cruise ship drama

The 14 Best TV Shows About Cruise Ships and Yachts

Top cruise ship reality, scripted, documentary, and travel series.

One of my favorite family vacations to this day will always be the 3-day cruise we took from Singapore to Malaysia on the SuperStar Virgo. Even though it was some 20 years ago, I still remember the excitement I felt walking up the grand staircase that wrapped around the Christmas tree, the inordinate amount of time I spent in the arcade room (one the jet skiing game in particular), running down the carpeted hallways to find our room, and the awe I felt at just how huge the entire ship looked from the outside.

My tiny, eight-year-old brain had a hard time processing how something so big could stay afloat, but I had no worries that it wouldn’t. I also remember thinking how cool it was that there was a swimming pool on the top deck, asking myself “how can there be water on top of water?”

It was, without a doubt, a memorable experience and one that I’d like to have again as an adult. I definitely recommend going on a cruise at least once in your life! However, since our collective 2020-2021 reality has put our travel plans to a grinding halt, the only way to do that is vicariously through our TV screens.

So we’ve put together a comprehensive list of TV shows about cruise ships for all you sea-lovers to get the travel bug somewhat out of your system. Whether the format you’re looking for is reality, travel, scripted, or documentary – we’ve got it! So put on your best cruise outfit, grab that poolside cocktail, and settle down onto your couch to binge these TV shows about cruise ships!

CRUISE SHIP REALITY SHOWS

Below deck, brave (2013 – present).

As passengers, we only ever see the surface of what happens on a cruise. We’re the consumers in this entertainment and service industry, after all. Bravo’s reality series Below Deck literally brings us below the ship’s deck – to behind the scenes of the luxurious experience of a ship.

Each season of Below Deck follows the young crew of a superyacht during the ever-busy charter season, chronicling their lives both working and living aboard the vessel.

Some of the yachties, as the crew members are also called, have a prior yachting background while others are there to personify the “work hard, party harder” attitude and bring little to no experience to the table, which always makes for an interesting team dynamic.

One thing is for sure though: there’s nothing these guys wouldn’t do to make sure their clients have the best experience possible.

Below Deck also gives a great view into the perks of working on a yacht, one of which is traveling to places like Sint Maarten, the British Virgin Islands, the Mediterranean Sea, the Bahamas, Tahiti, and most recently, Phuket!

Below Deck Mediterranean, Bravo (2016 – present)

Below Deck was so popular and successful that in March 2015, Bravo announced the arrival of its first spin-off show: Below Deck Mediterranean .

The premise of this spin-off reality show is similar to the original in that it documents the personal and professional lives of the crew on board a superyacht, this time 150-feet in length!

While the regular yachties take a break, the cast of Below Deck takes over for roughly 6 weeks and sail through all sorts of beautiful locations.

Each season features a myriad of colorful guests and customers, ranging from executives on business trips and millionaires on vacation to groups of friends looking for a good time and a sea-bound party.

Here, Chef Ben Robinson from four seasons of the original Below Deck joins the Mediterranean crew as they visit Greece, Croatia, Italy, France, and Spain!

Below Deck Sailing Yacht, Bravo (2020 – present)

News of a second Below Deck Spin-off first came in March 2019 and it wasn’t until December that year that fans got confirmation of a premiere date: for February 2020.

Entitled Below Deck Sailing Yacht , it follows the same format as its predecessors but this time, for the crew on a 180-foot luxury sailing yacht called the Parsifal III as it sails through Greece during charter season.

In a crew mixed with vastly different members, there’s bound to be some tension when certain attitudes and job ethics come to clash – and that’s what reality shows are all about, especially when you’re in a country so beautiful, surrounded by equally beautiful people!

Old relationships are tested while new ones are formed (often to the chagrin of others), but there’s never a dull day on Parsifal III.

Chef Adam Glick, who was on two seasons of Below Deck Mediterranean , joins the Sailing Yacht crew this year. However, with the second season lined up to air in March 2021, it looks like Adam will be bowing out of this new crew.

The Cruise, ITV (2016 – 2018)

It’s not glaringly obvious what the difference is between a yacht and a cruise ship, especially when there are some yachts that are the same length as a cruise!

One difference is that yachts are privately owned and directly chartered while cruise ships are owned by corporations. However, the main difference really lies in the guest experience.

On a cruise ship, you have access to amenities like a gym, pool, spa, arcade room, restaurants, what have you. Renting a yacht, though, provides a more personal and luxurious experience.

ITV’s The Cruise takes us from the yacht setting of the previous shows to an actual cruise ship, though this series does primarily follow the ship’s crew as well.

The Regal Princess ship is over 1,080 feet long and has a whopping 19 decks, so it makes sense that there are more than 1400 crew members manning operations.

The Cruise shows us the hustle and bustle of maintaining their five-star service as they go from Copenhagen to St. Petersburg, the Mediterranean, and even Alaska throughout its five seasons.

DOCUMENTARY TV SHOWS ABOUT CRUISE SHIPS

Mighty ships, discovery channel canada (2008 – 2016).

After a successful one-off special entitled Inside Queen Mary 2 , the Discovery Channel commissioned an entire series exploring the workings of the world’s mightiest ships!

What’s great about Mighty Ships is that while we do get to learn about a few cruise ships along the way, the show actually covers all types of sea vessels – probably some that you never even knew existed!

Mighty Ships lets you in on all the secrets these vessels hold throughout their voyages; from preparations made for the journey to the voyage itself, and ending when their job has been successfully delivered.

While the previous shows primarily display the crew’s interactions with each other and the guests, Mighty Ships focuses heavily on the operational and technical side of running the ships.

It even goes so far as to computer-generated animations in order to better explain to its audience certain aspects of the ship that cannot be seen or visited in person. Interlaced with that are interviews with the crew as they provide more information about the ship as well as what life is like aboard it.

Mighty Cruise Ships, Discovery Channel Canada (2014 – 2022)

Mighty Ships evolved into two spin-offs; the first was Mighty Planes that aired for four seasons and employed the same format while following various types of aircrafts. The second premiered in 2014 and was a more direct spin-off of the parent series: Mighty Cruise Ships .

Everyone wants to know what happens on these huge, extravagant, cruise ships and Mighty Cruise Ships definitely lets us witness the lavish life without having to pay the thousands of dollars that come with a cruise ship ticket.

Each episode brings us aboard a brand new ship – each with its own features, amenities, and cutting-edge technology that only seems to get better as the episodes progress.

These ships are built for their destinations, whether intended to endure the harsh cold temperatures and narrow passageways of the Nordic fjords or to breeze through the coastlines of Scotland.

On board, the ships cater to every aesthetic too – interested in Viking history? The Viking Sea is the boat for you. Looking for an adrenaline rush at sea? Check out Carnival Vista and their suspended bike loop and waterpark! Mighty Cruise Ships truly lets us see the best cruises there are to offer.

Cruise Ship Killers, Justice Network (2020 – 2022)

This next show takes a much darker turn than those that came before – if you couldn’t tell right away from the title Cruise Ship Killers . If you’ve got an interest in true crime, you’re definitely going to want to add this show to your list.

However, if that’s not your thing and you’re the kind to get paranoid pretty quickly, maybe you should skip this one. I say that because one thing’s for sure: Cruise Ship Killers might make you second guess your desire to go on a cruise – ever.

This true-crime documentary series tells the stories of people who got on a cruise expecting to have the vacation of a lifetime – only to never return or be heard from again.

Each episode will keep you guessing right from the get-go: was the businessman’s death foul play? Was the young woman kidnapped? Did he fall overboard? Did the missing woman just get off at one port and decide to stay to start a new life? There’s just no telling where each episode of Cruise Ship Killers will take us.

* Side note: if you want to look into cruise ship crimes even more, check out the Cruise Ship Disappearances episode of the Wine and Crime podcast . It’s very informative, and the hosts are also really funny!

The Cruise, BBC One (1998)

Not to be confused with the ITV reality show of the same name previously mentioned, BBC One’s The Cruise is an observational documentary series that followed the crew of the luxury cruise ship named Galaxy as it set off on its maiden voyage through the Caribbean – including a pit stop in Jamaica on Christmas Day!

While we have a chance to witness the personal lives of the crew onboard Galaxy, we also get a glimpse into how the crew handles the pressures of everyday operations on the luxury cruise. From dealing with a confrontational passenger at the ship’s casino to facing a whole congregation of born-again Christians, you truly never know what challenges a new day will bring. Not to mention the preparations for their new entertainment show!

Most notably, The Cruise is what paved the way for singer Jane McDonald, who was then an entertainer for Galaxy. After the show, she went on to become a recording artist, actress, media personality, and TV presenter. The Cruise even released two additional specials with Jane in the spotlight!

CRUISE SHIP TRAVEL SHOWS

Cruising with jane mcdonald, channel 5 (2017 – 2020).

I have always thought that hosts of these lifestyle-type shows have the best job in the world – those that get to do food and restaurant reviews, explore different countries and cultures, and now, even experience cruise ships!

Remember Jane McDonald from the previous show, The Cruise ? Well, she’s back for more sea-worthy adventures on the Channel 5 travel series, Cruising with Jane McDonald , where she films a travelogue showcasing the very best aspects of the ship, both in terms of service and aesthetics.

Right off the bat, she starts off with a mega-cruise ship called the MSC Divina through the Caribbean, where over 4000 passengers make the most of their holidays on the ship and at the port.

Throughout its six seasons, Jane travels the world one cruise ship at a time, truly living the best life.

The Voyager With Josh Garcia, NBC (2016 – 2019)

NBC’s The Voyager with Josh Garcia also follows the travelogue format through the eyes of traveler and host, Josh Garcia. However, instead of focusing solely on the experience with cruise ships, The Voyager provides a wider perspective of the world as a whole.

Josh takes his viewers with him as he travels the globe by ocean, disembarking at every port with the intention of discovering the nooks and crannies of each culture he encounters.

Each episode is a learning experience not just for Josh, but for us as well. He speaks with the locals, learns about native and regional traditions from cultural experts, and fearlessly tries the local cuisine every chance he gets.

Through The Voyager with Josh Garcia , our global wanderlust is ignited, and our traveling bucket list just keeps getting longer and longer!

SCRIPTED CRUISE SHIP TV SHOWS

High seas, netflix (2019 – 2020).

High Seas , also known as Alta Mar in its original Spanish, is a Netflix original series that aired for three seasons beginning in 2019.

Unlike the modern cruise ship settings that we’ve seen so far, High Seas takes place on a luxury ocean liner in the 1940s!

Sisters Eva and Carolina Villanueva climb aboard the Barbara de Braganza liner as it voyages from Spain to Brazil. Unbeknownst to the other passengers and crew, they’ve smuggled a mysterious woman onboard after she pleaded for their help.

Things go terribly awry when the woman is thrown overboard and Eva, a curious and headstrong writer, launches an investigation into the mysterious goings-on on the ship.

Eventually, both she and her sister discover shocking secrets that tie into their family’s dark past. Who are they supposed to believe?

Sadly, the fourth season of High Seas was originally planned to continue the series but was subsequently canceled in mid-2020.

Wreck, BBC Three (2022 – present)

One of the newest shows on this list of top cruise ship shows is BBC Three’s horror-comedy series Wreck .

The series follows Jamie Walsh, a nineteen-year-old who takes a job on a board cruise ship called The Sacramentum to figure out what happened to his sister, who went missing from the same ship three months ago.

