“It’s wild to me that people really find our lives so interesting,” Brandee Lake told the BBC, from the ship where she is travelling with her family.
The traveller from California said she had started making video clips to fill the time on holiday with her parents and sister. She hadn’t expected to rack up 183,000 followers.
Lake isn’t the only traveller whose TikTok took off after setting sail on the Serenade. There are a handful of other “content creators” who have also been surprised to become the subjects of an accidental sitcom.
Another US travel influencer who vlogs under the handle @little_rat_brain was also surprised to see her trips “go viral” as TikTok users make response videos and reviews of their trips.
She told the Daily Mail that her newfound celebrity was “definitely unexpected” but with the chance to visit 60 countries in under a year, and see them from other people’s perspectives was clearly a draw.
With the 274-day sailing costing upwards of $80,000 - it’s an experience people wanted to see themselves, even if they weren’t prepared to pay a full fare.
She said her reason for joining the cruise was not to gain followers but to see the world.
“One of my family’s goals is to visit all 50 states and seven continents, and this cruise would fulfil that goal - or at least it will once we make it through the Drake Passage.”
The Tiktok star told the Daily Mail that since setting sail with the ship from Florida on December 10, she has amassed 130,000 followers eager for updates on the next country.
The TikToker said there were a vast number of the 2490 passengers on the Serenade who were oblivious to their newfound fame.
“There are more older and retired people than any other age group, but that is to be expected. However, the range of ages on the ship is actually quite surprising.”
Another Tiktoker on the voyage, Angela Linderman, says that just under two months in, it was hard to fathom the level of online attention the ship was gaining.
“When people started making videos about us is when it started to get really strange,” she told the BBC.
The Real Stars of #CruiseTok and Boomers of Instagram
With a cast of over 2000 and a high density of content creators, the ship has become a cross-between reality TV and cinema verite at sea.
With The Truman Show-like zeal, some of the videos have already started to refer to other guests as “castmembers”.
While some passengers have found instant fame, there are other self-described “influencers” who brought a sizeable following onto the ship. There are ready-made celebs on board the cruise like Amike Oosthuizen, a South African model with a 150,000-strong Instagram following. This is largely thanks to her mother who stars in The Real Housewives of Pretoria.
However, it appears the cruise has found its way into the eye of the TikTok algorithm storm quite naturally. There’s no question of operator Royal Caribbean loading the ship with actors and influencers. Some of the biggest hits have been series such as “Ship Happens” observing holidaymakers in everyday situations.
Joe Martucci, a 67-year-old retiree from Florida, was overwhelmed to find internet celebrity after starting a TikTok channel with his wife Audrey.
“I was sending videos to my children, and they said, ‘Hey, Dad, put these on TikTok so we can let our friends see them too.’ I didn’t know ‘their friends’ were 90,000 people,” he told Vox News.
The boomers-turned-influencers Joe and Audrey now post to the channel - wryly named @spendingourkidsmoney - as “Cruise Mom and Dad”.
Despite the new audience, they still begin videos with “Hey, kids!”
Mythbusting on the internet’s favourite ship
The frenzied level of attention lavished on the unsuspecting travellers has naturally set rumour mills spinning.
Some TikTok fans were distraught to hear the sailing might be cancelled due to international unrest - just as they got going. However, the “Ultimate World Cruise” is still sailing, but had to cancel planned calls in Russia and Israel since the itinerary was first planned.
Other rumours mentioned unexpected pregnancies derailing the voyage - pointing out that nine months was roughly the gestation period of a baby.
Brandee told BBC podcast Reliable Sauce that there were pregnant guests on board, but not everyone was on the ship for the whole sailing and had planned their trip around it.
In fact the ship has become a draw for “influencers”, who have been checking in to the Serenade for short stints to shoot content on the now ‘viral’ cruise ship.
“It feels like a choose your own adventure where we are in the book and people are choosing people to parachute into our trip for these mini-segments,” Angela told the podcast.
