Everything went as planned, and Erica and I were married in
Miami
on January 14, 2006 aboard the Royal
Caribbean ship "Navigator of the Seas". Since I've had a few people ask
me already, here's the log of what we did.
We set out from Aurora, IL on Friday morning for O'Hare, and met
up with Erica's parents, brother, grandmother, and aunt there. After a
little excitement before boarding (Erica's dad disappeared, people went to
look for him, he showed up, and then we couldn't find the rescue party),
we hopped aboard our American Airlines flight to Miami International Airport.
When we arrived, I checked in with my mom and the rest of my family: they'd
all arrived just fine, and were getting ready to call it a night. We grabbed
a bite, and packed it in for the evening. The next morning, we split up:
Erica and her mom headed to a hair appointment, and the rest of us packed up
and headed for the dock, where everyone from both families finally met up
for the first time. After a fairly lengthy delay, the ship was cleared for
boarding about 35 minutes before we were scheduled to have the wedding, so
everyone scrambled for their rooms, got ready VERY quickly, and headed to
the other end of the ship for the ceremony in the ship's chapel.
The ceremony was brief, but didn't have the "cheeziness" that you would
expect of a cruise ship wedding; the officiant (who had been helping us
get on the ship all morning, and generally making sure everyone had the
documentation and clearances they needed) treated the ceremony with the
significance and demeanor you would expect for a wedding, and the other
coordinator who helped us worked just as hard to keep things moving
behind the scenes. The photographer was hilarious; he reminds me of
Mitch, the fellow building the
engine for my Eclipse, in that he was
a complete geek about what he did (and I mean that in the nicest sense of
the word; he really seemed to love what he did, and while he was a
consummate professional about the whole thing, you could tell he loved
geeking out about photography and digital imaging) and took a lot of
pride in his work. Anyway, after the ceremony, we got everyone together
on the staircase in front of the ship's main stage for a group shot, and
then we spent the next hour running around the ship with the photographer
getting pictures all over. A quick change, and we were ready to watch us
leave port, and head for dinner and the welcome-aboard show. Not bad for
what would normally be a lazy Saturday. ;-)
The next day was at sea, which worked out great; everyone had a chance to
get the layout of the ship, see what there was to see aboard, and generally
relax after a fairly "exciting" first day. We picked up our first piece of
art of the cruise from "Park
West At Sea", a piece on wood by Slava Brodinsky depicting the Tuscan
countryside. As it turns out, we also won a serigraph by Emile Bellet,
which I have no idea what we'll do with.
On Monday, we pulled into San Juan, Puerto Rico. Erica, my sister Sharon,
and I all headed for
Fort San Cristobal
for a little sightseeing. After that, we split up and did a bit of shopping
downtown, then back to the ship for dinner and a broadway musical show.
Tuesday was probably the highlight of the cruise for me, second only to the
wedding. We pulled into St. Thomas, and headed immediately over to a dive
shop called "Waterworld Outfitters" to make sure everyone had the necessary
gear, and then we headed out with
Underwater Safaris (who appear to be
all part of the same company) to Buck Island, a couple of miles south of
St. Thomas. First, we hit Rye Reef, which was cool, but the second dive was
the impressive one: we saw the Cartanza Sr., a World War I tramp steamer
that had broken up into several pieces, with an open view of the engine
room and it's two engines, and a beautiful approach view of the forward bow
of the ship. There was a barracuda hanging out behind one of the engines,
and over the course of the two dives we managed to catch a view of a "baby"
giant sea turtle, a puffer fish, and a ton of other random fishies. What
a great time. That night, after a bit of shopping downtown, we watched the
Ice show aboard, and grabbed dinner in the main dining room, where Sharon
showed us her brand new camera that she managed to get an incredible deal
on in the "shopping capital of the caribbean". ;-)
Wednesday was St. Maarten/St. Martin, and both sides of the family went on
a bus tour of the Dutch and French sides of the island. We had about an
hour to wander the flea market on the French side (where I managed to pick
up some papaya hot sauce, and Jeff managed to barter a $300 titanium ring
with a sapphire for his girlfriend down to $100), and then we headed back
to the Dutch side, where Erica, Sharon, Mom, and I all wandered the
shopping area, picked up some Belgian chocolate, and laughed at the store
called "That Yoda Guy". We grabbed a water taxi back to the ship, ate
dinner, and caught an excellent Motown performance aboard ship. Late that
night, we attended the midnight Gala Buffet, then crashed.
Thursday was another relaxing day at sea, which all of us desperately
needed after going full-tilt up to this point. We slept in, headed down
to the art auction, and picked up a piece by
Alfred Gockel called
American Vet,
rounding off our cruise artwork purchases. We also managed to meet up with
Domcic Vladan (the afore-mentioned photographer) who gave us first cuts of
our photos (and all of them, on CD), along with a very cool video slideshow
of the pictures that he made for us as well. The rest of the day was spent
lounging around, and eating. ;-)
On the final day of the cruise, we hit Nassau, Bahamas. Both Erica and I had
been here before, so we ended up taking a late departure from the boat, and
heading to the local public beach with her brother and splashing around a
bit before taking a leisurely walk through the downtown area, and heading
back to the boat early. We were entertained with a final show aboard ship,
as well as a rather large goodbye dinner. I can't say enough good things
about the service we received from our waiter and assistant waiter (Jose,
from the Phillipines, and Dwayne, whose home country I can't remember off
the top of my head), as well as the head waiter who spent far more time
with us than I was accustomed to on previous cruises. We worked right up
until the deadline to get our bags packed and out in the hall, and divvied
up the photos between parental units, and collapsed for the night.
Come Saturday morning, we were up bright and early to get the early ship
departure window. We were delayed quite a bit by the late arrival of one
of our bags (and the non-arrival of one of Erica's parents' bags), then
rushed over to the airport to catch the plane home, which I slept on most
of the way back.
What a week. I'm amazed at how well things went, with 19 family members
along with three sides of the families represented; much better than I
expected things to go. The dive trip was incredible; I can't wait until
summer when Erica and I can hit the
quarry for a few more dives.
The Sensus Pro units
that Erica picked up for us did a fine job of logging everything (which
I'll have to come up with a way of representing online), and I'm pretty
much convinced that by the next time we take a serious dive trip, we'll
be bringing all of our own gear. The wedding was great, and reflected us
perfectly: brief and without a lot of hype and fanfare, but solemn and
respectful as well. And we were able to give a few members of both
families an experience that some of them would never have had a chance to
have otherwise, which almost made this trip worth it all by itself.
Now I need a vacation from my vacation. ;-)