Round two to Key West after a surprisingly quiet restful sleep in our stateroom. Being the second room from the front of the ship we are expecting not only more motion form the ocean action but also docking and showroom noise - all good so far.
At 12:05 after the all clear announcement we headed off the ship, this time with my computer in hand as for the first time the internet on board was a little slow and non responsive last night. Internet here in Key West is great, walk off the ship and across the plaza area and sign in to the Key West Guest WiFi and you are good to go with a pretty good connection. Forty Five minutes later with all my uploads gone and e-mails picked up and responded to we were off to Duval Street, the main drag here in Key West. As mentioned before this is a true tourist town with the outdoor saloons and restaurants with pretty much all featuring some form of live entertainment, so a great town to just stroll around in. Peel back a layer or two and you can get some interesting history which was what our plan for today was. We strolled down to the end of Duval and then went left for about a block where we came upon the buoy depicting the farthest point on continental USA (also the farthest point on the continental North America from our home in Vancouver). Great tourist spot as everyone one waits in line patiently to have their photos taken with this landmark. Hello to our new friends from Holland, we did include your picture in our blog as you can see. From here keep walking down the street for about ten minutes and you will come across Ernest Hemingway's House, purchases back in the thirties for $8,000 US, this house sits on one acre of land and boasts a writing studio, beautiful swimming pool and about forty to fifty six toed cats. The cats are all descendants from the cats Hemingway loved to have around him and all with cute names like, Marylyn Monroe, Humfrey Bogart, Frank Sinatra etc. - the pictures of the cat cemetery shows some of the cats of yesteryear. Great tour, worth the $13 USD and if you do go, take the included 30 minute tour.
From here we headed back to Duval street for a Cheeseburger in Paradise at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville with a couple of margaritas of course - they really make them well there by the way. Back to the pier for some more great quick internet to board the ship at about five minutes before all aboard time - great full day here in Key West.
I am writing this the next day under warm cloudy skies, the ship is abuzz with people trying to figure out were is what all with all the activities available the ship is a hive of activity. Tonight is/was a formal night and I would estimate that there is about a 50% participation rate, this includes suits not tuxes, tuxes were at about 20%. Yes, this is a holiday cruise… Great day and great night here aboard the Ryndam….
A few pictures of yesterday in Key West and tonight's formal night. The cast show tonight was Droom again and once again spectacular…
