Passengers on board world's longest cruise reveal big fears as nine-month trip comes to an end

The world's longest cruise is at an end after nine months of sailing the seas.

Royal Caribbean's Ultimate World Cruise set sail in December 2023, and ever since then passengers have been able to basically live in a world away from the world.

Plenty of the passengers have gained some level of viral fame after posting their experiences on board the nine month cruise online, and now the journey concludes there's plenty for them to think about.

They've spent a not-insignificant chunk of their life calling the cruise ship Serenade of the Seas home, so it might take a little getting used to readjusting to life as a landlubber.

CNN Travel decided to ask various passengers what their biggest fears about disembarking from the cruise ship for the last time were.

Nine months aboard the Serenade of the Seas, it's not going to be easy to get back onto dry land. (Jeff Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Joe Martucci and his wife Audrey enjoyed viral fame and became known as 'cruise mom and dad', but now their previous lives beckon to them.

Martucci said: "You can’t go away for nine months and stick your head in the sand like an ostrich and say, ‘Yeah, I’ll worry about it when I get home.’

"Because the world keeps changing so fast."

The couple said they'd enjoyed their nine month cruise, but wouldn't do it again as it was 'way too long away from family' and they started feeling burned out.

Fellow passenger Brandee Lake decided she'd try doing the opposite and tried to live in a 'bubble' on board the ship.

As a result she ended up being a bit shocked when the world's longest cruise recently made a stop-off in New York City, having not been on US soil since February.

Showing up during 'high election season' was a bit of a shock to the system for them.

While nine months away cruising sounds like a dream, some passengers said they started feeling a bit burned out by the end. (Joe and Audrey Martucci)

It sounds like many of the US passengers found the looming elections changed things on board the cruise.

Passenger Anthony McWilliams admitted that it became 'a challenge to navigate' the fact that some of the people he'd become friends with on the cruise held quite different political views to him.

Lake told CNN she found living out of a suitcase for nine months 'liberating'.

"Now I'm like, 'oh shoot,'" she explained of going back to dry land.

She also discussed how some friendships may have fallen by the wayside while on the nine-month cruise, saying such an experience might 'sometimes prune your friendships at home'.

While passengers might be a bit worried about the world they're stepping back into, whether it be because things have changed while they're away or because the lives they left behind will draw them back in, others admitted there are parts of the experience they're fine to leave behind.

Stick a bunch of people in one place for nine months and some folks are going to fall out, one passenger said there was 'a small group of people that I will be completely fine never interacting with again'.

It's understandable.

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