Virgin excursions to Kennedy Space Center

[SallyW]

I've pre-booked a Virgin excursion to Kennedy Space Center and have been told that we'll have to wait until we get to Orlando before we can find out which day we're going. I also don't particularly want to sit through a welcome meeting when we could be hitting the parks!! Has anyone got any experiences of a similar situation? Is there any way to collar the rep when you arrive to find out all this info without having to go to the welcome meeting?

Thanks...

[Kevin]

Hi Sally,
my experience has been, you do not need to go to the welcome meeting. If your staying in a hotel the reps visit regularly so you can catch them then for the info. If staying in a villa, again there is usually a location near by where you can catch the rep. You will also be able to get a phone number when in Orlando you could ring for the info. If you are booked on the excursion they should make sure you get the information needed, if you don't attend welcome meeting

[Dawn]

What hotel are you staying in?
Some have a rep visit every day, you just need to track down the nearest location.

[Keith]

We did this last may and it was a total mess.

We'd prebooked the tour with transportation to KSC, tickets and back.... Anyway, we went to the silly welcome meeting to get the tickets and the day but were of course forced to wait till the end whilst they tried to sell everyone other stuff. Finally an hour later or so, she came to sort out the KSC stuff.

Then of course she realised that she had never booked the tour before, only "tickets" to ksc without transportation. So then cue another hour of her calling everyone to try and find out about what days the tour goes.

She didn't actually get it worked out until about two days later when she phoned us at the hotel with the details... it was a total nightmare :(

Sorry to be so negative, but virgin were totally hopeless on this one. The welcome meeting was long, early and totally boring and because they wouldnt issue the tickets until the end, we were held hostage :(

Theres nothing virgin about the tour.. they just subcontract it to www.gatortours.com which I think go every day to KSC.

Perhaps you could ask at the virgin desk when you collect your bags at Orlando for the reps phone number and use that? I'd definitely avoid the welcome meeting if you can.

[SallyW]

Thanks for all the good advice. I suspected this might be a bit of a pain. I think the best plan of action is to get the rep's number when we arrive at Orlando Airport (assuming he/she isn't there to meet the flight) and ring them straightaway. We're at the Caribbean Beach Resort - should be someone visiting regularly, I would have hoped. I'm definitely not going to waste my time at the welcome meeting: time spent there is time not spent having fun in the parks. Shame it's too late to cancel the excursion with Virgin and do our own thing with Gator Tours - you live and learn!

[Vikki]

If the rep isn't at CB resort much, pop over to All Stars, as it is now a flagship hotel and has a rep there more often.

[MKMarty]

I'm sure you could find plenty of transport to KSC from Orlando. I drove by car (it's about an hour) and there were no queues to get in - oh and you can spend 2 days there!

[mediman]

Don't know if things have changed, but we stayed at the CBR last year and there was no Virgin Rep visit, i had to go to the ASM to see her, she was there every morning for an hour.

[sammcg]

i'm trying to book for kennedy space centre but require transport. It looks as if they pick up on international drive? any one any advise

[Keith]

www.gatortours.com which is who virgin use and who we travelled with to ksc, pick up at most (all?) of the disney resorts in a little mini-bus thing. They then take you to that shopping centre past downtown disney where everyone joins up with the large coaches that take you to KSC.

Always worth emailing them to check of course, but that's what happened for us last year.

[pigsy]

I know that when we booked the Pirates Dinner thing with Virgin they told us that we would have to wait until the welcome brief. I was a bit upset about this as I like to plan everything down to the last detail beforehand!
I called the Pirates direct and explained the situation and they said we could book our slot through them. Virgin sent our vouchers for the show with our plane tickets before we left so we didn't have to go to the brief at all!
I might be worth a try calling virgin to see if you get your vouchers in advance and then call gatortours direct.

Niki

[SallyW]

Niki

You sound just like me - I've got every day planned out to the last detail but not knowing when we can go to Kennedy is driving me mad!! We've been sent the voucher with all our tickets and stuff so I'll do as you suggest and try Gator Tours direct. Got to be worth a try.

Many thanks for the suggestion.

Also, if you go with Gator Tours, what sort of time do you get back from Kennedy?

