Okay, friends, prepare yourselves for this post! It’s going to be a long one because a lot happened on day three of my cruise. There was an injury, a pub crawl, and lipsticked men kissing random people on the cheek in a Key West hot spot. Let’s dive in, shall we?
Tuesday, May 6
6:30am: Alarm goes off
Yes, yes, sometimes, you have to set alarms on vacations. We were docking in Key West at 8am and we wanted to get off the ship as soon as possible (we had a busy day planned!), so it was an early morning for us!
7:45am: Breakfast buffet
We go up to the lido deck to have breakfast. I have a very healthy breakfast of sugary cereal, bacon, and a chocolate muffin.
8:15am: Off the ship and in Key West
We are cleared to leave the ship soon after 8am, so we do. I’ve been to Key West once before and Mom has been here twice so we’re fairly familiar with the area. We wanted to do some shopping before our excursion started at 11am, so we start walking around. Not even five minutes into walking around, my mom trips on a curb, falls, and injures herself. I will spare you the bloody pictures but trust me, it was stomach-turning. Luckily, the only real damage is on the bottom of her big toe where she sliced part of her skin, and then she had to walk on it for another five minutes until we could make it to a drugstore. We get bandages, water, and antiseptic wipes so she can get herself cleaned up. Not the best start to Key West, and is it horrible that I wasn’t even surprised this happened? In the past few years, my mom has been hit by a car while running, fallen in multiple races, fallen and hit her head while running downtown, and sprained her finger on an excursion on her last cruise… she’s just a bit clumsy, yeah? Love her to death, but I was just like, “Welp, this isn’t shocking. Let’s find a drugstore!”
Luckily, my mom is also a trooper so she bandaged herself up and we continued our shopping journey for the next few hours. I didn’t find anything worth spending my money on, but my mom found a shirt for her fiance and a visor for herself so it was a successful trip!
10:30am: Check in for our excursion
We signed up to do the Key West Pub Crawl which got rave reviews. I’m not typically one for pub crawls, but it seemed like a fun time and they served mixed drinks along with beer, so I was game to try it out. We check in, get our free t-shirts, and then hang around waiting for the tour to start.
11:00am: Pub crawl starts
One of the excursion tour guides gives us a short introduction, and then we’re placed in four separate groups of about 15-20 people each to begin the tour. Our guide tells us that at each bar, we have the choice between beer, a specialty drink, or a single liquor drink (like rum and Coke).
11:15am: The first bar – The Lazy Gecko
At our first bar, I order their specialty drink which is a margarita and my mom orders a Yuengling. We sit with a young couple from Orlando who are personable and friendly and discuss cruising. My margarita is tasty and I can barely taste the alcohol, which I love! (I, personally, despise the taste of alcohol.)
11:45am: The second bar – Rick’s Bar
At the second bar, the specialty drink is called the Caribbean Breeze, which is a mixture of rum, pineapple juice, and cranberry juice. Verdict? It tasted like drinking cotton candy. Super, super, super sweet, and I basically just powered through it. This bar was also next door to a pizzeria so Mom and I got a slice of pepperoni pizza. The pizza was delicious! One of my favorite parts of the pub crawl, which probably tells you all you need to know about my drinking habits. (The pizza came from Angelini’s Pizza, for anyone who wants to know.)
12:15pm: The third bar – Flying Monkeys Saloon
At this bar, they only served frozen drinks, so I got a strawberry daiquiri while Mom got a pina colada. We sat by ourselves where we could people-watch on Duval Street, which was fun. We both drank about 25% of our drinks before combining them together which made the drink 100% more delicious.
12:45pm: The fourth bar – Schooner Wharf Bar
We take a bit of a hike to our fourth bar, it was probably 10 minutes away. This bar is a bit more hectic, with live music and a ton of people. It’s hard to find a bartender to give our order to, but we eventually do. At this bar, I order a rum punch, and I don’t really like it. I’m not sure if it was the drink itself, or if I was just a little over drinking at this point, but I think I only drank about half of it.
I think I was also feeling a little overstimulated and over my social limit at this point of the day. I had been walking around Key West since 8am, it was extremely hot, and I’m the type of girl that drinks once every few months so all these drinks at one time felt like a bit too much. I didn’t feel tipsy or drunk… just done. I was hot and tired and a bit crabby. I’m sure some of it had to be the effects of the alcohol, but I could feel myself shutting down and not wanting to be chatty or social.
After this bar, we stopped on a random street to do a conch-blowing contest, a staple of the Key West Pub Crawl. Only a few people in our group chose to try it, but after seeing the first guy in the group blow for 45 seconds straight (TWSS), I was pretty certain there was no way I would beat that time.
1:30pm: Lunchtime
After hearing that the specialty drink at our fourth and final bar was Caribbean Breeze again (blech), Mom and I decide to slip away from the group and have lunch at Sloppy Joe’s. And Sloppy Joe’s was crazy! Almost every seat was taken, there was live music which made my head hurt, and I felt very worn out from the day. (Don’t I sound like a barrel of fun? I AM SO FUN!)
The weirdest part of the day happened when a random drunk guy waltzed up to my mom to have her tie his shirt up around his midsection. And then he messed it up and wanted her to do it again. And then had one of his drunk friends come by to also get his shirt tied. And then they posed behind our chairs in provocative poses to get their pictures taken. I just… I don’t even know? Ah, drunk people.
