

Navigation Officer (Coc Chief Mate)

Dennis Hunt is a Navigation Officer (CoC Chief Mate) at Princess Cruises and is based in Leicester, Leicestershire, United Kingdom. He has worked as N/A at Independent travel / Viajes Independientes and Finance Manager at Asda. Dennis attended Solent University between 2009 and 2012 and Cardiff University between 2002 and 2005.

Fabio Braccelli is a Chief Engineer at Princess Cruises.

Experienced Chief Mate with a demonstrated history of working in the leisure, travel & tourism industry. Skilled in Microsoft Excel, Customer Service, Maritime Operations, Inspection, and Maritime. Strong operations professional with a aspirante Capitano Lungo Corso focused in Nautic and Navigational technique from Istituto tecnico nautico '​'Nino Bixio'​.

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Princess cruises founders, princess cruises leadership demographics, princess cruises gender distribution in management team.

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• 23% of Princess Cruises's management is Hispanic or Latino.
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• White is the most common ethnicity company-wide.
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• 23% of employees are Hispanic or Latino.
• 9% of employees are Asian.
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Zippia gives an in-depth look into the details of Princess Cruises, including salaries, political affiliations, employee data, and more, in order to inform job seekers about Princess Cruises. The employee data is based on information from people who have self-reported their past or current employments at Princess Cruises. The data on this page is also based on data sources collected from public and open data sources on the Internet and other locations, as well as proprietary data we licensed from other companies. Sources of data may include, but are not limited to, the BLS, company filings, estimates based on those filings, H1B filings, and other public and private datasets. While we have made attempts to ensure that the information displayed are correct, Zippia is not responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from the use of this information. None of the information on this page has been provided or approved by Princess Cruises. The data presented on this page does not represent the view of Princess Cruises and its employees or that of Zippia.

Princess Cruises may also be known as or be related to Cunard Line Limited, PRINCESS CRUISES COMMUNITY FOUNDATION, Princess Cruise Lines Ltd, Princess Cruise Lines Ltd., Princess Cruise Lines, Ltd. and Princess Cruises.

• Princess Cruises

email contacts for Princess President and CEO

By jpinperth , November 13, 2007 in Princess Cruises

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This will seem like a crazy question, but does anyone know if it is possible to get the email contact for the President of Princess?

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Share on other sites.

I was able to find the following:

Customer service resources

Customer service main page

Passage contract

E-mail form

Primary e-mail

[email protected]

Primary contact

Senior vice president, customer service and sales

[email protected]

(661) 753-0000

Chief executive (*)

Alan Buckelew

[email protected]

(305) 599-2600

* Executives should only be contacted when your letter or email has not been acknowledged within six to eight weeks.

Many thanks for the info.

You are more than welcomed.

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

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Princess Cruises Headquarters & Corporate Office

Princess Cruises is an American cruise line owned by Carnival Corporation & plc. The company is incorporated in Bermuda and its headquarters are in Santa Clarita, California. As of 2018, it is the second-largest cruise line by net revenue.

Established

Corporate phone number.

(661) 753-0000

Customer Support Phone Number

1-800-774-6237

No of Employees

Headquartered address.

24305 Town Center Dr, Santa Clarita,

CA 91355, USA

Senior Management

Jan Swartz  — CEO / President

Gordon Ho — Chief Marketing Officer & Head of Sales

Anthony Kaufman — Executive Vice President, International Operations

Simeon Waldron  — Senior Vice President / Chief Financial Officer

[email protected]

https://www.princess.com/

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Sandra Barletta

I think you should be aware of the limitations at your call center. when I called to get my medallions the person spoke English very poorly and was most difficult to understand. Two and on half hours to give my info to him. Today I received my medallions and my husband’s is correct and mine isn’t. Now I’m being told to correct this on the ship which means waiting in line for the change. Today is Friday and we are leaving very early next Thursday. Why can’t the new one be overnighted?

Hans Sparbel

Customer service rep “Angel” could not resolve our issues and refused to connect us to a supervisor – was told after 45 min that a supervisor “Mikaela” would call back within an hour – Customer service does not appear to be a priority. – Princess may loose too clients today – even after multiple previous cruises.

Chris Meisenhalder

Princess off-shore, third party call center are not able to resolve issues. Bring support in-house and employee reps who are well versed in English.

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Princess Cruises welcomes its biggest ship ever with help from a star

It took a star to welcome the sun.

The Sun Princess , that is.

