9-Month Cruise Passenger Is 'Praying for the Best' as Ship Approaches Treacherous Drake Passage (Exclusive)

Brandee Lake, a passenger on Royal Caribbean's Ultimate World Cruise, talks to PEOPLE about traveling to Antarctica via the TitTok-infamous route

Brandee Lake is taking the same approach to the Drake Passage as she has since embarking on the Ultimate World Cruise exactly one month ago: What will be will be.

The Brannon Files podcaster, 46, has been making waves alongside other TikTok influencers onboard Royal Caribbean's Serenade of the Seas for its nine-month global voyage. And in an exclusive conversation with PEOPLE, Lake addressed the impending trek toward Antarctica through the Drake Passage, known for its unpredictable and often treacherous conditions.

"I'm just hoping [and] praying for the best," says Lake, who is traveling with her sister and parents on the trip that continues until September 2024 and will span all seven continents, including 60 countries and 11 World Wonders.

"I actually am the one person in our family who gets motion sickness, but I have all my little devices, wristbands, patches, gum," she adds.

The Drake Passage is a body of water with an average depth of around 11,000 feet that connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Situated about 100 miles north of the Antarctic Peninsula, it is located between Cape Horn (a.k.a. South America's southernmost point) and the South Shetland Islands.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human-interest stories.

Related: Viral TikTok Shows Waves Crashing Against Ship Windows in 'Treacherous' Voyage through Drake Passage to Antarctica

First traversed by Willem Schouten during a 1616 expedition, the waterway "played an important part in the trade of the 19th and early 20th centuries before the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914," per Britannica. It's frequent storms and icy conditions were an even greater hazard for the ships of the time, but still unnerve modern travelers.

Today, the Drake Passage is popular on travel TikTok, with some of the more widely viewed (and heart-pounding) videos including footage of travelers inside vessels with gigantic waves crashing right up against their windows.

Many TikTok users who are following influencers posting about being part of the Ultimate World Cruise have expressed concern about the Serenade of the Seas, which is 20-year-old ship, making it through the Drake Passage unscathed — especially given the flooding that occurred on the vessel following a storm last week off the coast of South America.

Lake, who says she did not witness the flooding, tells PEOPLE that everyone on board is "just anticipating what will it be like," especially because their itinerary was recently adjusted to cross the Drake Passage sooner than initially anticipated due to better conditions than forecasted during the time they were originally supposed to go.

Now, their journey through it begins Wednesday.

"If they moved it up because it was going to be worse, does that mean it's going to be bad, or does that mean we're going to get lucky because we moved it up and maybe it'll be not as crazy?" Lake says. "They did say the swells could get up to, I think, seven meters, which is around 20 feet."

But she has complete faith in Captain Stig Nilsen, who previously said in a blog post from Royal Caribbean that he is descended from "generations of sailors and deep-sea fishermen," and has more than four decades of seafaring experience himself.

"He's from Norway. So handling the Drake Passage and Arctic things ... we're in very good hands," Lake says.

Asked whether she ever thought she would make it to Antarctica, Lake, who has traveled extensively, tells PEOPLE, "It was always something I wanted to do, but [as for whether] I thought I'd ever go ... I looked at the prices before and was like, 'Hmm. Definitely on my list of things I want to do, but do I know if it'll ever happen? I don't know.' "

"So it made the cruise that much more exciting and, I'd say, attainable," Lake adds.

Related: Explorer Begins 1,100-Mile Trek to Become First Woman to Finish Solo, Unsupported Crossing of Antarctica

Lake says she and the other influencers on the voyage regularly "cheer each other on," and each have something unique they bring to the table in terms of the content they're sharing on social media.

She also says she's "100% surprised" at the viral attention the cruise has been getting: "I think, for all of us, we were just sharing our travel story. We definitely didn't [think] that this is what would happen."

As for what she's most looking forward to seeing after already having visited World Wonders like Chichén Itzá in Mexico and Christ the Redeemer in Brazil over the past month, Lake says Antarctica is at the "top" of her list, as well as Machu Picchu in Peru.

Of the time leading up to her Dec. 10 departure out of Miami, she shares, "There were moments that I would be like, 'Wow, this is really a once in a lifetime experience,' " she recalls. "I had those moments. But I was working all the way up until literally the Friday before we set sail on Sunday."

"I don't know that I had time to slow down and just think about how big and awesome it was," Lake adds. "And I think seeing people's interest in it is helping remind me or show me this is really a unique experience."

For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on People.