John Gawne

We were the only ship in port that day. They allowed passengers ashore by 1:45pm and we left about 2:30. We walked around Duval Street, toured the Curry Mansion in where my wife and I had stayed for a week several years ago, visited Fat Tuesday’s and Hard Rock Café, then headed to the Half Shell Raw Bar for lunch. We enjoyed fish and chips made from mahi-mahi, a pound of Key West Gold (large steamed shrimp), conch chowder and conch fritters, and an oyster shooter which includes a free glass. The latter is not on the menu and you have to ask for it. With beers, soda’s and tips it was just over $50. Half Shell is a Key West institution, on the waterfront, no pretense, but great food. After Key Lime Pie on a stick, we wandered back to Mallory Square for the sunset events preceding the 7:45pm EDT sunset. We enjoyed the unicyclist, the one man band, dog show, acrobats, artisans and food booths. Since the ship remains on New Orleans CDT all week, we returned in plenty of time for our 8:30pm second seating dinner. After dinner we walked back briefly into town with my 13 year old daughter, but she was not allowed with us in Sloppy Joe’s or Irish Kevin’s, so we were not able to do the night time pub crawl we had looked forward to. The ship doesn’t sail until 5:30am the next day.

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