Why is the internet so obsessed with CruiseTok?

The Royal Caribbean cruise ship is currently in the middle of an unprecedented nine-month long expedition around the world. And passengers are filming their experience on the ship for TikTok.

CruiseTok — the daily stream of these TikTok videos — is currently the hottest reality TV show. 

These videos of ship life have spawned a massive online community completely obsessed with the day-to-day routines of the people on the cruise. As of this week, videos with the hashtag #UltimateWorldCruise have generated nearly 300 million views.

Why are we so fascinated by these random videos of people showing off their cabins and mulling over their buffet options?

Culture writers Becky Hughes and Anne T. Donahue explain why you just can't swipe away from CruiseTok.

We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow the Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud podcast, on your favourite podcast player.

LISTEN | Today's episode on YouTube:

Elamin: Becky, I'm going to start with you. You recently wrote about the cruise and this phenomenon of people following it for The New York Times. How did these cruise ship TikToks get on your radar in the first place, and why do you find them so fascinating?

Becky: The first videos I got, actually, before I saw anyone who was getting on board the cruise. I was seeing people on land, laying in their bed, being like, "Do you guys know about this cruise? Because I don't like the sound of it. I feel like something's going to go wrong. It feels like White Lotus. Like this can't be right." 

So I started seeing videos like that. And then of course, my algorithm knew that I wanted more like that. So as soon as people were boarding the cruise and started going off, my entire For You page on TikTok was just one after another. I really couldn't escape it even if I wanted to.

Elamin: The TikToker Mark Sebastian shows up on the cruise, starts asking people how much they're making to work on this cruise. He's currently on board this nine-month cruise and he's asking these really compelling and interesting questions that turn the narrative automatically into an Upstairs, Downstairs kind of situation. Anne, let's talk a little bit about what makes him different from the other CruiseTokers. What makes them different for you?

Anne: He's not paid his own money to be there, so the stakes are quite low for him. Most of these people pay like tens of thousands of dollars of their actual funds to be on this boat, which I cannot fathom. But this is an experience for them and like, good for you. 

But [Mark] has nothing to lose. And he pitched that angle out there to be like, "I'll just give an honest account." And then this publishing company was like, "Yes, go for it." So it's interesting to have a very unfiltered — yet filtered because he's still an influencer — examination of cruise culture, because there is a huge discrepancy between the staff and the passengers.

Elamin: But I mean, if I'm planning the second nine-month cruise, I know then to introduce elements of drama, because I know that there are going to be certain people on board who will want to maintain that. Becky, do you see this CruiseTok trend as an isolated phenomenon, or does it signal a shift in how we consume our reality entertainment? By piecing together the narrative from all these direct sources? No producers, no host, just them in real-time and then us reacting. 

Becky: It really echoes the Bama Rush phenomenon. A couple of years ago, when all of the girls rushing through a sorority at the University of Alabama, were making videos about their rush experience, people were doing the same thing, picking their favourite character and following their narrative. I think it's probably just a response to how everyone knows about how manufactured reality TV is. We all know that the Kardashians and Below Deck and all those are entirely scripted now. 

People want to find a dose of real reality wherever they can. But I think people are too lazy, and I just can't imagine people maintaining this as a mode of watching reality TV. It's too much work to find the people and follow the narratives appropriately. 

You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.

Panel produced by Stuart Berman