minuet
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Feb 13, 2007
- Messages
- 228
Just wanted to post that I loved this day of our trip. If you enjoy learning about space, it's history and where they are going it's a wonderful day.
We arrived and got on the bus tour which stops at the shuttle launch viewing pad. You can look out and see where all the historical pads are (Mercury, Gemini etc.) this took us about 20-25 min and then we hopped on the next bus to the Saturn V Centre. This area focuses on the moon landings. This is where we had lunch. I honestly didn't find it bad. I liked the pizza but perhaps I'm not as picky as others. This area took us awhile as my fiance and I are very into the history of space exploration and the Apollo Program. There is an area where you walk through and sit in what looks like the Mission Control room and they recreate one of the Apollo missions from that perspective. There is also another theatre where they recreate the moon landing of Apollo 11 and take you through how it works. This is interactive as the stage looks like the surface of the moon and the tricks are pretty neat.
All around the Saturn 5 Center is memorabilia. There are giant missions patches, a small overview of each missions and it's key components, Al Sheppard's car, a LEM, a lunar rover etc. Overhead is a real Saturn V Booster rocket so you can see the size. There is also a small gift shop here. Overall this stop took us a couple of hours but we wanted to soak in everything.
The final stop is the Intl. Space station stop. You go through 2 areas. One is where they are preparing actual material to go up so you see this from behind glass. The other room is a mock-up that you can walk through to see how things work and what experiments they are doing up there.
Back at the Main area there is a shuttle launch, the Memorial Garden (always worth a short stop in my opinion), the rocket garden which has all the other launchers from the missions not Apollo. You can actually sit in a Mercury and Gemini capsule here. There is also a mock-up of the new machines for the next program called Orion. This is right in the main area. There is also a huge gift shop that is 2 floors so takes some time to see it all and find the right souvenir. The IMAX movies are also very good. I haven't seen the Shuttle one but the Moon one was amazing and narrated by Tom Hanks. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
The bus tour is also narrated so as you drive by different buildings like the vehicle assembly building you learn how big is actually is and how big the USA flag on the side is.
It is not an amusement park of rides but if your son enjoys learning about space he should have a wonderful time!
We arrived and got on the bus tour which stops at the shuttle launch viewing pad. You can look out and see where all the historical pads are (Mercury, Gemini etc.) this took us about 20-25 min and then we hopped on the next bus to the Saturn V Centre. This area focuses on the moon landings. This is where we had lunch. I honestly didn't find it bad. I liked the pizza but perhaps I'm not as picky as others. This area took us awhile as my fiance and I are very into the history of space exploration and the Apollo Program. There is an area where you walk through and sit in what looks like the Mission Control room and they recreate one of the Apollo missions from that perspective. There is also another theatre where they recreate the moon landing of Apollo 11 and take you through how it works. This is interactive as the stage looks like the surface of the moon and the tricks are pretty neat.
All around the Saturn 5 Center is memorabilia. There are giant missions patches, a small overview of each missions and it's key components, Al Sheppard's car, a LEM, a lunar rover etc. Overhead is a real Saturn V Booster rocket so you can see the size. There is also a small gift shop here. Overall this stop took us a couple of hours but we wanted to soak in everything.
The final stop is the Intl. Space station stop. You go through 2 areas. One is where they are preparing actual material to go up so you see this from behind glass. The other room is a mock-up that you can walk through to see how things work and what experiments they are doing up there.
Back at the Main area there is a shuttle launch, the Memorial Garden (always worth a short stop in my opinion), the rocket garden which has all the other launchers from the missions not Apollo. You can actually sit in a Mercury and Gemini capsule here. There is also a mock-up of the new machines for the next program called Orion. This is right in the main area. There is also a huge gift shop that is 2 floors so takes some time to see it all and find the right souvenir. The IMAX movies are also very good. I haven't seen the Shuttle one but the Moon one was amazing and narrated by Tom Hanks. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
The bus tour is also narrated so as you drive by different buildings like the vehicle assembly building you learn how big is actually is and how big the USA flag on the side is.
It is not an amusement park of rides but if your son enjoys learning about space he should have a wonderful time!