As Jamie learns the ins and outs of living and working on a ship, he befriends other crew members in order to help with his investigation into the disappearance of his sister and how a recent attack on a crew member could be connected to it.

The Love Boat, ABC (1977 – 1986)

The Love Boat is a scripted rom-com/drama series that aired on ABC more than 30 years ago! However, when watching this series you’ll find that a lot of the scenarios portrayed are still reflected, to some extent, in the reality shows on this list as well.

The show takes us on board the MS Pacific Princess, a luxury passenger cruise ship. Captain Merrill Stubing is at the helm, guiding not only the ship himself but his crew members as they attempt to deal with a new passenger’s antics in each episode.

These crew members included the cruise directors, photographer, purser, bartender, doctor, and eventually, even a troupe of dancers!

The Love Boat was based on the original made-for-TV movie of the same name, which in turn was based on the non-fiction book Love Boats.

The reason the scenarios in this show seem so true to life is because the book was written by Jeraldine Saunders, a real-life passenger cruise ship director !

Avenue 5, HBO (2020 – 2022)

Science fiction and dark comedy collide in this HBO original, bringing cruise ships to a place you never could have imagined: space. Yup, you read that right! Titled Avenue 5 , this is also the name of the interplanetary cruise ship owned by Herman Judd (played by Josh Gad) and captained by Ryan Clark (played by Hugh Laurie).

While setting off on an eight-week-long cruise, Avenue 5 experiences technical difficulties that set off a devastating chain of events: a temporary loss of gravity and the Chief Engineer’s accidental death, causing the ship to veer off-course.

When it’s estimated to take three years for them to return to Earth, Captain Clark and his crew need to figure out how to keep their passengers calm, collected, and safe – even as mishaps are happening left and right. Will they ever be able to make it back home?

We're a month into the Ultimate World Cruise that's taken over TikTok, and the drama we were promised may actually be about to materialize

For the past month, TikTok has been captivated by the goings-on inside a nine-month world cruise.
Viewers have predicted explosive drama, but so far it hasn't really delivered.
But as we enter month two of TikTok's "reality TV show," that may be about to change.

What if you took hundreds of strangers, gave them each a camera, and put them in an isolated, confined space to live in for the best part of a year?

This exact scenario has now been playing out for a month, and it's not a social experiment or an ethically questionable reality TV show. It's the most viral vacation ever taken — the Royal Caribbran Ultimate World Cruise .

The 274-night voyage — with a starting price of around $60,000 — kicked off on December 10 in Miami. The cruise's planned itinerary includes 65 countries and more than 150 ports of call. It's unclear exactly how many passengers are on board, but the Serenade of the Seas ship hosting the trip has a capacity of 2,476 guests, according to its operator, Royal Caribbean.

The voyage seemed almost destined for virality. But despite the best efforts of enthusiastic passengers, eager viewers, and an algorithmic boost , the cruise, now dubbed a "TikTok reality show," has failed to deliver on the drama.

It seems this past month may have just been the warm-up though. Those keeping close tabs have noticed a sharp uptick in the plot unfolding on the ship as we enter month two.

Here's a recap of what's happened so far, just in time to grab the popcorn for when things could get really good.

@nchimad Replying to @user0986584638 #greenscreenvideo #greenscreen Here are some details about Royal Caribbean’s Ultimate World Cruise! For everything you get, the price isn’t bad….but I still can’t do it🤣🤣 #royalcaribbean #ultimateworldcruise #cruisetok #fyp #foryou ♬ original sound - ✨SeaTea Director, ND✨

Viewers anticipated explosive drama in the days following the cruise's departure

As early as December 11, the first full day on the ship, passengers began sharing their experiences .

It started with room tours — lots of them. Some people took inspiration from MTV's "Cribs" and used classic TikTok transition edits to highlight their transformation, while others offered in-depth looks at every detail of their cabins.

Quickly, creators began to share their predictions for what might go down on board.

On December 15, a creator named Kara Harms posted a bingo card for the trip. Likening it to living in a dorm room, she predicted that over the course of the nine months, we'd see "mass STIs," an impromptu wedding, a pregnancy resulting in a "cruise ship baby," people missing or even falling off the boat, a low-stakes mystery, and the emergence of new travel influencers and sponsorships from brands. (Spoiler: only one of these predictions has come true — keep reading to find out which.)

Others went even further with their predictions, guessing there'd be " some type of civil unrest " a "Titanic"-style tragic love story , and feuds resulting from a rivalry between the people who go the most viral.

CruiseTok was beside itself.

"I guarantee there's going to be love, fun, excitement, and drama," said cruise follower Bad YaYa in the first of at least 24 videos she's created for her Ultimate World Cruise playlist. "It's gonna be like a whodunnit, love murder mystery — hopefully without the murder — but it's gonna be a lot of fun."

@bad_yaya01 Royal Caribbean Ultimate World Cruise 🚢 9 months long! This is my dream Novella! So let’s get comfy, grab a drink, some snacks and enjoy the show. #royalcaribbean #cruisetok #cruiseship #worldcruise #royalcarribeancruise #fyp #cruise #ultimateworldcruise #mydream #ninemonthcruise #novella ♬ original sound - Bad YaYa xoxo 💋

Stories from aboard the cruise began to emerge

More and more passengers — or, as some have called them, " cast members " — began posting on TikTok.

Angie Linderman shared that she decided to embark on the cruise at 37 after losing both her parents to cancer and finding out she carried the BRCA2 gene mutation , which increases the chances of certain cancers.

"To me, there is no thought of retirement," she said in her viral video explaining the choice. "There is no way I'm waiting to do shit til I retire."

Cruiser Joe Martucci, known as @spendingyourkidsmoney on TikTok, became a viral hit after he created his account to post a video he initially made for his children, and which they found so amusing they encouraged him to share online, the New York Times reported .

Small kernels of controversy began to hit TikTok by the second week of the cruise

Soon, rumors of minor dramas began to circulate.

One creator who's ostensibly posting from the cruise has been accused of faking the whole thing after sleuths deep-dived into his videos, and Martucci (of "hey kids" fame) said he believed people were impersonating him online. Ultimate World Cruise followers also discovered the Facebook group where those who had already signed up for the cruise had been communicating (hosted by Royal Caribbean, the group boasts 438 members).

There were some less lighthearted developments too, but they're hardly what we'd call "drama." One TikTok-famous passenger, Anthony McWilliams, said he disembarked in Brazil and was told he would not be able to reboard the ship until it reached Uruguay the following week due to Brazilian port laws. At the time, his story caused a bit of a stir, but 12 days later, on January 5, he announced to TikTok that he was "back home" aboard the ship.

@anthonyantoine1021 Guess who’s BACK?! My room & belongings were well taken care of while gone. 12 days later, It feels good to be back on board! #ultimateworldcruise #anthonyantoine #worldcruisetiktok #royalcaribbeanultimateworldcruise #worldcruise2024 ♬ original sound - Anthony Antoine

That same week, another passenger posted on TikTok about "flooding" on the ship, which a spokesperson for Royal Caribbean told USA Today was caused by "heavy wind and rain." Again, the news spread across CruiseTok causing concern, but within a day, it seemed everything was pretty much back to normal .

The Pinnacle drama that never was

Of all the stories that have emerged so far from the cruise, only two can really be categorized as "drama," in the true internet sense of the world. And, arguably, even that's a bit of a stretch.

The first brush with drama came when an Ultimate World Cruise TikTok recapper who goes by @uksecrettravel posted a viral video saying she had heard that some guests were unhappy because so-called Pinnacle guests — those who are part of the highest tier of loyalty membership Royal Caribbean offers — were being treated "very differently" to the standard passengers, especially the "segmenters" who are only on the ship for a portion of the nine-month journey.

But as soon as the rumor began to spread, others pointed out that giving loyalty members perks is literally the point of loyalty programs, and passengers getting what they'd paid for doesn't exactly constitute the social injustice it was implied to be.

The second big moment was "pinapplegate." What's that you ask? A TikToker onboard documented a passenger named Adita who had an illustrated pineapple stuck on her cabin door. Viewers were convinced it was a secret code to signal that she and her partner were swingers. Apparently, pineapples are a swinger-specific symbol ?

After a bunch of cruise-drama TikTokers breathlessly reported on this development, Adita weighed in , sadly telling viewers that no, they were not swingers, they actually just really liked pineapples. Case closed.

@aditaml2759 We’re not swingers, but we do love our Pineapples 🍍 #ultimateworldcruise2023 #ultimateworldcruise #royalcaribbeanultimateworldcruise #pineapples ♬ original sound - Adita

Then a pot-stirrer entered the group chat

As with all good reality shows, the key to keeping viewers engaged is to shake things up, and that's what happened on January 6, when a TikToker and miniatures collector named Marc Sebastian entered the timeline .

Sebastian had been following the viral accounts and begging for a sponsor to get him on the cruise to document it from the inside — and publisher Atria Books delivered. On his first day aboard, Sebastian rushed to TikTok Live to say that people had been "so rude" and given him dirty looks, and that only one passenger had spoken to him.

In his first videos from aboard the ship, Sebastian spilled more tea than the wholesome original cruise TikTokers had in almost a month — he named the passengers he had already formed alliances with, fanned the flames of the anti-Pinnacle sentiment, and filmed the moment he was asked not to swear by a fellow passenger and retorted, "Don't tell me how to speak, thank you very much."

Now this is the stuff of reality TV. If month two continues the way it seems to be kicking off, the predicted drama may still materialize after all.

Watch: The rise and fall of the cruise industry

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One of the world's largest cruise ships, which after taking on board 28 shipwrecked refugees, is taken hostage by the desperate asylum seekers when they learn that the captain has been order... Read all One of the world's largest cruise ships, which after taking on board 28 shipwrecked refugees, is taken hostage by the desperate asylum seekers when they learn that the captain has been ordered to take them back to Libya. One of the world's largest cruise ships, which after taking on board 28 shipwrecked refugees, is taken hostage by the desperate asylum seekers when they learn that the captain has been ordered to take them back to Libya.

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Miss cruising? Stream these 13 movies and shows to get your cruise ship fix

Are you a hardcore cruising fan? We wouldn't blame you for being a bit down. The complete shutdown of cruising since March due to the coronavirus pandemic is keeping you away from your favorite floating hideaways, and it doesn't look like you'll be back at sea anytime soon.

That said, you're not completely cut off from your favorite ships — you still can see them in movies and in television shows.

Since streaming movies and television programming is pretty much all we're doing these days (and we're guessing that's the case for you, too), we've put together this list of some our favorite onscreen entertainment that includes at least a glimpse of a cherished cruise vessel.

For more TPG news delivered each morning to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter .

In some cases, these movies and shows are available on streaming services such as Hulu (if you're not a subscriber, get a free trial ), Amazon Prime , fuboTV , Sling TV and FandangoNow . Others can be found on YouTube, iTunes, or at Redbox kiosks.

"Mighty Cruise Ships"

Available on: Hulu , YouTube , Amazon Prime , Smithsonian Channel

You'll get much more than a glimpse of your favorite cruise ship with this series. Each of the 18 episodes, which originally aired in 2014, 2017 and 2019 on Canada's Discovery Channel, focus on a single cruise vessel in fabulously minute detail, offering a behind-the-scenes look at how they run. Among the vessels featured in the series are Celebrity Solstice, Carnival Vista, Royal Caribbean 's Symphony of the Seas and MSC Divina. The series also includes ships operated by Viking, Star Clippers, Azamara and Ponant.

