Royal Caribbean’s Serenade of the Seas departed Miami on Dec. 10 on its 274-day world cruise.<\/p>\n
An idea floated by Royal Caribbean International CEO Michael Bayley three years ago during the dark days of the pandemic, the marathon sailing was branded the Ultimate World Cruise and promoted as the world’s longest cruise.<\/p>\n
At Travel Weekly’s 2022 CruiseWorld, Bayley recalled persuading colleagues that the Ultimate World Cruise was a good idea.<\/p>\n
“We were still deep in the pandemic. It was a terrible, depressing time,” Bayley said. “We knew at some point it was going to end. The idea of the Ultimate World Cruise was, here you go, the pandemic’s over, go do something on your bucket list. Take the Ultimate World Cruise, go to every single continent on the planet.”<\/p>\n
Customers could book the entire cruise, a 60-plus night segment, or one of 17 parts of the sailing ranging from nine to 28 nights. The cruise will visit 150-plus destinations and some 60 countries.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The night before departure, Royal Caribbean hosted a gala dinner for passengers, said Bayley on his Facebook page. He said the ages of guests range from 2 to 87.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n