Picture spending almost nine months at sea, circumnavigating the globe and checking off iconic landmarks. That was the premise behind Royal Caribbean’s Ultimate World Cruise aboard Serenade of the Seas, a 274-day journey spanning over 60 countries and 11 major destinations. With berths priced from £117,599, the voyage attracted a host of content creators to document the cruise experience.
Among them was TikToker Marc Sebastian, who spent 18 nights on board and soon found a surprising aspect of cruise etiquette. But instead of being a dinnertime dress code or following unspoken buffet rules, Marc discovered a single word that you should never say on deck.
In a video that racked up millions of views, Marc said he learned the rule the hard way. “So here’s [what] I’ve learned about cruising since I’ve spent 18 nights on this floating retirement home with a Cheesecake Factory attached. First, number one, you’re not supposed to talk about the Titanic,” he said.
The cruiser added: “I brought it up to an entire room of people having lunch that our ship is only 100 feet longer than the Titanic — when I tell you that utensils dropped. Waiters gasped. It’s dead silent.”
According to Marc, his fellow passengers were quick to tell him that he was “not allowed to talk about the Titanic” on a cruise, no matter how big the ship.
Seasoned cruisers also piled in across social media to confirm the superstition and the sensitivities around it.
One person wrote: “When I went on a cruise, my mum told me that saying Titanic was equivalent to screaming ‘bomb’ at an airport,” while another likened it to theatre lore: “It’s like saying Macbeth in a theatre, it’s an unspoken rule.”
For many travellers, the name is entwined with tragedy—around 1,500 lives were lost on the RMS Titanic during its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York.
Marc also flagged a couple of lesser-known facts he learned on board: cruise ships have ceremonial “godmothers,” and pools are topped up with seawater.
He later clarified he wasn’t booked for the full 274-day cruise, departing after just under three weeks. The cruiser joked about being booted for a penguin rescue, before admitting the real reason was more mundane.
After just over a fortnight, the sheer sensory overload got to him.
