Mic & Family - August 2007

Who: Anderson family, Mic & Jeff, Sean (12) and Sarah (9)
When: August 2007
Trip: Cocoa Beach and Kennedy Space Center, 5 nights at Disney, followed by a 7 night Magic for Less group cruise out of Miami, and then 3 nights of free dining at Disney.

DAY 1:
Today's report: Kennedy Space Center

We planned on heading to the airport at 6am, but didn't plan on getting up at 3:30am to get ready. Thanks to the storm sirens going off we were all up and never did get back to sleep. (Kids were too excited, DH can't sleep when it's storming). Our flights down on Sun Country were uneventful for the most part. They did serve us a breakfast sandwich, which was nice but I just about spit my orange juice out when they announced we could buy a "comfort pack" for $7 (a pillow and blanket) and when they said that bottles of water were for sale for $1. I think the airlines are getting a BIT carried away!

We arrived at MCO on time shortly after noon, and headed for the baggage carousel. Jeff went to get the rental car and returned before we had claimed our 6 bags. While waiting for our bags the kids and I were of course wishing we were on Magical Express and already out of the airport and on our way.

After loading up in the car we went looking for the Naval Exchange to pick up our tickets for Kennedy Space Center and Lunch with an Astronaut. It was relatively easy to find once we figured out how Boggy Creek Road looped back around under the airport road. We hopped on 528 and were on our way east.

We came over the hill near the port excited to see the Disney Magic even though we weren't traveling on her, and it wasn't there. (took us til that afternoon when we watched the Carnival ship heading out to sea to remember, DUH, it's in the Mediterranean). We continued towards Atlantic, and when Jeff asked me which way to turn I said I don't know. For the second time that day my family was ready to fire their travel agent (me), first I forgot to preassign our seats and we were separated a little bit, and now I didn't get directions to find our hotel. (ya know how the carpenter's wife never get's any new carpentry in her home? Well the Travel agent's husband doesn't get the same planning service everyone else does :P) So I guessed and said turn right and after a while we saw the sign. It was not exactly on the beach like I was hoping, but was a short walk to the beach down an access path, and we had a partial view of the ocean, although there's some condo's right directly in between the hotel and the beach.

I realized at this time I hade forgotten to pack my swim suit. So we ran to a Bell's Outlet we had seen and I found one I like even better than the one I forgot. Perfect ! We changed into our suits and headed for the beach. As we were walking down a family walking up told us we could use their 2 chairs/umbrella they had rented as they were done for the day. Pixie Dust before we are even at Disney. (note this access path was shared by Hampton Inn and Courtyard, there was a company that rented chairs for $10 a day, umbrellas for $10 a day or a "ultra pack" of 2 chairs and an umbrella for $25.)

We had a blast playing in the waves, and it was so much cooler down by the ocean with a breeze blowing. This was the kids first visit to the Atlantic side and they loved it ! We were able to see some (brave) souls using surfboards and boogie boards a bit too. We went back, showered off all the sand and had dinner at Legends across the street. Good food but we were all so tired we could barely keep our eyes open. They had live music and some couples were getting up and dancing which was nice. So we headed to bed and were all asleep by 8:30am

DAY 2:

Up bright and early the next morning I got everyone moving and we headed to the Waffle House for breakfast, good food at reasonable prices. (and we do not have them in MN ) Next it was off to Kennedy Space Center. I expected to enjoy this but figured it was really for DH and DS. Was I ever wrong. I was first struck by the music as we were walking up to the front entrance. It was very fitting. After swapping out the ticket vouchers we had gotten from the MWR for tickets, we were on our way. Security was a bit more thorough here than at Disney, you have to empty your pockets and bags and go through a metal detector, then you have to show that any cel phones or cameras turn on.

I had put DS in charge of planning our visit there and we all had schedules with maps he had printed out. Each family member had picked on thing they wanted to see or do there, and DS had worked them into the schedule. We had printed out Laura's recent trip report and used it to tweak our touring plan a bit. We found out when the first Astronaut Encounter was and decided we had time to tour the rocket gardens while waiting. (Glad we did this first before it got even hotter) There is a dancing fountain there the kids can play in, be prepared with dry clothes if you are going to let them get soaked as they will freeze when you got into the AC buildings if they are all wet.

Our astronaut was John Braha. He had trained with the Russian cosmonauts and spent 4 months on the Russian space station. He did a great job narrating a film of his journey, and then had a question and answer session. We had gotten front row seats since we got there a little early so both my kids and myself got to ask questions. All the questions asked were interesting and the answers even more so. After this great presentation we had a chance for photos (no autographs though). 1 picture per family taken with you own camera by the KSD guide.

We had a little time and looked at the line for Mission to Mars, not wanting to stand in the heat we headed to the Robot Scouts. This was a cute walk through show that my 9 yr old really enjoyed. I found it quite interesting all that robots do for the space program.

After this it was time to head over for our lunch with an astronaut. I had been told when I ordered our tickets from the MWR to get there 15 minutes early, so we did and started lining up with a lot of other people. They didn't open the doors until 12:15 and we were all quickly seated. There were 16 tables seating 10-11 people each, at least 2 of the tables were completely empty and most of the others had 1 or more empty chairs. We were went up to the buffet which had many options to eat, fresh salad, rolls, chicken breasts,, mac n cheese, California medley of vegetables, and mashed potatoes. A serve yourself drink station had sodas (Coke products), water and hot beverages. The desert table had a layed chocolate cake, cheese cake and what looked like a lemon cake of some sort. While we were dining they showed a film on 2 screens that answered A LOT of questions about how things work up in space. Then the astronaut showed up and it was the same one we had just seen in the encounter.

He talked for a while (mostly different stuff than he had talked about in the encounter) and then took some more questions. I have to say, I honestly had never thought about WHAT they are doing up I in the space station, just figured they were doing astronaut "stuff" that kept them busy all day. But they are conducting all sorts of experiments up there and the results can be used for all sorts of different applications. It was really very fascinating.

After lunch we headed to the Astronaut Memorial, where DS made a donation of his own money. (one dollar but he said if he had had a $5 on him he would have put that in, apparently this has all really touched him). (sniff). Then we checked out the Shuttle Explorer, and headed to the ride Shuttle Launch Experience. There are lockers to put all your belongings in, you rent them for a quarter and get your quarter back when you put the key back in. We stood in line for about 20 minutes and it was hot, there were monitors to watch some astronauts talking about their experiences during launch and that's what the ride was based on. Soon it was our turn. They did a nice preshow which had DD almost freaked out enough not to ride. However it was fairly mild in comparison to some of the rides she has done at Disney. And it was cool. It's not a thrill ride really, but it helps you to feel what they astronauts feel during take off. And then they open the roof and you see the earth "far below" you.

After a quick stop in the gift shop mostly for more water we headed to the car. Stopped at Walgreens to pick up some beach toys and more water and then we headed to the beach again. No free chairs this time but we still had a great time and Jeff and the kids had fun building a great sandcastle.

Today we watched another Carnival ship go out to sea, RC's Mariner of the Seas (boy did she look big, the Freedom is going to overwhelm us!), and yes, there she was so beautiful, the Disney Wonder! For dinner we went to an Italian restaurant the bartender told us about, The Italian Courtyard. Good food but we were all too full to eat much of it. We should have just done a quick take out, ice cream for dinner would have worked. Back to our room and into bed before 9pm.

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