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Others are eager for drama to unfold, seeing it as inevitable with the mix of alcohol and passengers living in close quarters for an extended period of time. After all, right now, a week in, they're still on a normal vacation. There's also @nchimad who has dubbed themselves the Sea Tea Director in their TikTok profile. In other words, they're spending a lot of time and energy figuring out the drama on the World Cruise.
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One guest was accused of being a swinger because she had a pineapple decoration on her cabin door (“Sorry to disappoint you,” she said in a response video). Since the ship launched from Miami on Dec. 10, TikTok has been flooded with posts from voyeurs on land, dissecting the videos shared by cruise passengers and speculating on the ship’s potential as a floating arena for high-level drama. Some are declaring it a “nine-month TikTok reality show,” with the passengers becoming unintentional celebrities. Maddox said it makes sense that people are trying to use the language of reality TV to understand what they see on TikTok, where “storytime” posts and drama are often posted episodically.
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In reality, most people on the World Cruise are enjoying themselves. But it’s what goes wrong that is driving views on social media – and plenty has already gone wrong. “This person has been put on the Royal Caribbean cruise for 18 days looking for the drama – ‘the tea’ – of living on a ship. There’s no drama or tea on a ship but he’s been put there to get drama or tea,” says Kesteloo. But while some attention on Royal Caribbean’s world cruise was expected, no one could have predicted the extent to which it would take over social media. It only took about two weeks from embarkation day for content from the sailing to go viral on TikTok.
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The passengers on the Serenade of the Seas so far seem to be enjoying the cruise, according to several who spoke to "TODAY." Those who chose the full trip, prices started at $53,999, according to the Royal Caribbean website. TikTok drama aside, both LRB and Linderman had plenty to say when asked about the upside of life at sea so far. LRB notes that Royal Caribbean suggested a company that could file visas for guests, but that her family opted to file the paperwork themselves. One situation that has raised questions among the armchair cruisers on TikTok is the visa process for cruise guests.
Meet the 'cast' of the 9-month cruise that's taking over TikTok - The Washington Post
Meet the 'cast' of the 9-month cruise that's taking over TikTok.
Posted: Thu, 11 Jan 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]
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Still, she urged viewers to remember that where reality TV is often scripted and planned behind the scenes, those on the Ultimate World Cruise are real people living their real lives. “Imagine eating unlimited cruise food for nine months, like what that’s going to do to your body. I just worry people aren’t going to pace themselves and it’s going to be really hard on their bodies.
He also claimed the showers are small with inconsistent hot water, the travel excursions to see penguins are often cancelled, and there’s music blaring everywhere, constantly. “The closet is really tiny — I’ll leave that to the imagination because if I open it, everything’s going to fall out,” she says at one point, gesturing to a small cupboard next to the door. "Sometimes it's just nice being with the other creators and just chatting and catching up and not pulling your phone out and recording everything," she said. There are Gen Z-ers and retirees, solo travelers and entire families, crew members and performers, duos of spouses and of siblings. "I will cause chaos, I will wreak havoc, and I will record everything." They've been answering questions and updating viewers on the cruise's latest new "characters" and storylines, from minor flooding to a rumored wine shortage.
That the social media spectacle of the Ultimate World Cruise has spilled offscreen and onto the actual boat is maybe more interesting than the understandable highs and lows of living at sea with hundreds of other people. Cruises are indeed getting longer, though mishaps can certainly occur — just ask the would-be passengers who are now suing the three-year cruise that was abruptly canceled mere days before it was scheduled to depart. There’s also @little_rat_brain (139,000 followers), an anonymous passenger who makes short comedy skits on board, as well as smaller accounts such as @singing.sailor, a crew member working as a performer and posting to his 7,000 followers. Dozens of passengers on board the Royal Caribbean's nine-month "Ultimate World Cruise" have gone viral on TikTok since it set sail in December.
The price for the full 274-nights was between $53,999 per person to $117,599 per person. Suffice to say, the inside room was closer to the low end of that range. In addition, booking an inside room means a lot of money saved that can be used towards other aspects of this epic trip. Then there's a video by Little Rat Brain that showed what her cabin looked like, and it has 1.4 million views. While there will certainly be people who get in trouble, annoyances, or other instances of guests behaving badly, this is not unique to a world cruise by any means.
