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In recent months, Beth Fletcher, a 39-year-old photographer from Derbyshire, England, has made a small TikTok debut by summarizing and analyzing the British reality show “I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!” I gained followers. When the latest season ended in early December, Fletcher was at a loss for content. This is because “there are no more good reality shows until summer.”
Then the TikTok algorithm delivered. A video from graduate student and influencer Brooklyn Schwetsche shared his day on Royal’s Ultimate World Cruise, his nine-month trip around the world in the Caribbean. Fletcher was immediately hooked. “I had never been on a cruise before, but the idea of a nine-month cruise shocked me,” she said. After she found more videos of other passengers on the cruise, she realized, “This could be our own reality show, but there’s something better.”
Since the ship launched from Miami on Dec. 10, TikTok has been flooded with posts from land-based voyeurs, analyzing videos shared by cruise passengers and showing the ship’s role as an aquatic arena for high-level drama. I’m guessing it might be a ship. Some have declared it a “nine-month TikTok reality show” in which passengers become unintentional celebrities.
A video with the hashtag #UltimateWorldCruise has been viewed more than 138 million times on social media apps.
This isn’t the first time TikTok creators, who compete for views with millions of other accounts, have mined videos posted by others to create their own genre of online reality TV. In 2021, the University of Alabama sorority rush became an internet fixture known as #BamaRush (and eventually Max’s documentary). But just like with reality TV, the truth behind the content can seem off base.
With a 274-night itinerary, the Ultimate World Cruise is the longest cruise ever offered by Royal Caribbean. According to Royal Caribbean’s website, fares for the entire itinerary (stopping in 65 countries) start at $53,999 per person and go up to $117,599, excluding taxes and fees. The ship, called Serenade of the Seas, can carry 2,476 passengers, but Royal Caribbean representatives have not said how many are currently on board.
Fletcher, from the UK, began posting videos of herself talking about cruises, introducing passengers she identified as “cast members” through her TikTok account, and sharing trivia about life on board from her videos.
More accounts dedicated to this cruise have been added. One creator calls himself TikTok’s “Sea Tea” director and updates his followers with “breaking news” (claiming that someone got off a cruise and another person tested positive for coronavirus). Another TikToker created a virtual bingo card with predictions such as “petty neighbor drama,” “wedding,” “stowaway,” and “pirate takeover.” His video of the bingo card has been viewed more than 300,000 times and garnered hundreds of comments such as “This is the new Hunger Games” and “This must be a social experiment.”
Ryan Holland, 28, who regularly posts about cruises, said people are wondering “how people can afford it,” and “how people end up being on a ship for that long.” He says he is interested in whether he can endure it. She sees two possible explanations for this trending stereotype. “Either it disappears or it changes the future of reality TV,” she says.
One of #cruisetok’s unlikely stars is Joe Martucci, a 67-year-old recently retired resident of St. Cloud, Florida, who posts from the ship under the handle @spendingourkidsmoney. Martucci’s four children encouraged him to post video updates on his TikTok, which he had never used before. His first video received approximately 500,000 views.
“This is not about us trying to be famous,” Martucci said. He and his wife now post daily, calling themselves “Cruise Mom and Dad” and prefacing each video with a cheeky “Hi, kids.”
Martucci, who currently has more than 69,000 TikTok followers, said the attention has been mostly positive, but he’s concerned about fan accounts devoted to stirring up drama. “I think they’re trying to manufacture something,” he said. “They work hard for views and followers.”
Another passenger, Lindsay Wilson, a 32-year-old teacher from Phoenix, said the attention was “very, very strange.” She and the other passengers who gained her new TikTok followers have since connected in person and discussed their overnight stardom through group chats.
Aside from a few complaints about passengers from different customer groups being treated unequally, little real drama has emerged yet. One exception, however, is a video (currently 2.5 million views) posted by Black content creator and cruise passenger Brandi Lake on his Dec. 17 video, once for a passenger and once for a crew member. He said he was mistaken. A member of the staff. Neither Lake nor Royal Caribbean would confirm whether they had been contacted regarding the issue.
Despite TikTok’s obsession with cruises (and expectations for drama), most of the Serenade of the Seas videos have been more mediocre than inspiring. Lake described a typical day at sea, which included a Zumba class, breakfast, coffee at Café Latte-tudes, and activities such as team puzzles and gingerbread house building. After dinner, she sometimes takes part in evening programs such as silent discos, but she usually just secludes herself in her room. She’s “trying to figure out where this drama is,” Lake said. “What am I missing?”
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