Princess Cruises on Tuesday officially hailed the arrival of its newest megavessel — at 177,882 tons, its biggest ever —with the help of "Ted Lasso" star Hannah Waddingham.

The Emmy Award-winning actress and singer presided over a star-studded 19-minute christening ceremony in the ship's Princess Arena theater that included a traditional bottle breaking, with a twist.

For more cruise news, guides and tips, sign up for TPG's cruise newsletter .

Serving as the ship's godmother, Waddingham placed a triangular "sun ray" representing Sun Princess into a sun sculpture on stage to trigger the smashing of a huge bottle of Veuve Cliquot Champagne — a nebuchadnezzar that holds the equivalent of 20 traditional bottles — against the ship's hull.

"As much as theater ripples through my bloodstream, I have the strongest history of maritime in my family," a clearly proud Waddingham said moments before triggering the bottle smash.

She noted that her still-living, 107-year-old grandfather served on convoy ships crossing the Atlantic during World War II. She also grew up boating.

"It's in my blood and in my bones," she added.

Built at the giant Fincantieri shipyard in Monfalcone, Italy, Sun Princess is the most notable new Princess ship to debut in more than a decade. Capable of holding up to 5,189 passengers (a record for a Princess ship), it's not only significantly bigger than previous Princess ships but packed with more onboard venues.

The naming celebration came two months after Sun Princess began sailing for the first time with paying passengers, a debut that was unexpectedly delayed by 20 days due to construction issues.

"Sun Princess is incredible. It's the largest, most luxurious love boat ever," John Padgett, Princess president, said at the event, harking back to the line's long-standing tie to the hit television show "The Love Boat" that ran in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Three stars from the show — Ted Lange, Bernie Kopell and Jill Whelan, who played bartender Isaac Washington, ship's doctor Adam Bricker and captain's daughter Vicki Stubing, respectively — were in attendance at the event.

The "Love Boat" stars were seated just a couple rows behind Carnival Corporation chairman Micky Arison and CEO Josh Weinstein.

Carnival Corporation is the parent company of Princess Cruises.

Makoto Okuwa, a James Beard Foundation honoree who designed a sushi eatery for Sun Princess, and Dario Cecchini, a celebrity Italian butcher who created a meat-focused restaurant for the ship, were also in attendance. So was the Brazilian artist Romero Britto, who sat to the right of Arison. Britto's colorful, upbeat art is the theme for the ship's high-end restaurant, Love by Britto.

Other celebrities at the event included model and television personality Tyra Banks, wildlife show host Jeff Corwin, fashion designer and television host Randy Fenoli and mixologist Rob Floyd. British singer-songwriter Natasha Bedingfield performed her smash hit "Pocketful of Sunshine" among other hit songs on the top deck of the ship after the ceremony.

The biggest Princess ship ever

Under development for more than six years, Sun Princess is the first of the new Sphere Class of Princess vessels. The ships have been designed to be significantly bigger than previous Princess vessels and offer several new-for-the-line features.

First look: Inside Sun Princess, the giant new ship from Princess Cruises

Sun Princess is the first Princess ship with suites that come with exclusive access to a private restaurant, lounge and sun deck — part of an effort to draw more upscale customers to the brand.

Additionally, Sun Princess offers an innovative new type of "cabana cabin" on the ship's extra-wide 10th deck that features exclusive access to a private deck area. The top deck of the ship also received some unusual-for-Princess sizzle. Passengers will find a glass-dome-topped pool area that transforms into a nightspot after the sun goes down.

Other differences between Sun Princess and earlier Princess ships include the lack of a buffet restaurant on its main pool deck. But don't worry, buffet lovers: There still is a buffetlike venue on the ship. Called The Eatery, it's eight decks below the pool deck, closer to the ship's central piazza and just off its outside promenade.

The ship's main theater, the Princess Arena, also has a new look. Its new-for-Princess, in-the-round shape can be converted into a more traditional proscenium-type theater or a keyhole-type theater to allow for different types of productions.

Among other standout venues, Sun Princess features a secret hideaway for magical performances designed in partnership with the Magic Castle performance venue in Los Angeles.

Related: My strange night out at Princess's new magic-infused night spot

Princess also has revamped its main dining room program with the debut of Sun Princess. It now offers three distinct options for cruisers in its main dining rooms, ranging from a traditional fixed seating experience to a casual, come-when-you-want option that includes quick-served meals and even breakfast for dinner .

