Latitudes with Lucy

I was on Semester at Sea voyage 133 during spring 2024. We sailed on the MV World Odyssey to Thailand, Malaysia, India, Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, Ghana, Morocco, Portugal, and Germany. Before my voyage, I remember looking at pictures from previous SASers and thinking Semester at Sea was idyllic bliss. Of course, nothing is as perfect as it seems on social media, so I am sharing the unfiltered reality about my experience on Semester at Sea.

Before I get into the nitty-gritty, I just want to say that I am so grateful for this experience. Semester at Sea is a life-changing program, and I will cherish my memories forever.

1. First Impressions
2. Cabins
3. Ship Food
4. Classes
5. Ship Entertainment and Events
6. Internet Access at Sea
7. Drinking Culture, Drink Nights, and the Drunk Tank
8. Ports
9. The End of the Voyage and Disembarkation

First Impressions

My first leg at sea was the realization of all my Semester at Sea dreams. I sat in the student union’s velvety chairs that I had seen in so many SASer alumni’s YouTube vlogs. My new friends and I chose “our table” in the dining hall. (I always thought I would be a Lido girly, but I ended up eating almost every meal in Berlin.) I spent afternoons reading by the pool, and it felt surreal. I couldn’t believe this was really my life.

We first boarded the MV World Odyssey in Bangkok, Thailand. While ship security searches every bag by hand upon returning from ports, they only used a quick X-ray scan for our embarkation day. The crew delivers your luggage to your cabin door for you, and the whole process was quick and easy.

Someone always makes an Instagram page before the voyage where you can meet other SASers, but I chose to go in blind. I got lucky with my random roommate, and everyone else was eager to meet new people the first couple weeks. Many of my closest friends were people I met in my “sea,” which is sort of like your floor in a freshman dorm, complete with a resident director (RD). We had frequent sea meetings with our RD at the beginning of the voyage, which eventually tapered off to once a sea leg. The RDs were all amazing, looking out for us and advocating for our needs.

Cabins

The rooms on the ship are called cabins. I had an inside double, and I think it was one of the smallest rooms on the ship. There are also outside triples and doubles on the MV World Odyssey. An outside double was a “premium” cabin and cost more. Every cabin has a private bathroom. The cabins are cleaned every two days, including replacing the bedding and bath towels. There’s even a cheap laundry service that will deliver the folded clothes to your cabin door.

I got the best sleep of my life in my cabin. It was always cold and dark (especially because I didn’t have a window), and the waves rocked me to sleep. I have never reminisced on my voyage and thought, “I wish I had gotten the premium room!”

Ship Food

Food on the ship has to appeal to everyone, so it’s pretty boring and never well-seasoned. Also, the only hot sauce was tabasco. There weren’t many options, and the meals get repetitive quick. However, speaking as a lactose-intolerant vegetarian, they did a decent job with vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, and kosher diets.

Breakfast was always powdered eggs or fried eggs, pancakes or french toast, sausage, a potato dish, fruit*, pastries, and toast with jam and peanut butter.

Lunch and dinner always had fruit*, a salad bar, soup, and bread. There were usually 4-5 options on the hot bar that changed every day. There was also a dessert, which was almost always cake.

*Fruit is usually melon, pineapple, and oranges. We occasionally had apples, bananas, nectarines, and other fruits depending on the port where they picked up the food.

The three meals were included in our tuition, along with a “snack time” at 10pm with desserts and sandwiches. We also had hot water and coffee available 24/7 in Berlin. (Tea was a hot commodity and a great souvenir to collect in ports.) Occasionally, we had special meals like brunch, taco day, and an ice-cream bar.

There is additional food for purchase on board at the grill, pool bar, and library. The smoothies at the pool bar are always popular, and I loved the breakfast wraps at the grill. The library is open 24/7 for late-night snacks like ramen, popcorn, and candy.

You can also sign up for a “fancy dinner,” which is a six-course meal for $35. It’s really fun to dress up with all your friends and get waited on. Plus, you get a glass of wine, and alcohol is a valuable commodity on the ship.

