Flight Times

[DisneyCruiseCrazy89]

We have heard that you need to book your flights to MCO to arrive the night before.... but we had planned to book to arrive in MCO the day of... Should we cancel and rebook to arrive the day before?

And what hotel would be the best to stay at?

 

[scrapperjill]

I don't think there is a right or wrong way of doing it....You just need to give a couple things some thought. What time is your flight comming in? Will you have enough time to make it to the ship? What about flight delays...are you prepared for any delays or canceled flights? Remember the ship won't wait. By comming the night before...you would have more time to play with, if any delays should happen. It could also make the transition from home to ship a little less crazy...as you would have the night prior to sailing to relax from your "travel day"...you know how exhausting traveling can be. But then again...comming in the day of...if all the fights are on time...could work out wonderfully also...for one thing you wouldn't have to pay for an additional night stay in a hotel near the port. Really depends on how you feel about all the what if's...

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

Keep in mind that the time that your flight is scheduled to land and the time it actually lands can be two very different things. Flight delays and cancellations can be due to weather, mechanical problems, unavailable aircraft at your departure airport (because the flight has not arrived from wherever it's coming from), and even missing crew. I've had numerous delays of over four hours, over the years. It's even worse with connections.

If you're going to WDW, and your flight arrives 5 hours late at MCO, you just get to your hotel later -- and you've wasted part of a day.

But if you're going in a cruise and your flight arrives 5 hours late at MCO, you'll probably have to figure out how to join the cruise at the your ship's first foreign port. (That's Tuesday if you're on a 7-night Disney Magic Saturday departure.)

But even if someone could guarantee an on-time flight, I'd still rather fly in the previous day. It's much nicer to start the cruise relaxed and awake.

 

[TheWog]

I suggest flying in the day before. We did just that in January and we were delayed in Charlotte for 7 hours. We ended up arriving in MCO at 10:30 that night 7 hours late. Obviously schedules and circumstances would have been different flying the next day, but I knew I would be there before the ship left. You just never know what may happen. It was icy in Charlotte and our flight was late arriving at Manchester and in turn made us late to meet our connecting flight. So even if the weather at your airport is fine it may not be somewhere else.


If you are not picky about hotels, try Priceline. You can get a hotel for not a lot of money and then catch a shuttle back to the airport if you are using DCL transfers. Hyatt has a hotel right inside MCO if you like that convenience. Good luck.