Question of the Day - 17 July 2023

 Chuck E. Cheese world

We’ve been using the Medallion on Princess cruises for several years now. They are the best system in all of the cruise lines. They are access to your room, ID for leaving and returning from ports, on board (and in some ports) purchases and ordering food and drink and being found anywhere onboard for delivery of same. 
We even use them to locate others in our traveling party. 
The advantage over a wrist band is that it is a round small medallion that you can wear on a lanyard, a wristband, a belt clip or even, as I do, in your wallet. 

Not sure why the uproar either. As noted, it makes life a lot easier when you don;'t have to search for a room key, plus it has other uses. Royal Caribbean actually SELLS these bands and I  gladly paid $10 for one (can use it over and over again on any future cruises for the rest of my life). Not only can I open my cabin door with it, I can purchase anything on board with it, including drinks, food, gift shop items, etc. Not sure why anyone would find this to be a problem.

Like not having to dig out the room key. I usually stay there midweek several times a year and nobody has been checking for wristbands. I put the band on loose so I can remove it for sleeping or going out where a wristband wouldn't look right. Along with the wristband the front desk issues me a room key. You need one of them (or a card of any kind) to insert into a slot in the room to allow the room lights to work
 No card, no lights.

Mr. Dorweiler is mistaken on the timeline. I have made several trips to the Tez since they reopened after the pandemic. That's when the wristbands started. Those bands did not do anything except identify you as a hotel guest. In the early days of re-opening there were capacity limits on how many people could be in the casino. This was particularly evident on NYE 2021. I was wearing a long sleeve shirt that hid my wristband and was asked to show it before getting on the elevator (They also had guards posted at the elevators 24/7). Those restrictions were phased out in early 2021, but the wristbands remained. It was not until my last trip in April of this year that the bands became functional.  I have no problem wearing it. I did see several people who refused to wear it, instead opting to shove it in their pocket and then having to dig for it when they got on the elevator as it's needed to gain access to your floor. That seemed like more of a pain than just wearing the darn thing.

It's something new to a lot of people and for some reason many react in a suspicious or butt-hurt way. The same thing happened many years ago when hotels stopped giving you an actual key to your hotel room and started using the plastic room-key cards. Some folks just automatically assume a new idea is a bad idea.  

Twitter? Of course. It's a place where people who love to bitch about anything and everything go. And then others who love nothing better to do than jump on the bandwagon...even if they have absolutely no knowledge of the thing being bitched about.

At first look, having a multi-functional device (like this wristband) seems like a great idea.  As long as it was secure, and none of your personal information (such as credit card info) could be hacked by someone.

My only possible concern is the degree to which El Cortez security enforces the guests-only access to hotel rooms.  For example, if I happen to meet someone who would very much like to provide me with an hour or two of umm "companionship" and I want to umm "escort" this person to my room, will El Cortez allow me to do so?

The El Cortez now has RFID locks. Guests loose card keys a an alarming rate. RFID card keys are 3 to 5 times more expensive than old card keys.
Most hotels stop outside people from going into rooms they did not rent. More people in the room usually means noise room bad for other rooms

Walt Disney World does the wristband thing and it’s great - considering the dozens of times each day you use it. 

But for a casino? Should have gone with the system MGM uses: your phone with their app replaces your room key. Play tree isn’t any extra thing you need to carry. And if you’re really anti-technology, you can get a regular room card instead. 

Get use to it, this is just the start

Not for me. I don't wear anything on my hands or wrists and I especially don't want to wear a bulky plastic wristband in the hot Nevada weather all day advertising where I'm staying. Hopefully they allow guests to use a regular room key.

 I have worn the El Cortez wristband during my last half dozen visits - it is not "bulky" but it is not something that I look forward to wearing. I am sure that issuing these wristbands is a cost cutting measure for the El Cortez over buying room keys. I predict that more casinos will do the same to save money.

One could argue it's for security, preventing drifters and riff-raff in the downtown area from accessing elevators and such, possibly with the desire to rip people off. There are more than a few shady types in downtown wandering around I think is beyond obvious. Or prevent 80 people trying to gain access to one room. Or perhaps it's none of the above and the dim eggplant and their 'ministry of truth' fascism ways rubbing off in other places in society? But with all this security, what's with this can't find the coke nonsense excuse in eggplant land? smh. 

Actually forget to comment on an oddity in this. Wristbands seem a big archaic to me in this day. Why don't they just create an app that will allow room access, elevator access, etc. by scanning with a phone? That's a common practice in hotels these days. If cost cutting is the goal, that would save $ on wristbands, room card key, etc. Or is their clientele largely older/very old who might not be savvy with phones? Possible. 

I haven't been to El Cortez since Spring of last year, because right before I was to make a trip in early November, I got word that my brother had died; my life has been too busy with taking care of all the matters relating to his death to be able to take a vacation. But I can tell you that there was a guard posted at the 2 elevators for the Tower 24/7, so I don't see any danger of riffraff getting up into the Tower. But until today I have never heard of guests being forbidden or prevented from coming with you to your room. I could see the problem with a guest trying to go up an elevator to your room if he/she is alone, but if he/she was with me when I showed my room key, I would never have thought that the guard would say that the guest can't come with me. In my book, that would be improper, as I have the right to have guests in my room (and I've entertained a guest a few times in the past, at other properties). I'm curious of whether Management thought about this before making rules.