Shuttle launch

[Jimmy Geegitz]

Ok so I was just checkin on hotels in Port Canaveral for Oct30th weekend and they are expesive and hard to come by. There is a shuttle lauch Nov. 1. So this is a heads up for anyone cruising out of PortCanaveral that weekend.

[bethaniesmom]

oh my... having driven from Tampa to Port Canaveral for several shuttle launches (and delayed launches) when we lived in Tampa...I offer this advice....allow alot, I mean ALOT, of extra drive time. Not actually drive time...you will be sitting in long lines of cars! It is worse coming toward orlando when the launch is over than it is going toward the cape before the launch....but it will bad! You can see the launch from the cruise ship if you are still in port, it is several miles away but it leaves a huge plume in the sky. when we watched it from Jetty park (near the cruise terminal) the ground shook under our feet. Hotels are going to be difficult, try south of the cape on A1A. good luck....enjoy!

 

Beverly

[beller]

We are going to be in Miami on Oct 30 and leaving on the Destiny on November 1. I know it is north of Miami, but do you think we would be able to see a climps of it.

[flgojo]

I can't say for sure about Miami but I would think so, but just a glimpse. I live in SW Florida and if it is a clear day we can see it from here.

[Essiesmom]

We were able to see the flare in the sky from Westerdam leaving FLL. EM

[Relayer]

A bit off subject....When returning from San Juan in March 2009 we were directly over central Florida at 35000' during a night shuttle launch. Truly one of the most spectacular experiences ever. Totally clear skies just after sun set. You could see for miles. The pilot gave us a big heads up and every passenger got a turn at a window.

[salty dingo]

I have read that the best viewing location is from a boat. The launch pad is right on the ocean, and there is nothing blocking the view from the water. I think they will let you get pretty close to the rocket - 3 miles IIRC.

[golfadj]

On our last cruise we were driving S toward Miami on I 95 and timing worked out. We parked about 10 miles away and had a great view of the luanch without any traffic.

[salty dingo]

As a kid growing up in Miami, I have vivid memories of watching an Apollo mission's Saturn V rocket headed to the moon.

 

It was an evening launch, and I took a TV and an extension cord and set it up in the front yard, in the direction of the Cape. We watched the blastoff on TV and about 15 seconds later the firey rocket came into view. It was an amazing sight.

[nothomeonacruise]

We can see it from the west coast of Florida, too. I've seen many launches. The best ones are at night. We can see the flame, which appears to be about an "inch" in the sky.:)

[DolphinFan]

I have read that the best viewing location is from a boat. The launch pad is right on the ocean, and there is nothing blocking the view from the water. I think they will let you get pretty close to the rocket - 3 miles IIRC.

My best friend and I went out on the Miss Cape Canaveral to see the last night launch. It was absolutely beautiful!! It was FREEZING outside, but when the launch took off, you could actually felt the warmth come down form the sky..it was amazing!

[RWolver672]

There is also one scheduled for February 26th, 2011. That's the day we get back from our Dream cruise. A lot of the hotels are already booked at the Cape for the week prior to that. We got into the Radisson just before they filled up. They were already filled for the days we got back so we had to book at the LaQuinta for our return.

[lorijeannj]

I am booked for the Dream February 26th. Just booked today :)

I had a hotel reservation in Titusville to see the shuttle launch, but decided, why not just take a cruise. The launch can be seen from the cruise ship and probably will be as close as I can get anyway since tickets are limited and on a lottery system for Kenedy Space Center (NASA Parkway).

I am so excited. One more check-off on things to see, Space Shuttle Launch.

And the last one!!!!!!!!!

[DolphinFan]

Ok so I was just checkin on hotels in Port Canaveral for Oct30th weekend and they are expesive and hard to come by. There is a shuttle lauch Nov. 1. So this is a heads up for anyone cruising out of PortCanaveral that weekend.

Trust me..you will have the best view from the ship. It is about a mile from the launch site. The last launch we went to was a night launch and we were on a boat in the water. You can feel the rumble and the heat from the rocket..amazing!

[Jumbiecruiser]

Depending on the time of day, you can see the plume of smoke from a good distance. At night, it can be spectacular. Of course just as you are set to watch the launch, they scrub it for some reason like weather. Luck has to be on your side to see a launch.

[bar1068]

Depending on the time of day, you can see the plume of smoke from a good distance. At night, it can be spectacular. Of course just as you are set to watch the launch, they scrub it for some reason like weather. Luck has to be on your side to see a launch.

 

Absolutely have to have luck on your side to see a launch. My very limited shuttle launch experience is split, 1 good luck story, 1 not so good luck story.

 

Planned a Disney/Orlando vacation some years back for a week with a scheduled shuttle launch. Went to Cape Canaveral the day of the launch, paid for a shuttle out to a site part of CC, and yep, 5 hours after waiting in the hot sun, launch was scrubbed because of bad weather. Then took 9zillion hours to get back to Orlando from CC. We could have gone back Friday of that week to try again, but decided not to "risk" it...whether it went up or not that day, did not want to deal with that traffic hell again. We did see the shuttle while at Magic Kingdom that day as it went overhead...was pretty cool to see.

 

Just this past May we were flying down to Ft. Lauderdale on Friday, the day before leaving out of Miami on our Eastern Carib cruise on the Liberty. Earlier in the week I'd heard and read some stuff here about the final launch of the shuttle Atlantis on that Friday, read some stories about folks seeing shuttle launches from cruise ships and other locations, but thought nothing more about it as we expected to be flying to Ft. Lauderdale well after the shuttle launch, on our original booked flight times, however about a week before our flights, the cost of our flights on Southwest went DOWN considerably, so I re-booked to the lower cost, earlier flight. Got on plane, pulled away from terminal, plane stopped, pilot says, we gotta hold up while our flight path is changed due to shuttle launch, wife and I are like, ok, whatever, but lets get going already......

 

Quiet flight, nice clear sunny day, pilot comes on starts talking bout how we're coming up on Cape Canaveral, says for those of you on left side of plane (which is the side we sat on just cause my wife who hates to fly picked it as the "better" side to sit on for no particular reason), but pilot starts pointing out landmarks that then directed our view to the clearly visible launch pads and the pad the shuttle was launching from. All this about 10 minutes prior to launch. When the shuttle launched, our plane was directly in line with the launch pad at about 20-25000 feet and it was nothing short of spectacular!! Pilot even dipped the plane a little to the left, it was beyond awesome to see the shuttle come up out of it's launch pad, then directly east of the plane as it traveled into space. We could even see it when it jettisoned the booster rockets, just incredible....and of course, we did not take a single picture!!!

[Djptcp]

DH and I live in North Florida, not quite 3 hours from Port Canaveral and we can see the launches this far away. Awesome, especially at night. The first time we saw one after moving to FL was amazing and we talked about it for days. I think the Nov. one is special because it is the last one (I think that's true) and they had special drawings for tickets to be close.