Bye Bye WOW Bands?

[Mr. K]

I'm currently on the Oasis of the Seas and when we went to purchase our WOW Bands we were told they have been discontinued. 

Is this fleet wide or just limited to the Oasis? Was looking forward to this feature & was surprised by what we were told. 

[Ryan79]

They haven’t been on the vast majority of Oasis class ships for quite a while now. The most of the fleet never used them to begin with. I think only one brought them back, which I think was Wonder but I could be mistaken about the ship. Their website mentioned two Quantum class getting them in May 2023, but that didn’t happen

[Geezer Of The Seas]

I recall WOW bands in April this year on Wonder.......then wondered what good they were when servers/bartenders asked passengers to remove them so they could process their drink orders.

Removing my Sea Pass card from the lanyard pouch seemed easier, and no additional cost. Observed the same thing in shops onboard. 

[JohnK6404]

Yes, Wonder had WOW bands earlier this month. We forgot about them and started noticing them half-way through our sailing and skipped them this time. We've never had them on Royal, just the Magic Bands at Disney, but will try them some day!

[Gilley]

I like the Wow bands.  It was easy to open my stateroom door using it.  If they are going to discontinue them fleet wide, I hope they give their bartenders scanners that will scan the seapass while it remains in the lanyard.

[MarvinS]

We brought our old WOW bands from prior cruises with us this last summer (June 2023) onto Wonder with no issues.  Guest services happily reprogrammed them for us at no charge.  The primary purpose was to provide quick and easy access to the room door.  They also worked fine getting into the shows with a reservation.  We used our seapass cards the remainder of the time for shopping, etc...

[Doug_Texas]

Not a shock but too bad.  We used them and liked them.  Could open stateroom when carrying thing and mostly liked wearing them in the pool so we could give them to the waiters for drinks.  Since they were used on ships with RFID Seapass cards that can't be punched the WOW Bands in  the pool were great.  Sorry to see them go. 

[ScottishRobbie]

11 hours ago, Ryan79 said:

They haven’t been on the vast majority of Oasis class ships for quite a while now. The most of the fleet never used them to begin with. I think only one brought them back, which I think was Wonder but I could be mistaken about the ship. Their website mentioned two Quantum class getting them in May 2023, but that didn’t happen

It did happen, I purchased one at Guest Services onboard Ovation 2 weeks ago. $9.99 each

[ScottD]

20 hours ago, Ryan79 said:

They haven’t been on the vast majority of Oasis class ships for quite a while now. The most of the fleet never used them to begin with. I think only one brought them back, which I think was Wonder but I could be mistaken about the ship. Their website mentioned two Quantum class getting them in May 2023, but that didn’t happen

Oasis had them for a few months during the summer, but I feel like once they ran through them, that was it. 

[steverk]

I'm on Harmony and noticed some kids wearing them. However, I don't know if they purchased them on board. 

[TXcruzer]

19 hours ago, Gilley said:

I like the Wow bands.  It was easy to open my stateroom door using it.  If they are going to discontinue them fleet wide, I hope they give their bartenders scanners that will scan the seapass while it remains in the lanyard.

The never gave the bar staff scanners to scan the WOW bands, I’m sure they won’t get scanners to scan the sea pass cards 

[ScottD]

13 minutes ago, TXcruzer said:

The never gave the bar staff scanners to scan the WOW bands, I’m sure they won’t get scanners to scan the sea pass cards 

All of the bars on Oasis had scanners right on the bar to tap your card or band

[TXcruzer]

3 hours ago, ScottD said:

All of the bars on Oasis had scanners right on the bar to tap your card or band

Yes, but i was talking about (unclearly as I see now) of the roaming waiters and bar personnel in lounges, theaters, and pool decks.  IMHO this was one of the greatest downfalls of the WOW band, and why it was a "one and done" for many people.

[DunkelBierJay]

If I were to guess what the issue is...and it's just a guess is the availability of RFID chips for this kind of purpose. It may just be a supply thing and RCI has bigger fish to fry right now.

[BRY7]

i hope those with WOW Bands can still use them. its very handy!

[ScottD]

15 hours ago, TXcruzer said:

Yes, but i was talking about (unclearly as I see now) of the roaming waiters and bar personnel in lounges, theaters, and pool decks.  IMHO this was one of the greatest downfalls of the WOW band, and why it was a "one and done" for many people.

Ahh yeah, gotcha. I forget about them because I never use them...I rarely order a drink from a server walking around unless I'm IN a bar like schooner or the Pubs.  At the pools or other areas, I'm a walk up to the bar guy. 

[JasonOasis]

WOW bands were available for purchase when I was on my B2B cruise on Wonder this past October/November.  However earlier in the year when I was on Symphony and several weekend cruises on Freedom they did not have wow bands.  It may just be a supply chain issue  where they don't have them in stock for every single cruise and its not an item that guest need to enjoy their cruise so Royal is perfectly fine with dispatching a cruise ship with or without wow bands onboard.

