Originally Posted by Assa2:
“Out of interest, Squack, what were your travel arrangements? Who did you fly with, where did you stay, did you hire a car etc...? This si something I would love to do and for obvious reasons time is running out so I would seriously consider it if money permitted. I am seriously jeleous.”
I flew with Virgin Atlantic, stayed in Orlando at the southern end of International Drive which is close to all of the theme parks (which I wasn't bothered to visit!). I didn't hire a car but sort of wish I did as I could have visited more attractions on the days that I wasn't in the space centre.
My local travel agent sorted the flight, hotel, visa, and airport transfers for just over £900. The only thing I had to do was get on a trip to Kennedy on the Thursday, I booked on a Florida Dolphin tour through the Viator website, but you can book directly with Florida Dolphin on their website
here.
The tour cost $169 (£106) and gets you into Kennedy on the launch day (blue ticket) and out to the causeway (green ticket) for the launch. The blue ticket is good for a second visit: as most of the space centre is not accessible on launch days so you will need a return trip to see everything there. Florida Dolphin also do a 'transport only' for $55 which takes you to the Astronaut Hall of Fame and Kennedy Visitors Centre where you can do the full tour on a non-launch day.
There were reports that there were about 250,000 people watching the launch that day and the next two will only get worse so if you want to see the launch you may need to decide soon. I was very, very lucky in that the launch actually took place, you need to remember that STS-133 was originally scheduled to launch in September which slipped to November and was scrubbed 5 times before it actually launched. I left everything till last minute as it gave me a better chance of seeing the launch rather than planning months ahead only to find out the date had slipped. You may not have that luxury with the launch day tickets as they will be getting huge demand for these last launches.
I hope you do decide to go as it is really a 'once in a lifetime' experience and timing and luck had a lot to do with giving me the chance which I took with both hands and am really glad that I did.