Vacation Report #3--Key West

September 10, 2006--Key West, Florida
Today was another early morning. It was our character breakfast. Everyone on the Disney cruise is able to enjoy a character breakfast. There is a formula that I am not quite sure how it works, but our dining tickets said, Sunday morning at 8:00, so off we went to Parrot Cay restaurant where we once again were served by Dante and Cloverly.

Three early mornings in a row on vacation??? Let me tell you it was worth it! If I didn't have young children, I may have bypassed this breakfast, but seeing the kids excitement when the characters entered the restaurant was priceless. It only got better when the characters came to our table! Pluto, Chip and Dale, Minnie and Mickey came to our table. It was great. After breakfast we put the kids into the Oceaneer Club for a while and decided to take our 3 lap walk around deck 4. You see, 3 laps equals a mile, so it was good to burn off the calories and enjoy a view of the Florida Keys on the starboard horizon.

After our walk, we went to the rooms, got our swimming suits on and headed to the Adults only, Quiet Cove pool. We weren't there a few minutes when our pager went off with this message, "Jay wants to be picked up from Oceaneer Club." Elaine looked at me and said, "I guess I am going to the Mickey pool."

Soon we noticed some coast guard boats off the port and starboard bows, and the island of Key West was off in the distance. I went up on Deck 10 and watched us pull into port. After a quick lunch and change of clothes we stepped off the ship in the southermost city in the continental United States.

I must confess that I wasn't too impressed. First of all, it was very hot and the kids were cranky. Secondly, I noticed that there was a huge party atmosphere in the town and we are not drinkers, so that did nothing for us. Thirdly one of the shops openly had drug paraphanelia in the windows. We walked around a bit and returned to the ship, and noticed a lot of families on board. Perhaps our thinking was not a minority! We enjoyed the rest of our day on board and dinner in Parrot Cay. After dinner we went up to deck 10 to watch the sunset and ship pull out. At 8:00 dad, Tracy and I went to deck 9 to the Goofy pool to watch the Giants and Colts game on the big screen. That was great. I think the screen is about 12x24 feet, so that was neat.

Our first full day on the Magic was behind us. Next day...day at sea enroute to Grand Cayman, BWI.

PS...I am having trouble uploading pictures. I hope to get some up.