Anyone flown into Tampa?

[GrumpeyMom]

Just wondering if anyone has flown into Tampa instead of Orlando before? There's a great ding right now for $45 one way from Manchester to Tampa and I'm considering it. I'm just afraid it won't go that low for MHT - MCO for my dates - September 22/23 - 30. What do you all think???

 

[Ted and Holly]

Tampa is a great airport. Similar (sort of) in set up with the terminal being separate from the baggage area with a monorail. Getting between the airport and WDW is simple with a car. No tolls and pretty easy. Construction between Tampa and Orlando is a lot better that it has been for a while.

I'd say go for it.

 

[OKW Lover]

If you were planning on renting a car anway (rather than using ME from MCO) then there isn't much down-side in flying to TPA. Expect to spend about 1.25 hours on the road from TPA to WDW, instead of the 30 minutes from MCO - not a bad trade-off for a significant saving on the flights.

The road from TPA to WDW has some construction going on right now (actually for the past 2 years or so) but we haven't found the delays to be very bad.

 

[Samandmom]

We flew into Tampa once. We save about $500.00 on airline by doing this. The ride is very easy. It took us about an hour.

 

[momrek06]

We go to Tampa EVERY Jan/Feb to spend one week with my parents, then drive to WDW for one week, and then back to Tampa for one more week with parents.

Last year in Oct I got $39.00 each way pp to Tampa from Boston for my Jan departure on JET BLUE.

Rented a car in Tampa from National and got a fabulous deal. I think def the deals are there because it is Tampa and NOT MCO.

 

[Bird-Mom]

We are doing this for our August trip. We usually fly Seattle to MCO, but the flights have been hovering around $365pp; we need 4 tickets. I was playing around with flights last week and found Portland to TPA for $230pp! So we will drive the 3 hours to PDX and the 1.5 to WDW. It is well worth the extra driving (and the tax free shopping we will do in PDX with our savings on the way home since we are staying one night there!).

 

[Michael623]

I believe Conde Nast magazine called TPA the best airport in the world. I have flown into there a couple of times and it is a nice airport. The only drawback is the anticipation on the drive to WDW. By the time I finally got to WDW (about 70 minutes) I felt like my head was going to explode.

 

[momrek06]

I believe Conde Nast magazine called TPA the best airport in the world. I have flown into there a couple of times and it is a nice airport. The only drawback is the anticipation on the drive to WDW. By the time I finally got to WDW (about 70 minutes) I felt like my head was going to explode.

Ahhh...do you really think the ride is all that bad...OR were you just crazy for the WORLD and dying to get there....?

Really not bad at all!! And the SAVINGS are FABULOUS!!!

 

[robinb]

I fly in and out of TPA all the time. The downside is that rental cars are often more expensive out of TPA than MCO. But ... I'm flying into TPA from Chicago for only $127 so I can afford to pay a little more for my car.

 

[Michael623]

No, the ride is fine just not much to see. I was just dying to get there.

 

[mrspaha]

Does anyone know if the car rental companies like Enterprise, Dollar, Avis, Thrifty that show they are located at the Tampa airport actually have the cars right there, or do you have to take a shuttle to another location?

I know National and Alamo are located off-site and you need to take a shuttle, but my husband wants to get on the road without hassling with getting all our luggage on to a shuttle and being bussed to an off-site location.

Any comments? Also does anyone have any good codes for any of the onsite rentals -- we're going for one week on July 26th.

Thanks much!

 

[robinb]

I can't help you with the onsite/offsite question as that isn't really important to me. I choose the company with the lowest price. This might help: http://www.tampaairport.com/

As for rental codes, Mousesavers has the best selection:
http://www.mousesavers.com/rentalcar.html

 

[taimgxe]

We have flown the last 3 years into Tampa from Houston because Southwest always has better deals over Orlando. What's funny is that we usually are able to fly out of Orlando for the same price as flying into Tampa, so that is what we do... I buy one-way fares. Granted, I would rather fly into Orlando, but for the savings that I get for a family of four, it's worth it!!! I have always been able to get really good car rental rates at either place. The drive is about an hour and 10-15 minutes depending on traffic. We were there in March and the traffic backup that we experienced was in Tampa and then right as we got to Disneyworld... probably added about 15 minutes to the drive. For us, it's worth it over driving. We fly for two hours and then drive for another hour and we are there, rather than drive for 18 hours and we are tired.

Go for it!!!!