Monday 12th June
Day 3
Index:
'Going the Distance' June 2017
The alarm woke us at 6:45. We got up and ready fairly quickly and had some cookies etc for breakfast. Chris liked the coffee machine in the room - he had one each morning.
We left at 7:40 and headed to the universal bus loop. We had booked with attraction tickets direct although I think they subcontract to Florida Dolphin Tours. We booked the Kennedy Space Centre Space Pass with transport which included the lunch with an astronaut and special bus tour.
It was odd walking out when load of people were walking in, although I assume they would be really early for a 9am opening. We were excited for the day ahead – this was one of the things Chris requested especially to do.
We were soon on the bus and did a couple of pickups before swapping onto a bigger bus on international drive. I think they had sent a shuttle to the universal area and one to Disney in order to pick people up in a more organised manner. We set off from international drive at 8:30am. We didn’t hit any traffic and made good time it took just over an hour.
We could just about see it in the distance here...
It was quite an overcast day which was okay as we spent most of it indoors.
We arrived at 9:38 and headed in taking lots of photos on the way. I have to say that this is a photo orientated day. I didn’t make too many notes.
The rocket garden was very impressive - look at the sheer size of the rockets.
We headed to the Atlantis exhibit for 10am – they had a guide that took us in whilst giving us information. We then watched the video presentation – it honestly gave me chills and the final part was fantastic – trying not to give too much away for anyone who hasn’t been.
Seeing Atlantis was amazing, I was lost for words. We spent quite a while reading the information, taking it all in and taking some photos. The guide had stayed behind to answer questions and she took a photo for us.
We found there were lots of staff around who had certain expertise that you could talk to.
We spent around 1hr 45 mins in the Atlantis exhibit in total there is so much to do including a simulated launch ride which was actually really good. We also enjoyed all ‘kids’ stuff like the slide
We found all the little games quite hard to get the hang of though.
Photo spam ahead...
^ we really struggled with the little interactive games, we just couldn't get the hang of it.
There are also memorials for challenger and Columbia which were really sobering to see as they had personal possessions form each astronaut that the family had donated along with debris.
On the way out of the Atlantis Building I bought myself a Christmas decoration.
I knew I would be buying Disney Christmas decorations so thought I might as well have a NASA one too.
We were having Lunch with an Astronaut at 12:00 so we headed to the building after leaving Atlantis. We passed the prototype of the mars rover. Super cool! Looks like an intergalactic batmobile :’)
It was chaos getting into the presentation room but we eventually made it in. There was some time to go up and get some food from the buffet before the presentation was due to take place.
There wasn’t an amazing amount of choice but there was plenty of food and it was all fresh and hot.
We had just been up to get a cupcake and some cookies for desert when the presentation started. The astronaut today was Ken Cameron and he gave a brief talk about his career but mainly focussed on his third mission when he commanded Atlantis to dock with the Russian Space Station Mir. We found it really interesting and he was really lovely answering audience questions at the end.
We had our photo taken on the way out. There was a professional photographer and they could also use your own camera – we got a quick photo with Chris’s phone too.
We then headed over towards the bus depot area as we had a bus tour booked for 1:30pm. The tour we had booked was the KSC Explore Tour which does quite a few stops before dropping you off at the Saturn V centre.
I have completely forgotten the name of the guide we had but he was quite young and very funny. He had actually worked at Disney for 2 years before moving to work at Kennedy 3 years ago.
Our first stop was the NASA Causeway followed by the Space X building.
We then had a stop to have a closer look at the launch pads such as 39 Part A which was originally built for the Apollo program and then modified to use for the Space Shuttle. It’s now used by SpaceX. They are developing pad B for the Space Launch System which I think is meant to launch its first mission in 2019.
There was a raised area – this is where camera etc are stationed to record the launches. You can see the little bunker area that was used here although there are some people in the way :P
Next stop was the vehicle assembly building – we passed the crawler causeway on the way there.