Classes

We have class every single day on the ship, and our schedules alternate on A days and B days. We do not have class on port days with the exception of field classes. Every class (except for Global Studies) has one field class in one of the ports. For my World Music class, we visited the University of Ghana and learned to play the drums. In Oceanography, students took a snorkeling trip. Be sure to take field classes into consideration during class sign-up. I only chose classes that had their field class either the first or last day in port, so it would not disrupt my travel plans.

Every student has to take Global Studies, during which we learn about all the ports. Most other classes also incorporate the port countries into the curriculum. The classes you take on Semester at Sea are generally easier than at your home institution, in part because there are not many high-level classes offered.

As someone who used to work at my university’s admissions office, here is my biggest piece of advice to any student planning to study abroad: save your gen eds! Even though Semester at Sea allows all majors to apply, you may not actually find a class that fulfills your major requirements. Plus, the experience is overall more enjoyable if you can fit a class like World Music into your schedule.

Ship Entertainment and Events

Despite the limited resources on the ship, it was easy to stay busy on board the MV World Odyssey. We have ping pong and a tiny court that alternates days between basketball and volleyball. There is a small indoor and outdoor gym with treadmills, bikes, yoga mats, benches, assorted weights, and even a giant chessboard. Our cabins have TVs with a decent selection of shows and movies, and there are occasional movies or watch parties in the ship theater and union.

The biggest events of the semester are Neptune Day (aka Equator Day) and the Sea Olympics. The events of Neptune Day are supposed to be kept secret, but I will share that they include kissing a fish and shaving your head. The Sea Olympics is a competition between our “seas” reminiscent of summer camp. SASers vote on various Olympic events every voyage, with the lip sync battle and tug-of-war usually being highlights of the day. Other ship-wide events include a student talent show, staff talent show, and shipboard auctions.

Students create clubs and organizations at the beginning of the voyage. For example, my voyage had line dancing, karaoke, and sunrise yoga.

There are educational events hosted by teachers or “interport lecturers,” which are guests invited by Semester at Sea to sail with us on the way to their port country. Sometimes, these are interport students who attend our classes and eat with us in the dining hall. The interport lectures are optional, but I highly encourage attending at least a couple of them. Learning from a local is interesting and valuable.

Ultimately, I spent most of my free time tanning by the pool, reading on one of the decks, or playing card games with my friends. Most of our voyage had hot weather, but the ship got a lot less pleasant when we sailed north to Europe in April. Since most of the rooms on the ship are used for classes, there is not a lot of space to hang out indoors. My friends and I were extremely bored of ship life by the third month of the voyage.

Internet Access at Sea

I know one of people’s biggest concerns about Semester at Sea is the internet access, but it really isn’t a big deal. Everyone gets 100 MB of daily wifi, which usually lasted me about ten minutes. There is also unlimited email, texting on WhatsApp, and access to the first page of results on Google/Safari. You can’t open any links, but you could get an answer to basic questions. Some days at sea, like when we sailed through the Singapore Strait, we were close enough to land to get cell service. However, if you need more wifi, it is available for purchase.

There are a few computers with internet access in the library, though you often have to wait in a long line to use them. I was fortunate that my friend worked in the library and was able to plan our travels on the staff computer.

I replaced my doomscrolling with reading, and it was awesome. I encourage everyone to skip the wifi plan and disconnect.

Drinking Culture, Drink Nights, and the Drunk Tank

Students are not allowed to bring alcohol onto the ship. We have a “drink night” approximately once per sea leg during which we are allowed to purchase only two drinks each. (Although students would buy drinks off each other.) There is a red wine, a white wine, and two beer choices. Some students won’t eat all day to make the most out of the buzz off two drinks.

Since there isn’t a bar on board, the smoke deck became a major hangout spot. Especially with visiting foreign countries where smoking is more common, people smoked a lot of cigarettes on my voyage. After drink nights, SASers would play music, dance, and chain smoke on the smoke deck.

