Earliest Doable Flight out of MCO after Cruise

[southjerseymom]

Can anyone experienced in the process tell me what is the earliest flight I could catch out of MCO after a cruise. Would Disney transfers get me there?
Thanks ahead of time for any replies.

 

[Jrsy Boy]

We were at our gate around 9:30 for a noon flight, but I wouldn't recommend scheduling anything as early as 9:30.

We got off the ship after breakfast around 7:30, made it through customs, were able to check our luggage there at the port for our Delta flight and took a Disney Cruise Line bus to the airport. At the airport we were able to go through security and go right to the gate.

 

[mommasita]

Disney reccomends no flight departing until 12:30 p.m. This is really due to any unforseen circumstances, and other things that may happen.. You may get their in time for an earlier one, but it is tooooooo risky...

ANd yes, Disney transfers are straight from the airport to the port, and the same coming back...You can do both, or one or the other..

HTH

 

[pediatric-rnp]

We were also at the airport early - by 8:45 AM. But, I believe the general recommendation from people here on the boards is not to book a flight earlier than noon. There can be delays getting off the ship, and especially on the highway. We were just fortunate -off the ship by 7:30 and whizzed thru baggage & customs (get a porter - it gets you thru much faster and is very worth the tip to him), checked our luggage at Delta check in at port, and then directly boarded onto the DCL bus. Our flight wasn't until noon, so we had plenty of time to spare.

 

[pediatric-rnp]

Disney reccomends no flight departing until 12:30 p.m. This is really due to any unforseen circumstances, and other things that may happen.. You may get their in time for an earlier one, but it is tooooooo risky...

Actually - Disney is who booked our return flight -and when our TA questioned the early time, they said they don't book anything earlier than 11:30 AM. It made DH very anxious -he didn't sleep well the night before -afraid we'd miss our flight. But, luckily it worked out well.

 

[Laurajean1014]

If you are one of the first off the boat, you should be able to make a 9:00 am flight. If you like to sleep in and not rush, go for a 11:30 or 1:00 flight.

 

[crisi]

Our flight didn't leave until 3:00. Our choices were 3:00 or 11:30. So here is how our disembarkation day should have gone:

We had early breakfast. Towncar was to pick us up at 8:00. We would have been at the airport by 9:15, two hours before the early flight left.

Here is how it went:

We had early breakfast. Leaving the ship my kids decided they had to visit the bathroom. The bathrooms were very crowded. It took half an hour for a potty break. My daughter had left stuff at the table the night before. Check with guest services for lost and found. It had all been moved off the ship. Leave the ship. Get DD's stuff. Find our bags. Missing a bag. Look for bag. Talk to Disney CM. Look for bag more. File lost bag report. Leave terminal. Porter takes bags to airline checking. Airline checkin line is long!!!! Thirty minutes to check bags. Get in towncar. It is now 10:00 and we are just leaving.

We are at the airport at 11:00....Could we have caught that flight by running - nope, the security line was 45+ minutes long!

Had we needed to catch an early flight, we wouldn't have putzed looking for the bag (and probably would have found another method for the potty stop as well). I would recommend skipping breakfast and grabbing a donut or something upstairs to be among the first off the ship. But still there can be delays, you can't leave until customs clears the ship, which doesn't always happen in a timely matter.

 

[LAMPSKIES]

We ate late breakfast, took our time and used DCL transportation to MCO and were sitting at the ATA terminal by 10:20.

 

[mickeyboat]

We got breakfast at Topsiders and had a lovely time on Deck 9 playing ping pong and watching the dolphins play in port. We took our time getting off the ship. There was almost no luggage left in customs, so we had no troible finding ours, or a porter to help us. We liesurely checked our bags and got onto the DCL bus. We were still at the airport by 10AM for our 11:50 flight. I think Noon is jsut about right.

Denae