MIAMI — Carnival Cruise Lines has introduced new self-service digital photo printing kiosks providing a convenient and cost-effective way for guests to download and print their digital vacation photos while sailing aboard the “Fun Ships.” The new system, adapted for the shipboard environment by San Marcos, Texas-based Pixel Magic, is currently on several ships and expected to be expanded fleetwide by the end of the year.
Pixel Magic’s iStation 150 photo printing kiosks are located near the ships’ photo galleries. To print their photos, guests insert the memory card from their digital camera into a card reader located within the stand-alone printing kiosk. After selecting photo size and quantity, the images are then printed in a matter of seconds on high-quality digital photo paper using Pixel Magic’s latest MegaPixel III printers.
Guests can also customize their photos with colorful borders, backgrounds and other features. To pay for the photos, guests simply swipe their “Sail & Sign” shipboard credit card and the amount is charged to their account.
“With the growing popularity of digital cameras, we wanted to provide a fast, competitively priced means for guests to download and print their cherished memories from their ‘Fun Ship’ cruise vacation,” said Bob Woodry, Carnival’s vice president of photo and communication services.
The new Pixel Magic self-service photo printing kiosks are the most recent additions to Carnival’s multimillion-dollar fleetwide digital photo conversion. The upgrade includes state-of-the-art professional Olympus E-1 digital cameras — the first such cameras ever employed on cruise ships — and the full line of Olympus retail cameras, as well as digital photo labs developed in tandem by Carnival and KonicaMinolta.
Also new is a photo-retrieval kiosk currently being beta tested on the Carnival Pride’s seven-day cruises from Long Beach, Calif. The new system utilizes ImageWare Systems’ “facial recognition technology.” Developed in conjunction with Carnival, the technology matches a guest’s likeness with stored “Fun Ship” vacation photos shot by the ship’s photographers and displays the images on the computer screen for review and purchase. Carnival has also expanded the photo accessories sold on board its ships to include ScanDisk digital memory cards.
