Unraveling the Reality behind Royal Caribbean's Ultimate World Cruise (The Americas and Oceania)
It’s been three months since Royal Caribbean's Ultimate World Cruise left Miami to embark on a marathon tour around the globe, and things are starting to get a little weird.
Author’s Note: This is the second part of a multi-part series covering the happenings on Royal Caribbean’s inaugural Ultimate World Cruise. If you haven’t already, check out Part One here.
If you appreciate works like this but aren’t necessarily interested in upgrading to a paid subscription, please consider buying me a coffee – this series didn’t write itself!
Before diving in, I’ll start by saying this: as an outsider looking in, conjuring the words to summarize the latest goings-on of the Ultimate World Cruise is no easy feat.
This may come as something of a surprise since a few dozen Ultimate World Cruisers are publicizing their day-by-day, play-by-play experiences via platforms like TikTok and Instagram. Theoretically, being able to see the same adventure play out through so many sets of eyes should make recounting the journey thus far a simple task. On a surface level, it does. By watching innumerable not-quite-identical videos posted by influencers who may or may not be living their best lives, I can tell you that on February 10th and 11th hundreds of passengers experienced Disneyland for the first time. Exactly one month later, many of those same individuals were nearly half a world away cuddling with kangaroos and koalas in Brisbane.
When faced with the task of summing up how life has been beyond those picturesque excursions, though, the narrative begins to diverge. For many aboard the Serenade of the Seas, circumnavigating the world does seem to be a dream come true. But for a less vocal, less visible subset of the ship’s population, the experience seems to be twisting into something closer to a nightmare.
Just one factor seems to be consistent among the many voices sharing their thoughts and feelings on this one-of-a-kind adventure: this experiment on the Serenade doesn’t seem to be panning out quite the way anyone expected.
Early on, you may recall that news coverage of the Ultimate World Cruise often referred to it as a “TikTok Reality Show”. However, those who wholeheartedly expected a constant flow of earth-shattering drama akin to what traditional reality television series effortlessly churn out have been largely disappointed. There have been no surprise pregnancies or ugly extramarital affairs playing out online in the form of 45-second spurts. There are no editors endowed with endgame knowledge and a penchant for storytelling to separate the inconsequential from the significant.
Instead, the act of watching the Ultimate World Cruise unfold feels much more like deciphering a mystery. The backlog of content viewers must sift through is something messier than the straightforward, easy-to-interpret narrative that we take for granted in seemingly brain-dead reality TV. The delineation between “hero” and “villain” is often unclear. Details get lost in fleeting livestreams that no one thinks to record, and rumors based on hearsay bleed into the murky truths that make their way back to dedicated viewers.
As a result, many of those who lack the patience and prying nature necessary to piece together the goings-on onboard have long since moved on to the next trending topic. Why dwell on something so convoluted when there’s a constant stream of conspiracy and spectacle playing out elsewhere at all hours of the day?
This is not to say, however, that there’s nothing of note taking place with the Ultimate World Cruise. On the contrary – if you can get past the fact that the story of this spectacle is not one that offers instant gratification, this trip around the world is something truly fascinating to witness.
As I’m writing this, the World Cruise has so far circled South America and made its way across the Pacific to Oceania. And, to put it lightly, the journey hasn’t been without its fair share of literal and figurative turbulence.
Some of this was to be expected. In particular, voyages through the Tasman Sea and the Drake Passage brought with them waves the size of houses (perhaps nature’s way of hammering home that the ocean was never meant to house men). Reliant on Phenargen and Dramamine and wrist bands that send little shocks through the nervous system to stave off vomit, some passengers spent days doing little more than nauseously nibbling at green apples1. Uncooperative weather made docking impossible in French Guiana and the Falkland Islands, an unfortunate (but not at all unusual) reality of cruising.
Other hiccups were far more difficult to anticipate ahead of time. Upticks in violent crime, civil unrest, and wrongful detention resulted in the cancellation of stops in Nicaragua and Ecuador. Protesters physically blocked railways and bus routes in Cuzco, preventing hundreds of World Cruise passengers from visiting Machu Picchu2.
Yet at a glance, every bump in the road has seemingly been met with overwhelming enthusiasm from the most visible of the cruise influencers. Despite days of queasiness, dozens of Instagram posts asserted that the rough sea was worth enduring to reach Antarctica, grand and beautiful in a way that only a personless place can be. Despite their inability to leave the ship to traverse the untouched polar desert, passengers in expensive furs seemed content – thrilled, even – to pose with a hunk of sea ice hauled onto the deck by crew members as a consolation. Likewise, everyone seemed to adopt a cavalier attitude when the heavily advertised Machu Pichu excursion was cut from the itinerary at the very last possible moment3.
