Day Two - Key West

We were successful in both getting out of bed, and finding where they were hiding breakfast. There was a choice of the Oasis Cafe, or the formal Orion Restaurant. Formal was not our thing, first in the morning, so we did the well stocked breakfast buffet one floor up on the "Resort Deck". Deck 11 had a beautiful view of the ocean, and had two swimming pools, whirl pools, and hundreds of deck chairs filled with families, normal people, and loud retirees. We arrived early in the morning at Key West, so we got a look at the island on the way to breakfast. It certainly looked inviting. We hadn't chosen a shore excursion, and decided to do some exploring/shopping. When we got back to our room, we noticed the wonderful "Galaxy Daily" newletter that had been delivered the night before, filled with a shopping map, and the interesting things going on that day. The ship's staff apparently prided themselves on strange seminars, because there were many listed for the day. Examples included "Gems of Wisdom," "Mastering the Art of Mixology," and "Let's Talk Scents." We had wished that this "Scent" seminar was manadatory for those who felt that 1/2 a bottle of "Eau De Stench" was appropariate. We opted instead to go shopping and exploring, so we noted the "be back or else" time of 1:15, and plodded down to the line on the gangway to leave the ship.

The ship was kind enough to provide transportation to town in the form of silly little train-engine like motorized things pulling long open cars of babbling tourists who seemed far more interested in listening to themselves than to the guide who was telling us interesting things about Key West. Our guide was a retired Navy man, who had many tales of how life used to be on the island. We passed the Audubon house, the President's house, the Green Parrot (first and last bar on US 1) and streets full of other tourists. It was indeed rather crowded.

Although we didn't have much time in Key West, we got a bit of shopping done. I bought a new bathing suit, Reece bought a hat, we picked up a few more odds and ends, and then we found an interesting shop called "Last Flight Out." It had aviation memorabilia, and an interesting man who was franchising the shops. He asked where we were from, then informed us that someone from Dulles Aviation was thinking of franchising a shop to put at the Manassas Airport. We found this most interesting, and bought a T shirt and took his card.

After returning to the ship with time to spare, we noticed that the night's dress would be (gasp) formal. I pulled out the evening gown to see how badly it was crushed, and whether it would still fit. Crushed it was and fit it did, except for one important thing. It was about 4 inches too long, even with heels! Being 5'6", most off-the-rack clothing is just he right length. I was surprised this one would be quite that long. After debating as to whether I could remember how to hem, we asked around as to whether the ship had a tailor or seamstress. We were told we should ask our Cabin Steward. By now it was about 4PM, and I thought there was very little chance of getting a dress hemmed by the Captain's Welcome Aboard party at 7:45. I was wrong. Julio ran off and grabbed the tailor, who appeared with pins and a measuring tape. He checked the length of the dress, scurried away, and at 7:30 sharp he returned with a perfectly hemmed dress. Amazing!

The Captain's party was most interesting. Most of the men were wearing tuxes or dark suits. The women mostly wore tasteful evening dresses. I had squelched the urge to bring my own tux. We were given cocktails and offered hors d'ouvres, and listened to the Captain introduce the senior crew. The Captain also told a story about how when he was on Deck 10 (where our stateroom was) a woman asked him for some extra towels. He then thanked her for her generous tip. Reece took special interest in this story.

After the Captain's party, we made our way to dinner, where the waiters were dressed in tuxes. Svetto seemed surprised to see we had dressed up, but was not surprised when we told the photographer that we weren't interested in pictures, thanks anyway. By this point we wondered if she thought we were CIA. This time, the table was set with two red wine glasses, Anka guessing we would have the same wine as the night before. Reece fooled her, however, by ordering white. Anka changed his red glass for a white. The five coures meal was again superb, the service impeccable. We were most impressed.

After dinner, we decided that instead of going to the night's entertainment, we would watch a bit of TV and go to bed early so that we could get up in time for our shore excursion to Chichen-Itza's Mayan Ruins. Since this was to be a day long trip, we knew there would be no time for the snorkeling or catamaran or shopping that was also offered on the island. Bed time.