Why the Ultimate World Cruise is Getting Out of Hand on TikTok

“There’s going to be mutiny. There’s going to be blood. Someone is going overboard. I want to watch. Bravo, where are you?”, says Sebastian in his video, which has been viewed 1.3 million times.

Sebastian joined the cruise for 18 nights during the South American and Antarctic segment, during which time he posted several videos detailing “the good, the bad, and the ugly” of his cruise experience, and went so far as to call it “an eternal hell.”

Jessica Maddox, an assistant professor of digital media at the University of Alabama, also likened the cruise TikToks to reality TV, noting that many of the storytime posts and sagas are posted episodically. 

However, the professor also urges consumers to remember that wishing drama on people is a “morally gray” area and that there are real people impacted by the posts, even though consuming content as if it was reality television can make it feel less real.

“For the world cruise TikTok, I think it’s OK to think of the content we consume on TikTok as reality television,” Maddox told NBC. “But I think it’s important to remember these are real people, and that even reality television is scripted and coerced and is forced drama.”

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. 

“This person has been put on the Royal Caribbean cruise for 18 days looking for the drama – ‘the tea’ – of living on a ship. I’ve been doing it for the last 12 years of my life. There’s no drama or tea on a ship but he’s been put there to get drama or tea,” says Kesteloo. 

But whether the drama is exaggerated or not, the clicks and likes just keep on coming with no signs of the social media buzz calming down anytime soon. 

The Biggest World Cruise Headlines Making Waves On TikTok So Far

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. 

Only three weeks into the Ultimate World Cruise, bad weather led to massive amounts of flooding on deck 12 onboard Serenade of the Seas.

There’s also been videos both ranting and raving about the quality of the food onboard, as well as theories about what will happen to passengers after nine months of only eating cruise food. 

One of the most controversial rumors to have gone viral is that a caste system was forming on the cruise, where Royal Caribbean’s elite pinnacle members received preferential treatment over passengers in lower tiers of the cruise line’s royalty program. 

There were also videos alleging that passengers only joining the cruise for a segment, instead of remaining onboard for all 274 nights, were being excluded by passengers completing the whole voyage. 

Read Also: Royal Caribbean Crown and Anchor Society: What You Need to Know

Similarly, another TikToker named ND Cohen, who has dubbed herself the “Sea Tea Director,” posted that a British passenger onboard Serenade of the Seas named Emily Blinkhorn told her the American and non-American guests were being treated differently onboard.