The array of online options -- from Facebook to Twitter to mass e-mailings of links to the cruise line's site -- has enabled Royal Caribbean to interact with passengers, travel agents, and others in richer ways than before.

A name-the-ship contest attracted almost 100,000 entries. The cruise line and USA Today more recently held a ``Reporter at Sea'' contest, inviting amateur reporters, or ``citizen journalists,'' to send in videos to audition. Five winners from five countries were chosen to get free passage on a promotional cruise Nov. 19-22 and to post video reports about their impressions on the ship's website.

On Cruisesource.us, Rich Tucker, business development specialist at Cruisedeals.com in Charlotte, N.C., writes: ``Cruising and social media are like peanut butter and chocolate. Two tastes that taste great together.''

Tucker plans to ``tweet'' live from the Oasis on a two-night cruise for the travel trade that departs Nov. 22.

On Thursday, Tucker joined other blogging and tweeting cyberspace cruise enthusiasts on a four-day sailing out of Miami on the Carnival Destiny that focused on trends in using social media to promote cruising.

Carnival Cruise Lines didn't organize the event, but its ship is a logical setting: The Miami cruise giant embraced the Web early on, tapping John Heald as its blogger at sea. On Thursday, cruise enthusiasts could watch the naming ceremony of its new ship, Carnival Dream, in New York live on the company's website, with a live blog and poll for viewers to add their two cents. ``We have a rather large team,'' in Internet marketing, said Carnival spokesman Tim Gallagher.

Royal Caribbean, which ordered the Oasis in February 2006, began parceling out tidbits about its spectacular project in April 2008, when it held a press conference in New York to unveil the Central Park, made possible because the ship is wide enough to carve out a central atrium with cabins on either side. That first in a series of ``reveals'' also marked the launch of the website for the project, known then as Project Genesis.

``It's been two years of teasing,'' said David Bram, president of World Wide Cruises in Fort Lauderdale. Bram is attending a two-night inaugural cruise for travel agents, part of Royal's massive pitch to the trade, which plays a decisive role in helping vacationers decide which ships to book. ``I'm really looking forward to it. I've been in the business 16 years and I don't think I ever anticipated a ship like this one.''

Cruise aficionado Al Smith, of Jackson, Miss., who is sailing on Oasis' maiden voyage, tracks the vessel daily on Royal's website and others such as CruiseCritic.com.

``Right now I'm working on memorizing the deck plans,'' Smith said. ``I live the whole cruise prior to the actual trip.''

With a treasure trove of details online, Smith has scoped out Oasis's shore excursions and entertainment options and perused the inside of his cabin. He has checked all 24 specialty restaurants onboard.

``We're going to try to hit them all.''

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