How to do Kennedy Space Center

Kennedy space center with littles 

Bryson was super into space when he turned 5, so we got annual passes for his birthday.. we are now KSC experts as he is about to turn 6.. don’t worry: I’m

Not

Going to give my life story, I’m jumping right to the tips: 

KSC is open 9-5, if you can be there the whole time I’d make it happen either by leaving early in the morning (630ish) or spending the night at a hotel the night before in the area. 

When you first get in you’ll do the rocket garden

and look at the rockets , the kids can climb in some and get some pics. 

Then go to the Hero building on the left when you first walk in: there’s 2 videos as you enter at the top. Then you explore an exhibit with memorabilia from the original astronauts .. 

There’s a Mercury capsule that you should check out to see how small it was: 

And a mercury astronaut suit: 

After the Hero and  Legends building, across the rocket garden is “The Gateway building” this is new.. there’s a ride in there that the line is always too long even when it looks like no

One is there.. so I wouldn’t bother if you’re only there for a day.. but it’s neat to walk in and see the current space advancements and what they are doing these days.  

 

After looking at Gateway  : I’d take the bus to the Apollo center first. Most people do this later and that’s when the lines will get long so it’s best to do it first and beat the lines. 

You can’t take the stroller on the bus - there’s an area they will direct you to leave it. Take your bag of snacks and valuables with you. 

You’ll see the VAB- Vehicle

assembly building - on the drive. Make sure someone is sitting on the left side of the bus: 

There’s a stroller on the other side for you to use: 

The bus ride is about 15 min- takes you to a building everything Apollo (the Moon missions) 

You’ll see a video, then a Mission Control simulation (for the toddlers- snacks snacks snacks.. and dum dum lollipops) 

, then you come out to a giant room with the Saturn rocket that flew to the moon: 

Explore the room and go

See the lunar module , the lunar rover, a moon rock, the Apollo 1 memorial for the one that caught fire , and the video about the moon landing. There’s a smaller cafe here- it doesn’t have everything the main cafe has but it has enough options in case you choose to eat here. 

Then you’ll take the bus back to the main campus. It’s a must see! 

After you get off the bus, have an adult run back for the stroller and go to  the space shuttle Atlantis complex. ( right near the bus exit) 

You’ll spend a a good 2 hours 

In here- there’s tons to do.. when you first go in you’ll go around and up a ramp, see 2 videos about the beginning of the shuttle program which are pretty cool.. then you open up onto the shuttle Atlantis: 

This is the real one.. there’s only 3 shuttles left (Columbia and Challenger exploded) Discovery is in DC and Endeavor is in California. Workers have told me this is the more impressive one. 

There’s many layers to this building.. up above this entry level with the shuttle you have : 

Fun pretend shuttle control seats 

Then you go down below where the bottom of the shuttle is on the way down to the bottom floor and there’s a fun 

crawling around an International space station 

Keep going down and you can ride down A big slide that I don’t have a pic of!! This is what it’s like exiting the shuttle. This is for bigger kids and grownups. The littles can keep walking down the ramp to the bottom floor which shows you the bottom of the slide 

Looking at what it looks like inside the shuttle 

A shuttle simulator ride for the bigger kid and an adult 

And a memorial for the shuttles that were lost which is a good educational piece for our kids who didn’t know about the explosions: 

You’ll exit the building through the gift shop of course, this is a smaller shuttle themed gift shop (the big main gift shop is at the center) 

After this, eat lunch at the cafe or eat your own food in the courtyard nearby 

It’s really the only place to eat but it’s not bad Food and they have salads that are nice sized and made fresh , pizzas for the kids, burgers etc. 

After lunch, go to Planet Play next door for the kids to burn energy. It’s 3 stories all interconnected so I’d divide the kids per adult and let them run wild. It can get chaotic so for the littles, stick with the little and follow them around.. the older kids can run on their own safely ofc

There’s an adult area for sitting but it’s always jam packed but I’ve luckily scored a seat before and had a drink when victoria was not there. 

You get 30 min to play technically - but you can stay as long as you want. 

After Planet Play, go to Lego build to Launch  if you have time before the Astronaut chat at 3. 

The Astronaut chat at 3 pm is fascinating. Littles won’t really be able to sit through it without a distraction (I used to breastfeed Victoria and she would nap during this hour) but the bigger kids will love it! It lasts an hour 

then 

Afterwards you can go back to the Atlantis building for an autograph and picture with the astronaut. 

Once done with that-

Check out the big gift shop on your way out to your car. Kids stuff is upstairs. Space ice cream is near the checkout counters. It will be crowded!

If you want to beat this crowd, go to the main gift shop earlier in the day. 

On the way home,

We stop for dinner in Daytona. The nicest kid friendly places so far: 

Landshark Bar and Grill - it has a nice outdoor sandy area for the kids to run around and exert energy while you wait for food on the deck overlooking the ocean. 

Colt’s Pig Stand off 95, next to the big Harley Davidson in Ormond Beach 

Aunt Catfish’s on the River in Port Orange