The VAB is the largest single-story building in the world. The flag alone is 209 feet high, and 110 feet wide. Each of the stars on the flag is 6 feet across and each of the stripes is 9 feet wide.
The tour ended by dropping us off at the Saturn V centre.
The control room exactly as it was for the Apollo 8 mission. There was a reenactment of what it would have been like in the room at that time.
We then went through to the hangar to see the Saturn V rocket that went to the moon. They have displayed it stage by stage – its 363 feet long. So massive! Photo spam ahead again!
^ I really like this photo.
There are lots of other little exhibits with moon rocks, spacesuits etc to look at. I found all the exhibits really informative although I think Chris understood alot more than me as he is really into space travel etc. If this report had been written by him you would have had a lot more detail
We popped into another gift shop. We decided to buy our phot that we had taken with Ken Cameron and so got two copies of that. Chris also bought a mug and some Apollo patches which he is going to frame. I got a pin to put on the camera strap.
It was 4:45pm now so we made a move to get a bus back to the main complex. The driver was super chatty and had worked at Kennedy for over 30 years. He was also mega patriotic, I found him super cute
He was shaking people's hands when they got off the bus.
We made it back to the main complex by 5:15 and headed out to the carpark to get on the bus.
^ Chris wanted to get a photo of timer at 0.
I took a photo of this to send to my parents – they have a motorhome but it’s not quite as big or fancy as this one.
The bus left at 5:30 and we made it back for 7. There was some very heavy rain and also a quite bad patch of traffic which increased our journey time a little.
We walked via the main entrance to the hotel. I really liked the bridge to the lobby.
We put our souvenirs away and had a bit of rest in the room for around an hour or so. We were pretty hungry when we got in so had some more of our snacks. We only had one more day at Universal as on Wednesday 14th we were moving to the villa so we were trying to eat up some of the room snacks.
We arrived at City walk at 8:30pm and decided to try Toothsome as I had seen it get good reviews on here and also I really wanted one of those ridiculous milkshakes.
We were told the wait would be 30-40mins which was fine with us as we were no longer crazy hungry due to the in room snacks.
We decided to get a drink at the Hard Rock whilst we were waiting. I liked the revolving pink car – very funky.
Chris had a tropical torpedo and I had a banana berry colada which was like an alcoholic smoothie.
I don’t have an exact price or receipt but I think it was around $16 as my drink was just over $10 after tax. There was a good atmosphere in here, it was very lively and we enjoyed the music.
We got a text at 9:10pm to return to Toothsome so we headed back. It was chaos at the host stand, I think they had obviously text a large number of people to return at the same time as we still had to wait for around 5-10 mins before being seated.
We watched some of the desserts and milkshakes being made whilst we waited.
We were seated upstairs on what was like a gallery landing as we could see the floor below us.
^Fancy projection screens on the walls.
I ordered a peach smash to drink. This was lovely and fruity.
Chris had a classic old fashioned, which he really liked. He often makes them at home.
We ordered chicken wings to start.
These had a chocolate stout glaze on. We declared these the best chicken wings of the holiday so far. I’ve just realised that we had had 4 evening meals so far and ¾ featured chicken wings. Think we have a problem :’)
For mains I had the carbonara and Chris had the May contain bacon burger.
Both were fantastic. Mine was super rich though so Chris helped me out at the end.
We had another round of drinks with the mains - Chris ordered the revolutionary old fashioned which he preferred to the classic one. I ordered violette's dream.
This was gin based and tasted a lot stronger than the peach smash but I still enjoyed it.
For desert we ordered the Marshmallow Crisp Milkshake.
This was because I wanted a milkshake and Chris was eyeing up the rice crispy squares through the viewing area where they make the deserts.
This was amazing, very thick. Basically tasted like drinking a marshmallow. We drank most of it walking back to the hotel.
Total bill was $110 and we left $130.
We were back at the hotel by 11pm and crashed into bed – alarms were set for 7 and we were going to attempt to make it to Volcano Bar for early entry.
Steps 10,420 – 8km.
Thanks for reading!
Day 4 is
HERE!