9-Month Cruise Passenger Talks Imminent Rerouting News: ‘They've Done the Best That They Can Do’ (Exclusive)
Passenger Susan Weber and her daughter, future passenger Abby Cooper, opened up about their wide-ranging experience of the Ultimate World Cruise — on board and online
Royal Caribbean International
Serenade of the SeasAs passengers on Royal Caribbean’s Ultimate World Cruise await Friday’s update regarding a major itinerary change due to unrest in the Middle East, one cruiser is opening up about how those on board are feeling about the announcement.
“I think they've done the best that they can do at this point,” Susan Weber tells PEOPLE. “They didn't want to announce anything too early.”
The company confirmed to PEOPLE on Feb. 9 that it was "reviewing alternatives" for the Serenade of the Seas ship, which is scheduled to transit the Red Sea and Suez Canal in May, during its Middle East segment.
Weber, 55, says when she toured the ship with the captain several weeks ago, he’d spoken of contingency plans that involved going around Africa. Royal Caribbean has not shared whether that's an option it's considering.
“The very last statement he said is, ‘Royal Caribbean is not going to put you in danger,’” she says. “Right there, to me, [he] was stating, ‘We're not going through the Suez Canal.’ A lot of people were still just not wanting to believe it. And, to this day, they're not wanting to believe it.”
Weber’s daughter, Abby Cooper, who plans to join the cruise for 10 days in Europe this summer, said in a TikTok video posted last week that the captain revealed to passengers during a send-off ceremony Feb. 7 that Royal Caribbean would be making an announcement on Feb. 16 regarding changes to the itinerary.
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Suez Canal“Obviously it's disappointing that we may not get to see some of the sites that we wanted to see, but safety is number one,” Weber says. “And personally, with everything going on in the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, with all of the media attention that our ship and crews have received, I feel like our ship would be a bullseye target for, you know, anybody at this point. So, I think that it would be wise for us to not go through.”
Weber says she thinks most passengers realize that changes are coming, and she doesn’t get the feeling that cruisers are fearful.
“I think, more so than anything, people are still really wanting it to happen, to go through the Suez Canal,” she says.
Cooper, 28, points out that some highly anticipated destinations, such as Jordan's ancient city of Petra, will be cut from the itinerary if they change the route.
“It's definitely disappointing, but again, you roll with the punches,” Weber says. She adds that everyone is speculating on the new itinerary: “We're all anxious just to see what's going to happen.”
Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty
Susan, a nurse, has been traveling with her sister, Lisa Weber, a physician who took a sabbatical to make the trip. Cooper, who has two children so wasn't able to join for a long period of time, says it“worked out perfectly” to reunite with her mom six months into the voyage in Italy, France, and Spain.
Overall, Weber says, her experience on the cruise has been “absolutely wonderful.” Her favorite part is meeting with each country’s locals and experiencing the culture.
The most challenging part, she says, is seeing “the lack of compassion in some of the passengers.” Weber says she’s always told her daughters, "You can only hide your true colors for so long."
“That definitely has come through on the ship, whether it be homophobia, racism, intolerance to children . . .” she says. “I mean, I've seen all of this and it's just really disheartening.”
A Black TikTok creator, Brandee Lake, posted a video in December detailing microaggressions she experienced. Lake said that she was mistaken for an employee on the ship and that people questioned how she could afford the cruise. Another Black passenger, Anthony Antoine, shared a similar experience and the discomfort he felt on board because of some of his fellow cruisers.
And while at least two passengers went viral with since-deleted Tiktok rant containing views many found offensive, Weber says the bad behavior she witnessed came from someone else.
“I know it's out there,” Weber adds. “I just always am the type of person that wants to see the good in the world, and I just want to see tolerance, and just get along. So, yeah, it's been very sad to see that kind of stuff.”
Cooper, who’s worked in social media management, says the response to the cruise content she's been sharing on TikTok often featuring Susan, has been “really incredible."
“Everyone loves my mom,” she says.
“Abby and I are very much a no-nonsense kind of family, and what you see is what you get with us,” says Susan, who like her daughter, lives in Wichita, Kansas.
Cooper notes that the cruise’s viral popularity on TikTok has portrayed it as more like a reality show than it actually is.
“They didn't hand select these ‘cast members’ like they did for Jersey Shore or the Real Housewives,” she says of the passengers who have gained a serious following on social media during the voyage. “These are just actually real people. And so, I think that is a big misconception, especially once the term ‘cast members’ started being thrown around.”
She jokes that unlike on those shows, her mom and aunt are “not looking to hook up with anyone on board, not looking to get into fights at the clubs.”
Asked why the cruise has become such a social media sensation, Cooper says, “I think it really started out with just a couple people that are like me, just know how to work TikTok pretty well, and can edit a video, and just film their day in the life. And, all of a sudden, people were like, ‘Oh, not only is this happening, but we get an insider view of it by people documenting it day in and day out.’”
“[Viewers] wanted it to be a social experience, wanted it to be Lord of the Flies, or Big Brother, more than it is,” she adds.
But she also thinks a lot of people are simply living vicariously through the passengers. “Just the idea of being able to travel for nine months, that is not something very many people can do . . . go to all seven continents and have this insane itinerary," she says. "There's just a lot of aspects about it that just seem almost unreal.”
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