NASA excursion

[jhogan44]

Has anyone taken the NASA excursion in Port Canaveral? We want something that gets us as close as possible but without boring bus tours. We will be on NCL jewel. Thanks!:confused:

[njhorseman]

It's not possible to tour the grounds of Kennedy Space Center without using their buses. It's a big facility and you are not permitted to go from place to place by any other means.

[ladmom]

Has anyone taken the NASA excursion in Port Canaveral? We want something that gets us as close as possible but without boring bus tours. We will be on NCL jewel. Thanks!:confused:

 

My family took this tour on rcl last year. We loved it. While you are not able to tour the facility on your own, you should be satisfied with the bus tour and the tour of the grounds. My family was lucky enough to be there on the day the shuttle returned!!! It was awesome. We were not close enough to see it. We did hear the sonic boom. They had the re-entry playing on a big screen so we watched it after hearing the sonic boom.

 

The becoming an astronaut tour was great...if you are a space nut, you will enjoy it!!!

[CALMOM]

Our family did the Kennedy Space Center tour and loved it. The day we were there, they had a shuttle on the launch pad but was not scheduled to launch for a couple of days due to winds (so they say). You get on a bus and it takes you to different stations, I think there was 5 stations. I think those of us that were born in the 30's, 40's, 50's and 60's find it very memorable, of the history, of NASA. However, any age would really enjoy it and lots of photo opportunities. This was perhaps our favorite place to visit out of our entire cruise to the Caribbean. We did the tour, the day we disembarked and before we flew out. You need to allow at least 6 hours and preferably 8 hours to see it all and even that is a somewhat fast pace.

 

If possible, try to see it, because with all the NASA budget cuts, who knows how long the Kennedy Space Station will be open to the public. It is extremely sad to see an end to the space shuttles. We loved Coco Beach but without tourists, I can't imagine how the residents will survive.

[griffy116]

Several years ago we combined our cruise with day at Universal. On our return after the park closed that night our little mini-van got detoured because of forest fire/smoke. Everyone was tired and fell asleep on me. I got lost and when I saw the sign for the Space Center, I thought it was putting me back on the road to our hotel which was on same road as Space Center. I was just thinking how I hadn't seen a single vehicle after turning on the road to our hotel, when this little tiny house appeared followed by a very large man in uniform with a gun, clearly blocking my route. When I suddenly stopped, everyone in the van woke up. He explained that I would immediately turn around as I was in a restricted area. I started to go past what I now knew to be a guard post when he again stopped me and said I would not be proceeding one inch further toward the astronauts quarters :eek: and should put the mini-van in reverse at once. When I tried to explain our situation, he said that I had already zoomed past one guard post and they had been watching me on cameras since then. He was quite clear that we had created quite a situation that they were trying to avoid any further action. I backed up and made my return to the road. Clearly, we could see SEVERAL points, including multiple warning signs and another guard house where I should have stopped and I have no idea other than fatigue and driving too fast that could have explained what could have been a very dangerous situation I put my family in...I still don't like to imagine what the headlines would have been had that soldier not put himself in the middle of the road to block me. I would, therefore, recommend the less private excursion :(.