Carnival UK, the British arm of a large cruise ship operator, announced it is piloting Protouch kiosks at sea. Starting on the Cunard brand, the global cruise company is deploying the kiosks across its cruise ships where they will initially be used to run a cash depositing system for crew members to administer on-board accounts, and provide an information portal.
Carnival is looking to reduce or eliminate the use of cash by staff on board its fleet of 11 U.K. ships and 96 ships globally. With the new automatic system, crew members will be able to use the kiosks to top up their accounts without the need for staff assistance.
"The business response towards the kiosks has been very positive with the kiosks taking £40,000 in the first 3 weeks at sea. We are very pleased to continue our relationship with Protouch across our iconic Cunard and P&O Cruise Ships for further rollouts, and hope to extend the functionality of these kiosks in the future,” said Julian Banasiewicz, IT projects manager at Carnival UK.
Protouch says it is providing hardware, software and a managed service with support and maintenance. Carnival UK elected Xen X4 kiosks featuring note acceptors, 80mm receipt printers and magnetic stripe card readers. Crew members insert their Personalised Crew cards to check their card balance, top up their account, check currency crew exchange rates and also view personal details.
The kiosks were launched on the new ship Queen Elizabeth for its maiden voyage on Oct. 12. A successful trial will see Carnival UK roll out out the kiosks across its high profile P&O Cruises and Cunard brands. Future initiatives include a review of passenger-facing functions to extend the use of Protouch kiosks technology.
