Key West...

I tell you, I really mean to write on my blog while we are on our cruises, but I get so busy I just don’t have the time. That’s why I love to cruise: It keeps me busy. Only thing bad about staying so busy is that before you know it, the cruise is over.

Well, that Carnival Fascination is a good boat, and the greatest majority of the cruise was great. But, of my 15 or so cruises, I would have to rank this one near the bottom. The food was great, the activities were a lot of fun, and our cabin steward was “off the hook.” I think I was the only one in our area he knew; every time I stepped out of the cabin to go somewhere (most of the time it was to get something to eat) he would stick his head out of whatever room he was in and ask if “Mr. Bill” was having a good time and if was everything okay. Our only complaint really was our dining staff. There were several of our group that ordered food and didn’t get it. Most of it was a second appetizer; we might have not needed it anyway, so he may have been doing us a favor, but still. And it seemed to me that they were slow delivering our food. Now, in their defense, it was just the two of them were serving 24 people. This may seem a bit petty, but when you compare it to the service we received on other cruises, it would really bring the rating down.

Shirley and I spent a lot of time ashore in Key West. Tiffany and Courtney were with us for a bit, but after our snorkeling adventure (and it truly was an adventure) and our visit to Kermit’s Key Lime Shop they were ready to get back on the ship. I needed batteries for my camera, so Shirley and I went on a search for a drug store.

When Fascination docked in downtown Key West, the clouds followed us in. We used our shipboard credits and signed up to go snorkeling. This was our third time to Key West and we had never been in the water there. We choose the “Catamaran & Snorkel” excursion. We were met on the pier by our excursion staff and lead to the 60’ catamaran tied up to the same pier. The clouds were gray and gloomy. It was announced that if we didn’t to go, they would refund our money, but we really wanted to get into the water so we stuck it out.

The ride to the snorkel site took about 45 minutes. As we motored out, Shirley pointed out a waterspout about 10 miles on the horizon. I took some video of it; it was truly a spectacular sight to say the least. We had not seen any lightning on the way to the site, but the waves were building and building from 1-2 foot swells to 3-5 foot swells by the time we reached the reef. Shirley and I donned our snorkel gear and jumped off the catamaran into the choppy sea. It was about a 4 or 5 foot drop into the water. I was a bit worried about Shirley stepping off the boat and being able to hold her mask in place, but she did it — that’s my girl.

The water was refreshing and warm despite the cool rain that was falling. Tiffany and Courtney elected to go down the stairway. It was a difficult pathway; the boat was rockin’ pretty hard and walking down the metal steps was tricky. They made it and spent sometime in the water, but the chop made it very difficult to enjoy the limited sea life below the boat, and swimming to the reef about 30 yards away against the current and the choppy waves kept it very challenging to keep the snorkel from filling with water.

I swam to the reef and took a look at the sea life. Around the reef the sea life was very plentiful. Fish of every size, color, and shape were all over the place. But unlike other places we had been in the Caribbean, this reef was 8 to 12 feet deep. Some of the reef was in less than one foot of water, but because of the choppy seas, getting close was a chore and not getting thrown into the reef would have been an almost impossible task.

After a few minutes and a couple deep dives to look at the sea life, I elected to swim back to find Shirley and see how she was doing. Part of the equipment they give you on these snorkel excursions is a vest that you can blow air into and just float. We had about 50 people on this excursion so finding Shirley among all the floaters was harder than I thought it would be. But I finally located her about 30 yards from me. She was with Tiffany and Courtney, who had had about enough of fighting the chop.

I swam over to them as they were working their way back to the boat. Both of them were able to maneuver their way back onto the boat with little difficulty. Shirley had a bit more of an adventure. As she was working her way up the metal stairs, the told up to sit on the stairs and pull yourself up step by step holding onto the ropes. Well, Shirley got all the way to the top when a very large wave came through. It lifted the catamaran up about 6 feet, then as quickly as it lifted it, the wave was gone and the boat dropped. Well, that left Shirley suspended in midair; unfortunately, life is not like the old Bugs Bunny cartoons where the character just hangs suspended in the air and moves fast enough to get back on the cliff or whatever has left them suspended. Well, the boat went down and so did Shirley, bouncing her bottom on each of the six metal steps on her way back into the sea.

I was close enough to grab her and a suspension rope at the same time and hold her from falling back into the gulf. She was able to grip my arm and, with a little (the operative word here is “little”) help from the staff, was able to get back on the steps and work her way up to the boat. She did have a few bruises and sore spots on her lower back, but it didn’t seem to affect her the rest of the trip.

After about an hour, we loaded back on to the catamaran and started our journey back to the Fascination. On the way back I could see some very ominous storm clouds starting to build that produced some lightning. The wind was still whipping up the seas to give us a bumpy ride back to Key West. I only saw one guest succumb to the choppy seas by getting sick, while the rest of the guests were enjoying the free drinks.

Once we got back to the dock, we headed to the public library. Courtney had to do some work for The Garner Citizen, and so we took advantage of the computers at the library. After about 30 minutes there, we headed to our — or at least mine — main goal at Key West: Kermit’s Key Lime Shop. Kermit takes credit for coming up with the recipe for Key Lime Pie. I really don’t care who created this true blessing from God, but Key Lime Pie will be at the Great Feast in Heaven, I know it!

At Kermit’s, I couldn’t keep my hands out of the free samples. I wanted some of everything they had. We ended up buying a couple of Key Lime Pie slices that they dip in milk chocolate, put on a popsicle stick and freeze; some sugar-free Key Lime saltwater taffy; and a couple of Key Lime-flavored stick candies for the show on the ship later.

Shirley and I strolled around Key West a little, looking at some of the building and shops. There was one homeless guy who asked Shirley to marry him, but she told him she was busy that day and could not marry him. Lucky for me I kept her busy! We went into this little mall and I had a conversation with a rather large white parrot. I think he understood me and I understood him; he said, “Hello.” This mall had a free movie about Key West and the waters around the area. I think next time we’ll take advantage of this and sit through it. We were running out of time; we had to get back to the ship before she sailed.

Well, Key West was a good port. Most of the people in my group said they would like to go there again. I think they liked the fact that there was not a lot of haggling by the locals. When you get off the ship in Nassau, you’re bombarded with merchants trying to sell you trinkets, people trying to braid your hair, or very assertive cab drivers trying to offer you a tour of the island or a trip to Atlantis. I’ll write more about Nassau later in the next blog text. As far as Key West goes, it’s a nice place to visit for a few hours, but … it’s back to the ship.