Tania Michele: kennedy space center

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Monday, 26 November 2018

I'm Going Back To Florida!

I've been buzzing to do this post since Easter, and now I finally can! If you haven't guessed yet from the title, I'm heading back to Florida!! Aka, the land of Disney, Universal, sunshine, good food, and more.

We decided last November that we wanted to go again, and after a quick evaluation of the budgeting for it, we were able to pick dates that meant I could save up enough to head back. We started properly planning it all in April this year, and I am beyond excited. We're going in the first half of 2019, so not long to wait for my next visit.

It took a while to get the holiday booked off from work, but so happy it finally came through in September, as it meant I could start booking things.

We're staying at the same villa as last September, as we adored the villa so much. It had everything we needed - the pool is the main fave - plus it was only a 10-15 minute drive from Disney and Universal on a good day of traffic. There is a Walmart, CVS and Walgreens nearby, so we can get everything we need really easily. Due to us having power issues during Hurricane Irma, the people who own the villa have been incredibly nice, and gave us a £200 discount for this trip to make up for it; even though it wasn't their fault and they couldn't do anything, this is beyond kind of them.

We chose to go with British Airways to fly there again, as they are the only company I've flown with and haven't yet had a bad experience with them. We purchased the flights, and the car hire from Avis at the same time back in September as a package deal, and we managed to save £500 for the three of us. We had a silver Chevrolet last time, which I wouldn't mind something similar again, as long as we don't have another spider infestation!

Spiders you ask? Well the car in the above image seemed to have a spiders nest somewhere in the car, and for the life of us we couldn't find it, but everyday a few tiny spiders would be dashing about over the seats or dashboard - until our second week when it was 34°c, there was about 150-200 tiny spiders that just erupted over the backseat, and crawled all over my sister and I... It's hilarious now, but my lord, my heart...

ANYWAY...We're getting our tickets from Attractions Tickets Direct again, as they are honestly the best company to get your tickets from. We're currently waiting to see what the next 'free' attraction is on offer before we buy our tickets, so should be doing that this month! Once that's all done, we only have a few other things to sort out, and we're done.

The tickets we purchased last time, and again for this trip, is the Orlando Freedom Ticket. This enabled you to go to all the Disney parks, Disney water parks, Universal parks, Volcano Bay, Sea World, Aquatica, and Busch Gardens. We've never done Busch Gardens before, so we're going to give this a shot for this holiday, and see what it's like. We're also hoping to do a water park this time, as last year the plans for that were knocked aside due to the hurricane! We also buy tickets separately for Kennedy Space Center, which is another day we all enjoyed last time.

I am soooooooo excited to be going again, and incredibly lucky to be able to go back again, so soon after the last trip. If you have any tips for Busch Gardens, please pass them along as we've not been before and don't know what to expect. What parts of Florida would you also recommend visiting? Let me know! Hope you have a great day and keep safe :)

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Wednesday, 1 August 2018

Orlando Holiday Diaries Round Up!

Now that all of my Holiday Diary blog post from my Florida holiday have gone up, I wanted to do a round up post of all of them. This way you can easily pick a day, a park that interests you, or this can act as the index for you to locate them all from!

It was such a fun holiday!

I really wish I had started and finished the posts a lot sooner, and closer to when we actually came home - and not finishing this all 10 months after it was all over! Hope this helps you find what post interests you, and hope you enjoy them all.

If you're interested, here are all the other posts related to Florida/Orlando that you might find helpful if you're looking to take a holiday there, or you wanted to check out some of the hauls I shared.

If I do any more in relation to the holiday, I'll update this list when the time comes.

What day/post is your favourite? And which park is the one you're most interested in visiting for yourself? Let me know! Hope you have a great day and keep safe :)

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Monday, 9 July 2018

Orlando Holiday Diary: Day 16 - Kennedy Space Center!

Our last full day was for Kennedy Space Center! We had originally hoped to go in the middle of the holiday, but due to Hurricane Irma, we had to wait until it was safe to go.

We left not long before 8am, as it is over an hour away from the villa to get there. We saw the sun come up, and a few hot air balloons on the way.

We parked up and headed to the entrance, and spotted an Astronaut picture opportunity, so we sent Dad forth to have his picture taken! He was so happy!

We then watched the fountain do the countdown for take off, before we headed through bag check and into the complex.

We had a quick look around the Rocket Garden, before going into the Heroes and Legends hall of fame. In here, there was a small tour, mini show, and a lot of exhibits. Below are some personal items of former Astronauts. These items are what inspired their career choice. We also saw the Mercery mission control station, which was from 1962.

This flag has actually been in space!

The hall of fame was really interesting and moving. It had a picture of all the Astronauts that had been to space from Kennedy. There were even two pictures at the end, of two people who were currently in space.

From here, we had a look around the Rocket Garden properly, before we ventured over to the Atlantis exhibition.

This was a really awesome exhibition. You got to see the original shuttle, and even could sit in a mock cockpit, like my dad did in the above picture.

There were a few interactive parts inside, as well as getting to see a lot of what goes into each spacecraft.

There was also a memory hall for those who died in the Columbia and Challenger accidents. I didn't know much about it, so my Dad filled me in on it, as well as some info about it outside the memory hall. It was a really sad part of the exhibition, as it showed each member of the team who had passed, along with some of their own personal items - and also two parts of the shuttles that were recovered from the wreckages.

After the Atlantis tour, we quickly had some lunch in the cafe on site, before going on the tour of the shuttle launches and around the base. From here, they take you to the Apollo exhibition, where they have one of the rockets that they used for one of the missions. It is a loooong hall, as the rocket is HUGE, and it takes a while to walk from one end, to the other.

We picked up some goodies in the shops before going to check out some of the little capsules in the rocket garden, where you can sit in them for photo opportunities. We then left after about 7 hours at the Center, and headed back to the villa to start packing.

Boooo!!!

Have you been to Kennedy, if so, what did you like about it? I really enjoyed the tours and the exhibitions - plus it's my dad's fave place in Florida! Would you ever like to visit here? Let me know! Hope you have a great day and keep safe :)

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