Key West is Southern Most…
It’s Thursday, the third day of our journey aboard the Majesty of the Seas and finally we’ve found bright, sunny Caribbean weather. Bright and early this morning, we arrived at Key West, Florida – the western most of the Florida Keys, yet the Southern most point in the Continental United States (the south-east coast of the Big Island of Hawaii if furthest south of any state). That whole orientation kinda throws you off mentally. Based on longitude, we were as far east as Columbus, Ohio or near Detroit – just a shade east of Indianapolis. It just seems strange that you are basically on the east coast of the United States, an island that splits evenly one side facing the Atlantic Ocean, the other side facing the Caribbean sea, yet as far as longitude, you are about the same as our nation’s “Midwest”. In other words, Maine is much further to the east.
We were treated to watching the ship come all the way into port, watching what I presume was some kind of engineer and his crew make the mooring ropes ready for docking. It is quite a well choreographed exercise between the engineer and his crew on the ship exchanging hand signals with the crew on shore and on a small boat all to synchronize the docking of this massive ship alongside this pier.
So they tied the ship off, secured us for arrival to port, and meanwhile, we went back inside to wait in the longest line to get cleared by US Customs. Since the ship had left US waters and visited a foreign port, we had to got through customs before anyone could leave the ship. The ship had an organized plan to deal with getting everyone off the ship in a priority that accommodated those with early tours (like us) first, and then slowly let everyone else off the ship. Because we had an 11am tour – they asked that people like us be ready for customs in the Blue Skies Lounge (from now known as the BS Lounge for good reason) on the 7th deck at 9:45 am. We arrived at 9:40am and discovered that the line extended out of the lounge past the centrum, past the library and well to the front of the ship where the main elevator banks were located. Well, since the next group of passengers were not supposed to report to the BS Lounge until 10:15am, and we had a rowdy toddler waiting to be let loose, we decided to wait in the library and just catch the end of the line as it passed by. Seemed like a good plan. Alyssa was kept busy and happy by playing with Monopoly pieces and Jule got to sit and relax a bit. Meanwhile, I kept checking for the end of the line, which never came. Finally at about 10:10am, we decided that no one was paying any attention to the time that they were supposed to get off the ship, and what we thought was one line for one portion of the ship’s passengers was indeed one line for ALL of the passengers all eagerly trying to get off the ship.
Remember, we had now been cooped up on this ship since 11:30 pm Tuesday, and it was now about 10:30am Thursday. So I guess you could not blame everyone for wanting off the ship and free to roam Key West. Heck, we could have been in Key Hell and people would have been lined up to get off the ship.
I really cannot fathom being on one of these ships that have 4 to 6 straight days at sea. For example, the cruise lines will relocate ships from Europe to the Caribbean during different times of the year depending on what is more popular. Well, to do this, they offer what are called “relocation” itineraries. This means you get to be a guest on board the ship as they move it from Barcelona to Miami (for example). So sure, it will stop in Cannes, Monte Carlo, Madiera, Lisbon, and the Azores, but then you get 6 days at seas as it crosses the Atlantic before arriving in Miami.
So we finally got off the ship, just in time to line up for our city tour aboard the famous Conch Train – famous to those who live in Key West. Our train turned out to be a bus version of a trolley – but we had an energetic guide who told us way too much. In comparison to what I thought was a well done city tour in Nassau for historical facts and a bit of daily life in the Bahamas, this tour just focused on who owned which house and where you could buy a good beer or cheap t-shirt. Much less intriguing than the tour in Nassau tour.
This tour began and ended in the main square located just off the ship’s port. This square/shopping mecca is known as Mallory Square. Co-located in this square are shops, a ship wreck museum, an aquarium, and a place that sold nothing but conch shells. Native inhabitants of the square include some feral, yet polite cats and a whole bunch of chickens and roosters all searching for a hand out. After the coochie train, we stopped at a hot dog stand and got a few hot dogs to eat. This was the first indication that Key Lime is the key thing in Key West. I felt like Forrest Gump was surrounding me pushing key lime instead of Bubba’s shrimp recipes. Key Lime pie, key lime ice cream, key limeade, key lime floats, key lime taffy, key lime fudge, key lime key chains, key lime cookies, and of course, my favorite, chocolate covered key lime pie frozen on a stick. (Our state fair needs to look into this “stick food”).
I had the frozen chocolate covered key lime pie on a stick, and it was yummy.
