You might get lost in space here, and that’s a good thing. Plunked down in the middle of a wildlife refuge, the Kennedy Space Center, with its thrilling launches and fascinating exhibits, is by many accounts the showpiece of Central East Florida, giving rise to the nickname that encompasses the cities of Cocoa Beach, Titusville, Melbourne and Palm Bay—Florida’s Space Coast.
But NASCAR fans would beg to differ. Indeed, Central East Florida also can rightly be called the “Race Coast,” as it is home to Daytona International Speedway and a host of race-themed events and attractions, including driveable, hard-packed sands.
Following is a sampling of the after-hours activities that will have your group calling Central East Florida “fun” and “exciting,” and no doubt calling for more.
1. Surfin’ Safari
Never mind the web; this surfing is the real deal, and Cocoa Beach is the epicenter of surfing in the Sunshine State. Hometown hero Kelly Slater, who recently won his record-making 11th world surfing crown, honed his craft in these waves, but you don’t have to be a Big Kahuna to try your hand at hanging ten (though you do have to know how to swim).
“This is the highlight of everybody’s year when they come here,” declares Vicki Wilson, manager of Cocoa Beach’s Ron Jon Surf School (www.ronjonsurfschool.com), set just north of the famed Ron Jon Surf Shop and offering lessons for groups up to 10. “It’s not about pressure and not about making sure you stand up on the board; it’s all about having fun. If anyone’s nervous, they can watch first before deciding to join in,” she adds. “So far, our oldest student was 87, but I’m hoping to go older.”
Expand your watersports repertoire even further with kiteboarding and stand-up paddleboarding lessons, also offered at Ron Jon Surf School. Equipment is included; just bring your bathing suit, towel and sunscreen.
Another option for budding beach bums and bunnies is the Cocoa Beach Surf Company (www.cocoabeachsurf.com), located at the Four Points by Sheraton and offering a variety of lesson plans, including one-on-one private sessions and surf clinics where the ratio is one instructor per every four students.
“We start out with a surfing lesson in the classroom, then they get their full one hour, two hours or three hours out in the water,” says Marshall Presnell, sales associate.
Even if your group opts out of actually getting atop a board, you can still enjoy the area’s surfing culture with a stop at the East Coast Surfing Hall of Fame (located at the Cocoa Beach Surf Company), or head to the Cocoa Beach Pier, a surfing hot spot and host location for a number of surfing competitions, including the Ron Jon Easter Surfing Festival and the National Kidney Foundation Labor Day Surfing Festival.
2. Getting Air
Inland waterways are no less thrilling in Central East Florida, especially when you’re strapped into an airboat and zooming ahead at speeds of up to 45 miles an hour, completely wrecking the formerly placid surface of a scenic lake. Twister Airboat Rides (www.twisterairboatrides.com ) at Lone Cabbage Fish Camp pilots four 15-passenger airboats through the grassy marshes of the St. Johns River and Lake Poinsett, stopping for photo-ops with alligators, eagles and assorted wading birds, while a lunch of gator tail, frog’s legs, turtle and catfish—along with landlubber favorites—is waiting at the rustic fish camp.
“Larger groups can be broken up, with some staying and eating while others take the ride,” says Becky Jones, ticket sales rep.
3. Fun and Gaming
Fun on the water takes on another meaning aboard a Victory Casino Cruise (victorycasinocruises.com), newly launched on July 29 from Port Canaveral and sailing twice daily (once on Sunday). Casino action includes slots, roulette, poker, craps, sportsbook and more, while buffet dining and a club with DJ and dancing offer a break from tempting Lady Luck.
“It’s a wonderful way to unwind and relax,” says Shirley Buchanan, group sales manager. “Groups get a discount and free slots play.
“We’re gearing up for corporate holiday parties now,” she adds.
The four-deck ship accommodates up to 1,200, and groups also can do a total buy-out or arrive early if they want some semi-private time before the cruise.
“We have some areas on the ships that groups can use for an hour or so,” Buchanan notes. “If they board by 10 a.m., let’s say, they can meet until about 11:30, and the same goes for evening cruises. We can accommodate groups in numerous ways.”
Victory also keeps costs down with complimentary soft drinks, coffee and tea all night, while alcoholic drinks are complimentary for those who are gambling.
4. Amazing Race
Say the name “Daytona” and most people immediately think of racing, and for good reason. An enormous 480-acre motorsports complex, Daytona International Speedway (www.daytonainternationalspeedway.com) has earned the title “World Center of Racing,” going well beyond its signature event—the Daytona 500—to host such legendary industry milestones as Speedweeks, the Rolex 24, the Coke Zero 400 and Daytona 200 Week.
Also hosted at Daytona: meetings, receptions, corporate outings, you name it, in venues ranging from the intimate Driver’s Meeting Room to the massive Velocitorium, a 60,000-square-foot showroom that combines function space with attractions like the Goodyear Heritage Museum.
“We’ve added a bar and some games and different things to do. It’s like an interactive dining space,” says Andrew Booth, spokesman. “You can host a nice banquet but also look at some of the racing memorabilia, or play air hockey and billiards to get everyone loosened up.”