"Mighty Ships"

Available on: FandangoNow , Hulu , YouTube , Amazon Prime , iTunes, fuboTV , Smithsonian Channel

"Mighty Cruise Ships" was a spinoff of this series, which began airing in 2008 on Canada's Discovery Channel and has completed 10 seasons. While it generally focuses on commercial and military vessels, from the container ship Emma Maersk to the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, it also offers several wonderful episodes on cruise ships. Among the vessels profiled: Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas , Norwegian Breakaway, Wind Surf and MSC Meraviglia.

"Ocean Treks with Jeff Corwin"

Available on: ABC, Hulu , Ocean.com

Every episode of this 4-year-old travel series starring television personality Jeff Corwin will get you at least a peek at one the vessels under the Carnival Corp. umbrella of brands. The giant cruise company, which owns Carnival Cruise Line , Princess Cruises , Holland America and six other major lines, sponsors the series, which has been airing on Saturday mornings on ABC. It follows Corwin as he heads off ships in various port towns for a perfect day of adventure.

"The Voyager with Josh Garcia"

Available on: Hulu , Sling TV , fuboTV , Ocean.com

Like "Ocean Treks," this is a series sponsored by Carnival Corp. that's generously filled with cameos of the line's vessels and is all about things to do during port calls, but with less of a focus on adventure. The host, video journalist Josh Garcia, sets off from vessels for a day of off-the-beaten-path exploring. His goal: Meeting locals who can share their history, life stories and exotic foods. It originally aired on NBC from 2016 to 2019.

"Building the World's Most Luxurious Cruise Ship"

Available on: YouTube

This is can't-miss television for Regent Seven Seas Cruises fans. The two-part documentary chronicles the creation of the luxury line's Seven Seas Explorer, which was the most expensive luxury ship ever built at the time it debuted in 2016. Even today, only one ship -- Seven Seas Explorer's just-unveiled sister, Seven Seas Splendor -- rivals it in opulence. What we love about this documentary is the amazing behind-the-scenes access that Regent gave the filmmakers during the ship's construction. You see every little twist and turn in the making of a new icon of the seas.

"Jack and Jill"

Available on: FandangoNow , YouTube , Amazon Prime , Hulu , Google Play, iTunes, Vudu

Yes, we know: This is widely considered one of the all-time worst movies ever made. It only scored 3% on Rotten Tomatoes' Tomatometer! But, if you're a Royal Caribbean fan jonesing for a glimpse of one of the line's giant Oasis Class-vessels, there's simply no better movie. We won't even bother going into the inane plot of this 2011 comedy, which stars Adam Sandler (playing both a male and female role). Just fast-forward to the shipboard scenes, which were shot on board Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas.

"Speed 2: Cruise Control"

Available on: FandangoNow , YouTube , Amazon Prime , Google Play, iTunes, Vudu

This 1997 action flick starring Sandra Bullock got almost as bad reviews as Jack and Jill (which is a pity, as the original "Speed" is a classic). Still, we mention it because it was filmed on one of the great luxury ships of the past 30 years: The vessel now known as Star Legend. Star Legend sails for Windstar Cruises these days, but it originally debuted as the last new ship for legendary (and long-defunct) luxury operator Royal Viking Line. Back then, it was called Royal Viking Queen. By the time the film was made, it had moved to the Seabourn fleet, sailing as Seabourn Legend.

"Like Father"

Available on: Netflix

Another giant Royal Caribbean ship, Harmony of the Seas, is the star of this somewhat predictable "dramedy" from 2018, which stars Kelsey Grammer, Kristen Bell and Seth Rogen. The plot twist here is that Bell's character, left at the altar, ends up on her honeymoon cruise with her estranged father (Grammer), with resulting drama and hijinks. Royal Caribbean lovers can make it a game of spotting all the cool Harmony of the Seas features, from the ship's nine-deck-high zip line to the Rising Tide Bar. Scenes also were shot at Royal Caribbean's private beach retreat in Haiti.

"Cruising With Jane McDonald"

Former cruise ship entertainer Jane McDonald highlights a different river or ocean cruise every episode on this British television series, which ran from 2017 to this year (a new host will soon be taking over the show). Recent episodes have featured a wide range of vessels, including Oceania Cruises' Marina, Silversea's Silver Shadow and Princess' Sun Princess.

Related: Feeling wanderlust? Stream these 12 films set in spectacular destinations

"Monster Ships"

Available on: FandangoNow , Hulu , YouTube, Amazon Prime , iTunes

Just in case "Mighty Ships" doesn't provide you with enough of a giant ship fix, the television world also offers the similarly named "Monster Ships" and, as its name suggests, the eight-part series from 2019 brings an up-close look at massive vessels of all kinds -- one per 42-minute episode. In addition to a gargantuan car carrier and a crazy-looking heavy lift vessel, the series (which aired on the Science Channel) includes two ships designed for cruising: Crown Princess and Royal Clipper.

"Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked"

Available on: FandangoNow , YouTube , Amazon Prime , iTunes, Google Play, Vudu, HBO Now

If you're even the least bit an "Alvin and the Chipmunks" fan, this is your cruise movie. The third installment of the live-action chipmunks series, which dates to 2011, is set on cruise giant Carnival's 3,646-passenger Carnival Dream. Or, at least, it is — until the chipmunks get blown away while flying a kite and end up on a deserted island. External shots and some interiors were filmed on the vessel. Some ship scenes, alas, were shot in a soundstage.

"Out to Sea"

Available on: FandangoNow , YouTube , Google Play, Vudu, Amazon Prime , HBO Now, Hulu

You can't go wrong with this Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau matchup, which involves the legendary comedic duo delivering their schtick as dance hosts on a cruise ship. Dating to 1997, it takes place on what's now the Marella Dream, a 1,132-passenger vessel in the fleet of British line Marella Cruises. Holland America fans will know this ship better as the old Westerdam (which was its name from 1988 to 2002). Just don't confuse it with the new Westerdam (Holland America likes to recycle names). It also sailed eight years for Costa Cruises.

"The Love Boat: Next Wave"

To make our list, a movie or television show had to feature a vessel still in service.

But we really can't do a story on cruise-related entertainment without at least mentioning "The Love Boat," which featured a Princess Cruises ship that's no longer in operation. While it doesn't offer a glimpse into a vessel you can book, this is, quite simply, the most iconic cruise ship show of all time. Indeed, many in the cruise industry credit the series, which ran from 1977 to 1987, for kicking off the great growth in cruising we've seen over the past four decades.

"The Love Boat" was set on the original Pacific Princess, which sailed for Princess from 1977 to 2002. But it was filmed not just on that ship, but also several others. If you want to see what all the fuss is about, you can find the show on MeTV stations on Sundays and on YouTube -- or buy the DVD box set of the first four seasons at Amazon.

Also, in 1988, the series was revived with a short-lived remake, "The Love Boat: Next Wave" — and it was filmed on the Sun Princess, which still sails. Unfortunately, it's not available on any major streaming platform. But, if you can find it, please sound off in the comments below and let us know where we can watch it, too.

Looking for more of a cruise fix? Try these stories:

How to plan a cruise with points and miles
The most exciting new ocean ships of 2020
The most exciting new river ships of 2020
6 new cruise itineraries you should book right now
The best cruise lines for solo travelers
The best Caribbean cruises for every type of traveler
5 cruise lines to try if you just can't stand being around kids on vacation

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A 9-Month Cruise Is TikTok’s Favorite New ‘Reality Show’

Social media users, gripped by the potential for drama on Royal Caribbean’s world cruise, have turned the ship’s unwitting passengers into “cast members” overnight.

By Becky Hughes

In the last few months, Beth Fletcher, a 39-year-old photographer in Derbyshire, England, built a small following on TikTok by recapping and analyzing the British reality show “I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here!” When the latest season ended in early December, Ms. Fletcher was at a loss for content because, she said, “we don’t have another good reality TV show on until summer.”

Then the TikTok algorithm delivered: a video of Brooklyn Schwetje, a graduate student and influencer, sharing a day in her life on the Ultimate World Cruise, a nine-month-long, round-the-world voyage with Royal Caribbean. Ms. Fletcher was instantly rapt. “I’ve never been on a cruise, and the idea of a nine-month cruise blew my mind,” she said. After finding more videos from other passengers on the cruise, something clicked: “Maybe this is our own reality TV show, but better.”

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.

Videos with the hashtag #UltimateWorldCruise have had more than 138 million views on the social media app.

This isn’t the first time TikTok creators — competing for views with millions of other accounts — have mined videos posted by others to manufacture their own genre of online reality TV. In 2021, the University of Alabama’s sorority rush became an internet fixation known as #BamaRush (and eventually, a Max documentary ). But much as on reality TV, the truth behind the content can seem beside the point.

With a 274-night itinerary, the Ultimate World Cruise is the longest cruise ever offered by Royal Caribbean. Fares for the full trip — which stops in 65 countries — start at $53,999 per person and can go up to $117,599, excluding taxes and fees, according to Royal Caribbean’s website . The ship, called the Serenade of the Seas , has capacity for 2,476 guests, although a Royal Caribbean representative would not confirm how many are currently on board.

From England, Ms. Fletcher started posting videos of herself talking about the cruise, introducing passengers that she identified through their TikTok accounts as “cast members” and sharing tidbits about their life aboard the ship gleaned from their videos.

More accounts dedicated to the cruise emerged: One creator refers to herself as TikTok’s “sea tea” director, updating her followers with “breaking news” (claiming that someone had left the cruise , and another had tested positive for the coronavirus). Another TikToker made a virtual bingo card with predictions like “petty neighbor drama,” “a wedding,” “stowaway” and “pirate takeover.” That bingo card video amassed more than 300,000 views and hundreds of comments like, “This is the new Hunger Games,” and “It’s gotta be a social experiment.”

@amike_oosthuizen A glimpse of what I would eat on a cruising day! There’s so many options, but we just ate at the buffet area on this day 🍔🌭 #SAMA28 #worldcruise #travelvlog #royalcaribbean #foryou #travel #fypシ゚viral #cruisetok #fyp ♬ Deck the Halls - Lofi - Gentle State

Ryan Holland, a 28-year-old posting regularly about the cruise, says people are “curious how people afford it” and “how people can stand being on a boat for that long.” She sees two possible outcomes for the trending fixation. Either “it dies out,” she said, “or it changes the future of reality TV.”

One unlikely star of #cruisetok is Joe Martucci, a 67-year-old recent retiree from St. Cloud, Fla., posting from the ship with the handle @spendingourkidsmoney . Mr. Martucci’s four children encouraged him to post video updates on TikTok, which he’d never used before. His first video has nearly half a million views.

“This is not us trying to become famous,” said Mr. Martucci, who now posts daily with his wife, referring to themselves as “Cruise Mum & Dad” and opening each video with a cheeky, “Hi, kids.”

@spendingourkidsmoney #royalcaribbean #cruising #explore #WorldCruise #UltimateWorldCruise #UWC #Serenadeoftheseas #cruise #travel ♬ original sound - joe

Mr. Martucci, who now has more than 69,000 TikTok followers, says the attention is mostly positive, but he worries about fan accounts dedicated to drumming up drama. “I think they’re trying to manufacture something,” he said. “They’re in it for the views and for the followers.”

