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I’m on world’s longest cruise – it’s $70k but it’s a bargain… I get bottomless booze, 6-course meals & ‘work from sea’
Amike Oosthuizen is visiting all seven continents on the trip of a lifetime
TRAVELLING the world on a cruise ship for nine months sounds like an absolute dream.
But it’s a reality for Amike Oosthuizen, 26, who’s one of around 2,000 people onboard Royal Caribbean's Ultimate World Cruise.
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In the past month, the regulatory officer, along with her husband, mum and dad, has visited Miami, the Bahamas, the Caribbean islands, Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina.
And, as we speak to her, Amike’s sitting in her cabin, looking out onto the Drake Passage, on her way to Antarctica.
“It’s always been a dream of my family to travel the world,” Amike tells us. “And my dad saw an article all the way back in 2020, advertising the cruise, and wanted to do it with us, knowing he’d have retired by now.
“We were all obviously very excited but we didn't think it would ever happen.”
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A luxury cruise around the world, visiting all seven continents, was never going to be cheap - especially when it includes food and drink, as well as a gym, theatre, cinema, arcade, and many other activities.
But Amike, from Cape Town, South Africa, reckons the $70,000 (£55.2k) price tag she paid was worth it.
She says: “Seeing the world on a cruise is so cool because you still get your own room, you have your own space and a place to keep your clothes, whereas if you would have travelled the world by flying you would have had to live out of a suitcase, constantly moving hotels.
“Plus, you can eat as much as you want, drink as much coffee as you want, drink as much alcohol as you want, and there’s daily room service.
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“I know it's super-expensive coming on the trip. But I think, back home, you would have paid a lot to live this standard of life, eating like you eat here and drinking takeaway coffee and cocktails each day, and then obviously travelling as well.”
Unlimited food & booze
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Amike has the choice of many buffet restaurants, as well as three speciality restaurants, which cost extra, filled with some very fattening food, like pancakes for breakfast, burgers and tons of delicious cakes for dessert.
When she's really treating herself, she's even enjoyed a six-course dinner at the Chef's Table restaurant.
However, she admits she’s been trying her hardest to ensure she stays in shape, going to the onboard gym most days, and eating the same, healthy food every day - omelettes for breakfast, steak salad for lunch and sugar-free chocolate chip cookies for dessert.
She says: “I really do try, because you can really get fat here,
“There is so much food, and the food is really good. There's waffles and pancakes and all the good stuff here.
“And if I would have let myself go, oh my goodness, I would've already gained 10 kilograms (1.5st).
“I have a good balance - if I really crave it I'll have it, but I try not to over eat because back home I would've never eaten even three meals a day, and as much food as here, because I was really busy with work and here there's just food all the time.
“It’s just so convenient. so you have to be careful."
'Working from sea'
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Amike and her husband have been managing to work their day jobs while on the cruise - having cleared it with their bosses a long time in advance.
However, it’s not been easy to keep to a routine.
She says: “I'm obviously not working 100 per cent like I would have been working back home.
“But we've tried to do our work every day, either at the end of the day, after we've been off the ship, and just catching up on some work, or if we're just on a cruising day we try to do as much work as possible.
“It’s just so difficult to keep a routine because each day you're at a different place, and some days you can get off the ship at 7am and have to be back at 4pm, while others you only get off at 9am and then have to be back at 8pm.”
Big problem
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As well as finding time to work, it hasn’t all been plain sailing for Amike.
One of the biggest stresses she’s had about the cruise was about packing.
She was allowed to bring two 32kg suitcases on the flight from South Africa to Miami, which she maxed out - plus a hand-luggage sized suitcase on wheels, a holdall on top of that, and a handbag.
And she’s already worrying about how she’s going to fit it all in on the way back, having already bought more clothes.
“I'm not gonna lie, there were a few nights I lay awake and stressed about my packing,” she laughs. “I really love fashion and shopping.
“I started my packing a month beforehand, packed it all, and realised it's way too heavy, so I had to repack.
“I literally had to take a suitcase full of clothes out.
“I don't know how I'm gonna travel back. I'll definitely have to book an extra suitcase because I've already bought a few things, so that's going to be a struggle.”
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Although nine months away from friends and family sounds like a long time, Amike says it’s been okay, as they’ve been speaking to her husband’s family on FaceTime regularly.
In fact, more than anyone, it’s her two Great Danes she’s missing.
With them being far too big to come on the cruise, Amike admits she almost didn't even come on the trip.
She says: “You can talk to your family back home, but the dogs, I miss them so much and I love my dogs.
“At one stage I said, ‘I don't want to come on this cruise because of them’ and then my husband said, 'You love the dogs very much but I mean, you can't give up this once-in-a-lifetime experience just because of the dogs'.
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“It would have been a whole different story if we had to put the dogs up for adoption or something, I would have never come then.
“But they're in very good hands - the people looking after them love them and we're getting updates frequently, and we trust the people.”
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