Thanks

[Keith]

I'm sure you'll be going with gator tours whether you contact them direct or go through virgin.. we booked 3 or 4 tours with virgin and every one of them was just a gator tours one.

Once I think we left about 5/530pm and once the driver stayed another one and a half hours so we could see a rocket take off (the drivers seem genuinely interested in KSC and had some good stuff to say about it... but some are VERY VERY tips motivated and aren't backward in coming forward about it. For example the one that stayed the extra hour and a half REALLY REALLY milked it "I hope you'll remember this when you think about whether to tip the basic 20% or more for excellent service" and so on)

I think it took a couple of hours or so (perhaps a bit more actually) to get back to Disney.

[SallyW]

Thanks to everyone for the good advice. I had the voucher for the trip from Virgin so yesterday I spoke to a very nice lady at Gator Tours. She confirmed that, as I had the voucher, I could book the date and time directly with them. I had to give the booking reference number supplied by Virgin but, other than that, it was just like a normal booking. This is what the Virgin rep would have done at the welcome meeting, she said.

She gave me a confirmation number and a pick-up time from my hotel. All I've got to do is ring the day before (on a freephone number) to confirm the pick-up time. So I'm really happy: I can sort out all my priority seating in advance for all the restaurants we want to visit now that I know when we're going to Kennedy. I can also skip the welcome meeting and get on with my holiday - result! :lol:

[pigsy]

So glad it all worked out! Let us know how the KSC tour goes. We are considering it for next year with two children (9 and 11) with Gatortours. We don't know whether to do the full day at KSC or to do the dual trip which includes an airboat ride on the way back.

Have a fab time!

Niki

[AlisonFromUK]

I noticed Virgin just used Gator Tours. If you want the up close tour you can just pay when you get there for that. We did that and thought it was well worth it to see the launch pads and parts of the space station ready to go up next year. Darren my partner is well into his space so it was really good.

[sammcg]

I've just booked the tour also and don't think the kids would sit through the welcome meeting, Wonder if I could just contact Gator Tours and say we are meeting friends but have the voucher and could we go on a certain day?

[Keith]

It sounds like you could if Sally did it!

[AlisonFromUK]

Yeah why not, we didn't go with Gator Tours but saw their driver when we were there. We went on a Tuesday.

Just email them or call them, they are pretty good. We used them for the Everglades trip.

[Dizneemad]

Def. no rep at CBR but in the past I have called to the welcome meet but hung about outside until after everyone has gone in and picked up my tickets from the couple of reps waiting outside in the corridor. Then off to the park to meet up with the rest of the family.

[sammcg]

i've got the virgin voucher. anyone got the number for Gatour Tours. what do I say when I call up. Can I really say I don't want to go to the welcome meeting....

[SallyW]

I'm back now from Florida - excellent time!

The trip to Kennedy Space Center happened without any problems. I'd phoned Gator Tours (on the freephone number quoted on their website - www.gatortours.com I think) as soon as I got my voucher from Virgin, quoting the booking reference number on the voucher and giving them the date I wanted to go to Kennedy. They then gave me a confirmation number. The day before we went, I phoned them again (on the freephone number) to confirm we were still going. Didn't have to attend the welcome meeting. In fact, didn't have any contact at all with any Virgin reps.

On the day, we were picked up from our hotel and taken to a central meeting point where we were transferred to a minibus. Coaches were laid on for those doing both Kennedy AND the airboat trip. This was the only problem with the trip as far as I was concerned: 13 of us were crammed into a minibus with minimal leg room when we'd been expecting luxury coach! Not great but it got us there. We arrived just before 10 am and had until 5 pm. That was more than enough time to explore. I'd recommend going straight to the first IMAX showing at 10 am but don't them follow the hoardes going to the buses. Go directly to the Space Shuttle display and do this before the bulk of the visitors arrive. Then go for the second IMAX showing (this one's in 3-D) before going to the bus tour. This way you get the minimum amount of wait time from my experience.

Gator Tours seemed efficient in the way they organised the booking and all in all I'm glad we did the trip as the sights you see at Kennedy are amazing.

To anyone thinking of going to Kennedy and booking with Virgin, I'd say: don't! Book direct with Gator Tours and save yourself a bit of hassle!