Another passenger, Lindsay Wilson, a 32-year-old teacher from Phoenix, said the attention “was very, very weird.” She and some of the other passengers who have amassed new TikTok followings have since connected in person and talk via group chats about their overnight stardom.

Apart from some grumblings about passengers of different customer tiers being treated unequally, few actual dramas have yet to emerge. One exception, however, was a video (currently at 2.5 million views) posted on Dec. 17 by Brandee Lake, a Black content creator and cruise passenger who said she had been mistaken for a crew member, once by a passenger and another time by a staff member. Neither Ms. Lake nor Royal Caribbean confirmed if they had been in contact regarding the issue.

Despite TikTok’s fixation with the cruise (and hope for drama), most of the videos coming from the Serenade of the Seas has been more mundane than gripping. Ms. Lake described a typical day at sea: Zumba class, breakfast, coffee at Café Latte-tudes and an activity such as doing a team puzzle or making gingerbread houses. After dinner, she will occasionally take part in the evening programming, like a silent disco , but usually she just retires to her room. “I’m trying to figure out where this drama is,” Ms. Lake said. “What am I missing?”

Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram and sign up for our weekly Travel Dispatch newsletter to get expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places to Go in 2023 .

The Rise of TikTok

News and Analysis

Court records, mistakenly made public, reveal a complex origin story for ByteDance , the Chinese owner of TikTok, and the role played by the firm of Republican megadonor Jeff Yass .

The House made another push to force through legislation that would require the sale of TikTok by its Chinese owner or ban the app in the United States by packaging the measure with aid to Ukraine and Israel .

By targeting TikTok, the United States may undermine its decades-long efforts to promote an open internet , and digital rights advocates are worried that other countries could follow suit.

“Being labeled a “yapper” on TikTok isn’t necessarily a compliment, but on a platform built on talk, it isn’t an insult either .

“Who TF Did I Marry?!?,” the TikTok user Reesa Teesa’s account of her relationship with her ex-husband, is a story for grown-ups in their midlife crisis era.

Return fraud is a rampant problem for both shoppers and retailers — and the mishaps often make for viral videos on TikTok.

The Pink Stuff, a home cleaning paste, went from total obscurity to viral sensation — and Walmart staple — thanks to one “cleanfluencer” and her legion of fans .

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Inside the epic 9-1-1 season 7 premiere: The shipwreck, the romances, the drama

Angela Bassett, Peter Krause, and more preview the cruise ship (and love-life) disasters ahead as the first-responder drama moves from Fox to ABC.

That’s the first word that comes to mind when Angela Bassett recalls the 14-hour days spent in a water tank for her latest 9-1-1 adventure.

Over the past six seasons, Bassett’s Los Angeles Police Department field sergeant Athena Grant has weathered an absolutely staggering number of calamities including, but by no means limited to: a tsunami , a citywide blackout , a 7.1 magnitude earthquake , and, yes, a blimp crash . This is in addition to surviving an attack by a serial rapist (who, it should be noted, also kidnapped her son) and then facing a mudslide caused by a dam break on her very first day back on the job.

That’s a lot, which makes it even more impressive when the star and executive producer tells Entertainment Weekly they wanted to do something “big and grand” for the opening disaster of season 7. “I think this might be our biggest,” adds EP Peter Krause , who also stars as fire captain Bobby Nash. "It's fun making these disaster movies for TV.”

Playing out over the first three episodes of the season, this latest disaster is a direct homage to 1972’s The Poseidon Adventure , with Bobby and Athena on their belated honeymoon cruise when pirates take control of the ship and things go topsy-turvy — literally.

“We have this giant bingo tumbler, and we're the bingo balls inside of it,” Krause says of shooting scenes in a rotating set called a roll room. Besting the one built for Christopher Nolan’s Inception , it’s the largest roll room ever constructed. Fitting for Fox’s highest-rated drama. Except that season 7 will actually air on ABC (starting March 14 at 8 p.m. ET/PT, before Grey’s Anatomy and Station 19 ).

“It’s almost like a homecoming,” co-creator Tim Minear says of how Disney’s 2019 acquisition of 20th Century Fox (the studio behind 9-1-1 ) but not the Fox network created a domino effect that ultimately led the series to Disney-owned ABC. “Our studio and network are tied together again.”

All involved speak kindly of their time on Fox, but ABC is treating 9-1-1 “like a first-year show,” says Minear, who will serve as sole showrunner for season 7, with previous co-showrunner Kristen Reidel remaining involved as an EP. “They're relaunching everything and they're super excited, really supportive. It's all shiny, and the enthusiasm is through the roof.”

Disney/Justin Stephens

One of the benefits of being the shiny new thing is, apparently, heated water tanks.

“The water was a nice, warm 93 degrees — but the weather outside wasn't, so you wanted to stay in the tank,” Bassett says of filming the season 7 extravaganza. “Just imagine a nice 14-hour bath.”

That bath is a far cry from the water tanks used during season 1.

When 9-1-1 launched in 2018, the series was framed as Glee co-creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk ’s take on a procedural. Teaming with their American Horror Story EP Minear, they developed a story centered on the 118 fire station and other Los Angeles first responders. Bassett, Krause, and Connie Britton brought star wattage to the project, but the promised disaster spectacle was an equal draw.

The series’ first mini-disaster movie came in episode 4, when a plane crashed into the Pacific and Bobby led Hen ( Aisha Hinds ) and Buck ( Oliver Stark ) in rescue efforts that left the actors in far cooler water than Bassett and Krause are experiencing now.

“Aisha, Oliver, and I would huddle together in the luggage compartment of the plane [between takes],” Krause recalls of that December 2017 night shoot where temperatures dropped into the 20s. “I put a scarf in there, and we'd wrap it around our heads to stay warm.”

“We were up to our waist in freezing water, braving all of the elements,” Hinds confirms. “But I will tell you this: That experience set the bar for what this experience on the show would be. And so anytime we have to do the hard work, I’m always like, ‘But it's not the airplane. But it's not the airplane...’”

What's your emergency?

Minear says they originally planned to shoot the season 7 premiere on an actual cruise ship, “but cruise ship companies were like, ‘Well, does anything bad happen on the ship?’ And it's like, ‘Have you seen the show? It's not going to go real smooth.’”

Not that things are going swimmingly before the ship capsizes either.

“Obviously, they're on a honeymoon, but it's not like everything is smooth in their interior lives,” Minear says of where audiences will find Bobby and Athena at the start of the season premiere. “There are conflicts that maybe they haven't expressed to one another.”

Disney/Chris Willard

Those unspoken conflicts simmer beneath the surface as the couple literally get their sea legs, and run into some familiar faces — Lola (Romy Rosemont) and Norman ( Daniel Roebuck ) from a season 2 episode in which Lola stood topless above a freeway sign to get the attention of her distant husband — who are now cruise ship retirees.

From there, “I will just say there is a run where they are Nick and Nora ,” Minear says of Bobby and Athena, comparing them to the couple at the center of detective novel and movie series The Thin Man . “There’s a little bit of a mystery on that cruise ship, but also a chance for Peter and Angela to be a little funny together. I don’t think their chemistry has ever been better.”

But things don’t stay Thin for long. “By the time you get to the middle of episode 2, it's Titanic ,” he continues. “It's an epic love story between these two people who are meant to be together, who are facing possible death.”

“You can't take a fish out of water until you see the fish in the water. And in this case, we're taking the fish out of the water and putting it into even deeper water.”

— co-creator Tim Minear on delaying the big disaster until the end of the season 7 premiere

“I've been in and out of water all week,” Krause tells EW from set before rattling off his stunt badges of honor: “Yesterday, I was climbing around an upside-down world. We have an injured individual who was strapped to a roulette table in the casino, and then the ship turns over so he's hanging upside down and Bobby has to find a way to get him back down to safety. I've got a little cut on my leg, and some bruises and stuff. Your body pays the price, but it’s fun.”

ABC/ Youtube

What’s less fun is shooting up to five episodes at once as the 9-1-1 team races the clock. Speaking to EW on the final day of February, just two weeks before premiere night, Minear jokes(?) that he hasn’t slept in two days: “I may have to call 9-1-1 before the day is over,” he says with a laugh before detailing how they are still finishing cruise ship scenes for the first three episodes while also preparing to film episode 6.

“We’re not just logistically planning a cruise ship disaster — with its many complicated rigs and sets — we’re logistically planning a TV show,” Minear explains. “When I have my two stars separated from the other cast, out on a cruise ship, you have to come up with stories that can service the other group of characters that can film on separate stages. And, hopefully, by the time it's all put together, you won't really feel that people are separated. It's like planning the invasion of Normandy every week.”

Krause says it’s “been a dream” (wet)suiting up for battle with Bassett the past two months, but he’s also missed being a member of what he calls the “Firehouse Five.”

“We were all smiles when we finally got to work together the other day,” Krause says of reuniting with Bobby’s station 118 crew — Hen; Buck; Chimney ( Kenneth Choi ), who was recovering from a metal rod to the head during that season 1 plane crash; and Eddie ( Ryan Guzman ), who joined in season 2 . We’ll have to wait a few episodes to see the Firehouse Five back together, but the team is keeping busy on land while their captain is busy being a bingo ball at sea.

On the clock, Hen is serving as interim captain, but at home, she and Karen ( Tracie Thoms ) are taking another stab at expanding their family of three. (“It takes us on a very interesting path in the first few episodes, so I'm excited to see how the fans respond to our newest edition,” says Hinds.)

Meanwhile, Eddie and Buck are focused on romance — and not just with their potential new love interests, hardware store flirtation Marisol (Edy Ganem) and death doula Natalia (Annelise Cepero). Eddie’s son Christopher (Gavin McHugh) is dating, and the single dad will turn to his best friend for an assist. “It really is a moment of desperation for Eddie where he is like, ‘Oh my God, this is a new avenue that I'm not prepared for…. Who knows women? Oh, Buck does,’” says Guzman.

“It’s been such a beautiful thing to explore Buck’s relationship with Christopher because we've seen him grow up,” adds Stark. “When [Christopher] joined the show, he was a kid, and now he's not. He's a teenager, and there are things that he's going to be thinking about and feeling that are brand new to him. Buck is in a good position to be there for him in a way that maybe his own father can't because he’s had a lot of relationship experience — some successful, some very unsuccessful.”

And which category does Buck’s relationship with Natalia fall in? “That is addressed pretty early on,” Stark teases. “He's just looking for his happiness, and he's willing to put himself out there again and be open to feeling things. He just wants to be happy.”

Luckily, there’s nothing up in the air about where Chimney stands with his finaceé Maddie ( Jennifer Love Hewitt , who replaced Britton as the show’s main 9-1-1 dispatcher at the start of season 2).

"The wedding is happening!” Hewitt promises. But don’t expect it to take over Madney’s lives. “You will hear little bits about it, but honestly the emergencies are massive and exciting from the start — so being first responders keeps them busier than wedding planning,” she explains. “But we know the audience is waiting for these two to get hitched, and they won’t have to wait long.”

