Visiting Kennedy Space Center

[sellwingri]

We’re scheduled to be in Port Canaveral in February from 7am to 7pm and would like to again visit Kennedy Space Center.  We were on a RCI tour in September but had limited time and didn’t get to see everything and would like to go again on our own.  Is it possible to take a taxi to and from the port or would we need to arrange for a car service?  Any idea of the cost?

 

[iahawkfan21]

An Uber would probably run about $30 each way.  You also could rent a car in the port area for a day which would give you more flexibility.  All the major agencies are in the port or nearby, and cost should be pretty reasonable for a day.

[Cienfuegos]

There's a launch this morning, by the way.  The space center sells VIP seating for launches during daylight  hours

 

https://www.kennedyspacecenter.com/explore-attractions/behind-the-gates

[Sea Dog]

When we visited the KSC this past October we did a Uber and it was great. There is a special area in the parking lot for Uber to pickup and drop off passengers.

[Capt_BJ]

right now I get T-1 to KSC visitor center $23 .....

[luckyinpa]

On 11/11/2019 at 9:57 AM, Sea Dog said:

When we visited the KSC this past October we did a Uber and it was great. There is a special area in the parking lot for Uber to pickup and drop off passengers.

 

this is good info. ill be down sun/mon of christmas week and so have until about 4pm to get back on the ship. id love to start early and make a full day of it because i'm very interested in the add on tours they have. the NCL tour is 125 and i think only 50 of that is the ticket price.  so 75x3 is 225 in transportation the 3 of us would be paying. if uber even is 50 each way we are saving a lot.

 

the explore tour starts 1030 that monday so plenty of time to get there . there is no early space tour when we are there. so really i dont have to make a choice. i hope this tour goes on the launch pad. must do some researching. 

 

regarding the rental car suggestion above, for my particular trip it was about 130 a day which is truly insane. i guess because is a tourist area?  still cheaper than the 225 from NCL though  but i dont know how hard it is to get to the rental places from the ship

[Capt_BJ]

 i hope this tour goes on the launch pad. must do some researching. 

 

even the included bus tour goes to A launch pad (unless the area is closed due to being 'active')  There are quite a number of launch pads; some old and some 'current'

 

 i dont know how hard it is to get to the rental places from the ship

 

Generally speaking all the available rental choices are going to run shuttles to their offices.  Some are closer than others but all are with a few miles of the terminals. How long you might wait depends on your luck of walking out at the right time AND how many ships are in port on your day in question. Some days PC sees one visiting ship and then there's little issue. And some days there is one visiting ship and 5 ships turning over (which means double people with one group arriving to go home and another wanting to get on board) on a day like this the rental places are usually a ZOO.

Try looking here for expected 'port load' : https://www.portcanaveral.com/PortCanaveral/media/Cruise-Assets/2016 Images/Port-Canaveral-Cruise-Schedule-8-1-19-to-9-30-20.pdf

[slidergirl]

1 hour ago, luckyinpa said:

 

this is good info. ill be down sun/mon of christmas week and so have until about 4pm to get back on the ship. id love to start early and make a full day of it because i'm very interested in the add on tours they have. the NCL tour is 125 and i think only 50 of that is the ticket price.  so 75x3 is 225 in transportation the 3 of us would be paying. if uber even is 50 each way we are saving a lot.

 

the explore tour starts 1030 that monday so plenty of time to get there . there is no early space tour when we are there. so really i dont have to make a choice. i hope this tour goes on the launch pad. must do some researching. 

 

regarding the rental car suggestion above, for my particular trip it was about 130 a day which is truly insane. i guess because is a tourist area?  still cheaper than the 225 from NCL though  but i dont know how hard it is to get to the rental places from the ship

 

May I refer people to use that HOT WIRE website to look for rental cars?  I've used it to get cars in Puerto Rico, Orlando, Cocoa Beach.  Good prices.  Depending on what size car you are look for, it can be much less than that $130.   

 

For Uber - a question: when you put in your request for pickup at KSC, what was the wait time?  I'm just wondering of drivers just wait around KSC after drop-offs and hope someone asks for a pickup.  There isn't much around KSC that would have Ubers working.

[Sea Dog]

2 hours ago, luckyinpa said:

i hope this tour goes on the launch pad. must do some researching. 

When we were at KSC in October the bus tour did not take us to any of the launch pads. They pointed them out in the distance. Part of why we did go to the pads was security precautions as there was a launch coming up. If your interested I covered our KSC visit in my review here:

 

Edited November 15, 2019 by Sea Dog