There are six floors and an observation deck on the seventh floor. Each floor provides an excellent view of the port.
The first floor is the gift shop. Second floor talks about history of the area. Third floor shows a 20 minute movie about the port.
It also has a surf board photo op
Fourth floor is just for meetings. Fifth talks about the boats in the harbor. It has a simulator that allows you to try your luck at navigating the port.
The tiny sixth floor talks about NASA. But the real reason we went was for the seventh floor: the observation deck. From the observation deck you can see NASA off in the distance and I am told it is one of the best places to see a rocket launch. You can see the beaches southward down the coast. And you can see the entire port.
We watched two massive cruise ships leave port and go out to sea. One of the ships was the Oasis of the Seas, the largest cruise ship in the world! It is five times larger than the Titanic was. There are cruise ships leaving the port every day (one to three of them) and they usually leave between 4pm and 5pm.
The tower is small and there isn't much to do. The tower's main focus is to promote tourism and there is evidence of corporate sponsorship around the building. I could understand if window space might be a premium during rocket launches (which do not happen very often), but we were the only people at the tower. Therefore I do not understand why it is so expensive to visit the tower.
I do not recommend the Exploration Tower. If you want to see a cruise ship up close and leaving the port? Just go to one of the many bars and restaurants along the port's shore. Drive past Exploration Tower and keep going to the water's edge and you'll see an entire line of restaurants.
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