Before the ceremony, Choi teases some “pre-wedding celebrations” to come in episode 6: “And in 9-1-1 fashion, especially when it comes to Chimney, things may go awry. I think it's going to be a lot of fun, and it may involve some of the 118 players…”

Whatever bachelor party shenanigans ensue, Minear is excited to plan a “different” kind of wedding as a capstone to this 10-episode season (shorter than usual due to last year’s writers’ and actors’ strikes).

“Kenny and Jennifer just have amazing chemistry together, made for a rom-com,” the showrunner says. “But they are both incredible dramatic actors as well. And finding an interesting way into their wedding has been a lot of fun because I had just come off [spinoff 9-1-1: Lone Star ] where I had done the big wedding between TK and Carlos . I didn't want to do that again. So I think I came up with something different, and I think it's going to be incredible.”

Speaking of Lone Star , “overlap” between the 9-1-1 shows may be “baked in the cake,” but Minear confirms there won’t be a crossover with the Austin-based sister series this season. That said, former 118ers Tommy Kinard (Lou Ferrigno Jr.) and Ravi (Anirudh Pisharody) will pop up, as well as Buck and Maddie’s parents ( Gregory Harrison and Dee Wallace ). “And we are doing kind of a crossover on 9-1-1 ,” Minear teases. “But it's not with Lone Star .” (When pressed for more details, the co-creator slyly muses, “Is it The Rookie ?... Probably not, since I just said The Rookie .”)

So no Lone Star crossover, but we will get the series’ 100th episode — something that crept up on the 9-1-1 team.

It was the day of that aforementioned Firehouse Five reunion and “a couple hours in, we realized ‘Oh, this is the 100th episode!’” recalls Choi. “So all day we were super grateful and super thankful as to how far we've come. And I think it's a testament to the fans of the show. They've kept us on the top of the chart.”

“A lot of casts say, ‘Oh, we all love each other,' because you're supposed to say that, but we all genuinely love one another. It's kind of sickening and gross.”

—Chimney actor Kenneth Choi

“It is beautiful to see how they resonate with the stories, the characters, and the emergencies,” adds Hinds, who officially celebrated the 100th with the cast and crew on set yesterday (with cake!). “But underneath it all, Tim has written characters who do have their own personal struggles ,” Krause notes. “And the language of the show keeps growing, and the storytelling real estate keeps expanding. We do rom-com. We do thriller. We do action. We do horror. We do comedy. Until the scripts come in, we never know what we are going to do. It’s fun.”

It’s that diversity that keeps Bassett coming back season after season.

“As long as the stories keep coming and we keep delving into relationships and family matters — the extended family, the added family, divorce, kids, the empty nest, racial issues, marital issues, adoption, trying to have a child, LGBTQ issues…” she says, “there are so many life issues that we use as inspiration along with the headlines and stories that also inform us. So perhaps we can go on for quite a bit longer, because people surprise you.”

Maybe she has another 100 episodes in her — let’s just hope the water stays warm.

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Other angle kicks off u.s. remake drive for ‘a little something extra’ at french comedy club in l.a., ahead of cannes remakes push, breaking news.

UK Network Channel 5 Taps Clapperboard & Endeavor Content To Make “‘Murder She Wrote’ Meets ‘Below Deck'” Drama Series ‘HMS Murder’

By Jesse Whittock

Jesse Whittock

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The series was ordered by Paul Testar, Commissioning Executive, Drama for Channel 5 and Paramount+. Executive producers for Clapperboard are Mike Benson and lead writer Paul Matthew Thompson, with Sandra MacIver producing and Gordon Anderson joins as director. CJ ENM-owned Endeavor Content has worldwide distribution.

Producer Clapperboard has made several dramas for Channel 5 already, including Intruder and Maxine . Channel 5, meanwhile, has long been associated with popular factual shows set on cruise liners, most notably Cruising with Jane McDonald .

Testar said: “I’m really happy to work once more with the talented team at Clapperboard Studios to bring HMS Murder to screens. With a variety of gloriously sunny locations added to the classic murder mystery genre, and with a splash of music on top, Channel 5 viewers are in for a treat.”

Clapperboard Managing Director Benson added: “We’ve seen a lot of murder mystery shows in recent years – but not many featuring murder, mystery and a cruise ship cabaret singer solving crimes. HMS Murder is probably our most ambitious series to date, filmed across 8 different countries as well as a 6000 cabin luxury cruise liner sailing the med.”

Filming is due to start later this year and casting details will follow in coming months.

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Passenger dies during 9-month Royal Caribbean world cruise

The viral nine-month Royal Caribbean cruise has experienced a death on the high seas.

“A guest sailing onboard Serenade of the Seas has sadly passed away,” a Royal Caribbean spokesperson shared in a statement to NBC News Feb. 13.

The spokesperson did not share details regarding the passenger’s identity or the circumstances of their death.

“We are actively providing support and assistance to the guest’s loved ones at this time. Out of the privacy of the guest and their family, we have nothing further to share at this time,” the statement concluded.

The 9-month-long cruise aboard the Royal Caribbean’s Ultimate World Cruise captured the attention of social media towards the end of last year.

On Dec. 10, Royal Caribbean’s Ultimate World Cruise kicked off its round-the-world tour. TikTok's obsession with the voyage and its partakers quickly followed suit. The hashtag #RoyalCaribbeanUltimateWorldCruise has already accumulated nearly 100 million views on the platform, and with the cruise liner ending its voyage on Sept. 10, 2024, that number has plenty of time to continue to climb.

A corner of TikTok has been closely tracking activity on the cruise ship, called Serenade of the Seas, with many users pointing out that so much can happen within the span that it’s at sea, including new relationships, falling outs, pregnancy, death and more.

“Can you imagine the type of drama that is gonna happen on that boat?” user @nchimad on TikTok said in a video posted soon after the trip set sail. “If something big goes down, I want to hear from different people, different angles, perspectives.”

TikTok is turning the 9-month-long cruise ship into an official reality TV show.

Read on for everything we know.

What is the 9-month cruise all over TikTok?

Royal Caribbean’s Ultimate World Cruise is a 274-night trip that began on Dec. 10, 2023, when it left from Miami and is expected to come to an end in the same place on Sept. 10, 2024.

Passengers are currently staying on Serenade of the Seas, a ship that had its maiden voyage in 2003 .

Serenade of the Seas will tour the world in four segments: the Americas, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Mediterranean and "Europe and beyond."

Ticket rates are based on a range of 1,073 staterooms and the full 274-night trip ran from $53,999 per person to $117,599 per person. Tickets for different legs of the trip are still available to book.

Why is the 9-month cruise all over TikTok?

TikTok users h ave become highly invested in the cr uise 's passengers, likening them to a cast of characters that would typically appear on a reality show.

For people tracking the day-to-day lives of cruise ship passengers, many have predicted that the 9-month trip has the potential for drama equivalent to or even larger than a reality TV series production. After all, the footage being streamed on TikTok is created and edited by real people, not a major network.

“I made an Ultimate World Cruise Bingo card for anyone else who is buckling in for this nine months TikTok reality show,” user @whimsysoul shared in a video posted shortly after the ship’s voyage began.

Her curated game of predicted events includes “minor mystery to solve,” “stowaway,” “podcast following the trip,” “2nd COVID outbreak” and “staff dates passenger.”

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. After all, the voyage's 9-month set up brings back memories of isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic and quarantine.

As user @megseestheworld notes , the entire experience reminds her of an episode of "Suite Life on Deck" when the sea days repeat themselves, a similar vibe to the movie "Groundhog Day."

"I think that's what it would start to feel like, with all those sea days, like I couldn't do it," she says in the clip.

"But then on the flip side, when they get to Europe in the last segment of the cruise, like the last part of the itinerary, it's almost too intense," she continues. "I think I counted at some points, they're going 18 days in port with no sea days, and the last segment means that you're probably six months into this cruise, you're probably going to be really tired? I don't know, I'd be tired."

What has happened so far on the 9-month cruise?

Month 1 highlights — december to january.

First scheduled port is canceled: Passengers experienced their first canceled scheduled port on Devil's Island due to inclement weather, but TikToker Angie Linderman shrugged it off in her video as something to be expected while on the high seas.
Minor flooding on deck: There was some minor flooding. Video captured on board the cruise showed that on deck 12 of the ship, water spread across the floor carpets and small streams flowed down the corridor.
Seeing Antarctica from a distance: After sailing through the trepidatious conditions of the Drake Passage, passengers weren't able to step foot on Antarctica due to it being a protected area. The TikToker known as Little Rat Brain expressed her disappointment with a video about the visit , writing, "Not stepping foot on Antarctica.” According to the TikToker, passengers were able to see an up-close slab of ice extracted from the area that was brought on the ship.
Influencer joins the cruise and stirs up drama: On Jan. 6, fashion influencer Marc Sebastian announced that he received sponsorship from Atria Books, a part of Simon & Schuster, to track and stir up the drama on board for 18 nights out of the 274-day trip. In his next-day post, Sebastian revealed his tense-filled interaction with a member of the cruise’s Pinnacle Club when he let out a curse word.

Who are the TikTokers on the ship?

While the exact number of current passengers on Serenade of the Seas, which can hold up to 2,476 guests, is unknown, recent footage from traveler @brooklynschwetje shows a cruise meeting when it was revealed 1,093 membership passengers were on board.

A select few passengers have been consistently posting on TikTok since the voyage began, and the list includes but isn't limited to: @aa.kenney , @ iambrandeelake , @angielinderman , @brooklynschwetje , @madisonschwetje , @amike_oosthuizen , @little_rat_brain , @drjennytravels , @spendingourkidsmoney and @livingphase2 .

Some of these users, many deeming themselves as The Ultimate Real World Cruise cast, have started to hang out with each other on the ship and post content together.

Alé Kenney and Andrew Kenney, @aa.kenney

Alé and Andrew Kenney will celebrate their fourth wedding anniversary during the Ultimate World Cruise tour.

Speaking to TODAY.com, 29-year-old Alé Kenney says that the cruise isn’t just a massive voyage made up of TikTokers and Generation Z.

"I would say the majority, like the overwhelming majority of passengers, are retirees (or seniors)," she explains, summarizing that number as being at least 90% of the passengers.

According to the Kenneys, the two decided to hop on board the Serenade of the Seas after her father died two years ago.

"My dad got sick and passed away, and he was only 57," she explains.

"We just kind of started running numbers and processing and thinking about it," Andrew Kenney adds. "We were like, 'Well, we can do it. We don't have a mortgage right now. We don't have kids yet.' We're just in a season of life where we could actually take nine months off and see the world."

The Kenneys told TODAY Dec. 27 that when they first came on board, they had 200 followers, and that today, they now have 90K followers.

The couple declined to share what they do for work and whether they will work during the trip.

Brandee Lake @ iambrandeelake , Shannon Lake @swankalamode

Brandee Lake, 46, and her 42-year-old sister, Shannon, decided to join their retired parents on their trip.

“I’m like, you’re not leaving us behind. I don’t really know what you think is going on here,” Shannon Lake quips in their interview with TODAY.com

Brandee Lake worked in marketing and advertisement and lived in Los Angeles, California, before the trip. Shannon Lake runs her own consulting business and plans to work remotely from the ship while making up her own hours.

The sisters say they'll share the same cabin during their 9 months on the trip, and that they don't expect to butt heads too much with each other or their parents, since they're close and quarantined together during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Users have expressed interest in following the Lake sisters in particular to see their perspective of traveling the world and taking part in a cruise as Black women.

