Update Dreaming of Magic Sun 10/19/08; Part I
I got up and got ready for the day. About 9:30am, I ordered a pot of coffee from room service and Brenda and I sat out on the veranda with our morning coffee. I could see land on the horizon with our binoculars, but I couldn’t make anything out. We reviewed the Navigator and I made some notes. I’m not sure why we didn’t order breakfast from room service. One reason is that I didn’t find the door hangers with the menus till halfway through the cruise! They were in the desk drawer. No worries, we docked at Key West at about 11:30am and Brenda and I went to Topsiders for some lunch before we headed into town.
The buffet was really good! We both filled our plates with roast beef and various and sundry other items and found a table. As we started to eat, two ladies from Evansville, IN asked if they could join us, of course we said yes. We talked about the cruise and our homes. I’m not good at names and I didn’t write them down (bad Kenny!). The ladies were cruising with one of the ladies’ sons. One of the sons had his wife with him, the other was by himself. This man works for WDW in the Post Office. Put all this in the back of your mind for now, we will run into this family again!
Bellies full, we headed into town. I had bought tickets online for the Trolley. The Passporter mentions it, it is not the Conch Train.
The Conch Train can be booked through Disney, it has limited stops and is like a theme park parking lot shuttle. It has a power unit that pulls several “cars” behind it. They drive around town and the driver points out landmarks and gives a history of the island. The Trolley is basically the same, but it is like a bus, has 12 stops around town, and you can get on and off all day with the same ticket. The ticket is $29 if you get it there, $27 if you get it online. The online procedure is you buy the tickets, print out a voucher that is good for 6 months (so be careful, they don’t tell you it’s only good for 6 months till you purchase the ticket!), and when you get to the island, find the ticket booth and trade the voucher for your tickets. The trolleys run every half hour. The drivers are very knowledgeable and their narration is practically non-stop. They point out all the landmarks and tell a short history with a few funny lines thrown in for good measure. I highly recommend the trolley tour. The complete tour is about an hour and a half if you stay on for all 12 stops.
We thought we would stay on the whole circuit first, then go back and get off where we were interested. We didn’t, though. I don’t think we wanted to spend that much time ashore. We stayed on till stop #10, the Southernmost Point, then got off there to get our picture taken. You have to walk about 2 blocks from the trolley stop. We took our time and when we got there, there were about 6 groups of people lined up for a turn to take pictures at the Southernmost Point in the USA. It was something to see; people just lined up and each group took their pictures and got out of the way for the next group. I was surprised at how ordered it was, when there was no one directing it. No one tried to cut the line, everyone waited patiently for their turn. Maybe it was because we were all, or most, from the Disney ship. The family behind us offered to take our picture, if we would take theirs. That would give us a picture with us both, so we agreed. Then the group in front of us asked us to take their picture, so I agreed to that as well and they handed me 2 cameras.
We walked back to the Trolley stop, which doubles as a gift shop, and bought a few souvenirs while we waited for the Trolley. Soon, a Trolley came along and we completed the circuit and got off in Mallory Square.
Well, we HAD to get key lime pie! We started looking for “The Blond Girafe”. With a name like that, you just gotta try it! We couldn’t find it! We walked and walked, and just could not find “The Blond Girafe”.
Finally, I saw a sign that said “Key Lime Pie Factory”, and I told DW it didn’t have to be “The Blond Girafe”, just key lime pie from Key West, so we went on over to the store and I looked up and on a second sign it said, “The Blond Girafe”!
So we went in and had our key lime pie and a key limeaide.
Mmmmmm, Limey!!
