Cruise Day 3

The most memorable family vacation that I went on was a trip to Disney World in 5th grade. During the trip, we went to the Kennedy Space Center. Let me back up. I was a juvenile space junky. I blame it on Star Wars. I was infatuated with space. I wanted to be the world’s first doctor-firefighter-paleontologist-astronaut.


Fast forward to Day 3 of our cruise. We stopped at our first port, Port Canaveral. We had picked our excursions months ago and the first was a return to NASA. The boat was about 2 hours late getting cleared for us to leave. Once cleared, the stampede began. It really wasn’t too bad except for those that kept trying to skip ahead in line. We couldn’t find Audrey’s key card that doubles as your pass on and off the ship, so they made us another one. After I returned to the room with the new card, Audrey found her old one. Well, when we went to leave the ship, we had accidentally brought the old, deactivated card. She couldn’t get off of the ship. So I left her and had a great time without her. Just kidding. I went back and got the new card and everything worked fine.

Once off the boat, we passed this couple fully supporting a very old and feeble appearing man trying to cross the street. No, we didn’t rush over to help because they seemed to have it covered. However, we did wonder which excursion they were planning with this man that could barely shuffle his feet. We assumed that it was parasailing or maybe scuba. For some reason, they did not plan ahead and arrange a wheelchair or anything.

We took a tour bus to Kennedy. On the drive, Audrey saw an alligator in the canal beside the road. Kennedy is on the edge of a huge nature preserve. They have very few fences because the alligators and many poisonous snakes keep unwanted people out pretty well.

Once there, we headed to a launch simulator. It was similar to Star Tours at Disneyland. In the pre-flight video, the astronaut instructor claims that it is the most realistic blast-off simulator in existence. Maybe or maybe not. But it was pretty cool.

After we returned to earth, we got on the bus tour. It takes you to some cool sights on the facility that are too far to walk. We were in luck. The shuttle is scheduled to launch next week so it was on the pad. We got to see the actual shuttle and Boosters/Fuel Tank assembled and on the pad. It was from about 1 mile away, but it was the real deal. While we were there, NASA announced a launch delay to the 19th or so.

We then were bussed to where they have a Saturn V rocket housed. It is ENORMOUS! It is really hard to describe without seeing, but it is as tall as a 36 story building. Its mass is about 91% fuel. It was awesome. They also had a display with many actual space related displays including moon rocks, Alan Shepard’s actual space suit worn on Apollo 14, and toms of other cool stuff.

We caught an IMAX 3D presentation about the repair of the Hubble telescope. It was a little hard to comprehend the images from the telescope, even in 3D. The vastness of space is a bit overwhelming.

The whole day, I felt like a kid again. It stirred feelings of patriotism, excitement, and wonder as I saw what people have been through in order to better understand our world and beyond. I could feel that 11 year old’s excitement again; wishing that I could go up there. And although I would probably jump at the chance, I am grateful that I have been so blessed to be actually living out the greatest adventure of all. And I’m so grateful to have my beautiful wife along for the journey.

(By Rick)

Not the real shuttle.

The real shuttle!

Saturn V

My girl!

The traditional self portrait.

Restricted my butt.

For the ladies.

Maybe these should be classified as planets, no?

The real deal!