Port Canaveral to Space Center

[mskaufman]

Has anyone done this tour?  Does the RCI excursion include admission?  Is it a guided tour or self guided?  How much of it is outdoors (going this month)? How much time do you need there?

[AngVan]

We did this excursion through RC almost a year ago. It was worth it. With the group you get to jump a lot of lines. 

Near the end we were given about 2 hours (if I remember correctly) to wander and do what we wanted, most of that stuff was outside, there is also a lot of walking between buildings.

[alfaeric]

A couple of weeks ago, we did KSC on our own from the Anthem- didn't want to be on a specific schedule.  Pre bought tickets, and then took a Lyft over there (which was about $35 each way, much less than a taxi).

 

We didn't do any of the special tours- just the bus tour which stops at the Apollo display.

 

Then went back to the main area, and wandered around, including going into the Atlantis display- which was really cool.  Didn't see everything, as we started late, but saw enough to enjoy ourselves.

 

In the end, the total cost of our own vs. RCI's was pretty darned close to each other- so it was more a matter of being on our own schedule (including staying later than the bus) vs. RCI's schedule.  You will have a great time either way, I think.

[Clarea]

50 minutes ago, mskaufman said:

Has anyone done this tour?  Does the RCI excursion include admission?  Is it a guided tour or self guided?  How much of it is outdoors (going this month)? How much time do you need there?

 

Yes, admission is included.

[Ashland]

We just did the KSC 8 hour guided tour in October during our port stop from Adventure. It was just amazing with a wonderful guide named Debra...a life long resident with such knowledge and history facts.

We booked with the ship and after many price adjustments got it for $79.99pp.

 

Everything was included except for lunch and of course our souvenir's.

Edited December 9, 2019 by Ashland

[Schonert]

Personally I do not think a day is long enough there, you will have to pick and choose what you want to see.  You need to take the bus that goes around to the various locations, we spent over 5 hrs at the Saturn 5 rocket building.  Also I read that it goes to the vehicle assembly building again.  (Was in there about 35-40 yrs ago.)

 

The outside is mainly going between buildings, and the “ Rocket Garden”. Places where there were outside viewing platforms had a ceiling overtop. 

[hallux]

Be aware - there are actually two tours, one is just transportation to/from and admission to the visitor's center while the other is a guided tour.

 

I was there almost 2 years ago - it was WELL worth doing it through the ship as it was also a Space-X launch day so traffic was HORRIBLE.  The driver (it was a KSC bus and driver) got special permission to take us through a gate that's normally closed in an effort to bypass some of the traffic, and about halfway through our wait in traffic on the bus (a few hours) they told us that people without pre-purchased tickets were being turned away, ours were pre-purchased.

 

Because of the traffic we didn't have enough time to see everything at the visitor's center, but we did get to see a launch!

[mskaufman]

Thanks everyone! We are there on Christmas and that is one of the things that is open.

[Ourusualbeach]

2 hours ago, hallux said:

Be aware - there are actually two tours, one is just transportation to/from and admission to the visitor's center while the other is a guided tour.

There are 3 tours listed for our Anthem cruise.  Two different guided tours and one self tour.

[Clarea]

I have no idea it this is true, but during the bus part of the guided tour, we were told that our tour was slightly different than that of those who purchase the tour onsite.

[John&LaLa]

Launches rarely go off on schedule, it's just luck

 

They do allow ships to leave the channel during a launch, that's pretty cool

[pthjudy]

19 hours ago, mskaufman said:

Has anyone done this tour?  Does the RCI excursion include admission?  Is it a guided tour or self guided?  How much of it is outdoors (going this month)? How much time do you need there?

We did this tour with Anthem last week. We chose the shuttle option because we wanted flexibility. It included transportation and admission. We were happy with our choice. I planned it out beforehand according to location and activity level. We did not experience lines and could have used more time. The only outside time was walking between buildings. It was chilly but we had dressed accordingly.  Loved it!

[sellwingri]

We did the guided tour with transportation to the airport when we disembarked Harmony in September.  In February, we’re doing the basic transportation to and from the ship (Anthem) and admission.  We hope to be able to see more on our own than we did on the guided tour and be able to go where we want to go.  We felt either rushed or “sit and wait” on the guided tour.  It really was amazing but we want to see more.