Flights After DCL

[kammom18]

Hi,

We have a 3 night cruise booked for Nov. 14-17th. Since the 17th is a Sunday, I've been tracking the times that Southwest has been returning from Orlando and they only have 3 times that are non-stop.

My question is this, would we be able to make an 11am flight coming back from Port Canaveral after getting off the Dream? We have rented a car, and I know it's about an hour drive. What is the earliest we could get off the ship?

Am I pushing it?

TIA,
Dana

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Hi,

We have a 3 night cruise booked for Nov. 14-17th. Since the 17th is a Sunday, I've been tracking the times that Southwest has been returning from Orlando and they only have 3 times that are non-stop.

My question is this, would we be able to make an 11am flight coming back from Port Canaveral after getting off the Dream? We have rented a car, and I know it's about an hour drive. What is the earliest we could get off the ship?

Am I pushing it?

TIA,
Dana

I believe the earliest you can get off (assuming everything works the way it's supposed to) is 7:30, but it could be 8:00. But, if you're off at 7:30, allow 15-20 minutes to clear customs, maybe another 20-30 minutes to get to the rental car place, that means you're leaving the port area around 8:15, at best. Allowing for no traffic problems (accidents, other cruisers trying to make it to the airport, road construction) 1 hour to the airport. Another 30 minutes to return rental car (assuming that noone else is doing the same), gets you back to the airport about 9:45. Then you need to check-in and clear security (which can be totally open or have a long line).

I think it's a little close, but probably could be done. Do you have a plan B if you don't make it to the airport in time?

 

[tvguy]

Possible, but Noon to 12:30 pm is better, and based on my experience at Orlando Airport, I would book a 1pm flight in the future to be safe.

 

[kammom18]

Thanks for the feedback. Ideally a 12 or 1pm flight would be perfect, but they are not non-stop and I much prefer to travel non-stop with two kids. The flight is only 2-2 hrs and 10 min. Very easy, but maybe the 11:00am time frame would just be pushing it too much.

Our other option is to take an almost 7pm flight and get back around 9pm, but then we have an hour drive home from the airport, which will put us in around 10:30-11pm after picking up our luggage and our car. The kids would have to go to school the next day after missing 5 1/2 days of school.

If we do the 7pm flight, we would have to rent a day room at the hotel in the airport at MCO, costing us additional money.

Hopefully between now and November, the flights will change a little bit Here's to hoping

 

[kammom18]

I may have figured out another option. We are flying on Rewards from Southwest (since my husband travels a lot for work). It just dawned on me that Southwest owns Airtran. So I looked at the flights for Airtran back to Baltimore and they have a flight leaving at 1:24pm that would have us back in B-more at 3:30pm. This would be the perfect scenario.

If they won't let us fly on Sunday using rewards (this happened to us last time we went to Disney, 3 yrs ago, the cost is $104 per ticket (4 of us) on Airtran. It might just be worth it to pay the $400 to get home and get the kids ready for school the next day at a decent hour.

 

["Cinder" Ella's Mom]

Ditch the rental car and have a car service pick you up at 8:00. That will give you a better chance of making it. And maybe carry your own luggage off as soon as ship is cleared.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

[QUOTE="Cinder" Ella's Mom;47468804]Ditch the rental car and have a car service pick you up at 8:00. That will give you a better chance of making it. And maybe carry your own luggage off as soon as ship is cleared.[/QUOTE]

I was going to suggest this. The driver will be there waiting for you.
The rental car shuttle/office/tolls/gas/drop off process may be a $ saver but it's time consuming. You will be pacing like a lunatic.
Get a service & they'll drop you right at curbside check in.

 

[EDH Family]

Southwest times constantly change. So, the schedule you're seeing now may not be true for Novemebr. Their schedule is currently open to September 27. On March 5th their schedule opens up to November 1st. So, you may have to wait until April to see your exact schedule.

 

[kcashner]

I wouldn't do the early flight with a rental car. It COULD work, if everything falls into place perfectly, but there are too many "what ifs." If Customs delays the ship clearance...if the car rental shuttle line is a million miles long, if the car isn't there for you, etc.

The only way I'd do an 11:00 flight would be with a car service--as noted, the driver will be at the port waiting for you--hop in and you're at the airport in 45 minutes.

Renting car = 15 minutes to car place, 5-15 to get car. These times CAN be longer. And some car places don't open till 9!

 

[daisywithak]

We had an 11:35 flight on Southwest and had plenty of time (this was an October cruise), we even took Disney transportation. I agree with others, though, make sure you carry off your own luggage and get off the ship as soon as they say you can.