Two Graduations, the world and a DISmeet

[dgbg100106]

I didn't notice that you had been posting a mini cruise report!
Looks like you are having a great time so far!

I guess I am posting everything... so far, my tribute to my upcoming Disney Trip!

 

[John's Mom]

Brandi,

I must say that you and David clean up very well.

Thanks for the info on your camera. I've been meaning to ask you what kind of camera you have. You take great pics!

Kathy

 

[dgbg100106]

February 9th...

We walked off the ship and headed to the right, and we making our way over to Fort Zachery Taylor and found the “Little White House” first. We visited Truman’s place and saw some amazing exhibits and a great sand sculpture of Truman in the yard. After we left we continued on our way to the fort. It was a $2.50 charge each to get in and was a hefty walk to the fort and then over to the beach. We wondered around the fort which is set up to show the WWI and Civil War era of the fort; they were painted differently. The moat surrounding the fort was pretty cool. The Civil War guns were the only ones there. We saw some of the guns being unearthed from the walls. This is the fort that the top was cut off of it to support the efforts of the WWI. We walked over to the beach and right in front of the fort is pretty rocky, you have to go to the public beach area to view the pretty beaches. We left here and headed back to downtown Key West.

We walked towards Hemmingway’s house and viewed it from the outside. We decided not to go in. We kept walking down the street and found the Key West Lighthouse and took a couple of pictures, it was $10 to get in there so we passed on it too. We headed towards Duval Street and decided we wanted a slice of Key Lime Pie and turned back and went to Blue Heaven, which was supposed to be the best Key Lime Pie in Key West…. It was great, we had a wonderful time there, and it was a very eclectic place. We bought two bottles of Bahamas beer, since they were out of the Key West Sunset Ale. The pie was awesome, the beer, not so much (but it was super cold).

We saw Sloppy Joe’s Bar across the street and headed over for a Platinum Rum Runner (they were supposed to be the best on the island and it did not disappoint).

 

[dgbg100106]

We headed the rest of the way up Duval Street; we stopped at a military memorial and then back to the ship.

For Appetizer David and I both had the Spring Rolls, for the soup course David had cream of Broccoli and I had the seafood Bisque and the Cherry Soup. For the main course David and I both had the Beef Short Ribs. I did not eat mine! For dessert, David had the Chambord cake and I did not have anything. After dinner we came back to the cabin and changed clothes and hung out.

 

[dgbg100106]

Brandi,

I must say that you and David clean up very well.

Thanks for the info on your camera. I've been meaning to ask you what kind of camera you have. You take great pics!

Kathy

Thanks and Thanks....

When I am cruising I live in my T-Shirts and shorts... but for dinner we always try and look "Cleaned Up" . That is part of the fun! David was teased way back that it is like having two different women with him, during the day, pony tail, visor, and sunglasses, at night dresses and hair fixed, with make-up and everything....

Pictures are a hobby of mine, I take them of everything, the bad part is I am hardly in them, have to ask people to take them for me....

 

[Piglets Mommy]

The problem was we were only about 3 feet from a lot of those gators, I could have touched them if I wanted too...

I guess I am posting everything... so far, my tribute to my upcoming Disney Trip!

Works for me!!
Key West looks absolutely beautiful. I haven't been there since I was a kid, and would love to check it out again!

 

[dgbg100106]

February 10th ....

We arrived in port at 10 am and we waited until about 15 minutes after to leave the ship. My overall impression of the island is poor poor and more poor, I will NEVER come here again. To me it was worse than Mexico.

We asked around and found directions to the Queens steps, these are steps built for ever year of her life. There were 66 steps and David and I made them just fine. We looked around Fort Fincastle, it cost us a dollar each to go in and it was sorta worth it…. I would never do it again but it was ok for the day. We walked around the port area and looked at several stores and found nothing of interest. We stopped and picked up a long sleeve t-shirt from the Harley Davidson shop. We decided to eat some Conch and found a place called 2 Coconuts. We got Conch Fritters and Conch Chowder. We enjoyed them and had a nice Strongback Bahamaian beer. After we ate we came back to the ship…

For appetizers David had the Shrimp Cocktail and I had the Melon in Midori, for second course David had Baked Potato soup and Cesar Salad with extra anchovies I had the Pumpkin Soup; for the main course David and I both had the Veal Cordon Blu, it was ok, nothing amazing. For dessert we had Key Lime Pie that Jim ordered for the table. We were done and out of the dining room so early this evening; that David and I came back to the room, changed clothes and went to the track to do 10 laps and reach over 12500 steps for the day!

 

[3Leafs]

My overall impression of the island is poor poor and more poor, I will NEVER come here again....



Brandi I said the same thing.. I haven't been since 93 but from what you said some things never change..

 

[dgbg100106]

My overall impression of the island is poor poor and more poor, I will NEVER come here again....



Brandi I said the same thing.. I haven't been since 93 but from what you said some things never change..

I have been to some pretty poor countries, and this one is bad, not the worst I have seen, that would be Morocco, but I just have no desire to go there again. I did not want to touch anything while I was there.

 

[dgbg100106]

February 11th

Well we woke up around 7:45 this morning and got dressed and ready for breakfast in the Elite Lounge, this morning we decided to go with some Belini’s instead of Bloody Mary’s, I think we were getting to much sodium in the mix. They were out of the Almond and Chocolate Croissant’s and we were not happy about that. After the lounge we went to the buffet on Deck 11 and there were none there either….