I have heard Semester at Sea nicknamed a “booze cruise,” though that is better applied to back when students could drink freely on the ship. Now, I think “drinking around the world” is a better description. It’s a ship full of college students—of course there is a lot of drinking and partying, especially as the drinking age is lowered to 18 in many port countries. On the first and last night in port, SASers would often choose a single bar or club to overrun.

If you are someone who does not drink very much, don’t worry about fitting in on the ship. Out of 400+ students, you are not the only one. I think most friend groups were like mine—we would go out 1-2 nights in ports with big nightlife scenes, like Cape Town, and we wouldn’t drink at all in other ports, like when we visited Morocco during Ramadan. Also, true friends won’t care if you go to bed early instead of hitting the club with them.

If you plan on having a lot to drink, make sure you sleep at a hotel or Airbnb. Students who attempt to re-board the ship visibly drunk are put into an observation room which we call the drunk tank. If you are a repeat offender or a difficult drunk, you are at risk of being kicked off the voyage. Semester at Sea does not want to take a liability to foreign countries. Someone gets kicked off every single voyage, so don’t be that person. (And, no, you do not get a refund.) Be careful drinking in foreign countries, and listen to the safety briefings on the ship.

Ports

My voyage sailed to Thailand, Malaysia, India, Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, Ghana, Morocco, Portugal, and Germany. I will try to stick to general information here, but you can read more about my ports on my other posts.

As we sail into port, everyone gathers outside to watch. Once we arrive, we have to wait for immigration to clear the ship. Then, we disembark by sea, rotating who goes first every time, and wait even longer to individually pass through immigration. The entire process can take hours. (I’ve never been on an actual cruise, but I can’t imagine going through all of that effort for just a day in port.)

Be prepared for port changes. On my voyage, a cyclone prevented us from visiting Mauritius. We were re-routed to spend one night in Mozambique, and additional nights were added to South Africa to give us the same number of days in port.

We typically get four to six days in each port. Students are not allowed to cross the border into another country. To save money, you can sleep on the ship in port, and meals are still served. In some ports, the ship is a convenient base to explore from. In others, the country is much better experienced by venturing out of the port city. You have the option of booking field programs with Semester at Sea or making your own travel plans. There is a lot to be said about field programs, so I wrote an entire guide to field programs on Semester at Sea.

For the most part, you can do anything you want in the port countries. There were only a few restrictions, like no driving and no skydiving. Of course, tons of SASers still do those things, they just wait to post the pictures until after the voyage. The night before we arrive in port, we have a “pre-port” with safety guidelines and other important information.

If you are late to on-ship time at the end of the port, you get “dock time.” For every 15 minutes you are late, you are “docked” for one hour at the next port. This includes getting stuck at the end of a long line for ship security. And if you are late at the last port, you don’t get to attend the Alumni Ball dinner. That is one lesson I learned the hard way. If you are really late, you’ll have to find your own ride to the next port.

The End of the Voyage and Disembarkation

At the end of the voyage, we celebrate becoming Semester at Sea alumni with the Alumni Ball. I was late for on-ship time in Portugal, so I was not allowed to attend the Alumni Ball dinner. It’s a six-course meal like the fancy dinners, and my friends told me it was really good. The grill was still open, so I treated myself to a (vegetarian) burger and fries. After the dinner, there is a dance party, but most people only showed up to get their maps signed.

The ship store sells world maps, and everyone signs each other’s map at the end of the voyage. I did not do this. Instead, I had my close friends sign scraps of paper that I later put into my scrapbook.

And just like that, Semester at Sea voyage 133 was over. We packed our bags (which were lifted off deck 9 via crane), and we disembarked. We got on a bus and rode away from the ship that had been our home for 107 days. At the train station, I said goodbye to the friends who I had spent nearly every day of the voyage with. Some SASers backpacked Europe into the summer, but I flew out of Germany on disembarkation day.