THE techy travel innovations start before you've even boarded the so-called "smartship" - the latest addition to the Royal Caribbean International fleet - with online check-in and luggage tracking via the Royal iQ app for smartphone or tablet.

Also on the app guests can book activities, spa treatments and dinner reservations at the touch of a button. The Quantum has done away with the usual central restaurant concept, instead offering "Dynamic Dining," a choice of 10 international eateries (of the total 18 on-board) as part of the all-inclusive offering.

"Guests are getting the first day of their holiday back," said Royal Caribbean CEO Richard D Fain at the media launch, as they no longer have to wander from venue to venue on the vast 4,000-person capacity vessel to make bookings.

Access to the planner is via "blazingly fast" Wi-Fi and more bandwidth than all the other cruise ships in the world combined, so passengers can stay connected to home (and work, if they really want) or watch movies on Netflix when they're not swimming, sunbathing, skating at the roller disco or scaling the rock climbing wall.

Activities that are debuting on Quantum have a high-tech slant, too. Top billing goes to North Star, a London Eye-style pod that lifts a dozen people 90 metres above sea-level for a seabird's-eye view of the ocean, a skydiving simulator and the Bionic Bar, manned - or rather unmanned - by a pair of robot mixologists.

Even customary cruise favourites like the nightly musicals get a modern makeover - the lofty Two70 theatre boasts six strangely mesmerising robot video screens, the top deck leisure complex a DJ booth that retracts into the ceiling.

So did all the digital wizardry work on Quantum's two-day "shake down" voyage? Well, almost. Teething problems led to queues at check-in, meaning the mooted "ship to shore in 10 minutes" wasn't possible, and Wi-Fi was intermittent because the super-fast satellite connectivity won't kick in until the ship reaches America.

Royal Caribbean promises that internet access will be infallible when sister ship Anthem of the Seas docks in Southampton next spring, and during Quantum's inaugural season based out of New Jersey for summer 2015. The ship will eventually cater to the emerging Chinese market, based in Shanghai.

But even with all the tech perfected, will the smartship really appeal to the typical cruise-goer? Fain thinks so.

"This tech is designed for everybody. It makes things easier. You don't have to be young to appreciate all these conveniences," he said, declaring that even passengers in their seventies have said the app is easy to use.

Besides, there's still plenty of analogue entertainment on offer, even if traditional travellers don't want a "virtual balcony" broadcasting a video view into their windowless room, or an Old Fashioned served by a cyborg.