Cape Canaveral/Disney Cruise/WDW Trip

We will be at SSR. Haven't been back to our "home" in a year since our last trip there we stayed at the Boardwalk.

Sigh..... Wish I could leave work early, but they just had to schedule two meetings that I have to attend this afternoon!

Zz.

I'm almost finished with my packing, but as you can see, Donald is all set and ready to go!

He's reminding me to pack my trading pins.

Zz.

Well, as expected, I didn't get much sleep last night because I'm just too excited.

Unlike our typical trip, we are leaving rather late in the day for this trip. We have a Noon flight out. Usually, we grab the very early flight out to Orlando and then spend the rest of the day at the parks. This time, since we're going to drive straight from MCO to Cocoa Beach, there isn't that much of a hurry.

{Yawn.....}

Now I have to figure out what I may have forgotten to pack......

Zz.

OK, we're off to the airport. See you in Florida!

Zz.

Greetings from Orlando MCO. We are about to get our luggage, get our rental, and head out to Cocoa Beach.

Zz.

Greetings from Cocoa Beach.

We made it to our hotel for the next two nights. The flight and the drive out here were uneventful. We are now resting a bit before going out for dinner. Mabe if we have time this evening and we feel like it, we might walk in Ron Jon and see what the brouhaha is all about. It is just 2 or 3 blocks from the hotel.

Tomorrow we plan on spending the day at the Kennedy Space Center.

Zz.

That is the passholder lanyard medallion from the 2010 Florida Project pin event.

http://gallery.pinpics.com/cgi-bin/pin.cgi?pin=84240

Zz.

Good morning!

We are up and about this lovely morning in Cocoa Beach.

Here's the view from our room. Not much to look at other than the pool, but we do not plan being in our room that much.

We are about ready to have our complimentary full breakfast and the head out to the Kennedy Space Center. We plan a full day there including a guided tour in the early afternoon.

Zz.

We just got back from the beach at the hotel.

This the the path to the beach. It is barely 100 yards away.

And here is the beach. Life normally doesn't suck when you have this kind of weather at the beach.

Donald is certainly pretty happy to be at the beach.

Zz.

We had a terrific time at the Kennedy Space Center today. Spent the whole day there, including a tour that included a very rare visit to the launch control center, something that is not normally open to the public.

Here we are arriving at the entrance to the visitor center.

Here we get to see the early history of NASA's rockets.

We the got to meet and listen to astronaut Wendy Lawrence give an account of her experience, and we got to take photos with her.

After a quick lunch, we did our tour. We found out that this is a very rare tour that just started about 2 months ago, they only allow less than 25 people on each tour, and they do it only once a day. We were told that they have no word on if it will continue beyond Jan 1st od 2013. So it was a tour that is the most popular.

We got on our bus and were driven directly to the launch control center building next to the iconic vehicle assembly building.

This is the lobby of the launch control center building.

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We were then escorted directly to the shuttle launch control center, a place that I've seen many times on TV whenever they have a launch. Here are a few pictures of the launch control center.

This is the view of the launch pad from the launch control center.

After spending quite a bit of time there, we got back onto the bus and had a closer look at the shuttle launch pad.

We got to see the crawler that used to bring the assembled space shuttle to the launch pas.

They have started building the launch structure for the Orion project.

Our last stop is the Apollo launch center simulation, which also housed the Saturn rocket. This is the theater where all the old consoles are displayed and the last 3minutes of the launch of Apollo 8 was recreated.

We then got to see the Apollo spacecraft. Holy cow. It was HUGE!!

On the way back, we got to see Atlantis in the new structure that they are still building around it. It will open by summer of next year.

It was a long but amazing day.

Tomorrow, we will be boarding the Disney Dream!!

Zz.

Our cruise day as arrived!!

I had to wake up very early this morning (5:00 am) because I actually had work to do. Had to edit some funding proposal document and send it out before I am out of communication for the next few days. Don't you hate when real life intrudes into your vacation?

Anyway, I've been up for a few hours already, doing work and having breakfast in the lobby area of the hotel. Luckily, I've done all I need to do and can relax a bit now. We have a few more hours before we drop off our rental and hop onto the shuttle to Port Canaveral. I didn't unpack much out of my luggage, so there wasn't that much to do to repack it. I bought only a couple of t-shirts at the Space Center, and a holiday ornament. I definitely want to come back here next year after the Atlantis attraction opens.

Depending on how good of a connection I get later on at the Port, I'll try to report a bit more. But if not, I'll see you after the cruise! Wish us calm waters, clear sunny skies, and lots of drinks with little umbrellas.

Zz.

We are at Port Canaveral waiting to get into the terminal. The sky is blue and the weather is gorgeous.

Zz.

Greetings from Nassau!

It was a rather rough voyage so far. With high winds and rough seas, we had quite an interesting evening and night. Haven't had a smooth sail so far. Hopefully it will improve later when we leave Nassau and set sail for Castaway Cay.

But let's start from the beginning. We took the shuttle from our rental place to Port Canaveral and got a closer look at our lovely ship.

Here we are waiting to get into the main terminal building.

We are in the terminal building. It is nicely decorated for the seasons.

Mickey is there to welcome us.

We are boarding the Disney Dream and being welcomed by a row of crews.

The atrium is well decorated as well. This is the gingerbread house.

First things first. Head up to Deck 11 for our lunch at the cabana. There is already tons of mouthwatering food to choose from.

Here is my very first plate of food.

And here is my very first plate of dessert.

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