BRETT-REID.COM

We booked to go on the Independence of the Seas in May 2007 so we had been waiting for our departure date of 25 May 2008 for a loooong time. I had also decided around December 2007 that it was time I took the next step (engagement) with Jackie and my relationship. Because we were going on the trip, I thought I may as well wait and make it a little more special by asking her overseas. I wanted to surprise her so everything was top secret, not even her family knew at this stage.

The Independence of the Seas is one of 3 identical cruise ships which form the ‘Freedom Class’ of ships - the largest in the world! The other ships in the class being Freedom of the Seas (has been in documentaries on Discovery channel, based in Bahamas) and Liberty of the Seas (based in Bahamas). Royal Carribean owns and operates a fleet of 22+ luxury cruise ships, with these 3 being the latest addition to their fleet. Each ship cost around $900,000,000 to build.

Putting things in perspective:

• Independence of the Seas is larger than the Nimitz-Class (largest) of Aircraft Carriers.
• At 160,000 GRT, the Independence of the Seas is more than 3 times heavier than the Titanic.
• Standing upright on its bow, Independence of the Seas would trump New York’s famed Chrysler building (1,046 feet) and Paris’ Eiffel Tower (986 feet).
• Boasting a width of 185 feet, Independence of the Seas is actually wider than the White House is long (168 feet).
• When measured from the waterline to the top of the funnel, Independence of the Seas towers 208 feet tall, which is approximately the same height as two of the Statue of Liberty, placed head to toe.
• Independence of the Seas has enough staterooms to host all, and we mean all, NFL, MLB and NBA players and coaches in one single sailing.
• The Arcadia Theatre seats 1,292 guests, approximately the same amount of passengers housed on three 747 airplanes.
• Although the ShipShape Fitness Center only has one regulation size boxing ring, it is large enough to fit 62 of them.
• The Royal Promenade stretches longer than a football field, running 368 feet down the center of the ship.
• Independence of the Seas cruises at 21.5 knots and can come to a stop from full power in 5 minutes. A tanker cruising at half that speed takes 30 minutes to come to a stop.

Some more numbers for you:

• 62,430 square feet of windows
• 530 tons of water in the swimming pools
• 1,400 tons of fresh water consumed each day
• 713,000 gallons of fresh water generated every day
• 78,000 pounds of ice cubes produced per day
• 10 restaurants
• 16 bars and lounges
• 4,700 works of art

For the proposal I had planned to purchase the diamond and propose with the diamond only. Jackie is a designer and I am very sure anything I chose would be wrong. I managed to get a good price on the diamond and my next worry was how I was going to transport the diamond through 3 airport customs and then onto the boat. After all, transporting loose diamonds is pretty suspicious. I had the papers for the stone so everything was legal but I still had to ensure that they never saw it and had to ask me for the papers, then the 6-month surprise build up would be ruined! The answer? In a piece of paper in my jean pant - just call me a mule. My mind was on that diamond 24/7, insurance companies don’t insure loose diamonds for obvious reasons…

We flew out on Sunday, destination London via Dubai. I forgot just how much I hate flying long distances. Our first leg to Dubai was 9 hours and then another 7 hours to London after that. The takeoff is always cool but after that things start becoming quite bleek. We flew Emirates and I guess my expectations were a bit high. They’ve won airline of the year a few times so you kind of expect to be impressed. Instead they ran out of coffee and beef. Deans TV (and a few others) were broken throughout the flight. Their in-flight entertainment system is pretty impressive and I watched quite a few movies but after so long sitting in one position, you start to go a bit crazy. Loved that ‘fasten-your-seatbelt’ in arabic tho.

From the air, Dubai looks flat, lots of limestone, sand etc. We caught the connecting flight to Heathrow and my sister and her boyfriend Kevin met us at the airport. We stayed in London for a week, it was really cool. Met up with some friends, bought some clothes and finally met Mike UK after 4 years of doing business without ever meeting each other

Saturday morning (31st May) we had to be ready to go by 11am and Kevin drove us all down to Southampton where the ship departs from. The drive was beautiful and as we got closer to Southampton we started trying to see the ship. We were like kids in the back and finally after seeing the wrong cruise ship, spotted the Independence. It was HUGE. Jacqui and Kev dropped us off and after meeting up with her folks, we managed to sneak a photo.

You check in all of your bags at the dockside, all you do is put on the baggage tags and there are porters who come and collect them. You then have to go through customs - by now I had got through Cape Town, Dubai and Heathrow with the diamond - this was the home stretch. So now you’re standing in something resembling an airport and all that was left to do was ‘check in’. Instead of a boarding pass, you are issued with a ‘Sea Pass’ which is essentially a credit card of sorts. You use it to board/depart the ship, open your room, charge anything to it, get towels etc. It becomes your ID once onboard. Here is what mine looked like:

At this stage you have been couped up in this building long enough and you just want to get onto the ship and see it from the inside. We made our way through the sea of silver hair and motorized wheelchairs onto the ramp. They do one last sea pass check as you get onboard. Then we walked in…

Your mouth kind of drops when you walk in. Everyone has this dazed look on their faces as they look around. You can’t actually believe this is a ship and that you are going cruising on it. All those late nights of freelance and extra work come together at that moment. You realise that the pain is worth it My first view was of the lobby and The Royal Promenade. Seconds ago I was looking at dreary Southampton and now I am looking at something resembling canal walk. You look up and down the lift lobby and you realize things look a little bigger/better on the inside! The photo below shows one of the lift lobbies. There were 16 lifts serving 15 floors.

