within an hour's drive of Orlando the
Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex
aims to provide a once-in-a-lifetime
experience with giant rockets a
real-life space shuttle and the
occasional alligator will be so much to
do in Central Florida is it worth a trip
hi I'm the frugal Brit and for this
video I'm gonna provide a breakdown of
the good and they're not so good thing
this about Kennedy Space Center Visitor
Complex to help you decide whether this
attraction is worth a visit on your
vacation in addition I'll be providing a
full tour of all the main exhibits and
experiences as well as providing my top
tips to get the best out of any visit
here don't forget to subscribe if you're
interested in future Florida and
vacation content the Kennedy Space
Center is located in Central Florida and
takes around an hour if you're traveling
by car keep in mind that there is no
public transportation but I understand
that Gray Line Orlando and Florida
Dolphin tours are offering
transportation to the Visitor Complex
also you can purchase tickets for
Kennedy Space Center that include
transportation from Orlando from via
tour so what is Kennedy Space Center and
why is it important the short answer is
that since 1968 it has been NASA's
primary Launch Center of human
spaceflight missions the most famous of
which being the moon landing from the
Apollo program as well as the space
shuttle program
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the property for Kennedy Space Center is
absolutely enormous with around 700
facilities and buildings grouped across
the center's 144 thousand acres of land
some of which I'll be covering in part 2
of the video your standard daily
admission tickets will cost you fifty
seven dollars for adults and forty-seven
dollars for children be sure to also
factor in the sneaky ten dollar parking
fee Kennedy Space Center is organized
into separate mission zones allowing you
to weave your way through the u.s. space
program in a sort of chronological order
Club includes the Mercury Gemini Apollo
and the space shuttle programs starting
with the attraction nearest to the
entrance
you have the heroes and legends exhibit
experience which begins with a short
presentation from everyday people
discussing their heroes and inspirations
which is followed by a grandiose 3d
short film presenting NASA's history and
achievements the focus of this exhibit
is America's first astronauts and nine
characteristics of a hero each of these
features astronaut artifacts and
multimedia relevant to these
characteristics key artifacts and heroes
and legends include a redstone rocket
suspended overhead this Sigma 7 capsule
the control sensor from Project Mercury
and the unique close-up look at the
Gemini 9 capsule
the heroes and legends building also
features the u.s. astronaut Hall of Fame
the center which features an interactive
kiosk with an end of the database
emission index and a virtual photo
opportunity with the mercury 7
astronauts
next door to the heroes and legends
building you'll find the rocket garden
we will see an outdoor display of
historic rockets that put Americans and
satellites in space
the garden also features mock-ups of
capsules from the Mercury Gemini and
Apollo programs that visitors can get
ever since 1966 three years before the
moon landing Kennedy Space Center has
provided guided tours of its launch
sites and spaceflight facilities this is
included with your standard admission
but there are some additional tours that
I won't be coring in this video that you
can purchase as an add-on so here's a
map of the bus tour that you'll be doing
which ends up at the incredible apollo
and saturn v center one of the first
notable landmarks that your view on this
bus tour is the ridiculously ginormous
Vehicle Assembly Building built in 1966
to allow the construction of the Saturn
5 rockets for the Apollo program as
there isn't much nearby to compare it to
you may not realize that this is
actually one of the largest buildings in
the world by volume there's no Disney
forced perspective trickery here this
thing could fit around 15 Cinderella
castles inside the second main landmark
on the bus tour is the launch complex 39
a rocket launch site this site and its
collection of facilities was originally
built for the Apollo program all 12 men
who have left the earth and walk on the
moon were sent there from this specific
launch pad it was later modified for the
space shuttle program
in April 2014
Elon Musk's SpaceX company purchased a
20-year lease for this launch complex
and there's been several launches from
here since then including the Falcon
heavies made and launched in the
February 2018 carrying Elon Musk's Tesla
Roadster after being driven around these
rocket launch sites you'll head back
around the Vehicle Assembly Building
before heading Northwest over to one of
the main attractions at Kennedy Space
Center the Apollo Saturn v Center pays
homage to the people and machines that
sent the first humans to the moon with
interactive exhibits to allow guests to
relive the Wonder and excitement of the
Apollo era the first attraction within
this Center is the firing room theater
where you can relive the launch of the
first crewed NASA mission to orbit the
moon in 1968 aboard the massive saturn v
rocket experienced the countdown for