Regardless of what’s thrown their way, everyone always seems to be smiling, stoked for the next adventure in a seemingly never-ending list of adventures. There are no signs of homesickness or burnout. At times, the hyper-positivity among cruisers sharing their experiences borders on bizarre. When news of a death4 aboard the cruise ship leaked via a TikToker who witnessed the corpse being carried off to the morgue, said TikToker in question didn’t seem to be the slightest bit disturbed by the macabre scene she happened to stumble into. Instead, she immediately carried on cheerfully about the brand new hot pink key card Royal Caribbean had just issued to signal the start of a new segment.
Some passengers aboard the Serenade may very well exist in a realm in which all negative experiences are immediately compensated for with something wonderful. In these circumstances, they may very well be living, breathing, bottomless wells of happiness.
But the facade of sincere perfection seems to quickly dissipate when some are afforded separation from the ship or a degree of anonymity. Through segmenters who disembarked after completing the first leg of the trip and amateur TikTok reporters in close communication with current cruise-goers, it has become clear that underneath the toothy grins we see online lies real conflict and tension.
Much of the trouble revolves around favoritism exhibited toward certain passengers based on their placement within the Crown and Anchor Society, which is what Royal Caribbean calls its loyalty program. For every night booked on a Royal Caribbean cruise, passengers earn one point5. Once passengers surpass 700 points, they’re admitted entrance into Royal Caribbean’s highest loyalty tier, the Pinnacle Club. Accruing this many points involves spending hundreds of thousands of dollars, making the club quite exclusive and effectively unattainable to those who don’t have unlimited funds to spend on leisure and luxury.
Like most loyalty programs, Royal Caribbean’s Crown and Anchor Society comes with perks ranging from complimentary drinks to priority access to events, excursions, and facilities. On a normal-length cruise, it’s pretty easy to ignore or accept that those with the deepest pockets receive some special treatment. But the Ultimate World Cruise, being nine months long and populated with an inordinate amount of Pinnacle Club members, has made Royal Caribbean’s service inequities impossible to ignore for those living on the bottom rungs of this microcosm.
Perhaps the most visible example of this artificial inequity – and the animosity that subsequently stems from it – can be seen at ports in which the physical conditions and/or infrastructure are not adequate to dock a large, cumbersome cruise ship. In such cases, passengers must board smaller tender boats that ferry people from the larger cruise vessel to land. By design, these tender boats do not have the capacity necessary to ferry every cruise passenger simultaneously. Generally, they prioritize stability and comfort over speed.
Because tender boats have to make so many trips back and forth to pick up and drop off passengers, the process of getting everyone on land that wants to be on land can take hours. And when the cruise itself only budgets a few precious hours per locale, a late start can mean missing out on all that a fantastic, once-in-a-lifetime excursion has to offer6. It will probably come as no surprise to learn that higher-tier passengers are automatically allowed priority tender boarding privileges. For instance, if 25 tender boat trips are necessary to ferry everyone, the first 10 trips available might be offered exclusively to Royal Caribbean’s most loyal customers. Lower-ranking passengers, on the other hand, are instead subjected to a first-come, first-served system in which they must wait hours at a time to receive tender tickets and visit the locales that they already paid to see.
Because several ports have been canceled already and later tickets equate to less time ashore, competition for tender tickets can be quite fierce. American influencer Marc Sebastian and Australian comedian Christian Hull have both recorded footage and recounted experiences featuring fellow passengers shoving and shouting at one another in tender lines.
But the aggression emerging out of the Serenade seems to go beyond snippy encounters exchanged while waiting in long lines. During a stop in Guatemala, a Pinnacle Club member allegedly assaulted another tourist. According to “segmenter” Nadine Bower (@nadine.bower), multiple people witnessed the altercation, which resulted in the victim spraining their ankle. Bower went on to claim that the aggressor did not face repercussions from Royal Caribbean due to their high loyalty status. This attack took place just a few weeks after cruise reporters began buzzing about a fistfight that broke out among four passengers.
Though direct testimonies of passenger frustrations7 have been few and far between, stories such as these suggest that – at least for some people aboard – everything is not as alright as it may seem.
Which begs the question: what is the purpose of pretending?
