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Key West Port -- planning a trip to Dry Tortugas


Wyoming2010
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Just to share another opinion, I think the trip is somewhat overrated and expensive. Unless you have a real interest in Civil War history or the large brick coastal forts built in the 19th century, I think you get more value for your money on another excursion.

 

The beach there is nice for The Florida Keys, but in the scheme of beaches in the Caribbean or mainland Florida, it is pretty average. It is nowhere as nice as the off shore sandbars some other excursions stop at. The once good snorkeling from shore there has gotten much worse in the past few years. Too many visitors, too many people touching or stepping on patch corals and Hurricane Irma have all combined to make the snorkeling less interesting. The breakfast and lunch served are good, but certainly nothing special. Finally, it is a very long ferry ride. You will spend close to 5 hours of your day on the ferry round trip.

 

The best snorkeling here is out at the reef. There are several smaller providers that allow you to not be a part of a crowded boat. For example, Floriday’s does a 3 hour reef trip for $65 each. Danger Charters does a 1/2 day trip including back country snorkeling, kayaking and sunset for $90 each. You could do both on 2 separate days for less that the Dry Tortugas.

 

I understand that the trip to The Dry Tortugas is a special thing. The large fort in the middle of nowhere is certainly something to see. However, if your primary interest is snorkeling, kayaking or hanging out at a white sand sandbar, there are better options in my opinion.

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I don't think anyone is suggesting going to Fort Jefferson as a snorkel excursion. It's certainly not overrated if you are interested in forts, as the OP clearly said they are very in to seeing these forts. And in that respect, I can't think of a more fascinating and awe inspiring Fort than Jefferson.

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Just to share another opinion, I think the trip is somewhat overrated and expensive. Unless you have a real interest in Civil War history or the large brick coastal forts built in the 19th century, I think you get more value for your money on another excursion.

 

The beach there is nice for The Florida Keys, but in the scheme of beaches in the Caribbean or mainland Florida, it is pretty average. It is nowhere as nice as the off shore sandbars some other excursions stop at. The once good snorkeling from shore there has gotten much worse in the past few years. Too many visitors, too many people touching or stepping on patch corals and Hurricane Irma have all combined to make the snorkeling less interesting. The breakfast and lunch served are good, but certainly nothing special. Finally, it is a very long ferry ride. You will spend close to 5 hours of your day on the ferry round trip.

 

The best snorkeling here is out at the reef. There are several smaller providers that allow you to not be a part of a crowded boat. For example, Floriday’s does a 3 hour reef trip for $65 each. Danger Charters does a 1/2 day trip including back country snorkeling, kayaking and sunset for $90 each. You could do both on 2 separate days for less that the Dry Tortugas.

 

I understand that the trip to The Dry Tortugas is a special thing. The large fort in the middle of nowhere is certainly something to see. However, if your primary interest is snorkeling, kayaking or hanging out at a white sand sandbar, there are better options in my opinion.

 

I don't understand your post since I clearly stated we were interested in getting to the FORT, not the beaches or snorkeling. I don't think you read this thread through. And yes, as previously stated, are very interested in Civil War and all other history and historical sites. My husband is a fort enthusiast and was a Civil War and Revolutionary War re-enactor and this one is on his bucket list. And it has been well stated and documented how long the trip is, but also clearly stated that it is worth it!

Edited by Wyoming2010
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Then go and enjoy yourselves. You are not the only people who may read the post. I thought other readers might like another opinion.

 

I appreciate that you were offering other alternatives for excursions from Key West, but my thread title was pretty specific about what I was looking for. If others want snorkeling ideas, I'm sure there is a thread for that too ;) Thanks anyway.

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I'd still go to Fort Jefferson to snorkel, lol. Being on a secluded island fort, etc. It's pretty cool. So even if someone was very much looking for a snorkel trip, having the adventure of traveling out to the Tortugas, seeing the fort, etc... it really amplifies the excursion in that respect, too.

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I'd still go to Fort Jefferson to snorkel, lol. Being on a secluded island fort, etc. It's pretty cool. So even if someone was very much looking for a snorkel trip, having the adventure of traveling out to the Tortugas, seeing the fort, etc... it really amplifies the excursion in that respect, too.

 

(y)

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  • 7 months later...
  • 2 months later...
On 4/22/2019 at 10:58 AM, Wyoming2010 said:

Thanks for all the tips and information.  I finally booked our excursion for October -- and the site was showing 5 spots left!  They do book up fast I guess.  Hope we have nice weather. 

EDIT:  I think I misread your posts, oops.  If you're doing the seaplane then completely ignore everything below 🙂 

 

I know I'm a little late to the party on this, but we just did a land vacation in June and took the ferry to the Dry Tortugas.  It was amazing and I highly recommend it!  We absolutely loved it.  Breakfast and lunch were included and we got about 4.5 hours to spend at the Fort to do whatever we wanted.  It was plenty of time to take a tour, walk around, snorkel, and swim.  We were back in Key West by 5:30pm. 

 

I know you said you booked it already, but if it's not offered through the cruise line, I'd be careful on times.  Are you still scheduled to be in port at 8:00am?  If so, I'm not sure you'll make it.  Check-in begins at 7:00am, you begin boarding at 7:30am, and we were actually on our way by 8:00am.  If you've talked to the people at Yankee Freedom and they seem to think it's fine then go for it!  If you can make it work,  it's well worth it.  I just wanted to caution you as the ferry does leave early.  

 

Enjoy your trip! 