After that, we toured the aquarium, where all they really did was feed some sharks for us. It was neat for about 10 minutes and then even Jule and I were a bit bored. Probably the most interesting thing was seeing a real live conch, which everything is named after here (other than the key lime), and some other interesting crabs and such. We also saw some photos of the damage caused by hurricane Wilma – pretty intense.
We shopped for souveniers for a bit and then Jule decided to take Alyssa back to the ship for some pool time – taking advantage of the warm sun and the empty ship at the same time. I continued on exploring parts of Key West and promptly found myself at the Tortuga Rum Cake Factory. No better way to decide on which kind to buy than samples! Gump returned here.. we got Rum Cake, Chocolate Rum Cake, Key Lime Rum Cake (of course), Orange Rum Cake, Pineapple Rum Cake, Coconut Rum Cake, Coffee Rum Cake, Rum Fudge, rum cookies, rum coffee, rum t-shirts, did I mention rum?
After I got all rummed out, I walked around for a short bit more, snapped some photos, avoided the ship wreck museum and headed back to the ship. Just shy of boarding the ship was this mangy dude playing a make-shift drum set. The cheesy thing was that he would play his drum set for the three seconds as you walked by, then hold out his hand for a tip. Key West Keb’Mo wasn’t getting my dime.
I caught up with Jule and Alyssa at the pool and we swam for a bit and got some much needed sun. Then we pigged out on some food at the café. Alyssa had now discovered the joys of hot dogs and wanted more. This fascination with tubed meats later translated into wanting sausage for breakfast. Simple theory for a 16 month old – tubed meats are yummy.
Not long after our snack, Alyssa crashed for a much needed nap, and I went out to watch us pull away from Key West. Key West Keb’Mo was still jamming on his make-shift drum set, but by now, he had a huge line of people waiting to board the ship – so he was playing continuously. As we pulled away from Key West, we sailed away from one of the most dramatic sunsets that I have ever seen. I snapped several photos and then began getting requests by couples to take their photos with their cameras.
I contemplated chopping off heads and whatnot, but figured that there is no escape on the ship and decided not to be mean.
So, the sun had set for the most part on this cruise. We had to be ready to go by 7:30am the next morning as our arrival in Miami. Early to bed – or maybe just one last trip around the ship and through the casino!
It’s Thursday, the third day of our journey aboard the Majesty of the Seas and finally we’ve found bright, sunny Caribbean weather. Bright and early this morning, we arrived at Key West, Florida – the western most of the Florida Keys, yet the Southern most point in the Continental United States (the south-east coast of the Big Island of Hawaii if furthest south of any state). That whole orientation kinda throws you off mentally. Based on longitude, we were as far east as Columbus, Ohio or near Detroit – just a shade east of Indianapolis. It just seems strange that you are basically on the east coast of the United States, an island that splits evenly one side facing the Atlantic Ocean, the other side facing the Caribbean sea, yet as far as longitude, you are about the same as our nation’s “Midwest”. In other words, Maine is much further to the east.
We were treated to watching the ship come all the way into port, watching what I presume was some kind of engineer and his crew make the mooring ropes ready for docking. It is quite a well choreographed exercise between the engineer and his crew on the ship exchanging hand signals with the crew on shore and on a small boat all to synchronize the docking of this massive ship alongside this pier.
So they tied the ship off, secured us for arrival to port, and meanwhile, we went back inside to wait in the longest line to get cleared by US Customs. Since the ship had left US waters and visited a foreign port, we had to got through customs before anyone could leave the ship. The ship had an organized plan to deal with getting everyone off the ship in a priority that accommodated those with early tours (like us) first, and then slowly let everyone else off the ship. Because we had an 11am tour – they asked that people like us be ready for customs in the Blue Skies Lounge (from now known as the BS Lounge for good reason) on the 7th deck at 9:45 am. We arrived at 9:40am and discovered that the line extended out of the lounge past the centrum, past the library and well to the front of the ship where the main elevator banks were located. Well, since the next group of passengers were not supposed to report to the BS Lounge until 10:15am, and we had a rowdy toddler waiting to be let loose, we decided to wait in the library and just catch the end of the line as it passed by. Seemed like a good plan. Alyssa was kept busy and happy by playing with Monopoly pieces and Jule got to sit and relax a bit. Meanwhile, I kept checking for the end of the line, which never came. Finally at about 10:10am, we decided that no one was paying any attention to the time that they were supposed to get off the ship, and what we thought was one line for one portion of the ship’s passengers was indeed one line for ALL of the passengers all eagerly trying to get off the ship.