One- to three-hour group tours of the facility are also offered, but if attendees crave some actual racing action, the speedway’s Richard Petty Driving Experience (www.drivepetty.com) allows them to ride shotgun in an authentic NASCAR stock car, driven by a professional instructor and reaching speeds of over 160 mph. Or they can take the wheel themselves for eight laps, navigating the 2.5-mile Speedway’s thrilling, 31-degree banks.
“It’s not too often that you get to ride in a stock car,” Booth says. “It makes a great team-building activity and builds the kind of unity that you want.”
5. A la Kart
For racing fun on a smaller scale, try go-karting at Daytona’s Speed Park Motorsports, with three tracks providing plenty of tight turns and high banks as attendees burn rubber in their own individual go-karts. Meanwhile, the park’s fourth track, Nitro Alley, provides a full-scale dragster experience, with speeds topping 75 mph or more.
The timid can cheer on their colleagues or stick to virtual racing in the park’s 7,000-square-foot arcade.
Speed Park Motorsports (www.speedparkdaytona.com) also offers a meeting room that can accommodate up to 85 classroom style plus an outdoor courtyard for larger receptions.
“We’ve done private events in the afternoon and evening, as well as teambuilding with structured racing,” says Deana Gammero, director of sales and marketing. “That’s one of the great things about our venue; it can be tailored for whatever the need is.”
Another race-themed attraction, Daytona Lagoon (www.daytonalagoon.com), is owned by the same company as Speed Park, but emphasizes recreation over racing with a larger, full-scale arcade, 3,000 square feet of laser tag, 18 holes of mini-golf, a two-story go-kart track and a water park open in season (March-September).
6. Coming Out of Your Shell
Things slow way down on Brevard County beaches during turtle nesting season (which peaks in June and July), when people wait in silent anticipation under the moonlight for threatened and endangered species like loggerheads, leatherbacks and green sea turtles and to lumber ashore and lay their eggs.
If your group is staying on the beach, you might get lucky and witness this spectacle yourselves; or you can join a guided turtle walk hosted by the Sea Turtle Conservancy (www.conserveturtles.org), which takes groups of up to 20 on treks through the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge in June and July. Advance reservations are required.
“We start taking reservations May 1 and we’re full by June first,” says Donna Lee Crawford, the conservancy’s community stewardship coordinator. “Our refuge is the largest nesting habitat for loggerhead sea turtles in the Western Hemisphere.”
Other organizations in the area also offer turtle walks, including the Sea Turtle Preservation Society (www.seaturtlespacecoast.org).
7. Let There Be Light
In the days when ships were under constant threat of bad weather and treacherously rocky shorelines, the lighthouse was a beacon of safety, and Daytona Beach’s Ponce Inlet Lighthouse (www.ponceinlet.org) was no exception. This 1887 landmark, in fact, helped save the life of author Stephen Crane (The Red Badge of Courage), who was on a gun-running mission to Cuba when his boat sank. Crane and three others drifted for three days in a 10-foot dinghy before sighting the lighthouse’s beacon and guiding the boat to shore.
After his ordeal, which became the inspiration for the short story, The Open Boat, Crane convalesced at Lilian Place, now the oldest home on Daytona’s beachside.
The two historic sites can be combined in one visit, starting at the lighthouse which includes the 175-foot tower and several museum buildings, and ending with a reception at Lilian Place, complete with anecdotal narration by the ill-fated ship’s “captain,” Edward Murphy.
“We have a lot of arrows in our quiver,” says Bob Callister, programs manager for the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse. “Not only do we have the lighthouse and its museum buildings, but next door we have a marine science center, and there are several restaurants in the area. Depending on what the group would like to do, I can offer some suggestions.”
8. Star Struck
The future is but a bus ride away on the Space Coast, whose premier attraction, the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) (www.kennedyspacecenter.com), explores the “final frontier” with the world’s largest collection of personal astronaut memorabilia, a rocket garden of historic spacecraft and hands-on attractions like the Shuttle Launch Experience, which was designed by astronauts and gives visitors the feeling they are actually taking off in a shuttle.
The shuttle program itself has been discontinued, but these popular vehicles weren’t the only things blasting off the launch pad here; other craft are launched regularly into space from KSC.
“We want to get the word out that, yes, we don’t have shuttle launches anymore, but we still have rocket launches—at least 15 a year,” says Bonnie King, director of sales for the Space Coast Office of Tourism. “And they’re just as exciting and just as inspiring, and they feel the same as a manned rocket going up.”
If your schedule doesn’t coincide with a rocket launch, groups can still get the sensation of space travel through the center’s Astronaut Training Experience (ATX) Team, a full- or half-day program that includes a private tour to see the working space center, simulator training, a space shuttle mission plus an appearance by an actual astronaut.
Meanwhile, a full complement of meeting and function spaces at KSC includes the Apollo/Saturn V Center, a 100,000-square-foot facility whose centerpiece is the gigantic Saturn V moon rocket. But hold on to your safety harness, because in 2013, the orbiter from the shuttle Atlantis—last of five flown space shuttles—will take up permanent residence at KSC and be available both for viewing and as the backdrop to group events.
“Tours and off-site events at the Kennedy Space Center can ignite imaginations and inspire meeting attendees to overcome any obstacle, much like the astronauts have done through the decades,” notes Andrea Farmer, public relations manager for the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. “KSC reminds us all of mankind’s greatest achievements.”