Apollo 8 facing the actual consoles used
during the Apollo launches whilst
viewing a saturn v moon rocket liftoff
from the launch pad as you leave the
firing room you'll get the chance to
walk beneath the centrepiece of the
Apollo Saturn v Center which is a
restored saturn v launch vehicle the
largest rocket ever built at 363 feet
long it is 60 feet taller than the
Statue of Liberty
if you're wondering why the Vehicle
Assembly Building was so big it's
because NASA ambitiously wanted the
ability to build four of these at once
although that never actually happened
within this Center you'll find a variety
of different space suits including the
space suit that Alan Shepard the first
American astronaut used for the Apollo
14 mission another exhibit within this
Center is the Apollo 14 command module
which carried Alan Shepard to the moon
in 1971 and orbited it 34 times he'll
also find an unused Apollo commander
from service module
and unused lunar module and lastly
another theater that simulates the
Apollo 11 moon landing
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you can't miss the entrance to the home
of space shuttle Atlantis a gigantic
full-scale Space Shuttle stack of two
rocket boosters and it's orange external
tank inside you'll be shown a short
video projected onto the entrance to the
exhibit highlighting the triumphs of the
Atlantis shuttle once this video was
finished you'll see the real thing out
in front of you as only the astronauts
would have seen it in space with its
payload doors open as if undocked from
the International Space Station the
Atlantis exhibit also includes a
life-sized replica of the Hubble Space
Telescope which was launched by space
shuttle Discovery in 1990
the exhibit also gives you the ability
to learn to pilot the Space Shuttle with
numerous astronaut training simulators
if you wanted to experience what it's
like to be launched from a Space Shuttle
into orbit then Kennedy Space Center
provides a simulator with its shuttle
launch experience you'll enter the heart
of Space Shuttle operations for a
pre-launch briefing by veteran Space
Shuttle commander Charles Bolden and
once onboard he'll experience what the
veteran astronauts have described as
being the next best thing to flying
aboard the space shuttle the forever
remembered exhibit memorializes the 14
brave astronauts who perished during the
loss of the orbiters Challenger and
Columbia this permanent exhibit displays
personal items from each astronaut and
recovered hardware from both orbiters
including a section of challenges left
fuselage with American flag and the
framework of Columbia's cockpit windows
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the final mission zone at Kennedy Space
Center is the NASA now and next exhibit
which aims to immerse guests in the
science of current missions to the
International Space Station and upcoming
missions to explore deep space the most
noteworthy attraction here is the
journey to Mars explorers wanted exhibit
which features large-scale video
projections dimensional exhibits and
interactive experiences all designed to
immerse visitors into the adventure and
unsolved challenges of future space
exploration also within this mission
zone is the Kennedy Space Center imax
theater where you can catch space movies
at no extra cost when I first came here
many many years ago I didn't fully
appreciate that Kennedy Space Center is
a fully operational Space Center and not
just a Space Museum with some historical
landmarks not only can you enjoy the
history of NASA's incredible journey
you can also witness real-life space
launches on a fairly regular basis there
is a weird but beautiful mixture of
nostalgia and futurism which is unique
to Kennedy Space Center and it's
understandable why this place is on so
many bucket lists
I do have to mention how brilliantly
presented all the attractions and
exhibits are many of which are truly
breathtaking whilst the attractions do
have cues they use pre-show videos to
help you appreciate what you're about to
discover these emotionally compelling
videos do a fantastic job of educating
inspiring and most importantly making
the wait times feel a bit shorter in my
not so controversial opinion the best
attraction at Kennedy Space Center is
the space shuttle Atlantis exhibit the
way in which the pre-show blends into
the main exhibit is one of the best
experiences out there and I wouldn't
limit this to just Kennedy Space Center
I really appreciate that they've
actually made the effort to display a
real shuttle orbiter that's being used
rather than just throwing out a replica
also within this exhibit is the shuttle
launch experience which is well received
by kids since the early 70s Kennedy
Space Center has relied substantially on
tourists traveling to Disney World who
may be looking for something a bit
different on their vacation and that is
precisely what Kennedy Space Center
provides within Central Florida many
families have at least one family member
that isn't really into theme parks and
so a trip to Kennedy Space Center can be
a deal-breaker when it comes to booking
a vacation in Florida but this
attraction isn't just for grumpy dance
if you are taking kids with you Kennedy
Space Center has plenty for them to
enjoy and can hopefully provide some
