Much like Macbeth in a theatre, there’s a particular word that’s forbidden on cruise ships.
Marc Sebastian, a passenger on the infamous nine-month cruise (which finishes in September) found this out to his detriment when he mentioned the no-go name.
On TikTok, where he has been documenting his experience on the Royal Caribbean Serenade of the Seas liner since it departed in December, he revealed all about the awkward moment.
Speaking about things he’d learned during his time at sea, he said: ‘Number one, you’re not supposed to talk about the Titanic.’
Marc was unaware of the unofficial rule when he started making smalltalk about the ill-fated vessel, which sank in 1912 after hitting an iceberg in the North Atlantic ocean.
‘I brought up to an entire room of people having lunch that our ship is only 100 feet longer than Titanic,’ he said in the clip. ‘Utensils dropped. Waiters gasped. It’s dead silent.’
After the gaffe, Mark’s friend whispered across the table: ‘You’re not allowed to talk about the Titanic.’
‘Well, it wasn’t like that was in the f***ing handbook,’ he joked in reply. ‘Not that I read the handbook, clearly.’
His followers were just as confused, including @LadyScorpio585 who commented: ‘I knew none of these things and would definitely be talking about the Titanic.’
‘When I went on a cruise my mom told me saying Titanic was equivalent to screaming a bomb at an airport,’ said @mikaylavianna, while @saturnr1sing added: ‘Not being able to talk abt the Titanic would definitely ruin the experience for me.’
In days gone by, sailors avoided using the word ‘drown’ on a boat as it was believed to bring on the event itself, while ‘good luck’ and ‘goodbye’ were banned due to the belief it was unlucky.
There are all sorts of superstitions and rituals around seafaring, some of which have been around for hundreds of years.
One of these, which Marc mentioned in his TikTok, is that ships are given godmothers – and the designated one for the Serenade of the Seas is Whoopi Goldberg.
Plus, there’s a modern tradition on some cruises where passengers hide rubber ducks around the ship for others to find. Known as ‘ducking’, there’s no other purpose than to make people smile, but apparently hunting for the toy birds can get quite intense.
‘People are crazy about the ducks,’ said Marc.
Hey, when you’re stuck on a boat for days on end with the same people, you’ve got to find some way to pass the time.
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