Disney Magic Western Caribbean Day 2 – Key West

The Magic as seen from the Navy Pier

This morning we arrived in Key West. I had prearranged torent an electric car, with a GPS guided tour of the island. So we simply met up with others in the same excursion and Disney staff led us off the ship to the tour operator.

After a quick how-to lesson on both the car and the GPS devices, we set off on our own.

The GPS tour is basically a large clockwise tour of the island, passing by the touristy spots, like the Southernmost Point, Hemmingway House, etc. The rental didn’t include any admissions to any of the attractions. So at $179 through Disney, it can be quite an expensive excursion. Additionally, the rental period was for only 3 1/2 hours which is not nearly enough time to drive the route, stop at the sites, and do a little shopping or lunch. Ideally, you would need at least five hours to do it all. A few weeks prior to the cruise, I tried to rent the car directly from the tour operator for a cheaper rate, but was informed that Disney reserves the entire fleet.

We ended up using the GPS tour more as a guide, rather than a steadfast route. We kind of just went where we wanted. I’ll admit, driving the car is kind of fun, it would definitely be nice to rent full time, if you were staying on the island.

After we turned the car back in, we had the tour operator drop us off at the Pirate Museum. We didn’t go in, as the price was a little much, but Brandon did do a little shopping in their store. I waited outside, between Ron Jons and Fairvilla…wait is this Cocoa Beach or Key West?!?

Our dinner tonight was in Lumiere’s, and just as last night the kids headed off after and the adults went to the shows, after we played a couple of games of shuffleboard on deck 4.

While on the topic of shows, I have to say that each and every show far exceeded any others I have ever seen at sea, on any cruise line, especially the adult cabaret shows. Tonight’s main show was the comedy and hypnosis of Ricky Kalmon, and the adult show was the ventriloquist Kevin Johnson Kudos to Disney, for keeping the adults entertained. They even had the NBA finals playing on the huge “Ariel” screen out by the pool.

After the show, we headed down to Rock’n-Bar-D, to check out the band Soul Drive, in which a friend of mine (Brian Jackson) from high school is a member of, along with his wife. Brian and I were “the” dudes who played electric bass in marching band in middle school. He kept it up, obviously, and totally kicks ass. Their band was bar none the best I’ve ever seen on a cruise ship. Everything they played sounded tight, and their set lists were totally unique.