Day 6: Saturday April 30, 2016, Part 2
From the theater, we headed straight down to deck 1 to go explore Key West. I took some pictures from the dock area before we headed into town.
The path we walked out on from the dock deposited us right on Whitehead Street, so we just started walking, with the Southernmost Point as our destination. Whitehead Street is also route 1, so along the way we were able to take a picture of the Mile 0 sign.
Joking that we could just follow Route 1 north from here and eventually end up in NH (no thanks!), we stopped in a little souvenir store for the necessary post cards and Christmas ornament for my vacation tree.
Shopping done, we continued on along Whitehead, taking in the sights along the way...like the lighthouse surrounded by trees?
Eventually we made it to the Southernmost Point and joined the line for pictures. As we got close to the front of the line, the guys behind us volunteered to take our picture. Sweet, no selfie this time!
After picture taking, we walked over to the snow cone cart that was conveniently parked nearby and got a couple bottles of water and a couple snow cones. It was by far, the hottest day of the trip! We sat down near the big buoy to cool off and take in the other sights...like the giant iguanas sunning themselves on the rocks by the water.
Snow cones finished, we walked a block over, and then headed back up Duval Street, enjoying the sunshine and popping into different shops. As we got further up Duval, it reminded me of Bourbon Street...but 100 times cleaner and a lot more tropical feeling.
Eventually we made it to our next destination: Kermit’s for Key Lime Pie! While there, we picked up a marinade that we had seen at Robert is Here and decided we wanted. I got a slice of the regular key lime pie and Nick got the chocolate covered key lime pie on a stick. Delicious and refreshing!
Sufficiently refreshed, we continued walking up Duval, finding it amusing that they were setting up for a bed race. The town next to ours does one of those too. As we were walking, Nick decided to see if there were conch fritters available anywhere. Alexandra had mentioned them at dinner the night before, and he’d been craving them since, apparently. We poked our heads into Sloppy Joe’s, but a seat was nowhere to be found, so we walked a bit farther and found the Conch Shack. Nick ordered some fritters and more bottles of water, and I found a seat nearby.
The fritters took awhile, but apparently they were worth it. Nick was very pleased with them. I tried them and found them weird...basically a hush puppy with pieces of seafood in it. I passed the time watching the rooster that was nearby, watching Nick. They were everywhere in this town!
Once Nick was done with his conch fritters we turned back toward the ship. Restroom breaks were needed and it made sense to just use those on the ship since they were that close by, and possibly drop stuff that we had bought off in our room before continuing to explore. However, we checked the time and realized that the Jungle Book was starting in 15 minutes, and there was really nothing else we HAD to do in town, so we decided to just head for the movie theater on the ship. After stopping for a picture of course.
Sanitizing was still a heavily watched process as we returned to the ship, and we were questioned about the marinade to make sure we weren’t trying to smuggle alcohol by them, but pretty soon we were on deck 5, and after quick stops in the restrooms (DON’T TOUCH ANY SURFACE) and the snack stand, we were finding seats in the Buena Vista Theater to see Jungle Book.
Jungle Book had been a movie that we were intrigued by, but not entirely sure if we wanted to pay to see it. When we realized it would probably be shown in the theater when we were onboard, we decided to see it then. After all, we wouldn’t need to pay extra for it. We both LOVED this feature of the cruise, and I’m sure that, had it been a longer cruise, at the very least Nick, would have seen more movies.
We both thought that the Jungle Book was well done, but were surprised by how intense it was for a PG movie. We were also impressed by how few kids freaked out during some of the more intense scenes.
After the movie, we headed back to the room to do some more packing. The delivery that might be even sadder to find than a Magical Express notice had arrived:
We read the customs info and realized we probably needed one more form. We both live in the same house, but we’re not “family”, so I went down to Guest Services, after calling home and taking a few last pictures of Key West from the balcony. We’d be sailing away while we were at this evening’s show.
The line at Guest Services was insane, so I headed for Shutters to make sure all of our pictures from the previous night had made it into our account. After that, the line was still nuts (why can’t they just put the Customs forms where they usually put the Navigators?), so I returned to the room to get ready for the evening.
Packing continued, and I changed out of the sundress I’d been wearing. Evidently sunscreen had been forgotten while trying to go between brunch and immigrations and I’d turned a bit lobstah-like that afternoon (oops), so I figured it’d be best to cover that up with a t-shirt.
About quarter of 6, we headed down to the Walt Disney Theater for the last time during this cruise. Disney Dreams was the show for the evening and we both were looking forward to it, after it had been talked up throughout the cruise.
While waiting for the show to start, I did some googling to figure out some of the ingredients in the evening’s dinner offerings (Have you heard of calabazza? I hadn’t), and eventually thought to google “Disney Wonder news”. Sure enough...one of the cruise slander sites had picked up on the stomach bug outbreak on the ship and was reporting about 105 people were sick. Ok...that’s not a horrific percentage.
About the same time the show started, I could feel the engines start. Cruise director Peter, once again, introduced the show. We really liked him. Such a nice way about him. He had us all laughing, and then the show started. It was fantastic, and very worthy of all the accolades it’s gotten.
When the show ended, we joined the masses streaming into the gift store to make all those last minute purchases. Nick wanted some picture frames for all those pictures we had had taken, and we wanted to find something for his mom to thank her for watching the dogs the week after she returned (jet-lagged) from Ireland, and to get her thinking about the cruise that we will absolutely get her on some day.
We picked out picture frames and a Captain Mickey and Pirate Minnie ears (for the pirate party she will attend) and then I headed for Guest Services for a customs form (again, why can’t they just have a stack of them somewhere) while Nick hopped into line to pay for his purchases. I think I beat him back to the room, but not by much.
We finished packing about 8, and hauled our luggage out into the hallway before heading down to Parrot Cay for dinner. Sentana, who I’m convinced lived in the hallway, was quite impressed that our luggage was ready so early. So were we! He handed us the infamous comment cards, and we were on our way to one last dinner on the ship.
Parrot Cay was hopping, and the meal was extra lively. I had the St. Maarten Stack as my appetizer (mozzarella, grilled calabazza and zucchini), the “spiced” tomato soup, and the chicken. The only thing I remember from Nick’s meal was the grouper, served with jambalaya. I remember because he ended up getting a second portion that was the size of two portions (thanks Harlan!). He liked it!
The food was all really good again. The service remained fantastic (although, I think they could pick one member of the serving team to give the “you need to fill out your comment card” lecture, rather than ALL of them), and we enjoyed our evening again. We were all pleased to find out too that we would all be at breakfast the next morning. As with most nights, we were some of the last to leave the restaurant.
After dinner, we headed back to our room, where we found our last towel creation waiting for us.
Once again, I made the mistake of crawling into bed too soon after dinner, since I knew I’d be waking up to the engines probably before 5 am. Once that mistake resolved itself, I fell asleep, knowing the next day would be a long one.
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