Passengers on nine-month Ultimate World Cruise share videos of flooding just weeks into journey

The cruise left for its nine-month trip in December 2023

Passengers on Royal Caribbean’s Ultimate World Cruise have shared videos on TikTok of the flooding on board, only three weeks into their nine-month-long trip.

The clips come less than a month after the ship departed from Miami, Florida, as travellers headed for their 274-night voyage to visit 11 “world wonders” and over 60 countries. The cruise will conclude in the United States on 10 September 2024, as it docks back in Miami after a day in the Bahamas.

In a video shared by one passenger, Adita, one deck of the ship could be seen with floods of water along the carpeted floors. The footage went on to show the large amounts of water that were coming from the outside deck of the ship, the Serenade of the Seas.

The traveller continued to walk through the floors of the ship amid the flood, before they went down a flight of carpeted stairs. The video was also posted during a cruise day, as the ship was heading to South America.

“Our first storm of the Ultimate [World Cruise], 60mph winds, flooding, forward elevators closed until further notice. We’re really swinging now,” Adita wrote in her caption.

The video of the Ultimate World Cruise has quickly gone viral, with more than one million views, as of 4 January. In the comments, many viewers poked fun at the flood, while also questioning if it could get worse as the trip continues.

“Now is it only the Premium players that get this experience or is it open to all?” one quipped.

“The Drake passage is gonna be ROUGH,” another wrote, referring to the body of water between South America and the South Shetland Islands of Antarctica.

“Was ‘ship flooding’ on the bingo card?!?” a third commenter joked, referring to a viral TikTok video about all the things that could happen during the nine-month cruise.

In a follow-up video, Adita went to deck 12 and revealed that the flood on the boat had cleared up. She also noted that the carpet was entirely dry and that the deck did not smell like mildew.

“Everything is back to normal, elevators functional again, almost all dry, no smells! Royal Caribbean was definitely prepared and took care of everything quickly!” she wrote in the caption. 

Another passenger, Nadine, also shared in a TikTok video from the cruise that she had to be temporarily moved to another room because her initial room was impacted by the flood.

“Where my balcony was, there was an overhang, and the rain was coming in so heavy that it was heading directly to the window and coming down,” she said. “So the flooding in my room wasn’t severe, pretty minor. But they have the blowers in my room.”

In a second video, Nadine returned to her initial room and noted that it was “almost dry” after the flood. She also took to the caption to add: “My steward Baby and the team did a great job drying it out... here’s hoping the smell is gone by time I go back later today.”

In a statement to The Independent, a representative for Royal Caribbean said: “On Tuesday 2 January, while sailing to Montevideo, Uruguay, the Serenade of the Seas experienced heavy wind and rain. One set of elevators and six rooms were impacted by some of the rain. Our team on board is managing the minor cleanup and elevator repairs. Seranade continued to its next destination, as scheduled, and arrived in Montevideo on Thursday.”

Last month, the Ultimate World Cruise went viral on social media, with passengers opening up about their time on the boat. As noted by Royal Caribbean’s itinerary, the trip consists of 274 nights, with some of the destinations including Aruba, Barbados, Japan, Italy, Greece, Spain, Denmark, Germany, and France. Passengers will also have the opportunity to bond “with like-minded explorers over global discoveries across all seven continents”, according to Royal Caribbean’s website.

When posting videos on TikTok, people often use the #UltimateWorldCruise hashtag, which has more than 170.8 million views as of 4 January. Throughout the last month, people have gone on to make jokes about what could happen on the cruise, with a woman named Kara, who goes by the name @whimsysoul on TikTok, sharing “The Ultimate Bingo Card” for the next year for “anyone else who is buckling in for this nine months TikTok reality show”.

Some of the spaces on her Bingo Card included “someone goes home early”, “staff dates passenger”, “lobster style sunburn”, “brands sponsor passengers,” and “minor mystery to solve”.

The Ultimate World Cruise comes at a hefty price. As noted by Royal Caribbean’s website, the most inexpensive room option is $59,999 per person for an interior stateroom. Prices for other rooms are in a higher range, with the junior suite starting at $117,599 per person.