The KSC Freak Show

Note, if you tell the cashier that you just want to go in to the
souvenir store, you can buy a cheaper ticket that is fully refundable
if you return within, I think, two hours.

Whats the big deal about paying admission to a well run classy facility?
Besides which most museums charge a entry fee of some sort.

Yet $20 to KSC makes it a freak show?

Hallerb wrote:

Note, if you tell the cashier that you just want to go in to the
souvenir store, you can buy a cheaper ticket that is fully refundable
if you return within, I think, two hours.


Whats the big deal about paying admission to a well run classy facility?
Besides which most museums charge a entry fee of some sort.

Yet $20 to KSC makes it a freak show?

The Gift Shops were the absolute *worst* part of my KSC visit. Very
schlock. Trying to find something not made in China was near
impossible. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

And there are so _many_ of them! A medium-sized one at the SV Center, a
bigger one at the Astronaut HOF, and the big kahuna right inside the
entrance to the main Visitor Center. There might also be one at the
Gantry Observation "Tower" but I'm not sure. I remember going there
back in the late '80s and spent a fortune in the gift shop. This time I
didn't even want to touch anything.

Nevertheless, I bought a mouse pad with the Meatball on it (made in
China). It's shot already and it's only 3 months old. My Beavis and
Butthead mouse pad is still kicking at 5+ years.

--
bp
Proud Member of the Human O-Ring Society Since 2003

On Fri, 06 Feb 2004 04:36:54 GMT, Bruce Palmer
wrote:

And there are so _many_ of them! A medium-sized one at the SV Center, a
bigger one at the Astronaut HOF, and the big kahuna right inside the
entrance to the main Visitor Center. There might also be one at the
Gantry Observation "Tower" but I'm not sure. I remember going there
back in the late '80s and spent a fortune in the gift shop. This time I
didn't even want to touch anything.

....There's two at JSC in Space Center Disney, and one in the smaller
cafeteria near Building 1. The two at SCD are different, as one caters
more to the expensive items. The bigger one, however, tends to have
really nice closeout specials from time to time. That's how I walked
out with some two dozen 2x worm logo polos in '00 that were my size
for ~$5.00 a pop, and two 3x ones at $4.00 for some odd reason.

....And then there were the really neat meatball shot glasses that I
picked up a set of 12 for $3.50/ea, and the deal they cut me on a set
of seven "failure is not an option!" t-shirts I got for a friend and
her six kids. The good part is that they still have them. The bad part
is that they *ALL* outgrew them. Including her.

Nevertheless, I bought a mouse pad with the Meatball on it (made in
China). It's shot already and it's only 3 months old. My Beavis and
Butthead mouse pad is still kicking at 5+ years.

....Yeah, the mousepads now are made out of a really chintzy rubber,
but the one I got in '96 was still going strong before I switched to
one that worked better with the different slippads on the bottom of
this Logitech wireless mouse.

....The one thing I wish they still had at the gift shops were the
recycled Major Matt Mason dolls. The cafeteria shop gal I talked to
back in '99 said that they had those still sitting around until about
'96 or thereabouts and they weren't moving until one day some guy came
in and bought the entire case of a hundred or so that were left. She
didn't even have a clue until a few weeks later when some JSC employee
came in asking about them because he'd found out they were MMM dolls
in cheap boxes, and he'd just given his grandson his kid's MMM toys as
hand-me-downs.

Gah.

OM

--

"No ******* ever won a war by dying for | http://www.io.com/~o_m
his country. He won it by making the other | Sergeant-At-Arms
poor dumb ******* die for his country." | Human O-Ring Society

- General George S. Patton, Jr

OM wrote:

...There's two at JSC in Space Center Disney, and one in the smaller
cafeteria near Building 1. The two at SCD are different, as one caters
more to the expensive items. The bigger one, however, tends to have
really nice closeout specials from time to time. That's how I walked
out with some two dozen 2x worm logo polos in '00 that were my size
for ~$5.00 a pop, and two 3x ones at $4.00 for some odd reason.

The thing I wanted most was to replace my blue worm logo cotton polo
shirt. I'm still wearing one that's 10 yrs old. No go. You got a
good deal; the only worm shirts I saw were a funky greenish gold color
that didn't thrill me. Give me the plain blue shirt with the white worm
logo any day. Very understated. (sci.space.fashion anyone?)

