Back To The USA

Today was a good day to post pictures so we posted a collage of pictures from the voyage along with some new ones.

We wanted to begin with last evening. As we mentioned we had a nice time at the Captain’s Farewell Reception. The good news was that about one hour before the start of the reception the seas became calmer so there was far less swaying since the room where the reception is held is at the forward area of the ship on Deck 12. We all had a nice time with the family and we even danced to a few songs.

Right outside the Palm Court where the farewell is held is a children’s room, which is used on those, cruises where children are on board the ship. Since this is a seven day cruise and begins and ends in Florida there have been a fair number of children on board the ship and last evening there were several little ones in that room. We have to say that the children have been extremely well behaved throughout the voyage and we give kudos to both the children and their parents.

After the reception we enjoyed a nice dinner in the Main Dining Room and the menu featured a combination of items normally found on two nights on those cruises which would be eleven or more nights in length. This included dishes normally found on the French Night Menu and others on the Captain’s Farewell menu. Some of our family members ordered French items and others ordered other items. Everyone enjoyed their meal. Right before desert several waiter along with the head waiter brought out a total of three birthday cakes (one for each of the birthday’s we were celebrating) and were accompanied by some musicians. All in all it was a fun evening.

We were told the forecast for this morning would be for cool temperatures and that it would be quite windy which it was.

We awoke early and Keith completed his workout on the elliptical machines and then Anne Marie arrived an hour later and worked out on the treadmill. For a portion of the workout fellow passengers John was also on an elliptical machine and both of them had quite a strenuous workout as the ship was tilted to some extent. There were a few others in the center in addition to Anne Marie as Keith finished his workout. During the workout Keith watched portions of the two NFL playoff games from yesterday. They had been showed live but Keith ended up catching the portions of each games rebroadcast other than a few minutes of the game last evening when we got back to the room.

Today we visited Key West. We have had the pleasure of visiting Key West many times over the years on various cruises and we do love this charming town.

Key West is known as the southernmost point of the Continental United States. It is a unique town where it brings together a variety of people who have settled here from various walks of life.

Many cruise ships stop here and there is much to do. There is the famed Hemingway House which was used by Hemingway throughout the 1930's where he did a good deal of writing. Others who come here enjoy the beach, or taking a nice stroll through this charming town, or going to the clubs and enjoying all of the nightlife. Still others spend a quiet time here at one of the smaller motels or cottages or bed and breakfast homes.

When you go ashore you can easily just walk around the nice town, take a bicycle, rent a car or take a taxi or take some other form of transportation.

One of our favorite places to visit is the Truman Little White House. Originally, it served as the command headquarters for the United States of America during the Spanish American War, World War I, as well as World War II. It was in 1946 when this building first served as the winter White House for President Harry S. Truman. Later Presidents also used it as a site for the Cold War response. Today, this building is both a museum which is open to the public and also has served as a retreat and place of government business by our nation's leaders.

Since there were other ships in port we could not dock and had tender service. As this is the first USA port since we first left Miami each passengers had to show up at a Mandatory U.S. Immigration Inspection. We were each given our passports the other day as we needed them for this morning’s inspection and we were assigned into groups and each given designated times to show up for inspection. Our original times were 9:10 AM and 9:20 AM respectively for the family members. However, at around 8:30 AM since the process was running ahead of schedule we were all passengers who had not yet been cleared were asked to go to the designated room for the clearance. When we entered the room there were two Crystal personnel who swiped each passenger’s card. There were two customs and immigration inspectors and the entire process took around five seconds per passenger. After the inspection as we were leaving the room there were two Crystal employees who punched a hold in our shipboard card which served as proof at the gangway that we had gone through the inspection.

As usual, we enjoyed a nice breakfast in our room and the children had breakfast at the Lido Café. They have been enjoying breakfast in different areas of the ship.

Since it was very windy and cold this morning we stayed on the ship. We all played Trivial Pursuit in the card room and then the children played cards for a little while and we checked out a couple of books from the library.

We enjoyed lunch at the Lido Café and then we decided to take the tender over to Key West. The tender took about fifteen minutes each way and the seas were quite choppy. It was cloudy and overcast and the temperature appeared to be in the 40’s and with the wind chill factor seemed to be in the 20’s. This is not what we expected for Key West. We all walked for a while and then we went returned to the ship while the kids stayed and did more walking.

This evening we attended a cocktail reception at one of the lounges, which was followed by dinner at Prego for all of the World Cruisers plus any family members accompanying them. Captain John Okland hosted the dinner.

Tomorrow morning we are scheduled to arrive in Miami which marks the end of the seven day cruise and the start of the World Cruise.

OUR THOUGHT FOR THE DAY…..

“No road is long with good company.”

Keith and Anne Marie