Voyager of the Seas cruise ship returns to Sydney after $80 million refit

If you spot someone hanging five by the Opera House, off the back of Australia's biggest passenger ship, around dawn on Monday, don't be surprised. It's merely the latest ripple in the battle against not just one of the cruise industry's most mortal enemies – boredom – but also for dominance of the nation's multibillion-dollar cruise industry.

At well over 300 metres in length, with 15 levels and weighing nearly 138,000 tonnes, Royal Caribbean's Voyager of the Seas – more than matching the Opera House in bulk – arrives in Sydney on Monday morning after an $80 million "head-to-toe makeover" in Singapore, where it began its first post-refit voyage 13 days ago.

Among the newest features of the ship – which can accommodate nearly 4000 passengers making it one of the world's biggest cruise ships – is a FlowRider surf simulator. The surf machine attraction is part of the industry's efforts to shed its image as God's waiting room afloat and to appeal to younger passengers, including extended family groups

Sean Treacy, commercial director of Royal Caribbean International, south-east Asia and Australia, says that his company has invested more than $US200 million in "revitalising" its Australian fleet "to ensure [that] Australians have the newest and most feature-packed ships on their doorstep".

"We are committed to giving our Australian guests the very best when they sail with us," Mr Treacy said. "We're excited to be back home in Sydney with even more incredible features."

Even more incredible is the growth that the Australian cruise industry has witnessed in recent years. It's been valued at $3.2 billion with market penetration second only to that of the US. Annual cruise passenger numbers in Australia are nearing the one million mark.

FlowRider is just one of Voyager of the Sea's attractions which include a new 3-D cinema, a scoreboard-sized outdoor movie screen, an at-sea ice-skating rink, a rock-climbing wall, a full-size basketball court, a nine-hole mini golf course, and a mini-Westfields-style shopping mall "boulevard".

Royal Caribbean has also sought to overcome the dilemma of potentially claustrophobic inside staterooms with no portholes and therefore no views, by introducing "real-time virtual balconies which show the outside vista. An 80-inch high definition screen, delivering actual "sights and sounds of the sea" framed to resemble a proper cruise ship balcony.

Captain Charles Teige, Voyager of the Seas' Norwegian skipper, said that when he first began working in the cruise industry over two decades ago the main attractions on passenger ships were confined to "a small Broadway-style show, sun-baking on the deck and dining."