...The one thing I wish they still had at the gift shops were the
recycled Major Matt Mason dolls. The cafeteria shop gal I talked to
back in '99 said that they had those still sitting around until about
'96 or thereabouts and they weren't moving until one day some guy came
in and bought the entire case of a hundred or so that were left. She
didn't even have a clue until a few weeks later when some JSC employee
came in asking about them because he'd found out they were MMM dolls
in cheap boxes, and he'd just given his grandson his kid's MMM toys as
hand-me-downs.

Ooh. Major Matt Mason. Didn't he have feet that fit in the triangular
grid of the MMM Space Station? He had a whole bunch of cool accessories.

--
bp
Proud Member of the Human O-Ring Society Since 2003

"OM" om@our_blessed_lady_mary_of_the_holy_NASA_researc h_facility.org wrote
in message ...
...There's two at JSC in Space Center Disney, and one in the smaller
cafeteria near Building 1.

THe only time I've been to JSC was shortly after ground had been broken for
SCD, it was also the day of a shuttle launch so Mission Control was closed.

The only gift shop was a glass case separating the dining rooms in the
cafeteria, and it didn't even have postcards. That was a little
disappointing, but there was a store across the street that had lots of
space crap.

On Fri, 06 Feb 2004 04:36:54 GMT, Bruce Palmer
wrote:

The Gift Shops were the absolute *worst* part of my KSC visit.

There's the usual crap for the seven-year-olds (and they sell tons of
it, these folks aren't stupid), especially in the 'downstairs' area,
but I think the KSC "Gift Gantry" has a very nice selection of
space-related books and videos. Far superior to the local Waldenbooks
or Barnes & Noble. It is the only place in 10 years that I've seen
Jenkins' book actually in stock, for example. I was hoping they'd have
"Hypersonic" but they didn't, so I ordered it through Amazon.

Brian

Brian Thorn wrote:
On Fri, 06 Feb 2004 04:36:54 GMT, Bruce Palmer
wrote:


The Gift Shops were the absolute *worst* part of my KSC visit.


There's the usual crap for the seven-year-olds (and they sell tons of
it, these folks aren't stupid), especially in the 'downstairs' area,
but I think the KSC "Gift Gantry" has a very nice selection of
space-related books and videos. Far superior to the local Waldenbooks
or Barnes & Noble. It is the only place in 10 years that I've seen
Jenkins' book actually in stock, for example. I was hoping they'd have
"Hypersonic" but they didn't, so I ordered it through Amazon.

They had Jenkins when I was there, too. I've been looking for a copy
for a while, but I didn't want to have to pack that thing in my luggage
for the trip home. I should check if they would ship it to me. TIme to
check their website. Thanks for reminding me about that.

--
bp
Proud Member of the Human O-Ring Society Since 2003

In article , Brian Thorn wrote:

space-related books and videos. Far superior to the local Waldenbooks
or Barnes & Noble. It is the only place in 10 years that I've seen
Jenkins' book actually in stock, for example.

Quick plug - I found a copy sitting on the shelf, much to my mild
astonishment, in Foyles in London. Reasonably interesting selection of
other stuff, but I was surprised to see Jenkins...

--
-Andrew Gray

On Fri, 6 Feb 2004, Brian Thorn wrote:

On Fri, 06 Feb 2004 04:36:54 GMT, Bruce Palmer
wrote:

The Gift Shops were the absolute *worst* part of my KSC visit.

There's the usual crap for the seven-year-olds (and they sell tons of
it, these folks aren't stupid), especially in the 'downstairs' area,
but I think the KSC "Gift Gantry" has a very nice selection of
space-related books and videos. Far superior to the local Waldenbooks
or Barnes & Noble. It is the only place in 10 years that I've seen
Jenkins' book actually in stock, for example. I was hoping they'd have
"Hypersonic" but they didn't, so I ordered it through Amazon.

Actually I was rather suprised to find a copy of the latest edition of
Jenkin's book in stock at my local Borders bookstore. Made it rather
convient and cheap to buy.
-Mike

"Bruce Palmer" wrote in message
. net...
The Gift Shops were the absolute *worst* part of my KSC visit.

The last time I visited, in August, 1996, it was hard to find anything other
than pictures and patches that *didn't* involve the shuttle.