Florida Vacation (Part 2 - The Cruise) - Key West

On the fourth day, our ship arrived to Key West.  It is a nice little island located at the very end of the long chain of islands called keys that start in Miami and end almost near Cuba.  Key West is considered the southernmost island of the continental USA.

Florida Vacation (Part 2 - The Cruise) - Bahamas

On the third day our ship arrived to Nassau, Bahamas.  I could not wait to get off the ship and feel the solid ground under my feet.  But before leaving the ship, we wanted to figure out what to do and where to go.  We really wanted to do some sightseeing, visit Atlantis - their biggest hotel, and maybe go on the beach.  There were "Land Excursions" available for purchase on the ship but they all were very expensive.  We decided to try our luck in the port.

Florida Vacation (Part 2 - The Cruise) - Formal Night

The second day was spent at sea.  The main events of the day were the Captain's dinner and a photo shoot. But these events were scheduled for the evening.  In the morning, after our breakfast, we sent the kids to daycare where they played games and did art and crafts.  My wife and I went to survey the ship.  We walked from floor to floor to see what's interesting on the ship.  We found the casino, several night clubs and cafe, a Duty Free store and an everything for $10 store.  The casino was filled with gamblers.  I guess the passengers payed so little for the cruise that they felt they had a lot of extra money to donate to the Carnival corporation.  And the corporation was taking everything it could get.

Florida Vacation (Part 2 - The Cruise)

Day 1.
We arrived at the Jacksonville port around 11 AM.  A lot of people were already there looking to start boarding the ship that was towering over us.  We dropped our baggage with the porters and went into a room to go through security and registration.  There I saw a long line of people trying to do all the same things.  I noticed that a lot of passengers had a small round patch behind their ear.  I assumed it was a nicotine patch.   I was wrong - these patches were from sea sickness.  After about one hour of slowly moving toward the entrance of the ship through zigzagging lines we came to a place where photographers were taking shots of happy travelers.  Unfortunately, we did not look so happy because we were hungry, tired, and just informed that we could not go to our room - it was still being cleaned.  Instead, we were asked to go straight to the top deck where the lunch was being served.