When Royal Caribbean’s new Oasis of the Seas begins regular cruises next month, the muster station wristbands that all young children on cruise ships must wear will be enhanced with a passive electronic device that will allow their parents to track them in real time as they wander the ship – an industry first.

The wristbands are being rolled out in conjunction with the debut of an onboard smart phone system called Royal Connect that’s designed to make it easier for passengers to keep in touch with eachother.

Passengers will be able to rent Royal Connect phones for $17.50 a voyage that they can use to track their children, call and text other passengers who have Royal Connect phones and call cabins.

The phones also can be used to call onboard areas such as the spa and restaurants to make reservations, and they also display the latest shipboard activities.

Royal Caribbean’s Chief Information Officer, Bill Martin, offered USA TODAY a sneak peek at the yet-to-be-announced phone system today on board the ship during inaugural festivities. The phones are Apple iPhones configured to only work on the ship (you can’t call home), and he says the line will have 800 on board Oasis by January.

Martin says the line will rent them out on a first-come, first-serve basis to passengers in three locations, the conference center of Deck 3, the Adventure Ocean kids area on Deck 14 and in the concierge lounge.

“We think they’re going to be extremely popular,” says Martin, adding that eventually the line could add more applications to the phones in addition to calling, texting, tracking and activity lists.

“We could add an Internet browser or (add an application to) play music on it,” he says.

The new tracking system for children and Royal Connect phones only will be available on Oasis for now as they require a dedicated wireless network that doesn’t exist on older ships. But Martin says the system could be retrofitted to other vessels down the road. “Because (the concept) is brand new we need to see what the reaction is going to be,” he says.

Martin says there’s no age limit to who can have one of the phones. A parent could rent one for his or her 10-year-old child to carry so they could call and text each other while roaming the ship. One caveat, though, that may keep some parents from letting their kids have them: Renters who don’t return the phones or return them damaged will be charged $1,000.

“These are expensive devices,” Martin notes. Unlike the less expensive iPhones that consumers buy, “they’re not subsidized by any carrier.”

Martin notes that parents who don’t want to spend the $17.50 to rent a phone but still want to track down their child’s location on Oasis will be able to go the guest services desk to do it.

On my visit to the shipyard, the ship’s gleaming white turrets of steel and glass dwarf the gantries and cranes perched alongside. Though the ship is 95 per cent finished, many fittings are missing and, as I move through the interior, I continually have to duck wiring, step over cabling and avoid workmen.

I get a better sense of the size of Oasis only when I emerge on the top deck, which provides view over Turku harbour.

“We made the ship 50 per cent bigger than anything we’ve ever done, in fact any other cruise ship out there, because we had so many things we wanted to do,” the chief executive of Royal Caribbean, Richard Fain, says. “On Oasis of the Seas, working together with the architects, with the shipyard, with our own engineers, we’ve been able to make much better use of the space than ever before.”

There’s certainly plenty of space – the ship is 360 metres long and 65 metres wide. The Oasis story is one of large numbers and cruising firsts.

There is the ship’s capacity, for a start: 6300 passengers and 2165 crew. There’s the accommodation: it includes 2706 staterooms, some of which span two decks and feature floor-to-ceiling windows with ocean views. The plant life: 12,000 plants, including 56 trees, some more than seven metres tall. The activities: on-board surfing, scuba diving, ice skating, shopping. And so the list goes.

Fain anticipates that the size of the vessel and the scope of activities and facilities will entice passengers on all budgets. Certainly he is encouraged by ticket sales despite the economic climate.

To accommodate all those people, the ship is divided into seven “neighbourhoods”, including Central Park and Royal Promenade. And there is no shortage of things to keep passengers entertained.

Among the attractions are an aqua theatre pool 5.4 metres deep, two rock-climbing walls, the obligatory casino and 21 swimming pools and jacuzzis. There’s also a carousel, ice rink, themed bars and restaurants, high-end shops, a nightclub, a Rising Tide bar that ascends three decks while you sip your martini, a wedding chapel, scuba diving lessons, two wave-flow riders for surfing, a jogging track, library and roaming entertainers.

Entertainment also includes stunt divers, swimmers and actors performing in the 50-metre-wide outdoor pool amphitheatre designed to seat 500 guests.

Royal Caribbean’s schedule has the first Oasis cruise starting in early December in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with ports of call that include Charlotte Amalie in St Thomas, Philipsburg in St Maarten and Nassau in the Bahamas.

Ready for that voyage is Captain William Wright, who began his seafaring career aged 16 and has taken the helm of several new cruise ships on debut at Royal Caribbean.

He had a sneak peak at the ship’s performance during the pre-launch “floating out” ceremony last November.

“It’s clearly one of the most stable ships we have built,” he says. “The size has allowed us to … demonstrably increase the safety of the ship, which is really nice to know. It helps us captains sleep at night.”

Other safety features include smoke and heat detectors and a Hi-Fog water mist fire-extinguishing system.

The ship will have three doctors, five nurses and one medical assistant on board.

It is equipped with 18 life boats – or “rescue vessels”, as Wright prefers to call them – each with a toilet on board. “That’s a first, I can assure you,” he says (source: www.theage.com.au).

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