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.

We had a whole day to spend there and by now we knew not to get any excursions from the Carnival.
Our ship had a library.  So, before disembarking, Tanya and I found a Florida travel book and made a detailed plan of what we wanted to see here.  Our plans included aquarium and a bus tour of the island.  There were also a couple of shipwreck museums that seemed interesting

Our ship was docked by the second pier.  That pier did not have a walkway to the downtown of the island therefore, Carnival organized bus transportation.  They actually rented the island tour buses, so we got a quick preview of whats to come.  As we were riding, the driver was  making jokes and telling as interesting facts about the island.  The bus stopped right by the aquarium making it very easy for us to start acting on out plan.

The aquarium there is not very big but it got sharks that you can pet!  That all that matters :).  For the record, I did not pet sharks, but not because I was scared - just did not want to touch fish as my daughter is very allergic to seafood.

When we were buying the Old Town Tours tickets we learned just how lucky we were not buying then on the ship.  They were not only chipper on the island, the kids were actually free!  The tour took just over an hour.  It had 12 stops where you could exit and do some sightseeing.  A new bus would come every 30 minutes.  We decided not to get off, but just enjoy the ride.

There was plenty to see...  Wild chickens running everywhere, Harry S. Truman Little White House, Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum, Key West Lighthouse Museum, and Southernmost Point to name a few.  Unfortunately my daughter Katya didn't see much as she quickly fell asleep.  Oh well, she did get free ride.

After the tour we went shopping for souvenirs.  Surprisingly, the souvenirs looked a lot like the ones we saw in Bahamas. After the kids got their key chains and I got my "Been Here" t-shirt we went back to the ship for dinner.

As we were not too tired, we sent the kids to the daycare on the ship an together with my wife went to see whats going on on the ship.  We found a karaoke party.  At first there was a lady singing and she was doing a pretty good job.  But then things got better.  A girl came out and started singing.  It looked like she did not even know her song.  Skipping lines, singing out of tune...  That was great!