"We definitely are the youngest Black people on the boat," Brandee Lake explains.

"I think that's why my TikTok skyrocketed so fast, because I was the first Black person that people were seeing post that was actually on the ship," Shannon Lake adds.

During their joint interview, the sisters agreed in unison that the people and staff for the "most part are amazing."

"So friendly, so kind so much energy," Brandee Lake says, quashing any drama that users have attempted to stir up so far. "Our people at dinner are like family already, you know, we have people who we don't even interact with normally (who) are like family already. And of course, the staff itself is quite diverse."

She echoed these statements in separate interview that aired on TODAY Dec. 27, saying that the passengers are "one growing family" and that "everything has been great."

Though both sisters note that within days of setting sail, they did experience a loaded bump: “Apparently it seemed far fetched to some that a Black woman (and family) could be a guest on the once in a lifetime experience,” Brandee Lake wrote alongside a recent video she shared on her TikTok.

Soon after the post began to circulate, she says the cruise’s hotel director made a point to greet her at dinner.

"I think (TikTok users who watched the post) were tagging Royal Caribbean like 'you need to fix this,'" Brandee Lake explains. "They did at least take the time to come to me and you know, ask how everything's going now."

The Lake sisters tell TODAY.com that other than this, they've yet to encounter any reality television-worthy bits of drama to mark on a Bingo card, but they do have a podcast where they plan on sharing their journey with followers.

Angie Linderman, @angielinderman

Linderman tells TODAY.com that when she first boarded Serenade of the Seas, she had less than 100 followers. Now she has over 115K followers.

"I think that it is surprising out there to people that there's so many on the younger side who are on the cruise," she explained. "I think that's really resonating with people or gathering their attention, maybe."

For Linderman, she wants to use her new platform to share with others why she signed up for the cruise in the first place. Linderman has the BRCA2 gene , which means she is at a higher risk for certain cancers .

"That is something that has kind of helped to impact my desire to travel," she explains. "Retirement age is not a guarantee. And so (there is) an emphasis on just doing all of the things I can do now while I'm healthy, while I'm able, instead of putting them off in hopes that I can do them later, when in reality that may not happen."

Linderman says that she left her cozy three-bedroom home in Oregon to tour the world for nine months in her current 250-square-foot balcony stateroom.

To prepare for the 9-month voyage, she arranged for a friend to stay at her home with her dog and reduced the hours of her job in marketing. For the next several months, she'll work remotely and will be taking advantage of the various stops and sights the voyage will have to offer.

Where is The Ultimate World Cruise going?

The Serenade of the Seas' Ultimate World Tour has an extensive itinerary that promises to take its passengers to 11 Wonders of the World and 65 countries in 274 nights flat. The destinations are broken down into four travel segments. Check out the four segments and their stretches below:

Ultimate Americas Cruise

64 nights from Dec. 10, 2023, to Feb. 11, 2024
36 destinations, including Cozumel, Mexico; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and Los Angeles, California
4 Wonders, including Iguazú Falls and Machu Picchu

Ultimate Asia Pacific Cruise

87 nights from Feb. 11, 2024, to May 9, 2024
40 destinations, including Kailua-Kona, Hawaii; Manila, Philippines; and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
3 Wonders, including the Great Barrier Reef and the Taj Mahal

Ultimate Middle East and Med Pacific Cruise

63 nights from May 9, 2024, to July 10, 2024
44 destinations, including Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Alexandria, Egypt; Rhodes, Greece; Barcelona, Spain; and Provence, France
4 Wonders, including the Great Pyramid of Giza and the Temple of Artemis

Ultimate Europe and Beyond Cruise

63 nights from July 10, 2024, to Sept. 10, 2024
40 destinations, including Casablanca, Morocco; Paris, France; Bruges, Belgium; and Nuuk, Greenland

Alex Portée is a senior trending reporter at TODAY Digital and is based in Los Angeles.

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Pop Culture

How a world cruise became a 'tiktok reality show' — and what happened next.

Rachel Treisman

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. Captivated viewers are comparing it to a social media reality show. Royal Caribbean/@amike_oosthuizen @brooklyntravelstheworld @spendingourkidsmoney @angielinderman @cooljul1 @aditaml2759 @drjennytravels @marcsebastianf @yourdatingtipbestie @whimsysoul/LA Johnson/NPR hide caption

Marc Sebastian, like many people, first started seeing the cruise videos around the holidays.

After Royal Caribbean's " Ultimate World Cruise " set sail from Miami in mid-December, many passengers started filming their daily routines at sea , from hanging wet laundry in their cabinet-sized bathrooms to piling their plates high at the dining room buffet.

They posted highlight reels of their excursions at ports throughout the Caribbean and South America, the first of hundreds of stops on their nine-month journey around all seven continents. Their videos flooded TikTok almost immediately, captivating viewers at home.

Videos from Royal Caribbean's Ultimate World Cruise are captivating TikTok viewers

Onlookers wondered about the practicalities of life on board the cruise, which was first announced in late 2021 and starts around $59,999. And they relished the potential for drama, especially since aspiring passengers can theoretically join at any time for individual "segments" before the cruise docks in September.

Many posted that they wished reality TV cameras would come on board to document it all. Sebastian, a 33-year-old content creator based in Los Angeles, was one of them.

"Put cameras on that ship right now ... There's gonna be mutiny. There's gonna be blood. Someone is going overboard, I want to watch," Sebastian said in a December TikTok that's since gotten more than 1.3 million likes. " Bravo , where are you?"

In the absence of camera crews, viewers have turned to TikTokkers to follow along for the journey.

They include the accounts of more than two dozen fast-emerging "cruise influencers" on board, as well as a growing handful of content creators across the U.S. and U.K. who are cross-referencing, synthesizing and analyzing their videos in posts of their own.

Do you have 'TikTok voice'? It's OK if you don't want to get rid of it

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.

By the start of the 2024, the hashtag #UltimateWorldCruise had surpassed 150 million views and become its own form of must-see TV, all on TikTok.

"It's been fun to kind of just follow what truly feels like a TikTok reality show," said Kara Harms, the founder of a lifestyle travel website who has been posting videos and a now-viral bingo card about the cruise from her home in San Francisco.

"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.

Nine months on a cruise ship is just the kind of "social incubator" that's so central to reality TV, said Jamie Cohen, a media studies professor at Queens College who began his career as a reality television producer.

Throughline

Editing reality (2023).

But he says there are some key differences. Whereas TV producers typically hold the keys to casting and plot points, it's the viewers who are shaping the #CruiseTok narrative, by reacting to and interacting with the passengers' posts in real time.

Social media users are effectively "opening the door to plot lines that create reality around the people who are just on the ship to enjoy themselves," Cohen added. The risk is that people at home or on board might change their behavior or even manufacture drama for views.

That's something most of the nine-month cruisers are acutely aware of and trying to avoid, several passengers told NPR. Not Sebastian, though.

"Alternately, put me on the cruise," he said in his December video. "I will cause chaos, I will wreak havoc, and I will record everything."

Within days, he was on board.

Discovering the truth behind the reality show

Atria Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, paid for Sebastian to join the cruise for 18 nights, on a stretch that included the Drake Passage and Antarctica.

His duties included promoting their books through a virtual book club, in which thousands of humans and a handful of penguins participated. He's since passed the torch to another cruiser.

Sebastian told NPR towards the end of his time on board that while he arrived ready to play the part of a villain — including packing an "evil"-looking long red coat — he wasn't serious about causing drama.

"I really did think at the very beginning that I was going to find a lot of interpersonal drama within the people," he said. "But unfortunately, they're all so nice — crazy! — and they are all really kind. There's a really amazing sense of community."

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The economics of the influencer industry, and its pitfalls.

Sebastian documented everything , posting candid reviews of the food, accommodations and other aspects of the cruise on a scale of "fabulous," to "pressing charges" to "prison, honey." He made clear throughout the trip that he was not a fan of cruises to begin with, and had criticisms of this one.

@marcsebastianf for 18 nights? fine. But for 9 months? No can do babe #ultimateworldcruise #marcreadsabook #worldcruise #serenadeoftheseas #royalcaribbean #cruisetok #cruise #9monthcruise ♬ original sound - Marc Sebastian

His trip wasn't devoid of drama. Some memorable moments included him getting scolded for profanity , forming alliances for (boat) tenders, getting kicked out of a members-only lounge and the reservation incident .

But Sebastian says nearly all of the conflict came from members of the cruise community online , whom he says tended to be older and mistake his bluntness for ungratefulness.

"I do feel really lucky," he added. "But I don't feel lucky that I'm on a cruise. I feel lucky that a brand noticed that I made content and trusted me enough to put me forth into this experience."

Royal Caribbean did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

The Indicator from Planet Money

The dark side of the influencer industry.

Jenny Honeycutt (aka @ drjennytravels ), a 34-year-old writing consultant and full-time traveler, spent time with Sebastian on board. She says he was "extremely respectful" about not filming or posting videos of people without their consent, a practice she recommends for any future influencers who may join the ship.

She says the way the outside world is portraying passengers as reality show characters, while amusing, has stirred up some negativity on board.

"Everyone has paid a lot of money and given up a lot in some way or another to be here, whether it be their families, their homes, their pets," added Honeycutt. "So I think people have a fear of this taking away from this adventure that it is."

The "cruise influencers" have also gained a lot, chiefly, hundreds of thousands of social media followers each. But most of them couldn't have predicted they would go viral overnight — let alone have to add "film and post daily TikToks" to their vacation to-do lists.

The full nine-month journey is scheduled to visit more than 150 ports across seven continents before ending in Miami in September. Royal Caribbean hide caption

The full nine-month journey is scheduled to visit more than 150 ports across seven continents before ending in Miami in September.

Not all passengers set out to become influencers

The so-called cast of characters documenting their cruise travels on TikTok is large and growing.

There are Gen Z-ers and retirees , solo travelers and entire families , crew members and performers , duos of spouses and of siblings .

@amikeoosthuizen Made some new friends!! 🥰🛳️🫶 #SAMA28 #ultimateworldcruise #worldcruise #royalcaribbean #foryoupage #foryou #travel #cruisetok ♬ original sound - amikeoosthuizen

Passengers chose the cruise for a variety of reasons, from celebrating a retirement to spending an inheritance or simply wanting to see the world.

Some, like Amike Oosthuizen , boarded the ship with a sizable social media following already.

The Sunday Story: So you want to be an influencer?

The 26-year-old had done some influencing back home in South Africa (her mom, incidentally, is one of the stars of Real Housewives of Pretoria ) . Oosthuizen says she joined the trip with plans to post "day in the life" videos, with a focus on makeup and fashion.

"I really did it because I wanted to capture the memories and there's so many places we were seeing," Oosthuizen said. "And it was such a bonus that it actually blew up and everyone wanted to see what we're doing. So now it's more like I want to keep everyone updated."

She says she spends two to three hours a day editing her footage into videos, and has already been approached by brands for potential partnerships. Most of these companies are offering excursions at upcoming ports, since she can't receive packages on the ship.

Oosthuizen, who is working remotely as a regulatory officer for an agriculture company, says she hopes those opportunities — and the chance to be a full-time influencer — will continue even past the cruise.

Joe Martucci, on the other hand, never wanted to become TikTok famous. The 67-year-old, who is traveling with his wife to celebrate his recent retirement from the finance industry, wasn't on the platform at all.

