DAY 6- DAY 2 SILVERSEA SPIRIT - KEY WEST, FLORIDA

After we posted our Butler, Probhashish came by the room.  He asked us to just call him Probha since that would be easier to pronounce.  He is from India and was very professional yet with a nice sense of humor.  He presented us with a choice of soap, went over the amenities of our room and we spoke with him about what soft drinks to have in our refrigerator.  While we could have wine, beer or other spirits we don’t need any of that preferring to not drink alcohol in the room other than say for a special occasion.  We think we might have the Champagne that was given to us in one of the restaurants. 

A short while later, our second suitcase arrived and we had it unpacked in no time.  It was very nice only to have to deal with two suitcases rather than eight to ten bags plus carry ones that we normally take with us on the World Cruises. 

We attended the lifeboat drill.  The drill took a little over 30 minutes and included a visit to the area where our lifeboat was located.

After returning to our room to drop off our lifejacket, we made our way to a very beautiful lounge called the bar.  With many guests at the sail away the bar was very quiet. 

From there, we went to a Cruise Critic get together where we met a couple from the UK, another couple from Montana and one single lady from New Jersey.  We then had dinner in the main restaurant. 

We were seated at a two person table and enjoyed a nice dinner.  Even though it was just the two of us, dinner lasted around two hours.  That was probably about 30 minutes longer for us just because it had been along day and we were starting to get tired.  Embarkation days are unique.  It's not like you are doing so much because for a few hours between getting ready to leave the hotel room, waiting at the terminal and even waiting for your on board room to be ready you are not really doing much of anything but often it is that anticipation of getting on board and knowing that you want to get all settled maybe is what it seems more tiring by the time night rolls around.  Either way, as they say, life is good.

For our first course, Keith had a spicy soup and Anne Marie had an artichoke appetizer.  Anne Marie does not like things that are too spicy or in other words they don't like her so it was a wise choice for only Keith to have that soup because even for Keith who likes spicy it was.  LOL, but true.

We each had salads for our next course and appropriately they were called Silversea Salads.  Very nice down in terms of presentation and the variety of items on the salad.

Keith had salmon and Anne Marie had scallops for our entrees and for dessert it was mixed berries for Keith and a fruit plate for Anne Marie.  We were both tired so we called it an evening.

Butler Probha who has been taking great care of us.

Lifeboat drill demonstration.

Pre-Dinner drinks at The Bar.

A nice dinner at the restaurant.

When we arrived back to our room, we called it a night.  Butler Probha came by with some items for us that he could not obtain right away because he said on embarkation days they couldn’t get more items from the pantry area.  This was mainly small bottles of water, some large bottles of water and some Sprite Zero.

Overall we slept very well.  Yes, we were tired and for a few hours it didn’t even seem like the ship was moving, as the seas were relatively calm.  Keith woke at around 5:00 AM and a few minutes after that you could tell you were at sea as the wind picked up outside.

The fitness center opens up at 6:00 AM on the Spirit.  On our first Silversea cruise we seem to remember that the opening hour was 7:00 AM so 6:00 AM is better for Keith.  If it were open earlier Keith would be there.  That’s just Keith.  He worked out until shortly before 7:00 AM since that is when we were to have breakfast.  Keith ended up getting to the Fitness Center at 5:40 AM and voila it was open.  He worked out by himself until at around 6:15 AM a few other passengers showed up.  He worked out for about 75 minutes.

We had planned to have breakfast at La Terrazza which serves buffet breakfast which we did on our first Silversea sailing on ever morning but decided that we would instead have the breakfast in our room just so we could get ready for our visit to Key West, Florida.  We had a simple breakfast of cereal (Anne Marie), oatmeal (Keith), bananas for each of us.  The coffee was quite good.

Keith also stopped by La Terrazza, as we received a confirmation card for tonight’s dinner, which said 7:30 PM when we had assumed 7:00 PM.  The Head Waiter was very accommodating and changed our reservation to 7:00 PM and then double checked on all of the other reservations which showed 7:00 PM as we had expected based on the reservation confirmation sheet we were given at the terminal when we received our shipboard cards.

We have visited Key West on several previous sailings all the way back to the mid-1990.  Most recently, we were in Key West in 2014.  We love this lovely town which is even more quaint before the passengers from the cruise ships arrive in port or at least make their way over to the town.  When three ships are in port and late morning arrives between the passenger’s from the ships and others visiting on land trips it can get quite a bit crowded in the middle of the town.  On previous visits we have visited the Little White House several times which had been the vacation retreat for President Harry Truman and later had been used by other President’s for meetings and by others as well and a couple of years ago we visited the Ernest Hemmingway Home and Museum.  Even years ago we did one of those trains around town when our own children were in grade school. 

The good news is that we were the only ship in town.  The less than good news is that once off the ship it started to drizzle even though the weather forecast called for a low chance of rain.  As we continued our walk the rain picked up quite a bit.  So, this limited where we walked and taking photos.

We still managed to walk a couple of hours until we made our way back to the ship. 

We had lunch at La Terrazza, once again, having salad entrees.

Afterwards, we went back out to walk around Key West.  Good news is that it stopped raining.  Yes.  So, we got in a nice walk and visited some places that we have been to on prior trips including the Little White House.

All in all we had a very nice day and the rain from the morning did not dampen our spirits.

Life is good.

As we write this we will both be going to the Fitness Center for another workout.

This evening we will dine at La Terrazzo.

Keith and Anne Marie