We woke up with our boat already docked in beautiful Key West.  We have previously been to Key West once before on our 4-Night Bahamian Cruise on Disney Wonder.  This was our most anticipated stop of the trip and we had a lot of places to visit.

 

We had three main goals for the day (according to my younger daughter).  She wanted to see a chicken, visit with a six-toed cat, and drink from a coconut.  With those goals in mind, we headed out.  Our first stop was going to be the Earnest Hemingway House.  It is open to the public for tours (for a fee).  We left the ship and used Google Maps to guide us.  As we turned the corner out of a nearby neighborhood, we spotted this fellow:

Mission Number 1 was accomplished.  As we continued on our walk, we passed the Little White House.  This was one of Harry Truman’s favorite places to stay.  We didn’t take the tour, but stopped for some quick photos.  It was really close to the dock, so you can definitely walk over here and do this excursion on your own. 

 

We soon reached the Ernest Hemingway Home.  Luckily, we had cash on hand because they don’t take credit cards for admission.  There are lots of ATMs within walking distance though, so I’m sure you could go and grab some cash if you needed to.

They collect the entrance fee right at the entrance (the house is surrounded by a brick wall).  We were told we could wait by the front steps for the next tour to begin.  We really didn’t want to wait for a tour, since the main attraction for us was the six toed (polydactyl) cats.

We made our way into the house via the front door.  There was a tour that was setup in the front room to the left. We waited a little bit in the hallway until the tour group left the room, then we followed behind them.  We could easily hear the tour guide in the next room describe the contents as information about of the significance of the items to the house or that particular room.

The front right room was a parlor that contained a number of photographs and paintings from Hemingway’s life.

The house has a gift shop that operates near the pool, but they also have some display spots inside the house.

 

The next room we saw was the kitchen.  It was blocked off from visitors, but you could easily see inside.

After moving through the dining room, we headed back into the entry hall.  There were lots of movie posters adorning the walls.

 

We then headed upstairs to checkout the main bedroom.

After we checked out the bedroom, we checked out the bathroom.  The bathroom was also blocked off (like the kitchen) but it was easy to photograph.

We headed back to the bedroom and went outside onto the fantastic wrap-around porch.

 

We waited for the tour group to go through the bedroom and then we headed back inside.  We found this guy snuggled up on the bed.

 

He came out for a stretch and we got a good look at his feet.  This accomplished goal number two for the day!

 

We headed back downstairs and towards Hemingway’s writing studio.  We found the rest of the cats outside, there must have been around twenty of them outside.  Here are a few of the ones we saw on the way to the writing studio (which is about 30 feet from the main house).

Here is the writing studio.  There used to be a walkway from the house to the writing studio but it was destroyed at some point.  The writing studio is also blocked off from visitors, but it is easy to see inside.

We sat down outside and one of the cats jumped up to visit us.  A guide told us his name was Tennessee Williams.   You aren’t allowed to pick the cats up, but this one sat down on me, so I didn’t think it was a problem. 

 

We also checked out the pool, which according to the sign was very expensive to build.  The gift shop is the building behind the pool.  We found some nice shirts there for the girls, then we headed out. 

 

We walked down towards the Southernmost Point Buoy.  I had thoughts of getting another picture of us with it, but the line was really long.  We settled for a quick photo.

 

Right next to the buoy is our coconut guy!  He sells them out of a truck.  We grabbed one and drank it to complete the quest for the day. 

 

We eventually settled on Caroline’s Cafe as our lunch place.  It was an open air restaurant that could seat a large number of people.  We sat down and got some drinks.

I don’t recall what we each ordered, but I do remember that the food was good.  We would definitely go back here if we found ourselves on Duval Street.

My younger daughter and I headed back to the ship while Nancy and our older daughter explored some more.  They headed down towards Mallory Square while we took a short cut back to the ship.

 

We got back on the ship and headed up to the top deck to get a nice view of Key West.

 

The pool deck was very crowded at this point, so we ended up getting some ice cream and heading back to the room for a while.

 

Once the others got back on the boat, the kids went off to find their friends.  Nancy and I went to the adult section for the rest of the afternoon to read and rest.  I also managed to try some of the Pineapple Cider I bought at Total Wine before we boarded.  As the ship started to head out, we went to the outdoor seating area for Cabanas, which is located on the back of Deck 9.  We got some great pictures of sail away from the Key West, including a few selfies.

 

We headed back to the room to change out of our swimwear.  Tonight was The Snuggly Duckling night takeover of O’Gills that we didn’t want to miss.  Here are few of the things that were done to “transform” the Snuggly Duckling.

 

Tonight’s activity was an exciting game of Thugo, which is basically Bingo with various Thugs in the squares.

 

The Thugo game was run by two Thugs who also led the crowd in a few songs and jokes.

 

Unfortunately, Nancy and I didn’t win any of the multiple games of Thugo, but we had a great time.  We then headed off to watch Tangled in the Walt Disney World Theater.  This was one of the best shows we have seen on board any of the ships.

After the show, we stopped by the Vacation Planning Desk to get a placeholder cruise reserved.  We put ourselves in the queue and got a notification in the Disney Cruise Line App.  This saved us some time from having to wait around.

 

After we got our placeholder, we started making our way towards dinner at Animator’s Palate.  We ran into Mickey and Pluto playing near Shutters.

We got pictures of the menu and all the appetizers, but didn’t take any pictures of the entrees or dessert. 

 

Dinner was fantastic, as always, since we love the items on the menu.  We stayed late to talk with our server team and the kids ran off the clubs before the finale that occurs in Animator Palate.  Nancy and I were tired from walking around Key West, so we headed back to the room to find our latest towel animal creation.