I got engaged in front of about 400 people - This was the big surprise I told you all about!. Worked with Royal Caribbean on this one!

The secret wedding proposal!

I was going to post this during my blog on holiday but wanted to tell family about it first.

During our cruise I brought the ring with me in secret, I had a plan but needed to do it carefully without my partner finding out, I also didn't want to do it the moment I got on the ship either because we would have spent two weeks being approached by strangers all the time congratulating us, So I devised a plan to catch my girlfriend unaware.

A few days into the cruise one night while she was asleep I left the room to 'go for a smoke' and headed down to guest services and tell them my plans and could I maybe speak to the cruise director. They made a note of it and told me they would be in contact but if they rang the stateroom and she answered they were to make up a fake story as to why they were calling.

The next day, early evening the phone rang in our stateroom, I answered, my partner was sitting on the bed beside me so I had to be careful what I said, she gave me the cruise directors personal number and told me to call him but make sure it wasnt during showtimes, he's expecting my call and she said good luck. I put the phone down and my partner asked what was all that about I told her I wanted to complain about and excursion and they gave me a number to complain, phew I got away with it.

The next day we went down to the photo gallery to check our pictures, just as we got to the gallery I said 'i gotta go to the toilet' so my partner said ugh go on ill meet you back here. I walked away then ran up the stairs and back to our room and rang the cruise director, Joff. He was waiting for my call and asked had I been on a cruise before I said yes and he asked have I heard of 'The quest' game show they have on board I told him I knew about it and he suggested how about we rig the show so that 4 of his staff pick four random numbers that will amount to a cabin number, ours, then we would have to come up on stage and 'win extra points for our team' I thought it was perfect so we decided that was the plan. He asked me to give him a call the next day to meet in his office to go through the final details.

The next day I couldn't get away at all and we were in Tenerife all day on an excursion, finally at about 8 o clock I managed to slip away and get on the phone with Joff, unortunately he was busy so we arranged to meet at half 9 at guest services he would hang around there and I just make a bee line for him and we'll slip in the the office.

The show finished and once again 'I had to go to the toilet' at which point I disapeared and ran down to guest services. Joff was waiting for me and we sat down in his office for the last meeting before the event on day 10. I was hoping to have a photographer there to take pictures but he said they wouldn't be available at that time so he rang the production manager to see if he could film it on the cameras. There didn't seem to be a problem and they would record through it and give us a memory stick after with the recording. Next he wanted to give a quick run down and decided to do it at the end of the show as it might disrupt the game if it was in the middle. He asked a few details and told me to try sit somewhere he can see me as he would give me the nod to let me know he was about to do it.

Day 10 arrived I'd been running through in my head for days what I was going to say when it happened and had a plan but was nervous as hell!.

Half 10 arrived and the gameshow started I had to get something to drink so I bought 2 bottles of corona I could down fairly fast while my girlfriend got a seat it just happened she actually got seats right at the front, perfect!

The game show itself was splitting the crowd into teams and perfom various 'quests' like getting 4 white shirts from men or men having to wear womens shoes etc. One of the quests was getting someone from home one a video call to tell a joke and it happened I got my mother online from our team which was fun as she was watching the show from home just before it was our time but she had no idea.

A bit after Joff gave me the nod and his four team members called out our cabin number, I was very nervous but we got up and walked out into studio B which was an ice rink with the floor covered over to make a venue for the game show. Joff did a quick interview ask who we were and where we were from and asked my partner did she want to win extra points for her team, she said yes, then he handed me the mic said goodluck and walked off.

I said 'what do I do now?' The crowd laughed, there were hundreds of people in the venue I didn't realise what it was going to be like stood in the middle on our own. I looked at my partner and said 'I know something I can do' I walked over to my partner and said 'We've been together 7 years now and we've had our ups and downs but we've always stayed together. I just have one question for you.' As I got down on one knee the crowd errupted in cheers. I took the ring out of my pocket and looked at my partner and said 'will you marry me' she started crying straight away and said yes!! The crowd was cheering and whistling as I tried to get the ring on her finger, she was shaking so much I couldn't get it on then she slipped it up onto her finger, I stood up and we kissed in front of the entire crowd to a massive cheer. Joff came back over and congratulated us and announced 'that's two more people off the market!'

In the excitement of it all I realised after that I meant to say 'you're the only one I want to spend the rest of my life with' and completely skipped it so when we look back we laugh at is because it sounded like we've been to gether 7 years and we haven't broke up so let's get married 😂😂. Something to laugh about I guess.

The gameshow then continued Joff was so excited about it he couldn't wait until the end to do it and jumped the gun. He told us we were the first people to do it that way!.

For the next two days everyone congratulated us and said I was very brave doing it the way I did. We even had some champagne bought for us!.

We havent set a date but a year, we are getting married in 2020 back on the Independence of the Seas. Can't wait!.