About how early leave for airport? (For ride share/private car service)

[Luisfba]

Used to take MDE, but planning to either take a ride share or hire a private car this time. About how much time do folks recommend to allow for pickup before the flight?

and.. plenty of ride share vehicles available at resorts and parks right? (Wouldn’t wait long for one. On either end?)

 

[MrKnight]

The general rule of thumb, especially at MCO, is arriving at MCO at east 2 hours prior to your flight (3 hours for international flights).. From WDW to MCO, I would allocate about 30 minutes of travel time, so I would hence recommend scheduling your pick-up at least 2.5 hours prior to your flight departure time..

In regards to availability of Ubers/Lyfts, it really depends on the time of day and demand, generally speaking there are typically lots of drivers available in the WDW area, but once again this can fluctuate depending on the time of day.. I would recommend downloading BOTH Uber and Lyft apps on your phone so you can check both availability and pricing on both, and select the best option available at that time..

There is of course always the option to book a private car through Mears, this would allow you to pre-schedule a pickup time in advance and pay a flat rate for the trip, you would also have a dedicated driver that can assist you with luggage, etc..

And last but not least, of course you have the shared options as well such as Mears Connect and Sunshine Flyer, these are essentially airport shuttle services (unofficial replacements for DME) that charge per passenger and can make multiple stops along the way..

 

[Luisfba]

I think I’ll go for the private car. I had booked a Mears connect express but it seems they are sometimes putting folks in which other folks (sometimes even on the bigger buses of the timing works out well), and we want to avoid that.

 

[lockets]

We used Uber and Lyft this month while there and had no issues with availability. Most arrived in 5 minutes or less. This was to/from airport and to/from universal to Disney hotel at a range of hours.

We leave 3 hours in advance for airport because sometimes security lines can be long and just in case there’s and accident on Highway that slows traffic. Also there’s some last minute shopping at MCO that we like to do.

 

[Mrs.AMC]

Do you have TSA PreCheck by chance? We do and we leave Disney 2 hours before our flight and always have over 60 min at our gate. Including checking bags. I would go with the 2.5 hours if you do not have PreCheck. MCO is why we got PreCheck 9 years ago. LOL

 

[Luisfba]

Yes, we have pre check