When we wake up, the Restaurant of the Seas has docked at the exotic island of Key West. This is four hours from our house by car. By ship, we made it in just 13 hours.
Before going ashore, we eat a buffet-style breakfast. We are issued enormous plates; they look like small wading pools. It is not easy to cover every square foot of plates this size with food. But we manage, because we know we must soon cross, on foot, several hundred feet of barren, commerce-free, no-man’s-land between the ship and the Key West shopping district.
While we’re ashore, disaster strikes: The power goes out. For 45 agonizing minutes, the cash registers in the stores and restaurants do not work. Unable to buy or eat anything, some cruise passengers become disoriented and begin to have non-shopping-related conversations. Fortunately, it passes quickly.
Carrying our purchases, we return to the ship in time for more intellectual give-and-take—“Really? I’m having the prime rib, too!” In our cabin, we find chocolates on our pillows. Clearly, they want us dead.
