Tampa Skyline
Our Western Caribbean cruise came to an end as Carnival Miracle docked again in Tampa. Well, the ship actually docked sometime during the night! But no one could be let off before US Customs had cleared the ship. While waiting for clearance, we went to the dining room for a full service breakfast. One of our regular waiters was on duty, so we had a chance to say goodby again. The breakfast menu slection was similar to that at Horatio's buffet. I enjoyed French toast and sausage with orange juice. The ship was cleared at about 9:30 a.m. and disembarkation began to be called by deck. We gathered our hand luggae and headed for the disembarkation line at the casino. My daughter ran into one of the UK friends she had made during the cruise. That family was heading for a post-cruise visit to DisneyWorld. The friend was amazed when my daughter told her it would take us two days to drive home to Virginia. The line moved quickly and we were shortly off the ship and collecting our checked luggage at Customs. We were wisked right on through, retreived our car, and were on the road out of Tampa by 10:30 a.m.
I could see Tampa is clearly a destination by itself. I'd like to come back to see the Ybor City area, once home to the cigar industry, and ride the Tampa trolleys coursing between Ibor City and Channelside.
