Florida

Florida - our sixth and final US State this trip. Of course now that we've "signed up" we can never totally leave the USA now as they have our fingerprints on file forever.

We continued the relentless pace (thus contributing to the delay posting this and earlier stories) with a day trip down the Floria Keys to Key West, car hire up to Orlando to spend four days at the Disney All Stars Music Resort, a three day pass into Disney World and a day excursion to Kennedy Space Centre the return to Fort Lauderdale to board Allure of the Seas (the world's largest passenger ship and finally departure to Istanbul Turkey via Frankfurt aboard an Airbus A380 - the world's largest passenger aircraft.

Disney World impressed us with its layout, landscaping and size. The Orlando site consists of many interconnected but separate parks, the principal ones being Animal Kingdom, Epcot, Disney Hollywood and Magic Kingdom.

There's also a separate Downtown Disney precinct that doesn't require an entry pass that consists of more shops and restaurants and entertainment.

Tropical fish tank in the Rainforest Cafe

Wild creatures in the Rainforest Cafe

The whole complex of parks and resorts is serviced by a monorail that connects Magic Kingdom and Epcot, a fleet of busses and a flotilla of small ferries that ply the lake system.

We discovered that Florida in summer means a storm every afternoon. We decided not to let a bit of rain interfere with our precious time in Orlando so we ploughed (sloshed) on in our ponchos and wet shoes in all but the most intense downpours.

So what were the highlights? In the Fantasmic performance Sorcerer Mickey battles Disney Villains in a sensational laser and light show featured a montage of scenes and characters from various Disney movies including Snow White and Fantasia using fireworks, water sprays and lasers, fire and explosions and floating sets was pretty amazing.

Fantasmic

Mission: SPACE, a motion simulator ride at Epcot is as close as you can get to blasting off into space without leaving Earth, experiencing what an astronaut might experience during a space flight to Mars. This 2.4G simulation ride is quite intense, more than twice the force of the Earth's gravitational pull) plus accompanying rocket vibration and sound effects launch followed by weightlessness, a slingshot trajectory from behind the moon then the inevitable crisis  of a near crash landing. We were very impressed with the quality of the rides and the equipment used to simulate the experience.

The visit to Kennedy Space Centre was truly an eye opener especially for this pair of baby boomers who literally grew up with NASA Space Program. Standing next to and under an actual Saturn V rocket complete with Apollo vehicles was an awesome experience.

Saturn V Rocket and Apollo vehicles

Saturn V rocket engines

Apollo Command Module

Apollo Command Module after reentry

The Space Shuttle exhibit included Explorer the full-scale replica of a Space Shuttle replica external tank mated to two solid rocket boosters.

Shuttle launch

External tank and solid rocket boosters

Shuttle cargo bay

At the conclusion of the Space Shuttle program just a few weeks ago (following the landing of the 135th mission, NASA had clocked up an amazing 133 successful missions, 99 satellites were deployed and another 17 repair/rescue missions and 622 major payloads delivered. The two notable tragedies, the loss of Challenger in 1986 and Columbia in 2003 were a constant reminder that mankind is still "crawling" in our quest to travel beyond our home planet.

Welcome home Atlantis

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That's all for now BUT before you leave -

Have you seen the previous page titled " Washington " yet?
(click on the link to take you there)