The Engagement

Port of Venice

The cruise ship was the largest sea vessel I had ever seen in my entire thirty-two years of life on this planet. The Norwegian behemoth was docked at Isola Nuova, Venice’s main cruise port. Registering at just over one-thousand feet in length, and peaking at one hundred and thirty-three feet in height, the fifteen deck masterpiece truly took my breath away. In that sublime moment in time, I tried to mentally prepare myself for the twelve day Mediterranean cruise my girlfriend, Emily, and I were about to embark on in celebration of her thirtieth birthday, while simultaneously trying to conceal the engagement ring burning a hole in my backpack. This was also the first cruise ship I had ever been on, so naturally my nerves were rattling out of control. The encroaching storm wasn’t helping my anxiety either.

Moments after exiting the transport bus we took from the airport to the cruise port, Emily, her mother, and her aunt - who were also traveling with us - were immediately pounced on by smiling swarms of Norwegian deck hands and cruise port employees. They were all offering their assistance to help us check our suitcases which would be brought on board later by cruise staff. We all agreed, so I began to pull out some cash to tip the workers, but Emily stopped me with a stern grin, and informed me that it was not necessary to tip here. You see, Emily wasn’t new to cruising like I was. She had been on many cruise vacations with her family growing up, and knew all of the proper dos and don'ts of cruising.

Emily’s brother was also part of the celebratory group, but he lived in Los Angeles and wasn’t scheduled to land in Venice for another two hours. The Epic’s departure from Sola Nuova wasn’t for another five hours, so we took advantage of the early arrival and joined the line of exciting vacations hustling to get on board. As we stood in the fast-paced boarding procession, we watched as hundreds of Norwegian deck hands stacked the passengers' suitcases on large metal racks beneath larger, blue and white tents.

The wind was beginning to pick up, the sky was darkening, the temperature was dropping, and a few raindrops had begun falling. With less than twenty feet to go until we reached the gangway, the first lightning strike filled the sky with incredible electricity. A monstrous boom of thunder rattled the pier, as well as every bone in my body. Luckily, the crew members were efficient. Moments later, we were each presenting our Id’s, and cruise ship passes to the officers at the security checkpoint. Receiving all greens, we were shuffled through the narrow halls, and ushered to the elevators.

The entry points for all guests, and crew, were all on the fourth level of the ship. Passenger quarters ranged from deck eight through fourteen, while all crew members bunked on level four and below. Levels five through seven were designated for guest services, retail, and entertainment. On these decks you could find the photo booth center where you could have professional portraits taken. The ship’s Epic Theater, which was scheduled to offer live performances each night of the cruise while sailing at sea. I was most interested and excited to see the Beatles cover band concert. Emily was more excited for the live dance performances. Either way, the ship’s entertainment was already beyond impressive, and we're still on the lower decks. Le Bistro, The Epic’s fine French cuisine restaurant was also on these lower decks, as well as a barbershop, three restaurants, five bars - one of which was an ice bar - a cigar lounge, the ship’s main retail shop, and the Bliss Lounge, which also acted as a club for the older crowd during late night hours.

We entered the elevator, and meticulously studied the immense, blueprint map of the entire ship plastered above the elevator’ operating system panel. Emily’s mother, and aunt opted to go to their rooms first, to settle in. Emily and I, after reading the map, wanted to go straight to the roof deck on level fifteen. The upper decks, levels sixteen through nineteen were designated for the private members of the ship’s Haven Club, who were apparently the ship’s VIPs. They even had their own elevator. We weren’t allowed up there, which meant that deck fifteen was as high as we could go.

The elevator door to level fifteen’s roof deck, and two stool chairs went careening across the wood flooring in front of us. Luckily, the entire staging area just outside of the elevator was protected by a glass ceiling, or else we would have been viciously soaked by the raging storm that rapidly took full form in the time it took us to ride the elevator from level four to the roof deck.

Stepping further out into the coveted lounge area, we looked right, towards the main part of the roof deck, and saw more than just two stools careening in directions they shouldn't have been. Seventy-mile an hour winds pounded into the Epic, terrorizing anyone and everything not tied down on all exposed sections of the ship. Emily urged us to ride the elevator back down to our room where we could drop off our backpacks and explore the rest of the ship while we waited out the storm. We did still have five hours to kill before the ship left port, so we were eager to see what the Epic had to offer.

But first, I needed to do something. Something crazy, but something my heart told me to do. Something Emily advised me not to do. But I was planning on proposing sometime in the next eleven days. So I said fuck it, and ran out into the rain.

Making sure to take as much caution as possible, considering the risk I was now taking was silly in comparison to my intentions. I just needed to experience the thrill of a Mediterranean storm. I ran directly towards the ship’s reinforced railing, which was backed by a large piece of thick plexiglass, and peered out into the abyss of dense fog, heavy rain and yellow lightning. I was terrified, yet excited. More excited than I’ve ever been in my entire life, save for maybe when I purchased Emily’s engagement ring.

As I was about to head back to the elevator, I caught myself staring at two extremely unfortunate sights. The first, were the tents. The same blue and white tents the crew had propped up to keep the racks of suitcases dry incase of any rain. They had blown into the harbor from the rabid wind, and the deluge of malicious raindrops quickly waterlogged thousands of passenger suitcases - including all of ours. Luckily, I made sure to keep the ring box on my person at all times. There was no way I was letting it out of my sight until I was down on one knee, offering my hand in marriage.

The second sight shocked me worse than the first one did. The five-hundred pound steel gangway, the same one we just walked across to enter the hull of the ship, was flapping like a piece of looseleaf paper against the side of the ship, and the ship itself had broken free from its mooring lines.

We were drifting out into the Mediterranean.