The arrival of Sun Princess marks the first time Princess has launched a new class of ship in nearly 11 years. With its debut, Princess now has 16 vessels in its fleet that collectively have room for about 50,000 passengers. That makes Princess the world's fifth-biggest cruise line, behind Royal Caribbean , Carnival Cruise Line , MSC Cruises and Norwegian Cruise Line .

Related: The 4 types of Princess ships, explained

Sun Princess is initially sailing in Europe through the fall. It'll then reposition to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for voyages to the Caribbean. Fares start at $577 per person, not including taxes and fees, for a seven-night Caribbean sailing.

A second ship in the new Sphere Class series, to be called Star Princess, is on order from the Fincantieri shipyard for delivery in 2025. Its first voyage is scheduled for Aug. 4, 2025, and will take place in the Mediterranean.

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More From Forbes

Meet the company beating theme parks at their own game.

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The concept that was launched with Disney's MagicBand is now being used in a whole new industry ... [+] (Photo by Jeff Gritchen/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images)

Few industries are as offbeat as the theme park sector. It's a world where making artificial mountains and organising mass mobs of dancers dressed in period clothing is commonplace. So it's hard to see how expertise in the field could apply to other sectors but actually this couldn't be further from the truth.

Indeed, when a colossus of one of the oldest industries on earth turned to a veteran of the theme park industry, it made such a splash that it transformed its entire business model.

With origins dating back nearly 60 years, Princess Cruises is the oldest North American cruise line operator. In 1965, Canadian construction equipment distributor Stanley McDonald spotted an opportunity to put Canadian Pacific's Princess Patricia cruise ship to more use. The Princess Pat, as she was fondly known, usually cruised around Alaska but McDonald chartered it on Mexican Riviera cruises from Los Angeles when it would have otherwise been laid up for the winter. Princess Cruises was born and it went full steam ahead from then on.

Princess became so successful that it came onto the radar of Britain's Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O). The historic shipping line was founded in 1837 and by 1960 it had become the world's largest shipping company with 320 ocean-going vessels. In 1974 P&O bought Princess and it went from strength to strength. So much so indeed that P&O eventually realized Princess could stand on its own two feet and spun it off in 2000 to form an independent company, P&O Princess Cruises.

Three years later, Princess merged with industry giant Carnival Corporation in a $5.4 billion deal which made the combined business the world's largest cruise operator and kept it on the crest of the wave in the face of increasing competition. Over the following years the market was awash with consolidation and a steady stream of mega cruise liners emerged from from Princess' rivals. In 2014 Princess began to chart a new course and it hasn't looked back since then.

According to CruiseMarketWatch, Princess has $3.5 billion of annual revenue and carries 1.6 million passengers annually. It is thanks to John Padgett, a veteran of Disney's theme park division, who became Carnival's chief experience and innovation officer in 2014 and took the wheel of Princess itself in 2021.

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Princess Cruises' President, John Padgett, has introduced theme park technology to the cruise line ... [+] (Photo by Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Princess Cruises)

A theme park executive might not sound like someone who could give a magic touch to a luxury cruise line but actually Padgett cast perhaps the most powerful spell on the company in its entire history. Padgett is probably the most important technology innovator in the modern era of Disney and over an 18-year career with the Mouse he rose through its ranks until he ultimately landed a role with the suitably imaginative title of head of game changer experience development. There was good reason for this name.

Padgett is one of the most respected and talented innovators in the leisure industry. He invented and implemented many of the most groundbreaking guest engagement developments at Disney's theme parks including the FastPass+ queue-cutting system, the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique princess-themed children's makeover outlets and the Be Our Guest restaurant which replicates the ballroom scene from Beauty and the Beast .

He holds 35 patents covering everything from itinerary scheduling to digital experience interaction platforms and, crucially, wearable devices. The reason for the latter is that he developed Disney's wearable wireless MagicBand device which revolutionized the entry, ride access and payment process at its theme parks.

The device debuted at the sprawling Walt Disney World Resort in 2013 and is essentially a rubber bracelet with a removable button in the center. The button contains a chip connected to a small antenna as well as a high frequency radio device. Visitors' ticket, accommodation and payment details can be synced to the MagicBand enabling them to enter the parks and their hotel room by tapping the bracelet to wireless receivers. Likewise, they can pay at shops and restaurants in the same way making impulse buys much easier.

MagicBands can even be used to play interactive games in Disney's fairytale-themed Magic Kingdom theme park with guests going on a treasure hunt following clues which appear when the bracelet is touched to receivers hidden in the scenery.

