if you plan to grab food at MCO...

[nkereina]

... then don't do what we did! Got through security with about 90 minutes to spare until boarding. Took the fake monorail down to our gate, which was gate 121 for a Southwest flight. We planned to grab a quick dinner at the food court area right when you get off the monorail, but to our surprise it was completely closed for remodeling. Very few options around, none of which appealed to us. Since we had time to kill, we decided to hop back on the monorail to check out the food options at the other gate area. Got back off the monorail near security, and hopped on the adjacent one to go to the other gate area. Nothing looked good there either so we decided just to go back to our gate area. That's when we realized our mistake. You can apparently go from our gate area to the others, but you can't go back. We had to exit and go all the way back through security now The good news was that we were able to grab food from the big food court area before security, and the security line was very short - we lucked out. I guess we assumed that all gate areas would be accessible once you were past security, but not so much! Lesson learned! Moral of the story - eat before security if you're flying Southwest or Virgin out of MCO in the next few months

 

[bumbershoot]

I guess we assumed that all gate areas would be accessible once you were past security, but not so much!

Yeah, some airports allow access to everything (Seatac), some don't.

 

[OKW Lover]

Depending on the time of day you are trying to do this you may be prevented from going from the 70-99 gates to the 100-121 gates because of additional security measures in effect when international flights arrive. However at other times of day, you can do this.

 

[seashoreCM]

After you found you could not cross over to the monorail for your gates, instead of exiting security you could have waited for the monorail to come back and ridden back to the wrong gate cluster. Then taken the other monorail back to the main terminal and you would now be on the center platform, with the monorail to your gate cluster adjacent.

That is, unless ropes or partitions were manually moved to keep you from retracing your steps back to your gate cluster or one of the monorails was shut down.

Because departing passengers and arriving passengers have to cross paths behind security where the monorail platforms are, you should be able to make the moves you wanted unless manually prevented from doing so.

 

[sam_gordon]

From MCO's FAQ:

Can I go to an Airside Terminal (Gate Area) that I'm not departing from (arriving at)?
You will only be allowed through the security checkpoint for the Airside Terminal (Gate Area) that you are departing from. However, due to the configuration of the airport, it is possible to access either Airsides 1 AND 3 (Gates 1-59), OR Airsides 2 AND 4 (Gates 70-129) once you have passed through the security checkpoint for your airside.
Similarly on arrival, you may access either Airsides 1 AND 3 (Gates 1-59), OR Airsides 2 AND 4 (Gates 70-129) depending on the Airside on which you arrive, by switching AGTs (trains) in Terminal A or Terminal B. If you wish to access the other Airside Terminal which is paired with yours, go directly to the other AGT (train) as soon as you disembark in terminal - do not go past the security checkpoint and out into Terminal A (or Terminal B) otherwise you will NOT be allowed back through security to access the other Airside Terminal.
Please note that this may not be possible during certain times of the day for security reasons while international passengers are arriving in the terminal.

I'm assuming either international passengers were arriving and blocking you from getting where you wanted to go, or you weren't paying attention and walked back through security (exiting). Although I thought there were big signs indicating you're exiting the secure area and would need to be screened again.

 

[seashoreCM]

From gates 1-29 and 70-99 you would take the right monorail (as seen from the rotunda or mini-food court airside). From gates 30-59 and 100-129 you would take the left monorail.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

. On Friday we were at gate 15 and decided with some extra time on hand to go over to gate 30 area and did not go through security.

 

[nkereina]

After you found you could not cross over to the monorail for your gates, instead of exiting security you could have waited for the monorail to come back and ridden back to the wrong gate cluster. Then taken the other monorail back to the main terminal and you would now be on the center platform, with the monorail to your gate cluster adjacent.

That is, unless ropes or partitions were manually moved to keep you from retracing your steps back to your gate cluster or one of the monorails was shut down.

Because departing passengers and arriving passengers have to cross paths behind security where the monorail platforms are, you should be able to make the moves you wanted unless manually prevented from doing so.

From MCO's FAQ:

I'm assuming either international passengers were arriving and blocking you from getting where you wanted to go, or you weren't paying attention and walked back through security (exiting). Although I thought there were big signs indicating you're exiting the secure area and would need to be screened again.

There were ropes/stanchions up preventing us from going back over to the "left" monorail towards gates 100-129 again, even though we were able to cross over to the "right" monorail initially. The area I'm referring to is just after clearing security, when you proceed to the left for 100-129 and to the right for 50-79. When we got back off the "right" monorail, there were signs saying you're about to exit a secured area, but there was nowhere else for us to go. There was a TSA agent manned at these ropes blocking us from going back over to the "left" monorail and I asked her if there was a way for us to get back to gate 121 without going through security again and she told me no. From what I saw while we were at gates 50-79, there was only one monorail going back and forth in the same direction, so to go back to gates 100-129 from those gates wasn't an option.

FWIW, I did notice other Southwest passengers trying to go through security at gates 50-79 and they were being redirected to the other security line across the atrium because they weren't able to access their gates (100-129) from that entry.

 

[Sparkly]

If Virgin means Virgin Atlantic, a flight from the UK probably just got in! Because of how immigration works, they most likely blocked the monorail off for security reasons.

 

[nkereina]

If Virgin means Virgin Atlantic, a flight from the UK probably just got in! Because of how immigration works, they most likely blocked the monorail off for security reasons.

I believe Virgin Atlantic was on the gate 100-129 side, which was able to cross over to the 50-79 side but not vice versa. However, I think there were international flights arriving on the 50-79 side, so that probably explains it!