In part, it can quite literally pay for some of the most visible influencers aboard to remain positive at all costs. Well aware of the free advertising that comes with pleasing social media starlets, Royal Caribbean has occasionally extended special treatment to the loudest voices hyping up the Ultimate World Cruise. Early on, many of the most popular influencers were invited to a free five-course meal (with wine pairings) at the exclusive Chef’s Table restaurant – so long as each participant agreed to make a post hyping up the luxurious dining experience. Christian Hull, whose podcast on the cruise has recently become one of the most listened-to comedy podcasts in Australia8, has been gifted bottled water and chocolate-covered strawberries that any other customer would be expected to pay for.
But these perks are nothing compared to the outside sponsorships that several creators have snagged since the cruise initially went viral. The publicity surrounding the Ultimate World Cruise has generated massive follower counts for some of the passengers, a few of whom are understandably eager to capitalize on the unexpected, possibly lucrative opportunity. And while controversial posts may snag eyes temporarily, those seriously seeking long-term endorsements know that big smiles and positive vibes are ultimately more marketable traits9.
Financial incentives aside, others hypothesize that the hyper-positivity being exhibited online is a form of denial. Acknowledging setbacks and flaws disrupts the fantasy that the Ultimate World Cruise is some sort of heaven on Earth. And when you’ve already handed over tens of thousands of dollars to Royal Caribbean, that can be a tough pill to swallow.
But the greatest threat that comes with speaking out lies in the very real social repercussions that come with online missteps.
An unfortunate reality of being on the internet is facing the negative backlash that comes with sharing the wrong thing in the wrong place. Luckily, the majority of us have the privilege of logging off and moving on when this inevitably happens. This is not the case for those trapped on the Ultimate World Cruise. Stuck floating in the middle of the ocean for months on end with a bunch of people who are Very Online, bad behavior has very real social consequences that extend far beyond intangible forums and comment sections.
At the end of January, a husband and wife duo formerly operating under the moniker “UltimateWorldCruiser” learned just how harsh retribution could be after posting a livestream of an incredibly drunken, mostly incoherent rant. What began as a jealous lament over not receiving as many microtransaction “gifts” on TikTok streams as fellow their World Cruise content creators quickly warped into a bizarre rant against actress Whoopi Goldberg, who happens to be the godmother of the Serenade of the Seas10. After boldly claiming that the seasoned comedian and media personality “hates white people”, the wife stated the following before retiring to her cabin:
“[Goldberg] wears that white Revolutionary War wig…why would you look like you’re wearing a Ben Franklin11 Revolutionary father’s wig if you hate ‘em. Fuck her.”
Her husband continued on for several minutes and made matters infinitely worse with the following:
“For those of you who have been misinformed about our feed, and maybe you just thought that we were totally like…I don’t know…okay with all of your beliefs and thought processes about how you are – how you’ve been – disenfranchised: we don’t really believe you’ve been disenfranchised. At all. […] I’m friends with gay people! Transvestite people! Black people! White people, Spanish people. People from all over the world. I like them very much. I love people. But I do not love when people are claiming victimhood. God, I can’t fricking stand that! Can’t fucking stand it! People claim that they’re victims of their circumstances, and it’s like, you think I haven’t been down in the dumps? Do you think the world hasn’t shit on me? The world has shit on me plenty, thank you very much! I’m upset with that! Oh, you think because I’m a – whatever! No! I’m not going to accept that. Why should I?”
Within hours, fellow cruise content creators went online to express their disgust, unfollow, block, and disavow UltimateWorldCruiser. To be clear, this immediate ostracizing was entirely warranted, since both husband and wife exposed themselves as bigoted jackasses on several fronts. Nevertheless, the speed with which the two found themselves labeled social pariahs within their tiny community at sea was astounding. In response, UltimateWorldCruiser quickly issued a half-assed apology and changed its handle. However, the damage had already been done. Convinced that their drunken words were sober thoughts, several vloggers who once considered the couple behind UltimateWorldCruiser to be friends have since spoken out about cutting the two off entirely.
Unfortunately, others seem to make enemies of their fellow passengers for far less serious offenses.
After speaking out about unfair working conditions and passenger inequity on board the ship, influencer Marc Sebastian claimed that internal Ultimate World Cruise Facebook groups responded with homophobic insults and threats to throw the social media darling overboard. At one point, an irate passenger had security throw Sebastian out of a Pinnacle-exclusive lounge, despite having been invited into the area by a Pinnacle Club member. Josh and Ina Terry (@budgettraveler33), a budget-conscious couple that managed to book the entire nine-month cruise at a significantly lower price thanks to a few pricing loopholes, have also been subject to mistreatment online and in person. One of the few accounts willing to post criticism concerning the Serenade, Josh Terry has shared seemingly legitimate anecdotes about questionable food sanitation, lodging snafus, and failures on Royal Caribbean’s part to share pertinent information about upcoming ports. Instead of lending support, a handful of fellow passengers have accused the couple of lying about their lived experiences and have seemingly excluded both Josh and Ina from various blogger meet-ups and social events extended to other content creators.
