Summer 2016: Florida with Kids- Kennedy Space Center

In efforts to bring a little education and wonder to our Florida vacation, we took Zoe and Felix to Kennedy Space Center. Dan and I had visited Kennedy Space Center during our winter trip ( and previously as children), so we had a good idea of where we wanted to focus our time.

The Kennedy Space Center is huge. When we visited in the winter, we stayed from opening until closing and didn't see it all. We knew that the kids couldn't handle spending an entire day. It would just be too much. We were blown away by the entire presentation of the Space Shuttle Atlantis, so that is where we focused our energy.

We arrived prior to opening, giving us plenty of time to purchase tickets and take a few pictures.

The Atlantis presentation is phenomenal. It starts with a multi-screen video presentation, that ends with a clever reveal of the actual Atlantis Space Shuttle. I was most excited to see Zoe and Felix's reaction, which didn't disappoint. They were blown away.

After Atlantis, we spent about an hour in the Atlantis building, which is filled with educational and interactive exhibits. The kids really liked climbing through a clear tube tunnel that was on the second level: not for those who fear heights! We also rode The Shuttle Launch Experience, a simulator ride. The ride itself is fairly tame, but the preshow is a bit intense. It made Felix really nervous and he didn't ride.

The constellation globe is like a magnet for kids.

Next we took the bus tour to the Apollo/ Saturn V Center. Although this is a "not-to-be-missed" part of Kennedy Space Center, it was too much for the kids. They really enjoyed everything in the Atlantis building, but they were ready to call it quits and head back for an afternoon by the pool. If we lived in Florida or if we had more days on our vacation, it would have been wise to buy a multi-day pass and do the bus tour on a different day. It didn't help that our bus driver wasn't very enthusiastic and he was difficult to understand.

When we reached the Apollo/Saturn V Center, we skipped the main presentation ( which is great, should not be missed) and went straight to the Moon Rock Cafe for a quick lunch. When Dan and I visited in winter, we splurged on the "Lunch with an Astronaut" experience, which was a buffet meal and a Q/A session with an Astronaut. It was a great experience. It was spendy and we didn't know if they kids would be at the right age to appreciate it, but I wish we had gone for it. Eating at The Moon Rock Cafe was expensive, crowded, and underwhelming. It fed into our general vibe of needing to call it a day.

We briefly looked at the exhibits in the Apollo/Saturn V Center, including touching a moon rock.

Recently, we were talking to Felix about our trip to the Kennedy Space Center and he remembered the gators. He was a little freaked out about the gators. It was his biggest memory of the day; to be fair he was only six at the time. We did see several gators sunning themselves in the waterways as we were on the bus tour.

We didn't see any Sandhill Cranes.

Zoe told us all about Sweden's astronauts. It's cool to hear what she's learning about in her country. I'm always impressed with how much my step kids know about the world around them: science, politics, history, et...

Last stop was the rocket garden.

After Kennedy Space Center, we drove to Coco Beach. Unfortunately, a storm was rolling in, which made for dramatic pictures, but cut the playtime short. We had just enough time for a quick dip in the Atlantic.

On a future trip, we'd likely plan to spend a few days at Coco Beach, rather than spending the entire time in Orlando. Florida just has so much to offer for a vacation, that it's impossible to do it all on one trip.

Summer 2016: Orlando with Kids- Local Activities

This is just a short post to fill in the gap regarding our other Orlando experiences, things we did and where we ate that didn't include Walt Disney World.

We stayed at the Holiday Inn Orange Lake Resort, about fifteen minutes from Disney property and near all of the crazy themed gift shops. It was impossible to drive past these stores every day and not step inside. Who isn't drawn in by a giant mermaid? We let the kids go wild with picking out bargain Florida souvenirs. We had so much stuff that we had to buy enormous tote bags to haul it all home: which of course, they sold.

Speaking of crazy things we kept seeing: Bonanza Adventure Golf. It has a gold-rush theme and we visited twice, to play each course. One visit was in the evening, which was the ideal time to play mini-golf, as the weather was cool. We had fun. The other visit was in the middle of a scorching afternoon. I have no idea why we thought that it was a good idea, but we were all dripping in sweat and downing bottles of water: too hot to enjoy it. We didn't even finish the second course.

Hot day/cold day= any day is good for ice cream. It's even perfect for breakfast. We discovered Twistee Treat and arrived before the ice cream stand had even opened for the day.

Before meeting Dan, I had been to a Waffle House one time, and it was a less than mediocre experience. I gave it another chance on my Christmas trip to Florida with Dan ( his first Waffle House experience) and I was won over by plenty of southern charm and a cheap, greasy breakfast. You gotta love a place with furnishings that are designed to be hosed down every night. We took the kids and they LOVED it! It wasn't hard, they love waffles, so it was a sure-bet. We ate at three locations and had a great experience each time.

