Saturday 21 September

Well, it’s been a while since Catherine & Andrew have been to Kennedy Space Center and Chris had never visited.  We had a pain free drive over to Cape Canaveral and got parked up near to the entrance.  It’s definitely changed in the past few years.

After getting our tickets validated we visited the Heroes & Legends show which is a 3D experience taking you through some of the space missions that left from Kennedy over the years and supposedly into the minds of those astronauts & crew that worked on them.  Very impressive show and used similar technology to Soarin’ at Epcot to make you feel like you were flying through the minds of the astronauts.

We then decided to do the main tour of the day which is the bus tour to the launch pads and then to the Saturn V rocket exhibit.  This takes you on a 40-minute bus tour of the various launch pads and also past the vehicle assembly building (VAB) where NASA built their rockets.  We were lucky as one of the humungous doors was open as we drove past so we could catch a glimpse of the inside & it is truly massive!  We were able to see the launch sites that SpaceX are currently using to send rockets up to the International Space Station.

It was then on to the main exhibit, the Saturn V rocket experience.  This is truly breathtaking.  There are various exhibition rooms in this area but the main hall houses a full-size Saturn V rocket overhead.  Walking underneath it is amazing and you feel so small!  There are also shows which look at Apollo 11 (with particular focus on the landing of the Eagle module on the moon) and a tribute to the 3 astronauts lost in Apollo 1, Virgil Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee.

By now it was getting on for a late lunch so we caught the bus back to the main centre and stopped for a quick snack and a drink before tackling the next major exhibit – Atlantis.  This has only been open since 2013 and houses the retired space shuttle Atlantis.  This is another breathtaking experience, seeing the space shuttle up close.

There are also fun things to do like the slides where you come into land in the same way as the shuttle and also the launch experience where you can play the astronaut & experience what it’s like to blast off into space.

Time today really ran away with us and before we knew it, it was nearly closing time.  We were all starving so found a local Olive Garden restaurant for dinner.  Another one that doesn’t disappoint, we had a fantastic server who gave us extra salad, bread sticks and also kept our drinks topped up.  We left feeling absolutely stuffed!  

Then it was home via Publix for milk and the gas station for fuel.