Featured Image Credit: Instagram/MarcSebastianf
Topics: Travel, TikTok, Royal Caribbean
Fatou Ferraro
As with anything in life, there are rules you've got to follow when you're on board a cruise ship.
Usually, these guidelines revolve around general health and safety issues, like not getting so drunk you fall overboard or not smoking in your cabin.
But there's also a subset of unwritten rules, which aren't explicit commands but are generally understood by passengers as things you really shouldn't do... or say.
And, of all the things that could ruin the mood on a luxury cruise, there is one word that is guaranteed to shut the whole room down. Have you guessed it yet?
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Well, luckily for us, TikToker Marc Sebastian was on hand to reveal all during his travels on the South America–Antarctica leg of Royal Caribbean’s nine-month cruise, during which he documented all the weird traditions - and pricey surprises from life at sea.
But his followers were really taken by surprise when he explained how he found out the hard way, over lunch with a room full of fellow passengers, that it's really not cool to mention... the Titanic.
“I said our ship was only about 100 feet longer than the Titanic,” he recalled.
“Everyone just stopped. Like — mid-bite. Dead silence.”
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It turns out, Titanic is basically the Voldemort of the cruise world, a cursed word, spoken only by newbies who didn’t read the unwritten rules.
The reaction was so awkward, even his friend had to lean over and explain the unspoken code: you just don’t bring up the Titanic at sea.
Now, logically, we get it, you don’t sit next to the plane’s wing and start quoting Final Destination either, but still, for some cruisegoers, this is taking superstition to a whole new level.
And people were seriously divided over it.
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“If I’m on a boat, I am talking about Titanic and OceanGate,” one user wrote.
Another asked: “Is Titanic on a cruise the same as Macbeth in a theatre?”
And just when you thought it couldn’t get weirder, Marc also revealed that cruise ships have official “godmothers”. Yes, like fairy godmothers, but with celebrity status. His ship’s? None other than Whoopi Goldberg, who even has a framed photo on board.
According to Cruise Critic, a ship’s godmother is meant to bless the vessel and bring protection. And honestly? If anyone can ward off a 1912 iceberg energy, it’s Whoopi.
So, lesson learned: on cruises, you can iron a shirt for $8, sip martinis with penguins, and casually spot whales, just don’t say the T-word. That’s where they draw the line.
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Good to know.