Kennedy Space Centre

[christi]

My dh is very keen to go to the KSC when we visit WDW. I'm not so sure and think it might be lots of hassle to get there and that the kids might not appreciate it? Any views would be great!Thanks

 

[SpottyDog]

Christi, how old are yer kids? While Kennedy is a '60's and 70's' thing for me our two really related to the Shuttle stuff and appreciated the Saturn exhibits. They were 12 and 14 at the time.

 

[signtalker]

My ds was 8 the last time we went, he enjoyed the exhibits but not the travelling from point to point when you are actually there, it was to drawn out and boring in my view.

I didnt enjoy the expereince ,and definately wouldnt do it again.

Jules

 

[christi]

Thanks for these. My kids are ds(12), dd(9) and dd(5). Maybe eldest would enjoy but the girls might be more doubtful!
Thanks for your help.

 

[ali5on]

We visited KSC just last week! Wish I was back there now.
Anyway, it was somewhere my DH and I really wanted to visit, being children of the 60s, and we weren't disappointed. We took our two children, DS 9 and DD 6 and although my daughter wasn't all that interested, there was enough to keep her from being bored. The highlight for her was watching an aligator and turtles in a pool there! My DS found it interesting and was really excited to see the Saturn V rocket and to touch a real piece of moon rock. I think they have made many improvements recently to make it more kid friendly. The IMAX 3D film about the Space Station was awe inspiring and we all enjoyed that. If you choose to go, I would recommend you pay only for the standard admission, they try to push the maximum admission which includes an up close tour but we didn't have time to see everything included in the standard price. The journey was very staightforward and only took about 50 mins; after our visit we drove down to Cocoa Beach for the children to run of their excess energy.
I hope this helps you make your decision.
Ali

 

[christi]

Thanks Alison,
Your tips are great. The only other question I have is about transport. We will not have a car, althoughI'm beginning to wonder if I can manage without one! Is there any good public transport that can get us there. I think maybe my hubbie will go with eldest and I'll stay behind with girls.
Hope you had a good holiday.

 

[mandymouse]

Hi Christi

We have visited KSC on three occasions, the first time our DD's were 5 & 7. We didn't go on our last holiday to Florida in Nov '01, but we did have the pleasure of viewing a shuttle launch from the pier at Cocoa Beach which was awesome. We are off to Florida in two weeks and we've pencilled in a visit to KSC again, we all enjoy the tours, exhibits and having a photo taken with an 'astronaut' and the girls now 10 & 12 want to pay their respects to the 'lost' astronauts from the last Shuttle launch. So we feel it is well worth a visit from both an enjoyable and historical point of view.

Mandy

 

[ali5on]

Hi Christi

I'm not sure about public transport to KSC as we had a car for the whole time, perhaps someone else may help on that one. I'm pretty sure Virgin ran a coach trip there and so presumably would other tour operators. There was a launch during our holiday and Virgin was offering a trip to watch it. We decided not to, because we wanted to see the centre itself, which is closed on launch days.
Oh and yes, we had a brilliant holiday!

Ali

 

[Dimplenose]

We did this a few years ago when the kids were 4 and 7. They were too young to appreciate it and really only enjoyed the kids play area.

We did a Virgin coach tour and found we didn't have enough time to finish the bus trip round the sites before we had to be back at the coach. (We seemed to spend 40 minutes or so waiting for a bus at each point, this was during the end of August.)

It may be better organised now but we did find the waiting frustrating.

If you do go take plenty of water as the water there was horrible (and I'm happy to drink water from WDW fountains) and wear plenty of insect repellant!

Libby

 

[#1MMFan]

I agree with Libby. We go to KSC every few years. I love it, but it is entirely different from WDW. It's very interesting and inspiring just being there but transportation can be difficult.

We've only ever done tours to it; the first time was good, the second was with Gator Tours and it was AWFUL. No a/c on the coach and an awful driver who made a fool of everyone. I wouldn't recommend them at all; make sure you ask the rep which company they use. The last time I think we got a mears shuttle bus, and they literally pick you up and drop you off, and vice versa on the way back. But, you still don't have much time to see everything! My mum and sister love the Space Shop, so once you've looked through everything in it, there is precious little time to do justice to the bus tour on site.

We are considering using a car the next time. We just came back actually, and didn't use a car, but that's another story. And it would have been too sad going so soon after the tragedy in February.

John

 

[mike230652]

christi,

I go along with mandymouse and ali5on.

We loved KSC,our two were 8 (ds) and 9 (dd). Both kids thoroughly enjoyed it, they met and had photos taken with spacemen, listened to a real astronaut telling them about space flight, saw the biggest object ever to fly, loved the Space Garden with all the different size rockets, watched the IMAX shows in 3D ( BRILLIANT ). See an actual space shuttle.

You can see a real control centre, listen to a commentary from Jim Lovell while watching a mission launch...very emotional and moving.

I'd go along with the normal admission and forget the expensive tour. There is so much you can enjoy at KSC.

We had a car so I can't comment on buses, but I notice you have 202 days to go and I'm willing to bet you end up with a car...if only for a week or so, don't know how we'd ever manage without one.

Hope this is of some help,

mike

 

[neo's white rabbit]

We saw the Space Shuttle IMax film at the Science Museum in London a couple of days ago, I saw it as a nice run-up to visiting KSC.

Thanks for all the tips everyone ie avoiding the more expensive tour and the insect repellant!

Anyone ever done the lunch with an astronaut?