| Saturday 29 September | |
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Day 15 – Saturday 29th September 2007 Arriving back in Orlando It was a rude shock tonight as we sat eating our homemade spaghetti bolognaise, remembering that 24 hours ago we were all eating whatever we wanted with our 2 lovely waiters looking after us. They were just so good to us, I had to leave a little early (as Lauren was desperate to get to Camp Carnival), so I said goodbye and ducked off. Karen told me tonight that Madeleine and Hayley gave them both a hug, and Galo (from Ecador) got teary, and Cirilo (from the Philippines), said ‘6years in this job and they’re my first hugs’!! At which point Karen started tearing up and had to beat a hasty retreat. We were off the ship very quickly (after having read horror stories about how long Carnival takes to let people depart), we actually had to wake the girls to leave. We were in the car by 8.20am, had planned to go straight to hotel, but way too early to check in so decided to do NASA Centre (or I should say Center, but not game to as my Dad will think I’ve made a spelling mistake) at Cape Canaveral, as it’s quite close to the cruise port, and would save us the hour drive later in the trip. It was quite an interesting experience, but definitely no Disneyworld. Their one big ‘ride experience’ was a space simulator, meant to simulate a launch in the shuttle, but Mission Space at Disney was much more enjoyable. They had a “Mission to Mars’ fun kids adventure show, that Michael and I found very pathetic, again just shows you how good Disney are at entertaining both kids and the parents. Did a bus tour round the complex, saw where they’re building areas for the International Space Station. They were actually moving the real shuttle (due to launch late October), to the launch pad today, so some of the areas were closed. They take their security very seriously at NASA. This is the only place we’ve had to not only open cameras/videos, but also turn them on and show them it’s a real thing (not a bomb). Also had to take out our mobile phones and dial 5 (again, to prove not a bomb). Quite a few of the shows/presentations referred to those who’ve died in space, particularly the 2 space shuttle missions (1986 & 2003), which made the girls quite upset that people had actually died doing this, so that was interesting. What we enjoyed most were the 2 IMAX films, one with footage of the Apollo moon landing missions, and the other on the International Space Stations. Brayden bought a book called ‘How do you go to the bathroom in Space’ by an astronaut, who was actually sitting there autographing copies. Has heaps of questions about space travel, he’s finding it an interesting read so far. The other highlight was that we saw 2 real gators in the waterways in NASA as we were on the bus tour (our first Florida gators). We made it to the new hotel about 5pm, started unpacking then headed out for supplies, and ran into the Lucas’ in the supermarket, so came home and made dinner together. They had gone to MGM Studios today, as their Disney tickets run out tomorrow. We’re all going to Magic Kingdom tomorrow, and meeting Lori-Lee and family there at 9am. This new resort is huge again, very spacious rooms and Michael and I have a massive spa bath off our bedroom…..looking forward to floating in that, will have to pencil it into our schedule. The very best thing about the resort is that it has FREE wireless internet that I can access in our own rooms…….perfect, and we’re here for the next 2 weeks, so I have no excuse (aside from sheer exhaustion) for not updating regularly! |