Visiting Disney World/Galaxy's Edge November 7, what else local to visit?

SWMBO and I will be leaving Saturday the 5th, staying in GA overnight and hitting Disney on Sunday afternoon/evening.

I've been letting her plan everything, right now on Monday we do Animal Kingdom, Tuesday and Wednesday is Galaxy's Edge, Thursday is the off day and we leave Friday at some point.  I'm curious what else is at least semi-local?  Driving the Crosstrek so I have wheels to go wherever.  (Mostly because she convinced me it would be easier to bring home all the E36 M3 I'll buy at Galaxy's Edge vs flying...)

Right now Thursday is wide open, Friday early is as well.  I joked about visiting GRM headquarters, I don't think she's onboard.  I'd be willing to go maybe 1-2 hours away, anything out there?

In reply to Jerry :

https://www.fantasyofflight.com/collection/contact-info/2015-calendar/

Used to visit these guys when they were in Kissimmee and always enjoyed it. 

Where in GA are you staying?  The air museum at Warner Robins is neat.  Nowhere near as impressive as Wright Patt, but it does have a few displays that Wright Patt doesn't have.

We'll be at the parks at the same time!  Not sure which park and if the days line up, though.  4 different wives (of which mine is one) are preparing the trip and I'm just staying away.

Cape Canaveral is about two hours away.  Unfortunately the next launch appears to be Nov 14th, still well worth wandering around in

In reply to eastsideTim :

Found a hotel for $85 in Perry, which is 9hrs from my house.  I had planned on just winging it like I used to years ago & stopping when I got tired, but she convinced me to reserve something.  Big fluctuations in $ in places just south of Atlanta.

Have to look that up, see if it's convenient before we hit the hotel.  Yeah I'm kinda spoiled with our Air Force museum.  (We have a troop there this Saturday if anyone is interested.)

In reply to Mr_Asa :

Yeah I've been letting her plan everything, including which parks we hit.  I'm not an amusement park guy, she knows that, so she knows how to plan it.  Switched the Animal Kingdom to Monday when she couldn't get reservations for the droid and light saber building on Monday.

I visited CC back in '86 when I was stationed in Orlando (Navy Nuke School).  Me & some friends were just out for a drive, we found the main gate and were going to stop to ask for info, the gate guard saw my DOD decal and waved us through.  Drove around the base for about 30 min, those AF guys were living it up.  :)

In reply to Jerry :

Sorry, I misspoke. I said Canaveral, I meant the Kennedy Visitors Center, where they have the rocket museum and such.

The Atlantis experience alone is worth visiting.

Mr_Asa said:

In reply to Jerry :

Sorry, I misspoke. I said Canaveral, I meant the Kennedy Visitors Center, where they have the rocket museum and such.

The Atlantis experience alone is worth visiting.

The Saturn V experience alone is also worth it! 

bobzilla said:

In reply to Jerry :

https://www.fantasyofflight.com/collection/contact-info/2015-calendar/

Used to visit these guys when they were in Kissimmee and always enjoyed it. 

I don't think they're open to the public anymore outside of special events. 

https://dezerlandpark.com/orlando/the-auto-experience/ This place isn't far away from the parks and has been on our radar for a minute, though we haven't actually gotten to go yet.

Also, there's a really good Hot Pot place called Nine Spices on Kirkman near Universal Studios.

Mr_Asa said:

We'll be at the parks at the same time!  Not sure which park and if the days line up, though.  4 different wives (of which mine is one) are preparing the trip and I'm just staying away.

 

Cape Canaveral is about two hours away.  Unfortunately the next launch appears to be Nov 14th, still well worth wandering around in

SpaceX has launches scheduled for  10/31, 11/2, and 11/8.  All leaving from Cape Canaveral and Kennedy Space Center.  There are also 3 more SpaceX launches schedule later in November after the Artemis launch on (hopefully) 11/14. 

Jerry said:

In reply to eastsideTim :

Found a hotel for $85 in Perry, which is 9hrs from my house.  I had planned on just winging it like I used to years ago & stopping when I got tired, but she convinced me to reserve something.  Big fluctuations in $ in places just south of Atlanta.

