About

The 9 Month TikTok Cruise refers to Royal Caribbean's "Ultimate World Cruise," a 274-day round-the-world cruise experience that is being documented by several content creators on board the ship. The content produced by those on board is analyzed and discussed by other users on TikTok as if it were a reality TV show, with land-bound content creators gossiping, making "Bingo cards" and speculating about what will happen on board.

Origin

Royal Caribbean's Ultimate World Cruise set sail on December 10th, 2023 from Miami, Florida. Over the nine months to follow, the cruise promised to visit all seven continents. Customers can choose to sign up for the entire nine months, like some of the content creators posting about the cruise, or they can sign up for smaller segments in particular parts of the world.^[1]

The cruise begins in the Caribbean, loops around South America and crosses the Pacific Ocean in February. The spring of 2024 sees the cruise visiting most of Asia before crossing into the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal. After a summer on the Mediterranean, the cruise ship sails into the Atlantic, stops off in Scandinavia, and returns to Miami, Florida on September 10th, 2024.^[2]

The total minimum cost of the 9 month cruise is $59,999, a figure which many on TikTok were amazed by. Docking fees and taxes add approximately another $5,000, while more luxurious rooms and services cost more money. The chart below, by Royal Caribbean, describes the pricing structure.

Spread

A group of content creators on board the ship began posting about the cruise almost as soon as it left port in Florida. These TikToks included "day in the life" influencer-style posts about events on board, such as the December 16th, 2023 post (seen below left) by amike_oosthuizen, which received over 1.3 million views and 83,000 likes.^[4] Other content creators shared observations and less harmonious incidents from onboard the ship. TikToker @iambrandeelake earned over 690,000 views and 106,000 likes in a day discussing microaggressions on board on December 18th, 2023 (seen below right).^[5]

Other prominent "CruiseTok" content creators include Little Rat Brain,^[6] Angie Linderman^[7] and Brooklyn Schwetje.^[8]

Content creators not on the cruise became an important part of the phenomenon as well, discussing the price, isolation and possible drama of the cruise. Some posted reviews and content summarizing the personalities and videos of the content creators, like @bmekween, who received over 132,000 likes and 1.4 million views in five days talking about the price of the cruise (seen below left) on December 14th.^[9] "Content curator" @pamelawurstventrini posted on December 16th about the cruise as if it were a reality show, saying "you and I are the producers of this fake reality series," earning over 87,000 likes and 729,000 views in three days.^[10]

Various Examples

External References