How Far Is Cape Canaveral From WDW?

[ColleenLovesMinnie]

I'm not sure if this is the right forum for this question - There is a chance the Space Shuttle may be launched on 8/27, which is the last day of our trip. Does anyone know how long it takes to get to Cape Canaveral from WDW? We have a 4:20 PM flight that afternoon, but I think it would be a great thing for us to see if that date from NASA holds true.

Thanks!

 

[AllyBri]

Figure about an hour from Disney, with no traffic.
But.........if I were you I would not even consider it, not with a 4:30PM flight. The traffic will be very heavy and that's putting it mildly. If the shuttle takes off and you can stay another day, you would have a lot less worry.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

It's about 1 hr. drive on the BeeLine Expy. It's an easy ride but personally I'd be very stressed out to venture out so far before a flight. I guess it would depend what time the shuttle will launch. other posters have said they saw it launch from their plane. That would be neat too.

We went to the visitor's center in May and spent the whole day there and still only saw a fraction of what they have to offer. If you really want to go, just drive out there and find a place to park but don't pay to go in unless you have a lot of time.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Also those dates are very loosely set. They frequently get pushed back for various reasons-mechanical problems, lightning/t-storms, etc.

 

[ColleenLovesMinnie]

There are threads on another board from people saying tickets for the launch have already sold out anyway, so it looks like we won't make this one. I think the launch was tentatively set for 4 PM and we are taking off from Sanford at 4:20. Who knows - maybe we'll be able to see it from the airplane! As my son would say that would be sweet!

Thanks for your input!

 

[The Mayor]

I'm not sure if this is the right forum for this question - There is a chance the Space Shuttle may be launched on 8/27, which is the last day of our trip. Does anyone know how long it takes to get to Cape Canaveral from WDW? We have a 4:20 PM flight that afternoon, but I think it would be a great thing for us to see if that date from NASA holds true.

Thanks!

We landed on a Friday at 10:30AM at MCO picked up our rental car (National Emerald Aisle) and we pulled into the parking lot at KSP at 11:45AM.

 

[goofy!]

We did the trek for the shuttle launch in July, '05. Although the launch was scrubbed, we did get to encounter the traffic!

We went to pick up our tickets at KSC the day before the launch. It was an easy 45 minute drive from the Portofino at USO. When we picked up our tickets, KSC recommended we give ourselves 2-3 hours to get to the coast from Orlando on launch day.

They were right. The shuttle was scheduled to launch around 2pm if I recall. We left at 9am, made a quick pitstop at Wal-Mart to pick up umbrellas, and then headed over. It took us about 2 hours to get to the coast. And that was with the little back road hint that KSC gave us.

But what was worse was after they scrubbed the launch - which would be similar to everybody leaving if the launch had happened.

You had everybody at KSC, everybody at the space museum across the river and everybody parked on every free inch of space for miles around leaving at the same time. It was a loooong trip back to Orlando. In fact, we stopped for an early dinner to let traffic disperse a bit.

I wouldn't recommend trying to make it back to Orlando for a flight from KSC on a launch day. I am pretty certain 75% of Florida was on the road right after the launch was scrubbed!

 

[ducklite]

You will be able to see the shuttle go up from the airport area as long as it's not really cloudy. Actually you can even see it from WDW!

I work in Winter Garden, and my coworker and I were on our way back to teh office after lunch one day and saw this bright thing shootoing up through the sky, it was a rocket launch from Canaveral!

Anne