Have to look that up, see if it's convenient before we hit the hotel.  Yeah I'm kinda spoiled with our Air Force museum.  (We have a troop there this Saturday if anyone is interested.)

Perry is just south of Warner Robins, so if you get there in time, it should be doable.  If you have short time, I'd recommend the Eagle Building (specifically the countermeasures and Chinese front of WW2 sections) and the Nugteren hangar for some observation and logistics stuff that Wright Patterson doesn't have.  The other locations have some neat things, too, the Century of Flight hangar doesn't have much you can't see in Dayton, but has a high up walkway so you can see things from above, and the Scott Hangar has some visibility into their restoration area.

In reply to Mndsm :

Damn that sucks. 

bobzilla said:

In reply to Mndsm :

Damn that sucks. 

He's in a re-imagining phase right now. Kermit Weeks has a pretty good youtube channel if you want to follow along with their restorations and get a more detailed look at his collection.

Entropyman said:

SpaceX has launches scheduled for  10/31, 11/2, and 11/8.  All leaving from Cape Canaveral and Kennedy Space Center.  There are also 3 more SpaceX launches schedule later in November after the Artemis launch on (hopefully) 11/14. 

11/8 you say?  Hm I'm guessing it'll be visible from Galaxy's Edge.  Have to mention that to her.

I like Gator land - but I'm a local so it's cheap. Pretty fun, great walk in nature. Shouldn't be super insanely hot. Cocoa beach is nice, about an hour away, and usually pretty quiet. You can see the launch pad at Kennedy from the inlet by Ron John. Lake Apopka has a nature drive where you just cruise a giant loop and look at gators and birds and whatever. Completely free. Takes a couple hours. You probably already know about Disney springs, so I will gloss over that. 

If you want to see a super weird flea market with a ton of vintage toys/Disney props/whatever - Lakeland FL has one of the best I've ever seen. I got lost in there for a few hours a couple weekends ago. https://antiqueslakeland.com/ about an hour south of Disney. 

I can't recommend Kennedy space center enough. It's fantastic. Also, the Rocket Museum at, iirc, Canaveral. 

In reply to adam525i :

Might still be worth a phone call. I have seen on there sign that they are open some Thursdays and Fridays like 10 am to 4 pm

Oh and in Orlando on International drive, close to the convention center, Charley's steakhouse (thx mrAsa) *looks* like a tourist trap? But OMG they served me up the best porterhouse I've ever had... 

Mndsm said:

If you want to see a super weird flea market with a ton of vintage toys/Disney props/whatever - Lakeland FL has one of the best I've ever seen. I got lost in there for a few hours a couple weekends ago. https://antiqueslakeland.com/ about an hour south of Disney. 

This peaks my nerd interests.  We have something similar in Springfield that we stopped at coming home from Cleveland one time & she liked it.

In reply to Jerry :

You'll like this. I find the prices pretty insane, but I have an unfair advantage- swmbo is an AD at a resort. I generally get out ahead of the resellers. However, in no other place have I seen with everything from old Halloween costumes to an actual housekeeping cart from yacht and beach, same style as the ones they're still using. It's pretty wild. 

Jay_W said:

Oh and in Orlando on International drive, close to the convention center, Charlie's steakhouse *looks* like a tourist trap? But OMG they served me up the best porterhouse I've ever had... 

Charley's, small difference but would help if you're googling.
Small chain, there's three or four of 'em.  One in Tampa.  Great food.

Jay_W said:

I can't recommend Kennedy space center enough. It's fantastic. Also, the Rocket Museum at, iirc, Canaveral. 

Agree 100%. This is my top recommendation. We used to have yearly passes before the plague. 
 

Another recommendation for Kennedy Space Center. 

If you want to take in some local nature, check out Orlando Wetlands Park. 

In reply to David S. Wallens :

Finally looked up the Space Center, only 30 minutes from the resort.  I will definitely show her this tonight.