Day 20 Kennedy Space Centre
Our last full day.
We must have the only 11 year old boy on the planet who is not the least bit interested in space. After last year's experience of dragging him round bored all day this year we left him with his aunt and uncle while DW and I went off to KSC. I have to say DW was only coming to spend the day with me, but she later said that she enjoyed the day much more than last year. Probably something with not having to stop me feeding DS to the nearest 'gator all day.
We got out to the centre at about 11am and after a quick bathroom break went straight into the IMAX film about the International Space Station. We were really getting into this when about two thirds of the way though the film jammed and then snapped. A guy came on the intercom a couple of minutes later to say that the projection room was a complete mess with tangled film everywhere and that it was going to take a while to fix, so could we all leave please.
We decided to grab a quick lunch before catching the bus tour, this was a mistake, the food court was chaos. I have no idea how NASA got a man on the moon when they could not manage to get more than two on cash registers at lunch time during one of the areas busy weeks. Luckily I saw what was happening and we only got salads, some people tried for hot food. By the time they got to pay for it and eat the food wasn't so much cold as starting to decompose. Seriously there were only half a dozen staff in sight and they were totally over run.
An age later we got on the bus out to the LC39 viewing platform, where we saw Atlantis sitting on the pad being prepared for it's launch.
There is not much out at the viewing gantry other than the glorious views over the whole site, and some great models which show how the launch complex works.
Once we had a good look we got another bus to continue the tour. These bus journeys are not just sitting watching out the windows, the drivers are very informative with their commentary and anecdotes. Plus they show videos on overhead monitors explaining what you are going to see next and other information and history of the site.
The next stop on our tour was the Apollo Centre, which is excellent. You enter though an exact recreation of the launch control room which has been built using all of the original consoles. The room looks exactly like it did for the launch of Apollo 8, even down to jackets hanging on the backs of chairs. Once everyone is in the launch count down of Apollo 8 is run from the three minute mark to just after lift off. This is done by replaying the voice tapes from the day, and all of the telemetry tapes onto the consoles. It is just like it was actually done, the only thing missing are the people sat working.
It is an amazing experience, especially when the rocket starts and someone shakes the whole building, as it would have been shaken on the day.
We had spent a lot of time here last year and missed the International Space Station building, so this year we skipped the rest of the building and went back for the next bus.
All the way over to the ISS building the bus driver kept saying not to use flash in there, but take as many photos without it as you like. The films we watched on the bis and on arrival said it, the signs as you got off the bus said it, the posters with a picture of a flash gun and a red line though it said so. Anyone want to guess what a guy did once we got in the viewing area did and then said he didn't know he couldn't? The tour guide simply looked at him and said in a normal if slightly raised voice, "Sir if you do that again and set off the highly sensitive fire protection system, hosing down $3BILLION of hardware NASA will recover as much as it can from your assets." His teenage daughter put it better, with a simply comment of "DAD, you moron". The ISS building is interesting, with some simple walk though mock ups of the modules, as well as the viewing area where you can see the real things being checked out prior to being loaded into the Shuttle and lunched.
We got the bus back to the main visitor complex where everything was closing up except for the great shop. While DW 'rested' in the shop I got some photos of the rocket garden against a lovely sunset.
Once I found DW I picked up a book for the flight home to add to the things she had already selected.
Once again I felt we had missed large parts of the site, next time I'm going to have to get up earlier and plan the day better, there is loads to do and see here and they are adding even more later this year.
We rounded our child free day off with dinner at Smoky Bones on the way home.
DSis and DBiL had taken DS for lunch at the Wing House before trying their luck using DW's and my Disney passes to get into Epcot. It turns out DBiL and I have identical finger prints! DSis had some trouble, but with 'her child' and husband already in the park the CM simply over rode the gate without even asking for a signature let alone ID. Once they had watched Illuminations they joined us back at the villa for the horror of packing
Our last full day.
We must have the only 11 year old boy on the planet who is not the least bit interested in space. After last year's experience of dragging him round bored all day this year we left him with his aunt and uncle while DW and I went off to KSC. I have to say DW was only coming to spend the day with me, but she later said that she enjoyed the day much more than last year. Probably something with not having to stop me feeding DS to the nearest 'gator all day.
We got out to the centre at about 11am and after a quick bathroom break went straight into the IMAX film about the International Space Station. We were really getting into this when about two thirds of the way though the film jammed and then snapped. A guy came on the intercom a couple of minutes later to say that the projection room was a complete mess with tangled film everywhere and that it was going to take a while to fix, so could we all leave please.
We decided to grab a quick lunch before catching the bus tour, this was a mistake, the food court was chaos. I have no idea how NASA got a man on the moon when they could not manage to get more than two on cash registers at lunch time during one of the areas busy weeks. Luckily I saw what was happening and we only got salads, some people tried for hot food. By the time they got to pay for it and eat the food wasn't so much cold as starting to decompose. Seriously there were only half a dozen staff in sight and they were totally over run.
An age later we got on the bus out to the LC39 viewing platform, where we saw Atlantis sitting on the pad being prepared for it's launch.
There is not much out at the viewing gantry other than the glorious views over the whole site, and some great models which show how the launch complex works.
Once we had a good look we got another bus to continue the tour. These bus journeys are not just sitting watching out the windows, the drivers are very informative with their commentary and anecdotes. Plus they show videos on overhead monitors explaining what you are going to see next and other information and history of the site.
The next stop on our tour was the Apollo Centre, which is excellent. You enter though an exact recreation of the launch control room which has been built using all of the original consoles. The room looks exactly like it did for the launch of Apollo 8, even down to jackets hanging on the backs of chairs. Once everyone is in the launch count down of Apollo 8 is run from the three minute mark to just after lift off. This is done by replaying the voice tapes from the day, and all of the telemetry tapes onto the consoles. It is just like it was actually done, the only thing missing are the people sat working.
It is an amazing experience, especially when the rocket starts and someone shakes the whole building, as it would have been shaken on the day.
We had spent a lot of time here last year and missed the International Space Station building, so this year we skipped the rest of the building and went back for the next bus.
All the way over to the ISS building the bus driver kept saying not to use flash in there, but take as many photos without it as you like. The films we watched on the bis and on arrival said it, the signs as you got off the bus said it, the posters with a picture of a flash gun and a red line though it said so. Anyone want to guess what a guy did once we got in the viewing area did and then said he didn't know he couldn't? The tour guide simply looked at him and said in a normal if slightly raised voice, "Sir if you do that again and set off the highly sensitive fire protection system, hosing down $3BILLION of hardware NASA will recover as much as it can from your assets." His teenage daughter put it better, with a simply comment of "DAD, you moron". The ISS building is interesting, with some simple walk though mock ups of the modules, as well as the viewing area where you can see the real things being checked out prior to being loaded into the Shuttle and lunched.
We got the bus back to the main visitor complex where everything was closing up except for the great shop. While DW 'rested' in the shop I got some photos of the rocket garden against a lovely sunset.
Once I found DW I picked up a book for the flight home to add to the things she had already selected.
Once again I felt we had missed large parts of the site, next time I'm going to have to get up earlier and plan the day better, there is loads to do and see here and they are adding even more later this year.
We rounded our child free day off with dinner at Smoky Bones on the way home.
DSis and DBiL had taken DS for lunch at the Wing House before trying their luck using DW's and my Disney passes to get into Epcot. It turns out DBiL and I have identical finger prints! DSis had some trouble, but with 'her child' and husband already in the park the CM simply over rode the gate without even asking for a signature let alone ID. Once they had watched Illuminations they joined us back at the villa for the horror of packing