Road Rules: Semester at Sea was the eighth season of MTV

MTV

MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....

's reality television

Reality television

Reality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors, sometimes in a contest or other situation where a prize is awarded...

 series, Road Rules

Road Rules

Road Rules was an MTV reality show that debuted on July 19, 1995. The series, which was MTV's second reality show after The Real World followed six strangers between the ages of 18 and 24 after stripping them of their money and putting them on an RV traveling from location to location only guided...

. This season, which first aired in 1999, featured six castmembers in the shipboard Semester at Sea

Semester at Sea

Semester at Sea is a study abroad program founded in 1963, now managed by the Institute for Shipboard Education in Charlottesville, Virginia. The University of Virginia is the current academic sponsor for the program while the program, itself, is run on a cruise ship called the MV Explorer...

 study program, and followed the cast as they travelled aboard a cruise ship, both while taking school classes and embarking on the various adventures and scavenger hunt

Scavenger hunt

A scavenger hunt is a game in which the organizers prepare a list defining specific items, using which the participants — individuals or teams — seek to gather all items on the list — usually without purchasing them — or perform tasks or take photographs of the items, as specified...

s typical of Road Rules. This is considered to be the final season of the 'classic era' of Road Rules, as the format of the show would change significantly beginning with Road Rules: Maximum Velocity Tour

Road Rules: Maximum Velocity Tour

Road Rules: Maximum Velocity Tour is the ninth season of Road Rules. It took place mostly in the Southern areas of the United States.-Cast:*Bold indicates the contestant was a finalist on the Challenge, but lost in the Final Race....

. This season was filmed in: Nassau

Nassau, Bahamas

Nassau is the capital, largest city, and commercial centre of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. The city has a population of 248,948 , 70 percent of the entire population of The Bahamas...

 (Bahamas), Havana

Havana

Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...

 (Cuba

Cuba

The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...

), Salvador

Salvador, Bahia

Salvador is the largest city on the northeast coast of Brazil and the capital of the Northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia. Salvador is also known as Brazil's capital of happiness due to its easygoing population and countless popular outdoor parties, including its street carnival. The first...

 (Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

), Cape Town

Cape Town

Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...

 (South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

), Mombasa

Mombasa

Mombasa is the second-largest city in Kenya. Lying next to the Indian Ocean, it has a major port and an international airport. The city also serves as the centre of the coastal tourism industry....

 and Chyulu Hills

Chyulu Hills

Chyulu Hills is a mountain range in eastern Kenya. It forms a 100 kilometre long volcanic field in elongated NW-SE direction. Its highest peak is 2188 metres high.- Geography :...

 (Kenya

Kenya

Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...

), Madras (India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

), Penang

Penang

Penang is a state in Malaysia and the name of its constituent island, located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia by the Strait of Malacca. It is bordered by Kedah in the north and east, and Perak in the south. Penang is the second smallest Malaysian state in area after Perlis, and the...

 (Malaysia), Ho Chi Minh City

Ho Chi Minh City

Ho Chi Minh City , formerly named Saigon is the largest city in Vietnam...

 (Vietnam

Vietnam

Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...

), Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

 and Shanghai

Shanghai

Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...

 (China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

), Osaka

Osaka

is a city in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu, a designated city under the Local Autonomy Law, the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and also the biggest part of Keihanshin area, which is represented by three major cities of Japan, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe...

 and Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

 (Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

) and Seattle, WA.

Cast

Name		From	RW/RR Challenges
Ayanna Mackins	20	Media, PA	Extreme Challenge, Battle of the Sexes, Battle of the Sexes 2
Pawel Litwinski	21	Brooklyn, NY	None
Pua Medieros	19	Hilo, HI	None
Shawn Sealy	19	Boston, MA	Battle of the Sexes 2
Veronica Portillo Veronica Portillo Veronica Portillo is an American reality television participant, Playboy model, and co-creator of the College Dropout t-shirt line.-Road Rules:...	21	Tustin Ranch, CA	Challenge 2000 (Won), Battle of the Seasons, Battle of the Sexes, The Gauntlet Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Gauntlet The Gauntlet is the seventh season of Real World/Road Rules Challenge. It featured 28 castmates competing in missions with an immunity life-saver awarded to the best individual performer. Each team would then select a player from their team to go into the Gauntlet elimination challenge. This... (Won), The Inferno Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Inferno The Inferno is the eighth season of Real World/Road Rules Challenge. It aired in 2004 on MTV, composed of twenty cast members, and took place in Acapulco, Mexico. In this challenge, the winning teams would receive a prize at the end of each mission. They would then nominate two players from their... (Won), Battle of the Sexes 2, The Inferno II Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Inferno II The Inferno II is the tenth season of Real World/Road Rules Challenge and the sequel to The Inferno. The show aired in 2005, and took place in Manzanillo, Mexico. This challenge was the same as The Inferno, except this time each team was allowed to choose only one "Inferno nominee" from the... , The Ruins Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Ruins Real World Road Rules Challenge: The Ruins is the eighteenth season of the MTV reality television game show, Real World/Road Rules Challenge, and follows The Duel 2. The Ruins took place in Phuket, Thailand, with former cast members from MTV's The Real World and Road Rules competing along with...
Yes Duffy	19	Berkeley, CA	Challenge 2000 (Won), Battle of the Seasons, Battle of the Sexes