[Ampurp85]

1 hour ago, JasonOasis said:

WOW bands were available for purchase when I was on my B2B cruise on Wonder this past October/November.  However earlier in the year when I was on Symphony and several weekend cruises on Freedom they did not have wow bands.  It may just be a supply chain issue  where they don't have them in stock for every single cruise and its not an item that guest need to enjoy their cruise so Royal is perfectly fine with dispatching a cruise ship with or without wow bands onboard.

I don't think they would have them for Freedom. They are only available for select Oasis and Quantum class.

[AshleyDillo]

16 hours ago, Ampurp85 said:

I don't think they would have them for Freedom. They are only available for select Oasis and Quantum class.

You're correct. The WOW bands use the same technology as the proximity cards (tap to use). Freedom still has the cards you have to swipe to use.

[pat8635]

On 11/27/2023 at 8:55 AM, Mr. K said:

I'm currently on the Oasis of the Seas and when we went to purchase our WOW Bands we were told they have been discontinued. 

Is this fleet wide or just limited to the Oasis? Was looking forward to this feature & was surprised by what we were told. 

Last month, Feb 2024, purchased and used one on harmony!

[Fastfaller]

I heard they had them on symphony recently from someone else here. I hope they have them for my cruise next month.

 

[Lisa Saucedo]

I could swear they were selling them on Icon in February. 

[GaryAA]

I bought one on the Symphony February 18, 2024

[VillainsGin]

On 11/27/2023 at 6:55 AM, Mr. K said:

I'm currently on the Oasis of the Seas and when we went to purchase our WOW Bands we were told they have been discontinued. 

Is this fleet wide or just limited to the Oasis? Was looking forward to this feature & was surprised by what we were told. 

I just got off Icon of the Seas 03/2024 last week and can confirm WOW bands are still very much available for purchase and use.

Although in my personal opinion it's much more convenient for me to just use my seapass card for everything, some passengers love utilizing them.

[MarcBerger]

On 3/12/2024 at 6:47 PM, VillainsGin said:

I just got off Icon of the Seas 03/2024 last week and can confirm WOW bands are still very much available for purchase and use.

Although in my personal opinion it's much more convenient for me to just use my seapass card for everything, some passengers love utilizing them.

1 year later...I just got off ICON today 03/01/2025-03/08/2025 and boarding day on March 1, they were selling the WOW bands at the Dueling Pianos! Cool for some people, just silly to have to take it off to give to bartenders......just wish they had wireless scanners or have the ones like the towel kiosks.....The wrist bands do work well on Virgin Voyages.....

[pat8635]

Harmony last month they had them!

[Ditchdoc]

Biometrics is coming.

[pat8635]

When?  Face or finger?

[pat8635]

When?  Face or finger?

[smokeybandit]

Facial biometrics already exists on board.

Biometrics for Seapass account transactions would be new though.

[pat8635]

What ships use facial recognition? I realize customs uses it for re-entry at port. into country.  I have not seen that or heard of biometrics on ships..

 

 

[smokeybandit]

It's used more passively for security purposes.

[dodgestang]

We got the wow bands because we were star class once.  Seemed like the biggest waste of an idea because everytime i ordered a drink I literally had to take it off and hand it to the attendant.  Perhaps they had planned at one point to give everyone tech to scan and take orders with...but because of this....I used for about 2 hours and then went back to seapass card.

[Ditchdoc]

Facial recognition is supposed to be used on a limited trial basis for cabin access on Star.

[dovecruiser]

Or should be able to load your Sea Pass into your Apple Wallet and double-click your iphone or iwatch to check in and make payments.  

[Last2Know]

IMHO, the wrist dongle Virgin Voyages uses is a better application of the RFID tap and go concept. Wow bands on RCL  are hindered by staff not having easy access to point-of-sale devices. VV solved this by having wait staff equipped with the correct technology.  RCL staff are still using pen and paper to record food and drink orders. 

[Matt]

10 hours ago, Last2Know said:

Wow bands on RCL  are hindered by staff not having easy access to point-of-sale devices. VV solved this by having wait staff equipped with the correct technology.  RCL staff are still using pen and paper to record food and drink orders. 

I agree, initially there were mobile readers for wowbands that waitstaff had, but I think back in 2014, the technology wasnt great and waiters soon just started asking for the band to be removed rather than scan them on the spot.

[smokeybandit]

We're on Freedom this weekend and my son wants to test out the WOW bands new to that ship.

[pat8635]

On harmony last month they had readers you could just use at bar!

[Smokey79]

On 3/9/2025 at 6:54 PM, dodgestang said:

We got the wow bands because we were star class once.  Seemed like the biggest waste of an idea because everytime i ordered a drink I literally had to take it off and hand it to the attendant.  Perhaps they had planned at one point to give everyone tech to scan and take orders with...but because of this....I used for about 2 hours and then went back to seapass card.

We had a better experience with them thankfully as I was concerned with that exact issue. Luckily the bartenders would see the bands and that we weren’t wearing our seapasses so they would just ask our cabin number and a name of someone in the cabin. I could get a multiple drinks at once up to the number of adults in the cabin. Which was super helpful when I would be sent down on Pesky Parrot runs. Plus the looks from people when I would get on the elevator with four drinks in my hands was priceless.