Deploying the MagicBand cost a reported $1 billion but it soon started to make the money back. Disney's chief executive "Bob Iger had amazing foresight and when he saw the original prototype of the MagicBand, he said 'this thing's going to be very special' and he was right," says Padgett.

Not only were customers prepared to pay more for their stays due to the convenience of the MagicBand but it also boosted guest spending and triggered a new collecting craze as fans clamored for the different designs of wristbands that Disney put on sale. Like all of the best technological advancements, necessity was the mother of this invention.

"I used to go into the Magic Kingdom and I would think, people are paying a tremendous amount of money for this experience which makes more money the more people you put into it. But the experience degrades the more you put people into it," says Padgett.

"So to me that set up a broader dilemma in all of travel and it is the same story with cruise ships. They started small and the cruise experience was personalized. It was individualized, and this was before any technology existed on ships. But as ships grew so did the volume of people experiencing their amenities, attractions, restaurants, retail, casinos and the experience actually degrades.

"I wanted to be the person who creates experiences like something an elite person has on a very limited volume but I wanted to do it at scale because scale gives choice, scale gives options. So that's where I started with the MagicBand."

His eureka moment came on a flight from Hollywood Burbank Airport, just a few miles from Disney's headquarters. Padgett opened the Sky Mall magazine and turned to the golf section where he saw the Trion:Z magnetic therapy bracelet which is designed to help players with their swing.

Padgett says it occurred to him that "if someone wore something like this and it seamlessly interacted with everything that you have on a vacation experience, we could eliminate hotel key cards, credit cards, meal vouchers, Fastpass tickets, transportation vouchers and credit cards." That was just step one as he adds that this could also enable guests to "be recognized as an individual so you could have scale but you could also have a personalized interaction." It sounds like a no-brainer but getting it to market was far from child's play.

"The biggest challenge was telling an organization renowned for being the best of the best on delivering experience, that it was not doing it good enough, and that we could do it better. And if you believe in this little thing, and you believe in this theory of eliminating friction, everything improves. At Disney, the business model was built on growing by building attractions but this was saying, 'no, all your content is great. It's improving access to your content that will increase consumption'. So it was a different mindset.

"There was also a lot of challenge around would people wear a device because wearable devices didn’t exist yet. So you had to believe in the philosophy that if you improve the experience, the guests will do it. So you're not telling them to wear this wearable, you're saying, 'if you do it, we will deliver a greater experience with this MagicBand'. And it was universally adopted. Whether you were three years old or 93 years old, it was instant adoption."

Padget introduced the MagicBand to Disney's theme parks (Photo by Jeff Gritchen/MediaNews ... [+] Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images)

Within just two years, more than 10 million MagicBands had been distributed and although it ushered in a whole new world for Disney, Padgett had even grander plans in mind.

"The reality is it only accomplished half of the equation that I had envisioned," he says. "It took friction out of the overall experience. The math behind it was if you eliminate friction, you increase consumption. And so that was the principle behind the MagicBand.

"The other 50% of it was if I can individually recognize you, I can give you a personalized experience and a personalized experience is more valuable than a commodity experience so it's worth more." Not just for guests but for Disney too. "If I can increase volume by reducing friction, and I can increase value by increasing personalization, those things multiply. You create value for the guest and you create value for the enterprise."

However, he adds "the reality is that the personalization element was before its time. The MagicBand was no doubt the leader in eliminating friction from an entire experience spanning a complete city or destination but what it did not do was deliver personalization at scale. My passion was to finish that job."

The MagicBand was a wearable before the category even existed and although it broke new ground, its potential has yet to be fully realized. Many guests only use the device for entering the parks and paying for tickets, merchandise, food and drink but, other than that, the experience is largely the same as before the tech was introduced. Padgett explains why.

"A fundamental element to achieving personalization at scale is individual recognition and identification. And doing that spanning an entire experience. Well, the Disney model eliminated the transactional friction but it wasn't based on a horizontal platform that spanned every element of the experience to interact uniquely in real time."

In short, as the MagicBand's popularity hadn't been proven when it was introduced, it wasn't integrated into the parks and Disney's MyMagic+ digital platform as widely as it could have been. Having seen the success of the MagicBand at Disney World, a year after Padgett joined Carnival he spearheaded the development of a new form of technology which would be integrated across all aspects of the on-board experience and would finally achieve his aim of true guest personalization.

The gold standard in cruising has long been the ratio between the number of guests and staff with the holy grail being 1:1 as it means that travelers should never be kept waiting. Padgett realised that wireless wearable tech could be used to reach this objective without needing to increase staff numbers and thereby costs.

