Another Bahamas Cruise

Pre-Cruise: Miami and South Beach
    I just got back from my third cruise of the year and my second to the Bahamas. As you may recall I cruised on Carnival to the Bahamas in June with my Mother, sisters and niece. This time I was on Royal Caribbean with my husband and friends. The cruise left from Miami on Monday so we went down a few days early and spent the weekend on Miami Beach which is the barrier island off of Miami.

    Specfically we were at the south end of the island which is called South Beach. South Beach is crowded with hotels and buildings from the 1920-30's and is a gem of art deco architecture. Our hotel was the Essex House which is one block off the ocean on Collins Avenue (also known as A1A, the scenic highway that runs along Florida's Atlantic coast). Our friends had the curved room on the top floor right in the center. We were in the room just to the left of them.

 

Essex House Porch                                       Lobby Fireplace 



The street along the ocean is Ocean Boulevard and is lined on one side with art deco hotels, shops and restaurants and on the other side with a park and beach.

                          





South Beach by day 
                                                                

South Beach at night

    On Monday we boarded our cruise ship, Majesty of the Seas. The port is located on a causeway between Miami and Miami Beach and is busy with both cargo and cruise ships. There were two other ships in port that day.

One of the ships was the Norwegian Sky which used to be based in Honolulu and called the Pride of Aloha. I sailed the Hawaiian islands twice on it, once with my husband and once with my Mother, sister and her husband. It was nice to see it again.

 Norwegian Sky

This is our ship, the Majesty of the Seas.

We sailed out at sunset with spectacular views of Miami and Miami Beach.

First Stop: Key West 
   On Tuesday morning we woke up in port at Key West. We were not docked at Mallory Sqaure (again - see my June cruise) but were close enough that it was an easy walk.  

We boarded the Old Town Trolley (again) and stopped at the Hemmingway House. The weather was still unseasonably hot for Key West but there was a breeze and the fans were working. It was also not as crowded so the tour was more interesting. While waiting for the tour to start we were petting a pretty gray six-toed cat. I was just about to take Judy's picture with the cat when he suddenly reached out and scratched her! So much for the friendly cats.

The Hemingway House in Key West Florida was home to Ernest Hemingway from 1931 to 1939. He lived there with his second wife, Pauline, and their two sons.

The in-ground pool (the first in Key West) was installed by Pauline while he was on an African safari. It cost $20,000 (2-1/2 times the cost of the house). When he came home he got angry and threw a penny onto the ground telling her she may as well take his last cent. She did and had the penny encased in the cement deck of the pool. She was proud that of Hemingway's four wives, she was the only one who got his last cent.

Hemingway's writing studio was located in a separate building that had once been the kitchen for the house. Hemingway would write in the morning, fish in the afternoon and go drinking with his buddies in the evening. After the divorce in 1939, he moved to Cuba and Pauline stayed in the house until her death in 1961.

   Next stop was the southern most point where we still had to wait in line for a photo op with the buoy but we also walked around the area and went in the Southernmost House and the beach near it.
  Last stop was Sloppy Joe's Bar where we tasted the key lime pie and listened to a good band. After a little shopping we made it back to the ship and watched as we pulled away from Key West.

Next Stops: Bahamas

Our first port of call in the Bahamas was Nassau. We pulled into port after noon and stayed until close to midnight. It rained on and off this day but it did not affect us much since we took a city tour in a van that ended at the Atlantis reosrt. We had plenty of time to walk around Atlantis looking at the lobby, shops, casino and grounds. We took a water taxi back to the pier during a rain storm but it stopped raining before we had to get off the ferry.

The grounds and ocean side of the Atlantis resort.

One of the beautiful glass sculptures at Atlantis.

The next day we went to Coco Cay which is a private island owned by Royal Caribbean. There were beaches around half the island and a protected cove. We rented floating mats and spent most of the day laying on our tummies looking at fish and coral in the clear water. The staff from the ship put out a BBQ buffet. The weather was overcast in the morning but sunny in the afternoon.





Our last night on ship

 End of October Cruise