unique inspiration of how the impossible
can be achieved by high ambition
relentless hard work
and astounding bravery the most common
complaint with Kennedy Space Center by a
country mile is the queues for the bus
tour the main problem being that most
people are entering this queue between
the late morning and early afternoon
during these times the queue can often
be over an hour which wastes a huge
chunk of your day I can't help but feel
like this situation could maybe be
improved by using timed tickets to ease
the pressure but this would obviously
take away some flexibility from guests
most people really enjoy the standard
bus tour overall but there are some
including myself that would have
appreciated getting a little bit closer
to where the Apollo missions launched
from another thing I found is that the
quality of your tour guide experience
largely depends on who's giving the tour
the guy in my second tour didn't show a
great deal of passion except for when he
was encouraging guests to leave enough
time for the gift shops something that
Kennedy Space Center is certainly not
lacking as always I have to have a bit
of a moan about any hidden costs the
parking at Kennedy Space Center is
$10.00 per day this is less than half
the likes of Disney World and Universal
but given the location of this
attraction and because there is multiple
toll fees when driving from Alando it
would have been nice to offer free
parking the food at Kennedy Space Center
is not known for its good value or
quality unfortunately something which
even my tour guide warned me off those
with a strong interest in space and NASA
etc may take issue with the approach of
Kennedy Space Center there is more focus
on being accessible and generating
interest from someone with little to no
knowledge of space travel this is done
by focusing on guests emotions more than
guests interests in learning about space
it's very heavy on the you can do the
impossible with lots of clips of
children talking about why they want to
be astronauts I think their approach is
correct Brett I can see why some guests
about space science and engineering etc
felt that it was a bit too much like an
amusement park for them I mentioned in
the previous section that there is
plenty for kids to enjoy at Kennedy
Space Center
however expectations do need to be
managed especially for any kids that
have been spending their days at Disney
World and Universal theme parks there is
only one proper ride experience at
Kennedy Space Center which is the
shuttle launch in the Atlantis exhibit
so if your kids are not that interspaced
of probably better not to oversell a
visit to Kennedy Space Center before I
get onto the tips to get the best and
ready visit to KSC I'll summarize very
very briefly so is it worth a trip yes
it's a justified book Atlas attraction
and one of the most highly reviewed
attractions in Florida on TripAdvisor
with that said if you're on vacation
with young children with only 7 days or
less to spare for your vacation it is
harder to justify a trip given just how
many incredible competing attractions
there are within Central Florida but
your kids may take more enjoyment fun
but if those kids have even the
slightest interest in space travel it's
a no-brainer
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my obligatory tip for all the main
attractions in Florida is to arrive at
park opening which is 9 a.m. at Kennedy
Space Center ideally you would want to
stop at the heroes and legends exhibit
to keep it a sort of chronological order
of space travel but the small choice is
to jump straight into the bust or queue
which as mentioned earlier can get very
busy later on if you do this you should
be able to get through all the exhibits
fairly comfortably in one day when you
get on the bus I would recommend sitting
over on the right-hand side which
provides better views of the landmarks
in my opinion if you do plan on paying
for any of the extra tour options you'll
need to do so in advance and you'll also
need to bring your passport with you for
security reasons my next step is to
prepare for cold warm and rainy weather
regardless of any forecasts one minute
you could be boiling in the Florida Sun
the next you'll be freezing cold under
the saturn v rocket due to the super
cold air conditioning in here to
preserve the rocket I do have a couple
of money-saving tips there are water
fountains spread throughout Kennedy
Space Center so you can save yourself
money on refreshments by taking a water
bottle with you also if you buy a launch
at Kennedy Space Center I hear you get
10% off at the gift shops do double
check this with staff as it's not
something a personally taking advantage
of I would also recommend doing lunch at
11:30 at the very latest as the school
tours tend to hit the orbit cafe around
noon which you most definitely want to
avoid if you find that you're struggling
to fit in all that exhibits do make sure
that you prioritize the Atlantis exhibit
which many regard as being the best
experience at Kennedy Space Center
that's it for this review thank you for
watching if you have any other tips to
share please throw them in the comments
and if you're interested in future Park
reviews and/or the Central Florida
vacation content don't forget to
subscribe
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