"My vision was that the concept of personalization at scale would change the game in the travel business," he says. It was shared by Carnival's then-CEO Arnold Donald. "Everyone in the cruise industry knows that the ships were getting bigger and bigger and with that, there were more and more guests to handle," adds Padgett. "But also everyone in the cruise industry knows that yacht-class, small-ship sailing has personalization. So to me, the cruise ship was the perfect platform, a complete city-like environment where I could set out to accomplish this vision of personalization at scale."

Wireless technology was moving so fast that by 2015, when Padgett began exploring the use of it on Princess' ships, he was able to develop a completely new cutting-edge platform for the cruise operator. It now operates on every Princess ship and, as Padgett says, it "orchestrates every single guest interaction, every single crew interaction with every single aspect of the entire experience end-to-end with no exceptions. That means every guest is recognized as an individual with their needs, wants and desires in real time.

"It allows Princess crew members to interact digitally or physically and deliver service to that guest in a personalized way and do it on some of the largest cruise ships in the world. We have accomplished the mission of eliminating friction across the entire experience while delivering a personalized experience in real time to anyone in the world on any ship, any time." It is no exaggeration.

At the heart of the system is a Quarter-sized waterproof, heatproof and sand-proof button-like wearable wireless transmitter called the Ocean Medallion. Inside it are two microscopic antennas – one for Near Field Communication (NFC) and the other utilizing Bluetooth Low Energy. The Medallion is given free to every guest and communicates with receivers scattered all over the ship. In technical jargon, it turns the ship into what is known as an Internet of Things (IoT) - a network of interconnected systems which are embedded with sensors, software, network connectivity and electronics to enable them to collect and exchange data.

Princess's Ocean Medallion brings a new level of personalisation to cruising

In practical terms, it gives guests the kind of freedom and flexibility that could previously only be dreamed of on a cruise. That starts on embarkation as filling in seemingly endless forms is a thing of the past. The Medallions are sent to guests in advance and come with a lanyard or they can be clipped to your shirt. All it takes to get onboard is tapping the Medallion on a receiver and showing your ID to staff. Then the device really comes into its own.

Anyone who has been on a cruise knows how similar the floors and corridors can look. It's usually easy to get lost but not with the Medallion as it can connect to an app on your phone to pinpoint your precise position and even the location of others in your group.

Guests store their name and personal preferences on the app so staff at bars and restaurants know who you are and what you usually order before you get to the front of the queue. Like the MagicBand, it can also be used for payment but that's just the start.

If you place an order at the bar and then rush out to the deck to see a school of dolphins in the sea, the server can use the system to locate you and bring your drink over. Likewise, if you head up to one of the restaurants only to find that it's fully booked, the staff will be able to find you if there's a cancelation before you get a table elsewhere. On other cruise liners guests would have to be contacted by cell phone which can come at quite a cost using satellite connections in the middle of an ocean.

The Medallion even opens the door to your room as you walk up without needing to touch it. As Padgett says, it is "by far the most advanced experiential IoT that exists on the planet and it is operational at any scale." He explains that two advancements were crucial to its creation. The first was advancements in radio technology and the other was the development of the bespoke Princess OceanPlatform that is installed on hardware throughout the ship to interact with the Medallions.

Padgett says that it is different to the MagicBand tech in almost every way but what really makes the difference is the function of the sensors and receivers scattered around the ship. "We have an embedded sensor network on all the ships that is pervasive versus being at transactional points. The pervasiveness of the sensor network facilitates individual recognition in real time everywhere. Whereas within the theme park model, and I won't say just Disney, I'll say the theme park model, the technology is fundamental to transaction points. On a Princess ship, it's the whole. Generally speaking, the mindset is real time identification and delivery of service any time anywhere. It's dynamic."

Without the OceanPlatform pulling the different sets of data together, the system wouldn't be give guests anywhere near as much flexibility. Padgett adds that Disney lacks this because “it was before its time. When the magic band was created we were still using Blackberries. So the concept of an iOS that would span a physical infrastructure was not conceived. What happened is the MagicBand took you to a level where you could see more potential but you could also see the next hurdle and that was the creation of a platform that spanned all legacy systems."

He says that the OceanPlatform "extends across every single vertical, and when I say that, I'm talking hospitality, restaurants, bars, casinos, recreation." It even operates in the shops at some of the ports Princess' ships stop at "so there's never a break that you have to pull out your credit card.