We also had two wonderful dinners at Bahama Breeze ( Felix asked to go back for his birthday, because he liked the Mac and Cheese) and one lunch at Logan's Roadhouse. I know they are chain restaurants, but not ones that any of us had ever experienced, so we really enjoyed them. The kids also loved a lunch we had at Golden Corral. They were impressed by the cotton candy dessert option. Golden Corral isn't a great buffet by any stretch, but there is something to be said for the ability to have the whole family pick exactly what they want to eat. We'd go back.

We had a great time exploring dining options and activities that are outside of Walt Disney World.

Summer 2016: WDW with Kids -Waterparks

Waterparks were almost a bigger draw than the theme parks for our family. The kids really just wanted to swim while on holiday and Walt Disney World's two waterparks, Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach, are the perfect mix of a day at the pool with a theme-park atmosphere.

We visited each waterpark one time, starting with Typhoon Lagoon.

We arrived at park opening and it was jammed. Very quickly, we realized that we were going to have to contend with long waits and large crowds. It was Florida in July, so not a surprise.

As with any Disney park, storytelling is key and Typhoon Lagoon is themed around the idea that a typhoon hit central Florida, leaving behind ocean themed items, like boats and fishing gear. A giant shrimping boat named Miss Tilly sits high above the park, serving as the park's iconic feature. It's perched on a geyser called Mount Mayday, which erupts twice an hour.

I snapped a few pictures of the park on our way to the locker rental, where the camera stayed safe all day. I recommend bringing a waterproof camera and taking advantage of the Disney Photo Pass employees.

We purchased mickey themed water socks to protect our feet and picked out giant beach towels for souvenirs. My towel was Finding Nemo themed, with the Seagulls repeating "Mine" all over it. It's great.

First stop was Gang Plank Falls, a four-person family-style raft ride. This is my favorite type of waterpark ride, primarily because it isn't too thrilling. I had an accident at Raging Waters on the speed slides when I was in elementary school and I remain very nervous of waterslides, especially the really intense ones. The family raft slides are exactly my level of waterpark thrill.

Next was Crusher n' Gusher, a 1-2 person raft ride that has water-jet propulsion. I was nervous about this one, but tried to put on a brave face for the kids. Felix backed out. I was more than happy to hang with him in the adjacent pool, while Dan and Zoe rode it. We swam and congratulated ourselves on the wise choice of skipping the slide. Zoe and Dan loved it.

At this point, after waiting in two queues, about an hour into park opening, Typhoon Lagoon was jammed. We went in the Typhoon Lagoon Surf Pool to cool off. This is a "surf", not a "wave" pool, because the waves get up to six feet high and they teach surfing lessons in the morning. Hang on to small kids, as this is an above average intense wave pool. I've been knocked over by the waves.

Last stop was the Lazy River. I'm a huge fan of lazy rivers. Give me an inner-tube, warm weather, and I can happily float all day long. Unfortunately. the Lazy River was really crowded and most of the inner-tubes were gone.

The crowds defeated us. We ended up leaving mid-day and heading back to our hotel for lunch and more pool time. Having visited Typhoon Lagoon on previous vacations, I highly recommend checking out the Shark Reef, where you can snorkel above a tropical reef. The park also has many slides of varying thrill levels, that we didn't ride and a great area for small kids. You can easily spend an entire day here.

Towards the end of the trip, we went to Blizzard Beach. Our strategy with Blizzard Beach was completely different, rather than visiting at park opening, we arrived mid-afternoon and stayed until closing. The park was significantly less crowded than Typhoon Lagoon. I wanted to explore Disney Springs ( formerly Downtown Disney) which had undergone a major transformation since my previous visit in 2009, so I dropped Dan and the kids off at Blizzard Beach and went shopping.

I was shocked to find Disney Springs to be nearly unrecognizable. So many of the shops and restaurants were brand new. I explored and had a relaxing meal at a Mexican restaurant called Frontera Cocina. I was working as a travel agent at the time and a client's travel emergency cut my afternoon short. I spent over an hour frantically making phone calls, while sitting on a bench in Disney Springs. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite the afternoon that I had envisioned and I didn't have a chance to really enjoy Disney Springs. It's a must-do for our next WDW vacation.

Since I had an annual pass, I was able to enter Blizzard Beach without buying a ticket and I took a few pictures while waiting for Dan and the kids. Blizzard Beach asks the question: What if a freak blizzard hit central Florida? A waterpark is created from the melted snow of this imaginary blizzard and the winter ski-chalet theme is carried throughout the park. A ski lift takes guests to the highest slides at the top of Mount Gushmore.

I'm not sure what slides Dan, Zoe, and Felix went on, but they overwhelmingly preferred Blizzard Beach to Typhoon Lagoon. I'm sure if we had more days left, we would have visited Blizzard Beach again.

Here are some pictures that I took as Blizzard Beach was closing. Check out the theming.