Holiday Hit Squad programme re USA immigration

[Lizzy Lemon]

Did anyone see this programme on BBC1 tonight. They spoke about the USA travel being down and the problems of getting through immigration quickly. They filmed at MCO where some people claimed anything between 2 - 2 1/2 hours to get through. We've never been before, has anyone experience these sorts of delays.

 

[magicmouse2]

Never !

 

[Miffy2003]

Since they started the finger thing we have been twice, and to be honest it hardly made it any different before that all started.

I think last time it took about 5 minutes to get through immigration (obviously longer to get through MCO in its entirety ) and no more than 10 minutes the time before.

A tip is to head to the far right of the hall where the lines seem to be shorter and also you are next to the US entrants queue and when the queue is gone (often!) you may get called through to that queue and speed ahead.

We have always got through before opur luggage has caught up with us, anyway

 

[Lisash]

I saw the programme tonight and don't think it ever gets as bad as they made out. We've never waited anywhere near that long. The whole system at MCO is a bit long winded what with immigration then getting your luggage only to put it another conveyor belt to have to claim it again at the other terminal but as you are moving constantly you barely notice. I've never timed it but am sure we are in the car and away in under an hour tops

 

[alisonbestford]

Seem to think it took us about 40 minutes to get through MCO, customs and pick up the car in March

We went right to the far right of the hall.....and were stuck in a queue which took far longer than any of the others to clear.................
Main problem seemed to be a very 'grumpy' customs lady who seemed to plod through the finger printing / scanning process in slow motion

Still, even with that it was well under the hour

 

[Minniespal]

On average it usually takes us about 30/40 minutes to go through Immigration at MCO. Sanford is much quicker and you can usually get throught Immigration, collect your luggage and be sitting in your car in about 30/40 minutes.

Guess where we are flying into next year

 

[HelenSB]

We've been through MCO four times now and it's never taken longer than about an hour & a quarter from leaving the aircraft to getting on the road !!

 

[ely3857]

Never!

Have only flown into Sanford & as there is one big immigration queue with an offical directing you to the next available officer it doesnt take long at all. Of course your them immediatley hit with another queue for baggage claim then another for the loo's then another for car hire so overall you could be there a while but 2-2.5 hours is excessive.



Jodie

 

[AndRu]

Those times seem well out of proportion - they ought to read Simon's book which has tips about 1 person waiting for the luggage whilst the other gets the car sorted. That can knock 30+ mins off.

 

[jns]

I have seen us in our room under 2 hours of landing
Good going
I get the bags and DH gets the car

 

[gilld]

In all our holidays there, and we have always flown into MCO, we have never taken longer than about 15 minutes to get through immigration. Apart from the time our luggage was lost, which did delay us, we have always been on the road within the hour.

 

[catherine]

It usually take me a lot longer than the average person going through immigration, because they always have a bunch of questions to ask me (I'm always by myself as DH and DD's go through a different area, they have US passports). However it has never taken me more than 45 minutes to get through immigration at any of the airports that we fly to!

 

[Lizzy Lemon]

Thanks for all those reassurances! Funnily enough, I looked the airport up on a website yesterday, it looks lovely, but I had no idea that you claimed your bags to give them up again to catch a train to re-claim them until I read it on said web site! It looked lovely on the TV also. I did wonder if it was just a bad review from a couple of people, they only ever seem to broadcast the negative. We are not having a hire car so we won't be splitting up at the airport after baggage claim we'll be heading for the Magic Express.

 

[musketeer]

we've never waited for more than an 1hr and a half but last year we were through immigration in 30mins while i was getting the car my husband was getting the luggage, i also found that it depends which seats you are in i know this year it may take abit longer as we are in the row of 2 seats so will be last off the plane.

 

[carolfoy]

Max wait I've had at MCO is about 50 minutes, saford is quicker, but I think the programme was trying to say that they felt people weren't travelling to the US because of these 'delays' more likely people aren't travelling because of all the misleading press reports that say you need a visa!

 

[gems_smiling]

I watched the program too. I got well excited when they said Florida, lol i started screaming and shouting there is Animal Kingdom behind you. Anyway i was also shocked and it got me a little worried. It did take us longer last year with the finger printing but it wernt as bad as they said on the program, hope it don't turn out to be really long this year. We are sitting at the back of the plane this year so will be getting off last which will make it worse but o well our seats are chosen now and so we are not going to change them just because of immigration.

 

[Manatee]

I've never experienced delays like that in all the times i have been, last year we had to wait until last to get off the plane because my Mum needed a wheel chair but we were still on our way out of MCO in under an hour.

 

[Strommie]

We have never waited more than about 20 minutes to get through immigration after 7 trips to Orlando, flying into MCO 6 of those times.

Making sure you fill out the visa waiver forms correctly helps too!

 

[Goofyish]

Can't really remember how long it took us to get through MCO, as we were at the rear of the plane we were last off and by then most of the lines were quite short (no point in rushing because the bags took a while to come up anyway ). We always head towards the right hand end of the immigration desks. I think there was 2 families in front of us in the queue.

The immigration process didn't really take that much longer than before they photo/finger prints were introduced. But the photo and finger scan only take a matter of seconds.

We have always had very nice immigration officers too. Very friendly and chatty.

Thinking back I'm sure we were on the road in our towncar transfer just after an hour after landing.

 

[SimonV]

Rest assured, both Orlando International and Orlando Sanford Airports are well aware of concerns over immigration processing times (and general airport throughput) and you can be sure wait times will be less this summer as they address these issues. The wait times the programme listed were definitely the 'worst case scenario' variety as there seems to be an editorial bias against Florida at the moment, for some reason. We have heard of very few people being inconvenienced in this way, mainly when they are among the last people off a plane that has just landed after three or four others (which does occasionally happen, despite the best plans of the schedulers - Sanford Airport had one case with three Thomson flights (I think) last summer which were due in within 90 minutes of each other, and they actually landed in the space of 10 minutes!!). This will always be a problem if you happen to be the unlucky 'tail-end Charlies' and there is not a lot anyone can do about it. But there are moves afoot at both airports to speed things up as much as possible. And, provided you are pleasant to the Immigration officials (and have your forms filled in correctly - PLEASE check this, as it often results in frustration on both sides), there is no reason to worry about the new US VISIT process of finger-printing and photo-taking. It is very simple and is no great impediment to the arrival process. We have actually suggested a few modifications to the immigration halls, to make things better for those who do have to wait but, in all honesty, 30 minutes is still the average wait time, and it can be a lot less at non-peak periods.