“World Tour” on TikTok is an unintentional online reality show

“New characters unlocked on Nine Months Ultimate World Cruises TikTok channel!” an older man said, as pink letters flew across the screen, forming a quirky subtitle.

“Who are they?” his wife asked, her tone clearly rehearsed but heartbreakingly serious. The couple said in unison: “It’s us!”

Mike and Nancy are empty nesters whose TikTok videos look like they were edited with software in the early 2000s. But somehow they became the cultural epicenter of an app known for its young, tech-savvy user base. Welcome to World Cruises. No, we’re not on Royal Caribbean on a nine-month circumnavigation, but like millions of people on the Internet, we’re watching intently as the circumnavigation unexpectedly turns into an online reality show.

From the beginning, the ship was destined to cause a huge stir. Cruises aren’t usually this long, and these long-distance adventures haven’t gone so well in recent memory. A new cruise line called Life at Sea Cruises is about to set sail on its first three-year voyage; but after cruisers rent out their homes, quit their jobs, or otherwise leave their homes to live on the ship until 2027, Life at Sea Cruises at Sea canceled the cruise at the last minute, leaving some early birds stranded in Istanbul, where the cruise was supposed to start. It turns out that “Sea Life” doesn’t even have a boat, leading to comparisons of the ordeal to the infamous Fyre Fest. So when Royal Caribbean’s nine-month cruise begins in a few weeks, the internet is ready to pay close attention.

Globetrotting is an online phenomenon similar to Bama Rush — the sorority culture at the University of Alabama is so cutthroat and intense that TikTokers’ rushes are followed religiously, and HBO later even made a movie about it Documentary. Whether it’s a lavish sorority or a cruise that costs more than most people’s annual salary, we’re all drawn to these unfathomable displays of wealth, especially when things go wrong.

As the saying goes, there’s a new protagonist on the Internet every day, and your goal is to never become that protagonist. Normally, these characters would be reviled (like the infamous Bean Daddy incident in 2021), but now, the cruisers take center stage. Some of them are existing influencers who know what they’re getting into, but there are also older folks – the primary audience for these cruises – who may not be ready to deal with social media fame The ups and downs.

Creator Marc Sebastian, who has more than 1 million TikTok followers, posted a video ten days into the trip urging reality show producers to “put cameras on this fucking cruise ship.”

“We’re seeing Fyre Music Festival, Alabama Boom, and no one’s rush There! he said angrily. “Or, put me on a cruise ship and I’ll go… I’ll cause chaos, I’ll wreak havoc, I’ll record everything.” “

Sebastian isn’t kidding about getting on board, as you can still sign up for certain legs of the cruise. Sebastian got his wish and found a sponsor to pay for his eighteen-day cruise. Soon we may start to see other influencers hopping on board to stir up controversy over opinions for the sake of influence; but since Sebastian made the first move and leaned into the absurdity of it all , people just love his updates.

It’s been a month since the World Cruise departed from Miami, and while nothing catastrophic has happened, the hype hasn’t waned. The Internet still can’t look away: Imagine you live on a ship with hundreds of strangers, but some of them suddenly become famous on social media, and your great voyage has become enough with ordinary land dwellers So relevant that it was featured on the Today Show.

Cruise ships dock in 60 countries around the world, but it’s not the content of the trip that attracts people’s interest, but the people. It’s hard not to love Mike and Nancy, who dutifully kept us informed of extremely low-stakes cruise drama (the ship ran out of some wine! They had to replenish it in South America!). But there’s also a group of young cruisers who are more of the typical influencer types. These characters inspire jealousy and/or morbid curiosity in many people, as it’s hard to imagine how anyone in their twenties can afford a cruise that costs between $60,000 and $120,000.

Some of the characters include: Amike Oosthuizen, a South African influencer traveling with her boyfriend, who both look like models. Sisters Shannon and Brandi create podcasts together and travel with their parents. Dr. Jenny does not practice medicine on cruise ships, but instead runs a consulting practice remotely. Then there’s Angie Linderman, whose parents recently died, leaving her enough money to travel the world.

Less than ten days into the cruise, Brooklyn Schwetje, a young cruiser, posted a video introducing CruiseTok’s “actors.” Accompanied by the melody of the theme song of “Full House”, each of the main creators smiled and waved at the camera, posing for photos, just like a happy cruise family. But there’s got to be more drama, right? It feels like the first week of college when everyone in the dorm is best friends, but by the end of the semester you’re tired of everyone.

Even people who aren’t on board can go viral for cruise-related content. One TikTok user @whimsysoul created a bingo card for those of us watching at home. Some possible items on the bingo card include: staff dating passengers, neighbor drama, massive norovirus, someone falling over, COVID-19 outbreak, second COVID-19 outbreak, pirate takeover, pregnancy, lost passport chaos and wedding. Would you believe me if I said we were just one massive STI outbreak away from bingo?

To be fair, the bingo boxes we checked out weren’t all that shocking. But just a month later, things started to get a little tricky. Conflict already exists because members of the Royal Caribbean Rewards program are treated differently than others (…which is what the Rewards program is all about, but people are angry anyway). Then, at one point, part of the ship was swamped by bad weather. Things are likely to get worse in the coming days as the cruiser heads to Antarctica through the infamous Drake Passage. So far it seems to be very cold and windy.

One of the highlights of CruiseTok so far is when an elderly woman named Adita posted a tour of her room, which included a pineapple sign on her door. Apparently, the upside-down pineapple is a symbol, which means you’re a swinger. So Adita, who just innocently posted a video about sorting medications on a boat, had to clarify on the internet that she and her husband weren’t actually planning to swap partners with other couples.

“Sorry to disappoint you, but we are not swingers,” Ardita said on TikTok. “But we do love pineapples!” She then showed off her pineapple ring, pineapple necklace and pineapple earrings. The New York Post reported the incident, and she condemned the publication for describing her as an “elderly passenger.” She’s been joking, though, and even posted a “husband reveal” on TikTok in which her husband posed in a pineapple swimsuit.

There was a party for content creators on board this week and Marc Sebastian recorded an interview with Adita about the onboard drama so far.

“This is very interesting to me because I didn’t have TikTok until about a week ago,” Adita said. She also told Sebastian that some cruise ships had rooms worth $765,000 that included a grand piano. And, as a Pinnacle member, she has access to Pellegrino’s secret stash, which is apparently hard to find elsewhere on the ship.

The parade has been so compelling all month long because we, the audience, are constantly in suspense. We have high hopes for what’s to come, but we don’t yet know if it will be in a fun way, like a surprise cruise ship wedding, or in a scary but still possible way, like someone dying . Things can be chaotic, like when the ship Ever Given gets stuck in the Suez Canal, or chaotic, like when a billionaire’s submarine explodes while visiting the ruins of the Titanic.

If you haven’t tuned in yet, now is a good time. The waters in the Drake Passage are rough. A new influencer is stirring things up. Wine offerings have been updated. Come on board.