This photo below shows a view down the promenade from the aft of the ship looking forward.

Yes that’s a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream parlor and yes that is an old couple at top speed down the promenade (ETA 7 minutes). That coffee shop on the left was open 24 hours a day and you could get cocktail rolls, coffee, hot chocolate, tea, etc all the time, all free. Each floor has a small model of the ship so you know exactly where you are. It takes a day or two to get your bearings but then you are sorted.

Bridge near Guest Relations which changed colour in a classy way

So now we’re onboard and the first thing we do is….try find our rooms. They send your baggage direct to outside your room so we thought we’d put our bags in our rooms and then head to the top deck to wave goodbye. The rooms (or “State Rooms”) span floors 2,3,4,6,7,8. Yes thats 2 = cheapo and 8 = super loaded, but hey, I would have taken crew quarters just to be onboard! Our room was on deck 2, Jackies parents were on deck 6 with a balcony. The first thing I did when I got to the room was stash the diamond on the room safe. Ahh now I could relax

Our room was actually very nice and we thought our 15cm porthole was the norm - we were completely stoked. After a few days of walking up and down the corridors and seeing that every room on our floor other than ours had a porthole almost a meter across we got suspicious. On going ashore in Gibraltar and looking back at the ship. I noticed that every 30 portholes or so, there was a tiny one. We had managed to land that tiny one. After some complaining, this fat american lady said it was unfortunate as the boat was fully booked so we’d have to make do even though we paid the same as people with the large portholes. After about 5 days we met George, the South African in charge of Guest Relations and in charge of the fat american lady. We were offered Room 3150 (3rd floor) with a large porthole and sent a bottle of wine to apologize. Thanks George The rooms were the same in size but that large porthole makes all the difference as you can see…

Our other porthole was about 1/3 width so make sure you specify this with your Travel Agent up front. You can’t book rooms but at least you can try avoid the 1 small porthole! The rooms are roomy enough. It reminds me of an aircraft in that every inch of space is used. The bathrooms are small yet you are amazed at how much they have in there and you never feel cramped. When you flush the loo it does that whole aircraft suction thing. Your room has a nice Samsung plasma in it and they have 40 channels on the boat. You also have wireless internet in your room but you pay US$ 0.55/minute so be prepared to check your mail quickly. I spent on average 8 minutes online per day so that’s R35p/day = R490 for the trip. Room service is free. Yes you heard me right. You just browse for what you want on the room service menu (using TV remote) and in 15 minutes it’s there. We only ordered room service once. You’re hardly ever in your room and when you are, you’re usually full

I have a bit of advice here for first time cruisers like ourselves. It’s 400 pounds extra p/p for a room with a balcony - looking back now I would pay that in a second - it’s so worth it. Portholes are cool but there is something about the sound of the sea…

So we all headed up to the top deck to say goodbye to Southampton. The vibe was totally awesome, I am sure there were cruise veterans there but Jackie, Dean and I were in our element with permanent grins. We gathered on the top deck and the crew had the music going, cocktails on trays and the bars were open. It was party time. It was sensory overload as we all tried to take in just what was happening. We were on the largest cruise liner on earth and the shore was packed with people waving us off. The Captain gave a few blasts on the hooter and we were off! Soon we were going past other cruise ships in the harbour and they were also on the deck waving like mad. Then came the emergency drill notification. We had to return to our rooms to get our life jackets so that we could perform the emergency drill. We put our life jackets on and made our way to our ‘Muster station’. That’s when I first saw the scale of old people on the boat Drill over and it was time to meet for dinner at Romeo and Juliet (our dining hall).

I don’t have a photo that does it justice but it’s a 3-story dining hall which is done out like the Titanic’s. There is a grand staircase and they have people playing violins on the stairs while you eat *flashbacks to sinking of titanic*. But it’s all class. Our initial table was right up against this pillar and then John and Sharon (veteran cruisers) noticed their waiter from a previous cruise - Mario from Portugal. He had now been promoted to head waiter and our table was moved right next to the captains table (show in picture above). So for the rest of the cruise we had a top spot. Mario was an absolute legend, as was our waitor for the cruize, Murat from Turkey. There are 62 nations represented by the crew and it’s amazing watching all these nations working together under pressure and still getting it right. They serve 15000 meals a day, all 5-star. I had sirloin a few times and it was very good. You can’t believe they can mass produce such quality food. Jackie loaded some video onto Zoopy of us dining in our penguin suits:

That evening we did a lot of exploring and at around 11pm Jackie, Dean and I decided we would end our first day with a jacuzzi Except this jacuzzi is hanging 12 feet off the side of the boat and is 11 storeys up! We lay there bubbling away as we cruized out of the English Channel. I had decided already that I would be proposing either in Barcelona or in Monte Carlo so I now had to try and get John alone for a moment so I could ask for his daughters hand in marriage - it would prove to be more difficult than I had anticipated

Our cruise had begun!