The trip to Walt's Place

The night at the Ramada was certainly more relaxing than the slightly dodgy nights spent in the Savannah projects. Despite this we were still a bit dusty as we shuffled off for our complementary Denny's Breakfast around around 8. The plan was to spend a few hours at the Kennedy Space Centre just outside Titusville before heading an our or so inland to Orlando and Disney World. We had 6 nights booked at the Port Orleans Resort in the Disney complex, it's probably more than I would have allocated if I was planning a trip by myself but the other members of our party were pretty excited.

I prefer the wilderness to crowds, am not a huge fan of amusement parks and don't have much tolerance other people's screaming children but I decided to relax and take Disney for what it is. What ever that might be...

First thing being first we were soon paying the rather expensive entry to the JFK Space centre. We met an astronaut (John Creighton - 3 Shuttle Missions) and looked at a few old rockets before heading in for what was supposedly the most realistic Shuttle launch simulator around. Short of giving us sore heads from vibration it was very tame as the g-force of launch wasn't simulated. The highlight of the visit was the very good 3D movie detailing the construction of the International Space Station around the globe and then assembly in orbit. It was amazing to see the relaxed Russian launch procedures compared with the stringent and sterile NASA methods. At a Russian Launch there are camera men clambering over the rocket trying to get the best shot of the astronauts as they board. In a NASA launch the only people within a mile of the pad prior to lift off would be the spacemen themselves. The scenes of the astronauts eating m&m's in a weightless environment had us chomping at virtual candy being cast towards us. Space looks like serious fun. 

Two guys spent 14 days in orbit in this capsule without straightening their legs - The girls found it to be rather roomy.

Compared with the free awesomeness of the Smithsonian Museums, the space centre under delivered but we went and now we were off to the happiest place in the world. Mandatory visit to Taco-Bell for some 'Mexican' of debatable quality, it was back on the road and we soon arrived at the 'French Quarter'.

The checking in experience was rather strange with a balding middle age man. I'm not sure if he was trying too hard to impart happiness upon us but he was very off centre the whole affair was quite awkward. The resort definitely met expectations and we soon were piling our gear into our well appointed room. We took the opportunity to blob out for a few hours (Amy and I found a hammock) before getting into the included Disney dinning plan as we knew the next few days would be jam packed. Our package included one 'Quick Service meal' aka canteen style, one table service meal and a snack each per day. My expectations were set pretty low but the first table meal was really excellent. We obviously all went for the most expensive menu items to maximise the prepaid value. My the slow cooked rib eye would have put some far more expensive restaurants to shame. Well feed, we felt obliged to make the most of the included desserts as well, we called it a day.

Beer of the day:

Napa Smith Organic IPA - 7.1% abv Bottle - Smelts like a malt biscuit left up a pine tree for a while. Subdued taste, pine, melon, pleasant, could definitely get boozed off it.