When Canada 3000 was in business did you fly them to MCO?

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

I was just wondering when Canada 3000 was in business did you fly them to MCO & if you did, what did you think about clearing United States Customs in Orlando & having to get your checked bags twice? I thought clearing Customs there was worse then at YYZ because if I remember in MCO, there were only 2 lines which made things go at slower. When we got our checked bages after clearing Customs we thought great we could go straight to rent our car, but we found out we had put them on another belt & pick them up in the main terminal. On paper its' not bad because the chances of them getting lost are 0.5% because you already got them once & if something happened to them, they are some where in the Airport. However it sucks because it's just more waiting before your trip can begin. Lastly before going to the 2nd baggage claim area, they make you go threw a security check point area. I understand the need for it, but if we went threw all this in Toronto & just cleared Customs in Orlando whats the point? Anyway does anyone agree with me about this or not?

 

[Lizziejane]

I remember that song-and-dance well! I remember it because our luggage was part of that 0.5% that gets lost between clearning customs at MCO and arriving at the second terminal. The fact that my husband had a hissy-fit with the guy who was insisting he had to give the luggage up yet again and was not allowed to take it on the monorail to the other terminal, probably didn't help. I'm convinced this other guy simply threw the bags in a corner for a good hour or so before putting them on the conveyor belt.
The reasoning for some of the security stuff escapes me. For example, on a recent trip to Vegas, we noticed while waiting to clear security that all the smokers were discarding their lighters and matches. Literally hundreds of them thrown all over the floor. Once through security however, there's a smoking room, and people in it, with cigarettes that they are smoking. If no lighters/matches allowed beyond security, why have a smoking room? And more importantly, where do people get a light?!

 

[disyady]

This is nothing to do with your ?, but yes we did fly once with C3000 to Orlando. It was November 6, 2001. My husband worked for them. When we called to confirm our flight home we heard the recording that C3 was no longer in business. No job, no flights. We finally made it home on Air Transaat and watching my hubby's face as we rolled past the C3 planes parked at Pearson was one of the worst moments of my life. It was the beginning of quite a few bad moments until he found a job in March 2003. When I saw Canada 3000 in your thread title it all came rushing back!!! There, I'm done now - sorry for the hijack. Oh yeah, and if I remember correctly our flight to Orlando involved a stopover in St. Petes where we had to unload our luggage, go through security and reboard to finally get to Orlando. That really was a bad trip!!!!!

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

disyady,
It's funny you mention that when you flew Canada 3000 you had a stop over in St. Petes, we had to do something similar that you did only this time it was on Air Transat. Our travel agent did not tell us until we picked up our tickets that the flight time had changed from 2:30 to 4:30 & that the plane would be making a stop over in St. Petes, where only 5% if not less then that of the people on board were going there & the other 95% of people on board were going to Orlando. I wanted to tell someone at Air Transat are you people crazy, at least fly to Orlando 1st which is where most of the passangers were going to. So after the stop over we did not get to Orlando until 10:00 PM. The only thing good I remember about that day was our bags were one of the 1st to come out at baggage claim & the line at Alamo went very fast.