10:40a flight home - best way to MCO?

[Eric Julie and Hailey]

I blew it. I booked our flight home after the Dream at 10:40a.

How would you go to the airport? DCL bus or car rental? The price is the same (just 2 ppl).

Do we miss MDR breakfast? I can't remember second seating breakfast time.

Thanks!

 

[antlawn]

You better have a car parked at the dock and do an early walk-off. To do this you have to carry ALL of your own bags off. Then pray there is NO traffic and NO lines at the airport.

 

[Bear3412]

Personally I would park a rental at the port garage for the cruise. Then walk off with my luggage first thing at 7:30 hopefully(self debark), walk to garage and drive to MCO with one of these purchased in advance; https://www.sunpass.com/sunPassRetailers

Actually most rentals have them or similar.

Or private car service. That would save time returning car, although at MCO it's somewhat painless @ 9am unless it's a Monday or Friday. IMO

You can check into helicopter service.

Oh, pack light.

The buffet is open early the last morning IIRC for at least continental. Or hoard food the breakfast/night before.

Good Luck

ETA; Others have made it before.

 

[ocspartan]

Good luck, checkin for your flight before you leave the ship, looks like you will need to walk off with your own bags, hire a car service to be ready and waiting for you so that you can skip the rental drop process. Also sign up for TSA pre or global entry so that you don't get stuck in an mco security line.

 

[jpeppers]

You're definitely pushing it. We walked off with our bags in May and cruised right through customs and were lucky enough to get on the 1st shuttle to our car rental. We were the 1st ones to get a car and made it to the airport area around 9:00 with no traffic but everything worked perfect for us and we weren't flying out. I wanted to say you will easily make it but once I thought about it not so sure.

 

[samily]

Here is what I posted on another thread about how it worked out for us:


We easily made a 10:45am flight out of MCO last Sunday. I was a bit worried about making the flight and normally wouldn't have booked that early but we wanted to be back home for something that afternoon.

It was just me & DH traveling so that made it easier than if we had the kids with us. Here is what we did:

-We packed in 2 small carryon suitcases so we wouldn't have to stand in line to check luggage at the airport
-We booked DCL transfers to MCO
-We carried our luggage off the ship because I didn't want to have to take the time to locate it
-We lined up in the atrium at about 7:05 and were let off the ship about 7:20-ish
-Went through customs and we were sitting on the DCL bus by 7:30
-By 7:45 the bus was full and we were on our way to MCO
-Arrived at MCO at 8:30
-My FIL had checked us in online from home, so we just needed to print our boarding passes at the Southwest self serve kiosks (the actual line for checking luggage or full service for Southwest was HUGE!)
-Went through security (the line wasn't bad at all - everyone was still in the SW line, lol)
-We were at our gate by 8:55

We were lucky everything worked perfectly for us - I was worried because on the way to the port for the cruise the other side of the highway to MCO had a lot of construction and traffic was quite backed up.

Also, for breakfast went up to Cabanas around 6:30 - they had fruits and pastries out at this time - the full buffet did not open until 7, so we had some fruit and one last chocolate croissant there and ate again at the airport.

 

[samily]

To add to my response above-

We were sailing on the Dream out of PC.

I also had a list of alternative flights in case we missed ours and needed to reschedule - luckily we didnt need it!

 

[taseas]

I blew it. I booked our flight home after the Dream at 10:40a.

How would you go to the airport? DCL bus or car rental? The price is the same (just 2 ppl).

Do we miss MDR breakfast? I can't remember second seating breakfast time.

Thanks!

We did this on the Dream in September. We did express walk-off and skipped the breakfast in the MDR...we hit Cabanas for a quick breakfast. Had a car service lined up for 7:30am-ish (Space Port Transport), they had us call just before walking-off and the guy was waiting for us outside once we cleared customs. Quick 45 minute or so ride to MCO and no big lines for us at the airport, gave us plenty of time.

All that being said, it is a risk. You just don't know when a traffic accident will add an hour to your drive to MCO, or if customs doesn't clear the ship until late..

Good luck!