Early Flight from Orlando

Hey all, wanted to get a few opinions and see if I'm playing with lit matches in the fireworks factory. We are on the Sunshine December 3-10, and the return flight that we're looking at leaves at 11:05 a.m.

I'm of the opinion that even being some of the first off the ship, we'll be cutting it close, but most of my group thinks otherwise. Would love to hear others opinions on this before making a decision.

Thanks,

Mimgan

I was looking at the same thing. The early flight was at 10:30 with Frontier air lines. Actually it was only flight. I decided it was just too close. I would love to hear other opinions. The flight was crazy cheap.

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That is cutting it way to close for me. All it will take is one little hiccup and you will miss your flight. I would go for a later flight. IMO.

Carnival recommends departing flights from Orlando no earlier than 12:50 PM. In my opinion 11:05 AM is WAY too early to book your return flight. Even if everything went 100% right, you'd be very lucky if you made that flight. Do yourself a favor and look for a later flight.

Hey all, wanted to get a few opinions and see if I'm playing with lit matches in the fireworks factory. We are on the Sunshine December 3-10, and the return flight that we're looking at leaves at 11:05 a.m.

 

I'm of the opinion that even being some of the first off the ship, we'll be cutting it close, but most of my group thinks otherwise. Would love to hear others opinions on this before making a decision.

 

Thanks,

Mimgan

Port Canaveral is a pretty good drive from MCO airport. Personally I would not book that early.

MCO is about a 60 minute drive from Port Canaveral. MCO will be crazy busy on weekends because of cruises and people leaving from WDW.

For that time of departure you need to be off you ship no less than

4 hours before your flight.

I sailed in April. We had a 12:50 flight. The lines at MCO are horrendous. We made it but not with a lot of time to spare. I would not do that early

Hey all, wanted to get a few opinions and see if I'm playing with lit matches in the fireworks factory. We are on the Sunshine December 3-10, and the return flight that we're looking at leaves at 11:05 a.m.

 

I'm of the opinion that even being some of the first off the ship, we'll be cutting it close, but most of my group thinks otherwise. Would love to hear others opinions on this before making a decision.

 

Thanks,

Mimgan

IMO, that is cutting it way too close. Ship docks at 7 am. Luggage has to be unloaded, ship needs to clear customs. You probably won't even start debarking until, at least, 8 am. You need to claim your luggage and then clear Customs as well. Additionally, the airline wants you at the airport at least 2 hrs prior to departure. Allow for traffic. It is at least a 45 minute drive from the port to the airport. I, personally, would not put myself through that stress, especially after having a nice cruise.

The lines at MCO are horrendous.

Ditto.

The lines at MCO are among the worst, if not the worst, I have ever seen in any airport. (And I regularly fly out of D.C. area airports--BWI, IAD and DCA--which are notorious for their long security lines.)

You are playing with explosives.

Don't ruin a perfectly good cruise worrying about whether or not you'll make your flight at the end.

To me, it's not worth it.

I'd rather sit around an airport for a few hours than slide in at the last minute, not knowing if I'm really going to make it or not.

GP

Sounds like a challenge!!! :D

Hey all, wanted to get a few opinions and see if I'm playing with lit matches in the fireworks factory. We are on the Sunshine December 3-10, and the return flight that we're looking at leaves at 11:05 a.m.

 

I'm of the opinion that even being some of the first off the ship, we'll be cutting it close, but most of my group thinks otherwise. Would love to hear others opinions on this before making a decision.

 

Thanks,

Mimgan

Experienced cruisers that have done this? Or people looking at a map going 'look how close it is'?

That is one notorious stretch of road just waiting for an hours long traffic jam!

And then there is the small matter of the ship arriving late. Even an hour will throw everything off.

But if you think it is 'a challenge', go for it.

It would be cutting it way too close, I don't think I could do it. The lines at MCO are extremely long and the airport is an hour away from port. Even if you were off of the ship by 8, you still have to go through customs, find transportation, etc.

Don't forget that if you miss the flight, it's a non recoverable thing with insurance. For a missed flight to be reimbursed, it must be after 12. People forget MCO is not just around the corner.

Last September, with self-walkoff and a waiting car service, we were at MCO and through security by about 9:15 on a Friday morning. This story is going to irritate people but it happened. Joke was on us--it was my first time trying Delta and my 10:30ish flight was bumped to after noon.

I wouldn't try it without self-walkoff, or when also trying to get over to one of the car rental places.

I mostly fly Southwest, and since they have very liberal cancellation policies (you can cancel in the hours before the flight if you're going to miss it), and since they are often on time (compared to my Delta experiences) I regularly violate the arrival/departure "best practices" time. But I also move quickly, wrangle my own stuff, know what kind of transportation works where--and carry trip insurance.

Everything would have to go perfectly for an 11 AM flight to work. The ship would have to arrive back at port on time, Customs would have to promptly clear the ship, you would have to be one of the first ones off, your transportation to MCO would have to be on time, the traffic to MCO would have to be light, the security lines at MCO would have to be short, etc. I was once on a cruise where the ship was delayed disembarking by Immigration. They didn't even start letting people off until after 10 AM.

Thanks everyone, I totally agree with all of you, and gives me good ammo for next battle with my group. I work in a very stressful business, and when I'm on vacation, the last thing I want to do is be stressed about something this simple over a few dollars.

Thanks again, and happy cruisin' to everyone.

Tim

This story is going to irritate people but it happened.

Nothing wrong with your story. It just demonstrates that Orlando is an unpredictable airport. It's my least favorite thing about MCO that you never know what you will get. It would be so much easier to plan if you knew the wait was always the same, but it can go from easy peasy to nightmare with no consistency. There are many stories like yours...I have plenty myself...but I also have my story of arriving 3 hours before my flight and still missing it by an hour. So, I tell people both stories and let them decide if it's worth the gamble.