After sleeping in, the next morning we were ready to get our trip started. A wonderful GKTW volunteer visited us and gave us all the information we needed about our tickets and how to use them. She gave us tickets to DisneyWorld, Universal Studios and SeaWorld – she told us there were many more passes available, but we’d have to go request them at the front desk. A few places would need 24 hour notice (like Legoland), but often we could get tickets on the day of.
We told the front desk we’d like to go to Legoland in the coming days, so they said they would arrange it for us and we could pick it up the next day.
Of course, our first stop was NASA – more commonly known as Kennedy Space Center. The drive from Give Kids the World Village was a little over an hour – but it was a nice drive. Lots of lakes and taking the NASA Causeway over to Cape Canaveral/Kennedy Space Center was the most interesting part of our journey! In the distance, we could see one of the rockets at a launch site which Winston was super excited about. We arrived at the Kennedy Space Center and after a quick bag check, we were off to explore the visitor complex. The KSC has a great tour you can take around the entire complex, but this tour is about 3 hours long and on an air conditioned bus.
Some other great attractions include Astronaut Training Experience (although Winston is a little too young for this one – we’ll have to come back when he’s a bit older!), the Hyperdeck VR – where you get to experience blasting off to the moon and collect minerals on the moon surface and Journey To Mars – where you can see life-sized Mars rover replicas and discover NASA’s deep space plans.
For people who like their feet on the ground, you’ll find the humbling Rocket Garden – where the many rockets from past missions tower over you. There’s also the Gateway: The Deep Space Launch Complex that showcases the present and future of space exploration, Space Shuttle Atlantis – where you can check it out up close (also massive!) and of course throughout the day, you can chat with an astronaut or participate in S.T.E.A.M experiments throughout the complex.
Winston especially loved these experiments! He also loved Planet Play – an area designed for children to run and play, while learning about the planets, climb through a wormhole and Winston’s favourite – play a constellation game.
We loved the interactive games here, especially the one where you can design your own satellite and scan it into the computer with it showing up on the big screen! You can also mail messages into space, which will eventually be mailed back to you on their return. Winston enjoyed KSC so much, we ended up going back a few days later!