The Skinny on the Dry Tortugas

Ok, so I deeply encourage you to click on "Dry Tortugas" on the top right of the main page. It's SUPER. It's got history stuff, a page on camping, and "Park News" which is the best in gorgeous color.
Anyhoo, I put most of the info on the "Lowdown" page, and wrote down all the stuff on Dry Tortugas like a month ago, so let's see if I remember...I'm totally going to just spew all of the info..

There are only two boats which go to The Dry Tortugas. Despite what the Dry Tortugas website said about camping for groups of 10 to 30, due to impact on the island only 6 spots for camping are available per boat, per day, by law. If you're scared about seasickness, I got the hookup on the Seaplane company that flies there too (which I'm tempted to take and to leave all the gear with Patrik and people who don't get seasick). The seaplane company, "Sea Planes of Key West" (305) 294-0709 ($199/person), said that both of the boats that go to The Dry Tortugas are equipped to carry 200 passengers to the island, but a couple years ago the National Park said the impact on the island was too great from too many visitors, so each boat may only carry 100 passengers. Therefore, if you fly over on the Sea Plane, you can totally jump on a boat coming back and they'll definitely have 100 extra seats that they're forbidden to sell. Hwa ha ha (This also would explain the hefty cost of tickets because they can only sell half the seats to make up their cost of operation).

The two boats that travel to the Dry Tortugas are called "Yankee Freedom II" and "Sunny Days Catamarans". The customer service at Sunny Days is way, way nicer than Yankee Freedom. I vowed to never take Yankee Freedom again because of a mean lady that worked there a year ago, but this time they were just O.K. Sunny Days let me speak to the manager and everything and her name is Lynn and she's from Oregon and she's just superb and helpful. She cut me deals and everything. The Yankee Freedom manager never called me back, but I reserved spots anyways.
Camping rules are pretty strict on the island and it's a primitive form of camping (find out the info for Camping do's and don'ts on Yankeefreedom.com), but OH MY GOSH it's doesn't matter at all because it is DIVINE to be there. So amazing. The beach, it's white sand, the turquoise crystal clear water (it's really this color!), the snorkeling, the vivid coral and sealife (nothing scary-I promise you, except for how you skip a breath when you see something new), the fish of so many tropical colors, the awesome, awesome Fort itself--the obvious aesthetic care by the stone masons--beautiful brick arches and the layout itself with grassy courtyard, the stars, WAKING up and taking your coffee up to the ramparts overlooking everything and everything so quiet, still and fresh! The daytrippers are only on the island from 10am until 3pm and then it's just quiet and peaceful. Just you and the other 11 campers (unless there are a couple who stayed over from the previous night, and those campers are equally awed and humbled and respectful).
The best part of it all is that you can get away from the group easily if you desire sanctitude, but it will be a great way for Patrik and I to have quality time with our guests, who are of course only our closest friends and family, and thus pretty quality people in and unto themselves. :) We're going to have such a great time!

Money
For Yankee Freedom II (Yankee Fleet, 305.294.7009), I reserved 6 spots for campers, at $169 each for roundtrip. I reserved the spots with my credit card and there is a 24 hour cancellation period.

For Sunny Days Catamarans (305.292.6100), the company with which we will try to do most of our business with, I reserved 6 spots for campers at $155 each for roundtrip with a 72 hour cancellation period.
With locals I.D. (me, Patrik, Julie, etc.) it's $125/person/roundtrip.
With Sunny Days I also reserved 5 spots for Daytrippers, for those who don't want to stay overnight (My parents said they didn't want to stay overnight, so I saved a few extra spots for others, too, and they'll leave at 3pm on the same day).
Lynn gave me the off-season rate for the daytrippers (it will be high season when we go), which might be $125 per person as well, I think, she cut us a deal is what I remember.
Lynn wanted me to make a deposit on these spots by March 15th (that's why I'm asking for an RSVP for camping and day trips to The Tortugas), because she knows that the days we are going will be sold out. Please just let me know if you're going to the Dry Tortugas by March 13th, and then the morning we go, we can pay separately at the booth or you can slip me cash or check sometime during the week--no pressure at all.
Call me, and I will post comments to this page to let ya'll know who has RSVP'd, etc. Or you can post comments yourself to this page to let me know that you RSVP, etc. I just realized that I can access this page at work, so it's like a slice of heaven to pull up when I get a chance. Everyone, everywhere keeps saying that the week of my wedding everything should be sold out, so they're hesitant to make deals with me. As it gets closer to the actual date and when it appears things won't be sold out, that's when I should be able to make deals, they say, but what a catch 22 that is!

What I'm hoping, and what you need:
I would love if a few of you, if you had tents or sleeping bags, could you check them? Each of you gets one carry on and gets to check two bags. Could one of them be a tent or sleeping bag? What you can't bring, Patrik and I are going to beg, borrow, or buy from K-Mart real cheap-like. It'll all work out if you can't check anything.
You hardly need to bring any clothes with you to Key West--seriously. For camping, all that you need is a swimsuit and one change of clothes (shorts, tank top, t-shirt for if you get burnt on your shoulders easily), sunscreen, mosquito repellant (I don't remember them being bad, but mosquitoes LOVE the fresh blood of tourists!), I brought one pair of old crusty jeans for at night if the mosquitoes were bad, and a sarong to lay on and use for a towel. You might want a hat if your face starts to burn or you want to keep the sun off your head (I'll be bringing my good ol' "Hank" hat). Sarongs are good to use as a light jacket as well, you non-locals will be sweating probably, but count on a nice, light breeze on the island.

The boats allow us to bring 40 pounds of gear per person, not including the weight of water or tents. There isn't running water on the island. There are marvelously clean self-composting toilets that are fully stocked with hand sanitizer. The self-composting toilets are closed from 10am until 3pm because the boats are docked on the island, and they want you to use the boat toilets, which DO have running water. There are showers/hoses on the boats for you to use, too, if you WANTED to, but honestly, we're going to be swimming and snorkeling and nobody cares what you look like at all in Key West. You're going to hear the term "Key West Casual" as the dress code while you're here. NO RESTAURANTS require fancy dress. A Tommy Bahama (Hawaiian) shirt, shorts, flip flops, are what the wealthy wear here everywhere--and that's on a fancy day for a big event (like our wedding!).

We're going to be freezing a lot of water bottles to throw in coolers, which will double as ice and our drinking supply. And we'll be bringing whole flats and jugs of bottled water. We're going to have a BBQ at night. We'll have meat and vegetarian options. Obviously we'll make sure we have coffee for the next morning and throughout the day because we are major coffee addicts (It'll be turkish style, though :) ). Um...and of course booze and snacks! The boats provide breakfast and lunch both days--awesome breakfast to be honest, like bagels and cereal and fruit, and the lunches are like a trip to subway, but we'll have stuff, too, for ourselves.

Any further questions, just give us a ring. You've got my number. Patrik's is 305.879.3750.
It's going to be awesome, I promise! Good or bad, it's all going to be AWESOME!