These looming threats – to ego, to income, to community – have thus far facilitated a culture of silence, largely masked by extreme optimism. The human psychological urge to complain has, for the most part, been suppressed by the need to fit into this small artificial society traveling the world (but somehow not a part of it).
But this may not be the case for long.
On March 19th, it was discovered that Royal Caribbean had posted a listing on TikTok’s Creator Marketplace12. Seeking a set of veteran content creators, the company was offering a sixteen-night, all-expense-paid stretch aboard the Serenade. In exchange for creating no less than seven promotional videos, chosen influencers would receive a $2000 paycheck.
This immediately enraged many of the content creators already aboard the nine-month cruise. At the forefront of the phenomena, their unpaid coverage thus far has garnered over a billion views across various platforms, as well as mainstream media attention globally. As a result, they’ve generated hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of free organic marketing for Royal Caribbean without asking for any sort of compensation. Up until this point, it was an agreement that all parties involved consented to. The idea of paying an outsider to replicate the work of existing cruise content creators, however, was largely viewed as Royal Caribbean spitting venom in the eyes of their existing customers.
For approximately 24 hours, all hell broke loose on a significant portion of CruiseTok. Interspersed between videos of cruisers riding on the backs of elephants in Indonesia were normally jovial presences turned seething, toying with the idea of revealing their laundry lists of secret grievances kept stifled for months. “Listen. I have kept it cute with Royal Caribbean for three months,” vented passenger Anthony Antoine (@anthonyantoine1021) in a recent post to his 128k followers. “I said I was going to keep it cute because I’ve got six more months with y’all, but I could have blasted [Royal Caribbean] about four or five explicit things that y’all have done wrong, but this one takes the cake…$2000 and some “free product” is not enough for me to keep my mouth shut”.
Seeing the near-instantaneous volatile backlash, Royal Caribbean retracted the offer and issued apologies to a handful of the cruise’s most visible influencers.
But, like incendiary tequila-sunrise-fueled livestreams made in the dead of night, some wounds are not easily undone with a simple “sorry”. Whether this spat between the company and its customers is the sort of wound that can be patched with an apology is, as of now, unclear.
Furthermore, the biggest test yet for the occupants of the Serenade of the Seas is still on the horizon.
In many ways, the Ultimate World Cruise exists in a sort of universe parallel to our own. It exists in a bubble where the rules of mundane, everyday life are irrelevant, and every moment is expected to be a once-in-a-lifetime moment. But I use the term “sort of” because, in truth, the trajectories that separate their world from ours are not quite as steady as they should be. Instead, they waver and intersect, inconveniencing passengers attempting to escape the inherent trials and tribulations of Existing. As perfect as the Ultimate World Cruise universe may sometimes seem on a superficial level, there are moments in which it cannot avoid the messy shrapnel of our reality.
A particularly devastating collision of worlds came in February, when ongoing military conflict along the Gaza Strip and Houthi attacks on cargo ships sailing the Red Sea made it evident that passage through the Suez Canal would be too much of a liability. This inability to pass through Egypt has, as a result, presented a major problem for the nine-month cruise.
If you have a sharp memory, you may recall that the entire third segment of this epic trek was slated to be a leisurely sail through Greece and the Mediterranean, with a brief stop to see the Pyramids of Alexandria and the ancient city of Petra before bypassing the African continent completely. Because the powers that be have now deemed the Suez to be too dangerous to traverse, the Serenade will now have to travel around the entirety of Africa, which has forced Royal Caribbean to cobble together an alternate itinerary en route.
Actually, Royal prepared two potential alternate itineraries for its passengers. The first option included a smattering of pit stops that would otherwise be bypassed, including opportunities to see the distinctive wildlife of Madagascar and the crystal blue beaches of the Ivory Coast. The second essentially involved hauling ass, making as few stops as humanly possible in an attempt to salvage some of the ports in Greece.
In an unprecedented move, passengers were asked to vote for their preferred option, and after a requisite period passed, it was decided that option one would replace the originally scheduled tour of the Mediterranean.
This decision has, of course, pissed off those married to the idea of exploring the likes of Mykonos and Rhodes and Crete in all of their splendor. What’s more, those who voted in the minority to try to salvage this fantasy now likely feel compelled to keep quiet for fear that their desire to preserve as much of the original itinerary as possible might instead be misconstrued as an outright rejection of the African continent as a whole.
