Reflections of My Travel

This morning, we had to be out of our cabins at 07:30 even though the debarkation process wasn’t going to begin until 09:00. We four met up, stowed our luggage in the theatre, and made our way to the buffet dining room for breakfast. Fortunately, we were able to pass more than an hour sitting in there eating slowly and talking. Close to 09:00, they started closing the dining room down and we had to go into the crowded theatre to wait for our freedom. My guess is that the majority of the crowd had not been cruising before because they all crowded around the door and hallway like that would get them off the ship faster. Us four went up to the second floor of the theatre, which was practically empty for the aforementioned reason and waited comfortably, if not patiently, up there.

my artsy ceiling shot to fight boredom

For those who don’t know, disembarkation on any cruise ship we’ve been on is a game of hurry up and wait. After being treated like royalty the whole trip, that last morning is a rude awakening of getting kicked out of the comfort of your stateroom, and forced to crowd into a designated large public area with everyone else on the ship. You hear the ship make dock and think, surely, you must be close to getting off, but – no – they don’t even start letting people go for another hour (customs has to come on board and inspect/clear the ship). When they finally do start to release the crowds, it’s by deck number so you’d better hope you’re a high-roller in a penthouse because if you’re on the lower decks, you’ve got another hour of waiting to do. Really, if you know what’s to expect, it’s not too bad… but for a first-timer, it totally feels like you’re being held captive.

the last buffet

Anyhow, we did finally get off the ship, sometime around 10:30, after waiting for our deck (lowest) to be called, waiting in line to disembark, waiting to go through customs, and then waiting to get back through security… we were free at last! Sissy and BIL graciously agreed to drive out of their way to drop us off at a car rental place in Miami and we said our farewells. Hubby and I then made our way even further south in our Mustang convertible. It took a while to fight through the Miami traffic (I so don’t miss living in a big city!!!) but we made it to the Keys and then proceeded to go all they way to Key West, which neither of us had visited before. The drive was long but lovely most of the time. We stopped in Duck Key for my photo opp with some signs (the last time I visited the Keys, that was as far south as I made it).

me in duck key, fl

i missed the sign for little duck key but caught the one for the channel

When we had made it to Key West, we drove around a while, stopped at a visitor center, and went into a few B&Bs before finding a perfectly quaint bed and breakfast on the east end of Duval Street. The Southernmost Point Guest House has character that just absolutely drew us in. I was amazed that it was also the cheapest place we had checked because it was so much lovelier than any of the others.  Even more, the owner, Mona, supplied each room with fresh roses and a bottle of wine.

wine just waiting on us

lovely roses

soft pink petals

We had some leftovers from lunch so we heated them in the microwave in our room and went down to the garden to eat and sip a glass of wine in the hammocks. It was a wonderfully relaxing end to a day of driving. Since I hadn’t really slept much in my cot on the cruise the last couple of days,

a real bed!

I made my case for a post-dinner nap so that we could recharge and be ready to explore Duval’s night life later on. Thirteen and a half hours later, we awoke on Thursday.