Vice president UK and Europe Tony Roberts said the Ocean Medallion technology, would enable Princess to offer experiences “unavailable anywhere else on the planet right now”.

Presenting the platform to travel press and trade partners in London last night (January 5), Roberts described how the gadget would create a “real-time moving picture” of guests desires by collating their personal data and preferences while onboard.

The system, which he explained amounted to a “substantial investment” by parent line Carnival Corporation, will enable passengers to order food and drinks on demand; speed up the port embarkation and disembarkation process; locate friends and family around the ship; access their staterooms as they approach the door and purchase merchandise without any transaction.

“It’s going to allow us added power to understand what our guests want…it really is going to be a ‘segment of you’ and be totally personalised to meet individual needs,” explained Roberts.

“Once people learn about these guest experiences and the ability it has to maximise their limited holiday time, there will be high demand for Medallion cruises.”

The new technology will make its bow on Princess Cruises’ Regal Princess in November and will then feature onboard Royal Princess in January 2018 and Caribbean Princess in March next year.

Ocean Medallion is claimed by Carnival Corportation, to be the world’s first interactive passenger experience platform.

The so-called "Medallion Class" will be extended to the entire Princess Cruises fleet over the “next three years” Roberts said.

During the presentation, Roberts insisted that Princess was “absolutely committed” to helping agents drive sales of the new Medallion cruises and had been “building” its training programmes within its agent academy.

He added that the line would also be sending its field team on the road to educate agents in-store and had planned a number of “Innovation Tour” ship visits to “bring the experience to live for agents.”

Providing further insight into the technology itself, Robert explained how the interactive device comes in the form of a 1.8-ounce disc similar in size to a 10p coin.

It has no discernible technology – no on-off switch, no charging, no menu to navigate – and can be worn as a pendant on a wristband in a clip or placed in a pocket to reveal enhanced services and personalised experiences without guests having to push a button or take any action.

The device, laser-etched with the passenger’s name, ship and date of sailing, is to be provided at no cost but will come with additional “active” and “luxury” accessories for guests to purchase.

While onboard, passengers can use Ocean Medallion with an optional personalised digital concierge called Ocean Compass, a digital experience portal available online, on smart devices, on kiosks in US ports, on cabin TVs, interactive surfaces located throughout the ship and on devices carried by passenger service hosts.

Ocean Medallion is powered by proprietary technology developed by the cruise giant that features an Internet of Things (IoT) network of intelligent sensors and experiential computing devices.