A Royal Caribbean passenger has died halfway through a nine-month-long cruise.
Rumours of someone passing on the Ultimate World Cruise began after a famed content creator shared that the voyage ‘had its first death’ in a TikTok.
Adita, who goes by @aditaml2759, said she’d witnessed a woman’s body being taken out of a cabin by staff last week.
Filling in her followers on Sunday (11 February), she said the Royal Caribbean ship had reached Los Angeles and then shared ‘some sad news’.
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"We had our first death on the Ultimate World Cruise,” Adita said. “A lady passed away last night.”
The content creator said the guest was an elderly woman and that seeing the staff ‘taking the body out’ was ‘very, very sad’.
“I don’t have much news other than it was a female elderly patient, or guest, that passed away,” Adita said.
Responding to comments on the TikTok, she said that the dead passenger ‘was a solo guest, so she passed alone in her room’.
The cruise line confirmed the death and a Royal Caribbean spokesperson told LADbible in a statement: “A guest sailing onboard Serenade of the Seas has sadly passed away. We are actively providing support and assistance to the guest's loved ones at this time. Out of the privacy of the guest and their family, we have nothing further to share at this time.”
Most big cruise ships, especially like this one that’s doing a nine-month ‘Ultimate World’ trip, are required to have morgues onboard in case of the deaths of any guests or staff.
Cruise Mummy previously confirmed why the ships have these facilities.
The blog confirmed: “All cruise ships are required to have morgue facilities where a body can be stored for up to a week.”
As for the process when a passenger unfortunately passes away: “When a cruise ship passenger dies, the staff places the body in the onboard morgue until the ship reaches a suitable port to disembark it, where it will be flown home.
"The cruise line will inform the next of kin if they’re not already sailing with the passenger.”
TikTok users were previously creeped out by this revelation as they wrote: “A morgue oh hell no went on my first and last cruise.”
While another wrote: “It's actually common sense if something happens in the middle of the ocean to help preserve until you get to shore.”
Jess Battison