While the first Royal Caribbean Ultimate World Cruise had its fair share of drama, it has to be considered a massive success.
In addition to being an epic adventure — it took passengers to more than 60 countries — it was also a giant social-media event.
Most of the passengers on board seemed to be influencers, or at least were trying to be, and that brought the cruise line an unbelievable amount of attention on social media. That's really important as Royal Caribbean looks to add new cruisers from younger demographics.
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The cruise was a giant success but it was also “extremely complicated” and “massively expensive,” according to Royal Caribbean International CEO Michael Bayley. He shared his thoughts on the World Cruise in a TikTok video.
“The answer is yes, we are going to do another Ultimate World Cruise,” he said, although he does not know exactly when. "The next part of the question is, well, when the hell is that Ultimate World Cruise?"
He did say, however, that on Sept. 7, 2025, the cruise line would host an Ultimate World Cruise reunion on Serenade of the Seas, the ship that hosted the epic event.
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Royal Caribbean will bring back the World Cruise
In previous public statements, Bayley talked about the challenging logistics of the Ultimate World Cruise. Those included navigating political issues that forced the ship to change routes and skip multiple stops, to more mundane concerns like keeping the menus fresh.
Those challenges have kept the cruise line from setting an exact plan for the follow-up cruise, but he did disclose some news.
“We’re announcing today that we are going to hold [an] Ultimate World Cruise reunion cruise. And when we have the reunion cruise, we are going to announce the next world cruise,” he said. The news was first reported by Royal Caribbean Blog.
He also said that the original cruisers will get a chance to book the second Ultimate World Cruise before others.
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“And when we announce the next world cruise on the reunion cruise, we will only open it for sale for those people who are on the reunion cruise,” Bayley said.
The reunion cruise will sail on Serenade of the Seas on Sept. 7, 2025, from Alaska (ports the first cruise did not call on). That means the second Ultimate World Cruise will set sail more than one year after the first returned — likely much more than a year if its date won't be announced for almost a full year.
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