Royal Caribbean's first world cruise sounded like the adventure of a lifetime, compelling hundreds of people to sign on the for the voyage.
The cruise took 274-nights and visited over 60 countries across seven continents, including Antarctica.
Tonya Lathom lived in the Mid-Atlantic region and made some life-changing choices in order to go on this cruise. She retired from her school system after 32 years as a teacher and school counselor.
She and her husband, Andy, sold their home in Falls Church, Virginia in order to move to their other home in South Carolina, outside of Myrtle Beach.
Tonya shared with Royal Caribbean Blog about her experience on the one-of-a-kind Royal Caribbean ultimate world cruise.
I was surprised how much I enjoyed the cruise
My husband booked the Ultimate World Cruise as a way for us to see the world in retirement since we had never really traveled much before. Talk about diving headfirst into the deep end of the pool!
Prior to the Ultimate World Cruise, the longest cruise I had ever been on was 12 days.
However, we had not been on a cruise since before 2020, so this was definitely a crazy experience to have. A typical 7-day cruise vacation once a year did not prepare me for this trip.
In the end, I was most surprised by how much I actually enjoyed the cruise.
Nine months seemed daunting and wasn’t something that I would have chosen on my own.
It was something that I wasn’t completely on board, to begin with, but it grew on me.
I think that the key is building a community and being active. As I developed my own daily routine and made new friends, my days flew by!
I love trivia, brainteasers, and Tri-bond, so there was a lot of that, but it was also a social time with my new friends. Plus, my time was used to research ports and plan excursions, and do laundry.
And I documented every day (“sea” day or not) for my family and friends.
Best yet, I got to see more of the world than I ever thought possible!
As time passed, cruise ship literally became my home.
I loved the daily routine that I set up for myself, and relished having a new adventure on land every day.
Even when we returned to the ship, security would scan our cards and say, “Welcome home!”
The crew was like part of our family and really looked out for me – and I looked out for them in return.
I was also surprised by just how breathtaking sailing into a port can be! It’s an absolutely beautiful way to arrive at any destination and completely sold me on not flying anymore!
Plus, there is no jet lag, as cruise ship time changes are typically an hour ahead/back over a period of days if necessary.
As the months passed, my experience only got richer.
I made new friends, became friends with the crew, and learned how to be a savvy traveler.
By the end, time flew by, and I wasn’t ready to go—it was hard to say goodbye to everyone. I cried when crew left, too!
You really grow close to people in a short time span. I even made friends with people who were on the ship for larger portions and that was nice.
There was one couple that I was friends with during segment two and returned for segment four, so seeing them return was something that I really looked forward to – just like when crew members returned from their time off!
While on the Ultimate World Cruise, I definitely made new friends that I hope to see again and again on cruises!
One of my concerns even before taking this trip was that I typically was tired of “ship” food by day 3 of a cruise, and I definitely got sick of the food after 9 months.
And although ship food did become underwhelming, the crew did a great job of trying to mix it up and add new things.
They added peanut butter and jelly and offered different daily specialty “bars” in the Windjammer, like “Make Your Own Pizza”, a Pasta/Noodle bar, a “Tutti”/chopped salad bar, etc.
They also permitted guest recipe submissions and then picked one or more a month.
Plus, it really made a difference that as a Suite guest I had access to Chops for breakfast.
Every single member of the crew there was so kind and helpful that quite often breakfast ended up being my most enjoyable meal of the day—they named my daily fruit plate after me!
I would absolutely book another world cruise. But, sadly, even though my husband booked this cruise for us without any prior conversation, I know that he would not.
Other than not packing so many clothes and driving (not flying) to the cruise port, I’m not sure that I would do much differently because I really evolved as a traveler and cruiser over this trip.
During the cruise, I developed a whole new skill set of researching ports/locations and planning my own excursions.
I learned so much and I feel that any travels I take from now on will only be richer and more enjoyable because of this experience.
I just wish my learning curve hadn’t been so steep to begin with!
We went from staying in a unique one-of-a-kind cabin to a Grand Suite.
Our original stateroom had a few issues and had it not been for a very proactive concierge, I am not sure what would have happened.
The first big issue was the noise level in our stateroom from the Centrum as it was not created as a stateroom originally but converted to one after being a Suite Lounge.
Other than developing a system for organizing things, I didn’t do much to make the cabin more comfortable.
We had shelves to store snacks and water—and I brought bins to keep medicine in and other items. I also converted a folding clothes rack into a shelf for clothes by using the plastic bin lids.
We even brought throw blankets from home, but quickly discovered that we didn’t stay in our cabin much to use them.