Edited by iheartmarshall
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6 hours ago, iheartmarshall said:

EDIT:  I think I misread your posts, oops.  If you're doing the seaplane then completely ignore everything below 🙂 

 

I know I'm a little late to the party on this, but we just did a land vacation in June and took the ferry to the Dry Tortugas.  It was amazing and I highly recommend it!  We absolutely loved it.  Breakfast and lunch were included and we got about 4.5 hours to spend at the Fort to do whatever we wanted.  It was plenty of time to take a tour, walk around, snorkel, and swim.  We were back in Key West by 5:30pm. 

 

I know you said you booked it already, but if it's not offered through the cruise line, I'd be careful on times.  Are you still scheduled to be in port at 8:00am?  If so, I'm not sure you'll make it.  Check-in begins at 7:00am, you begin boarding at 7:30am, and we were actually on our way by 8:00am.  If you've talked to the people at Yankee Freedom and they seem to think it's fine then go for it!  If you can make it work,  it's well worth it.  I just wanted to caution you as the ferry does leave early.  

 

Enjoy your trip! 

 

Thanks for the input.  No, our cruise itinerary was completely changed when they had to forego all Cuba stops.  So we are not stopping in Key West as a port stop, but are staying there for a week anyway, so that is when we are going to Dry Tortugas.  I am excited and hope we have good weather.  We booked it right in the middle of our stay to give us time to relax pre and post. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Fort Jefferson was probably the first place I ever put on my bucket list. I was probably in 3rd or 4th grade when I read about it and knew I had to go see it for myself. That was probably around 1977.  Well I finally got to go in 2015. It was AMAZING. Everything I had ever imagined and then some. You just can't fathom the remoteness until you're actually there.

One of the amazing things about the trip was that the entire family (16 adults and 3 kids) all wanted to go. No one was willing to miss out. Most of the adults are history buffs to some degree but probably half were not familiar with the existence of the Fort. They quickly learned.

Now I want to make a second trip so I can just take it all in...again. I might decide that my 60th birthday should be spent primitive camping there in a few years....just so I can add it back to the Bucket List.

The whole point of the trip to the Keys had been to celebrate my 22 year old now Daughter-in-law's graduation from college. I was amazed to hear her tell friends that the highlight of the entire week long vacation was the trip to Fort Jefferson. Knowing that it beat out the Duvall Pub Crawl, ParaSailing, Shopping and everything else that a Florida vacation had to offer makes my soul happy.

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20 hours ago, Kilmarlic said:

Fort Jefferson was probably the first place I ever put on my bucket list. I was probably in 3rd or 4th grade when I read about it and knew I had to go see it for myself. That was probably around 1977.  Well I finally got to go in 2015. It was AMAZING. Everything I had ever imagined and then some. You just can't fathom the remoteness until you're actually there.

One of the amazing things about the trip was that the entire family (16 adults and 3 kids) all wanted to go. No one was willing to miss out. Most of the adults are history buffs to some degree but probably half were not familiar with the existence of the Fort. They quickly learned.

Now I want to make a second trip so I can just take it all in...again. I might decide that my 60th birthday should be spent primitive camping there in a few years....just so I can add it back to the Bucket List.

The whole point of the trip to the Keys had been to celebrate my 22 year old now Daughter-in-law's graduation from college. I was amazed to hear her tell friends that the highlight of the entire week long vacation was the trip to Fort Jefferson. Knowing that it beat out the Duvall Pub Crawl, ParaSailing, Shopping and everything else that a Florida vacation had to offer makes my soul happy.

 

Wonderful report -- you have me excited to go!  A couple of questions -- did you do the included tour of the Fort upon arrival?  Were you actually able to walk the whole Fort in that time -- it looks so huge from the pictures.  Thanks. 

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You can spend your entire time walking around the fort if you want. We chose to do the guided part as soon as we docked and then later took advantage of the amazing snorkeling opportunity. There was plenty of time (in my opinion) to enjoy the Fort.

One of our party did get fairly sea sick on the ferry ride back so make sure you have Dramamine, patches or the wrist bands (whatever you know works for your party).  

 

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You can easily walk the fort in the time there. You are on the island for a LONG time.  You can also walk around the outside of the fort and explore Bush Key.  There is no shortage of time. 

 

We are also trying to figure out a primitive camping trip there. Probably next year for a night.  It's truly special and spectacular. If you have seen forts around the South before, they will seem small and lame compared to Jefferson. It ruined all other forts! 

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22 hours ago, Kilmarlic said:

You can spend your entire time walking around the fort if you want. We chose to do the guided part as soon as we docked and then later took advantage of the amazing snorkeling opportunity. There was plenty of time (in my opinion) to enjoy the Fort.

One of our party did get fairly sea sick on the ferry ride back so make sure you have Dramamine, patches or the wrist bands (whatever you know works for your party).  

 

 

Yeah, we take Bonine and one a day works fine, but in this case we may do what we did in Alaska for the whale watching (where half the boat was hanging over the sides getting sick!), take one in the morning and one before we depart back just in case. 

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On 8/23/2018 at 2:35 PM, keywester33 said:

Then go and enjoy yourselves. You are not the only people who may read the post. I thought other readers might like another opinion.

Thank you for your post. We appreciate your two cents as much as we appreciate other peoples' two cents. We read everything and it is good to know what everybody thinks. Glad you posted.
We are planning to go to Fort Jefferson when we are in KW for a few days.

Edited by Arzeena
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22 hours ago, Arzeena said:

Thank you for your post. We appreciate your two cents as much as we appreciate other peoples' two cents. We read everything and it is good to know what everybody thinks. Glad you posted.
We are planning to go to Fort Jefferson when we are in KW for a few days.

 

Thank you.  Be sure to book the ferry well in advance.  It has become super popular.  If you change your mind or the weather forecast looks bad, you can cancel by 3PM the day before your trip.  

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