• Bold indicates the contestant was a finalist on the Challenge, but lost in the Final Race.
• : Age at time of filming.

Missions

#	Mission	Result	Notes
1	Sky Dive Onto A Desert Island	Completed
2	Make Your Way To Civilizations	Completed
3	Softball	Completed
4	Picolino Circus Performance	Completed	The guys are able to give an Apple computers for street kids
5	Live with South African Families	Completed	At the end of this mission the guys do a presentation of Apartheid on the ship
6	Photo Safari	Completed
7	Install Solar Energy in Dalit Village	Completed
8	Job at Matang Wildlife Centre	Completed
9	"A Day in the Life of Vietnam" Race	Completed
10	Ho Chi Minh Millions	Completed
11	Dragon Boat Race	Completed
12	Perform in Chinese Opera	Completed
13	Anime	Completed
14	Skidome challenge	Completed
15	Salon at Sea	Completed

Memorable Moments

• The infamous tension between Veronica and Ayanna began when landing in Cuba, Ayanna had told Veronica that she too knew some Spanish. Ayanna claims that Veronica responded with such a disbelief and negative attitude, that it caused them to start off on the wrong foot.
• In one mission, the cast had to compete against a team of Japanese people in a skiing competition. Pua expressed her hesitance to do the mission because she had never been skiing before. However, the Road Rules team beat the Japanese team.
• In one mission, the cast was told to spend 12 million Vietnamese dong, and if they did, 12 million dong would be donated to an orphan center. The cast came into conflict when Ayanna didn't want to spend money on an expensive Armani salon, but instead wanted to spend money at a family-owned Vietnamese business. She later gave in and got a massage. Pawel was so touched by the orphans at the center that he sold his prints and raised over $2000 for the orphan center.
• Containers of alcohol were found in Yes' quarters, in violation of the Semester at Sea rule against it, for which he was disciplined.
• Pawel, an aspiring photographer, was crestfallen when he did not win a mission involving photography.
• Pua, after a garment of hers turned up missing, found the garment among Veronica's belongings, apparently having been stolen by the latter. Pua decided to wear the garment to a public gathering on the ship, where she hoped that Veronica, seeing her wearing it, would be shamed by her act. Veronica was later forced to admit stealing the garment after she pulled Pua into the bathroom late at night and had confessed that she had stolen it. Veronica had asked Pua to cover it up for the cameras to avoid embarrassment, but Pua confessed the next day.
• Pua became upset on a mission in which the cast had to entice elephants to paint on canvases using paintbrushes held by their tusks, when one of the elephant handlers used violent discipline on her elephant to motivate it to paint. Pua rebuked the handlers for doing this, and later insisted that the abuse she herself had suffered in her past was not a motivating factor in her taking offense at the act.
• Ayanna came into conflict at times with other cast members, for example, during an argument in which Pua accused Ayanna of placing talcum powder and matchsticks on her bed in a voodoo ritual intended to inflict bad fortune on Pua and Veronica after the two became close friends. In another incident, she accused Veronica of plagiarizing her paper. In comparing the two papers, Ayanna read off each and the two ended up so similarly that Veronica looked as if she did indeed plagiarize. While Veronica asked to read both papers, Ayanna refused and took off running to slide the papers under the dean's door. Veronica ran after her, but couldn't catch up. Although Veronica was never formally accused or admitted to stealing the paper, they both had to re-write them.
• Ayanna was forced to deal with the separation from her mother, who was suffering from breast cancer
  Breast cancer
  Breast cancer is cancer originating from breast tissue, most commonly from the inner lining of milk ducts or the lobules that supply the ducts with milk. Cancers originating from ducts are known as ductal carcinomas; those originating from lobules are known as lobular carcinomas...
  
  . Ayanna was reunited with her mother during the show, though her mother later died from the disease, as Ayanna mentioned on the Battle of the Sexes reunion.