That was one expensive holiday!: Day 13 – Kennedy Space Centre

[wickesy]

We were up at 7:45 today, out of the room by 8:15 and after a quick game of “Dude, where’s my car” in the hotel car park we were on the road by 8:25. We had a nice easy drive to the Kennedy Space Centre and parked up at just after 9:35.

We paid for the Nasa Up Close tour and were given a boarding time of 10:00 so we went straight round to the tour bus boarding area. First stop on the tour was the Nasa Causeway where we were shown the various launch pads that have been used over the years and then we moved on to the A/B Camera stop which provides a view of launch pads 39A and 39B which are used for the Space Shuttle launches. Last time we were here we were lucky enough to see the space shuttle on the launch pad but this time we were just a couple of days too early so the pads were empty.



From there we went round and had a close up view of the runway where the space shuttle lands before stopping off at the Vehicle Assembly Building where the shuttle is assembled (upright). To give an idea of scale, each of the stars on the flag is 6 feet across.



The Up Close portion of the tour then ended at the Saturn V rocket building.

We saw a couple of short films about the Apollo launches and then went out to look at the rocket itself.






Whilst in this building we stopped off for lunch and I had a turkey roll up while Dad had a ham and cheese sandwich and we had a coke each. After lunch we had a look around the gift shop where we bought a fridge magnet, shot glass and tour guide.

Next we boarded one of the constantly circling tour buses and moved round to the International Space Station Centre where we saw some parts of the Space Station being put together and some models of the various modules, including a habitation module.


Shower


‘Facilities’ for when you need to take a ‘biological opportunity’.


Space age cooking technology

We then got another bus back to the visitor complex where we saw a model of the Space Shuttle and paid a visit to the Space Memorial Mirror which sadly has had a few more names added to it since we were last here due to the Space Shuttle tragedy in 2003.

From here we had a look in the larger gift shop where I bought a couple of DVDs and, as it was now 2:50 and we were feeling ‘spaced out’ we left to return to Orlando.

I stopped off to fill the car up just before the Beeline Expressway and we then had another easy drive back to International Drive where we had a quick look around Sports Dominator before getting back to the hotel at 5:00.

Dinner was from The Mara tonight. At around 6:15 we went downstairs and got a bacon double cheeseburger and fries each, Dad had a cookie and I had zebra domes, all of which we took back upstairs to eat on the balcony watching the animals. For the first time we saw the whole family of giraffes together round our side.



The rest of the evening was spent watching the Rays baseball game and we were in bed by 10:00 ready for our last full day tomorrow.

Tomorrow: Day 14 - DHS, MK & California Grill

[Isafari]

Whatb a great day at Kennedy you had
I love the photo of the giraffes....your room was in a perfect spot for all of your animal sightings.

[dave&pauline]

great day! fab pics

[nannav]

dh ds19 and bil had a day at kennedy they really enjoyed it we stayed at villa with kids a bit disappointed as we hoped to use the pool but the thermo was broken and too cold to use