Celebrity Constellation Cruise - Disembarkation and Tampa - November 12, 2021

Last morning of the cruise...can't believe it went so fast!  Last night Captain Theo had announced he expected us to go under the Skyway Bridge near St. Petersburg about 3:30 a.m. and I really wanted to be up on the top decks this time to watch so we set our alarms for 3:00 a.m.  We were up on deck by about 3:15 a.m. and the bridge was already in sight.

We then tried to go back to sleep to get a few more hours before an early breakfast in Luminae.  We were set to be part of the walk off group that was supposed to disembark starting at 7:30 a.m.

Coming into Tampa

A tugboat!

One last breakfast - The pancakes Paul had earlier in the week tasted better but these sure were pretty!

They gave the all clear signal right about 7:30 a.m.  Just as we were getting ready to walk out the door of our room, our Retreat Host, Suren knocked to say one last goodbye.  We tried to catch an elevator but gave up quickly when we saw the line and how packed each elevator was.  Suren managed to catch us carrying suitcases down the stairs and was quite horrified!  He tried to direct us to the elevators and then he offered to help us carry but we convinced him we could manage.  

We walked off the ship at 7:35 a.m. and by 7:55 a.m. we had gone through customs, packed the car, and were driving out of the parking lot.  We set the navigation for Fort De Soto Park and were on the road again.

Fort De Soto Park is a county park not far from St. Petersburg on the gulf.  It is known for being a great spot to find shore birds and song birds, including many migratory birds and the park did not disappoint.  We started at the North Beach.  Below are a few of my very favorite bird photos followed by a video of quite a few more photos I took.

Royal Tern (with a Laughing Gull in the back right)

A huge flock of Black Skimmers taking off (with a few Laughing Gulls mixed in)

Ruddy Turnstone

Sanderling

Brown Pelican

Whimbrel - This was a new bird to me and not one all that common in the eastern US.

Willet

Whimbrel

Black-bellied Plover (non-breeding plumage) - The plovers were all new to me!

Snowy Plover

Marbled Godwit

Semipalmated Plover

American White Pelican

Brown Pelican flying over a flock of American White Pelicans

Reddish Egret - They do a dance each time they go fishing!  It is so fun to watch!

Marbled Godwit

Nanday Parakeet - These are native to South America.  They are popular in the pet trade and because of owners releasing their pets into the wild they have developed a ferrel population in the Tampa (and Los Angela) area.  Please do not release pets into the wild.  They can upset the ecosystem and many don't have the survival skills.

Here is the video with lots more photos.  Paul says I may have gone overboard on the number of Reddish Egret photos - he was just so fun to watch him dance as he ate.  

After spending quite a while at the North Beach, we drove to the Gulf Fishing Pier in the park and were amazed at all the lazy fishermen having around (and I don't mean the human kind)!

The Great Blue Heron kept poking his head into the fisherman's bucket! 
(Other birds pictured:  Snowy Egrets (smaller white egrets), Great Egret (taller egret with yellow beak), Laughing Gulls (on railing), Ruddy Turnstone (small bird on the far left in the back))

Snowy Egret (back) and Great Egret (front)

Great Egret

Snowy Egret

Snowy Egret

Snowy Egret

Snowy Egret

Sandwich Tern

Snowy Egret

Snowy Egret

Snowy Egret

Great Blue Heron

Royal Tern

Double-crested Cormorant

Laughing Gull

Laughing Gull (immature) and Great Blue Heron

Dolphin

Dolphin

Great Blue Heron

Double-crested Cormorant

Snowy Egret

Great Blue Heron (the one poking in the fisherman's bucket)

Snowy Egret

Snowy Egret

Snowy Egret

By this point, we had spent over 2.5 hours at the park, I had taken over 1,300 photos, and we were ready to move on.  We found some lunch along the way and decided to check out Dinosaur World.  Dinosaur World is really well done.  They have a museum with all kinds of artifacts and some animatronics.  And then the rest of the property is a walk through a forest with all kinds of large dinosaurs.  There's also a very large gift shop where Paul picked up a wall-hung Allosaurus fossilized skull replica. 

Juvenile T-Rex

Torosaurus

A modern day dinosaur - anole

After Dinosaur World, we stopped at Keel & Curley Winery.  When we were in Florida years ago, I had picked up a banana wine produced by this winery and had done a tasting (although I don't think it was at the actual winery as I didn't recognize the location).  I even have a glass from that tasting.  They don't have a banana wine right now but I found a few to take home.

We then checked in at the Towne Place Inn & Suites North Tampa which was a really nice hotel.  Here are a few photos of the room.

We went out for dinner at IHOP and Paul had his favorite pancakes and then returned to the room to relax.  We originally planned to stay two nights at the hotel but since we managed to accomplish more than anticipated on this day, we decided to shorten our stay to only one night and book a hotel half-way home to shorten our drive on Sunday.