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Old 07-21-2011, 01:18 PM   #1
soccerdisney
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My first trip report-Kennedy Space Center, Disney Dream and Universal Studios

I alway read trip reports but have never wrote one. Hopefully everyone find mine as interesting as I find all of yours.

Cast Me DW 44
DH 45
DS1 14
DS2 11

Plans discussed since November 2010 made in January 2011 while stuck at home because of 12 inches of snow!
Plans were:
July 9 Fly in early, head to Kennedy Space Center, dinner, stay at Radisson at the Port.
July 10 -15 Disney Dream doubloe dip
July 15-17 Hard Rock Hotel Universal, Islands of Adventure, City Walk, fly home late on the 17th

Reality: Followed plans to a T but shuttle launch did cause quite a crowd at Kennedy.

Day 1
July 9 Alarm was set for 3:50. Woke boys up and dressed. My dad picked us up which was very nice of him since he lives 40 minutes away from us. We were at airport by 4:30 and had bags checked and through security by 5:00. Grabbed some bagels, water, juice and a diet Coke for me and had a short wait before boarding. Flight was uneventful and we were in Orlando about 15 minutes early 9:15 their time. (8:15 for us). DH went to check in for car and I went to wait for luggage. Luggage was verrrry slow but we were in the car and headed for Kennedy by 10:00.

I planned our trip before the shuttle launch was announced and we considered skipping Kennedy because we knew it would be crowded but decided to try anyway. The wait to buy tickets was ridiculous. We stood in line for over 75 minutes. Ie was very crowded but amazingly, the biggest problems seemed to be their computer programs to sell tickets is soooo slow. Umm you can send people to space but you can't sell tickets any faster???? Once we got our tickets the crowd was managed really well and it never seemed too bad.

We hopped on the bus tour right away and enjoyed the tour very much. There are different stops and you decide how long you want to stay at each. All the tour guides we had were very good but I did get a little uncomfortable with one thing. Every guide we had, talked for 5-10 minutes about all the people losing their jobs because of the end of the space shuttle program. Not believe me, I totally sympathize with them but one mention would have been enough. I do not bury my head in the sand about what is happening but my vacation is my time to escape. Everything else was really great and interesting enough to keep both boys going. We skipped lunch but shared a cinnamon pretzel, drank a lot and DS2 had some dippin dots.

Around 4:15 we headed out. We headed over to Grills for dinner. Had a short wait. Dh and I both had fish tacos DS1 had shrimp scampi and DS2 had crab legs. Everything was yummy and we watched the Carnival Dream head out.

We then headed down to Ron Jon's for a little souveneir shopping. Finally we checked in at the Radisson. I verified I was on the 10:00 am shuttle and the clerk told me I was the first name on the list. We unloaded, parked the rental in cruise parking and went for a swim. About 9:30 we headed in and everyone fell asleep pretty quickly since we had been going for so long!

Day 2 will be posted soon. Thanks for reading!
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