So we boarded a tender and went to Coco Cay for the afternoon. It was a nice little Island and had a bunch of stuff to do but it was not that interesting to us. We walked along the beach front and thru some nature trails and back to the hub of activity. They had food for us in the main center so we had some ribs and chicken. Then we boarded the tender boat back to the ship. It was nice and we got our feet in the water and sand.

we headed for dinner, for appetizer David orders the Shrimp Cocktail and the Prosciutto with Melon, and I did not order anything but Danny brought me a Pear and Gorgonzola tart, it was not good. For the soup course David had the cream of broccoli and I passed on anything. For the main course David and I both had Lamb Chops with mint jelly. For dessert David had Pineapple Sorbet and I had the Sugar Free Café Crème du Pot.

After dinner we needed about 6000 steps left to go to reach 12500, so we had 20 laps around deck 12 which took about 35 minutes.

 

[dgbg100106]

February 12th....

We got up and headed for the Elite Lunge, our daily indulgence. Since we switched to the Belini’s we are doing much better with the water retention. Those Bloody Mary’s were getting us blotted.

At 10 am we headed down to the Rendez-Vous lounge for the Global Flavors cooking event we had the Chicken Tekkia Marsala, and Banana Crème Brule, the chef were fun and the food was great.

After that we headed down to the future cruises to see Elliott about the Transatlantic that we want to do. So we ended up booking 2 cruises, Feb 6th with Royal Caribbean for 12 nights out of B’more to the Caribbean and the TA out of Barcelona back to Fort Lauderdale

We head to the dining room for the cruise critic luncheon, which was going on at the same time as the Captain’s Club Party. David and I had the puff pastry with mushroom for the appetizer, the soup was a chilled mango and David had the salad. For the main dish David had the roast beef and I had the Halibut. For dessert we had the Orange Chocolate Sorbet and the Chocolate Soufflé.

before dinner I felt fine after dinner I felt fat... no wonder with all this food....

David was mistaken as a waiter so he decided to give it a try in the lounge....

Diner was lot of fun, we had Steak Tartar, Shrimp Cocktail (David Only) the Duck Consommé, and mama’s Pork chop for the entrée; it was so good and wonderful! For dessert it was the baked Alaska and no one wanted it, so I got the Sugar Free dessert and it was nasty, so David got the Chocolate Sorbet.

After dinner we changed clothes and went for a walk around the ship. We did not get our steps in for the day but we did all we could, David’s calf was really bothering him!

 

[3Leafs]

OMG that is too funny.. He is hired as our cabana boy in May

You guys both look wonderful!

 

[Tinker'n'Fun]

I'm here, late as usual. Oh and I have to be reminded to stop back in, so just give me a shout out once in a while, and I will be back!

 

[dgbg100106]

OMG that is too funny.. He is hired as our cabana boy in May

You guys both look wonderful!

He took it all in stride and played it up... All the girls in the lounge thought he was wonderful.... He can be very charming and persuasive when he wants

I always tell him that is how it got me....

After eating all of that food, I am surprised that I could still fit in that dress, it is not forgiving...

 

[Piglets Mommy]

Ok....I'm hungry now, and I have a long way to go until lunch (and when it IS lunch, the Weight Watcher's microwave meal won't exactly be as good as all that food!)

I'm LOL that they thought David was the waiter. Did he at least get some good tips out of the deal????

 

[John's Mom]

I just feel fat from looking at all that food!

Kathy

 

[dgbg100106]

I just feel fat from looking at all that food!

Kathy

no wonder I felt fat after eating all of it.....

 

[dgbg100106]

So for some reason.... I can't find any pictures from the last day on ship.... We went to the Engine Control Room and it was really cool.....


I will look for them more but for now, I can't find any of them.

UPDATE ******* I found them.....


February 13, 2011
We got up before the alarm this morning and headed to the Elite Lounge, this is our last one for this cruise! We had a couple of Belini’s and some of the Almond Croissants and lots of fun.

At 11 am we had the Elite wine tasting in the Manhattan Dining Room 5th floor, it was an interesting class, and at least we had different wines than the past, two whites and two reds. Where we were sitting we could not hear the speaker but we had a good time anyway. Sally and Carl were there, Karen and Keith, David and I and Jill, I had no idea where Joe was but we still had a great time.

After that class we headed up to the 6th floor dining room entrance and decided to have lunch in the MDR, since we had not visited there once since this cruise started. David had the udon noodles with shrimp and a bowl of seafood gumbo that turned out to be a bowl of okra gumbo. I had the fruit salad that was nasty and then the Mediterranean platter. It was so slow in there and we left before we finished on our way to the engine control room.

We were meeting on the 3rd floor to go down to the engine room, konstnios was there but he did not give the spiel; that would have been Demetrius….

We headed back to the cabin and I had to order something from the room service options on the TV, so I picked out a Bacon Cheese Burger with fries and raspberry cheesecake, with two ice teas. It was delivered and was one of the best meals that we had.

We got ready and headed up to the Elite lounge and decided that the packing could wait until we got back from dinner. We had several drinks and headed down to dinner, it was kind of sad to say bye to everyone but we will see them again, hopefully on the Feb 6th cruise.

Before dinner we had a beautiful sunset...

Dinner was good; we had fun with everyone there. David had the Shrimp Cocktail, the Cesar Salad with Anchovies, lobster bisque and the salmon for main entrée, David said that the Salmon had no flavor and was bland. I had the Shrimp Cocktail, the Lobster Bisque, the fish, I only ate about a third of the fish.
For dessert Timothy brought to the table Raspberry Chocolate Soufflé and sugar free crème Brulee; everyone was stuffed and saying “Good Bye”.
Now it is time to pack….. David does such a good job I think I will leave him to it!!!!

 

[dgbg100106]

I guess this is turning into more a blog than a pre-trip report but it is prior to my trip to Disney in May..... it just seems to cover everything ......


Hope you guys don't mind?

 

[John's Mom]

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