Aussie comedian Christian Hull pays $20,000 for an Ultimate World Cruise ticket
An Aussie comedian has revealed he took $20,000 out of his mortgage to help pay for a ticket on-board one of the world’s most wild cruises.
There’s nine-month long cruise that’s going viral on TikTok and it’s pretty wild to say the least, with social media users “living” for the insane content.
One of them is Aussie comedian Christian Hull who has been following the journey, drama and experiences of those on-board ever since the Royal Carribean cruise, conveniently called the Ultimate World Cruise, set sail late last year.
But, in a surprise twist, Christian, announced he will be jumping on-board the ship on March 11 after getting “sucked right in".
He went as far as “taking money out of his mortgage” to cover the $20,000 ticket that will see him travel for 16 days from Brisbane and end in Hong Kong.
“Someone said, ‘Christian, you should go on a cruise’ and I said ‘absolutely not’ and then they told me, ‘well it actually stops in Brisbane’ which is just 10 minutes away from my house — and I just thought ‘oooohhh that’s convenient,” he told the listnrnewsroom podcast.
When asked why he wanted to go on the cruise, he said: “I think for me, the last 12 months has been pretty tough financially, cost of living, interest rates going up — a lot of people think I’m making a s**t load of money because I post some stuff on instagram.”
Christian, who has 1.9 million TikTok followers and a total of 73.4 million ‘likes’ on his clips, said he was “excited” to just get on-board and meet the people he has been watching and interacting with on TikTok.
“I’ll make some great content and fingers crossed somebody will pay for it for me,” he joked.
The former radio presenter secured a balcony room on deck seven of the 13-deck cruise, joking that due to where it’s located “RC are wanting to keep a close eye on me”.
“I went on a deck seven plan and I was like, ‘please be in the corner where I can sneak in and sneak away, do my little missions, run and hide and be out of the way of everybody’,” he said in a TikTok.
He burst out laughing, revealing his room could not be more monitored by staff.
“I am in front of the elevator, online centre and business services so I cannot do any sneaking — anyone can see the front door of my room.
“Royal Caribbean have done that on purpose. ‘Let’s look for Christian Hull’s booking, let’s put him in a room where we can keep a close eye on him at all times,” he cackled.
“But inadvertently it’s working in my favour because I have bought a magnetic whiteboard to stick on my door so people can write messages.
“So every passenger on that cruise ship will walk past my room and see my message board. I am very excited.”
The cruise is broken into four segments — Ultimate Americas Cruise, Ultimate Asia Pacific Cruise, Ultimate Middle East & Med Cruise and Ultimate Europe & Beyond Cruise.
Depending on the destination and room you choose, prices can vary from $US13,399 ($19,895) to $US25,099 ($37,268).
But, if you want to do the full nine months, the price tag is a lot heftier. The cheapest is $US59,999 ($88,000) for an interior stateroom, and up to $US760,000 ($1.2 million) per person for a Royal Suite.
TikTok has become awash with clips from passengers showing off their experiences from the meals they’re eating, restaurants they’re visiting, gym classes they’re taking, to glimpses of what their rooms look like and the entertainment and performances they’re attending.
“I am LIVING for your videos. Please pretty please don’t stop. Greedily. I will beg you to post more,” one viewer commented on a passenger’s ‘sea day in my life’ TikTok.
“How does one simply return back to normal life after this experience?” another joked, while a third added: “You are inspiring me to work very hard and save and do this for myself this is amazing. I had no idea RC did these!”
However, as much as viewers are living vicariously through those on board, there have also been many who have weighed in on all the hilarious things that could possibly happen during the epic voyage.
“I made an Ultimate World Cruise Bingo card for anyone else who is buckling in this nine months TikTok reality show,” US TikToker Kara said in a viral video.
“I have never been on a cruise but I have lived in a dorm room, and I have travelled professionally and I researched a lot of other people’s TikToks to come up what I think is a pretty good Bingo card.
She joked that she would be shocked if someone didn’t get impulsively married at some point.
“Whether they came on as a couple or they met their significant other on the boat, like there’s gonna [sic] be some wedding in Paris where they’re like ‘yolo let’s just get married’.
“[And] I cannot wait for it, it’s going to be amazing. In that vein, I will be shocked if someone didn’t accidentally get knocked up or they’re pregnant right now and don’t know it and were gonna have a little cruise ship baby.”
Christian also took the liberty of creating his own Bingo card.
“Here are the things I have so far. ‘Throwing up’ — a very likely possibility,” he said.
“I do get seasick even when I look out the window and see the trees moving.”
“‘Getting called into the principles office’ — that is pretty much a guarantee with one particular thing I have planned to do,” he added, without going into deal about his “plan”.
He also had doing a “drunk livestream”, “getting Covid and gastro” and “hooking up with a passenger”.
One person commented he should do the Titanic scene with another passenger.
“I wanna do this so bad it’s such a big no, no apparently too but I’m absolutely putting this on the card,” Christian responded.
The epic nine-month-long holiday is a first-of-its-kind for the cruise liner, and they’re not surprised it’s gone viral on TikTok.
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“Many guests booked their tickets over two to three years ago during the pandemic and we are thrilled to be hosting a range of guests from young solo travellers, to couples and families,” Dave Humpreys, director of sales at Royal Caribbean International AUNZ, told news.com.au.
“We have an impressive number of Gen-Z and millennial cruisers, with a significant number of guests between the ages of 18-30 joining us on various legs of this cruise.”
The cruise will travel to more than 60 countries and 11 wonders of the world in 274 days.
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