Sunday, March 18, 2018

Cape Canaveral/Titusville, Florida ~ Kennedy Space Center Visitors Complex

February 2018


Inside Apollo/Saturn V Center

Kennedy Space Center ticket cost and discounts

Following are the daily admission costs listed on the Kennedy Space Center site before tax.

  • Child age 3 - 11: $40
  • Military child: $37
  • Adult age 12+: $50
  • Military adult: $46
  • Senior 55+: $46. Senior tickets need to be purchased at the ticket window upon arrival; they are not available online.

Discounts found elsewhere, pre-tax.

Best deal for Kennedy Space Center found in
Florida's Space Coast vacation planner

  • Florida's Space Coast vacation planner contains a $7 discount coupon, which can be used on up to 6 admission tickets. This is the best deal I found; however, we could not take advantage of this offer because of the time of year we visited. We visited the beginning of February 2018, and the new vacation planner had not been printed yet. The coupon in the previous planner had expired December 2017. I received the new 2018 planner at the end of February, after we returned home from our trip.
  • AAA adult: $43.99. If you do not initially find AAA discounted coupons for Kennedy Space Center, I suggest to keep searching. Tickets were not available through AAA when I first started looking, and the space center site does not say they give a AAA discount. After I found the offer, I purchased and printed our tickets at home. Pre-purchased tickets are good for 120 days from the date of purchase.

Coupon from Space Coast Fun Guide

  • Space Coast Fun Guide contains a $2.50 discount coupon for Kennedy Space Center, also good on up to 6 admissions. The guide is available online, and in most hotel lobbies. This guide was also being reprinted, as we were preparing for our trip. Someone happily emailed me a coupon I could print, when I reached out to them. This was before I found the AAA discount, and I did not end up using the coupon.

Parking at the space center is $10 per vehicle, which we did not purchase in advance.

Our day at Kennedy Space Center

The space center opens at 9:00 AM, and we arrived around 9:45 AM. We had hoped to be there by 9:00 AM; however, getting our rental car from Hertz after our cruise turned out to be quite a lengthy ordeal. Since we already had our tickets, we walked straight to the entrance line. We waited in line about 10 to 15 minutes before we were inside the complex.

It was not too busy when we first arrived, and things picked up as the day went on. Our longest wait times were at Heroes & Legends, and for the bus to Apollo/Saturn V Center. We took the bus after lunch, and I think it would have been less crowded, if we had done this in the morning, right after Heroes & Legends. Because many people are getting on and off the buses at the same time, there are crowds of people entering and exiting the shows and exhibits at the same time. I am glad we took this bus ride, although the ride was a bit longer than I had expected.

The show at Universe Theater was a live astronaut narrating with real life photos and experiences. This was followed by Q&A's from the audience. We met the astronaut, and had a complimentary photo taken with him after the show. The 3D show in Imax Theater was very cool. We also toured Journey to Mars, the Rocket Garden, and other areas at the main complex, and at Apollo/Saturn V Center.

Overall

We spent close to 7 hours at Kennedy Space Center, and could have spent even more time there viewing everything available. My husband and our son thoroughly enjoyed the visit, although I thought it was a long day. I would definitely have been happier with a mini-pass (not that there is such a thing), and I am sure they would have enjoyed the multi-day pass. Overall, it was educational and interesting.

Let me know if you have any questions!



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