He started making daily videos to send to their four adult children, who live all over the world. They encouraged him to start posting them on TikTok, which Martucci suspects has something to do with his tendency to mispronounce words. He set up an account called @spendingourkidsinheritance, which he emphasizes is a joke.

Taylor Swift, Drake, BTS and more may have their music taken off TikTok — here's why

"Then I had to figure out how to post something to Tik Tok," he said. "And two of my daughters said, let's put these — I thought they said hash marks, but they're hashtags."

His first video took off, garnering more than 400,000 views, and he's continued posting daily recaps ever since. Each video still opens with a cheery "hey, kids" — only now he's addressing not just his own children, but the 90,000 or so "adopted kids" who now follow him.

"Some people have said, 'We hear more from you than we hear from our own parents," Martucci said, recounting the touching messages he's received since. "We're overwhelmed, we're very humbled and we like the fact that people like watching what we're doing."

The couple doesn't plan to start monetizing their videos, or stop posting them, anytime soon.

But they had a close call this week. On Wednesday, Martucci tearfully announced on the platform that their account had been hacked , saying the culprit had asked his contacts for money.

He told NPR later that same day that some five other TikTokers on board the cruise had rushed to their room to help them change their password and set up two-factor authentication. The passengers had learned about the hack from a TikTok posted by one of the cruise commentators on shore.

Other viewers on land, he said, were using their TikTok connections to try to help them get their old username back.

Passengers say the drama isn't coming from the ship

Viewers on land can't seem to get enough cruise content.

About half of the items on Harms' viral bingo card — which Sebastian cheekily played on board — have already been crossed off , including fist fight, COVID outbreak, petty neighbor drama, cliques forming, an early departure and a (sort of) pirate takeover .

Kisha Peart , one of the at-home cruise commentators, told NPR that she originally started posting to share her insights as a former cruise ship employee. 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.

This 3-year cruise around the world is called off, leaving passengers in the lurch

"It is kind of a lot taking it all in but it's also been fun," she said. "So it's been exciting being like, 'Okay, what happened today?' And I'll deep dive and try to bring the info to the people."

She's one of many TikTokkers reporting on the latest cruise ship "tea." At least, that's what they're calling it. Harms, of bingo card fame, says viewers are so excited about the potential for drama that they may be misusing the word.

"When you peel back the layers and look at it objectively you're like, that's just humans being humans," Harms said. "It's not actually drama and tea."

@whimsysoul Ultimate World Cruise Bingo Card!!! who's playing with me? 🛥️ 🌊 🌍 🍿 #ultimateworldcruise #royalcaribbean #worldcruise #cruise #bingo #travel #whimsysoul ♬ original sound - Kara | travel girlie

Several nine-month cruisers told NPR that they feel the drama is coming not from the passengers, but from people watching at home.

Without naming names, Honeycutt said some recap accounts are doing a great job while others are stirring the pot.

"There's kind of been this pall even on the ship of, what are we as the TikTokkers posting versus what's going on?" she added.

She said the TikTokers on board have gotten together several times — including once at a private dining experience at Royal Caribbean's invitation — to make videos, bond about their love of travel and sometimes vent about the negative comments.

More than 30 cruise influencers are now in a group chat, Oosthuizen said. She said they see each other pretty often, in passing and on purpose — but not always to make content.

"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. "We get together a lot more than we actually record."

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Martucci described the cruise as "a floating city of 2,000 people," and said he didn't feel anyone was intentionally trying to cause drama on board. In fact, he said Wednesday, the response to his account being hacked demonstrated how "we all look after each other."

"We all respect that people who are on this ship spent a lot of money to be on this ship," he said. "And this is their vacation. This is their life story. And they need to be able to enjoy their life's dream."

Peart, at home in New York City, acknowledged that she has played a role in hyping up the reality TV aspect of the cruise, by putting people in the spotlight and adding "a little pizzazz onto what's already out there." But she says it's not malicious, and all in good fun.

"At the end of the day, we're all on TikTok to be entertained," she added.

The cruise hype reflects the state of social media, and could hint at its future

We're not likely to stop hearing about the nine-month cruise anytime soon.

More travelers will likely come on board, including more influencers. Australian comedian Christian Hull , who has been posting excitedly for weeks, will be joining the ship when it docks in Brisbane in March.

He told LiSTNR's "The Briefing Podcast " that he took $20,000 out of his mortgage to pay for a balcony room for 16 days.

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Covid nearly sunk the cruise industry. now it's trying to make a comeback..

"I got sucked right in," he said, adding that he hopes a sponsor will eventually cover the cost.

Several influencers told NPR they think Sebastian's novel partnership with Atria Books could help usher in a change with how brand partnerships work.

Harms, for example, thinks people should expect more "integrated" campaigns in the near future, where products are advertised more organically on social media. That could mean, for example, an influencer showing their journey on a walk to advertise a pair of sneakers, rather than talking into the camera about them.

Sebastian said he'd be thrilled to see more brands using trips and experiences to market goods. He'd also like to see influencers being more honest about the things they're promoting, as he was about his time on board.

"I hope that this takes off and allows other people to see you don't need to have this toxic positivity when it comes to influencing, and that you can express how you actually feel about something," he added.

At the same time, the cruise hype also illustrates the potential risks of virality and social media culture itself. Hacking is just one example.

How social media algorithms 'flatten' our culture by making decisions for us

"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. "So it is one of those things where creating drama ... could create adverse results."

Cohen views this as an experiment that can hopefully offer insights into better policy for future cruises when it comes to things like privacy and cameras on board.

He acknowledges that cameras and vlogs are ubiquitous today, at least among Gen Z. And he hopes those who may be tempted to cause a scene for views or stir the pot in the comments section will remember that "these are all humans; we could be the other person."

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.

"I think it's important to enjoy them," he says of the TikToks. "I don't think there's a reason to try to change reality."

influencers
reality television
royal caribbean

All the drama on board the 9-month cruise going viral on TikTok

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“There’s going to be mutiny. There’s going to be blood. Someone is going overboard. I want to watch. We’re witnessing Fyre Festival...put me on the cruise .”

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".

Advertised as “the most epic cruise to ever set sail”, the Ultimate World Cruise is Royal Caribbean's longest-ever cruise. With a 274-night itinerary, prices for the full trip start at $53,999 (£42,462) per person. They can go up to an eye-watering $117,599 (£92,474) excluding taxes and fees, according to Royal Caribbean’s website . Passengers who’ve booked for the whole shebang (some people are on board for only certain segments, more on this later) will visit 65 countries, including Antarctica.

Since the ship set sail on December 10, TikTok has been flooded (no pun intended) with guests' posts documenting their trip. Passengers have become overnight celebrities, with their followers skyrocketing overnight.

Accounts chronicling the cruise from users on land have also quickly emerged, with creators obsessively analysing passengers’ videos and anticipating the ship’s potential for drama. It's Triangle of Sadness meets Titanic meets Below Deck — and it has got TikTok in a chokehold; in only two weeks, the hashtag #UltimateWorldCruise has attracted more than 150 million views. “I’m so invested in this 9 month world cruise happening cause I know it’s gonna be some MESS,” one person posted on X.

“I cannot WAIT for the nine-month cruise documentary ala (sic) Fyre Fest,” another said. “It’s already giving Lord of the Flies.”

One TikToker made a virtual bingo card that went viral, with predictions including “petty neighbour drama,” “a wedding,” “stowaway” and “pirate takeover".

And so far, #cruisetok has delivered on the drama. There are already allegations of a class system emerging, rumours of swingers, a flood, allegations of racism, and outrage at the cramped conditions. One creator , who refers to herself as TikTok’s “sea tea” director and updates her followers with “breaking news”, claimed that someone had already left the cruise.

If you’re wondering just how entertaining a group of tech-illiterate retirees could be, think again. Part of the fun of the UWC is that it has attracted everyone from social media -savvy Gen Zers and millennials to boomers and the elderly. (One couple made videos on board joking about how they spent their children’s inheritances on the trip).

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Passengers are documenting everything from relaxing on a private island in the Bahamas to MTV Cribs-style tours of their cabins (called staterooms). 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.

Here's everything you need to know about who's on board and all the drama so far.

From Gen Z influencers to wealthy retirees — all the main characters on board

The ship, called the Serenade of the Seas , has a capacity for 2,476 guests — although so far, no one knows exactly how many people are actually on board. However, eagle-eyed fans spotted that recent footage from traveller @brooklynschwetje shows a cruise meeting when it was revealed that 1,093 membership passengers were on board.

The most prolific creator so far has been @amike_oosthuizen , a South African influencer with more than 200,000 followers who is on board and working remotely with her husband. Her video titled “what I eat in a day on a nine month cruise”, where she takes viewers on a trip to the ship’s all-day buffet, had 3.9 million views at the time of writing. Some of her food included fruit, yoghurt, a muffin, oatmeal, and a smoothie. For lunch, she has a salad, a burger patty with cheese, and a plate of vegetables. She finishes the day with fish, noodles, corn, and slices of watermelon.

Mike and Nancy, an older couple whose TikTok bio says they are "finding fulfilment in life's second phase", have been sharing wholesome content on their account @livingphase2 , racking up almost 30,000 followers at the time of writing.

Another star of #cruisetok is Joe Martucci, a 67-year-old recent retiree from Florida, posting from the ship with the handle @spendingourkidsmoney . Joe’s four children encouraged him to post video updates on TikTok, which he’d never used before, he told the New York Times. His first video had nearly half a million views at the time of writing — and he has more than 70,000 followers.

Lindsay Wilson, a 32-year-old teacher on board from Arizona, told the New York Times that the attention “was very, very weird". She said that she and some of the other passengers who had amassed new TikTok followers had connected in person and talked via group chats about their newfound celebrity status.

Some of these users, many deeming themselves as The Ultimate Real World Cruise cast, have started to hang out with each other on the ship and post content together.

Even some of the staff on board have started posting videos, such as Julian Mendoza with the handle @cooljul1 .

“Really tiny” rooms

Of course, part of the fascination with #cruisetok is an obsession with the ridiculous lives of the super-rich and what they choose to spend their money on. This is perhaps why TikTokers sharing in-depth on board room tours, often showing off their relatively small living conditions, have gone particularly viral. Schadenfreude sells.

One passenger, Ale Kenney, who is on board with her husband Andrew, recently shared a video of her room which has racked up almost three million views.

“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.

“Our bathroom is really tiny, but we make it work. We added a couple of storage options — this magnetic shelf from Amazon — and then just crammed our medicine and my makeup down here.”

Pointing at the bathroom cupboard, she laughs: “This opens up but it’s very teeny tiny. And that is it from our luxury bathroom experience.”

She and Andrew decorated the walls with a banner, pictures, and sketches — and the room has a sea-view window.

“This feels like dystopian (sic) jail” one user commented. Another said: “I can’t imagine being on a cruise for 9 months without an outside stateroom. I would go insane”.

Swingers rumours, a flood, and racism allegations — the drama on board so far

Social media has been quick to compare the cruise to the hit reality show Below Deck, which follows crews working on luxury yachts, with users eagerly awaiting an explosion of controversy. But has there been any drama yet?

Well... sort of.

There was a brief moment where it looked like there were some swingers on the ship, when a woman and her husband put a pineapple (a symbol used to signal to other swingers) on their door. Sadly, the woman later clarified that she just “liked pineapples".