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"The way that we're getting higher-produced content from some people and then some more raw, gossipy content from other people really does feel like you could stitch everything together and make an episode for every single day," she added. TikToker[7] @pamelawurstvetrini posted a clip introducing all the "cast" members of the cruise on December 16th, 2023, gathering over 980,000 plays and 115,000 likes in a week (seen below, left). He says he’s honored by the sentiment and it’s the reason he keeps it up. Videos with the hashtag #UltimateWorldCruise have had more than 138 million views on the social media app. “There’s definitely this fascination that’s baked into TikTok that we see exacerbated in things like Bama Rush and the world cruise of ‘I could never live this life, so I’m now going to live vicariously through these people,’” Maddox said.
TikToker[1] @little_rat_brain posted one such video on December 11th, 2023, gathering over 1.2 million plays and 78,000 likes in 10 days (seen below, left). Also on December 11th, TikToker[2] @angielinderman posted an FAQ about the cruise and why she decided to go on it, gathering over 1 million plays and 92,000 likes in a similar timeframe (seen below, right). With a 274-night itinerary, the Ultimate World Cruise is the longest cruise ever offered by Royal Caribbean.
What might look like mundane visits to the ship’s laundry room, workouts, and trips to the all-day buffet have become blockbuster hits on the app. These were the words of Marc Sebastian, just one of the hundreds of TikTok users who, in the last few weeks, have developed a new and all-consuming obsession — Royal Caribbean’s nine-month Ultimate World Cruise. Or, as it has been dubbed on the app, the "nine-month TikTok reality show". Cohen says social media audiences have a lot more power than they realize to "bend and mold the way that these things go," and urges them to use it responsibly. "The majority of these humans that are on here aren't previously known influencers. They're becoming that," said Cohen, the former reality TV producer.
Since the South African boarded the cruise with her parents and her husband, she has taken us along for sea-day gym sessions, what it’s like to dine on board and how she learned to do gel manicures ahead of the cruise so she could save money. Dozens of TikTok accounts have popped up to document all things Serenade of the Seas. Some are run by a few of the 600-something travelers staying on board for the entire 274-night itinerary. The culmination of their content — with hashtags such as #ultimateworldcruise, #worldcruise and #9monthcruise — has racked up hundreds of millions of views. The effect is comparable to a reality TV show, complete with “cast members,” drama and intrigue.
But the actress and waitress says she now spends hours a day researching, recording and editing TikToks — and doesn't plan to stop anytime soon. Another TikToker named Christine Kesteloo (@dutchworld_americangirl), lives on a cruise ship and has nearly 883,000 followers. She responded directly to Sebastian’s videos, insinuating that influencers like Sebastian are creating drama where there is none for views. A seasoned social media user, Amike Oosthuizen posts highly satisfying day-in-the-life videos that bring you into her world.
One couple made videos onboard joking about how they spent their children’s inheritances on the price of the cruise. The Ultimate World Cruise, a 274-night voyage aboard the Serenade of the Seas by Royal Caribbean Cruises, departed from Miami on Dec. 10. For the lighter but still important logistics of packing, LRB says that her family took a very precise approach. "Our trip route follows the sun. We left the Northern Hemisphere just before the start of winter and are sailing south to the start of summer, so theoretically, we should have fairly similar temperature ranges at all of the ports," LRB explains. This approach allowed her family to avoid packing cold-weather clothing "which allowed for more space to pack for theme nights, sea days, and still be able to squeeze in gym wear." Some users following the events of the cruise ship appear to be ogling the voyage with a sense of suspicion and a sobering dose of reality.
But travelers were not required to book the entire nine-month duration of the cruise. Instead, they were able to purchase either a nine- to 28-night duration aboard the ship or one of the four segments of the trip, rather than booking the entire trip, Royal Caribbean's website states. Although no major drama has unfolded aboard the ship, those following along on social media appear eager for reality TV-style turmoil to unfold. Shortly after its departure, many aboard the Serenade of the Seas began documenting their time on the ship. Some showed off cabins in the style of the MTV show “Cribs” while others opted to give tours of the entire ship.
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