I made my reservation. So here is the Key West Ferry story so far....
www.keywestferry.com. It leaves at 9:00AM from Ft. Myers everyday and gets to Key West at 12:30. You need to be at the dock in Ft. Myers at 7:30. You have to call the night before to check if it is leaving the next day. It costs $140.00 round trip, but if I would have bought it in advance it would have been cheaper.
Here is my trip breakdown.....
Leave St. Pete at 5AM.
Get to Ft. Myers and board at 7:30AM.
Boat leaves at 9AM.
Get to Keys at 12:30, probably off the boat by 1PM.
8 hours of travel time (2hours of it are driving).
If I drove myself i would leave by 5AM and drove 8, 9, 10 hours to the Keys depending on my previous trips and traffic.
Coming back it leaves at 6PM from Key West and gets into Ft. Myers at 9:30 getting me back to St. Pete by midnight on Sunday.
Was going to fly from St. Pete to Key West for $200 round trip out of Clearwater, but they won't allow kites and board on the commuter planes.
If you have a bunch of people; driving is more economical and it doesn't appear to save much time, but I'm all about the hassle factor this weekend. The ferry is completely booked this weekend, so I should get a good idea of how much drama will be involved.