"It's one thing to say you operate within a theme park, or you operate within a cruise ship, but can you extend that umbrella out to include assets and experiences that you don't physically control, own or operate? The answer is yes and I think more than 12 countries and over 200 different outlets participate in our ecosystem." He says that more are on the way and there's a very basic reason for this.

"The most simple interaction – recognition of your name, your needs, wants, desires and relationships in real time – blows people away so it takes hospitality back to its core. It's weird that we have the most technologically advanced IoT on the planet, enabling a fully connected mobile smart city in real time but the value comes from the most organic service interaction. There is an irony there." It took more than the wave of a magic wand to pull it off.

"The challenge was taking 15 cruise ships that never stop, that are always full and only go into dry dock once every three years for 13 days, and installing a complete IoT infrastructure without altering the economics of the assets, which is to keep them running.

"We did that and I would say that the biggest challenge was figuring out how to do it, which was a tremendous amount of planning. We ended up with a method by which we could do it and not change the overall economics of our dry docking. Then Covid hit and it was very hard to access ships but we were actually able to complete 10 ship transformations during the Covid pause. When everyone else was going home, we went to the ships and finished our job."

Each upgrade involved the installation of 72 miles of cable, 4,000 sensors, 650 readers, 500 edge computing devices and more than 4,000 interactive portals.

Despite getting an unexpected boost from the pandemic, the entire Medallion development process from inception to completion of installation still took seven years from 2015 to 2021.

Padgett explains that at sea "everything is harder than on land. One giant reason is the ship is made of 19 decks of steel. One of the most challenging aspects to deal with is connectivity. Another challenging element is working through satellites versus terrestrial communications. And then the others are all about weight, heat all of those engineering factors are taken to the next level in a maritime environment because of the extreme focus on safety. And the whole thing is moving all the time, even when a ship is in port"

The IoT devices, software, firmware and digital interaction layers for guests and crew were all developed for Princess. It came at quite a cost. "You're talking hundreds of millions. That's complete. That’s development, hardware, software, implementation at scale across a whole fleet of ships."

Like the MagicBands, different bracelets can be bought for the Medallions and Padgett says that the look of the device itself can be "personalized to you based on you as an individual, whether you're in a military branch, your favorite pet, your favorite color, or all of those things."

The Medallion can be personalised in a variety of ways

However, he adds that the system isn't designed to be a revenue generator and is instead "inherent in our overall business model. Apple doesn't look at their iOS segmented from their mobile device or apps. The enterprise value of Apple increased with the advent of iOS but they don't sell iOS itself.

"The overall revenue driver is the personalized experience that it enables you to deliver. So you make money on the whole, not the thing. The value comes from making sure you remember that the thing itself doesn't deliver any value. The experience becomes personalized and hassle free and that is the value to the consumer.

“Value comes from benefiting the consumer holistically across the experience so that they pay more overall both on their initial visit and their repeat visits. That is where you really create value. Differentiation and loyalty are the two key points.

"This is completely unique to Princess and it has become so synonymous with the Princess point of differentiation. Every cruise brand picks a point of differentiation with which to compete and Princess has become synonymous with personalised service at scale."

Indeed, the system is so transformational that Princess created a new name, called MedallionClass, for the category of service which can only be found on its ships. It isn't marketing mumbo-jumbo as the Medallion has won more than 10 major awards and been nominated for a prestigious innovation prize at the Consumer Electronics Show.

Importantly, Padgett says that after it was introduced "we saw double-digit improvements in our experiential levels." It also led to a sea change in the approach towards the lifespan of the ships themselves.

"Before the advent of this, and this happens in theme parks too, the belief was that as your assets get older, your experience goes down. Once we moved to a platform based service delivery, we actually proved that the service level can be ubiquitous, regardless of the age of your physical platform. It was a mindset shift that if an old ship has a universal service delivery that's consistent with your new ships, you can score experiential levels just as high.

"When you put that in the context of a cruise ship roughly costing a billion dollars, spending a few hundred million that can raise the productivity of your entire fleet is a very efficient investment."

It enabled Princess to maximise the use from its assets which increased their return on investment and contributed to Padgett being promoted to president of the brand in 2021. There is more to come from his invention as he says "let's just say that at this point, there's a lot of capabilities that we haven't manifested yet and so we still have a lot in our tank."

Ironically, although Disney pioneered the MagicBand in its parks before any of its rivals more than a decade ago, it only launched it on its cruise ships last summer. Padgett won't comment on why he thinks it has taken the Mouse so long to bring its wearable tech to sea but there is no doubt that with Princess firmly docked in this space it will be tough for Disney to make waves.

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