But that only scrapes the surface of the discontent and division an African reroute may bring with it.
Passengers will be spending significantly more time cooped up inside the ship than anticipated – while the Mediterranean itinerary featured 25 stops in total, the African route cuts that number down to 17. Though both routes likely require some degree of tendering, as time wears on and opportunities to touch land become more scarce the testy tender lines may very well become even more nightmarish than they already seem to be. It’s possible that some passengers may not even be able to leave the ship at all, lacking vaccines for diseases like Yellow Fever because they simply didn’t anticipate the need for them. LGBTQ+ passengers may feel compelled to stay on board due to safety concerns in countries like Sénégal and Ghana13. To top it all off, several Ultimate World Cruisers looking to make the best of the situation and add family and friends onto the newly added Africa segment at a discounted rate have been met with “outrageous and unfair” prices for no discernible reason14.
Like the sea itself, the path ahead for Royal Caribbean's Ultimate World Cruise is full of uncertainty. But the threats that loom above the 1000-foot-long floating behemoth are a bit more abstract than the killer waves and sea monsters that have populated the nightmares of voyagers for centuries. Behind incredible imagery of all the world’s wonders and uplifting words delivered with a smile, it’s become evident that there lies a powderkeg of potential interpersonal conflict.
Whether a corporate slight or rude voyager will actually set that powderkeg off and send these hidden conflicts flying into our feeds, however, remains yet to be seen.
And this irresolute nature – the lingering risks just beyond the horizon, that lay in wait for the adventurers we’ve come to know – is precisely what makes this journey so compelling.
Apparently, green apples can alleviate mild seasickness, although I had difficulty finding reputable information on how or why this alleged cure is effective. Whether it’s an old wives’ table or scientifically sound, some cruise ships provide complimentary green apples alongside precautionary barf bags.
To be clear, the protesters weren’t singling out the World Cruise specifically – rather, the demonstrators opposed a newly implemented (possibly corrupt) government contract that diverted ticket sales to a private company without consulting local authorities. Regardless, the passengers were not allowed special access to the grounds of the citadel.
In fairness, the excursion was replaced with a trip to the Sacred Valley of the Incas, an arguably equally impressive locale. Any reasonable person would be happy with this arrangement and accept that bypassing a large-scale, traffic-stopping protest lies outside Royal Caribbean’s control. That said, I find it incredibly hard to believe that not one irate passenger expressed a single complaint about the situation, considering Machu Pichu’s heavy role in the initial Ultimate World Cruise marketing.
Royal Caribbean did eventually confirm that there was indeed a death on board, but declined to comment further on the details of the deceased.
More or less. Sometimes a night will be worth two or three points if booked in a decadent suite, but it’s honestly not worth getting into the particulars.
As an example, Ultimate World Cruiser passenger Josh Terry recently shared a pamphlet revealing that tendering for the Bay of Islands port in New Zealand ran from approximately 7:45 am to 10:45 am. However, all passengers were required to be back on board at 3:30 pm, meaning that the last people to leave the cruise ship had just under five hours to enjoy their outing.
This is not counting small jabs along the lines of “the decor is hideous” or “I’m bored of eating the same food every day”.
According to Spotify
Mark Sebastian said in one report that the TikToks from his 18-night stay aboard could have brought in 15-20k USD, had he chosen to monetize his content.
Please don’t ask me why the ship has a godmother, what a godmother’s duties entail, or why Royal Caribbean chose Whoopi Goldberg as the Serenade’s godmother. All I can tell you is that there is at least one giant framed portrait of Goldberg aboard the Ultimate World Cruise, and around the time of the “UltimateWorldCruiser” rant Goldberg talked about the cruise on her daytime talk show The View.
(Nevermind the fact that Benjamin Franklin is famously the most bald of America’s founding fathers)
For those unfamiliar, this is a space where influencers with 5000+ followers can connect with brands seeking promotion via TikTok.
This has already been an issue for at least one couple, who were advised by Royal Caribbean to stay on the ship during a stop in Lombok, Indonesia.
In an interview with a CruiseTok reporter, Pinnacle Club member Adita Larson (@aditaml2759) stated that the 62-day Americas segment of the trip charged about $4000 USD for family and friends staying in the cabins of long-haul World Cruisers. In stark contrast, the F&F rate for the 42-day Africa segment was quoted at nearly $11000 USD.
I am so grateful that life circumstances did not end me up on this godforsaken boat.
I missed the whole thing entirely and had not heard of it because apparently I live under a rock, but this was such a JUICY read and I'm now emotionally invested.