iPad at Work: on the High Seas with Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines

We already know that the iPad is being widely adopted by commercial airlines, for use as an electronic flightbag and other purposes in the cockpit.

Now it looks as if it may also soon rule the waves. This week Royal Caribbean International, one of the world’s largest cruise ship lines, has announced that they will be adding an iPad in every stateroom on their Splendour of the Seas cruise liner. The ship is currently in drydock undergoing a refurbishment and the iPads will be rolled out on it when it resumes service in February of next year.

Royal Caribbean says the iPads are being added based on consumer research, to ‘greatly enhance guest communication and interactivity’.

Here’s some of the ways that guests on the Splendour of the Seas will be able to use their iPads:

On Splendour of the Seas, iPad’s will empower guests with an additional medium by which to receive and use information on their cruise vacation. Guests will be able to access the daily Cruise Compass shipboard newsletter of events and activities, personal daily itineraries and shore excursions, monitor their onboard account, order room service, view restaurant menus, access the Internet and watch movies.

They’ll be able to use the iPad all over the ship, with access to its ship-wide WiFi network.

The cruise line also has plans to extend the iPad rollout to other ships in its Vision Class line as they undergo ‘revitalization’ over the next couple of years.

I hope Royal Caribbean is getting iPad-sized life jackets made so that help will be at hand if the terrible cry of ‘iPad overboard’ is ever heard.

Via: TUAW