‘Anything can happen.’ Inside the ‘real life reality show’ of the nine-month cruise

Nine months. Seven continents. Hundreds of passengers in close quarters at sea. Millions more watching along online.

Welcome aboard Royal Caribbean’s Ultimate World Cruise, which set sail a month ago and has unexpectedly captured the internet’s imagination.

And no, the Royal Caribbean ship that’s handling the journey, Serenade of the Seas, isn’t new (in fact, it’s over 20 years old).

Nor is this ship the largest leisure vessel to navigate the world’s waters (that’s the soon-to-launch Royal Caribbean ship Icon of Seas, which measures 1,198 feet, or 365 meters prow to stern against Serenade of the Seas’ comparatively-small 964 feet).

But the Ultimate World Cruise is one of the first months-long world voyages to set sail in a while – such journeys have largely been off the table since Covid upended the industry back in 2020.

In fact, Serenade of the Seas’ 2023-2024 voyage was originally pitched by Royal Caribbean International president Michael Bayley as a way for travel-starved cruisers to “make up for lost time” in the wake of the pandemic.

This – plus some impossible-to-pin-down alchemy of timing (the cruise embarked during the holiday period, when many social media users had more time on their hands to get invested) and happenstance (there are a few pre-established TikTok influencers on board who created compelling content from the get-go) – led the cruise ship to become what social media user Beth Anne Fletcher calls the “unedited reality show that was never meant to be a reality show.”

TikTok content relating to the nine month cruise has garnered some 253 million views and counting on TikTok. Passengers – TikTok pros and newbies alike – are becoming minor social media celebrities, as they give room tours – from enviable, balcony rooms to less enviable, windowless interior cabins; chronicle the ship’s journey across the treacherous Drake’s Passage; detail on-board food and drink options and share the the often moving personal stories that led them to embark on the voyage.

“It’s just regular people going on this massive adventure,” TikTok user Fletcher tells CNN Travel. “People are invested in watching their journeys.”