New footage from inside the ship, largely posted on TikTok, has shown a flood on the 12th deck, with passengers reporting strong winds and storms outside. One user shared a video of the flood with the caption: “Our first storm of the Ultimate WC, 60mph winds, flooding, forward elevators closed until further notice.”

The main point of tension, however, has been an apparent class system that has emerged. The cruise is divided into four segments — Americas, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Med, and Europe & Beyond — and each is available to book individually, so not everyone on board is going the full distance. There have been rumours of animosity between the “segmenters” and those on board for nine months, with the segmenters reportedly receiving different treatment to the full-boarders. However, the only real injustice so far seems to be some full-boarders allegedly gatekeeping the cruise's Facebook group.

Perhaps the best update so far has come from Mike and Nancy, an older couple who have been chronicling their journey on the ship on TikTok. In a video posted on January 2, the couple dropped the bombshell that the ship was running out of wine.

“Well, all of you on TikTok who’ve been asking for drama on the Ultimate World Cruise, we finally have some drama for you. They’re running out of wine. Can you believe it?” Mike said. “They’ve told us here that we’ve gone through more wine than they could’ve ever anticipated. They’re hoping to get restocked, they’re trying at all the different ports. They tried to restock in Barbados, that didn’t work, they tried to restock in Rio, they got a little bit. We’ll keep you updated.”

There have been more serious allegations, though. A week into the ship’s voyage, Brandee Lake, a black content creator and passenger posted a video (which has 2.6 million views at the time of writing) in which she claimed that she had been mistaken multiple times for a crew member, once by a passenger and another time by a staff member.

“If I get asked if I work on this ship one more time,” she said in the TikTok. “After I said I was not working, then I was asked if I was independently wealthy — like, basically, how did you afford this?”. Alongside the video, she wrote the caption: “Apparently it seemed far fetched to some that a Black woman (and family) could be a guest on the once in a lifetime experience".

Brandee later told TODAY that after she posted her TikTok the cruise’s hotel manager made it a point to greet her during dinner. Royal Caribbean did not respond when approached for comment about the allegations.

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The 14 Best TV Shows About Cruise Ships
Mighty Cruise Ships truly lets us see the best cruises there are to offer. Cruise Ship Killers, Justice Network (2020 - 2022) ... The Love Boat is a scripted rom-com/drama series that aired on ABC more than 30 years ago! However, when watching this series you'll find that a lot of the scenarios portrayed are still reflected, to some extent ...
The Good Ship Murder (TV Series 2023- )
The Good Ship Murder: Created by Mike Benson, Paul Matthew Thompson. With Shayne Ward, Catherine Tyldesley, Claire Sweeney, Zak Douglas. Former police detective Jack Grayling, now pursuing his dream of becoming a cabaret singer on a luxury Mediterranean cruise ship, investigates a series of murders on board with the help of ship's First Officer Kate Woods.
The 11 days of drama at sea that changed cruising forever
Christine Beehler, 72, from New Hampshire, was on board the Coral Princess, a 2,000-passenger ship that was denied a port of call in Brazil, even for guests who had onward flight tickets home ...
Exclusive '9-1-1' season 7 preview clip shows cruise ship explosion
'9-1-1' sent Angela Bassett's Athena and Peter Krause's Bobby on a cruise. Now an exclusive season 7 preview shows one going down as drama moves from Fox to ABC.
The Good Ship Murder
The Good Ship Murder is a British television crime drama series created by Paul Matthew Thompson and Mike Benson, set on a luxury Mediterranean cruise ship. It follows a retired detective-turned cabaret singer solving murders on board. It stars Shayne Ward and Catherine Tyldesley. The series began broadcast on Channel 5 on 13 October 2023.
7 Cruise TV Shows Guaranteed to Inspire Your Next Holiday
Number of seasons: 7 (105 episodes) This reality TV show follows the exploits of young crewmembers who work on private luxury yachts and cater to the excessive whims of the people who charter them ...
Ultimate World Cruise Month One: Drama on Viral Luxury Trip Explained
It's the most viral vacation ever taken — the Royal Caribbran Ultimate World Cruise. The 274-night voyage — with a starting price of around $60,000 — kicked off on December 10 in Miami. The ...
Unwanted (TV Series 2023- )
Unwanted: With Massimo De Lorenzo, Sylvester Groth, Angeliqa Devi, Denise Capezza. One of the world's largest cruise ships, which after taking on board 28 shipwrecked refugees, is taken hostage by the desperate asylum seekers when they learn that the captain has been ordered to take them back to Libya.
Miss cruising? Stream these movies and shows to get your cruise ship
"Mighty Cruise Ships" was a spinoff of this series, which began airing in 2008 on Canada's Discovery Channel and has completed 10 seasons. ... (Grammer), with resulting drama and hijinks. Royal Caribbean lovers can make it a game of spotting all the cool Harmony of the Seas features, from the ship's nine-deck-high zip line to the Rising Tide Bar.
A 9-Month Cruise Is TikTok's Favorite New 'Reality Show'
Social media users, gripped by the potential for drama on Royal Caribbean's world cruise, have turned the ship's unwitting passengers into "cast members" overnight. Share full article 76
Nine Month Cruise TikTokers Explain What Life on Board Is ...
A behind the scenes look at all of the drama (or lack thereof) and the daily life of spending nine months on a Royal Caribbean cruise traveling to over 60 countries. The cruise is viral on TikTok.
Exclusive '9-1-1' season 7 preview: Cast teases cruise ship (and love
Angela Bassett, Peter Krause, and more of the '9-1-1' cast preview the cruise ship (and love-life) disasters in store as their first-responder drama moves from Fox to ABC for season 7.
One Boat, One World (2021)
One Boat, One World (2021) One Boat, One World. (2021) Life on board a cruise ship involves a ready-made community of over 6,000 tourists and staff members. Chief Officer Ding Kai meets tour guide, Tian Yue, who together will face a voyage filled with challenges in work and love alike. (Source: DramaPanda) Edit Translation.
12 Best Cruise TV Shows To Watch In The UK Right Now
The Love Boat ran from 1977 until 1986 with 9 seasons and 5 specials, and it was a comedy-drama that followed various crew members on the ship. Filmed on the Princess Cruises ship Pacific Princess, the fun show offers a lot of twists and turns but also gives you a view of what life is like on a cruise ship - even if it is heavily dramatised.
Channel 5 Preps "'Murder She Wrote' Meets 'Below Deck'" Drama Series
Paramount Global's Channel 5 is well known for its love of luxury cruise liners and its next drama series will be set aboard one sailing the Mediterranean Seas.. The British network has ordered ...
Passenger Dies During 9-Month Royal Caribbean Cruise
For people tracking the day-to-day lives of cruise ship passengers, many have predicted that the 9-month trip has the potential for drama equivalent to or even larger than a reality TV series ...
You Are My Destiny (2020)
On a cruise ship headed for the Bahamas, two individuals from contrasting worlds cross paths, setting the course for their intertwined destinies. Timid and unassertive administrative assistant, Chen Jia Xin, encounters the handsome, cultured, and charming Wang Xi Yi, heir to a major toiletries conglomerate. A mix-up in identities complicates ...
Royal Caribbean's 9-month world cruise is getting attention for "drama
Booking an inside cabin doesn't mean you're in your room all day. Most cruise ship passengers are out and about doing things. Hanging at the pool, grabbing a meal somewhere, on shore exploring, or enjoying music around the ship. In most cases, cruise ship cabins are used as a place to sleep, change, and shower.
How the Ultimate World Cruise became a TikTok reality show : NPR
Onlookers wondered about the practicalities of life on board the cruise, which was first announced in late 2021 and starts around $59,999. And they relished the potential for drama, especially ...
Wreck (TV series)
Wreck (originally titled Wrecked) is a British comedy horror television series, created and written by Ryan J. Brown.It stars Oscar Kennedy as Jamie, a young man who takes a job on board a cruise ship in order to investigate the disappearance of his sister. It premiered on BBC Three on 9 October 2022, with all episodes airing on BBC iPlayer on the same day.
All the drama on board the 9-month cruise going viral on TikTok
Nine months, 65 countries, up to £92,000 — Royal Caribbean's longest-ever cruise has become an overnight social media sensation. Emma Loffhagen dives into the on board drama
'9-1-1' cruise-ship disaster opens rescue drama's first ABC season
Ryan Murphy's rescue drama opens its seventh season on a new network (ABC) with a cruise-ship disaster that washes over Athena and Bobby's honeymoon. Best movies of 2023 🍿 How he writes From ...
Why the Ultimate World Cruise is Getting Out of Hand on TikTok
Royal Caribbean made waves when the cruise line announced its 9-Month Ultimate World Cruise near the end of 2021. The 274-night cruise, which set sail on board Serenade of the Seas on December 10 ...

The 14 Best TV Shows About Cruise Ships and Yachts

CRUISE SHIP REALITY SHOWS

Below Deck Mediterranean, Bravo (2016 – present)

Below Deck Sailing Yacht, Bravo (2020 – present)

The Cruise, ITV (2016 – 2018)

DOCUMENTARY TV SHOWS ABOUT CRUISE SHIPS

Mighty Cruise Ships, Discovery Channel Canada (2014 – 2022)

Cruise Ship Killers, Justice Network (2020 – 2022)

The Cruise, BBC One (1998)

CRUISE SHIP TRAVEL SHOWS

The Voyager With Josh Garcia, NBC (2016 – 2019)

SCRIPTED CRUISE SHIP TV SHOWS

Wreck, BBC Three (2022 – present)

The Love Boat, ABC (1977 – 1986)

Avenue 5, HBO (2020 – 2022)

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We're a month into the Ultimate World Cruise that's taken over TikTok, and the drama we were promised may actually be about to materialize

Viewers anticipated explosive drama in the days following the cruise's departure

Stories from aboard the cruise began to emerge

Small kernels of controversy began to hit TikTok by the second week of the cruise

The Pinnacle drama that never was

Then a pot-stirrer entered the group chat

Watch: The rise and fall of the cruise industry

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Miss cruising? Stream these 13 movies and shows to get your cruise ship fix

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"The Voyager with Josh Garcia"

"Building the World's Most Luxurious Cruise Ship"

"Jack and Jill"

"Speed 2: Cruise Control"

"Like Father"

"Cruising With Jane McDonald"

"Monster Ships"

"Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked"

"Out to Sea"

"The Love Boat: Next Wave"

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Passenger dies during 9-month Royal Caribbean world cruise

What is the 9-month cruise all over TikTok?

Why is the 9-month cruise all over TikTok?

What has happened so far on the 9-month cruise?

Who are the TikTokers on the ship?

Alé Kenney and Andrew Kenney, @aa.kenney

Brandee Lake @ iambrandeelake , Shannon Lake @swankalamode

Angie Linderman, @angielinderman

Where is The Ultimate World Cruise going?

Ultimate Americas Cruise

Ultimate Asia Pacific Cruise

Ultimate Middle East and Med Pacific Cruise

Ultimate Europe and Beyond Cruise

Pop Culture

Videos from Royal Caribbean's Ultimate World Cruise are captivating TikTok viewers

Do you have 'TikTok voice'? It's OK if you don't want to get rid of it

Throughline

Discovering the truth behind the reality show

Planet Money

The Indicator from Planet Money

Not all passengers set out to become influencers