Remember, we had now been cooped up on this ship since 11:30 pm Tuesday, and it was now about 10:30am Thursday. So I guess you could not blame everyone for wanting off the ship and free to roam Key West. Heck, we could have been in Key Hell and people would have been lined up to get off the ship.
I really cannot fathom being on one of these ships that have 4 to 6 straight days at sea. For example, the cruise lines will relocate ships from Europe to the Caribbean during different times of the year depending on what is more popular. Well, to do this, they offer what are called “relocation” itineraries. This means you get to be a guest on board the ship as they move it from Barcelona to Miami (for example). So sure, it will stop in Cannes, Monte Carlo, Madiera, Lisbon, and the Azores, but then you get 6 days at seas as it crosses the Atlantic before arriving in Miami.
So we finally got off the ship, just in time to line up for our city tour aboard the famous Conch Train – famous to those who live in Key West. Our train turned out to be a bus version of a trolley – but we had an energetic guide who told us way too much. In comparison to what I thought was a well done city tour in Nassau for historical facts and a bit of daily life in the Bahamas, this tour just focused on who owned which house and where you could buy a good beer or cheap t-shirt. Much less intriguing than the tour in Nassau tour.
This tour began and ended in the main square located just off the ship’s port. This square/shopping mecca is known as Mallory Square. Co-located in this square are shops, a ship wreck museum, an aquarium, and a place that sold nothing but conch shells. Native inhabitants of the square include some feral, yet polite cats and a whole bunch of chickens and roosters all searching for a hand out. After the coochie train, we stopped at a hot dog stand and got a few hot dogs to eat. This was the first indication that Key Lime is the key thing in Key West. I felt like Forrest Gump was surrounding me pushing key lime instead of Bubba’s shrimp recipes. Key Lime pie, key lime ice cream, key limeade, key lime floats, key lime taffy, key lime fudge, key lime key chains, key lime cookies, and of course, my favorite, chocolate covered key lime pie frozen on a stick. (Our state fair needs to look into this “stick food”).
I had the frozen chocolate covered key lime pie on a stick, and it was yummy.
After that, we toured the aquarium, where all they really did was feed some sharks for us. It was neat for about 10 minutes and then even Jule and I were a bit bored. Probably the most interesting thing was seeing a real live conch, which everything is named after here (other than the key lime), and some other interesting crabs and such. We also saw some photos of the damage caused by hurricane Wilma – pretty intense.
We shopped for souveniers for a bit and then Jule decided to take Alyssa back to the ship for some pool time – taking advantage of the warm sun and the empty ship at the same time. I continued on exploring parts of Key West and promptly found myself at the Tortuga Rum Cake Factory. No better way to decide on which kind to buy than samples! Gump returned here.. we got Rum Cake, Chocolate Rum Cake, Key Lime Rum Cake (of course), Orange Rum Cake, Pineapple Rum Cake, Coconut Rum Cake, Coffee Rum Cake, Rum Fudge, rum cookies, rum coffee, rum t-shirts, did I mention rum?
After I got all rummed out, I walked around for a short bit more, snapped some photos, avoided the ship wreck museum and headed back to the ship. Just shy of boarding the ship was this mangy dude playing a make-shift drum set. The cheesy thing was that he would play his drum set for the three seconds as you walked by, then hold out his hand for a tip. Key West Keb’Mo wasn’t getting my dime.
I caught up with Jule and Alyssa at the pool and we swam for a bit and got some much needed sun. Then we pigged out on some food at the café. Alyssa had now discovered the joys of hot dogs and wanted more. This fascination with tubed meats later translated into wanting sausage for breakfast. Simple theory for a 16 month old – tubed meats are yummy.
Not long after our snack, Alyssa crashed for a much needed nap, and I went out to watch us pull away from Key West. Key West Keb’Mo was still jamming on his make-shift drum set, but by now, he had a huge line of people waiting to board the ship – so he was playing continuously. As we pulled away from Key West, we sailed away from one of the most dramatic sunsets that I have ever seen. I snapped several photos and then began getting requests by couples to take their photos with their cameras.
I contemplated chopping off heads and whatnot, but figured that there is no escape on the ship and decided not to be mean.
So, the sun had set for the most part on this cruise. We had to be ready to go by 7:30am the next morning as our arrival in Miami. Early to bed – or maybe just one last trip around the ship and through the casino!
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