And then, said drunk guys went back to their tables, had red lipstick applied to their lips, and came over to give us a kiss on the cheek. (They were doing this to everyone in the restaurant.) It was just a strange, strange time but when you’re in Key West on vacation, I guess it all seems normal!
2:30pm: Back on the ship
After lunching at Sloppy Joe’s, we both decide we are ready to go back to the ship and relax. I take a shower and then read for a bit, before falling asleep for a wonderful, wonderful midday nap. Oh, it was simply the best and I slept for hours.
7:00pm: Get ready for dinner
Luckily, tonight is a casual dress night so I put on jeans and a nice top, straighten my hair, and apply make-up and that’s it. It takes me probably 30 minutes to get ready and then I sit on our little window seat to watch the sun go down. So pretty!
8:15pm: Dinner time!
For dinner tonight, I order empanadas and croquettes for my appetizer which were yummy, yummy; veal parmesan which was not my favorite; and chocolate melting cake for dessert.
9:30pm: Love & Marriage Show
We left dinner quickly so we could hurry to the main show lounge to watch the “Love & Marriage Show,” a staple on cruises. (Similar to “The Newlywed Game.”) And, before the show began, a young guy set up this adorable proposal for his girlfriend, who he has been dating for 10 years. It was SO cute and yes, there may have been some tears shed on my part. Kudos to the guy for being super creative!
The Love & Marriage Show was hilarious! They had three couples on stage: one couple had been married for three days, another for 24 years, and a third for 41 years. So many laughs! Of course, there was that twinge in my heart for not having my own special someone to have those funny moments with. I was a bit sad, “woe is me,” “when is it going to be my turn,” and all that jazz. Ah, feelings. They hit you at the worst times, it seems.
10:30pm: Settle in for the night
Mom and I go back to our room, get dressed in our jammies, play a few more rounds of Scattegories, and then read our respective books before calling it a night. Tomorrow, we could sleep in a bit since we wouldn’t arrive in Nassau until noon.
Have you ever participated in a pub crawl? (This was my first!)
Have you ever had to deal with an injury on vacation? My last injury occurred two years ago when I fell while hiking down a mountain in Georgia and broke my ankle. Most painful injury of my life, but luckily getting a lawyer was easy thanks to personal injury lawyer SEO that promote the perfect services right to me when I need them.
I think the only pub crawl I have done was one in Melbourne New Zealand. And that was like 12 years ago. We had fun but it got old after awhile as there is a limit to how much I can drink in am evening and not feel like I am narcoleptic ;). But we discovered an area of the city we wouldn’t have gone to otherwise and all in all it was fun!
I got really sick on a trip to Germany in 2004 and then pulled a muscle in my leg so I was kind of a hot mess!
Ahem, I meant Melbourne Australia! I haven’t had coffee yet. Ha. But I think we might have gone on a pub crawl in New Zealand as well. Or at least it felt like that because we went to so many bars one night. Han
I have never done a pub crawl, it just does not appeal to me at all. I can’t remember any injuries on vacation but I was very sore after my half marathon in November and it made getting around kind of difficult for a few days, but it didn’t ruin the rest of my vacation. Your poor mom! What a trooper. I really like the top you wore on Day 3. That style never looks good on me so I’m envious of people who can pull it off!
I’ve never done a pub crawl, but would love to one day! They often have food crawls here and they sound even better!
I don’t think I’ve ever really hurt myself while on vacation. I guess the worst was a giant blister on my ankle/heel from dancing too hard at the Coyote Ugly bar in Las Vegas, lol. And I remember being super sick coming home from Disneyland when I was little – I’m pretty sure I caught the flu!
Well, the one time I’ve been to Key West I managed to make it to all the bars. That tells you something about my time there, eh? Aannnd to make it worse, it wasn’t a bar crawl. Bachelorette party! So much fun. I love Key West. Everything about it.
I’ve been on a pub crawl in STL for a charity event and holy drunkenness. I haven’t done it since. Probably because I wound up in bed by 9pm (it was a day crawl), in tears because I felt so sick, eating goldfish crackers and calling for my mom. Good thing she was there that night! Such a comfort.
Sounds crazy but fun! I am totally with you on the drinking thing. I hate the taste of alcohol, so probably only drink once a year and only if the alcohol taste is toned down.
We went to the marriage game show and it was hilarious! We tried out for it since we had only been married a couple of days but they picked another couple. Still lots of fun to watch though!
I applaud you for trying the pub crawl. Alcohol is also not my thing, but I think it’s great you gave it a shot! (ha! That could have been a pun!)
Oh gosh. I am such a klutz, like your mom, but luckily I haven’t been injured on vacation… that I recall 😉
I love those little towel animals. Too cute!
Your poor mom! That injury sounds like it was such a bummer!
I went on a pub crawl when I visited Spain. It was a lot of fun and a great way to meet people during my trip since I was traveling alone!
Pub crawl! Sounds like fun. The ones at my University are a little R-rated so I don’t really partake, but I could totally do something like this! Mmmm chocolate melting cake for dessert again… I think I’m hungry…
I’ve actually never done an “official” pub crawl but on my 18th birthday we went to almost every bar in the town I was living in for college since I was officially legal (this was when I lived in Alberta where the legal age is 18) and then the night of my bachelorette party we went to several different pubs/bars throughout the night!
Glad you had such a fun day!!