dlpmikki
02-09-2013, 07:26 AM
Day 13 - Saturday 2nd February
A non-park day. We go to see our friends in Celebration, admire their large new apartment and have lunch with them at an Italian restaurant nearby. Mikki had also hoped to play tennis while she was here: she has to restore normality after allowing our friend, John, to beat her in their last meeting. She had brought an improved racket and shoes and everything. Unfortunately, she also had some trouble with her knee and could not risk injury: getting suitcases, Andrew and toy cats home safely had to take priority. I don't expect John to believe she didn't lose her nerve but he can take comfort in remaining champion a little longer.
Day 14 - Sunday 3rd February
This is to be my Twin brother's day for photos in the park and we all go to Epcot. First stop is the Character Spot where we have nice chats with several cast members. Twin is much admired (as am I) but all agree they would rather have 20 years of cuddles than have a little more fur.
First stop in World Showcase is Mexico. We take some nice pictures and ride the ride and then the humans have an early lunch at San Angel Restaurante - which they enjoyed. Then it was round the countries for more pictures. In Norway, Mikki rode Maelstrom and Andrew took sad pictures of all that is left of the Viking ship.
It's great fun to wander the countries of World Showcase finding interesting corners and views. Many have quiet corners and it is a personal regret of my humans that UK is not one of them because of the loud music (just as well we don't take video).
Final stop is back in Future World and Spaceship Earth.
Day 15 - Monday 4th February
Leaving Disney for NASA: off early to Kennedy Space Center. There have been a few changes since we were last there, including a fun fountain and faster security checks at the entrance.
NASA's Rocket Garden is a"must visit" for anyone who is interested in or grew up in the 1960s space race (my Andrew qualifies as both) but it can be hot in summer. Today,it was lovely to wander round it. For Andrew, Redstone, Atlas and Agena seemed as magical as Goofy and Brer Rabbit to Mikki. If today's report gets excited about rockets and space, you can guess Andrew is helping me with it.
We had set off early to make sure we were in good time for the 11.00am bus tour, the highlight of which is a visit inside the Assembly Building. This is where they built the Saturn V moon rocket and the space shuttle and will build the next generation of rockets capable of taking humanity beyond Earth orbit. The tour takes you into the Transfer Corridor but you can see the bays on either side used to build rockets. The corridor is used to move components using overhead cranes so it has the full height of the building.
The Assembly Building is currently being used to modernise the crawler vehicles for the Space Launch System.
Everyone at NASA was eager to say how much is still going on at KSC. Other stops on the tour showed us the new launch pads - pad 40 used by SpaceX and pad 41 to be used by several systems in development - and the cleared pad 39B ready for government or commercial users.
Our tour ended, as I think all tours do, at the Saturn V building. We've been here before. We will undoubtedly come here again. The humans had some silly photos taken, like Andrew as a spaceman.
The only thing we missed was the IMAX movie. The one we wanted to see was about the Hubble space telescope but the next showing was at 4pm and Mikki wanted to get home in the light.
The humans bought annual passes - an excellent deal if you contemplate a second visit. We expect to visit again in August.
A non-park day. We go to see our friends in Celebration, admire their large new apartment and have lunch with them at an Italian restaurant nearby. Mikki had also hoped to play tennis while she was here: she has to restore normality after allowing our friend, John, to beat her in their last meeting. She had brought an improved racket and shoes and everything. Unfortunately, she also had some trouble with her knee and could not risk injury: getting suitcases, Andrew and toy cats home safely had to take priority. I don't expect John to believe she didn't lose her nerve but he can take comfort in remaining champion a little longer.
Day 14 - Sunday 3rd February
This is to be my Twin brother's day for photos in the park and we all go to Epcot. First stop is the Character Spot where we have nice chats with several cast members. Twin is much admired (as am I) but all agree they would rather have 20 years of cuddles than have a little more fur.
First stop in World Showcase is Mexico. We take some nice pictures and ride the ride and then the humans have an early lunch at San Angel Restaurante - which they enjoyed. Then it was round the countries for more pictures. In Norway, Mikki rode Maelstrom and Andrew took sad pictures of all that is left of the Viking ship.
It's great fun to wander the countries of World Showcase finding interesting corners and views. Many have quiet corners and it is a personal regret of my humans that UK is not one of them because of the loud music (just as well we don't take video).
Final stop is back in Future World and Spaceship Earth.
Day 15 - Monday 4th February
Leaving Disney for NASA: off early to Kennedy Space Center. There have been a few changes since we were last there, including a fun fountain and faster security checks at the entrance.
NASA's Rocket Garden is a"must visit" for anyone who is interested in or grew up in the 1960s space race (my Andrew qualifies as both) but it can be hot in summer. Today,it was lovely to wander round it. For Andrew, Redstone, Atlas and Agena seemed as magical as Goofy and Brer Rabbit to Mikki. If today's report gets excited about rockets and space, you can guess Andrew is helping me with it.
We had set off early to make sure we were in good time for the 11.00am bus tour, the highlight of which is a visit inside the Assembly Building. This is where they built the Saturn V moon rocket and the space shuttle and will build the next generation of rockets capable of taking humanity beyond Earth orbit. The tour takes you into the Transfer Corridor but you can see the bays on either side used to build rockets. The corridor is used to move components using overhead cranes so it has the full height of the building.
The Assembly Building is currently being used to modernise the crawler vehicles for the Space Launch System.
Everyone at NASA was eager to say how much is still going on at KSC. Other stops on the tour showed us the new launch pads - pad 40 used by SpaceX and pad 41 to be used by several systems in development - and the cleared pad 39B ready for government or commercial users.
Our tour ended, as I think all tours do, at the Saturn V building. We've been here before. We will undoubtedly come here again. The humans had some silly photos taken, like Andrew as a spaceman.
The only thing we missed was the IMAX movie. The one we wanted to see was about the Hubble space telescope but the next showing was at 4pm and Mikki wanted to get home in the light.
The humans bought annual passes - an excellent deal if you contemplate a second visit. We expect to visit again in August.